The AWOL Season 2 Invitational, running May 24 at 11 a.m. EST on Board Game Arena, brings together the top players from the hundreds of matches across the Trial By Frost season. The weekly online event has been one of the most popular ways to interact with the competitive side of Altered worldwide with regular European- and North American-focused tournaments.

The Invitational will be fully streamed with all eight commentators from across the season joining in, a massive project that underscores the community built around the event.

AWOL also partnered with Equinox for its first official online tournament through BGA, a Whispers from the Maze Demo Deck event that fully filled its 512-player registration inside five minutes.

The AWOL Admin Team and TheKelonGuy, who won the Season 1 invitational and was a featured commentary member for Season 2, took the time to answere questions about the metagame, hero and faction futures and the community’s biggest tournament yet.

It’s been an exciting week for Altered! How have you been enjoying the game after the most recent patch?

Simon: Honestly, it has been a blast for me to play some more. I have been putting in extra games on BGA with decks like Fen, Kojo and even Basira to try out the new metagame with the power vacuum that has happened.

Cohlrabi: There was a patch? Teija seems the same. It’s great!

Blue: Always enjoying changes to the game in order to spice things up to avoid any excessive blandness (thanks to WFM for bringing in some cooking references btw), even when they are done to intentionally nerf my preferred faction because I won a boss battle at PAX on stream, I need that playmat!

TheKelonGuy: Despite not being a big fan of specific changes, I’ve been loving playing some different heroes and not thinking about Small Step, Giant Leap or Grand Endeavor anymore. Also, I’m no longer running into Sigismar every other game, which is a massive plus!

With the suspensions, unsuspensions, and rule changes we’ve had, the game is definitely in a bit of an “unexplored territory.” What metagame shifts are you anticipating to happen as a result after these changes?

Simon: I would expect to see a bit less Sigismar and Yzmir decks than we have in the past. All three Yzmir heroes frequently played Small Step, Giant Leap and the rules change there makes them less appealing options, but still viable in certain cases. Some players may opt to pick up the new best “aggressive” deck in Kojo now that Sigismar has clear counterplay points.

Cohlrabi: I think it is still too early to tell, and I don’t see the changes as a huge blow to the meta overall. Closer to just a little tinkering to make Altered a little more fun for everyone. Afanas and Sigi will still be in the Top 8 even with the recent changes.

Blue: Despite the major change to the win condition check, in Yzmir at least, I think Akesha was the hero hit hardest by it (pause to let Cohl rejoice) with a lot of Afanas players moving towards other deck structures prior to the changes. Overall though, I think we can definitely expect to see some players start exploring the less used heroes again, similar to how things changed from BTG to TBF.

TheKelonGuy: I expect that Afanas will still remain a top dog, but will be even more reliant on “leaves the expedition” spell loopers at 1 cost to punish removal as much as possible, as Helping Hand is no longer around to indefinitely reuse removed uniques – and thus the hero has to make the removal of their uniques as distasteful as possible. Afanas Resupply Combo could also become the best version of the deck, as could Nilam Afanas. Fen can likely show a positive winrate against Sigismar, and even play more copies of A Cappella Training compared to previously, as the deck can actually outvalue Sigismar’s new configurations. Playrates of Sigismar and Afanas should drop by a significant amount, so decks that previously had very poor winrates against one or both can now shine.

With the changes we’ve seen, a new metagame will start to unfold. What Hero do you expect to overperform at the Seasonal Invitational? Why?

Simon: I would anticipate, ironically, Afanas to overperform at the Seasonal Invitational. I think that even with the removal of Helping Hand for the time being, alongside the changes to SSGL, the skill ceiling of Afanas is too hard to ignore at this point in time. I don’t know if he will win the event, but I definitely expect there to be a handful of copies in contention throughout the tournament.

Cohlrabi: Overperform? Lindiwe… because why not. All hail the queen.

Blue: I think we likely still see a solid representation by the previous heavy hitters of Afanas and Sigi but would definitely expect to see a surge in Bravos heroes potentially, the go-to here is Kojo but I have my bet on Basira because I like an underdog but I’m also not delusional enough to think Westwill can create an Atsadi miracle (still crossing my fingers though).

TheKelonGuy: I expect Afanas to overperform as far as conversion to single elimination tops on a per-player basis is concerned, as I believe the players who will still be on the deck will be those with the best, lowest-mana cost uniques and will be able to prey on players fielding decks that benefit from a lower Afanas play rate.

With some Heroes and factions becoming stronger, other ones will start to fall some. What Hero do you expect to underperform at the Seasonal Invitational? Why?

Simon: As much as I love Kojo, I don’t think people have figured out the right way to play him in this new format. I think he will be highly picked, but his winrate and conversion rate to top cut will be disproportionate as a result.

Cohlrabi: Sigismar is most likely the hero to take a hit, but I am still calling for at least 1 Top 8 placement for both him and Afanas.

Blue: You can always go with some of the lower tier heroes that typically don’t perform well but that’s no fun, so I’ll go with Teija here. Think the hero is so consistently popular but still hasn’t hit the tippity top of the TBF tier list mountain, and has to have the worst conversion rate in actual wins. Plus I’m a Muna hater (suck it Cohl) other than the GOAT Arjun who deserves so much more.

