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CWoosH banters about the Atlantic Showdown: “If it’s still GOATs meta at the showdown … good luck NA, you will definitely need it.”

Volamel 2019-03-15 04:22:29
  Former professional players that transition into being coaches bring a certain perspective that players can relate to. Johan "CWoosH" Klingestedt, former main tank for the Florida Mayhem, is now the head coach of the Paris Eternal’s academy team, Eternal Academy. The coach spoke to Esports Heaven about his time with the Mayhem, his transition into coaching, and how Eternal Academy plan on bouncing back.
When the Florida Mayhem chose to release R2der from their coaching staff you commended them saying this was “one of the best decisions Mayhem has done.” Could you elaborate more on what you meant by that? I think the decision to let R2der go will benefit Mayhem in the long run, R2der was not coach material, he didn’t put effort into it. He would sit alt-tabbed during scrims for example. By removing R2der, Mayhem has one less problem to worry about. You mentioned in a TwitLonger that from day one you were interested in coaching. What were the motivating factors that push you over the edge and made you think that this was the right time to transition and start your coaching career? There were a lot of factors making me transition into coaching. When I got back home from the states I had a couple of trials, I didn’t make the cut. I hadn’t played consistently for weeks and I just realized that I’m tired of playing, I don't have it in me anymore to sit and play 8-10 hours a day. Coaching is way different; it's thinking about the game, developing strategies and building team dynamics. It’s completely different compared to playing which is refreshing for me and has made me more passionate about the game. Speaking of, congratulations on becoming the head coach of the Paris Eternal’s academy team, Eternal Academy. Could you walk us through how you landed the position and how your current roster came to be? Thank you! It’s amazing to be given this opportunity. Well, there was a trial period for both coaches and players. Trialing as a coach is different compared to a player, as you can imagine. I focused on being myself and showed what knowledge I have about the game. When the trial period was over, I was selected as Head Coach of Eternal Academy, and my job from there was to select players for the roster with help from Paris Eternal. You’ve coached both Team Gigantti and, your current team, Eternal Academy. What have been some of the major differences between the two teams? What lessons have you learned from each team? Huge differences. Gigantti was already an established team when I joined. They had played with each other for months already, so their synergy and teamwork was really good. In this meta, teamwork is everything, individual plays don’t matter as much. From Gigantti I learned a lot about GOATS, the more “punishing mistakes” style, NYXL style if you will. Going into Eternal Academy, every single player is new to each other. (almost) First priority is to get on the same page, have a comm structure that works for this team. What I have learned so far from Paris is that communication and teamwork is key, can’t get anywhere without it. In your match against Samsung Morning Stars, both teams featured a considerable amount of Ashe on Oasis. Is this a trend you expect to see more of? Could it possibly even bleed over into the Overwatch League? Maybe, it’s hard to say. In general, you can see more DPS comps on KOTH maps. The idea is that you win [the] first fight, snowball [the] second fight with ults, and hopefully, you will get 99 % and then get a clean swap to goats and only need 1 fight to win the point. Ashe is strong on Oasis due to high grounds and BOB on point. Also, we have Kensi! Something that we are seeing a considerable amount in the Overwatch League is Sombra, so much so that some experts are pointing towards a possible meta shift. What is your take on the popularity of Sombra in the Overwatch League? I think Sombra can be good in some instances. The way DDing plays it for Shanghai is really good—more of a team Sombra, pressures shield and is in the fights more. I view Sombra as kind of a crutch, you should get a team fight win of an EMP, unless the enemy team outplays you. But say you get that team fight win with EMP. What happens next fight? Sombra will try and farm her EMP, but she is against a full GOATs team that can just run over your Reinhardt since you have no D.Va to peel. If you get a good ult rotation with a Sombra composition, it can be good. But I think a practiced GOATs team will beat it out. This season of Overwatch Contenders Europe is stacked with talent. With that said, Eternal Academy has dropped its first two games of the season. What have been the major lessons learned so that the team can bounce back and finish the season strong? We have tried a lot of different things, DPS comps, GOATs, different rotations. Now it’s about refinement. Picking and choosing our strategies depending on the map we play. The great thing about this team is that everyone is eager to learn and just soaks up information like a sponge. All we need is time. Time to build teamwork, synergy, and coordination. The prize every Contenders team seems to be aiming for is a ticket to their regions showdown event. Would you say that is number one on your priority list and do you think Eternal Academy is in striking distance to do so? Of course! Winning is what every team wants to do and to go to LAN to prove themselves. It’s high up on our list and we will do what we can to reach it. A lot of hard work ahead of us but we can get there with time and effort The banter level seems to be increasing in North America quite a bit and we haven’t heard much from Europe in that sense, so I wanted to hear your thoughts on how well you think Europe will do at the Atlantic Showdown. Do you think North America has a chance? Haha, I am all for the bants. It makes it more spicy and fun to watch. If it’s still GOATs meta at the showdown … good luck NA, you will definitely need it.
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.
 

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