Sometimes overshadowed by China and Korea, the Southeast Asia region (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand) is home to quite a small but dedicated scene. With the SEA Spring Championship Qualifers being some of the first ones that started the season, we felt like we could do with more insight into the scene. Below is the interview that we conducted with Resurgence SEA, the winners of the first Singapore Spring Pro League:

Hello Resurgence, could you introduce yourself?

 Vendetta: Hi everyone, I’m Josh Tan. I’m the captain and flex player for Resurgence. I recently graduated from university and started work late last year as a management associate.

 Capricorn: Capricorn/Jonathan Goh, used to be a flex player, currently the main ranged damage dealer for the team. I've been playing HotS ever since technical alpha, been playing in the limited competitive scene in SEA on different teams since the first tourney back in 2014. Studying Linguistics at a local university.

 ZaPpy: ZaPpy/Zhi Ping. My IGN is essentially the initials of my name. I’m the flex player in the team, playing mostly melee assassins and the oddball heroes like Abathur and Vikings. Currently serving National Service and will be studying Computer Science and Game Design at DIgiPen later this year.

 Cw: Hi, im cwCwCW/Chun Wai. I’m the main tank player. Only started playing this game at Leoric patch. Joined a competition, won and liked the game. Studying business management at a local private university.

 TanuKi: I’m Lee Jie Ming, played HotS since alpha, initially played assassin for previous teams and transitioned to support role. Studying computer science at a local university.

How long has the team been together? Are you all longtime eSports enthusiasts?

 Capricorn: I joined in October 2015, ZaPpy and cwCwCW joined immediately after Nexus finals in December. The others have been part of the roster since the team’s inception. My only experience with ‘eSports’ before HotS was playing League in the Singaporean server casually (ADC main). Good enough to hit #4 on Challenger leaderboard (which honestly means nothing), but nowhere near the level of competitive players.

ZaPpy: Originally from another team, I left due to my other teammates lacking the motivation to play at a competitive level; I became part of Resurgence after they approached me. Since 2006, I’ve been playing MOBAs competitively: DotA for 4 years, LoL for 5 years. My competitive stint in DotA and LoL has been fairly successful especially; being among the top players, winning majority of the local competitions and representing SG for most of the overseas competitions. I recently switched over to HOTS and have been playing competitively for almost a year.

Vendetta: This team was started in around September, a few weeks before the 2nd Heroes Community Cup in Singapore. The team has gone through quite a lot of reshuffling of members (and names) despite the team’s short history. We won the HCC while we were still called “Lala’s Land”, won the Nexus qualifiers as “Asian Food Channel” (where 6 of us asians ate cup noodles while drafting for one of the matches), and finally settled on “Resurgence” where we clinched 2nd for the Nexus finals. I’ve persoanlly won some medals and prizes in other games like Starcraft 2 and FIFA, and I enjoy watching the highlights of the biggest Dota competitions.

Cw: Joined this team at the Heroes Community Cup, however left after winning the competition in hope of joining a better team with better prospects as it was still quite a casual team at first. However after joining the other team, I realized the players were at a different mindset to compete, therefore after the end of the next competition I came back to join this team. Before HOTS, I played Dota (semi-competitive), and LoL competitive. However I never actually stayed as a top player for long due to National Service. Although it’s not really possible to make a living out of full time gaming, having a serious passion in gaming is what keeps me in competitive esports for long.

TanuKi: The team has existed for almost 6 months, but there were a few roster changes. I played DOTA 2 casually and followed the competitive scene. This is my first game playing competitively.

Most of us play this game for fun due to the stigma of playing competitively as a full time job.
 

What drew you to Heroes of the Storm?

Vendetta: I first started playing some games of HOTS alpha when I was doing my exchange semester in the US. Having played most of Blizzard’s titles, the characters themselves already drew me to the game. I also liked the short 20 minutes duration of the games compared to Dota, where games can easily last more than 45 mins.

 ZaPpy: Blizzard; I’ve been a fan of Blizzard’s main 3 series since young, having first played StarCraft and Diablo 2 when I was 7 years old. Left LoL’s competitive scene after the community there became a toxic wasteland. Originally intended to play HOTS casually but was asked by my acquaintances to play competitively which led me to where I am now.

Capricorn: Ranked queue times on League were 20 minutes on average, and could go up to 3 hours. HotS was 2-3 minutes at most. A whole bunch of people from League moved over as well, so I started playing with them.

What is the SEA/Singapore scene like? What are people who don’t follow the SEA scene missing?

