[Inside Lounge] FAT Sloth

This time around, we are having a closer look at the Free Agent Team named after everyone's favourite animal - the sloth! It has surely been their lucky charm, as they have not only won a very respectable 5 games in season 6, but also brought a fun bunch of people together.

Hello FAT Slothies, first of all thank you for your time! How about we start with you introducing yourself and telling us about your gaming experience, what brought you to HotS and to Heroes Lounge.

thebestofblue: Well, I'm Blue and I'm the captain of this ragtag group. I've played the least out of all the team, but I'm still in charge somehow. I have played HotS since several months after I ignored the beta keys I was sent but this is the first time I've ever played on a proper team. I came to Heroes Lounge after participating in two seasons of the Overwatch Scrub Cup. There I discovered how much fun it is to play as a coordinated team, so once I got bored of Overwatch I found a HotS league and here I am. I was captain of one of my Overwatch teams so this is actually my second team (not to choose favourites or anything but this one is way better).

Bredcrumb: I'm Bredcrumb, the support of the group who tries to wrangle this herd of cats and keep them alive as they hardcore dive.  I got into HotS back when the Cho'Gall event was going on and Xul had just been released. I was looking for a MOBA to get into for the first time and must admit Blizzard's advertising campaign hooked me. I've been lurking on the subreddit for a while and saw talk about this 'life changing experience' of Heroes Lounge and figured I'd take the leap and see what's up.

BWBloody: BWBloody here, kind of a bit coordinator :wink: and soon to be married with BWCallania, from Sweden, 27, male, got a kid who's really energetic and have played shitloads of Blizzard games since early years. Started with Diablo and got hooked, was about to play LoL/DotA or that shit but hey, Blizz did a MOBA, got stuck here now. And what brought me to Heroes Lounge was a reddit post and to be in a 5 man team environment! To fight for glory! "FAT Sloth, by the rite of Rak'Shir, I am your Highlord! Listen and obey!" 

DarkWanderer: I am DarkWanderer, Leoric's son apparently, I'm the deadlifter of the team since I carry everyone with my tank skills and knowledge of the game.

DEX_Crowind: Crowind here, technically flex, usually off-tank/solo laner (I've healed once and i was main tank before DarkWanderer arrived). I've played practically since HotS' release, but I was new to MOBAs and I almost only played casual with my friends. It took a lot of time, but eventually I started getting interested in competitive play something like one year ago, first with my friends, then when they started showing a lack of interest, I played alone in Hero League. Eventually I discovered Heroes Lounge and I thought: "Why not?"

You've now finished your first season of Heroes Lounge, how would you describe this experience for you?

thebestofblue: It has been an interesting experience. I have particularly enjoyed seeing us improve as a team, seeing the silly mistakes some of us would make no longer being issues.

Bredcrumb: You hear people saying playing as a team changes the way you experience HotS, and they're right! I don't think I'll be able to go back to Quick Match. When you first experience a wombo-combo that you actually planned out and coordinated as a team, and didn't just accidentally create, it turns you from a boy into a man. 

BWBloody: A lot better than playing solo..... The team experience has been really good, so good I even got the wifey to join in on the fun. Hard times to actually get all 5 in game on time, but hey, life happens. Definitely going to keep on pounding next season in the honor of FAT Sloth!! The team shall continue! "Take your Warchief's advice: Don't run around doing stupid things just because someone yells 'For the Horde!'

DarkWanderer: I hate everyone here and barely put up with them. The best thing about them is that they speak English.

DEX_Crowind: It has been a very positive experience! I learned a lot of things about the teamplay that I would have never have made the effort to learn by myself. It also helps my English :V

Speaking of getting better, what do you think are the areas you improved in most as individuals and as a team during the season?

thebestofblue: I was pretty bad at getting caught out and overextending when laning, but have way less issues with that now. As a team, I think we've improved a lot. I think the biggest mistake we've fixed is not picking Cho'gall.

DarkWanderer: i feel like I'm a Div1 player since when I restarted accounts, I got 10 wins for placements but you know, 'Hotslogs is sooo accurate' so I don't know why I'm playing with a div5 team. I guess its pretty fun to see how bad everyone around me is, as i drop to their level for a few games

Bredcrumb: No Blue, the biggest mistake is that we've picked Cho'gall SO often that he now gets first banned against us... who would have thought you'd see the day?? Also, DarkWanderer left out the part where his new account was ranked in Silver after 10 placement wins... sooo.

