Last week, CD Projekt Red, the Polish video game studio behind the massively popular and critically acclaimed open-world series The Witcher, posted a job listing for an esports manager for its popular mini-game-turned-stand-alone-title, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. The position would oversee both amateur and professional Gwent tournaments and communicate with "key stakeholders of the global esports scene."
Gwent is a deck-building card game similar to Hearthstone, but it has its own unique mechanics that make it stand out. For example, there are three rounds. If you win two out of the three rounds, you win the game. You win rounds by having more power on the board at the end of the round than your opponent, and every card has a different power value (see the photo above for a good visual representation). You or your opponent can choose to end a round at any time, at which point the player who did not choose to end the round can play cards to ensure victory, or save cards and pass on to the next round.
It's a game that's easy to learn, taking all but ten minutes, but requires a lot of strategy at higher levels. And it's already converted a player from Hearthstone.
"The concept of Gwent is fairly simple: the one with more stats on the board wins," said Evil Geniuses' Adrian "Lifecoach" Koy, the Hearthstone-turned-Gwent player. "It is a bit like chess. The rules are easy to understand but playing it at a high level is extremely hard."
Currently, Hearthstone is the king of card game esports with a massive following and established esports circuit. However, some people feel Hearthstone can be too imbalanced, or feel flavor-of-the-month with overpowered cards that are released. This has a lot to do with the RNG, or random number generator. Essentially, the aspects of the game that are left to chance. And when it comes to competitive games with large prize pots on the line, professional players, like Jeremy "Disguised Toast" Wang, can find RNG frustrating.
"Randomness has always been Hearthstone's most debated aspect," he said. "There are days where a string of Hearthstone games you play seem to be decided by a random effect, and it can be a bit frustrating when this happen."
Wang doesn't see that trend in Gwent. Instead, he believes it's a game where once the viewer is familiar with the game, they can really dive deep into strategies, bluffs and card management, leading to a more engaging experience.
"Gwent appeals more to an audience who want game outcomes to have a more direct correlation to the player's own actions," Wang said. "There are some games of Hearthstone where it's over by Turn 2 because the opponent had an insane 'double innervate double fledgling' opener. You can't learn anything from that."
With that in mind, Koy feels that Gwent could give Hearthstone some worthy competition. "It is competitive, complex and very skill-heavy. Furthermore, CDPR has a high interest in having a pro scene at some stage which is important for any esport."
And with the esports job available in either Warsaw or Los Angeles, but it's probably safe to say that the CD Project Red has a big talent pool to pull from to give Gwent a good esports run.
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is currently in open beta for Xbox One and PC. The game is set to fully release as a free-to-play game on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. There is no official release date set, but when it hits, Wang expects "a lot of new players to be drawn in by the low randomness aspect, the simple goal of 'having a bigger score,' and the intricate strategies behind the decks."