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Dino: “I really don’t think using Transcendence as a tempo [play] is a really good idea. It starts to make bad habits […]”

Volamel 2019-03-27 07:22:23
  From Open Division to Contenders and beyond, Hunter "Dino" Traupe has made a name for himself in the North American Overwatch scene. Playing with former amateur powerhouses like Fractal Esports and Last Night’s Leftovers, Dino has plenty of experience when it comes to playing at a relatively high level. He now resides with the Boston Uprising’s academy team, Uprising Academy. Dine took some time away to chat with Esports Heaven about how he got into esports, how Zenyatta’s should be using their ultimates and much more!
I always find it interesting when and with what game people go interested in esports. Where did you first stumble across competitive gaming and esports in general? I played League of Legends for six years and loved watching worlds [and] always wanted to play on stage myself after watching some other tournaments from other games like CS:GO and early Overwatch tournaments. Instead of telling me the boring old story of how you got interested in Overwatch, tell us the story of you explaining to your parents or loved ones that you wanted to pursue esports as a career, I didn’t really tell my parents until I got signed. It was my second year at community college. I told them I was going to be dropping out of college and doing this full time. My mom didn’t think I could make a career out of it at first, but my dad supported me all the way through it regardless of what I wanted to do. Could you share some stories from the 2 a.m. Denny’s runs with your old teammates on Toronto Esports? Do you have any of their orders memorized? If not, what would you normally order? When we went to Denny’s, I don’t really remember what people ordered, except Asking. Whatever he ordered he just said it was so good and wanted more food. I usually got a burger. The only thing that stood out [about] going to Denny's at 2 a.m. was how cold Canada was at night. Let’s dive into Overwatch. Not too long ago, Sideshow put out a ranking of his favorite metagames that we’ve had throughout our fairly short history. What would be your top three metagames and why? My top three would probably start with Dive. [More] than anything with Ana then some of GOATs— anything that lets me play Zenyatta and Ana is meta I can play. I’d rather not play [in a] Mercy Lucio meta, I want to aim, something that I need to aim with, unlike Brigitte players. Recently your team added former professional player MikeyA as an assistant coach to Uprising Academy. What immediate impact has he brought to your team so far? So far MikeyA was a player first then when he transferred to a coaching role it brings another perspective because he was in our shoes so he can relate to some of our strategies and play styles easily. Could you walk me through your week two match against Second Wind? Now that you’ve had some time to sit on the loss, where do you guys think you went wrong? After our first week match, we kinda thought that we could try new things for our next match. Bringing out a lot of new stuff we never tried before against harder teams trying to adapt to their playstyles and habits, but after playing Second Wind that type of play style backfired on us in the end. There has been a recent trend we’ve started to see where Zenyatta’s primarily in the Overwatch League and in the East have been using Transcendence for tempo rather than saving the ultimate to react to their opponents’ Graviton Surge or Earthshatter. Could you weigh in on the matter? Where exactly should players be investing Transcendence? I really don’t think using Transcendence as a tempo [play] is a really good idea. It starts to make bad habits of running in aimlessly when you can just disengage or counter the Transcendence for a good advantage. I’ve been posing this question to some of the European players to try and hype up the Atlantic Showdown, so I’ll pose the same to you. Let’s say Uprising Academy make it to the showdown - who would you like to face off against from Europe and how well do you think North America will do at the Atlantic Showdown? I haven't followed too much of European Contenders, [I’ve] mostly focusing on NA so I don’t really have an answer for this, but any great European flex supports I would love to play against.
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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