Coming off of back to back dominant performances at the January’s Alienware Monthly Melee and the Haste Overwatch tournament, Jake "JAKE" Lyon sat down to talk to me about the scene in general, Korea, and what it takes to become “pro”.

First off, how are you doing today, Jake? What’s on the docket for you and the boys today?

Things are good! Today we are scrimming Selfless and Gale Force Esports practicing on the post-quad tank meta.

With the conclusion of the StriveWire Monthly Brawl, we saw ex-Reunited play a lot of triple DPS. Did you guys catch any of the tournament?

I haven't watched any of that tournament personally -- although regarding the triple DPS compositions, I think they really have a lot of potential. The mobility and aggression of those lineups can really catch heroes like 76 and Ana off guard.

Coming off of the triple tank meta, do you guys find that this fast paced and aggressive style will stick?

On some maps -- though, I think control comps will become supreme once again as soon as people begin to understand how to play with all of the new changes.

OGN’s APEX Season 2 is currently ongoing. How often do you watch their VODs?

I watch a lot of Korean teams' gameplay. We really like their willingness to play specific comps in every single situation, really displaying the versatility and options available to just one team composition. This is actually what inspired us to play quad tank everywhere last patch.

With the flood of information and articles coming out about OGN’s APEX League, how impactful do you think APEX is on the meta?

The meta has always been a bit disconnected between the regions so the Apex tournament is a good show of what might be called the "international meta", but it's definitely going to be distinct from regional metas that come about by the fact that regional teams often only scrim those within their region due to schedule/ping constraints.

It is well reported that in other esports, such as Starcraft or League of Legends, players practice around 9+ hours a day. Do you think Overwatch needs that level of dedication?

Time invested is relative. If you want to be the best at something, you can either be a prodigy already or work harder than everyone else. If every team starts investing more time, those that don't will be left behind. As in all FPS games, true "perfection" is beyond human possibility, so those who work the hardest and learn the fastest will prove the continued potency of hard work.

As Overwatch flourishes, do you think team housing will be mandatory? Any plans or talk about a Hammers Esports gaming house for you guys?

The Overwatch League will likely come with many requirements on players and organizations, but I have no knowledge nor comment on what those requirements will be exactly. For that we must wait for Blizzard. For now, we are looking at doing some bootcamps in LA to prepare for specific tournaments, but a team house is on the horizon as some of our members finish college and other local obligations.

With Blizzard not releasing any detail on the up coming Overwatch League (OWL). What are your thoughts on the idea of a long term league in general?

The long term of the league will be a boon to an industry & player base that has always been short on stability.

Thoughts on localization of teams? Any thoughts on EU teams potentially moving to NA?

Localizing teams shouldn't be much of an issue using current professional sports teams as an example. As long as players are willing to move there should be no problems. If an EU team comes to play for a NA city, I have no issue with that and I'm guessing it will happen very quickly if the league starts without EU representation.

Any format you wish to hopefully dodge or make standard?

I think Blizzard should give up its pipe dream to see all maps played competitively. Either that or they need to radically redesign 2cp. I don't know a single player who prefers any 2cp to even the worst of the payload/hybrid/control point maps. Moreover maps such as Illios are generally regarded to be inferior to their competition within the game mode. I think map drafting is absolutely the way to go, as it introduces a more thorough test of team’s ability to perform on a wider variety of maps (as opposed to preparing for a pre-set map pool).

Staying on board with Blizzard, last year at Blizzcon we had the Overwatch World Cup. Did you enjoy the “nation's wars” format? If given the chance, would you enjoy participating?

I think the idea of national teams is interesting and fun, but the voting process makes the format rather ridiculous. The Koreans nominated the best players on every class and the US sent a team of 50% top players and 50% popular content creators. These content creators aren't necessarily bad from an objective perspective, but even they would probably admit that they are not the best players available in the region. I think that some sort of team MVP system to create the best possible team from each region would make a really cool nation-wars format.

Your former teammate Verbo is on Immortals, any “special tactics” you guys have in store for them next time you meet?

Tune in and find out ;)

With the most recent PTR changes, Bastion has been chosen next on the docket for some heavy “tweaking”. Any thoughts on the changes? Do you think the comparison to Solider 76 is legitimate?

Bastion and 76 are only similar for the fact that they have automatic hitscan primary weapons. The two classes are picked in almost opposite scenarios, because 76 is the most (laterally) mobile of the mid range DPS and Bastion is of course by far the least. I think the changes are good, but I'll have to see the top players in the world test things out before I think bastion is viable. Ultimately, I think having a character that cannot move in a FPS game so chock full of flanking options renders Bastion a niche-at-best class barring extremely substantial buffs.

Packaged in with our new PTR we did get the client browser. Do you think teams will use this as a tool to theorycraft at all?

My real hope for the custom-settings server browser is that people will find a fun balance for 2cp. I'm of the opinion that that game mode will remain the red-headed stepchild of Overwatch until a better spawn timer system comes about (longer defender spawns on last, faster defender spawns on first point).

Any shoutouts and any sponsor plugs?

Big shoutout to @DXRacer for bringing some of us out to Pax South, also many thanks to @Soylent for the Coffiest, I haven't eaten solid breakfast in a week! Other than that, our twitters are @Hammers_Esports, @Super_OW, @trainokie, @Voll_OW, @Avast_o, @_rob420_, and @jake_overwatch

Written by @Volamel

Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment and Hammer Esports.