Written by Volamel on an older version of Esports Heaven.

Zachary "ZachaREEE" Lombardo and the Fusion University are your Overwatch Contenders North American Champions! Reaching the top with an 8-0 match record and 12-8 map record, Fusion University were far in a way one of the biggest talking points leading into the playoffs in Alwernia, Poland. Former Renegades player ZachaREEE has now found a home within the Fusion brotherhood as he works closely with not only his team, but their Overwatch League franchize the Philadelphia Fusion. After their flawless run through Contenders, ZachaREEE had some spare time to answer some questions posed by Esports Heaven which touch on his victory at Overwatch Contenders North America, his experience in Overwatch Heroes Rumble, and more!

First of all, congratulations on the victory at Overwatch Contenders! I’ve got to ask, what does this mean to you personally, but also what does this victory mean for your team?

Thanks! To me personally, winning this season of Overwatch Contenders means a lot. It is a huge turn around in my career and it shows a bright future moving towards Overwatch League Season 2. To the team, this victory is a great accomplishment considering that our record was a flawless 8-0. It means a ton considering that we were able to shine when faced with many struggles such as Alarm and WhoRU playing on 200+ ping throughout the group stages and our quarterfinals match as well as having extremely poor schedules throughout the entire season due to the time zone differences.

Last season in Overwatch Contenders you played with Renegades and went 0-7 in matches. This season, you’ve gone 8-0 and won the entire event. How does that feel?

Honestly, it doesn’t even feel real. During last season of Contenders, I was constantly unhappy due to my poor performances and many other factors with myself and the team. So turning it around and ending this season with Fusion University flawlessly just feels amazing and has helped my confidence return to a much higher level.

You mentioned during your personal Heroes Rising segment that you are an avid soccer player. How have you taken that past experience and skill set and applied that to Overwatch?

Yeah, so back before I started playing Overwatch professionally, I had played soccer for about 13 years or so. When I used to play, one of the things aside from mechanical skill and teamwork that I found to be extremely important in my teams was the mental state of the players. Towards the end of my soccer years, I would always make sure that everyone on my team was enjoying themselves and was part of a healthy environment to succeed in game or with their studies. With Overwatch and Fusion University specifically, I have been doing my best to ensure that everyone on the team enjoys their time together, whether it be during practice, review or just being around and being there for everyone outside of game if they ever needed someone to talk to or to just hang out with.

When you are a junior in high school and you’re flying to Poland for a video game tournament, that has got to garner you a lot of attention. How has your life changed since you began competing in Overwatch?

Before I started competing in Overwatch, my life was fairly normal. I was just an honors student that attended a public school and played video games and soccer for most of my extra time after school. I had never been extremely interested in many things other than FPS games, anime, and art. So I’d say Overwatch being released and realizing that I could play professionally was the first time I had ever really found something that I was extremely passionate about, and determined to pursue. Competing in Overwatch is also the only thing other than a vacation that has taken me outside of the United States, and these events that I’ve traveled for have made me want to see more of the world.

Now personally, you’ve traveled even farther than Poland. Flying all the way to Taipei to compete in the Overwatch Heroes Rumble. How was that experience? Do you have any stories to share?

The team I was on for the event was a bunch of my friends and just great guys that I love to be around, but I’d say Overwatch Heroes Rumble was more of a fun event with a few show matches rather than an extremely competitive tournament. While the team was there we explored a bit of Taipei, which was extremely fun and different than anywhere I had ever been. My team visited Taipei 101 which is the biggest building I have ever seen and in one of the busiest areas I’ve ever been to. Also one of the days when I was leaving the practice facility with my Mom, I had misread a map and got us lost for like twenty minutes at night which was pretty scary but we ended up getting to the hotel safely.

Ignoring the change in teams, what would you say has changed since last season of Overwatch Contenders? Have there been things that you’ve been specifically working on?

If you recall from the previous season of Contenders, I never really had a specific role. I went from Genji to D.Va back to Genji and to Roadhog so I was always unsure of what I was supposed to be working on. While waiting to find my home for the next season of contenders I just practiced my mechanics to ensure that I would be the best in whatever role I played. After getting picked up by Fusion University I had a set role and specific heroes that I was learning. In addition to the mechanics of the heroes.

Aside from mechanics, I felt like I was lacking in communication. I was never really the best at letting others know my thoughts about anything or just in-game communication, and I felt that was holding me back from being the best. So I put a lot of effort into stepping out of my comfort zone and improving my communication.

“Oasis is my city” is something that I’ve seen come up on your Twitter quite a few times, so much so your former head coach even has commented on it. Would you say that Oasis is your favorite map? Why do you think you perform so well on it?

I wouldn’t exactly say that Oasis is my favorite map, but I do feel that during this season of Contenders, Oasis is the map that I had a complete grasp on how to play and react to anything that came towards me. I was extremely confident in being able to outplay any of my counterparts at their role and get as much value as possible. Also, Fusion University is a part of the Philadelphia Fusion, so Oasis being the 5th map in every series was definitely part of it.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about the new changes to the game. With the addition of Brigitte and the reworked Hanzo, talk to me about some of your thoughts on the current metagame?

From competitive queue so far, I don’t enjoy the new patch that much. It is definitely refreshing to have something other than dive being played on every map, but Brigitte and Hanzo just feel extremely strong and not really fun to play against. I haven’t been able to practice on the new patch at all and my experience on this patch is from competitive queue only. I am unsure about whether or not the patch is enjoyable or interesting in professional play but I can only hope that it will be.

If you had to guess, what team in the Overwatch League benefits the most from these changes? Why do you think that?

If the Overwatch League was on the current live patch with Hanzo I’d say NYXL which is already the best team in the league would probably benefit the most. I can only imagine what terror it would be like to play against Janus on Reinhardt, JjoNak with 350 HP on Zenyatta, and Libero on Hanzo

With these changes, many people have been heralding the death of dive and Tracer. As a Tracer player, what are your thoughts on this? Is it as bad as people are claiming?

In competitive queue, I have pretty much only been playing Hanzo because it feels like whenever I swap to anything other than Hanzo, Pharah, or Junkrat I just lose all of my playmaking potential. Tracer just feels super unrewarding due to the armor everyone has, Pulse Bomb nerfs, Brigitte’s one shot combo, and Hanzo storm arrow being able to instantly kill Tracer with or without headshots. At the time though the competitive queue world hasn’t exactly adjusted to everything in the new patches. I imagine that in professional play, dive is still relevant on a good portion of maps and that Brigitte isn’t a 100% pick rate. I feel like Tracer will likely see a hit in play rate but she will still be played in compositions like a classic dive or maybe there will be a revival of triple DPS in attempt to counter Brigitte.

Your former head coach, Aaron “Aero” Atkins, said in an interview with Esports Heaven at the beginning of the Contenders Season that he wanted to create a team that worked well together and that you guys and the Philadelphia Fusion were “already like a big family.” How often do you work with the Overwatch League roster? What kind of information do they provide or help you guys out with?

When both Fusion University and the Philadelphia Fusion were on the same patch during playoffs season, we would scrim them around two to four times a week. Even before this though, we would be completely open to talk with the Overwatch League team and staff about specific compositions and getting their thoughts on why certain things in the game are strong or why others don’t work well when they seemed so promising while also being able to bounce back our ideas. Also, as you know, during the playoffs, Aero had departed from Fusion University to pursue his career in the Overwatch League with Dallas Fuel. When Fusion University went to Poland for the semifinals and finals, Kirby who is the head coach of Philadelphia Fusion stepped in and worked with our coach paJion to help prepare us as best as possible for our matches.

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.