A true story of friendship and win trading: Tales from rank 2

Reddit, I come before you today to share a story of intrigue. A story of friendships formed and bonds broken. A story of anger, loss, lies, and ragequits. Settle in and enjoy!

Last night while laddering at rank 2, I encountered a player whose name sounded very familiar to me. He was playing an all-golden Zoo deck against my standard combo Druid. A bad matchup for me, certainly. After 5 long turns of thought, he manages an impressive board flip involving an imp-losion, Soulfire, and a Mal'ganis from Voidcaller. Unable to draw my Big Game Hunter and facing a formidable board, I concede.

He accepts my friend request. "Well played!" I say. "That was a great game. Have we played before? Your name is so familiar to me." He doesn't believe we've played before. As we start chatting, it comes out that we both played Yugioh competitively in the past before switching to Hearthstone. He's from the Miami area and has performed very well in various Yugioh tournaments. I'm impressed! We chat about the transition into Hearthstone. "I think I've made a friend," I say to myself. Despite losing a star, I'm content.

All is well in Hearthstone. I win another game. A moment later, my screen alert flashes: Your new friend just reached rank 1! "Wow! He's certainly climbing fast," I think. But the Hearthstone Gods are vengeful dieties, and a twist of fate awaits me. One more game before bed should do it for the night. I queue up. . .

And who should stand before me? My new friend.

"Woah dude!" A text bubble flashes onto my screen. "Haha what are the odds?" I laugh a little and grab a wild growth off the mulligan. But the mulligan screen doesn't change. My opponent hasn't selected his cards yet.

"Dude would you concede?" Another text bubble. The plot thickens. And now I'm in an awkward spot. I reply, "Sorry dude, gotta earn it. Besides, this matchup is in your favor. I'm sure you'll be alright." "Oh come on, man!"

We begin the game. This time around I have all the tools to take an early lead. Wild Growth, Keeper of the Grove on his egg, Innervate Dr. Boom . . .

The messages continue. As the game goes on the desperation begins to show through. "Please man, I've never been to Legend before and I'm on a hot streak. Please just give me the win, I'd do the same for you if you were higher rank! You gotta see where I'm coming from!" I reply, "Sorry dude. I'm trying to get legend too. I hope you understand :P"

My opponent ropes out turn 4 without any action other than tapping his hero power. "What was that?" I ask. "I had to go turn off my oven. Dude please!"

I draw for my turn.

Savage roar. I have lethal, and we both know it.

One last attempt. "Bro please if we ever meet on ladder again I'll give you the win, I promise!!"

I pause. A moment of mercy. How many times have I been rank 1, praying that my legend opponent would scoop to help me out? It's never happened to me, but maybe I can be the hero the ladder deserves.

I give him an opportunity. "Well," I say, "how many stars do you have at rank 1? I guess I can give you the win if you're at 4 or 5 stars to help you out." "Four!" He insists quickly. "I have 4 stars!"

"You lie!"

Savage Roar!

His portrait explodes. I cry, "I just saw your rank change to rank 1 before this battle! That was a test, and you failed it."

"Haha" he replies.

And then he was gone. Never to be heard from again. My new fairweather friend had abandoned me. Despite winning a star, I felt dejected.

And thus the ends the tale of friendship gained and lost. A truly zero-sum game that left me filled with an entire spectrum of emotions. Had my opponent been truthful in telling me he had only 1 star, I would have conceded. But alas, he took the low road, and that has made all the difference.

I have chosen not to reveal his name in this thread. But you, sir, know who you are. I have only the highest hopes that we will meet again some day and become friends again. Feel free to reach out via PM if you read this. I have no doubt you will reach legend shortly. You play well and Demon Zoo is great in this meta. But you will have to earn it. Good luck!

TL;DR: played the same dude twice, he asked me to concede, I gave him a chance and he blew it.

EDIT: So I never meant this piece to sound whiney or to call anyone out. In fact that's why I left out my opponents name. I just typed it up in 2/3 minute intervals while slow at work and threw the first draft (not even spellchecked!) up on Reddit since my brother and I found it funny. Turns out a few users have private messaged me and called out my opponent. Guess he has a history of trying to take advantage of people in games! I'm not so upset to lose the friendship anymore :/