Interviews

A Fond Farewell: An Interview with Kaelaris

Posted on by EsportsJohn

Kaelaris

Interview by: EsportsJohn

Table of Contents

I had the unique chance to interview Khaldor last week as he finally sorted out his visa issues and prepared for the move overseas to cast the Heroes Global Championship in Southern California. However, just as one door opens, another one closes; Khaldor is coming to finally claim his spot, but Kaelaris is unfortunately on his way out. The lovable Brit brought us plenty of laughs and epic Core rushes for the first five weeks of HGC, but for now he must part ways with HotS fans until at least the Mid-Season Brawl.

Fascinated by this revolving door, I felt compelled to get both sides of the story and reached out to Kaelaris for an interview. There’s lot of emotions involved in such a fond farewell, and it become quite evident during the interview that, despite his upbeat and optimistic attitude, this was goodbye (for now). Luckily, we also had a chance to chat a bit about the art of commentating and leading the analyst desk as well as his deep love for Ragnaros. All in all, Kaelaris a pretty stand-up guy, and he will be missed.

On Casting HGC

Let’s start off with how you ended up casting HGC. Obviously, you were filling in for Khaldor while he got his visa sorted out. Is there more to that story, or did Blizzard just call you up one day and ask, “Hey, can you come to the US for a few weeks and cast HGC?”

Well, initially it was supposed to be just one or two weeks. Overall, it turned out that Khaldor’s visa would take a little more work and time to figure out, so that turned into five weeks. But yeah, to begin with, they just reached out to my boss [at ESL] and the usual discussions happened from there for an external event. I’ve spent a lot of time in hotels over the now seven years doing this job, but never a full five week stint. It stirred up a lot of negative and positive emotions—from being homesick one day, to never wanting to leave the next haha.

Khaldor and I talked a little bit about how the HGC production has far exceeded a lot of expectations. After being there on a day-to-day basis, what were your impressions?

So being ESL, I’ve been involved in a lot of productions now, be it in front or behind the camera. In usual British fashion, I’m always sceptical going in and wait for results to prove themselves. Needless to say, I too was pleasantly surprised at how the first couple of weeks went. Leagues like this with usually have a one or two major technical hiccups to start, and many small ones. HGC, though, only really had a few small ones, skipping the larger ones. I think we did well to produce something that technically sound, that fast. There’s always room for improvement though. I have a million and one ideas about segments, additions, etc. But I’m not there full time so…maybe one day!

Kaelaris at Gamescom 2016

The skeptical Brit in his natural habitat. Photo Credit: ESL

The crew there are a pleasure to work with. Everyone smiling and you get a real sense of family there. I felt so comfortable with them on Sundays after EU broadcast had finished, I would commandeer the conference room with our video editor Nick, and switch the screen to WWE PPVs haha. When the crew were on break, they’d come and enjoy the wrestling even though they had no clue really and were probably mocking it a little, but I don’t mind that! I’ll miss them dearly.

I believe this is your first time casting with Trikslyr? How was that? A lot of people on Reddit and social media commented about the playful synergy between you two compared to the more “serious” attitude of other casters like Khaldor or Dreadnaught.

So in terms of a long time partnership, this is the first time we’ve worked together so closely. However, we actually casted SC2 together five years ago! It was one or two times online for some smaller cups that were set up. So of all the people on that crew, he’s the person I’ve known the longest!

I mentioned this in a tweet at the end of last year, but I’ll say it again for sake of context: I have a lot of faith in Trik’s abilities to blossom. During the interview process, I had brought up his name as one of the better people to work with purely based on his outlook and personality. I’ve worked with a lot of people, and as such, I know what makes a good co-commentator. Attitude and personality make up a lot of that, so knowing Trikslyr has a brilliant perspective and upbeat mentality really confirmed to me that our duo would have great potential before we even stood at the desk for the first time. He may not have the technical brilliance of an international level commentator just yet, but the foundation is certainly there. He’s a fast learner with a splendid ambition to improve.

I’m glad the spectators and fans enjoyed our duo as much as we did. We both loved working together and were very sad when I had to leave. It’s rare you find that kind of chemistry with someone in this business where it all just clicks. Hopefully we get more chance to in the near future.

You also mentioned in a tweet that you and Dreadnaught “complement each other perfectly”. Is that a casting duo we might see in the future?

Ha, Dread and I are very good friends. We share intimate secrets and PIN numbers!—(not a recommended form of security). Unusual really, since we’re both just pretty introverted people in real life, but we meshed well together throughout 2016. I think we understand each other very well, and as such, have a different kind of special chemistry to a conventional casting duo. When looking at it from a critical perspective, I think that our strengths and weaknesses balance out each other perfectly. My hosting and play-by-play are very strong from doing this for years, and his analysis is very strong from being an ex-player/shotcaller. That’s not to say we’re not confident in each others proficiency categories, but we compliment each other greatly.

I don’t know when or where we’ll see this duo in the future, but I think we both would like to.

On HGC Teams

Back to HGC, what’s been your favorite storyline throughout HGC EU so far?

There were definitely tiers that we anticipated going in to the first five weeks of HGC. While it was nice to see “The Big Three” establish themselves convincingly, and while I love my Dignitas boys, one of my most eagerly awaited matches was indeed expert vs Dignitas. Just the idea of “What if?” was really delightful. Admittedly, I’d built it up quite a bit the few weeks before (narrative is our job! imagine that!).

Kaelaris and Khaldor at Gamescom

Photo Credit: ESL

So expert was definitely one of them. I’m certain in a few months’ time they’ll start rivaling those top three spots in an even stronger fashion as long as they continue to have good friendship and synergy within the team. I also really enjoyed watching the progression of Playing Ducks and Tricked eSport. They’re another two teams that can only grow stronger with time. Goes to show how deep the quality is in Europe.

Happy to see Sportbilly playing so well on Falstad and Medivh as well. It can be a treat to watch, considering their position in the league.

Do you think that EU is flat out better than NA at the moment, or do you think that the competition at the Western Clash will be close? What about the matchup between EU and KR?

Half the time, I give a troll answer to this, but I’ll be serious for a moment.

NA was in a really odd spot for a long time. I think ever since the era of Tempo Storm and Cloud9 [in 2015], the skill level of the region fell relative to the rest of the world. I can’t pinpoint what it is exactly, but watching HGC NA, my fears for them are drafting patterns and also synergy within the game. None of the teams really show the same level of coordination that we see out of “The Big Three” in Europe right now. I’m not saying they’re bad, I just don’t know if they can match up, especially against Misfits and Fnatic, whose power levels are very strong right now. NA can upset at the Western Clash, though. Team 8 showed promise like I would have never imagined, and in a month or two, they could easily be number one in America if they continue down that path. Overall though, I’m expecting an EU first, second and third victory unless some upsets happen, which they could. NA isn’t that far behind, just need to tighten the play.

As for EU vs KR? I think right now there is still a clear number one in the world, and that’s L5 (previously Ballistix). I hear a lot of opinion about MVP Black being number two in the world, but honestly, I think that title is currently up for debate. Fnatic proved that they weren’t invincible at BlizzCon (admittedly, I don’t think Black were playing to true potency in that series). We’ll see how the new MVP Black roster stacks up against EU come the Mid-Season Brawl. If Fnatic could cause that upset in 2016, who is to say Misfits couldn’t also play at that scale?

On the Role of Host and Commentator

I’ve always loved your role on the analyst desk throughout 2016, especially as desk host. How does that differ from casting for you? Do you prefer one role over the other?

The preparation is very different when it comes to either being a commentator or desk host. I’ll give you an example. So as commentator, a lot of my prep will be figuring out what teams want to play, builds they like, maps they prefer, who is playing what heroes, how they will synergise, etc. Desk host prep is figuring out what questions the panel have a good idea about, how I can weave the narrative of the tournament/teams better, what players and plays we can truly highlight, transitions in speech from break / to graphics / to games. As desk host, I take a lot more time to talk to production pre-show, take a look at all the video segments and graphics so that my lead into them is seamless. Nothing rustles me more than a host saying something like “Let’s take a look at this video”, or “Let’s hear from them now”. There are far more powerful ways to lead into content that can reinforce the message or continue a strong sense of immersion.

Analyst desk at BlizzCon 2016

Kaelaris hosting the analyst desk at BlizzCon 2016

People probably don’t notice it, because I’m paying attention to my preview monitor when I do it, but as a desk host, I’m making a lot of intentional eye contact and hand gestures to the guys at the analysis desk, leading where the conversation is going and checking if others have something to continue a point on.

All too often do I see desk hosts going too deep in to the analysis themselves in an attempt to…I guess “look smart”? I don’t know what the reason is, but that’s not why you’re there! You’re the enabler! I don’t think anyone questions my knowledge of the game when I’m in that role, so I really try to act as the mediator to draw information from the other members of the desk. Gives it a strong structure, and I think people subconsciously appreciate that.

I used to like casting more, but at the moment it’s 50/50. A lot of my casting during StarCraft actually trained me to desk host, but I didn’t realise it until it came time to actually host a desk. Reason being, is most of the time I would just be put alongside either an expert of ex-player, so enabling them in a duo was the same as enabling a desk.

That’s a lot of insight. I think the vast majority of people who watch don’t realize that anything special is going on at the analyst desk at all. It’s so easy from an outsider’s perspective to just think, “Hey, they’re just talking about the game”.

Yeah, it’s actually a fine science that I’ve worked hard at. I won’t say I’m anywhere near perfect, but I suppose my methods stand out more than others because I just have more experience under my belt. That and I live my job—I don’t stop thinking about it 24/7 lol.

You’re also one of the few Heroes of the Storm casters who still covers other esports at the highest levels (StarCraft 2). How do you manage to balance watching, playing, and commentating both games effectively?

Well, I kind of summed that up: I live the job. It’s a little easier for me to do multiple games because technically strong play-by-play is easier to accomplish in more titles than just one at the same time. Analysing multiple games full-time would be the hard part, but I can’t say I’m doing that in SC2. Therefore, most of my time is dedicated to Heroes and being good at understanding how and why the teams are playing as they do…as well as using my play-by-play because I’ve done it for 1,000,000 years now.

How do I balance the watching, playing and commentating? Easy, really; I have no personal life currently haha. Almost all my time is dedicated to this craft. So, be it at home or on the road, I’m either playing, watching or commentating Heroes or SC2. Then even during travel, I’m reading and studying things that can improve my job. For example, I’m reading lots of books right now to up my lore game even more—people seem to enjoy my little tid-bits in casts about that stuff!

eSports has definitely hurt my personal life in the past a lot, it makes it very hard to have proper relationships because most people just don’t understand the job and my passion for it, I guess. I’m probably one of the most secretly introverted people ever because people see me on cam and are like, “dude’s chill!” But I don’t like going outside hahaha.

On Future Plans

Well, it’s unfortunate to watch you leave; we’re definitely sad to see you go. It’s been a wonderful five weeks watching you cast HGC. What are your plans from here?

Thank you, truly. For me, the five weeks doing HGC were a fantastic time. I feel like I’m meant to be there, despite negotiations in 2016 not going the way I wanted them to. Business is business. That being said, I want to be back to doing Heroes ASAP, specifically the HGC. I feel like I can contribute and channel all my energy into that project to make it the great thing we want it to be. I hope I get that opportunity one day, because my mind overflows with ideas for Heroes, as I love this game.

Khaldor and Kaelaris at DreamHack Valencia 2016

The European casting titans Khaldor and Kaelaris at DreamHack Valencia

2017 so far is partially planned out. I know more SC2 stuff for me is on the horizon currently, with who knows what other projects/games that may come along. I’m speaking to a few other devs/publishers about their endeavours into esports with new titles currently. I’m very thankful for my own drive in this space, and especially thankful for how easy it felt to just do any game I wanted to. I think being a gamer who played everything since I was very young left me with a good mindset for adaptation. Thanks Dehaka!

Any parting words?

Thanks for doing the interview with me! Always happy to give my thoughts. Thanks to Blizzard for bringing me out to do HGC, I adored my time there. Shoutout to my mum because I know she reads and watches everything I do haha—love you, mum. And shoutouts to Blizzard again for not giving Ragnaros the Heroic Firelands legs, because that was the worst thing that happened to Ragnaros ever, and I would die a little bit inside if I had to play my bae with legs :D.

TL;DR wanna do all things Heroes, give me Heroes, Ragnaros is Bae. All hail the Firelord. Get off Sulfuras, you dirty insect.

EsportsJohn wishes tri-cast was a thing in the West like it is in the East. You can follow him on Twitter or help support him on Patreon.

Ready for Adventure: An Interview with Khaldor

Posted on by EsportsJohn

Khaldor

Interview by: EsportsJohn

Table of Contents

When the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) league was announced in early January, Khaldor was slotted as a permanent member of the casting crew for HGC Europe. Due to some difficulties securing a proper work visa, he has been unable to cast for the first half of Phase 1, but luckily Kaelaris has been there with great commentary—and plenty of Core rushes gone haywire—in his stead.

Khaldor has a deep history with Blizzard games ranging a period of over 10 years, from his earlier days of shoutcasting Warcraft 3, to his big casting debut in GSL Code A for StarCraft II, and now over two years of continuous casting, commentary, and analysis for Heroes of the Storm. As such, there’s no doubt that he’s the perfect fit for the job, and many have been eagerly waiting for his return to casting.

I was incredibly fortunate to catch his attention in early January for an exclusive interview. After he finally acquired the work visa, we chatted about the next chapter of his life and the new adventure that awaits him across the ocean at Blizzard’s production studio. We also talked about his aspirations for HGC, plans for the next phase of his life, and the future of Heroes of the Storm. I’m proud to present his thoughts here, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the game as we head into undoubtedly the most successful year of HotS so far.

On Moving to the States

You’re about to embark on a journey halfway across the world again. How is this different from your move to Korea to cast GSL Code A in 2011?
Well, I guess the first difference is that this time I already know that I’ll be staying for quite some time. When I traveled to Korea to commentate the GSL, I was only supposed to stay there for three months and ended up being there for three years in the end.

With the move to the US, I’m from the start aware that I’ll stay long enough to justify things like renting out an apartment from the get-go, buying a car, and so on. That’s a big difference when it comes to the preparations. And even though the recent politics sure are a roller coaster for the US, it will be much easier for me to adapt to another Western culture compared to the Korean lifestyle I had to adapt to when I moved to Seoul.

How long have you been planning this move? Was it fairly sudden or have you been in talks with Blizzard for a while?
I expected for quite some time that there might be an opportunity in the US. In the second half of 2016, I was already pretty sure that I would not stay in Germany for too much longer. I was thinking about moving to another European country (Spain in particular), and one of the reasons those plans never became concrete was that there was a pretty big chance that Blizzard might want to establish a league system for Heroes of the Storm which would, by default, require the casters to be bound to a specific location. The rumors were around for some time, so it didn’t come as a shock when Blizzard revealed details that confirmed it.

Khaldor Casting

Photo Credit: ESL

For the casting team, those plans became more detailed during BlizzCon when most of us also had interviews set up for the open positions. The decision on who’d be casting the league was made after BlizzCon, [which is when I] also started the planning phase for the move and, of course, the necessary working visa.

It seems like all of the visa issues are finally sorted out now, though.
Yes, the visa process took quite a long time since we had to apply for a proper working visa that would allow me to move and work in the US for an extended period of time. Thankfully though, that’s all sorted out now, and I got my passport including a valid working visa a few days ago.