 Cw: Especially with Asian parents, being a full-time competitive gamer in Singapore is not very feasible idea. People form teams to compete as sort of a hobby rather than anything serious. As compared to major meta regions such as Korea/China, the SEA scene will feel like a mixture of the whole world’s meta with a twist to the own player’s playstyle. Though our mechanics might not be top-notch however there might be interesting draft/builds to look out for.

Vendetta: Everyone over here is basically teaming up to compete more in the name of fun rather than for long term success as it is near impossible to make a living from playing eSports in SEA (unless you join a team in the US/EU/Korea/China). To be honest, you won’t be missing much as we are heavily influenced by the draft and talent choices of the full-time professional NA/KR/China players, which we believe have more time and commitment to test out what works and what doesn’t. Of course, we do have our own personal biases towards certain heroes and talents, but our team is definitely working towards being versatile so that people don’t know what to expect.

Capricorn: Pretty small, to be honest. In Singapore there are very few teams able to compete at the top level, and in SEA, probably only one or two per country. The teams here are mostly influenced by the Korean regions, partly because we think that they’re far above the curve compared to westerners. We try stuff from China as well, but China has a tendency to just do their own stuff that no one else can really emulate. Not following the SEA scene, at the top level of play here, is probably a little like not bothering to watch a minor-league tournament in Korea, given the heavy influence their meta has. You will see weird picks and bans pop out, especially between teams that scrim a lot, but that’s just par for the course when you practice against each other so much.

ZaPpy: Due to various commitments and lack of support for the eSports scene in Singapore, most players end up just playing as a hobby. Those that try to play professionally eventually give up as it is not a sustainable lifestyle in Singapore or move to other countries such as China or Taiwan to compete. As we are unable to play as much as other regions, teams in Singapore tend to learn things from the various regions that suit their playstyle and mix them together while adding in some of their own flavours.

TanuKi: Most of us play this game for fun due to the stigma of playing competitively as a full time job and we have other commitments like work and studies. Most of our playstyles are similar to other regions like Korea and China with a mix of niche heroes that other regions rarely play.

Are you happy with the growth of Heroes there and in general?

Vendetta: The number of players in SEA now is definitely not enough, so I hope Blizzard comes up with more initiatives for people to try the game. A lot of us came from DotA or League and have been hooked to HotS ever since, but my I think their biggest challenge lies in even getting people to try the game, rather than getting them to continue playing the game.

Capricorn: Not in SEA, but in general, yeah, Blizzard seems to be doing work. Well, not with regards to the game, but in terms of setting up tournaments and creating the structure for a competitive scene. The competitive scene in SEA is really stale - the same players at the top have been at the top for the past year or so, not just in Singapore, but in all the other countries in SEA as well.

Cw: Still pretty okay considering it’s a new game as compared to LoL and Dota. Blizzard is doing a really good job in terms of distributing opportunities to players all over the world. The main focus should be getting more people to watch/play the game and this game will grow really well as im sure HOTS won’t lose to other MOBA in terms of content wise. Blizzard is doing a nice job in balancing the game. The recent balances are all going really nicely, I like how Blizzard are focusing on removing “annoying” mechanics and gameplay. With a good mix of balance for both SoloQ and competitive.

ZaPpy: The esports community in SEA was fairly big during the DotA days as there was only one MOBA; the players now are spread out among DotA 2, LoL and HotS, so the individual communities are quite small, especially HotS since it is fairly new. However, AsiaSoft has been putting in great effort to bond the community together here in Singapore and they have done a awesome job thus far. As for the global scene, Blizzard has been active in building the esports scene for HotS and I’m quite satisfied with it currently.

You recently managed to go one step further towards qualifying for the Spring Championship, did you believe you would be able to win against the other teams in the Spring League? What are your thoughts on possibly going to Seoul, Korea?

 TanuKi: We were confident on winning the league after the first week. Excited if we win regionals as we can play against teams of other regions.

Vendetta: Yes as a team we were feeling good about our chances for the Spring League that we just won. I think we have pretty high hopes of going to Seoul as SEA’s representative, as long as we keep up the motivation and desire to win it.

Capricorn: If you’re talking about the 4-team round-robin ‘pro-league’ that we just won, yes, We were very confident of our chances to take the tournament, especially after Relics dropped a single game to Sage. It would be nice to go to Korea. Definitely possible, just gotta do some serious prep work and hope school/work doesn’t get in the way.

Cw: I’m feeling pretty confident if we step up our game in terms of getting more regular practices. Everyone wants to go to Korea by qualifying for the Spring championship, it be a unique and highlight experience of our life as not many Singaporeans get to compete overseas when it comes to Esports.

ZaPpy: Packing luggage for the trip already :)

Do you think you guys have a good number of fans already?

