With the group stages about to get going, GosuGamers presents the last edition of our pre-World Cup coverage of the seeded teams. Presenting the powerhouses of the North American region.
Roster
Bdiz(Team Captain)
Draskyl
tabako
Blavo
Fogged
Tralfamadore
CardinaL
Testie SK-Gaming[SK]
Thanks for doing this interview, why don't you introduce yourself?
-“I'm Robert "Bdiz" Tinnes and the captain for SK Gaming's HoN team. I've played HoN since the early beta days and have been playing with 5/SK for the past 6 months. I've played a bunch of different games over the years, but I currently play HoN and SC2. I'm the champion of the bronze league.”
The team has underwent some changes lately, most notably the departure of former star Testie, how do you think the team is coping with it along with the additions of CardinaL and Tralfamadore?
-“When Testie informed us of the reasonings behind him leaving, it definitely did set us back. We're all close friends with each other, and seeing someone that you're friends with go through such a trying time can be difficult. However, he has sorted out his personal affairs and has even found a little time where he can play HoN casually. He might be able to once again play with us in matches, however nothing is for sure yet, only time will tell.
As far as the additions of Cardinal and Tralfamadore, I think the community has already seen some pretty good play out of both of them, and they are solid players. Whenever you add new players to a team, you find out different strengths on heroes that they have, which you didn't have before. This has allowed us evolve our strategy from a boring "turtle" style lineup, where we used to play to the strengths of our carry players (i.e. Testie's insane ability to farm under any circumstance) to a more gank oriented style.
We've also worked on some odd strategies using different heroes that might pop up in some of our games soon! An example of this was the level 1 kongor we pulled off against DRD in the recent Cyber Sports Network 3rd place match. You can expect more fun and exciting plays from us in the future!”
[SK]BdizDo you think he will make it back in time for the World Cup?
-“As I said, only time will tell. He's been playing some public games and inhouses lately, knocking off the rust when he has some free time. Maybe he'll pop into some of the World Cup matches, or maybe he won't be able to. Nothing is for certain as of yet.”
There's been some drama involving the team with a group of players, with talks about holding a "grudge match". Any comments on that?
-“All I know is that Swindlemelonzz has a ridiculously huge mouth, and all that spews from it is useless banter that no one cares about. He likes to trash talk Cardinal, and Cardinal bites the troll really hard because that's the way he is. It's essentially typically trash talking between players in HoN, and I don't think anyone takes it too seriously.”
Who do you see as your biggest rivals at the World Cup?
-“I'd probably have to say Loaded just due to the rivalry we've had in the past, however there's a lot of really good teams out there. The competitive scene has gone a long way from being dominated by two teams (WHP/5) into having around 12 or so teams that are all solid and have a chance to beat the best team in the world, as was seen with TSoG stepping up and beating MSI (a team that beat us 2-0 recently). We've done a lot of work on our teamplay recently, however we know that there's still a lot more to do because when that much money is on the line, every single team is giving it their all, and you can't just worry about the top teams, you have to worry about what each and every opponent you face is doing.”
That's all for now, thanks for your time. Any last comments?
-“Shoutout to our sponsors SK Gaming and Steelseries! And also a special shoutout to all of our fans, and especially those haters.”
Update: The grudge match was played out on a Tuesday and Swindle's team, ICE won, which was followed along with some controversy about it being bo1 or bo3 format.
Roster
Ensoe(Team Captain)
Jeppins
ChemiZt
Therg
Rice_Rocket
KiWiKiD Tease em [tSm]
Thanks for doing this interview, why don't you introduce yourself?
-“Hi my name is Mark 'Ensoe' Maljik I'm 20 years old and I'm from Toronto, Canada where I'm currently going to study in college.”
You guys have a pretty huge roster, who's your main starting 5 and what roles do they play?
-“The starting five at the moment are : Chemizt, Rice_rocket, Therg, Me, and Jeppins. Kiwikid is currently the 6th person whenever we need him to stand in. Chemizt usually plays the mid role carry and i usually play carry, semi carry while Therg and Rice_rocket plays support, Jeppins plays the ganker role or solo.”
Being one of the oldest teams around, who do you see as the clan that has emerged and improved/made the biggest impact on the scene?
-“I think Empr, KD, and MSI made the biggest impact on the scene especially empr for bringing in the trilanes. msi's unique panda strats and kd's new team is really a team that i'm looking forward to with their new powerhouse lineup. Also i can't forget about load probably the best team in HoN right now with their flawless teamwork”
[tSm]EnsoeWho do you think has the best chance of winning the World Cup?
-“Of course my team will win! If not I think Load, MSI, and KD have the best chances of winning this tourney.”
Thanks for your time. Any final words?
-“Shoutout to all my bros in tSm, xFin, DM, 13S, DRD, tfyx and my girl Josephine i love you! Shoutout to the community and good luck to everyone in the world cup!”
Update: tSm unfortunately disbanded. After a few days being clanless, Ensoe spotted 1st playing for team Epic [ICE] in their grudge match against SK before officially tagging up.
Roster
Daggius (Team Captain)
KingRaven
WaC
Warden
RobertxLee
jCp`Lord
hammyton Dotally Rad dot com [DRD]
Thanks for doing this interview, why don't you introduce yourself?
-“Hello peasants. I am KingRaven. I play for DRD, and have so for the past 8 months. I played DotA for eight years. I came to HoN, and now play the best support in the world. I am one of the most hated players in the scene, and relish it.”
How exactly did DRD start? And did all of you meet in DotA and make the conversion to HoN together?