In my last interview with you, we touched on the difficulty of getting “in” with Blizzard during the early period of HotS…now you’re definitely “in”. How does it feel?
There were definitely moments in 2015 when it wasn’t really easy for me, but I have to say that I was very happy to be so heavily included in 2016. I casted at every major European and Global event throughout the year and the highlight was of course to be part of the casting team at BlizzCon—which was for sure one of my highlights in Heroes of the Storm thus far.

Analysis desk at BlizzCon 2016

The analysis desk at BlizzCon 2016 with SolidJake, Khaldor, Kaelaris, and Dreadnaught.

Coming back to your question though, I have to admit that this is now a completely different level of involvement. It feels absolutely amazing to be chosen as one of the four official casters to commentate Blizzard’s HGC. Even though I haven’t had the chance yet to be part of the live production, the team included me wherever possible, and I can’t wait to be on-site to do my part.

Another big plus for me is the proximity to all the other departments working on Heroes of the Storm. I was always very interested in the game outside of esports, and simply having the option to talk more directly to people that I so far could only contact via email is amazing to me. I’m super happy about the opportunity, and I can’t wait for it all to start.

On the Heroes Global Championship

We talked a bit before about your skepticism of online leagues. What were some of your concerns for HGC? Do you think Blizzard has done a good job addressing those concerns?
I think Blizzard has done an absolute fantastic job with the system they created for HGC. One of my biggest problems with league systems was always that most people have the tendency to try and imitate the established systems in Korea without realizing the big advantages that Korea has.

Korean esports was always very much focused in Seoul. Therefore, it was an easy decision for the Korean Leagues to establish permanent studios in which those games could be played and commentated. Since all of the players live in and around Seoul, there are no real infrastructure challenges to realize such a project.

In the Western scenes of Europe and North America, that poses a much bigger challenge. Especially since, for a lot of players in Western cultures, it’d be huge commitment that they might not be ready for yet. A move might include giving up another job and diving headfirst into a potentially risky career in esports or giving up a place at a university or even jeopardizing a relationship. To justify such a move, the financial benefits would have had to be enormous. I was always very doubtful if such a step would be justifiable at this point.

An online league, on the other hand, also faces a lot of challenges. One of them is the lack of having the players and commentators on site to provide the audience with live shots. The lack of opportunities for the Heroes of the Storm audience to meet the players and enjoy live events can also be problematic. I’m super happy that Blizzard identified all those issues and came up with a system that allows for a fantastic experience for the audience using several offline events throughout the year, a local studio to increase the production quality and including pre-recorded player shots, live interviews, and much more.

Kaelaris and Khaldor at Gamescom

Photo Credit: ESL

I was, by the way, extremely happy about their announcement to pay the players a fixed salary for attending the league. That alone opens up so many opportunities for the players, encourages them and Open Division teams, and allows for a penalty system to ensure that rules are being followed. So even though I was quite skeptical at first, I have to say that they did a great job, and the end result is amazing. The show has been doing very well, and I’m sure it’ll improve even more over the course of the next few months.

We’re only a few weeks in, but do you think the level of play has risen across the board in HGC due to more consistent competition and compensation to allow the players to focus on playing full-time?
Yes, for sure. The level of play has risen already, and I’m sure that trend will continue. It’s also reflected in the amount of time that players currently invest into their practice. I’m watching scrims on a daily basis at the moment to see how players adapt to the patches and changes in the meta. The new system also allowed the teams to prepare in detail for a specific opponent, analyzing drafts and preparing builds.

One still has to remember though that, as you pointed out, we are only observing the first effects of this new system. I’m sure that given time, the effects will be much more distinct, especially since other Open Division teams are eager to push into the league as well, which in turn raises the level of competition and play on the amateur level.

There’s also going to be a lot more international tournaments this year. Do you think that the regional metagames will continue to stay distinct, or will things start to look similar across the globe as regions learn from each other?

I think we will always have regional differences to some extent. There are quite a few differences in the way that Asian and Western teams approach esports, which has not only been very visible in Heroes of the Storm, but in other games as well. I believe there will always be some similarities and points of agreement between regions on which heroes are given priority, but I also believe that especially Western teams are very good at developing cheese strategies that can blindside their opponents and give them an edge.

One of the biggest advantages of Korean and Chinese teams, on the other hand, was always their mechanical superiority and their fantastic team coordination. But I personally believe that the gaps that we’ve witnessed in the past are becoming smaller and smaller in these areas. Fnatic was able to prove that during BlizzCon by taking down MVP Black, and I believe there is an actual chance that a Western team could have a realistic shot at winning BlizzCon at the end of 2017.

Differences in meta are also one of the most fascinating things to observe during international tournaments. Teams have to be able to adjust incredibly fast to challenges that are imposed by facing off against a different playstyle, and it’s super entertaining to watch. It’s one of the reasons why I’m so excited for all these events that we will have this year!

I know you’re not supposed to have favorites, but if you had to pick one team in EU to root for, who would it be?

Haha, not a fair question! I think my two favorites at the moment would be Misfits and Fnatic. As a fellow German, I’m obviously always rooting for the “home” team, and I think Misfits has proven in 2016 as well as this year that they are an absolutely amazing team with incredibly strong players.

But I’m also very close with Fnatic and still admire the way they have been able to grow during the last year. Their journey from being a talented but over-aggressive team at the start of 2016 to the disciplined powerhouse that we all witnessed during BlizzCon was amazing. But at the same time, they are now of course in a very different position. They have to prove that they did not get complacent and BlizzCon was not a fluke. With the level of competition continuously rising, they have to make sure that they don’t start to slack off or other teams will be able to leave them behind.

Grubby and Khaldor at Gamescom 2016

Grubby and Khaldor at Gamescom 2016. Photo Credit: ESL

Then entire scene in Europe is absolutely fascinating at the moment, to be honest, especially with the big three (Misfits, Fnatic and Dignitas) being under constant attack by challengers like Team expert or Dignitas themselves once again having to find their rhythm with a new player (Zaelia) joining the team at the start of the season. The dynamic within the scene is extremely fun to watch right now.

On Personal Projects and Future Plans

Do you plan on casting minor tournaments in 2017 or are you going to focus on HGC full-time?
I will still continue to commentate smaller tournaments. HGC will obviously be my main priority, but I’m very serious about continuing to commentate on my private channels as well. I still have several META Madness ideas that I want to realize once my transition to NA is complete, and I still want to cover online tournaments and also the occasional amateur league match.

One of my goals was always to help out the grassroots scene, and that has not changed. It’s important to me that smaller leagues and tournaments get more attention, and especially Heroes Lounge and Chair League have made fantastic progress in the last few months. There’s a lot of up and coming players out there that have potential, and those leagues and tournaments are a first step for them to receive some exposure and transition into more competitive teams.

On the topic of your personal projects, consistent quality is something that many people often lack in esports (in general). How do you manage to maintain excellent quality for all of your casting, VoDs, etc.? Do you ever find yourself struggling with the notion of cutting corners?
I feel it’s always a bit of a balancing act. When it comes to my livestreams and the VoDs, I do everything by myself. So during a broadcast, I talk to admins and players about upcoming games, make sure I get invited to the lobbies and look for upcoming games that might be of interest for the audience. Production, observing and of course the commentating itself are also all done by me including the post production, which entails the video editing of the games that I upload to YouTube.

Khaldor holiday stream

Ho ho ho! A special holiday stream from Khaldor!

Since it’s quite a lot to handle as a single person, I usually try to find a good middle ground when it comes to “cutting corners”. There are a few things that I would love to provide and technically could but where I simply lack the manpower to make it happen. A good example would be instant replays. I’d love to use those, but it’s not possible without a second person to help me with the production, and I’m simply not in a position where I can pay someone to do that. So there’s always a bit of a trade off when it comes to production quality. I try to provide the best show that I can to my audience, but there’s certain aspects where I will always have to make compromises.

Wrap-up

I just have one more big question. You stated in an interview in 2015 that you expected Heroes of the Storm to beat Dota 2 and maybe even League of Legends in terms of viewers and players. Do you think the game still has that potential?

I just recently thought back to that interview. I think I also recorded a video back then talking about my hopes for the game. I honestly believe that Heroes of the Storm is the most entertaining MOBA game to watch. If I didn’t, I would not be casting it anymore. The game eliminates all the criticism that I have toward other MOBA titles, and things like the map diversity and short game length give it a big advantage in my opinion.

At the same time, things have obviously not developed that way in the past. I personally think Blizzard made a lot of mistakes in the past that made it difficult for the game and the esports scene to develop as quickly as I was hoping for at the time of the interview. I believe the game could be much bigger than it already is, but I still think that it will grow a lot more in the future. Blizzard has been working hard to improve the esports infrastructure for Heroes of the Storm and the game itself, and setting up HGC was a major accomplishment. A lot of the initial momentum has been lost though, and we will have to work hard to regain that momentum and continuously improve the game and the esports aspect of it. That’s also something where I see an obligation for myself. Quite often, I come across as overly critical. One of the reasons for that is that I believe in this game and its potential. I’m very passionate about Heroes of the Storm and I want to improve the status quo and raise awareness to aspects that I think should be improved upon, and I will do everything that I can to personally help Heroes of the Storm keep growing.

I don’t think the goal has to be to beat League of Legends or Dota 2, but it certainly should be our goal to do everything we can to show other players how much fun and how amazing Heroes of the Storm can be, especially on a competitive level.

That said, when do we get to see you cast again?

The next time I’ll be casting will be in Katowice for the Western Clash! Shortly after the event, I’ll be moving to the US and will start to commentate the HGC Europe matches together with Trikslyr once the second half of Phase 1 starts in April.

EsportsJohn still believes Brood War will make a huge comeback and beat all esports forever. You can follow him on Twitter or help support him on Patreon.

Post-Match Interview with Team expert’s BadBenny

Posted on by EsportsJohn

Swedish Heroes of the Storm BadBenny on Team expert
Watch out EU, there’s a new kid on the block. The Heroes of the Storm scene in Europe last year was dominated by three giants: Dignitas, Misfits, and Fnatic. Several other teams rose and fell as the premier league dragged on in 2016, but these three behemoths remained a level above their competition. Not anymore.

The advent of HGC in 2017 has breathed new life into the competitive scene, and new challengers are emerging with the potential to cause an upset; among them is Team expert. The roster is led by the “mad scientist” adrd, who often drafts unusual compositions. Backed by solid execution and team synergy that dates back to July of last year, expert is quickly climbing the leaderboards and becoming a real threat to the status quo.

After their victory over French team beGenius this weekend, I sat down with tank player and shotcaller for the team, BadBenny, to find out more about them as well as his own personal goals as a player.

Team expert has been on fire for the last two weeks and is currently sitting at the top of the standings. When you first qualified for HGC, did you foresee such a strong start?
On fire indeed! For me personally, I have considered us top 4 (at least) ever since Nic joined the squad, so I knew we would be able to do well in HGC. Although, our 3-0 track record is partially because we have not played any of the “big three” yet, but hopefully we can keep our streak going!

A lot of your individual success so far has been on E.T.C. Do you think that’s because he’s a flashy playmaker or is he just really strong right now?
I merely play what is drafted. Personally, I am not doing better on E.T.C. than any other tank hero I am playing, but I can see why it looks like that, because his kit is more “flashy”. He is really strong in the current meta; that is why you often see him picked early.

Are there any particular heroes that you’d like to play more often?
I really liked playing Tyrael, who we drafted a lot before, around Gamescom. At the moment, I just want to play different heroes to be honest. Every hero gets a bit boring if you play them in most of your games.

We have to bring up the absolutely mad play from Week 1 where you went for a Mosh Pit under the death zone on Towers of Doom. Did you make that call? What on earth possessed you to do something so crazy?
Haha, that was a funny moment indeed. So it definitely was not planned to dive their Core (obviously), but when Thrall got caught, and we used the Ley Line to save him, I saw the opportunity to secure the game and took it. We are pretty used to doing crazy plays; we prefer pushing the limit and learning from it when we practice!

Next week is obviously a big week for you guys since you have matches against Fnatic and Dignitas. Are you nervous about those games?
Yea, we are all very nervous, but also excited. This is our chance to prove ourselves as a true top 3 team, which I already think we are. The series versus Dignitas is the important one though, since it will most likely decide who will go to the Western Clash.

Well, one thing’s for sure: they’ll probably give you Ragnaros for free every game.
Then I can say now that it will be an easy 3-0 in our favour ;). A lot will be decided by their drafting, in my opinion. They are all very skilled players, and if they can fight on their terms, it might be hard to beat them—but luckily we have adrd, who is extremely good at [preventing them from fighting on their own terms], giving us the favorable draft.
One thing for readers to note, though: the top teams are very consistent in saying that “they might pull out a cheese” or whatever. It is simply their way of keeping their pride while saying “we got outplayed and out-drafted”, which I find very funny. But I really don’t mind what they call it, as long as we win.

You just started streaming for the first time. How has that been going?
So, the streaming thing is purely for my own enjoyment at the moment. I really enjoy teaching people, and streaming lets me do that while practicing—while also making the game itself more enjoyable for me to play, because instead of tilting, I just explain what we did wrong, and it is really working out for me.
So in short: it has been going great! And hopefully the viewers find it entertaining/educating enough that I can grow a viewer base.

Any plans to sell out and become a full-time streamer at some point?
At this point, it’s a big “no”. I crave the competitive aspects of this game way too much. But who knows, anything can happen.

Do you have any last words or shoutouts?
Only a big thanks to everyone who has been supporting me and my team—we wouldn’t have been as driven to be unique (but also good at what we do) if it weren’t for all the comments and posts about it. And of course, a big shoutout to Team expert esports for taking us under its wings and giving us the chance to show ourselves under your name. And last—a big shoutout to my teammates for everything so far and what’s yet to come!

You can follow Benny on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch. Make sure to watch HGC every weekend starting at 9:00am PST and follow the action as it unfolds!

From Player to Coach: An Interview with Sunshine

Posted on by EsportsJohn

sunshine2

Interview by: EsportsJohn

Table of Contents

Now that the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) is settled for next year, the community is looking forward to more stable teams and rosters. However, stable rosters alone may not be the key to raising the overall level of play in regions like NA and EU; for that, we need coaches. Of course, there is a lot of pushback when it comes to the subject of coaches, especially in NA. Players and managers cite lack of experience for many up and coming coaches and often look down on them for their limited knowledge and ability.

Following a series of heated debates in the community about coaching, I reached out to Steven “Sunshine” Morgan. Sunshine was a former player on 2ARC before leaving to coach Gale Force eSports during the summer of 2016. Under his direction, the team had their strongest tournament showing ever at ESL Burbank, where they beat out some of the biggest NA powerhouses like Cloud9, Brain Power, and Naventic to finish with an impressive 9-1 overall score. While they performed rather poorly at the global championship at DreamHack Summer due to unexpected flight delays, many remember summer as Gale Force’s strongest period of dominance last year.

On Career

Tell me about your time on 2ARC. You described them as the “gate keepers of the competitive scene”.

Hahaha yeah. So basically when I was on 2ARC, Blaze was also in the amateur scene, and the two of us completely dominated everyone else. No one even came close to beating us, but Blaze always had the upper hand whenever we played against each other. So it was hard at times for sure, but I learned a lot playing on that team and from all the people who played with me.