TheKelonGuy: We saw some establishment of a personal favorite hero of mine into the metagame over the course of Trial By Frost in Lindiwe. Unfortunately I think that she may underperform, as I believe other heroes have gained more from the patch changes, and that Lindiwe was significantly hurt by the Small Step/Grand Endeavor changes as she can be a “zig-zag” hero. I’ve heard some arguments otherwise, but I’ve very much gotten the vibe that the new Afanas lists with 1-mana “leaves” uniques fare well into Lindiwe.

What faction do you anticipate winning the Seasonal Invitational in the end? Why?

Simon: I have high hopes for both Teija and Fen for this tournament, but if I had to pick between the two I think I will go with Teija – so Muna is my answer. Both decks had relatively nothing touched in them, and when piloted properly they can feel insurmountable. Teija doesn’t even need some of the commonly referenced “mass anchor” uniques to perform well. Players like OMB HyperK have seen major success with generically strong uniques, and I would expect plenty of Teija players this event.

Cohlrabi: Muna. Not just based on my love for the faction but after seeing recent gameplay from a couple of the top Teija players… I am going Teija.

Blue: I think we will still likely see a repeat from Season 1 with a Yzmir victory despite the recent suspensions. Although I like the Bravos heroes in their entirety, I don’t know if the representation will be high enough but we will see. Definitely not Axiom though, Axiom tears at the bottom of the S2 meta are needed to fuel Loki’s energy to deal with general chat.

TheKelonGuy: I think we’ll have a repeat of last Invitational’s finals with a Teija vs Afanas match, as I believe both heroes optimally leverage some of the most absurd uniques in the game and are as such top dogs – and if that’s the finals, I think Yzmir will take it given how well Off You Go + disruption based strategies can fare into Teija’s gameplan.

We’ve had a lot of strong players and teams participate in the past 15 weeks of AWOL but only one of them can win. Can you give us three players that you think have a strong chance of winning the tournament and why you feel that way?

Simon: We definitely have had a lot of very good players play in our events here this season, so this is hard to pick. I think that FraNicoRico from Team AQZ would be my first pick – he came in second place at the Season 1 Invitational, and has continually put up impressive results since then. ElWiwi from team AJT is another contender for me. He has plenty of hours of gameplay on Fen, and the tournament results to back it up. My dark horse candidate though is ItsRinku whose BGA account is not even 2 months old and they have already been putting up great results in online events.

Cohlrabi: Oh man… really putting us on the spot with this one ain’t yuh? – VisitorQ who just won ACE S3 with a great performance on Teija, Ezelopez another Teija player, and if not Teija then it has to be the Fen Master aka ElWiwi for the win!

Blue: We can definitely expect a strong turnout from the Altered Aces squad with Clae and his Kakoba 1797 leading by example as far as a team is concerned. As far as individuals, especially with our reigning champ TheKelonGuy giving commentary this time around and not able to defend the title, Tempetedelaneige would be hard to ignore with the amount of times I’ve had to put their name on thumbnails when competing in the finals of events, AA Popeye is another player that I feel like I always see do well and wouldn’t be surprised to see them win it all for the Altered Aces, and ANT Rocco is my surprise pick of a non AA player who I think has shown the ability to beat some of the top competing players and take it home for Italy (apologies to my favorite Italian Altered player Viktor for not picking him.)

TheKelonGuy: Other than my incredibly talented teammates in team AQZ who I expect to fill all of the top spots leaving no room for others… I especially think the following players are going to crush it: AA – Madry, a top-dog Afanas player with an incredibly high caliber of play, excellent stable decklists for the new patch, and near-optimal 1-cost uniques. Their snappy decision making with complicated lines exudes confidence despite the uncharted waters of the new meta. AA – Wesshh, a Lindiwe legend, who won their Tumult Championship with the hero. With their gameplay style, I expect them to be able to create difficult puzzles for their opponents to solve, and punish any missteps made due to the difficulties of playing against Lindiwe or due to tournament pressure. AJT – ELWiwi, who as of writing this has 4,342 games of Altered played on BGA, almost exclusively favoring Fen. ELWiwi dominates in events across virtually all series but especially the ACE series, and their Fen builds are unlike those of any other player – and for that reason, in addition to his expertise, I expect his opponents will find it challenging to keep up.

One final question: With the reveals so far for Whispers from the Maze, is there a faction or Hero you are more excited to play than in the past? If so, which one/s and why?

Simon: I am really looking forward to seeing how Atsadi ends up playing with the new Scout cards! Swift Jinn fits the deck naturally, and I think there are plenty more goodies we haven’t seen yet that will carve a niche in the deck!

Cohlrabi: Auraq. It is always Auraq. My heart is with Muna but the most fun hero to play will forever be Auraq and she is eating good next season.

Blue: Atsadi! Coming from the original best online Atsadi player in NA (#ad) with Scout, possible counter interaction, ramp support, etc. I think our boy can finally start cooking despite only having one arm.

TheKelonGuy: I have high hopes for Lyra in general at the moment – I’ve been playing Fen regularly so of course her, but I’m hoping that some additional options for Auraq could truly make that hero great in addition to being very fun.