written by volamel

Bouncing back after their middling Overwatch Contenders Season 2 performance, the British Hurricane looked dominant in their run through Contenders Trials Season 2. Now on a seven game streak, the Hurricane aim to continue their storm through Contenders Season 3. And at the center of it all is head coach and former Overwatch journalist, Joshua “Elbion” Tuffs, who spoke with Esports Heaven about the team, the upcoming Angry Cup, and Elbion weighs in on the Overwatch World Cup. _____   When it comes to the Angry Cup, who are you guys really looking out for? Any teams in particular?   It should go without saying, but the [Angry] Titans’ themselves are a big concern. You don’t get to Contenders finals without being pretty darn good at Overwatch. They’ll likely be our biggest competition. Samsung is a dark horse of sorts. They’ve got a really solid roster. Veteran experience, young firepower, and a solid org behind them. I’m hoping to see them in Contenders.   I know you’ve been quite outspoken about third party event for Contenders and Trials teams, is the Angry Cup something you’d like to see teams take and expand on?   I think at the moment I’m with the majority that would like to see more third party events for tier-two teams. Not every team is run by a tournament organizer like Angry Titans are, so you can’t expect them to put on their own events. But organizations like ELeague, Gamescom, IEM getting back into the Overwatch scene would be fantastic. Especially if they bring us more LAN events. The more stage experience we can give to tier-two players the better.   Now that you’ve been in the coaching game for a while, and with your previous experience you’ve had in other esports titles, what setbacks or issues have you faced specifically in Overwatch?   Overwatch has been a different world for me, just because of the added responsibility I’ve taken on in teams. I was always just an analyst, or coaching in relatively small leagues. But now there’s a lot of added pressure just from the attention I receive working with an academy team.   With the game itself, it’s been interesting to see how massively the meta can change with a single hero being added. It can be stressful from a pro team perspective when you’ve got to adapt so massively, sometimes so quickly. But it’s normal for how few heroes are in the game right now. In a few years when there are more heroes, each new one will have less and less drastic impact to the meta.   The British Hurricane has been really hitting the pavement hard with Trials and the practice shows! On the flip side, a majority of your Trials games were streamed does all of the publicity worry you at all?   We didn’t really have a choice. When you go from champions to in Trials, you’ve got to figure your shit out. Luckily we had a couple of months to work, and we’ve made a ton of progress. I’m proud of where we are now compared to where we ended the last season. It was fun to show it off with a nice clean 7-0 sweep of Trials.   The stream didn’t worry me all that much. My job on an academy team is first and foremost to prepare my boys to compete at an Overwatch League level, so they one day leave this team for OWL. The matches being streamed give all my players a chance to be seen. And as silly as it sounds, their plays making the front page of Reddit is good for them.   The only worry from the majority of our matches being streamed is that other Trials teams would see our strategies and prepare counter-strats. Luckily, as the results showed, nobody did.   Do you have any expectations or goals you'd like to personally meet in Contenders Season 3? Any goals for the team itself?   I’m working on myself for sure. I’m still new at this, and I’ve got an insane amount to work on before I’ll be happy with my coaching. I feel bad my boys have to suffer through it alongside me, but they’ve been very good to me.   For the team though, I’m not alone in thinking that anything besides another trophy isn’t enough. We’re preparing to win this season. End of discussion.   One thing I’ve seen a bit more in Trials was the use of Soldier 76. What really pushed him over the edge and do you expect that he’ll be used more often globally or is this more of a European pick?   Brigitte McCree as a duo came into the spotlight as a comp that can having winning matchups against dive. Double stuns gives plenty of lockdown to punish Sombra and Doomfist’s who overstep their bounds. The big burst heal and armor from Brig can save her allies from being executed.   Tanks is the natural counter to Brig McCree. But on maps that are too open, or with too many chances for environmental kills, tanks can suck. So Brig McCree becomes a very powerful comp as it can beat the only other real option, which is dive.   But replacing McCree with a Soldier 76 means you have a winning mirror match. [Soldier] 76 has higher shield DPS, which means he breaks the enemy shields before the McCree does, and in a deathball style comp where tank HP is so important, the extra 200 HP from 76’s Biotic Station makes a significant difference.   This was all before 1.29, where Soldier got a significant buff which increases his mid-long range damage by quite a lot. So now Soldier is still in a good position. He’s fast, self sufficient-ish, and now has really solid damage. I definitely expect him to be more than just a European pick.   Last but not least, any crazy Overwatch World Cup predictions or are we just going full United Kingdom all the way?   I might be working with a British team, but I’m not British myself. So I’m not crazy enough to think the UK are tournament favorites. Sorry to my three Hurricane boys on the roster.   Really the only crazy thing this year is I could imagine a situation where multiple teams win. South Korea, France, Finland all have very realistic chances. It’s far cry from the last two years where you were insane if you said anything besides Korea. _____   Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel. Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.