What happened to 2ARC?

They are basically just no longer with 2ARC. They go by Nice! Gaming powered by Dark Arts. Same roster.

After 2ARC, you went on to coach GFE. What was it like making the switch from player to coach/analyst?

I’ve always wanted to eventually go into coaching. Was definitely a lot faster than I planned, but I really enjoy coaching. I’m good at identifying people’s strengths and weaknesses, which is critical for coaching, in my opinion.

On Coaching

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what a coach actually does in the HotS community. How would you define a coach in HotS?

Literally everyone has a different definition of what a coach should be. In my opinion, a coach is an unbiased perspective on a game. [As a player], your point of view becomes tainted by playing a certain role, and a coach can remain untainted by not having to focus on mechanics. At the very highest levels of competition, the players don’t need to be babied and told where they made mistakes mechanically or what they need work on, so that shouldn’t be your role; providing a deep knowledge of the game to remind players of the little things during tournaments was an essential role I played in my opinion. The coach is not weighed down by stress like the players, and having a level headed high tier player as a coach presents a lot of value.

So you would say that all coaches have to be very skilled and/or knowledgeable of the game?

Knowledgeable is the most important [aspect]. However, with my past experience, if a coach isn’t super skilled, they miss mechanical things. It can become a problem. I’ve played a lot of games to become knowledgeable about Heroes.

But what about the other side of coaching, which is setting practice schedules and keeping players on task? Do HotS coaches do much of that, or is it primarily just an analyst role?

Setting a schedule was mainly left to the team. GFE had a very good work ethic, so I never had to worry about us not scrimming enough. Had it become a problem, I would have tried to step in. Keeping players on task did happen a lot in scrims and tournaments. Making the team practice certain comps or take scrims seriously, or pointing out something the team missed…all of that is very important for preparation and execution.

Do you see a future where HotS has multiple coaches that have separate roles?

If the scene becomes comparable in size to DotA 2 or LoL, yes. But there isn’t even enough infrastructure for one coach right now. Coaches help, and if there is money, teams will get every advantage they can.

A while back, there was a Tempo Storm article trying to convince more NA teams to invest in a coach, but it was met with a lot of backlash. A lot of people where saying that there are “no good coaches in NA” to start with. Do you agree with that?

No. People say the same thing about no good amateur players, which is just wrong. You have players like Jun, Casanova, and Legend who are all extremely great players. Each one has a different level of success in the scene right now, but if they never get a chance to play on a top tier team, how will you ever know if they are good?

If a coach never gets a chance, how can you know if any are good? I would argue that my results as coach where fantastic, and I haven’t gotten any other chances other than GFE. The first LAN, I wasn’t in comms and the team went 4-4. The second LAN, I was in comms and we went 9-1. Third LAN, I wasn’t in comms and we went 3-5. Obviously, there are other factors that go into these things, but if someone can’t get a second chance with that, I don’t know what someone is realistically supposed to do.

But how do teams know they’re signing on a good coach or a bad one? Especially if they disagree with them or don’t like their coaching style? What’s to prevent the signing of a coach from doing more harm than good?

You have to give coaches a shot. At Dreamhack Austin, GFE and I came to the agreement that I would do all the analytical work and help in between games, but during game and in between games in a set, I wouldn’t say much. Neither side wanted me to throw off the groove that the team had already. We learned a lot, and by the time ESL rolled around, we had a really good mix of player-coach interaction. It falls on the org to keep the balance.

It sounds like you did a lot of GFE.

Yeah I put more time in than the players. I sat in on every scrim, compiled drafts for who we played against, played HL to keep my own skill up, and subbed in when someone was missing.

Not bragging, just saying that it took a lot of time and dedication.

Obviously, you had some issues with Mavnis on GFE. Without getting too personal, what can you say about having a manager that doesn’t support the coach? How do you think the situation could have been improved?

I think the only way a coach can be truly effective is if their “power” or “authority” comes from the organization and not the players. When something happens that the coach needs to overrule the team—which can happen due to things like stress or player conflicts—the coach needs the backing of the org so that the players listen.

This isn’t a problem in Korea because younger players respect older coaches purely based on age, but our culture in NA is much different. A lot of people get up in arms about overruling players, but sometimes it needs to happen. Being a player is extremely stressful and can lead to uncharacteristic mistakes; having a coach to reel someone or even the whole team back in can help avoid disaster. Obviously, if a coach abuses his power/authority, all the players have to do is go to the org and let them deal with it, either through penalty or termination. A good coach would never do anything to harm the team, though, so this should be a very small concern at most, I think.

This is why I brought up the whole Mavnis thing to begin with. When I needed the ability to reel the team back in, a lot of my power/authority was undermined by the manager. Obviously, I have issues with Mavnis, but the only reason I brought it up was because it was very relevant to coaching, in my opinion.

There have been a few successful coaches in EU. Do you think it has to do with orgs backing them up or is it just the general attitudes of the players that allow them to be successful?

I’m not sure. I think EU is quite different from NA, but if I had to guess, I think it would be due to attitudes. EU is much more serious about the game, so I don’t think the orgs need to back the coaches as much for them to be effective.

I could very well be wrong about that though.

On Meta and Game Design

The metagame is kind of confusing right now. How would you describe it?

Oh man, this is a tough one. In all honesty, I think this is more what Blizzard had in mind when they made the game. There are so many heroes who work off of each other that so many different playstyles are viable. You can have one hero with a global to make a gank squad incredibly lethal or a team full of globals to abuse rotations. You can run Tassadar carry-the-Valla comps or Tassadar carry-the-Tracer or Tasssadar carry-the-Illidan; it’s hard to deny anything like that without just banning Tassadar, who isn’t particularly strong by himself. Then you have straight up teamfight all-the-time comps. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that there are so many options that knowing your enemy’s strengths and weaknesses is more important than ever.

Is there anything you dislike about the meta at the moment?

I don’t like how strong Tassadar is based off of what heroes he is with. I love Tassadar as a hero, but if he gets ahead with certain comps, it’s so hard to come back from. I wish he was more independent as a hero. If that makes sense lol.

Healing and damage numbers have slowly risen over time. Do you think there’s anything to be concerned about here?

No, I don’t think so. If you watch DotA, their hero damage is insane. Players [in DotA] get deleted much faster than in Heroes, so I don’t think that will be a problem. Blizzard has been very good at designing heroes with strengths and weaknesses. Take Medic for instance: insane healing numbers, but very she is very weak to dive comps. I believe in Blizzard hero design.

If you could make any change to the core design of the game, what would you change?

This may sound weird, but masteries from LoL. They are a thing you select before game and are just passive minor buffs you get to tune your hero like you want. I actually really enjoyed that, but it’s not huge. Maybe bring back individual leveling, as it allows for more playmaking opportunities.

Dota is getting talents now. What do you think about that?

Heroes master race confirmed?

Crystal Maiden's talent tree in the newest Dota patch

Talents make the game so much easier to balance, and each hero feels more personalized. It’s a win-win, and I think other games are starting to realize that.

What do you think of the new “multi-class” classification with Varian?

Soooooo awesome! I love it. One of the things that drew me to Heroes was the adaptability you can have through ult choice, and Varian just takes that to the next level, in my opinion.

Who’s the next multi-class Hero you want to see?

Priest seems like the next logical choice, but I would love something more off, like a damage or off support like Medivh. Shadow priest seems really fun though!

Miscellaneous/Wrap-up

Statistics (team comps, picks, win rates, etc.) can sometimes be misleading. As an analyst, how much do you trust stats?

Zero.

Haha I actually hate statistics from tournaments. They are cool to look at but valid information [from them] is usually non-existent. If a lower skilled team gets a better comp but doesn’t know how to use it, that doesn’t make the statistics accurate when they lose. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to analyst work. Stats can lead you in a right direction, but you can never make a highly accurate prediction off of it.

On that note, what do you think of Hots Logs and the community’s heavy reliance on its figures to determine balance?

Hots Logs is infamous for saying Tassadar and Uther were two of the weakest heroes when in reality they were dominating the meta. No competitive player takes that seriously.

Do you think you’ll go back to playing or are you content with coaching?

The scene doesn’t seem ready for coaching. If I could coach a top tier team, I would in a heartbeat, but until then, I’ll probably just play.

So your plan for 2017 is grinding the Open Division?

Maybe, I’m not sure. Need to find a real job to sustain myself, so I may play hardcore or I might not.

Any last words or shoutouts?
I just want to say I wasn’t a perfect coach. I made mistakes and I was still learning how to coach in general. With that being said, I know I brought value to GFE and I enjoyed my time working with them a lot!

I love Heroes, I’ve invested a lot of time into it and made a lot of great friends along the way. My hope is one day Heroes will get the attention it truly deserves.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

EsportsJohn tried to be a coach once; it didn’t work out. You can follow him on Twitter or help support him on Patreon.

Varian: First Impressions and Pro Opinions

Posted on by EsportsJohn

Varian First Impressions

Written by: EsportsJohn

The gladiator king of Stormwind City, Varian Wrynn, has lived many lives. His anger shook the orcish hordes; his devotion preserved a nation. By wielding the sword Shalamayne two-handed, split into twin blades, or with a shield, Varian shifts his combat tactics: charging into melee with multiple opponents, enduring punishment or dueling one-on-one. Whether King Wrynn or Lo’Gosh the Ghost Wolf stands on the battlefield, the prowess of the man remains the same.

WoW nerd? Alliance fanboy? Professional lore historian? There’s a Hero for that.

Varian Wrynn comes into the Nexus as a new “multi-class” Hero, the first of his kind. While it’s not quite the “stance dance” Hero we were hoping for, being able to pick talents and choose between either a warrior or an assassin is a really cool mechanic that pushes the boundaries of the metagame. As the first of many, Varian is a revolutionary archetype for Heroes to come, and once again, Blizzard proves that they’re ready to defy the norms of the standard MOBA.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

  • Very versatile
  • Tons of crowd control
  • Can solo boss with Twin Blades
  • Great situational talents
  • Potentially huge burst

Weaknesses

  • Poor waveclear
  • Fairly weak before Heroics
  • No reliable escape

Abilities

Varian is somewhat of an enigma. The mere fact that he can change his playstyle drastically at level 10 makes it particularly difficult to make any kind of overarching rules concerning his gameplay. It can be said, however, that his base kit is very bland and underwhelming. To accommodate later power spikes and differing roles, his basic abilities are undertuned and uninspired. It takes talents, particularly at levels 4 and 10, before his abilities start to feel like a natural part of the Hero. As a result, he’s an incomplete Hero pre-10 who tends to slow the team down on fast-paced maps like Dragon Shire or Tomb of the Spider Queen with his clunky movements.

His Trait, Heroic Strike, is basically a cooldown-based crit that you can reduce through auto-attacking. Fresh out of the box, this makes his damage pretty front-loaded. The level 1 talents Overpower and High King’s Quest can also provide more upfront damage. Twin Blades of Fury can convert his Trait into more sustained damage if necessary, but the other two Heroics definitely lend themselves to a bruiser-esque playstyle designed to lock down a target and take them quickly.

Varian on Blackheart's Bay

Screenshot Credit: Blizzard

Lion’s Fang and Charge represent the CC in Varian’s base kit. Perhaps the most important part of his kit, Charge comes baseline with a 75% one-second slow with a high cooldown—quite underwhelming. But with the upgrade of Warbringer at level 4, Charge gains a stun and has a greatly reduced cooldown, making it a terrifying click-stun on a six second cooldown. Lion’s Fang offers much weaker CC, but it’s the only AoE or ranged ability in his kit, making it crucial for wave clear and poke. Against a Varian who is chaining his CC properly, it’s very difficult to get away.

His defensive ability, Parry, works essentially the same as Illidan’s Evasion. The small difference is that Varian has two charges of Parry, allowing players to use it a bit more strategically to block damage or proc effects like Overpower. Parry can even be upgraded to prevent all damage at level 4, but you have to give up Warbringer in return since there are only two choices. It’s important to note, however, that unlike Evasion, Parry does not block the slow from forts and keeps.

At level 10, Varian gains access to one of three Heroics that greatly change his playstyle. This is the turning point for players trying to decide how they want to play him: Taunt equals tank; Colossus Smash equals bruiser; and Twin Blades of Fury equals assassin. Taunt adds another powerful form of CC that allows tank Varian to hold someone more or less in place for nearly four seconds while your allied team wails on them. Twin Blades of Fury greatly increases your attack speed, gives a move speed bonus on attack, and greatly increases the CDR on Heroic Strike so it procs more often. Combined with the CC he already has in his base kit, assassin Varian is very sticky and does a ton of sustained damage. Colossus Smash is essentially the one-shot talent which allows bruiser Varian to instantly delete someone with the aid of his allies.

Varian on Infernal Shrines

Screenshot Credit: Blizzard

All of the Heroics come with passive perks and drawbacks which need to be considered. The result of a slower attack speed, less health, or lower damage needs to be compensated for ahead of time with other talent choices, creating a fairly diverse set of choices for Varian builds. For instance, you might take High King’s Quest at level one to make up for the damage you lose from Twin Blades of Fury or maybe you go for Victory Rush instead of Second Wind for sustain on 7 because of the reduced attack speed from Taunt.

Unlike a similar tank or assassin, he lacks any solid form of disengage; once he’s in, he’s in. Even with Parry, Varian can get into some real trouble if he decides to Charge someone at the wrong time.

Talents

Varian’s talents are obviously the most important part of his kit because they dictate how he will be played. The most influential set of talents are obviously his Heroics, but choices at other tiers can adversely affect his entire playstyle, moreso than any other Hero in the game.

For instance, his first big power spike at level 4 only gives you two choices: Shield Wall or Warbringer. Shield Wall is pure survivability while Warbringer is an incredible boost in CC; ignoring Heroics, this already makes Varian either a tankier dive-in, dive out type of Hero or a hard engage Hero. The same goes for his level 7 talents. Second Wind gets way more healing value than Victory Rush when you pick Twin Blades because of the increased attack speed but pales in comparison with Taunt. In many ways, the talent you pick at 7 justifies the talent you pick at 10.

Varian on Blackheart's Bay

Screenshot Credit: Blizzard

Level 13 is Varian’s utility talent selection. Here can select between three banners which have different effects: speed, damage mitigation, or ability power. Each banner has a large chunk of health and quite a large radius. Currently, the Banner of Ironforge outperforms the others by a great margin. A team-wide 25% reduction in damage is just too powerful to turn down in a teamfight.

Levels 16 and 20 have perhaps the most leeway in usage and can be used with any Heroic. Though some options at 16 lend themselves to certain playstyles like Mortal Strike’s synergy with Twin Blades, any talent is plausible depending on the situation. Shattering Throw is a unique ability that specifically targets shields and is a must have against a Hero like Zarya or Tassadar who rely largely on shields to mitigate damage. The level 20 upgrades for the Heroics are slight but nonetheless make Varian much stronger in his chosen role. If the team needs a bit more overall utility, you can instead opt for Glory to the Alliance to help your team sustain through a long fight or Demoralizing Shout to counter the enemy team’s burst. This is where his talents really start to branch out a bit and give players more opportunities to slightly alter their playstyle rather than define it.

Professional Opinions

On Kit, Design, and Implementation

Blumbi, Misfits
Both [his kit and design] look very promising. This hero will have his place in the meta. Tank Varian feels like an improved Johanna. You are pretty tanky and have one engage tool, one defense tool, and one slow. You trade being a bit less tankier than Johanna for having a click-stun on 6 second cooldown and a lot more utility for the team.

