Rich: We have a special guest coming on to the broadcast with us, we're both very excited some questions to answer from you and the community,and some special announcements. So Marko, if uh if we have him ready to come on and join us... Marco, a game tester on Clash Royale. What's up Marko, really excited to have you here on today's broadcast.

Marko: Hey guys, it's such a privilege and pleasure to be here. I've watched the entire thing today, really exciting matches and looking forward to answering some questions and being there for the finals.

Andrew: Yeah, love it, love that you're here, really appreciate you taking the time out to answer questions from the community. I'm gonna steal a question though, what does a game tester actually do in Clash Royale? You know, I think people hear the name game tester and they think they just play video games all day. I don't think that's all the job is, Marko, can you break it down for us at home?

M: That's a great question, one I get asked all the time actually. In essence, part of the job is just testing the game and therefore the title game tester is somewhat correct. But in reality, the one I actually prefer is QA, or quality assurance. And what I do is actually I'm part of every stage of development, I give my input on everything that we're working on. I kind of specialize on the gameplay aspect of our game, so I was the leading tester, or the guy behind any of the gameplay changes, the balance changes, any of the new cards, new evos coming in... when we reworked pathfinding, I was the one testing that. But I also do some of the more technical stuff, so for example, our entire matchmaking, most of that is tested by me. Or any of the changes to the background systems that you don't necessarily see, but you experience every day. For all of those, I give my input, I test my stuff... if something's not right or I don't feel it's looking correct, then I talk to our designers and our developers, and we get an agreement of what things should be.

A: So you're a pretty busy guy, it sounds like.

M: Yeah, there's a lot of things happening all the time, so yes definitely.

well Marco we have some questions fielded from the community here we want to pass along to you so I'm going to go ahead and read the first one for you

240:12 coming from uh one of our longtime players SK555 what's up SK how are you here's your question ready for Marco clash Royale has always had matchups as a factor in gameplay but recently matchup has become

240:25 an especially prevalent concept do you recognize this from a game development perspective what are your thoughts on it do you want to implement changes to address this in the future okay uh hard-hitting questions right at

240:36 the start uh no it's a great question actually um so let me start by saying answering part of that where it's something we recognize it definitely is uh it's something we're aware of um internally we we call this matchup polarity or like how matchup based a card actually is um and it's something

240:55 we've been recently starting to look at a little bit more um I think maybe for the last year or so our balances were more focused on getting the usage rates on in a correct place or the play rates or the win rates that was the main focus

241:07 uh but now that the game I feel like is in a state where a lot of cards are usable a lot of them are playable um we are starting to focus a little bit more on what it means for a card to be very matchup based um and it's something

241:20 we're working on but it's actually not the easiest to like detect and also to fix so I think there's two two ways to look at it or two questions to answer uh the first one is what exactly is the stat that would confirm this to us like

241:34 what exactly are we looking at and so that's the first question and the second one is obviously once we know a card is very matchup dependent or is only strong in certain matchups weak others um what is the thing that we need to fix about

241:46 it uh and it's not quite as obvious because all of the cards are actually in generally balanced but then have really good and really bad matchups uh and so like a straight nerf to that card might

241:59 push it out of the meta completely a straight buff to that might take it to a place where it's unhealthy um and so it usually needs to be um kind of like a mini rework or a buff plus a nerf that addresses uh some of the polarity but

242:10 yeah like I said these are these are conversations we're having but they're not maybe the easiest to answer always yeah I mean there's just there's so many layers that go into what is actually not working about a card and it's the decks the synergy the meta all that um one

242:24 thing that's a little bit kind of more detached from the game and more for us that spectate and honestly for the for the guys competing here this is asked from a guy named Air Surfer i don't know where I've heard that name before it

242:34 sounds familiar uh big shout out to you Air Surfer miss you buddy uh question is is when are we removing elixir spectating uh it sounds it's not even asking if we're going to or not he is just saying when is it going to happen

242:47 uh Marco what are your thoughts on this yeah I think that's the way correct way of like phrasing the question you should ask when uh it's a great question it's one that I've spent some time discussing with the team for for a while now we've

242:57 we've talked about a little bit and um as soon as we like figured out what's behind it or how it works we're like "Yeah this there's no way this should be in the in a competitive game such as Clash Royale." Um but it's an

243:08 interesting one because it I guess it only really touches on Path of Legends players people going competitive and then almost all the way to the CRL uh but regardless I'm happy to say that with the next update we will be removing elixir spectating uh so you'll have to

