Lighting the Hearth

By Jaxox

​Community.

What an odd term in today’s world.

For all of man’s time on this Earth, we have sought individual success, while desiring to belong to something greater.

Enter Reddit.

Team Hearth League has humble roots. 30 people brought together by a post from a sci-fantasy loving Japanophile. Or at least that is why I assume Richard, aka JediNinja, chose his nomenclature. It seems impossible to me that we are staring down 30 successful seasons of nerds, too antisocial to enter a card shop with others physically present, creating one of the most important communities I have ever had the privilege of belonging to.

I myself do not do Reddit. However, Entropy co-founder and IRL nerd associate JonWilks did. He pointed me towards a post for a team based Hearthstone league that reminded me a lot of what the Global Starcraft II League was doing, and I was most definitely intrigued.

Season Alpha was an interesting experience. Teams were secluded in their own little pods. Team Entropy, the ship I captained, utilized GChat; a now defunct feature of GMail. Other teams utilized Skype, TeamSpeak, or Ventrilo. Team captains submitted results to the website, and Facebook served as our social forum. While memes and callouts a plenty lined the Social Hub feed, a lack of real time chat still left a disconnect. Those early seasons seemed to lack something. While it was nice to have post game conversations with your opponent the league lacked an overall sense of…

Community.

Memory fails me. I am not sure if it was Mainge, Brunson, or Cassity, but some member of the community introduced the concept of Discord into the THL community. Whoever it was, I am nearly certain they were Team Rank 5.

This brought new life to the community. A place where we could gather in real time. A place to have conversations around strategy, deck lists, line-ups, and most importantly games that were not Hearthstone. The first edition of the THL discord was started by Jaxox (myself) with guidance from experienced users like the members of Team Rank 5, the THL board, and Leumer.

With the creation of the THL discord, show matches became a more regular occurrence. Production was shifted from individual players streaming on their own channels to an official THL Twitch channel with caster personalities like HertzDonut, Viridae, and Cassity. Salty Saturday was in full effect, and the age of THL content creation was born.

Now, I want to be clear… I do NOT condone what I am about to share.

HOWEVER, while drinking and driving with Jedi one night in Discord; playing Rocket League, sipping Jameson, and watching Salty Saturday live, he made an off the cuff comment that would change the next 3 years of my life.

“What if there was a SportsCenter, but for THL?” 

Okay, maybe not exactly those words. But, close enough. We were quite a few games in, and my Entropy teammate Xaether was losing his Salty Saturday broadcasted match, so I may not have been exactly present at that moment. There was some approximation of those words spoken here, that’s the gist of it.

Being a streamer myself, a lifelong athlete watching SportsCenter, and fan of podcasts like DIGG nation; I felt this was a challenge I could easily complete. 

Hearthstone has a built in theme that made the concept simple. We would all gather at the Inn Keeper’s Tavern and tell him of our travels. Around good meade and even better friends, we would regale in the adventures of THL. We would call our stories, Tavern Talk.

The Hearth was lit.

Screenshot of the Inaugural Episode of Tavern Talk

The concept was simple enough, the only remaining questions were structure and talent. What would the show attempt to accomplish, and who would be willing to go on this journey with me? 

Believing a fleshed out show structure would be more appealing to potential talent the show's design came to light. Mandatory components included interactivity, THL updates, and high level analysis. As a lifetime <200 PR player, I could only really account for the first component.

Reaching into my DIGG love and combining that with the tavern theme, I knew I wanted to incorporate a drinking game. THL inside jokes, and other Hearthstone/Blizzard related tropes guided the revolving rules from week to week. Thus, Thirsty Thursdays came to life.

Still, I needed to bring the community together and provide Hearthstone knowledge. These struggles were alleviated when Cassity and Slimsch offered their services to the show.

Cassity was a regular broadcaster for THL show matches, and an inaugural member of season Alpha’s Swooty Wooty. He was well known and respected in the community. This allowed us to secure weekly guests, which we called patrons.  As a broadcaster, Cassity brought an enthusiasm that transitioned well to the live streaming talk show format. Thankfully for THL, as a lover of all things Mid-Range Paladin, he put his faith in the light and joined us on the Tavern Talk crew.

In addition to being 5’2", Slimsch was also one of the first 500 PR players in THL history. His knowledge and understanding of the game allowed him to have the level-headed takes that Tavern Talk needed. When Cassity and I would go off on heated debates trying to spark a fire in a rivalry, or to create story lines, it would be Slimsch taking over as conductor and putting the show back on the rails.

The on screen chemistry was effortless. While I wish I could take some amount of credit, pure luck and better co-hosts are what really pulled the show together. Each member bringing their ideas and skills to the table facilitated the transition from meme drinking show to Flagship of THL content. 

Lives would evolve. Time and availability would become a factor, and sadly the founding anchors of Tavern Talk would step away. Amazing broadcasters like Stephieee and Donde would step into the spotlight, and production wizards like Saku would take the overall quality of content to levels we could have only dreamed of. 

Spin-offs like As the Salt settles, hosted by the late, great NaCl would continue the spirit of what Tavern Talk started. Specials around division drafts, free agency, captain announcements, and set reveals became the cornerstone of the community. Chat filled with PogChamp and BibleThump, clips shared in discord, and highlight reels shared in team chats. The Community was bustling, the Tavern was full.

I would be disingenuous if I didn’t share that my eyes got misty writing this, but that is truly how special this time was. In a world that promotes individualism. In a single player video game. One of the most amazing communities I have had the pleasure of being a part of was born. THL lit its Hearth well before it ever had its own tavern, as if a simple Reddit post made by a JediNinja invited us all:

“Welcome to my Inn!”