Interview Series: hossainbd

The first interview of this Star Player series was well received. So it is time to continue with the next start player of @splinterlands. I like to mention here that this series is no particular order. I am trying to get as many pro players interviewed as I can provided the player and myself have the time. Also this is NOT arranged as per their skills or ability after the first one, as the league is often highly competitive.

The next player I managed to spend some time with is someone close to me, as I have spent quality time talking to @hossainbd mostly off chain. He is an ace Splinterlands player from Bangladesh. He has very modest beginning in the world of hive (then steem) and Splinterlands. Hossain comes from a family of fisherman, and let me tell you in Bangladesh, fishing is typically not a very well paid profession. I lerned from him that after school he used to 'live' in his family's boat doing fishing as a profession. However, coming from a developing country he has shown amazing grit and talent regarding what can be done with a blockchain game to achieve financial freedom. I just want to say, that I am so proud of him!

Without further comments, let us start the interview:

Before Hossain became a legendary SL player, he was a legendary fisherman (2014)! :)

The Interview:

azircon —
Ready?

HossainBD —
yes

azircon —
OK lets start...

HossainBD —
yeah

azircon —
When did you start playing? And how did you learn about Splinterlands?

HossainBD —
I started playing SL in December 2018, Learned about the game by exploring steem back then. I learned playing by watching good pro players battles especially from the top battles
and entering in tourneys helped a lot to learn this game

azircon —
Interesting, as I started hive in Jan 2018, but didn't play SL until much later, my game profile says Dec 2018 too! (but I am sure I didn't play, just had the account)
But how did you learn about hive? Mmeaning did anyone tell you about hive?

HossainBD —
i actually joined on steemit in 2017, but i heared about steemit by a online friend but he is no longer active on steemit/hive since 2019

azircon —
good.
So when you started playing SL, did you buy any cards/packs?
Other than the starter pack of course..

HossainBD —
yeah i started playing SL since that day i bought starter packs then i bought some beta packs from the official store to check my luck
but in first month i just played even without knowing the elements and cards ability and rules

azircon —
right, that must be early 2019 (January)...
Do you remember when you first qualify for Champions League? Was it within first few weeks or months?

HossainBD —
I played starter deck for 2-3 month in a row even without all the legendaries summoners and made it diamond.
Then i started playing tournament with all of those pro players but most of the time i lost the tourney because Prince Rennyn then i decided to buy that Rennyn for $10

Why everyone fantasize about the Prince?! :)

azircon —
ha ha, very nice!

HossainBD —
which made me top 10 tourney winner those days

azircon —
$10/BCX Prince Rennyn :)
Do you still have that particular Prince Rennyn?

HossainBD —
after became a top tourney winner i sold my rennyn for $21 and decided to playing tp delegated deck

azircon —
ha ha ha!
sold for $21!

HossainBD —
$11 profit on a single cards was a lot for me then started cards trading on market

azircon —
Did you ever bought the Prince Rennyn back again?
The first legendary summoner I bought was also Prince Rennyn, I paid $30 for it I think :)
$30/BCX and I still have that particular card.

HossainBD —
yeah maybe several time then sold for the higher prices than bought

azircon —
Excellent!
So starter pack to qualify for Diamond! Back then that was possible...

HossainBD —
i was so good in those days

azircon —
With all due respect, you are still VERY GOOD

HossainBD —
as a player, maybe not, I do a lot of trading cards/NFT these days...

azircon —
So lets get back to earning bit. You started earning fairly quickly by winning tournaments. Back then rewards were packs I think?

HossainBD —
no

azircon —
DEC?

HossainBD —
no
steem only

azircon —
steem, I got it.
DEC started later

HossainBD —
if you check my steemit transactions you will get it

azircon —
right
Season rewards were beta packs

HossainBD —
yeah dec got released last month of 2019 i guess.
i got 2 season with beta packs rewards

azircon —
so during these early days, say mid 2018... you were playing delegated decks and was earning some money. Was it enough? Did you do anything else for living back then?

