Esteban “AKAWonder” Serrano has been the face of Spain in Hearthstone for years. Starting as a small-time competitor, the Spaniard bloomed in 2015, qualifying for all three DreamHack tournaments he attended, becoming the first true Swiss king of the game (later succeeded by Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang in 2016).

Nowadays, AKAWonder is a two-times major champion, most recently winning the ONOG Major in Austin, and an HCT Europe finalist. He’s represented his team SK Gaming at the playoffs of six different Hearthstone majors and has come to be one of the most consistent players in the game, even if the star status of the likes of Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk or Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert still eludes him.

Soon after he returned from back-to-back major tournaments in North America, I caught up with the charmingly jetlagged AKAWonder who, albeit tired, cannot hold back his characteristic upbeat attitude. Between him preparing to go on Spanish television and me chugging gallons of coffee in the middle of a busy day, we talk about Un’Goro spoiler season, the rising strength of North America and whether or not he’ll ever make the transition from a competitor to streamer.

* * *

First thing's first: Welcome back from the ONOG marathon in the States. I imagine it's good to be home, especially with a major championship to show?

Yeah, I was missing the European food, haha! I’m so happy to be back in Europe with another major title. I’m so lucky that this year is starting as good as the last one!

You played at both PAX East and SXSW where you encountered the best of both the EU and NA scenes. You played the likes of Xixo and Pavel, but also RayC, Astrogation and Cydonia. What are your thoughts on the developing NA scene, both compared to last year and to its major rival ,Europe?

I think NA is stronger than last year. I still see the EU region as the most powerful one, but NA is getting closer from my point of view. I didn’t know players like Rayc or Astrogation and I'm surprised by their level

Europe hasn’t had a major yet this year and likely won’t get one until DH in June. At the same time, NA has had three already and China is hard at work, too. Do you think this will put EU in disadvantage ahead of the next HCT  championship or is the region still far ahead that it wouldn't matter?

Definitely the former, that’s what happened on NA last year. They didn’t have that many majors and that’s why we were ahead, in my opinion. But I see a difference -- when we had all the majors, NA didn’t come to play in Europe and now we are going like crazy to NA to play them; maybe we just have teams with more economic power?

Europe could be in a disadvantage if we don't get more majors.

You had a fairly inactive fall/winter season, especially when compared to your active days of 2015 and early 2016. What was the reason?

I think it was a lack of good results, I played as much as I could and I even qualified for ATLC2! I also won Deck Gauntlet V, so I don’t think I was inactive, but yeah, I wasn’t performing that well. In November in particular, I had the worst losing streak I’ve ever had -- 40% win ratio over three weeks. I was about to get crazy.

Did you just lack focus? Was it the streaming schedule maybe?

It may be that I was moving from my little island to Madrid, but I don’t think so, I was spending the same amount of hours and doing the same. Maybe it was a mix of everything.

The energy with which you speak about your competitive record leads me to believe you won't go the "streaming first, competing second" route that some players like Firebat have taken.

Haha, you are correct. My stream is not famous enough to go for the streaming in the first place, but I wouldn’t do it anyway; I'm too competitive. One of my New Years resolutions [was] to try to qualify for Blizzcon this year. If I don’t get it, I will see what I do next year, but most likely I will try and qualify again.

You're in your third year as a member of SK Gaming and were kept on the roster after the team lost the majority of its players in Powder, Martin, Spo and Freakeh. How have things changed for the team and for you specifically after that split?

Everything has changed. With the Swedes, we had a really big team and now I'm only with Zetalot. He is trying to play more tournaments... yeah I would love to have more team mates in order to be able to play team leagues.

Do you fear SK might go the CLG or Na’Vi way and depart from Hearthstone, especially if there aren’t many more team league opportunities like Trinity Series, even though the brand has been in Hearthstone for a long time now?

 I have a really close relationship with them and I know that they love me, so I don’t think they are going to close the Hearthstone team, but it might happen. That’s how the business works and I would  look for another team most likely, but I see that as a thing for the far future.

I don't think SK Gaming will close the Hearthstone team but it might happen. That's how business works.

As your country's most decorated players, you're likely to represent Spain in the Global Games, and that's a tournament whose format has seen some controversy already, particularly around the public voting component and the nominations process. How do you like HGG's current structure?

Well, it’s going be close for me. There are two big YouTubers plus Evangelion besides me who have been nominated. I hope I get to go, though. I like what Blizzard is doing; the tournament is going to have a big audience due to the YouTubers’ fanbases and the pro players are going to bring the good plays, what else do you need?

I wouldn't go the "streaming first" route, I'm too competitive.

The nomination of P4wnyhof has caused the most negative backlash so far, with several players stating they won't participate in the event if he gets voted in. As a bystander, do you support such decision? What would you do if a similarly controversial figure was nominated for Spain -- Boycott or suck it up and play?

I’m not sure on what would I do, but I think this is a mistake by Blizzard and it shouldn’t have happened. They know what is going on in the German scene and that scenario should have been avoided.

Entering the final topic: The Un’Goro spoiler season has begun, and we're about 20-odd cards in. Which reveal has left the most positive and most negative impression on you?

I like the quest new type of card. I LOVE IT! It’s like having a new C’Thun! and I also love the new Warlock cards -- holy moly, I have already some new cool decks in mind.

What I don’t like is that Paladin is not getting anything good yet, but obviously that might change.

You mentioned C'Thun, which leads me to my next question. For the past few expansions, Blizzard have been introducing mechanics which are aimed to—how to put it best—make deckbuilding intuitive to new players, simplify the process a bit even. We had C’Thun in Old Gods, then Jades in Gadgetzan. This is obviously great for casuals and newbies, but what do you think of this trend as a competitive player? Good or bad for competitive deckbuilding?

I don’t think having complex mechanics would help the best players or deckbuilders win more. I like having simple things so everyone feels like he is playing well and then the small details are super important for being a successful player.

Which is the best Un'Goro cards revealed thus far, in your opinion?

Arcanologist is one of my favourite cards but we still need to see cool secrets and mage cards to make it viable.

If you enjoyed this piece, follow the author on Twitter at @GGNydra.

Follow the player at @AKAWonder.