-“Early DRD/LOAD all came from DXD, an DotA In-House league on US West Battle.Net. Me, daggius, fuji, bkid, pig, dodo etc. all played in the league together. The core of DRD has been friends for a long time. Daggius found WaC in some pub, and we found that filthy trashcan warden along the way. Some of us are RL friends, others are online friends. We really enjoy HoN, and aren't half as angry as others make us out to be, except me.”
Your blogposts have gotten reactions from both extremes, how do you feel about it?
-“I typically write what's on my mind and it's uncensored. I don't really care who it offends, but the online community loves trash talk and gossip. Those blog posts do very well and the site gets 4,500 hits daily. It's given me a lot of name recognition in public games, too. You get pretty well-known, mostly hated but I don’t care. I also write all of it in one sitting. If I lose the steam, I won't finish anything.”
You’re quite known for complaining about map imbalances in the Forest of Caldavar map, with players such as Trixi already sharing their thoughts about it and S2 showing no immediate plans to change it. What are your thoughts regarding the matter?
-“First off, I've only played with him once and am not personally insulting him. Trixi's argument is invalid because he believes that the problem will take care of itself, such as new hero pickings, new strategies, etc. The problem is a fundamental issue with HoN, and has nothing to do with the meta-game, heroes or whatnot. Stats and data are on my side, and everyone in the competitive community knows that Hellbourne is broken. You can be playing on Legion perfectly, but one mistake gives Hellbounce the ability to do Kong, giving them a second breath. Legion rarely does kongor in competitive games. S2 needs to look into this, because it's not an issue with heroes, but the basic game. If they don't, then they should at least try giving kongor something like +5 armor and more HP if you're on Hellbourne side to balance it out.”
The KingDoing what you do, it’s quite inevitable that you’ll have some enemies, who do you have the most epic rivalry with?
-“My most epic rivalry has throughout the times has been Yoda. It started back in a league called TDT, I played with Oni_Shukun, who was one of the best west dota players at the time. He played on atomic_ant before he quit and i stole his account. Anyway, he berated me and called me shit, threw a fit and never let up. I finally got to solo him once in a league called DXDi with NA versus his Potm. I buried him 8-0 with dagon and he cried and cried like usual. Also, Bdiz tries hard to ride my coat tails, but he simply can't keep up. I have a blog, i can troll topics and ruin them in 2 posts. Bdiz tries to be mean, but gets on SC2 and is nice, gets on his other account in an inhouse and is nice to me. Get real. Yoda has been a dick to me for 4 years. That's how you make a rivalry. Bdiz is playing troll teeball. I'm hitting homeruns every blog post.”
Thanks for your time. Any last words?
-“Shoutout Jcp`lord, Hammyton, Milkfat, Daggius, WaC , Warden for making it an enjoyable ride. Shoutout to Swindlemelonz for being a treasure cove of free psr, and the EU players that let me 1817 all morning. Shoutout Swaffle on Sc2 who is a total newb shit but i know him IRL. My real life friends watch me on Honcast and tell me to get a life. How hard is that? LOL. I try to justify it with 'I won $500 bucks' but they think I'm a nerd and a virgin.”
Roster
Tarano(Team Captain)
Killsky
sLicKz
rycho
WaFFOMGZ
EternalEnvy
AMXZaku
DirgeSnoopy Deal With it [DWi]
Thanks for doing this interview, why don't you introduce yourself?
-“Hi. I'm rycho aka sniperdad420. I'm 22 and attending ksu vetmed in January 2010. I play HoN all day, and before HoN I played WoW under the nick xarrio/clicker. I've pretty much gamed my entire life and I'm a huge nerd, which is why I've qualified for this interview.”
[DWi]AMXZaku2 core members of the DWi side who were once easily top 2 in the world, EternalEnvy and AMXZaku have recently gone inactive. Any idea what's going on with them?
-“Envy is a bigger nerd than me. He literally played HoN 12 hours a day. And if he wasn't playing HoN he’d be watching HoN and DotA replays. He has this obsession with Ehome and wouldn’t stop fawning over YaphetS, (which is why he played Soulstealer so much – to be like his hero)which is why I’m sort of mystified he disappeared. I don't think the rest of the team were up to his standards. He’s currently playing SC2, but he still logs into HoN sometimes. He might be coming back under our new roster, wait and see.
About Zaku, I'm not sure how much he wants me to discuss about it, but he’s been caring for a sick family member. My grandmother died of cancer two years ago so I know what he's going through. Trust me, he'll be back. He's been playing a couple of inhouses a week.”
Are there any huge plans to rebuild the team’s roster? Are there any big names on their way over?
-“Not HUGE plans, no. We'll be trying out braxton and KoroKy. They were part of Korok's Crew and placed top 10 in a handful of tournaments. Anyone who reads hongossip or dotallyrad would know this, so it's not a surprise, but there ya go.”
Speaking of DotallyRad, there has been talk about you receiving an invitation from them to join, any comments on that?
-“It was a casual invitation. HoN teams aren't like pro sports teams, there’s no contracts and closed door meetings. KingRaven wants to replace rustyxLee, he knew that DWi was inactive, and thinks I’m not total pub trash, that’s all there is to it. I'm going to stick with DWi for a while, and it's not because I hate DRD or anything. They're surprisingly good, better than SK.”
That's probably all I need. Thanks for your time. Any final comments?
-“No.”
Update: After tSm's disbandment looks like KiWiKiD has joined DWi.
Editor's Note: I was unable to reach anybody from team eG and hence their unfortunate exclusion from the article. Due to the interview being done nearly 2 weeks ago, many of the answers might seem outdated. Updates have been added where appropriate.