243:22 hold on for a couple more days but we're very close to the update and then once that's done we you won't have to worry about uh seeing that one person spectating and knowing you're you're at a disadvantage immediately so yeah that's that's crazy yeah that's that's a

243:35 big one Rich that might even be bigger than the announcement we have at the end of this interview that's absolutely Yeah that's maybe one of the biggest like that that to me feels like a level of change right now as the what going from

243:49 6 minutes to to 5 minutes and going to triple elixir right that's a big one um very curious i Wow it'll be interesting to see um well let's get on to our our next question from Fluffy Potato 999_CR

244:02 i mean great name there sweet name uh question is how do balance changes get determined is it purely based on quantitative measures such as use rate and win rate or are other factors considered too such as whether a card is

244:14 frustrating to face impacts the pace of game etc yeah uh this one I'm I'm sure a lot of people are very invested in um most of the time I talk to people about Clash Royale they're like "Oh you should nerf this or buff this or how did you decide?" Um there's two ways of looking at this um

244:33 the first one is as as mentioned like the quantitative data um it's very key to understand if a card is like the data is very key to understanding if a card is in need of a change um so oftent times we'll see oh um Goblin Stein has 35% use rate yes that's that's

244:50 definitely too high we need to change that uh or sometimes we'll look at a card it's at zero it's been at zero for the last 6 months it it deserves a buff right so those things are are quite obvious um but the other part of this is

245:02 I think every time we look at data we kind of need to contextualize it um the way our our game works is um certain cards should have a higher use rate and certain cards should have a lower use rate that's that's how I see it um some very like staple cards you know like um

245:21 arrows log uh knight you know these are cards that are not necessarily problematic if they have like a 10 to 15 maybe sometimes even 20% use rate uh but then certain very niche cards that players feel very frustrated by or like

245:35 really hate um those should probably be looked at if they get to a um a very like very high use rate um and so the when seeing those cards then um I think we mostly just play the game a lot and listen to what the community is saying um we can't always do the exact thing

245:52 that the community is asking us to do um but we do recognize that certain cards are like frustrating to play against and so we we are addressing those uh usually with more mechanical changes than just trade balance changes um I think a good

246:06 example would that recently be when we the Hunter Evo in the June balance changes we changed it so he's no longer like perma stunning a unit um personally I don't think Hunter actually needed a buff for a nerf i think it was in a reasonably okay state played in obviously the RG deck a lot but um yeah

246:23 but we gave that change we went for with that change anyway because we thought it just made it more fun to play against well speaking of of changes in in cards being more fun to play against and play and cards that we hate uh this is a

246:38 great question from Vidowi he says "Hey Marco we got a Goblin Hut rework a while ago can we expect changes to other spawners like the Barb Hut?" I'd like to say no for you Marco but obviously that's not my job uh and I do really

246:52 love what you guys did with Goblin Hut so uh what's your thought here moving forward with some of those other frustrating buildings yeah it's a it's a perfect way to continue on the same trend actually um so I will say I am definitely in the hate spawners camp uh

247:06 there's a couple people on the team that are are are my So I'm going to have to unfortunately disappoint you a little bit Andrew um but yes I think generally speaking right now um most of the

247:17 spawners we have in our game are not in a good state uh they're not fun to play against i would say they're not fun to play but some people probably have a different opinion uh so we are looking at them um quite quite seriously uh

247:30 we've already changed the goblin hut and I think from how much I've seen it today it's definitely it seems like it's been a success um and then the other ones are coming up let me say that uh we are

247:42 looking I think Donald our game designer mentioned in our previous video that we are definitely looking at Barbut we're looking at furnace we're looking at basically all the spawners but the exact like lineup or how these are going to

247:54 come out uh I I can't spoil at this point yet but they are definitely coming all right well I Yeah anything anything about Barb Hut Andrew and I can both tell you that the uh the the powerful

248:05 Barb Hut meta was one of the worst that ever existed so we've been happy to see it uh hamstrung for a while we'll see what you excited to see what you guys do with the Barb hut um speaking of what you guys are doing next question from uh

248:17 Yaya is the June update only about Clash Mini or is it going to be big and I don't know what they what they mean by that specifically but is there more to the June update besides Clash Mini I think is another way of saying it yeah

248:30 so the very quick answer no it's not just going to be about Clash Mini um Clash Mini or maybe I should say like rather what Clash Mini has been turned into uh is a very big part of the update and it's something very new you could

248:44 say revolutionary to Clash Royale uh but it's not the only thing uh so we're doing a lot of stuff we're changing some system adding some systems adding some like new systems uh changing the look and feel of things uh obviously new

