Team Black Lotus - Team Profile

Team Black Lotus started the season with a roster consisting of Bonja, Arthur Rhodes (NaCl), TonyMontana, ForceOfWill, and Vedney. All of these names are recognizable to any League member who has been around for a bit with the exception of newcomer Bonja. During recruiting season team captain, ForceOfWill, decided to answer the call of "let Vedney play." Unfortunately for TBL, Vedney was removed from the league for misconduct, but not before going 0-4 on the season with a DQ and winning only 2 of the 11 total games he played. A quick rundown of their path this season starts with 16-9 loss in week 1 to Flint Tropics. Week 2 turned out to be just as rough with a 15-11 loss to Sexy Hombres in Texas. Things started to turn around for TBL in week 3 with a 13-9 win over Zona Peligrosa, and a week 4 win against Xplosive Sheep 15-11. The momentum continued when they wrestled down another big name in SHL, The Defias Henchmen, 14-11 in week 5. In week 6 TBL picked up Cyclometh as a permanent replacement for Vedney and took down Team Weasel Shark 15-11. The fate of their season rested in Week 7 when they faced off against DaddyUp. TBL needed to Either win this match or see Defias Henchmen fall to TeamWeaselShark, the bottom team in the division. The pressure got to TBL in that final week and they took a big loss 16-10. Defias Henchmen won their series and squeaked into the playoffs just ahead of Team Black Lotus by 2 points.
​

Bonja - Current 1 Seed

What's your THL/SHL history?
This is my first season in either THL or SHL, and it has been a blast so far.


How did you find THL/SHL?
I found THL through my friend Zerotio who co-hosts Hero Power Podcast.


How long have you been playing Hearthstone?
I installed Hearthstone on the first day of open beta but didnt play for very long until a few of my college friends hyped me up about the Old Gods expansion. My favorite deck, which I almost exclusively played, back then was C'thun Druid, which got me to rank 3, but I was determined to make it to legend, so I switched to cancer midrange shaman and have consistently made legend with various decks since.
Shoutout to Khaonic for helping me push legend my first time.


Who was your toughest opponent this season and why?
My match against Ridiculous Hat was one of my two matches this season that I felt my lineup was unfavored, the other being against Inkd. Combining that with RHat being a well-established and good player gave me a tough match.


Your favorite band/ song/ music to jam to while playing Hearthstone?
Music is far too distracting for me while playing Hearthstone.


If you weren't on Team Black Lotus, what team would you like to be playing on?
Tinyfin Fan Club: I mean, they are the best team and have the best name.

What do you do outside of Hearthstone?
I enjoy playing board games, programming, watching NFL, running statistics, and playing bassoon in my spare time.


Arthur Rhodes - Current 2 Seed


What's your THL/SHL history?
i have been in thl since season 1 iirc and have played shl since its inception.

How did you find THL/SHL?
i played in a very basic and small league called the snowstone league.
twizz played in the league and i believe i heard about it through him
in some way either in that groups chat or in the hearthstone inn
DansGame

How long have you been playing Hearthstone?
i started playing in may of 2015. had to go back and find my first
card back to make sure.

What do you love best about SHL?
you normally get rewarded in shl for your preparation during the week.
a lot of players are unfamiliar to LHS and do not bring counter picks.

Favorite THL/ SHL person not on your team?
shirtless randy cork obviously

Who was your toughest opponent this season and why?
dlineman. he showed me last season how to properly play LHS.
unfortunately for me he didnt teach me everything.

Your favorite band/ song/ music to jam to while playing Hearthstone?
same playlist all season. rich chigga, old childish gambino, wu tang,
some lil dicky, outkast and N.W.A of course

If you weren't on Team Black Lotus, what team would you like to be playing on?
great question. some of my favorite times in the league were very
early on  in skype calls with noob central. nade, randy and josh made
for some very fun times. so if i had to pick i would want to play with
some of those guys

What do you do outside of Hearthstone?
the league is my hearthstone now. i never push for legend anymore or
play a whole lot of games other than league play. still make at least
rank 5 for the free epic though. work and family take up most of my
non gaming time. pretty boring tbh. lol


ForceOfWill - Current 4 Seed, Captain

What's your THL/SHL history?
I started off in SHL in Season 1 with the Old Gods Squad.  The team was a complete disaster.  The team captain didn't submit decks for most of the season and I was the number 1 seed for the team, which was rough.  After the first season, I requested to become the captain of  Old Gods Squad and try to rebuild the team.  Prior to the next season of SHL, Arthur Rhodes took a chance on me and added me to N.W.A. in THL.  Season 2 was my first season captaining an SHL team.  I changed the name to Team Black Lotus because I was still playing Magic the Gathering heavily at that point.  I leaned on my N.W.A. teammates heavily as the first team consisted of Arthur Rhodes, TonyMontana, Gemini, JerryDamage, and myself.  In Season 2, we tied for the last place in the league.  In SHL Season 3, we were able to add Dlineman to the team who provided a lot of experience as he was one of the few 500 PR players in SHL at the time.  We also added Drudded, who was playing for N.W.A at the time as well. In Season 3, we made the playoffs, but lost in the first round to the eventual champions, Kawasaki Ninjas Rule.  In Season 4, we had to find a replacement for Dlineman and Drudded.  I was incredibly fortunate to find Bonja to join the team as the number 1 seed.  I initially started off with Vedney as the 5 seed this season. Cyclometh came on to the team after week 5 as a recommendation from Bonja as he has had local tournament experience with him.  This season, we finished just outside of the playoffs by 2 points. This season in SHL was my worst season personally (outside of my partial season in SHL Season 1) finishing 2-5 in matches.  However, I am happy with the team as a whole as we finished 4-3 in matches.