HossainBD —
yeah i had a job

azircon —
right, so you mostly played on phone? or after work in computer?
in the early days there were no phone app

HossainBD —
on phone

azircon —
Phone was tough, it is still tough for me on phone

HossainBD —
even i played two active tourney with 4 deck in the same time through phone
with mobile networks

azircon —
unreal! Congratulations!

HossainBD —
sometimes i got stuck because of ram, sometimes for network
most of the time for network

azircon —
ok, so at which point in time, your earning from the game was more than your job, and you decided to play full time

HossainBD —
No, actually I wanted to earn a bit more in addition to SL to supplement. But I didn't like the job and it didn't pay as much as SL for the time commitment, so I quit the job only after a few months and decided to play SL full-time.

azircon —
right

HossainBD —
The story goes, one time, one particular I was fast asleep as I was tired doing my day job, and that night DEC pumped and I auto-sold $400 worth of cards below burn-rate! That was a disaster. I decided to quit my day job after that.

azircon —
but would you say, it perhaps took you 6 months or less to earn a living from the game

HossainBD —
its took about 1.5 year to earn enough from the game because it wasn't that much popular that time

azircon —
right
so during this time, do you remember how many time you were #1?
at the Champions League

HossainBD —
2 time
without even all the cards

azircon —
Interesting! and How many times in the Diamond?
which is relatively new after they separated the leagues

HossainBD —
I mostly don't play in Diamond with my own deck

azircon —
right, only recently

HossainBD —
yeah after the new leaderborad payout

azircon —
right. So you are a player and a card trader now
especially successful after the launch of WAX

HossainBD —
i think jrvacation has a website to check it how many time did we win leaderboard

HossainBD —
yeah a cards trader and a active player

azircon —
and Other NFT games too, you participate there

HossainBD —
yes but i didn't sell too many cards on wax

azircon —
And now you do both trading and delegated deck playing full time now as a profession, right?

HossainBD —
I'm also interested on kogs which can be a great NFTs game in future

azircon —
right

HossainBD —
yeah kinda like that

azircon —
And I don't think you will take any 'job' in real life in future, if this current trend continues :)

HossainBD —
true

azircon —
I know you are from Bangladesh, which is a developing country, would you think more people from your country can play this game and earn a living?

HossainBD —
i personally don't like job in real life, I just like to play and trade cards for a living

i think they can if they want to but most of our country people are greedy because they want quick profit from any project the joined

azircon —
right, but this requires patience, as you mentioned earlier, that it took you nearly 1.5 years to be successful

HossainBD —
yeah i played 6 month for nothing i guess
and splinterlands wasn't my first game i played
i played 8 ball pool also on steemit
and earned some decent money before splinterlands

azircon —
right
good, we are nearing the end, with all the new player pouring into the game now, any tips you like to share as an experienced player?

HossainBD —
i would like to say play in tournaments as much you can because it is the best way to learn game and also it will tell you what cards you have to buy to combine for next ability and do trading like me if you have extra time also have the mentality of losing something on trade

azircon —
Excellent tip!
Any particular game you like to share?

HossainBD —

https://steemmonsters.com/?p=battle&id=f4308520c25e755ef76092e029d7404989a50ad3&ref=hossainbd

azircon —
Explain it a bit please. Why did you play this set up what were you thinking when you got this rule set

HossainBD —
Well, when i saw target practice and keep your distance rule - i was sure that the opponent would come with range attack since the mana cost of the game were a bit high and i had a life quest running at that time so i was wonder how can i complete the quest in a short time so I've decided to go with life with counter attacks

azircon —
Almo is an very interesting and powerful new card, isn’t it?
Very well done.

Very good! Thanks a lot for your time Hossain. I will published this as a featured article.

HossainBD —
thanks to you too.

Final Thoughts

Again I have published this un-edited as-is discord conversation. People seem to like it. So this will be the format of future interviews as well.