Daihuu, Vox Nihili
Yeah, I think he’s very strong, I haven’t had any chance to play him that much, but a point-and-click stun on a six second cooldown is super omega good. I’ve never felt so troll in my life—just waiting for the Malf silence sound to play, and then I just click him and it goes away.

I tried him as tank, but his other two are OP too. Colossus Smash just one-shots whoever he yells at, and Twin Blades doesn’t die with his Second Wind talent. Blizzard might have been done it too right with Varian.

Disconcur, ANZ Caster
Varian’s kit changes over the course of the game. At first, his kit can feel quite bland, as his primary abilities only really offer him a gap closer, peeling, and minor damage mitigation along with a Trait which seems to offer up only a tiny damage bonus. However, it is the character’s design and how “flexible” a player can be with it that truly sets Varian apart from others.

His flexibility is all tied into his talent selections, as they allow a player to customize Varian to meet their desired playstyle (inside the realm of Warrior/Assassin anyway). You can feel these decisions being made as early as level 4 when players are presented with Varian’s first power spike: Shield Wall and Warbringer. Each provides a buff to one of the primary abilities and suddenly change his playstyle and kit. Warbringer changes the slowing effect of the Charge ability to a stun instead, which in turns gives Varian a nice hard form of CC. This increases his capability for 1v1 fights, engaging, and even peeling for a teammate. With Shield Wall, he can take a lot more damage with Parry. This is a massive front line/damage mitigation tool. [After 4], the “bland” kit I talked about now has a huge spark and flare to it: a hard stun or strong damage mitigation.

I feel the flexibility element is a little flawed, however, as a lot of talents seem to synergize with each other, meaning a lot of players are going to get locked into a path. If you take Shield Wall, you’ve pretty much locked yourself into taking Taunt at 10. If you grab Second Wind at level 7, you are most likely grabbing Twin Blades of Fury as your Heroic. Even looking at the level 13 Banner selection, you are kind of not counterpicking vs the other team or choosing what you would like; you’re taking your team’s comp into consideration and what is best for it. While players can always do what they want at the end of the day, I still feel Blizzard kind of made optional paths for each “type” of Varian and did not provide many “counterplay” talents for Varian.

The multi-class nature of Varian makes him a flexible hero, and I feel it is a good design choice. However, I would have liked a stronger “counterplay” talent [selection]. All in all, the choice of playstyle is nice, and I have enjoyed that feeling going into games.

Gela, Pro player and Streamer
Alright, well, the design is pretty cool, and I was happy Blizzard wanted to do something like this. I really like the idea, the idea of making him super versatile so that he could adjust to almost any setup, BUT—there is always a but :D—first, I looked at him and thought: “Wow, that should be super OP”, but when he came out, sadly, it’s not like that at all. And I, personally, think that he needs some buffs. Not to every build, but his tank and Colossus Heroics definitely need that.

JSchritte, Burning Rage
I can talk about my impressions as a bruiser, [it has] so much potential. He can burst any DPS/healer—80% HP in one combo at level 13. His ultimate (Colossus Smash) is broken. It’s like a Tyrande [trait] with burst damage and a low cooldown. One burst combo plus any skill damage from another DPS, the target will die.

The main disadvantage is his waveclear. If you play him like a bruiser, you probably need to put him in a solo lane, and if it’s a map with an important solo lane, you will lose the lane.

I also played him like a tank, but I don’t know what to say because it isn’t my playstyle. I liked the kite with Taunt, then invulnerable two times, but I don’t know…we have broken Muradin and E.T.C. for global, Mosh Pit, etc. The AA build, I have not tested enough to say anything, but if you need an AA DPS, maybe a better pick is Illidan or Samuro?

KendricSwissh, EU Commentator and Streamer
People might know me as the biggest Alliance fanboy to ever be created. But in all seriousness, I really do think that Varian paves the way for a spectacular design idea. The ability to adapt and switch your role according to the team composition and flow of the game creates a new form of in-game depth that we didn’t have before.

Varian’s kit is strong and versatile. However, some aspects could see future changes, such as Taunt and other defensive talents in his tree. I’ve heard people telling me that his Basic Abilities are rather unexciting, but I only agree to a certain extent. In my opinion, Varian feels dynamic and explosive. He immediately brought back the love and good memories I linked to Warriors in vanilla World of WarCraft.

OPrime, KR Caster and Coach
Varian doesn’t really have the best vanilla skillset, but he gets a huge power spike at level 4 and becomes a “complete” hero at level 10. His presence in teamfights is very respectable. His level 4 stun is something enemy heroes have to watch out for, and all of his ultimates bring an oomph to teamfights.

TBKzord, NA Caster
Varian has a unique kit. In some ways, it very much lives up to the “three heroes in one” mantra. Varian is probably one of the most, if not the most, adaptable hero, not only to your comp, but the enemy comp and even the map choice. From a design perspective, Varian is definitely one of the “easier” heroes that Blizzard has released, at least considering the last few. He is much more “point-and-click” oriented, though he does have some great nuances, such as the effective use of Parry, Taunt, stutter stepping, and body blocking, especially with his Twin Blades ultimate.

On Professional Play and Meta Changes

Blumbi, Misfits
Especially as long as Tassadar and Tracer are in the meta, he will be in the meta. Even without those heroes, he will probably be strong enough to be a meta pick because of his chain CC and utility for the team.

Disconcur, ANZ Caster
I think most regions will welcome him into their rosters, as he is a flexible character and thus will find his way into a variety of comps a lot easier. With a hard engage playstyle being one of his options, I feel Korea, ANZ, and SEA will be definitely see him in the their drafts.

He offers an interesting position during drafting because selecting Varian doesn’t provide information on how he will be playing.

Gela, Pro player and Streamer
He is a cool guy, so I hope [he’ll be played] whenever Blizzard gives him a small buff. But right now, I’m really not sure about it. There are a lot of other good heroes.

JSchritte, Burning Rage
I don’t know [about Varian in Asia/EU] because Zeratul now is so strong, and Korea and China prioritize this Hero a lot—and with changes to Illidan too. I really don’t know if this is the type of Asian/EU [Hero]. EU, I think not because EU plays more strategically, and I believe Varian is for being more aggressive with pick offs, etc.

KendricSwissh, EU Commentator and Streamer
If certain issues with his kit get addressed (i.e. his tank talents being a bit underwhelming and his general weak early game pre-10), I think Varian has what it takes to become a very relevant factor. Even in his current state, I expect the Fury build to be utilized in competitive play fairly soon, especially on larger maps that feature multiple mercenary and boss camps. My personal favorite, the burst-heavy Colossus Smash build, certainly does have situational value, too. Similar to Tyrande’s Hunter’s Mark, the Vulnerable effect it applies can greatly boost your team’s performance on Battlefield of Eternity, for instance.

OPrime, KR Caster and Coach
To avoid [drafting] problems, some Korean teams are actually experimenting with using Varian as a replacement for the ranged flex position. All in all, I think Varian is a very solid hero, but I’m not sure whether he will be immediately used in competitive play.

TBKzord, NA Caster
I think the variability of his talent tree/ultimate choice and the potential for some element of surprise in draft will almost guarantee that he will show up in some shape or form in the Heroes meta as a whole. Just judging from some of the tweets I have seen, I would expect Korea to be one of the first to really experiment with him. Though, we might get some surprises in the final HGC qualifier, as he will be allowed at that time.

On Map and Composition Viability

Blumbi, Misfits
Every map. BoE might be especially good for him, as he can easily CC chain by timing the E on a boss-stun when you defend your immortal, so its really dangerous for the enemy team to walk up.

Disconcur, ANZ Caster
I think Varian will always do well alongside another warrior with some form of lockdown or displacement ability (Johanna, Muradin, ETC, Diablo) or burst damage characters (Kerrigan, Li-Ming, Butcher, Greymane).

Waveclear isn’t one of Varian’s strong points, so maps like Dragon Shire and Battlefield of Eternity should play out well for him. However, I don’t think any map will be bad for him. Maps with a lot of mercenaries will work in his favor, as he is quite a capable headhunter.

Gela, Pro player and Streamer
As I said, he can fit into almost anything. It’s really hard to say right now looking at Hotslogs stats what would be the coolest setup for him, as his tank build is almost never used and Twin Blades is being used almost everywhere. So I guess people want him to be like a melee assassin or maybe a bruiser. Anyways, he fits in any setup, but right now maybe not on any map. I think his damage before level 10 is pretty weak. He also has no waveclear and is a pretty bad solo laner, in my opinion. I haven’t had any problems [laning] against Varian. It makes him hard to play on early game maps such as Tomb, Dragon Shire, BoE, Braxis, Blackheart’s (yes, this is not an early game map, but he is doing nothing here early, which is important to note). But at the same time, he is doing well on Warhead, Cursed, and Garden, so you can see how his power grows by being in a game longer and not losing early.

JSchritte, Burning Rage
I’m not going to talk about Varian’s tanky Taunt build since I think there are numerous other Heroes such as Muradin, E.T.C., Johanna, Arthas, or Chen who all fulfill this role much more efficiently.

Thus, let’s talk about his other two playstyles, namely “Arms” (featuring Colossus Smash at Level 10) and “Fury”. Arms can see a lot of play if two requirements are met. Firstly, the map should have an objective that needs to taken down as fast as possible. Battlefield of Eternity, Garden of Terror, Dragon Shire, or Infernal Shrines would be examples of those kinds of maps. Secondly, your team needs to have decent burst damage (e.g. Li-Ming or Jaina) to follow up on Varian’s Colossus Smash—otherwise his engagement would go to waste.

Fury is less situational. It has a larger tolerance in terms of team composition and maps. Generally speaking, a Fury Varian can oftentimes be compared to Illidan in the way the team composition around him should be built, which means drafting a strong Support or even 1.5 Supports featuring Tassadar. Fury Varian becomes particularly powerful on maps that feature mercenary and boss camps that he can easily solo at or after Level 10. I do, however, want to highlight that it is still wiser to clear those camps together. Please don’t rush to clearing boss camps without carefully thinking about it and, most importantly, informing your allies in time.

KendricSwissh, EU Commentator and Streamer
If certain issues with his kit get addressed (i.e. his tank talents being a bit underwhelming and his general weak early game pre-10), I think Varian has what it takes to become a very relevant factor. Even in his current state, I expect the Fury build to be utilized in competitive play fairly soon, especially on larger maps that feature multiple mercenary and boss camps. My personal favorite, the burst-heavy Colossus Smash build, certainly does have situational value, too. Similar to Tyrande’s Hunter’s Mark, the Vulnerable effect it applies can greatly boost your team’s performance on Battlefield of Eternity, for instance.

OPrime, KR Caster and Coach
His chief weakness is the fact that he doesn’t really have anything to offer during the early game laning phase. He can’t really solo the lane well because he’s a melee with no self heal, and his waveclear is bad. So he’s not too useful on two-lane maps.

He becomes a decent ganker when he gets his stun at level 4, but before then he can’t really do anything, which means he’s not suited to being the main tank/source of CC. If he’s drafted as the off-tank, it usually leaves the team composition without a good solo laner.

TBKzord, NA Caster
Due to the nature of Varian’s kit, you can really find a place for him in most compositions or maps. I think in this case, the question is more like “How will you run him?”

His tank build really has all the tools you need for a solo/main tank. With a taunt on a low cooldown, damage reduction or complete negation from Parry, and the potential of a gap-closing point-and-click slow/stun, plus extra health, you should be able to be a good front line for your team and peel where needed.

Colossus Smash is probably the most team-oriented ult. In my experience, you can really maximize the use of this build with a full team as a dive comp or one that can focus the target of Colossus Smash and get the full value of the vulnerability—as well as a dead enemy hero.

Twin Blades of Fury fills out Varian’s kit with a fantastic assassin build. Not only does Varian do a significant amount of sustained damage with this build, but with his Second Wind talent at level 7, it also enables him to solo mercenary camps with ease—as well as Golem bosses as early as level 10! This ultimate also allows him to be incredibly “sticky” to his intended target [since he gains] movement speed every time his basic attacks are used.

Final Thoughts

Blumbi, Misfits
My prediction: Tank-Varian (I tested the tank spec only) will be picked in this meta, which means Arthas and Leoric might show up more again. The permanent slow from Arthas and Entomb from Leoric are really annoying to deal with as a tank who has no escape. You realize it when you play Johanna, and Varian is actually really similar to her. You are really tanky, but you have no escape like Muradin, ETC, or Tyrael, which makes you vulnerable once you engage.

Daihuu, Vox Nihili
Broken. Quote me on that lmao.

darkmok, Misfits
I’m afraid I haven’t played him enough to give useful info, but I can just tell you that I like him! 😀

Disconcur, ANZ Caster
I think Varian’s design is a good direction, and I would like to see Blizzard attempt this with a few more heroes. But I think they do need to look at improving the talent tree a bit more to allow for some more match-based choices and not “build direction and synergy” choices.

I think he is good xD. Like a good strong hero, all his builds are good. However, I feel his tanking is his weakest. His DPS builds are much stronger and more impactfull. I am very much looking forward to seeing Varian in Competitive play.

Gela, Pro player and Streamer
Well…I thought about it, and I like the idea but, at the very least, I think Blizzard shouldn’t have added such a small talent pool. This hero, literally, has three builds, but only like two talents on level 4. Maybe this is the problem with him not being such a good hero too: not enough damage as well as not enough talents to fit in every build.

JSchritte, Burning Rage
[As a bruiser], he is viable on maps without an important solo lane, has burst damage with a low CD, maybe [good in] one tank + two bruisers meta (idk), has good talents [that let] you choose in different games (levels 13 and 16), and has good sustain on maps where you fight in waves (level 7 talent).

KendricSwissh, EU Commentator and Streamer
Personally, I’m quite happy with the way Varian turned out. While there is still room for improvement—especially his weak early game pre-10 and some of his tank talents—his model and his voice files look and sound amazing and really deliver 100% Alliance goodness.

Something I would have loved to see with Varian is the so-called “stance dance” which allows World of Warcraft warriors to quickly hop between stances depending on which situation they find themselves in. Yet, I do understand that this concept would probably be too hard to balance in a MOBA environment. Still, I imagine such a mechanic to be extremely interesting.

TBKzord, NA Caster
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the unique and even completely new mechanics that Varian’s talents have. First, his Banners at level 13 are extremely cool, as they give you yet another way to augment your team. Have a team with low mobility? Grab the Banner of Stormwind to speed your team along. Having trouble with squishies getting bursted down too fast? Grab the Banner of Ironforge for a chunk of damage resistance. Want to make that Li-Ming or Kael’thas even crazier? Grab the Banner of Dalaran for some more ability damage.

Second, his level 16 talents are extremely unique. Mortal Strike adds a second heal reduction [talent] to the game, and at an even earlier level than Xul’s—though, albeit, it’s single-target. And lastly, Shattering Throw brings a completely new mechanic to the game. Up until this point, the only thing that could counter shielding was direct damage. This gives you an ability that will practically delete any shield, plus gives you extra passive damage against them! Niche, yes. Another awesome tool in your toolkit? You bet.

Huge thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts and opinions! You are the true Heroes of the Storm!

Also, props to RallyJaffa for Korean translations!