Vendetta: Probably not. I think it’s been pretty hard to follow us as a fan although we’ve performed well in the 3 tournaments (including qualifiers) we’ve joined so far, as we’ve not only gone through a lot of roster reshufflement but changing of team names as well.

Capricorn: Probably not as large as Relics since we’ve been around for a shorter period of time and have had less exposure. But we do have our supporters within the local competitive scene, as Relics have been dominating the competition for awhile now, so everyone kinda wanted to see them dethroned a little.

TanuKi: Not at the moment as we are new team and not as established as Relics but we hope to build our fanbase in the future.


We keep track of EU/NA events, yes, but we are less influenced by them than the Koreans and the Chinese.

What team in the region is your biggest competition right now? What are your thoughts on the other regions?

Vendetta: Relics (SG) and Renovatio (Philippines). Korea and China feel the strongest right now, followed by NA and then EU. Tempo Storm was the team I used to watch back when I was in the US during their domination of NA, but recently I’ve been catching some KR and CN events.

Capricorn: Relics (SG) and Renovatio (Philippines). Although Sage has a good chance at beating out Relics in the Spring Open at the moment, since Relics is undergoing roster shuffles, they might turn out weaker. There are definitely differences from country to country in SEA. We keep track of EU/NA events, yes, but we are less influenced by them than the Koreans and the Chinese. KR=CN>EU=NA for us basically.

Cw: Right now, most region have 1-2 solid teams to compete for the Spring Championship, I would say the results might be full of surprises. China and Korea are pretty closely matched in terms of gameplay/drafting. Sometimes we do watch matches from EU/NA’s major event to look for interesting drafts/meta as sometimes it might fit our own team playstyle/dynamics.

ZaPpy: Within SEA, our biggest competitor is probably Renovatio. We’ve scrimmed against them quite a number of times and they’ve always put up a good fight. For the local SG scene, Relics is currently an unknown factor as they are undergoing roster changes; we’re confident of winning the other local teams though. There are definitely differences between the other regions, which are easily seen from their pick priorities and team compositions. We watch EU/NA events occasionally but we mostly follow the KR/CN scene. From the streams, KR/CN seems to be at the forefront but we won’t know until everyone faces off against one another again in the coming global championship.

TanuKi: Renovatio (Philippines). I feel that the Chinese and Korean regions are stronger now and are defining the current meta but we may not know which region will win the Spring Championship. I occasionally watch the US/EU scene to see their playstyle and drafting.

Would you move to a different region if the possibility presented itself?

Vendetta: If you’re talking about playing on different servers with the other region’s teams, we could definitely use that exposure. But a physical move is a no-no as I’ve a full time job now and gaming will always be more of a hobby for me.

Cw: I would love to, if I finished my studies and have more time to fully commit to gaming.

ZaPpy: Unlikely. If that possibility had been presented prior to my poly studies, then I would’ve considered it; now, there are obligations and bonds from my poly/uni scholarships that I need to fulfill and I’m currently just playing as a hobby during my free time.

TanuKi: Definitely, it would give our team more exposure to the different playstyles of other regions.

Are you happy with Blizzard’s new competitive plans for the year?

Vendetta: I think it’s a smart move to split the competitions and prize pools across the year rather than bank it all on a single annual competition. It gives players the ability to take a break, miss a global competition, and get back into the competitive spirit within a month. Back when I was playing starcraft 2 WOL competitively it was pretty frustrating to miss Blizzard’s world championships for two years running because of my other commitments in university. Getting top 3 in other smaller competitions with tiny prize pools and coverage was not incentivising enough in the long run.

Their biggest challenge lies in even getting people to try the game, rather than getting them to continue playing the game.

Capricorn: Thanks for the moneys. It makes explaining why I’m spending so much time on gaming to the parents much easier.

Cw: Yeshhh, nice prize distribution and involving all regions over the world. Definitely a thumbs up, looking forward to hear more exciting news from Blizzard.

ZaPpy: Splitting the annual global competitions into different seasons across the year is definitely a plus point for me. It keeps the scene active throughout the year and constantly gives players something to look forward to.

TanuKi: Blizzard is going the right direction by promoting HOTS through major competitions and constant updates.

What are your thoughts on the recent string of new heroes? What about upcoming heroes Li-Ming and Zul?

Vendetta: The new heroes are pretty fun and interesting to play but too underpowered to use in competitive play so far. I guess Blizzard doesn’t want the introduction of these heroes to shake up the meta too much through every hero introduction. They would rather retain control of the meta through balance changes. Li-Ming feels like a horrible hero to play against on delay maps like Cursed and Towers of Doom, & I haven’t taken a look at Zul.

