HypeHorizen is ecstatic to announce McBanterFace to the Competitive Team. In just three months of streaming, he’s gone from making Affiliate, to qualifying and applying for Partner. His positive mindset has consistently led him into high Legend. Recently, that mindset has also led him to qualifying for Hearthstone Masters Tour Online: Montreal.
Please give us a quick introduction
Hi, I’m McBanterFace and I started playing video games since around seven years old. I had a GameCube and would play Super Smash Bros., Super Monkey Ball, Mario Party, just with friends and family. It’s always something I loved, so I kinda carried that throughout my life.
I got really into competitive gaming back when I was playing Call of Duty. It was around Black Ops where I got into Game Battles, basically a competitive platform to play games where you group up with a team.
After about nine months into playing Hearthstone, I hit Legend for the first time. It was super exciting to me. I was like ‘woah, I’m actually kinda okay at this game.’ That’s when I really started grinding a little bit more. I was busy with college, but I got to Legend every season since that first time in about late 2017, early 2018.
What games do you stream?
When I started my stream, a friend of mine convinced me to really start it and said ‘you know, what’s the worst that can happen? You’re a great player; maybe your stream will blow up.’
I was like ‘yeah right; sure dude. That’s not going to happen. It’s super hard to grow on Twitch, especially as someone new that’s not really involved in the scene.’
I think I hit affiliate within the first month and that was so crazy for me. I can’t believe I did that. And now it’s two months later and I’ve already qualified and applied to be a Twitch Partner.
So, Hearthstone is the only game I’ve ever streamed and that’s the plan for the near future.
McBanterFace Streaming
What are your thoughts on joining the Competitive Team on HypeHorizen?
I’m super excited to be joining. It’s the first Hearthstone team I’m a part of.
The team environment as a whole is what really excites me. I haven’t really started playing super competitively until the last couple of months, so having those few people that I can talk to, to work on lineups, optimizing decks, that kind of stuff, that’s something I’ve never really had.
I feel like having those resources is really incredible and I’m excited to also be a resource to other people. I’m hoping that I can grow as a player and also help other people grow as players. Just having that ability to practice with other people and speak to them openly about what works, what doesn’t work, really being able to think critically. I think that’s gonna be a really nice thing for myself and for the other members.
What made you want to pursue competitive play more seriously?
I don’t think it was necessarily one event. It was more kind of a progression.
I watched a lot of Twitch streams in the past, but it kinda really ramped up recently. I was watching Grandmasters even before playing super competitively.
If there was one point that really made it happen, it was COVID-19 because that’s when I had all this extra time, and that’s when I really knew I could dedicate a reasonable amount of time to grinding ladder, trying to get a top-16 finish, and playing in Masters Qualifiers.
In terms of the competitive aspect and when I really wanted to get into competition, that was pretty much as far back as when I hit Legend. I’ve been high-Legend pretty much as long as I started hitting Legend. I think a couple of months after I hit Legend for the first time, I hit like rank 20.
The part that I consider really competitive and exciting is actually trying to get into the main competitive scene. I never really had a lot of time to commit to playing Masters Qualifiers. Now, I qualified for Montreal pretty much at the last possible moment with a ladder finish in July.
What are your favorite parts of streaming?
The part that I love the most about streaming is that I have all these people that are coming into chat who say ‘oh, watching you helped me learn how to play this deck.’ ‘I’m 10-0 with this deck.’ Or whatever they say.
It makes me happy to see that people are able to learn something from me. Whether it’s about a deck or kind of my mindset towards the game, which I always try and keep a positive outlook and not hate on certain decks or playstyles.
I’ve got a ton of awesome feedback about the way that I explain my plays and just like my game plan. That is my main stream style – It’s meant to be educational.
Do you have a gaming idol, someone in esports or gaming that you look up to?
Some of the first streamers that I started watching were Dog and Asmodai.
Especially Dog, who ended up getting into Grandmasters and playing there; he was always a great competitive player. I kinda looked up to him quite a bit as the pinnacle of a Hearthstone streamer who’s doing all this stuff.
He has a huge viewer base, but he’s also a really great competitive player, and that’s something I aspire to be. The idea of being able to entertain people and help people learn, while also being such a great competitive player is something that I’ve always wanted to do.
Is there a mantra or quote you live by?
One of my favorite quotes is written by Oscar Wilde: “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
I feel like it’s relevant to life and even Hearthstone as well.
Just accepting mistakes is a big part of life. It’s something that, for a while, I kind of struggled with. I always wanted to be perfect in everything I did, but eventually I kind of grew up and realized that I’m going to make mistakes. I need to just learn from them, and like the quote suggests, those mistakes just become experience; they’re not something that needs to weigh me down.
I think it’s very relevant to Hearthstone and my streaming as well. Maybe I’ll make a misplay on stream, maybe I’ll miss lethal. I don’t worry about it.
It’s important to strike a balance between understanding why a mistake was a mistake, but also not beating yourself up over it.
About HypeHorizen
HypeHorizen is a fast-growing esports team as well as a stream team. We’re always looking for competitive talent as well as influencers. The company is open to working with up-and-coming streamers and players of all skill levels. If you have interest in joining HypeHorizen, please use the contact form here: Contact HypeHorizen.