EsportsJohn is a freelance esports journalist who loves collaborating with other people and sharing opinions. You can follow him on Twitter or help support him on Patreon.

Out of the Ashes: Interview with Arcaner

Posted on by EsportsJohn

Australian Heroes of the Storm player Arcaner

Interview by: EsportsJohn

Table of Contents

On October 26th, Australian team Reborn prepared for their first match in the BlizzCon group stages. Having flown across the globe, the boys were settling down and trying to get in the zone after a week of practice and travel. Four members of the team had already gone through this rigorous feat of endurance and disorientation in previous global championships, but for young flex player Liam “Arcaner” Simpson, this was the first time on the global stage.

Their first game was rough and ended in defeat. Stubbornly, Reborn rallied around an all-in Illidan composition for the second game, but were defeated again, this time in draft before the game even began. Subsequent losses caused them fall out of the tournament with a dismal 0-4 record. In retrospect, there were many valuable—albeit harsh—lessons learned that day for the Australian team, but now the future of ANZ rests on how the players move forward from their loss.

A few weeks after BlizzCon, Arcaner reached out to me and asked to do an interview. “I was looking for a platform to voice my large concerns about the future of minor regions, and ANZ in particular,” he told me. As the interview process continued, we began to talk more broadly about his personal performance and plans for 2017. What emerged was not only his concerns for the HGC format and the future of the ANZ region but also a small glimpse into the mind of an improving player. It’s difficult to define what it takes to “make it out” and meet success in a minor region, but one can easily admire the ambition of a player who is only spurred on by defeat. Arcaner is that sort of player.

On BlizzCon

Let’s be honest, your performance at BlizzCon was subpar compared to what you’ve shown in ANZ. Was there any particular reason for the team’s disarray?

Our performance was definitely a shock to the team. Going into the event, we had confidence in making it out of groups [based on] our scrim results at BlizzCon. I think the first mistake we made was that we had expectations which distracted us from being objective about our games, and we didn’t commit enough resources and energy into the drafts and our preparation in general.

During our games, our drafting was terrible—we weren’t building strong or easily executable comps, and we weren’t target banning specific heroes that we should’ve been banning. On Tomb specifically, it showed that we had no prioritisation on wave clear, and even when Denial first-banned Johanna, it didn’t occur to us that we were going to get squeezed out of it.

In-game, the team atmosphere was entirely off, and it felt like there was no energy, belief, or desire to win the games.

Did the Expulsion Zone ban on Zarya affect the team’s drafting strategy?

We understood that Denial weighed priority on Zarya in their drafting, but with the Expulsion Zone ban, we concluded that it was a hero that could be dealt with and wouldn’t be popular during the tournament. Nevertheless, I revise that mindset as a mistake—we should have respected that specific comfort of theirs by banning it in the second phase or adapting our drafts to deal with it, which we didn’t.

How did you personally deal with the loss at BlizzCon? You came to literally the other side of the world and only got to spend a few minutes on stage. Did that bother you?

After the loss, I was extremely depressed and went straight back to our team’s practice room and started queueing Hero League to practice my role swap to support, which is my main role whenever I’m a free agent. I think I played about 100 games in a week and a half, so my response to the loss was one of deep desire to improve and never let a bad performance happen again.

ANZ team Reborn at the HGC Fall Championship at BlizzCon

Photo Credit: Blizzard

Playing Bo3s was pretty sad, as we only got to play four games for the entire tournament. But there was plenty of other stuff to do to make the most out of the trip, so I was still very happy.

What was it like to scrim with the other teams at the Global Championship? Did you learn any valuable lessons from the top Korean or European teams?

It was challenging, efficient, and fun. We got to scrim eStar, Dignitas, PBA, Imperium Pro Team, and Fnatic. We learnt a lot from the scrims, and especially against Dignitas, we began to understand what it takes to be a tier above the Western teams. They played with a lot of control and seemed to play more Korean than they did Western.

You stated pretty explicitly that “NA looks quite weak” during the team intro video. Even though you lost, did you still feel that was the case when you played Denial at BlizzCon?

What I’ve grasped from the event and our result is the importance of context when assessing teams, players, and metas. Retrospectively, the assessment I developed of North American teams was founded upon the analytical comparison of their strength in relation to Europe and Korea. Specifically speaking, Denial’s performance at both of their American regionals when they had an early or mid game lead was precarious. Astral Authority consistently gave me the impression that they understood how to maintain a lead on their American opponents with their engagement and macro decisions—they were always in control. My reasoning for stating NA is weak was due to the comparison of mechanical play of Astral’s players versus the European, Chinese and Koreans—and for Denial it was the more apparent existence of macro and shotcalling mistakes.

Learning from BlizzCon, I’ve altered my previous mindset, and I now look to start comparing the strength of teams to my own—and with that stated, no, NA wasn’t weak. I have a wealth of respect for the region, and what I admire about Astral and Denial is their drive and passion to learn from each international showing and improve. I’m looking forward to watching them during the first split of HGC 2017.

Aside from participating in the tournament, what else did you do at BlizzCon? Did you get a chance to get out and see the city or eat some American food? Disneyland?

We went to Disneyland as a team, but aside from that, we weren’t doing much tourism. I enjoyed the American burgers.

At BlizzCon, we attended the opening ceremony and mostly stayed around the player lounge to watch the HotS games.

Be honest, how bad is the jet lag coming from Australia?

Actually, I didn’t have any jet lag when I arrived in the US. I don’t think my team did either. For me, it was pretty horrendous when I returned to Australia. I remember the first day back at home, I had a 3pm nap and woke up at 3am, and since then my sleep schedule has been ruined with lots of early mornings—I’ve never been so confused haha.

On the HGC Circuit

Minor region issues aside, what do you think was the biggest problem with HGC in 2016? Do you think the 2017 format will fix that issue?

The most substantial complication with HGC in 2016 was the disparity in skill between the East, the West, and Wildcards that developed as a consequence of dissimilar HGC structures. The East received league systems that nurtured teams and reinforced team stability and competitiveness. The West dealt with one-day qualifiers and regional finals that hindered the existence of long term rosters and limited player’s tournament experience. As a result, their mechanics and overall team strength [was hindered].

HGC 2017 bandages the wounds in the West and enables more teams to thrive with financial support and competitive opportunity but does not immediately bridge the gap in team strength. The idea of equal opportunity is what I am passionate about, and I’m sincerely happy for North America and Europe to be rewarded with a league system.

A relatively less significant problem is the international tournament format. We’ve encountered the identical two-phase group stage into single elimination playoffs repeatedly—and it’s getting stale. It’s not ideal to be having Bo3’s in a Swiss format group stage; if it were a round robin, it’d seem warranted. I’d push to witness Bo5’s become baseline in international tournaments and for more experimentation to be done with engaging formats that mix first and second seeds differently. Group stages could become intricate, and playoffs could start at quarterfinals.

Blizzard changed the residency requirements back to six months. Do you think this strict region lock is good or bad for Heroes as a whole?

I think it reinforces the notion that Blizzard wants each region to be explicit in the players that represent it. It’s clear they want to stray away from some form of international player transfer system—or maybe their reason is they don’t want Korean players dominating within any region besides Korea.

The system is understandable. The six month residency lock is strict and does its job of keeping players isolated. I disagree with the idea, but it isn’t like we would see many international transfers occurring if there were no region lock. Players would probably have to fund it themselves, as not many sponsors would want to invest so much money during an early period of Heroes esports.

It seems the people most affected in a bad way would be the minor regions and the teams who don’t make the cut in major regions that have the most competitive relegations (Korea or EU).

Let’s try a thought experiment. If a team like Burning Rage had enough money to move to North America and participate in the league after six months of practice, how well do you think they’d do?

I believe that Burning Rage would make great use of the opportunity to play in NA, and I know that JSchritte and his teammates would be impassioned by the thought of moving. I feel like they are strong and unified in their goals, and I would expect them to place high enough that they’d make it to the Clashes and Brawls.

There will be a distinctive lack of offline events next year (down from 19 in 2016 to just 6 in 2017). Given that it won’t affect the ANZ region much next year, do you have an opinion on that?

I think the more offline events, the better. But with the introduction of salaries and the league systems, there must be some form of compromise from another avenue. Maybe we will see more offline events later down the track once the league settles in and Blizzard makes some better returns for Heroes Esports.

Blizzard mentioned that minor regions can look forward to “local competitions” that feed into international tournaments. Do you think that means there will be more events during the year? Or does that pretty much mean exactly the same thing for minor regions?

To me, it means exactly the same as what 2016 has been—except for the information we received about our prize pool for the year being converted into AUD from USD, which is a loss of about 30% in the prize money.

What is your opinion on the East and West Clashes? Do you like this format better than a full-scale global event?

For ANZ, we are a part of the West, so we will be facing three NA teams, three EU teams, and the LatAm team.

I like the idea of East and West clashes, but I would like to see the second clash be West vs East instead of NA vs EU again. It’s a bit depressing that we will only get to see the Eastern teams twice next year, as we have a great relationship with them. I’m excited to see if the East and West develop their own metas; it’d be cool to see which one is stronger going into the Mid Season Brawl.

On ANZ Region

We’ve talked a bit before about how it’s impossible to make a living as a gamer in Australia because of the lack of money currently available. Do you feel this is mostly the fault of the game developers? Or does the country need to develop esports more?

In regards to the county’s development, a problem is Australia’s culture and stance on gaming. Growing up, kids are told to go outside and play sports and do outdoor activities over other hobbies. There’s an emphasis on physical activity, which creates a pessimistic response to staying indoors and gaming. Because of this, we don’t have as big of a proportion of gamers, and those that are [gamers] refrain from being competitive and stay casual. Another problem is our infrastructure and internet. Not being able to stream because of my internet speed is depressing and a limitation to our potential careers in this industry.

What is the biggest issue plaguing the ANZ region in terms of competitive play? What solutions could you offer to solve this problem?

The biggest issues at the moment are population, sponsor investment, and viewership. The ANZ region is in a chaotic place at the moment, and part of me thinks that a lot of the players in the region do not deserve the amount of investment and rewards Blizzard gives out. When I sit down and try to brainstorm the players who care about the game as much as I do—who care about international results and want to become a great teammate for a great team—I can’t think of more than a few.

Reborn lifts the trophy at the ANZ regional final

It’s depressing to be a part of ANZ. We’ve had multiple organizations and people come to help and organize events, to build the scene back up and inspire us, and it’s met with a lot of disrespect, negativity and trolling.

It would be a refreshing concept to have a clean slate of players come into the competitive scene to replace the current population—or for the current players to have a drastic change in attitude and behaviour. However, I want to emphasise the importance of increasing our region’s [gaming] population as a good solution to all of its issues.

You said yourself that there are very few gamers in ANZ. Perhaps a league system starting with only 4-6 teams and maybe ramping up over time if participation increases?

There are only two other competitive teams in the region, and one of them is pretty unstable right now. I don’t think investing in a league system will be worth it, and it’d be a miracle to get six serious teams signing up for it.

Blizzard has been doing a lot of marketing and advertising in a bid to re-sell this game, so I really hope that we get some new players coming into the scene. One we get a higher number of competitive and serious teams then we can think about implementing a league system and discussing the idea of salaries for players.

Are there any third party weekly/monthly tournaments in ANZ similar to Go4Heroes or ZOTAC?

Not at the moment, but there is a rumour that there will be some next year. Disconcur from ANZ Heroes organizes a lot of the events, and we have another organization called Gamestah who did a lot of work for the scene this year.

Despite some of the other minor regions suffering, Taiwan seems to be doing well. Perhaps it has to do with their ability to play on Chinese or Korean servers?

I attribute PBA’s success to three things. Firstly, I think that keeping a stable roster has been key to their improvement in international results; they really understood how to take advantage their situation. As long as they stay together, regardless of whether or not they had a bad international showing, they can still dominate their region and have a guaranteed place at Sweden and BlizzCon. They can keep their mechanics fresh and begin preparing a specific meta for the international stage and doing research and a lot of observation into NA/EU/CN opponents.

Which leads to the second reason for their success: their own powerful meta. An advantage to being in a minor region is that [major region] teams are less inclined to critique or even pay attention to the meta a minor region team like PBA develops. Call it ego, laziness, or overconfidence—Astral Authority disrespected PBA’s meta. [PBA’s] Auriel and Zeratul comps did well, and a lot of teams butchered their drafts against them.

Lastly, I think PBA’s ability to scrim and play on Korean servers is really beneficial and leads to their players being mechanically superior to other minor regions. I’d go as far to say that ZoLa had the best performance out of all the supports during BlizzCon.

This might be an impossible question to answer. If an ANZ team could reach the level of a Korean team like MVP Black or Ballistix, how would they do it? What would need to change?

It’s clear that there would have to be great mechanical improvement and a drastic change in attitude and mindset in order to beat Koreans. We’d have to move to Korea and play in Super League with a long term goal in mind during scrims and after bad results. It’d begin with a few seasons of low placings in Korean tournaments before eventually climbing to the top; and it’s almost impossible. But if there were a way to do it, it lies in Korea.

If Blizzard still can’t get together an organized schedule and stream next year, where can we go to keep up with events in ANZ?

Next year, I’ll be posting on Twitter regularly about dates of our tournaments so people can tune in and watch my team and me play, if I end up having one in time.

@ANZ_Heroes is a good place to follow events too.

On Future Plans

A few days ago, Benjamin announced that Reborn was breaking up and going their separate ways. What happened? Can you give us any details on the future of the players?

This is very complicated, and I cannot provide the correct answers at this moment regarding the future of the team’s players. When you come out of a tournament with a performance completely opposite to what you expect, it makes you more critical and analytical of every aspect of the team. We have to ask ourselves the difficult questions, and we need to ensure that moving forward into 2017, we have a unified team in regard to friendship, competitive mindset and goals, and performance.

It’s all very uncertain at the moment, but there may be a few players taking a season’s break from competitive HotS.

Not to bring back any bad memories, but how do you stay motivated to keep playing after an 0-4 defeat on the global stage? What makes you want to come back next year?

I think the motivation comes from the same goal that I brought coming into BlizzCon. My personal goal was to prove my skill internationally. It was something that I was very nervous about coming into BlizzCon because ranged flex wasn’t my best suit. But I was confident in my Illidan play and therefore really unhappy and disappointed in myself after the Cursed Hollow game vs Denial.

ANZ player Arcaner

Photo Credit: Blizzard

What makes me want to come back next year is to prove my skill on support and develop myself as a great pro player.

Since you don’t have regular scrims in ANZ, what does a normal practice schedule look like for you?

It’s usually about three hours per day [in total] waiting in queue for Hero League, and another two hours of playing it. And then two to three hours of replay analysis or draft practice. Every other day, I might have a two to three hour scrim block.

Do you have any specific practice goals you want to work on before next season? Any particular performance goals for 2017?

At the moment, I’m working on getting my support mechanics back to normal and putting a large amount of time into practicing drafting, which I do for one to two hours a day outside of scrims. For 2017, my goal is to be regarded as one of the best supports internationally—hopefully I can do it.

Any last words? Any shoutouts?

Shoutout to all of my in-game friends from other regions who have given me advice and helped me grow—you know who you are. I want to thank the team at Blizzard for a great trip to BlizzCon—I will never forget it. Also, a sincere thank you to all the casters and international players who cared about my team and me, whether it be casters putting in the effort to study us and get to know us or the pros who approached and talked with us during BlizzCon. It means a lot when people put in this effort, so thank you.