Capricorn: All recent ones are unviable, but so close to viability. Lunara’s recent buffs look like they could push her into being rather good, actually, Artanis is so so close to being viable (just needs more stickiness, because he basically only comes into play at level 16). I think Greymane is a joke but ZaPpy keeps trying to get us to draft him. Li-Ming looks really fun, like Ezreal from League. Personally very excited for her release. Her health pool is absolutely pathetic though. Could be too low to see play maybe (Raynor probably 6-shots her), but we’ll have to wait and see. Gut instinct for Xul is that he’ll be underpowered on release because that’s the trend lately, but we’ll have to see. He’s not exactly an easy hero to evaluate.

Cw: I like how the newer heroes are given more capability to make new plays. Although they don’t feel very competitively viable, there are some fresh mechanics that keeps the game interesting. Li-Ming feels like a “montage-ish” hero, which is good because HOTS sort of lacking of this “solo” amazing play performance hero and Li-Ming seem to be the one. Not so sure about Xul, the concept seems decent, hopefully the numbers are balanced.

ZaPpy: The recent heroes have all been quite fun to play, especially Greymane. However, most of them are hovering around the thin line of being competitively viable. Medic is viable on some maps but easily countered on others; Artanis probably just needs some mobility buffs to make him viable, such as giving a shorter range Zealot Charge by default and making the talent increase the range instead; Lunara should be in quite a decent spot now with the recent buffs; Greymane needs the ability to mount in werewolf form and some buff to his ultimates, which are currently simply like improved versions of Darkflight, since it also puts your E on cooldown. I tried Li-Ming in PTR who is really fun to play and seems competitively viable, maybe borderline OP. Xul seems like a niche hero that will only do well in certain situations but that is just speculation..

TanuKi: So far only Medic has been consistently played in competitive and subsequent heroes require more buffs and experimentation before they are even viable. Both heroes are quite unique but might not be competitively viable as shown from the previous hero releases. Li-Ming feels like a hero that can make plays, we haven't seen much of Xul’s skills at the moment.

Blizzard just released a big patch for the PTR, can you name your favourite/most interesting changes?

Vendetta:  I think the nerf against Sonya was too hard (W + FA nerfs), and I want to see more buffs of heroes that have not been touched in recent competitive games, such as Gazlowe, Azmodan, Nazeebo, Chen and so on. I like the cleanse re-re-work, although I feel the CD could have been moderated towards 40s instead of 60s. Chain stuns still have too much of an impact in this game compared to other MOBAs like Dota and that’s why heroes with solid CCs are still dominating the meta (e.g. Mura / KT / Tyrande). It is pretty easy to bait out a cleanse and re-engage within the next 30 seconds so a cleanse CD of 60s feels too long.

Capricorn: REHGAR REWORK. Finally, that wolf will actually be fun to play. The increase in tower damage to heroes will hopefully make the early game more interesting than two teams ignoring each other and trading forts. I like the Shadow Assault buff on Zeratul - there was a time when ZaPpy and I were experimenting with SA Zeratul and it was very fun to play, like a squishier but more bursty Illidan.

Cw: I really like the big patch balance on numbers and the QOL improvement for many Heroes. My favourite change would be the Rehgar changes, I mean he’s a deep voiced Orc... can’t just be a healbot right?

ZaPpy: I like the changes to Zeratul’s Shadow Assault; it probably still pales in comparison to Void Prison competitively but the reduced cooldown is a step in the right direction to making it viable. Nova’s rework is also a step in the right direction to make her hero design much more healthy to play against; Her current numbers are too weak though and she probably needs some number buffs and some shuffling of the talents  Rehgar’s rework makes him more fun to play than his currently healbot state. Some of the number changes are good but others are quite questionable (Especially Falstad’s Hinterland Blast, which is a giant nerf to an already unpicked skill in the competitive scene).

TanuKi: Rehgar changes seems to diversify talent builds where you can go full offense or support or both giving him more flexibility similar to supports like Kharazim and Tyrande.

Any final shout outs?  

Vendetta: Shoutout to my girlfriend as I’m missing her colleague’s wedding overseas which i’m supposed to attend with her, to attend the SEA Championships. Shoutout to my friends as well for being so supportive about my gaming ‘career’ lol.

Capricorn: Kris I luv u xoxo

Cw: Shoutout to my girlfriend for being so supportive of me this whole time!

ZaPpy: Shoutout to our biggest fan, Risen, who’s always fanboying over us in Skype and also to “our scrimwhore, Revenant” (-cwCwCW, 2016). P.S. Twiltic is a scrub.

Tanuki: Shoutouts to Risen and Twiltic for helping us in scrims.

For more information on SEA events, visit this link. Events are usually broadcasted on the BlizzHeroesSEA channel.

Follow us on Twitter @GosuGamersHotS for more Heroes of the Storm esports news.