Volamel
2018-09-21 02:23:35
Let me ask you this: because you were so keen back in the day on traveling to Korea to compete, how do you think your team’s style would have done against some of the Korean teams?
During the tank heavy meta, I think NiP would've fared well against the Koreans. I would even say a top finish in APEX was not out of the question. I've heard that NiP was studied a lot by the Korean teams during that era and it always makes me proud to hear that we pioneered a playstyle that affected the "whole" world. It is one of my biggest regrets pre-OWL competitive Overwatch that I couldn't experience and compete in the APEX.
NiP laid the foundation for the composition now commonly known as “GOATs” which can be loosely tied to your old triple tank composition. With how tank focused the metagame has been in the last month or so, have you felt right at home?
Tanks are still pretty good, but the team dynamics and the metagame of Overwatch is not comparable of what it was during the NiP days, but having the experience from the "olden days” and with how we are playing tank compositions with Team Finland, it certainly has a nostalgic feeling in it. But unlike back in the days, we are not tied up to tank heavy compositions anymore and can run a variety of stuff, but one could say we are kind of tank specialists and experts.
I was sifting through Twitter and doing some research and found a video from the League of Legends scene that made a really interesting point about European and North American esports. North American teams tend to be very open to importing players from Europe and South Korea. Do you think that European teams tend to not want to import players? Is it purely financial that they don’t import? Players or is there something more to it?
I think it's just how North America centric Overwatch is at the moment. Overwatch League sets the tone on how players are imported and unfortunately, European Contenders does not provide any incentive to import people from outside of Europe, it is basically just a proving ground for European players.
During an interview with over.gg nearly two years ago at Dreamhack Winter you said, “I don’t think there really is the strongest comp in the game at the moment. It’s just about what you’ve trained, your comfort picks with heroes, and how you want to play the game.” Within the last two years, do you think that quote has always been the case? How well would you say your quote describes the current metagame?
Universally I don't think the quote has changed. Every map is still different and some comps work better than others on certain parts of the map and situations. [The] meta is heavily favoring counter picking at the moment and team compositions are up in the air. I think every team kind of builds their identity on what comps they start with and what they fall into if nothing is working so in a sense you still work around on your comfort picks and what you've trained with, but Overwatch at the highest level is so punishing if you can't play certain heroes anymore. You can't "one trick" comps like back in the days on certain patches, not how the game balance is at the moment and that's a good thing.
With the first post-season in full swing, I wanted to understand the other side of the fence on this topic. As a player, how does it feel to see the community fueled by rumors and whisperings at the moment? Does it bother you?
I don't really mind the rumors and whispering, I think it's inevitable and some things are sure to pop on to the surface. People are just so interested in what the new and old teams will bring on to their rosters. The downside, of course, is that usually rumors and whispers have some truth behind them but not the whole truth and usually don't paint the whole picture so to speak. So everything you hear has to be taken with a grain of salt.
You and Team Finland will be competing at BlizzCon for the 2018 Overwatch World Cup. Knowing that your back on the free agent table for Season 2, how important is BlizzCon going to be for you? How important is putting on a good performance at BlizzCon not only for your country but for your career?
BlizzCon is obviously a big stage where player skills can be highlighted and can give a positive impact on player careers. As a free agent, knowing this fact is obviously a positive point to increase my personal motivation to train harder and try my best with the team, but the main focus of that tournament is to have Finland succeed and finishing this tournament with no regrets. We have a clear goal with Team Finland and by working together we can achieve it. Personally, I'm just happy to be representing Finland and getting to play at BlizzCon once again, the support from the community has been massive and all the players really want Finland to prosper.
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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.