And lastly, thank you to those who support my team and our region, whether you are fans in Australia or around the world. We appreciate everything. I want to apologize to those I let down at BlizzCon. I’m sorry for underwhelming plays, but I will do everything I can to improve and be the best ♥.

EsportsJohn is a freelance journalist on a mission to give minor regions exposure and make esports a worldwide community. You can follow him on Twitter or help support him on Patreon.

GCWC Interview with Team Dignitas

Posted on by EsportsJohn

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Reprinted with permission from NetEase
Edited by: EsportsJohn

Welcome to the GCWC! Can you describe your team to Chinese HotS fans? As the strongest team in EU pro scene, is there any pressure for you guys?

Bakery: We’ve never felt too much pressure from being the best team in Europe. It’s only when we aren’t the best that we really feel the need to get our reputation back. Nevertheless, we always want to represent Europe the best that we can and show how strong a region Europe really is.

How does the team cooperate? How do you train daily? How do you prepare for tournaments?

Athero: Me and JayPL normally make the decisions when it comes to drafting and shotcalling. However, we draft as a team mostly to get a well rounded comp, so everyone knows what their job is in-game.

What was the original intention for your team? What’s your biggest advantage?

Bakery: When I started the team over a year ago, our sole goal was to dethrone Team Liquid and claim the title of the best team in Europe. After the Global Championship in Seoul, we moved past that goal and set our sights on becoming a true contender for winning an international tournament. Our biggest advantage is that we work together to achieve these goals.

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What’s the secret to keeping the top rank on the HotS pro stage?

Mene: I play the game a lot because I want to be the best in my role and able to make plays for my team when we need it. As a team, you have to think about drafts/combos and not be scared of losing a lot of games in practice when you try them.

JayPL: My personal advice is to keep your feet on the ground. There will always be someone better than you or people trying to catch you, so you need to keep practicing no matter what. Otherwise, you’ll end up losing your spot. You won’t be able to perform at your best every time. Obviously, you will mess up some actions, games, or even series by yourself. You have to keep your cool and focus on the next matches. As soon as you have a strong mentality, you have the core to be a top-rank player.

What’s your opinion of Asian HotS teams? What’s difference between NA and EU?

Mene: The big difference is the meta. I think Asian teams are really good, but if they adapt their meta more, they can stay the best in the world for a long time.

Bakery: I’m a huge fan of the Asian HotS scene—especially Korea. Surprisingly, NA and EU have huge differences in both their meta and approach to practice, and are not very similar at all!

Are there any rivals you want to defeat or any goals you want to achieve at GCWC?

Mene: My goal is to win it! Playing it just after BlizzCon can help us a lot to achieve this.

JayPL: My goal is obviously to win an international tournament. There’s nothing more than that, except keeping your title. If I reach the title of the best team in the World one day, I’ll have the feeling that there’s no goal anymore… I’m actually scared to win and lose my motivation, but I’ll be the happiest guy on earth.

Dignitas holding the first place trophy at DreamHack Valencia

Photo Credit: DreamHack

Bakery: I would really love to beat MVP Black. I’m quite friendly with Sake, and they are the team that I have the most respect for in the whole scene. To convincingly beat them would be a huge deal for me.

What do you think of the current meta/Hero selection? Which Hero do you want to join the Nexus?

Mene: I don’t like like the meta at the moment, there is no Kael’thas! I hope an elemental Shaman will join the Nexus soon!

Athero: I like the meta because there are a lot of things that are viable. However, it makes for a tricky drafting phase, as you have to account for multiple comps when you are picking and banning.

Which team is your old enemy?

Bakery: We’ve been battling for the top spot in Europe with Misfits all year long, but this year has been so busy that it doesn’t feel like they’re old rivals—rather, very recent rivals.

So many pro teams have lineup changed recently. What’s the best way to keep a stable lineup?

Mene: When you have an issue on the team, you have to talk about it to try to fix it, and then you go over it and focus on practice again.

JayPL: As in every relationship, the key is discussion. If you have an issue, you have to talk and fix it. There’s no magic, it’s all about discussion.

It said that many of your team members are a big fans of JayPL, can you tell us the full story?

Mene: For me it’s very simple: his hairstyle is very unique, and when I look at him I’m impressed by how his hair can end up being so beautiful.

Athero: For me, it’s his flip flops. Whenever he comes to LANs, he will wear them whenever possible. They are stylish and neat.

Have you guys ever been to China before? What are you looking forward to doing most in China?

Mene: It will be my first time in China. I’m looking to try real Chinese food and see how the lifestyle is in China.

Athero: I have never been to China. It will be a great experience no matter the outcome of the tournament, and I’m looking forward to it!

Any further thoughts to share with Chinese HotS fans?

Mene: I enjoyed playing vs X-Team at the previous Global Championship. I’m sure it’s going to be great games again, but we are coming to win, so be ready!

Bakery: Elegant is one of the kindest pro players I have met, and I really hope that I can get to spend some more time with him at GCWC!

GCWC Venue - Beijing's Water Cube

Photo Credit: NetEase

This is an interview conducted and translated by NetEase. It is primarily intended for Chinese viewers to get a better sense of Western teams, but NetEase has given the publisher the right to publish for Western audiences as well. The publisher assumes no responsibility for inaccurate information or misrepresentation.

EsportsJohn is a freelance journalist and copyeditor. You can follow him on Twitter or help support him on Patreon.

GCWC Interview with Astral Authority

Posted on by EsportsJohn

NetEase and Blizzard host global Heroes of the Storm tournament GCWC

Photo Credit: NetEase

Table of Contents

Foreward

Written by: EsportsJohn

Passion is enough. Back-to-back regional champions Murloc Geniuses proved this with their zero-to-hero story during the Fall season in North America. Reforming with the “rejects” of other teams, Murloc Geniuses was just a group of guys who were passionate about playing Heroes of the Storm no matter what. Headlined by former Murlocs CauthonLuck and Fury, the team assembled a group of underdogs with a lot of potential and worked as hard as possible for their first championship together. When they beat GFE during the first regional in Burbank to win the championship crown, everyone thought it was a fluke. But then it happened again at PAX. And then again during the North American Nexus Games.

After such huge success, the unsponsored team found themselves booming at a high market value for potential orgs. After some deliberation, Astral Authority ended up snagging the Murlocs after dropping their underperforming roster. Now under the moniker of AA, the boys find themselves not only heading to BlizzCon this week but also invited to the Chinese Gold Club World Championship tournament. The GCWC is a global tournament aimed at pitting the best teams from other major regions against China’s best in a Beijing showdown. Though the tournament is more than a month away, NetEase decided to sit down and get the team’s initial thoughts about being invited to GCWC and some their goals moving forward.

Interview

Via NetEase

Welcome to GCWC! Can you describe your team for Chinese HotS fans? As the strongest team in NA pro scene, are there any particular pressures for you guys?

Jun: Thank you! It is pleasure to be invited to GCWC and compete with the Chinese and other international teams. Also awesome to have a chance to visit Beijing.
We are Astral Authority, a professional Heroes of the Storm team representing North America. Our teammates are:

  • cattlepillar – Melee/Ranged Flex & Shotcaller
  • Fury – Tank
  • psalm – Melee Flex
  • CauthonLuck – Ranged Flex
  • Jun – Support
The Astral Authority lineup for GCWC

Photo Credit: NetEase

It is true that we are currently considered the best NA team, but there are still a lot of people who question our ability to compete at a very high level which puts the pressure on our shoulders a bit. During the past two regional qualifiers, we have learned that the best thing to do is not to think about it too much and just play our game.

How does the team work together? How do you train daily? How do you prepare for tournaments?

Jun: Our team works as a ‘team’. Everyone participates in giving their ideas and opinions in order to achieve the best result in whatever we do—although sometimes people get distracted. Everyone is willing to listen to each other, and we trust that all of our individual players are doing the best they can to bring the team to the next level.

We scrim about six hours per day every week and have one off day. Outside of team practices, we’re free to do whatever we want, but usually we just play more games to improve our own individual mechanics.

The day before tournaments, we make a game plan by going through every map and every possible draft situation that might happen. Also, we go through the general mindset and gameplay we should have for each according opponent.

What was the original intention behind forming the team? What’s your biggest advantage?

Jun: I think you could say that most of our team was formed by players that were either ‘kicked’ or ‘not wanted’ from other present teams. One story that lot of people know is about Fury, our tank player: we qualified for the BlizzCon by beating Gale Force Esports—the team who kicked Fury. As for me, I wasn’t a known player before I joined Murloc Geniuses (now Astral Authority). After going through a week of tryouts as a support, they trusted my abilities enough to compete professionally with me even though I was inexperienced. I actually attempted to try out for other teams, but I was not able to, probably because I was not a known player.

I think the biggest strengths/advantages are the team’s environment and work ethic rather than the gameplay itself. The reason I say that is that I’ve learned that having a positive environment and being around players who are willing to improve is just as important as individual gaming skills. If a team has those characteristics, regardless if they are doing good or especially bad, they will always work as team to improve. Everyone makes a mistake—there’s no such thing as a perfect player. A great team wins as a team and loses as a team.

What’s the secret to keeping the top rank on the HotS pro stage?

Fury: Continue to practice as much as possible and during your practice time try hard to make sure whatever composition you’re trying will actually work in a tournament. Make sure to also explore different Heroes on specific maps while keeping up on what you think is meta.

How do you feel about taking part in GCWC in China?

Fury: This feels amazing to represent North America in a different region and, personally for me, I love traveling around the world playing video games professionally. I always enjoy the different cultures and how other regions live day to day compared to how my life is.

Any special or interesting things to share with us about your team or players?

Fury: Within two to three months, our team became the first North American team to win two regionals in a row. Jun, our support player, had never played at a LAN event before until our first championship in Burbank.

Murloc Geniuses after their win at the Heroes of the Storm NA Regional at PAX

Photo Credit: ESL

What’s your opinion toward Asian HotS teams? What’s the difference between NA and EU?

Fury: Asian teams for sure play a much more aggressive, coordinated playstyle where they hide somewhere for a long period of time just to get one kill. The difference between NA and EU is that NA is better haha.

Are there any particular teams you want to defeat or any goals you want to achieve at GCWC?

Fury: I want to stomp the EU teams just because of the long rivalry between the two regions. I want to show that NA is the stronger of those two regions. Playing versus any Asian team will be fun and a challenge, so I cannot wait until our team finally has a chance to face one in GCWC.

What do you think of the current metagame?

CauthonLuck: Tanks and bruisers are getting stronger and stronger in the meta with every patch. While triple ranged used to be standard [in compositions], soon it will be only one.

Which team would you consider your rival?

CauthonLuck: Not a real enemy, but GFE is the most different from our team. GFE was able to buy the most well-known and skilled players to try and create a “super team” for BlizzCon. Our team had to recruit players who were not well known but that we judged to have undervalued talent. Before every tournament, nobody gave us any chance compared to GFE; we always felt like David to GFE’s Goliath.

Cauthon, you’re a 32 year-old pro player. Can you share some interesting stories about yourself?

CauthonLuck: My age has made a career in Heroes of the Storm very difficult to establish. Though I had played three other esports games at a pro level and played in every pro Heroes tournament while working at a full-time job, no major team or org in North America was willing to give me a tryout due to my age when I was a free agent four months ago.

I had to start a new team in order to stay in the pro scene. With the help of people who had played with me before, we were able to recruit new talent and create the first team in North America to win back-to-back Regional Championships.

Any further thoughts to share with Chinese HOTS fans?
All: Thanks for inviting the team to represent NA in another opportunity to play on the global stage!

GCWC Venue - Beijing's Water Cube

Photo Credit: NetEase

This is an interview conducted and translated by NetEase. It is primarily intended for Chinese viewers to get a better sense of Western teams, but NetEase has given the publisher the right to publish for Western audiences as well. The publisher assumes no responsibility for inaccurate information or misrepresentation.

EsportsJohn is hyped for BlizzCon, how about you? You can follow him on Twitter or support him on Patreon.

Camino a BlizzCon: un equipo renace [ES]

Posted on by EsportsJohn

Reborn lifts the trophy at the ANZ regional final

Artículo original en Inglés: Road to BlizzCon: A Team Reborn

Traducido por: Saghmare

Tabla de contenido

Provenientes desde muy abajo. Los chicos australianos están de vuelta en acción. Después de separarse y someterse a varios cambios en su alineación, la mayoría de los antiguos miembros de Negative Synergy se han vuelto a unir bajo el nuevo nombre de Reborn para su tercera aparición en un Global Championship – y esta vez, se ven más fuertes que nunca.

Orígenes

Su historia inicia a mediados del 2015 con robadobah, justo después de que Heroes of the Storm fuese lanzado. Team Inmunity era el nombre más grande en los e-sports de la región Australia-Nueva Zelanda (ANZ) y eventualmente adoptaron dos alineaciones: White y Black. En ese tiempo robadobah jugaba en White mientras que daspurtz jugaba en la alineación de Black. White arraso a a través de los clasificatorios Road to Blizzcon del 2015 pero se detuvieron en seco en el Americas Championship 2015. Sin embargo, robadobah no se daría por vencido, había probado la escena internacional y estaba sediento de más.

Durante la calma post-BlizzCon, robadobah y su actual compañero de equipo Sashin iniciarían su búsqueda de crear el “Dream Team” de la región ANZ reclutando a los mejores jugadores bajo un solo nombre. Su primer objetivo fue Daspurtz, quien se había retirado brevemente después de la derrota de Inmunity Black durante los clasificatorios de BlizzCon. Enseguida otro gran nombre de la región Exile5 repentinamente se disolvería dejando a dos de los mejores jugadores flex sin equipo y en espera de ser reclutados, Benjamin94 y Ninja. Una vez que las aguas se calmaron, robadobah pudo cumplir su meta de reunir a lo mejor de lo mejor.

“La primera noche que practicamos con la alineación completa, estuvimos a la altura del nombre “Sinergia Negativa” (Negative Synergy) ya que peleamos y estuvimos en desacuerdo en todo. Pero lo resistimos y logramos llegar a los campeonatos de Primavera y Verano.”

-Benjamin94

Las cosas no marcharon bien al principio – Benjamin94 comenta que las primeras veces que jugaron juntos “peleaban y estaban en desacuerdo en todo”- pero el equipo rápidamente empezó a tomar impulso. Medio año después, Negative Synergy había diezmado sin esfuerzo toda la competencia en ANZ y aterrizarían dos veces en la escena global.

Ejecución y reformación de Negative Synergy en 2016

Durante la temporada de primavera, Negative Synergy paso fácilmente los clasificatorios regionales con un récord total de 15-1. Sin embargo su dominio no se traducía tan bien en la escena global. Fallaron en pasar la primera fase de grupos con una puntuación 2-4 en el campeonato global de primavera en Seúl, Corea del Sur. Tuvieron una fuerte actuación en contra del equipo filipino Renovatio 1 pero fueron aplastados por EDward Gaming y Team Naventic en sus mejores momentos. Esto no fue algo inusual- ningún equipo de región menor ha podido vencer a las regiones mayores, más sin embargo fue decepcionante.