How did you find THL/SHL?
I listen to several Hearthstone related podcasts including 1600 Dust.  The hosts was discussing THL on their show and I decided to check it out.  I signed up during the middle of SHL Season 1 and joined Old Gods Squad shortly after.

How long have you been playing Hearthstone?
I have been playing Hearthstone since closed beta.  I did take a break for about a year or so, but I decided to come back and picked up playing again a few years ago.

What do you love best about SHL?
I really like the strategy in SHL.  Since it is a Last Hero Standing format, you cannot just bring the best 4 decks and do well.  You have to take into consideration that you need to have decks to counter your opponent's decks.  You cannot target a certain deck as when they lose with it, they cannot play it again anyway.  It adds a level of complexity that is not present in Conquest.

Favorite THL/ SHL person not on your team?
At the beginning of this season, I really tried to get RidiculousHat on my team.  I enjoy his insights on Coin Concede and would have loved for him to play on Team Black Lotus.

Who was your toughest opponent this season and why?
Probably Comp.  We have played each other several times in both leagues and all of our matches seem really close. I want to throw an honorable mention to Sage as well since we were 1-1 in matches against each other going into this season and we did talk a little smack to each other in Discord in preparation for our match.

Your favorite band/ song/ music to jam to while playing Hearthstone?
A little known fact about me is that I am a fan of musicals, both Broadway and TV.  The original Hamilton musical soundtrack and the Hamilton Mixtape are definitely my go to for music. I also listen to the soundtracks for "Crazy Ex Girlfriend" as I am a Rachel Bloom fan from her "F*** Me, Ray Bradbury" days.  All the songs from the show are absolutely hilarious.  Beyond that, I enjoy classic rock. My music tastes are very eclectic. 

If you weren't on Team Black Lotus, what team would you like to be playing on?
Sexy Hombres in Texas or Big Deck Bandits as they have both done very well in SHL this season. Plus, they both have great names.

What do you do outside of Hearthstone?
I am a pharmacist with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and work as the Pharmacy Clinical Coordinator for a hospital in the Pacific Northwest.  I also enjoy playing other card games including Magic the Gathering, which I have played a lot less of regularly as it costs money to enter tournaments regularly, and Eternal, a new CCG on PC and phones that was made by a bunch of Magic the Gathering professionals and is best described as a cross between Magic and Hearthstone. I am also one of the hosts for "SHL Week Tonight" and regularly cast "SHL Sunday Ticket".          




Cyclometh - Current 5 Seed


What's your THL/SHL history?
I have actually only played in SHL this last two weeks. I am on a conquest team for my university, and my team captain, Bonja, invited me to join when a player was removed.

How did you find THL/SHL?
^

How long have you been playing Hearthstone?
I played for a few months when Old Gods came out, but ended up falling off. When Un'Goro was about to launch my friend Anderson was freaking out about the new Quest cards and really wanted me to play again, so I decided to try it out again. That marked the end of my social life because I have been addicted since then. 

What do you love best about SHL?
From the two weeks of being in the league, I really liked the strategy behind it. It is a lot different from conquest and I sorta like it. 

Favorite THL/ SHL person not on your team?
Sadly, I do not know enough people in the THL/SHL to pick a favorite. 

Who was your toughest opponent this season and why?
The only guy I was able to play against, DSJ, was an honorable opponent and I thought he was going to 3-0 me with his Mid range Hunter. In the first game I was playing Jade Druid, and right after a stabilized I was at five health. he had to top deck a Kill Command right there or I was going to win. Sadly, that is exactly what happened. In the second game, I played Evolve Shaman and every evolve was the absolute worst. His curve was way too strong for me and I was eventually put too far behind and lost. Luckily I came back with my own Mid range Hunter. 

Your favorite band/ song/ music to jam to while playing Hearthstone?
Probably, instrumental music and soundtracks. 

If you weren't on Team Black Lotus, what team would you like to be playing on?
I am really unfamiliar with the teams, so I can not really answer that question. 

What do you do outside of Hearthstone?
I mostly play Magic The Gathering, and hang out with my friends and girlfriend.


Unfortunately I was not able to reach TonyMontana for comment. Vedney lost by DQ in week 3 and Cyclometh won by DQ in week 6, so I suppose you could say the DQs evened out. Overall the team had a rough road filled with many well fought battles, but I can't help but wonder if they hadn't given in to the chants of "let Vedney play" maybe they could've made their way to the playoffs.


Brett "BitBeaker" Eaker