248:56 cards new evos all of that um but at this point I will say that there may or may not be a TV royale coming soon and I might be in that as well so I'll uh I'll save all of that uh more detailed talk

249:09 and like uh save it for the TV royale so not going to spoil more here all right wow that's a that's a a lot coming down our way i mean you and I are also learning this on broadcast with everyone else and I'm even seeing messages in our

249:22 in our caster chat so I'm excited to see what everyone else is thinking we only got two more questions and obviously the big one about World Finals is coming this one is from Nitro Gaming G uh how important is balance and competitiveness

249:34 versus casual fun to you and which direction do you think the game is taking in that aspect right now you know h how much of your time do you spend worrying about casual players and how much do you spend basically dealing with

249:45 pros and and kind of the demands that they have being the people that play the game the most yes um great question um this is a very fine line to walk for us um so much of Clash Royale is basically

249:58 like having fun while also being competitive right so immediately we have this this divide in our game where it's like all we have these players who are super competitive super devoted to the game and really know how to push it to

250:11 its like limits and then a a massive massive portion of the of the people playing the game who don't care about all of the competitive things but still want to like compete you know so um

250:23 these are two separate groups of people that we need to think about in in in separate like ways um so many times like a small change um will for a car that's like popular right now will push it in the top 1000 let's say push it from like

250:38 a 15% use rate to a 2% use rate but it won't change anything in like trophy road or or or any of the other game modes so it's it's a fine and a hard line to walk um but with that being said

250:52 we do recognize that there are certain cards that are frustrating for the community or are um making the game less fun so to speak uh and so we are looking at addressing those i think u the two big ones that always come to my mind are

251:05 u Mega Knight and Witch at least pre-EO Mega Knight I should say because Evo Mega Knight is now like obviously popular um but those are both cards that before they got their evos they were

251:17 nowhere to be seen on Battle of Legends nowhere to be seen in ultimate champion uh and they were very very very popular uh you know in the mid ladder um and they were honestly frustrating i I know

251:30 climbing through all of the ladders they are frustrating to play against uh so we are looking at them um I will say maybe not everything we've done has been with this in mind but it's becoming more and more something that we are uh focusing on and so you should keep your eyes out

251:43 on the upcoming balance changes and there will be things in there um that address this okay well that's the Yeah Mega Knight it's such an easy rage bait out there for for the Mega Knight for a lot of people uh our last question for you Marco comes from uh one of our

252:00 long-standing very uh critical community members in Alpie who is part of who's made Royal API work so well for so long thanks for all you do Alpie and for the Royal API team um and this is the big one where will CRL World Finals be in

252:16 2025 oh yes yeah this is the one I know everyone's been excited about uh to be fair as soon as I heard it and I got the news I was very excited to share it but I couldn't up until now but now ladies

252:29 and gentlemen it is my distinct pleasure to announce the Clash Royale League finals is coming to Dream Hack Atlanta so from the 31st of October to the 2nd of November all the best players in the world will be in the United States to

252:43 compete for the title of the best Clash Royale player so this is like your opportunity to see your favorite players favorite content creators uh coaches or even be part of the Clash Royale team uh and really experience the very very peak

252:57 of what Clash Royale competitive has to offer wow i'm I'm so excited to be stateside again rich you and I were there commentating at the Shrine in 2019 that live crowd in the States i mean not to

253:10 say it's not great in Finland the last few years as well but there was just something a little bit different about that venue so I mean I'm going to miss Finland but this is this is pretty dang exciting yeah I mean it's an easy flight for me from Texas too so uh a little

253:23 little less than changing all the way across the world uh Dream Hack Atlanta and of course Dream Hack one of the biggest collections of of gamers all throughout the throughout the world coming together for Clash Royale and

253:36 beyond um Marco this is like kind of this is kind of a big deal taking Clash Royale World Finals from being its own separate thing and bringing it into the the larger gaming community that's pretty exciting yeah I think it's super

253:49 exciting um I think it deserves a place among you know the the esport greats out there and so I'm excited to join up with other games in in Dream Hack Atlanta and also I was there last year to witness

254:00 the finals in Finland and I know how hype it can get in Finland so saying the crowd new might be even better then I'm even more excited now well you know another thing that we heard Marco as we are ready to move into our grand finals

254:13 don't worry everybody we're still playing more Clash Royale is we found out that you actually have some uh playby-play commentary experience so we thought we could maybe invite you into the cast for the grand finals are you

254:25 okay with that absolutely i I love to step back into the commentator shoes and join you guys in the booth you guys have done a fantastic job so far so uh it'll be hard to step in but I'll I'll do my best