Negative Synergy at the Heroes of the Storm Spring Global Championship

La temporada de verano fue aun peor. Dejando de lado el hecho de que quedaran invictos durante los clasificatorios regionales, se comenzaron a formar grietas en la alineación de Negative Synergy. “Era bastante obvio… en su actuación en Suecia- se percibieron peores resultados que en Corea”, comentó Arcaner, miembro de Reborn. En el campeonato global, tuvieron unos juegos muy osados en contra de X-Team y Renovatio 1 y fueron sacados en la fase de grupos 1-4. Después de una actuación tan pobre, estaba claro que se necesitaban algunos cambios.

“Básicamente, como cualquier equipo de e-sports , Negative Synergy tuvo problemas internos durante toda la temporada de verano de HotS… así que después de que regresaron de Suecia, todos se separaron y esencialmente se volvieron agentes libres. Negative Synergy ya no existía de este punto en delante.”

-Arcaner

El equipo se separó completamente después de volver del Summer Global Championship, creando un pequeño apocalipsis de alineaciones en ANZ. Se empezaron a construir muchos nuevos equipos alrededor de los antiguos miembros de Negative Synergy, incluyendo uno centrado en robadobah, Sashin y el jugador flex Arcaner. Sin embargo nada parecía mantenerse firme. La mayoría de los equipos tuvieron actuaciones decepcionantes en los torneos regionales King of the Hill y los antiguos compañeros de Negative Synergy empezaron a gravitar hasta estar juntos de nuevo.

Al final, todos excepto por Sashin terminaron reunidos. El equipo probaría a Arcaner para el rol de jugador flex y este demostró ser más que capaz de cubrir el lugar de Sashin. Pese a jugar asesinos en sus equipos anteriores, Arcaner admitió tener interés en otros roles también: “mi rol principal y favorito cuando juego solo es soporte… puedo cubrir un montón de Héroes jaja.” El equipo adopto un nuevo nombre -The Boys- para conmemorar su amistad grupal.

“Un nombre muy elaborado lleva a callejones sin salida jaja. Es algo para lo que no somos muy talentosos por lo que solo nos apegamos a lo que creíamos que representaba la atmósfera del equipo. Terminamos con la oportunidad de cambiarlo a Reborn, que seria suficiente para un equipo profesional de HotS. The Boys era demasiado informal.”

–Arcaner

Durante las siguientes semanas, The Boys tomaron los torneos regionales por sorpresa y se veían tan fuertes, si no es que más, que el original Negative Synergy. Después de que se anunciaron los clasificatorios Road to Finals, The Boyz decidió cambiar su nombre a Reborn para tener un titulo más profesional y al mismo tiempo más acorde a ellos. Sashin empezó a reconstruir Negative Synergy con una nueva alineación y pronto los dos equipos se volverían rivales.

Los clasificatorios Road to Finals fueron relativamente sencillos para Reborn. Solo perdieron un juego en contra de Negative Synergy antes de reencontrarse cara a cara en la final. Fue una pelea decente, pero la resistente fuerza mecánica de Reborn subyugo al renovado Negative Synergy y catapulto a los dos veces contendientes mundiales a la escena global una vez más.

Perfiles de los jugadores

robadobah

robadobah at DreamHack Summer

En el rol de tanque, Robert Purling “robadobah” es una roca para anclar al equipo. Es el alma, y a menudo es la voz de la razón para mantener la agresión de sus compañeros de equipo a raya. Si el equipo comienza a fallar, las palabras de robadobah son las que los mantienen tranquilos y unidos.

Se inclina a un enfoque más cauteloso y oportunista de las peleas en equipo, pero no tiene miedo de sumergirse en lo profundo si es necesario. Tiene un muy flexible repertorio de héroes. Su elección, desde la presencia constante de Johanna hasta el potencial de enganches de Anub’arak, marca el ritmo para que el equipo lo siga.

Benjamin94

Benjamin94 at DreamHack Summer

Si robadobah es una roca, entonces Benjamin Vinante-Davies “Benjamin94” es el pegamento que mantiene todo unido. El es el líder del equipo tanto dentro como fuera del juego, guiándolos a la victoria. Pese a que Reborn no tiene un shotcaller designado, los jugadores apuntan a que el sea quien tome las decisiones para el equipo.

Benjamin94 no tuvo mucho éxito durante el 2015 como algunos otros jugadores, pero su desorbitante flexibilidad finalmente rindió frutos y fue apreciada en Negative Synergy. Usualmente juega el rol de tanque secundario o asesino melé para Reborn pero su gran repertorio lo lleva a adaptarse a literalmente cualquier composición. Juega una atemorizante Kerrigan, pero no tiene miedo de llegar a los personajes más elásticos como Tassadar o Sylvanas para llenar espacios vacíos.

Daspurtz

Daspurtz at DreamHack Summer

Photo Credit: DreamHack

La linea trasera se mantiene unida por Zac Peters “Daspurtz” en el rol de soporte. En la región ANZ, el ha sido aplaudido como el mejor jugador soporte por mucho. Pese a que el equipo es muy defensivo, es el experto posicionamiento y la meticulosa distribución de habilidades de Daspurtz lo que gana las peleas de equipo.

Como muchos jugadores de soporte, es difícil concretar un héroe principal para Daspurtz. Es bueno con Uther, es bueno con Rehgar, es bueno con Alafeliz, incluso con Auriel. No hay nada en particular en lo que sea malo– el solo los juega todos, y lo hace con un gran nivel de precisión y paciencia.

Arcaner

Arcaner at the ANZ Fall season regional qualifiers

En el lugar de Sachin, Liam Simpson “Arcaner” ha sido un reemplazo -incluso una mejora- en términos de sinergia del equipo. El no tiene la misma agresividad desenfrenada, pero su estilo de juego peculiar y ataques fuera de lo común lo diferencian de la actitud más relajada de sus compañeros de equipo.

Los dedos de Arcaner son rápidos y su mente es aguda; por esto, el puede cubrir una gran variedad de roles en el lapso de una sola serie. En sus equipos anteriores (Fresh y Gust in 5), el típicamente jugaba como asesino del equipo, pero el admite que su preferencia son los soportes. El esta cómodo en muchos héroes de impacto incluyendo a Zagara, Illidan y Tracer, pero no le importa irse atrás y permitir que Ninja o Benjamin94 tomen la iniciativa.

Ninja

Ninja at DreamHack Summer

El engrane más peculiar en la máquina de Reborn es el jugador de rango Shane Ellem “Ninja”. Su enfoque en el macro juego y manejo de oleadas hace maravillas para pescar la ventaja incremental del equipo y hace su estilo de juego único. La manera en que juega es la misma que cualquier otro DPS de rango pero con una mentalidad diferente.

Es mejor conocido por su sobresaliente juego con Falstad. La presencia global de Falstad es una de sus fortalezas y le permite controlar el ritmo del juego; además de eso, casi nunca desperdicia el uso de las ráfagas imponentes. Recientemente, se dio a conocer como un muy creativo Medivh lo que le ha dado atención y que sera algo para tener en cuenta.

Estilo de juego

Para la reformada alineación, unidad es lo mas importante. “Pienso que lo que hace especial a Reborn es que sentamos bases en la amistad,” dijo Arcaner respecto al equipo “somos un equipo de, mecánicamente buenos jugadores que disfrutamos de la compañía de todos especialmente fuera de la practica del equipo,” añadió ademas.

En una conversación con el conocido caster de ANZ Disconcur, estuvo en acuerdo e hizo notar que los lazos de mucho tiempo son lo que ha mantenido al equipo unido durante casi dos años. Lo que sea que pase en BlizzCon, la alineación de Reborn es una de las mas cohesivas en el mundo y se mantendrán tranquilos bajo la presión.

En general, el estilo de juego del equipo puede considerarse defensivo o pasivo con un enfoque en las pequeñas ventajas marginales. Ellos rara vez se precipitan en las peleas por el bien de la lucha y están mas que dispuestos a permitir que un objetivo o una estructura se vaya con el fin de intercambiar una ventaja mas grande, pero eso no quiere decir que no tengan lo necesario para respaldar sus peleas en equipo.

El equipo en su conjunto tiene bastante conocimiento mecánico. Arcaner alardeo que “tienen una ventaja mecánica sobre varios equipos internacionales”, incluyendo equipos de NA, muchas de las regiones pequeñas e incluso, la potencia de EU Fnatic. Sin embargo las mecánicas no lo son todo.

“Pero las mecánicas te llevan lejos. Nuestra debilidad es que apenas practicamos en comparación con las otras regiones. Tenemos extensos compromisos de la vida real y nos limitan en términos de opciones y bloques de practicas en ANZ. Los demás equipos que irán a BlizzCon harán muchos juegos de practica por lo que tendrán una ventaja sobre nosotros en ese aspecto.”

-Arcaner

Como en otras regiones menores, el sueño de ser un jugador profesional de tiempo completo es distante para los jugadores de ANZ. El dinero y la exposición son difíciles de conseguir a través de videojugar, y las buenas opciones de practicas están limitadas para su remota ubicación en el mundo. “Creo que tenemos algunos problemas con nuestras opciones de practica, shotcalling, macro, etc. Los otros equipos podrán bisar juegos de practica, así que ellos tienen una ventaja sobre nosotros en ese aspecto”, lamento Arcaner. Pese a tener la ventaja mecánica, Reborn tendrá una dura batalla contra los equipos bien preparados en BlizzCon.

Dirigiéndose a BlizzCon

Sin embargo, el equipo permanece optimista. Dentro de los equipos de regiones menores que irán a la BlizzCon, Reborn sienten que son sin duda el mejor. Se sienten seguros y que tienen una fuerte posibilidad contra algunas de las principales regiones del mundo.

No hay duda en que Corea es mas fuerte de lo que nunca ha sido, pero muchas de las otras grandes regiones han decaído un poco. Dos de los equipos mas fuertes y mas consistentes de NA durante todo el año, no irán a BlizzCon -aunque eso no quiere decir que Murloc Geniuses y Denial eSports no sean suficientes para representar NA- y los grandes equipos de China, eStar y EDG, se fragmentaron en prácticamente nada.

Robadobah at DreamHack Summer

Photo Credit: DreamHack

”Pienso que tenemos mejores jugadores que Denial, Murloc Geniuses, Super Perfect Team, los demás en las regiones menores y tal vez Fnatic,” afirmo orgullosamente Arcaner. Benjamin94 también esta confiado asegurando ”definitivamente podemos llegar a una posición en los mejores 8 si jugamos tan bien como sabemos hacerlo, pero también los cuadros tendrán un gran rol en ello”. Incluso Disconcur dio su voto de confianza a que la región ANZ llegara a los mejores 8, o incluso los mejores 4. “Somos considerados la peor región después del Summer Championship… los equipos no nos verán ni aprenderán de lo que hacemos,” añadió Benjamin94, haciendo alusión a la posibilidad de sorprender a los equipos mas fuertes. En conjunto, tanto el equipo como la región confían en su juego, pero solo los resultados van a darles la razón.

“Nadie espera nada de nosotros, por lo que se sentirá muy bien vencer a algunos equipos muy buenos de las regiones mas avanzadas y mostrarles, ya sabes, que somos buenos jugadores”

–robadobah

Esa es la voluntad que llevo desde Road to BlizzCon 2015 para vencer a las regiones mayores y probar que ANZ es un legitimo competidor en la escena mundial. Esa fue la luz que guio a robadobah, lo convenció de formar un “súper equipo”, y que mantiene a los chicos juntos pese a una ruptura. Ahora es el momento para que Australia brille.

Gracias enormemente a Arcaner, Benjamin94 y Disconcur por permitirme hablar con ellos y ayudarme a aprender mas acerca de la región ANZ. Sin ellos, este articulo no habría sido posible.

I Can Go the Distance: An Interview with Daihuu

Posted on by EsportsJohn

Daihuu onstage at ESL Burbank

Photo Credit: ESL

For me, interviews are a chance to meet people and get to know them better. Not everyone can afford to go to events and meet the pros and the casters in person, so—like me—the best they can do is watching streams or following their favorite players on Twitter. We don’t get that face-to-face time that really allows us to meet people as friends, family, equals. There is so much more to people than their onstage persona or the avatar they play as, and I want to share that with others.

With that in mind, Daihuu seemed like a perfect candidate for an interview. Daihuu has been on several all-star teams including Resurgence, Afro Doge, and now Vox Nihili, and has really separated himself from the pack with outstanding tank plays. On top of that, he’s legitimately one of the most chill guys to talk to via Twitter, Skype, etc., and I greatly admire his drive and determination to become the best player he can be.

On Personal

I notice that you’re pretty vocal in old interviews. Do you just have a lot of opinions?

Yeah, when people ask me questions, I just flood them with all the things I’d like to say about the topic. Since I’m so quiet, not a lot of people ask me things, you know? So when they do I’m just like: omg, here—have everything. I also just love talking about games so there’s that.

Hahaha I see. Delving into your past interviews, you’ve mentioned that you’re a very emotional player. Do you think that impacts your play negatively?

I think it definitely used to prior to joining Vox. I started playing competitively when I was 18, and right when I started, I discovered I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. At the start of my career, the stress of playing and the constant mood switches heavily hit me on a mental level. I was super down on myself all the time. I would take it out on my teammates by griefing them with random unprovoked passive aggressive comments, and I had no confidence in my performance. From Lunatik to, I’d say Squirtle Squad, I wasn’t as good of a teammate as I could’ve been.

But then I really started taking the time to learn myself. I would record logs of when I would switch moods, what were the triggers, and how to handle myself when I switched to a specific mood. Bipolar Disorder, if not treated properly, is really hard to play competitively with. Imagine one day you can play to your heart’s content like you know you can: you’re landing every skill shot, you can see everyone on the map, you can predict movements and call all the shots. But then the next day comes and now you’re sluggish, you feel like you’re the worst player in the world, and nothing is going right for you…but then you go back to having an extremely good time [later]. That’s the struggle with playing with this. But now that I’ve grown and have had help from Zoos, I think, emotionally, I don’t get impacted as much as I used to. I’m more focused on the game now and Zoos helps me get through my issues if I ever have them.

One thing I’ve really learned about myself is to just be quiet after a tournament or a scrim and just empty my mind. Because I get really flustered even now when things aren’t going right. I would like to say I’m very meticulous when it comes to things. If we move to A and B and we’re 3 levels up, but we move to C and it goes horribly, I get out of place because C should’ve worked, and then I start losing track of things. By emptying my mind, or meditating after a game, I reset myself and am able to focus on learning or winning.

My mood swings are very very frequent. But luckily I’m still around and I’m finally able to conquer it.

I understand exactly what that’s like, that stuff is difficult. As for your playstyle, you’ve pretty much always been a Warrior player ever since alpha. What was it about the role that drew you to it?

I was actually forced into it when I first joined haha. I was looking to play Support for my very first team but no one wanted to play Warrior so I ended up doing it. Then I started really learning the role and realized it fit me really well. I like taking charge and leading my team through fights. I’m a very observant person, so I can feel [the] cooldowns of the enemy team and my own team (i.e. something like: Medivh has no portal, kill him! Or our healer has Cleanse, still keep going!). I’m a huge huge huge fan of ganking and teamfights. Those two things are the reason why I play this game as much as I do. The fact that Heroes enables me to play to my strengths as well as I do now makes me really happy, haha.

One of the things that always interests me is how progamers balance their progaming career with their daily life (school, work, etc.). Did you go to school while playing? Do you work a day job?

Yeah, so early last year I was working a full time job on top of playing. I actually lacked a lot of sleep due to this haha. But then I started getting more and more issues with my disorder and ended up dropping everything for a few months. I quit my job, I stopped playing competitively, and I just laid in my bed depressed all day for a solid month. Thankfully, my mom, stepdad, and my girlfriend supported me through this, despite just dropping my entire life. After that month, I started showing signs of life again and made an effort to do the things I really wanted to do, so I rejoined the Heroes scene, I went to classes for my GED, and I worked part time when I could. Not all at the same time, of course; I took all these steps very very slowly, but that was the order I started to do those things.

As for present day, let’s see. I currently do not work anymore, as my job relocated. However, I’ve obtained my GED! I currently just play Heroes full time until either this kicks off or a job calls me back. Then I’ll balance work and Heroes once more until I can live my passion of playing professionally full time without worry.

So you plan on staying in esports indefinitely if possible? Do you have a job or profession in mind if you don’t?

Yeah, that’s the dream, right? Haha. If progaming doesn’t end up working, I would love to be a sports psychologist or a motivational speaker. I have a passion for getting people to smile even when they’re down (even while I’m down, for that matter lol), and being able to do that for a job is something I see being very realistic in my future. My life doesn’t end when I stop being a pro, you know? I feel like people have this misconception that taking time away from school or working at a young age—I’m 20—is wasting time away from your life. But life is what you make it, right? You gotta do the things you can while you can.

I had this existential crisis when I dropped everything for that month. It was wondering how life worked and why we got up everyday to go to work, slaving at a 9-5 and either being happy about life or extremely unhappy, right? It got me thinking if I was wasting my life doing nothing. Then I thought about Indian people who immigrated to the U.S. who own convenience stores. Those people are extremely hard working, and I can’t praise them enough for being able to start a store, do what they gotta do to live, and be happy because they’re doing something with their lives.

Daihuu meditating between games at ESL Burbank

Photo Credit: ESL

The reason I’m bringing this up is because they started generally from nothing, and despite all the turmoil they could’ve faced after years and years of stress and wondering if they could survive the next day, they end up [surviving] and becoming successful. That crisis actually made me realize: just put in the time, do what you can do, and at the end of the day, as long as you know you tried your very best—whether it’s practicing as much as you can or studying all night or working as hard as you can—you can be happy with what you’ve accomplished.

Absolutely. What are your personal goals as a progamer?

I think an obvious answer that everyone will say is that they wanna be the best in their region or in the world, which is obviously one of my goals as well. However, my goal is more [about] fame and glory. I want to be recognized as that play making Warrior player in NA. I want people to be like, “Yo Daihuu on (insert random team name)? Yooo, that’s such a good pick up omg. What a great tank!” Sure, money and being called the best is great, but being acknowledged for being world class is truly all I want in being a pro.

On Teams

You’ve been on…A LOT of teams throughout your Heroes career. What would you say are the qualities for good teammates?

I’m really glad you asked that. I think for a game as team-intensive as Heroes, you really need to like everyone on your team. You don’t have to see eye to eye on everything, but you do need to be able to tolerate them and be able to put the team’s success over your own quarrels. A good teammate will pick you up in-game when you’re down. If you start feeding your ass off and have that inevitable hatred of self-pity, someone—it doesn’t have to be everyone, but someone—has to be like, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it, we’re still okay/still even/ahead. Don’t worry, we got this.” This actually happened in our Road to BlizzCon match when I was on Panda Global vs Team Blaze. It was 1-1 and I burrowed on Anub past their fort wall and just randomly died. I legit tilted my ass off after that and Zoos was the one to be like “Daihuu, it’s fine. Pick it up, we’re gonna win.” and he brought my morale back up.

I think another good quality to have is the work ethic. This might sound weird, but a team needs to have the same goals in mind, and with that goal comes the work ethic. You can say, “Oh, I wanna be the best in the world” but only play an hour or two a day. If you and your team put in the hours needed to be good, then it’ll show in tournaments. And the final trait that comes to my head at this time is the perseverance. Teams take about a month to fully flesh out, and throughout that time you’ll go through a bunch of trouble. But if you endure that and you like everyone on your team, you’ll go far. Let’s take my team, for example. We formed a month before Burbank qualifiers, we managed to qualify and get top 4, right? PAX comes around, we did a roster swap, and we end up not qualifying at all. Despite all that, we’re still together, and we even added Zoos back to the roster to bring back that top 4 team that showed at Burbank.

On the flip side, you left Panda Global about a year ago because of “toxicity”. Have you experienced an environment that bad since then?

Before I answer that, David and Alan [the owners] from Panda Global did nothing but positive things for the team and me, and I’m truly grateful to have met them and blessed to have my first contract with them. They’re a great group of dudes, and PG has gotten better and better after my time with them. To answer the question though, no, I don’t think so. There are a few times on random teams that got too tense for no reason due to egos or people not seeing eye to eye, but nothing got as bad as PG.

So let me explain more as to why PG was toxic. The team on PG wasn’t like [trash] talking each other every day or anything that negative. We just started getting worse and worse results, and from the result of that, [we] just stopped trusting each other. Lex and I actually didn’t like each other at some point. He and I would bicker so much for no reason—one, due to my immaturity, and two, due to how everything was going wrong with the team. Obviously, now Lex and I have great respect for each other, but back then noooo, haha. We would play a scrim, and mid scrim we would either just passive aggressively make comments at each other or just bicker after the game. Now scrims are two hour blocks generally, and you can fit three to four games in those two hours…so you’d get two hours of us going back and forth every 30 minutes. Nowadays though, it’s really chill. I truly respect Todd (LexUther) as a player and think he’s one of the best Supports in NA—and if we ever bicker, it’s constructive and purely to get better.

Good to hear that things weren’t that bad. I think a lot of young teams suffer from that sort of attitude, especially when you’re gathering a bunch of young guys who haven’t had much experience working together on a team.

Yeah, after leaving PG, I really learned a lot from that experience and, though I regret all the negative things I did, I’m glad I was able to learn from it.

I first started paying close attention to you on Resurgence back in the day, and I thought you had potential to be one of the best tank players in the scene. Unfortunately, RSG didn’t think so at the time…can you run through your thoughts about being kicked from the team?

Being on Resurgence for the first week or two, I was actually really confident in my ability to improve. However, things started dwindling really fast for me. I lost my confidence, and I felt like I kept getting judged on every little thing I did. I actually lost confidence in a game every time I missed a Storm Bolt on Muradin. It was really crippling my performance and it showed in scrims. Now, if you asked me this the week after I got kicked, I hated the hell out of them. But if you ask me now, I don’t blame them. You gotta do what you gotta do to win, you know? If I’m not performing then hell, Fury definitely will.

Nowadays, I don’t really have any negative feelings towards any of the players from RSG. I was blessed to be able to play with Equinox, Kilick, Ryxie, and Shot, and I was able to learn so much from them during my time there.

Oh I’m dumb, it was RES, right? Or was it? I always get it confused with the Singapore team Resurgence.

It was RES. RSG sounds way better though.

Yeah, I remember we had a meltdown on what name we wanted to do, and we were just like, “Eh, let’s hope Singapore’s RSG doesn’t mind.” We didn’t make the name up until like a few hours before a roster lock, if I recall correctly.

Let’s talk a bit about Vox now. Vox Nihili came out of left field for the first NA Fall regional. Why do you think that the team suddenly became so strong?

I think there are two reasons as to why we were so good at Burbank. So the first one is how much time we put into the game. We spent nearly every day during qualifiers and heading into the event just breathing Heroes. Here was a daily schedule for me: I’d wake up, do whatever I needed to do, play Hero League by myself or with Zoos for three to four hours. [Then] take a break and watch replays of any performances I thought I did badly [in]. Then scrims came around for four hours, six if we were feeling frisky that week. Then we’d do team VoD review for an hour or two, and then people would either sleep at this point, chill, or play solo queue at night. We put so much time in, and we were able to luckily reap the rewards at Burbank.

Vox Nihili onstage at ESL Burbank

Photo Credit: ESL

Secondly, I think a huge part of our success was our trust in each other. We have a really good dynamic where we don’t micro [manage] each other. Let’s say an opportunity arises where we can do a Gust play into a Mosh, right? I won’t tell Hosty. “Gust them into the wall, and I’ll Mosh them.” He’ll tell me he’s about to Gust and I’ll Mosh right after. I see the opportunity for him to Gust, but I don’t have to tell him. I trust him and everyone else on my team to be able to do things like that. If someone says go, even if it’s bad, we will all listen to the call.

Aside from Vox, have there been any other teams you’ve been on that you thought could go the distance and shake up the NA scene?

Yeah, obviously Resurgence with Ryxie, Shot, Kilick, Equinox, and me. Hmm, what else…. Team Banana with Tigerjk, Haeun, Skullkid, Jun and I. We had a super stacked random team called Afro Doge with Khroen, HaoNguyen, Tigerjk, Jun and me. I think that’s about it though.

I notice a lot of Jun in there. A lot of people didn’t know Jun Jang before Murloc Geniuses’ sudden rise to prominence in the last two regionals, but you’ve been playing with him off and on for a long time, haven’t you? Do you think he deserves the “god tier” title people have been giving him? :p

Haha, he’s so good! To answer your question, yes, because he [works] extremely hard and does everything he can do to have that title. People don’t know this, but prior to playing with Tiger for the first time on, I believe Bang Bang?, he never spoke. Tiger actually molded him to talk more and be so active in his communication. And you can see it’s working now with his current team. I’m super happy for him. I always told him he was gonna be one of the best in NA—hell, even the world. And now he has two titles to prove it!

Do you think the long-term dominance of Cloud9 and Tempo Storm had an impact on the amateur/up and coming teams in North America in 2015? Do you think some of those issues have been solved in 2016?

That’s an interesting question, I personally don’t think C9/TS had an impact on rising stars, but I can definitely see the argument behind it. You see C9 randomly form, automatically get #2 in NA, then after a sudden rise in play, become the best team in NA for like what, a year, right? It’s very daunting to see players like iDream be so good, while someone like me has to put hella work to be able to play as well as he can. So I can definitely see how that could be a thing.

Daihuu at ESL Burbank

Photo Credit: ESL

I actually don’t think the scene started getting better until the Rosterpocalypse. During the C9/TS reign and even a little bit now to this day, all the players that were being put on good teams were just recycled from the list of other notable good teams. But due to the Rosterpocalypse, it caused all the talent to split up, for the most part, and form all these amazing teams: Denial, Murloc Geniuses, Naventic, Gale Force eSports. Fun fact: Astal Authority (King of Blades [Alpha] back in the day) is the only team I’ve seen from the C9/TS days that was able to make a splash on the scene from nothing. They were amateur players that ended up mauling other teams to be a top 8 team. So yeah, [in] 2016 it’s been a lot better, and I think NA is stronger than it’s ever been.

Interesting. A lot of people would contend that NA is weaker than it’s ever been, at least on a world scale.

Hmm, maybe I worded it wrong. Before NA only had two good teams: C9 and TS. But now we have MG, Denial, NVT, GFE, Astral. I’d have to agree though I think Korea and China really stepped up with their play and they’re probably the best regions.

[Revised statement:] So yeah, [in] 2016 it’s been a lot better, and I’m glad we have more teams being able to play at a top caliber level in NA.*

On the Game

Right now, a lot of people are saying that first pick (FP) has always had an advantage during drafting. Do you agree with this argument, or do you think it’s largely meta-dependent?

I’m not that involved in drafting, so I feel like my answer isn’t going to be good of good input. However, I do agree that FP has a huge advantage during draft. I recall in Burbank, after we lost a coin flip to determine if we were first or second pick, we would huddle up for a second and be like, “Okay, what maps should we pick for second pick?” Because some maps just have the worst [possible] time being second, and other maps slightly elevate it to a closer chance of SP winning. Even the Korean match that occurred recently (SPOILER) ended up in a 3-2 where first pick won the series.

How do you account for MasterLeague.net’s near 50% win rate over 6 months of data though?

I actually don’t have a good answer to that question, but I will say if both teams are performing well that day, I feel FP has an advantage. FP doesn’t have an advantage if one team is choking extremely hard or not performing (i.e., GFE vs Denial at PAX, us vs MG in top 4 at Burbank).

Blizzard is trying out something new with this Nexus Games tournament before BlizzCon. What are your thoughts on it?

I’m so glad, haha. Prior to the Nexus Games, there was a big period of time in between the last qualifier and Worlds that had nothing for teams that didn’t make it to Worlds. So if you didn’t qualify, you’d sit around for like three months doing nothing and practicing just to kill time. I’m really glad Blizzard is stepping up and giving pros more things to do who didn’t make it.

Do you think the onus is on Blizzard to provide more opportunities, or do you think we should fill these gaps with more community tournaments like SolidJake’s Bloodlust tournament?

I think if Blizzard didn’t step in for the Nexus Games, then it’d be on us, the community, to produce tournaments for the pros to play in. Let’s look at how the two big name MOBAs do it, okay? [The] League of Legends scene is 100% all Riot’s doing. They host the LCS, they host Worlds, everything is on their end of things. Meanwhile [for] Dota 2, outside of The International, [everything] is community-based with Valve outsourcing their casters for the community. The HotS scene is kind of in the middle of the two, with Heroes United and regional qualifier stuff, so I think it’s a shared responsibility on both Blizzard and us to help the pros out.

Do you have any particular criticisms about the state of the game, matchmaking, balance, etc.?

Yeah, I truly wish Hero League wasn’t as annoying as it is right now. I love PPL (shoutout to Panda Pro League), but sometimes I just wanna listen to music and work on my mechanics instead of talking to people all the time. I think there’s a few Heroes that could be reworked to be better: Artanis feels clunky, [and] Dehaka has random delays on his spells and can’t unburrow himself, for whatever reason. But balance is really good other than that. I actually believe Heroes is heading in the right direction finally, and I’m really excited to see what’s in store for the future.

[On Artanis:] I don’t know why he can’t just cancel his Q at any time or why he has to stop in place when he swaps people, but something has to change.

Wrap-up

If you could go back to the beginning of 2015, would you change the course of your progaming career?

No, I don’t think so. All the things that occurred at the start of 2015 really allowed me to mature and be the person that I am today. Let’s hypothetically say I just got on an amazing, great team at the start of my career. right? I think I’ll just end up being an asshole and a bad teammate. I got to understand myself so much from my humble beginning, and I really don’t wanna forget it.

Daihuu and GOAT celebrating their victory over Gale Force eSports at ESL Burbank

Photo Credit: ESL

I went from a no-name to one of the most well known tanks in NA, from zero to Hero—from human Hercules in the Disney movie to being able to climb on Mount Olympus with KingCaff and Fury hahaha.

Any last statements? Do you have any shoutouts for teammates, fans, or supporters?

Yeah. First off, huge shoutouts to my fans and the Heroes community. I would not be here today if it wasn’t for ya’ll. Shoutouts to my team and Zoos especially for shaping me to become the player I am today. Shoutouts to my girlfriend Basheerah for being my rock, my high school sweetheart; she’s shaped me to be the man I am today. Shoutouts to my family—my mom, my sister Ly and my brother Lam for being my “parents” while my dad went to work and the love they’ve shown me unconditionally. Shoutouts to my dad as well, I know he’s up there in the sky proud of me. And thank you for interviewing me!

EsportsJohn remembers like a few years ago when every other guy was named Jason and all the girls were Britney. You can follow him on Twitter or support him on Patreon.