BWBloody: We got a teamcaptain who shouldn't play banjo, weird spots to die all over the maps. Yeah, improved most as individual has been not overextend and a bit of positioning, but hey, I get caught sometimes as well.... was really bad our first game, not so bad now but still "This place... reeks of death."

DEX_Crowind: I learned a lot about the macro (which I already tried to envalue while playing by myself) and about balancing patient and aggressive play! I also got a lot of confidence in what I thought were my best heroes and my abilities, since I kinda "felt" to be an ok player but I never found a real confirmation of that before.

You seem to be getting along well which is not a given with free agent teams. Are you planning on continuing as a team next season?

thebestofblue: I hope so. As captain can I remove their choice in the matter?

BWBloody: I plan to continue as a FAT Sloth! Why wouldn't I? Would hope we still have some core members for the upcoming glorious battles ahead! As members can we highjack the captain role? ;) "Still easily amused, I see." 

Darkwanderer: I'm pretty sure I will always be around the team FAT Sloth, however I am also looking to improve myself which would be difficult in a team that barely practices. I will also try out for other teams but whenever I'd leave the FAT Sloth team, I will leave a legacy.

DEX_Crowind: I hope so! The more we'll play together, the better we'll stay along together, the better we'll play :V

Bredcrumb: Well this is awkward guys... We need to have a talk...

That's good to hear, you may or may not have to come up with a new team name then. Any early suggestions?

thebestofblue: Blue is cool. That's the name.

BWBloody: If we decide to keep FAT Sloth, that would be fine, but I've got a wonderful teamname! Bloody Warriors, already got the name in my nick.  "Make way for the bad guy." 

DarkWanderer: I was thinking of a lot of team names just for fun, I wanted to make my own team before I joined this one, it was called Team Layout (copyright, nobody take it) and also DigNotas or FNotic :Omegalul:

DEX_Crowind: I'm conflicted: I ended up with loving the sloth, but I still don't like that it's a standardized name... maybe keep the sloth? What about Blue Sloths? It would make our captain happy indeed...

Well luckily you have some weeks left to sort that stuff out. By the way, are you aware of the responsibility that comes with the honor of being the sloth team?

BWBloody: Yeah, we should have a great teamname until next season! 'Is not FAT Sloth great?'  Nope, not a clue about any responsibility. "Say hello to my little friend!" 

thebestofblue: I waited for Bloody to answer first because I was hoping he might know. I have no idea.

Bredcrumb: I didn't even know FAT stood for Free Agent Team until last week... Definitely just thought we were body shaming jungle animals this whole time.

DarkWanderer: I mean I guess so, I'm not really a part of the community as much as others, I just thought it was a silly meme.

DEX_Crowind: We wat?!

Well before the start of the new season, you definitely have to start appreciating the endless sloth memes on Heroes Lounge Discord more.

DarkWanderer: But why the sloth, couldn't it be a more interesting animal? hahaha (Editor's note: Feel free to slothping them daily.)

The sloth is not only your mascot, but also the mascot of Heroes Lounge itself! So I have to say that you have done pretty well for your first season. It is always hard to adapt to more organized play, especially as a randomly thrown together team. Maybe you could tell a bit about how you settled on your team roles?

thebestofblue: I have three roles in the team, captain, ranged DPS and Gall.

Bredcrumb: Don't forget about 'Li Li main' Blue!!! We all just kind of jumped on our first practice and said, 'so what do you play?' and since 'Specialist' isn't a thing anymore (RIP tower ammo) I happened to be the only one offering Support.

thebestofblue: I never said that! There is a running joke that I am a mainhealer for some reason. I played Li Li once and now this ...

BWBloody: Randomly thrown together with this lump and Dark came into the team as a sub in our second game and then he has been a member and a good shotcaller. We had another player named PeterRabbit who also did shotcall but quit the team since bad connection and he was gmt+3 and we other are +0 +1 :) The adaption to organized play has come hard for me since I've got shiftwork and don't work every day, can be called same day, got a kid who wakes up sometimes after 21.00 (our usual playtime) and I take care of him during daytime, so no play there. The roles was easy, made a sheet with "strengths in roles" and what heroes they can play. I always go assassin, the other positions sorted itself out somehow. Don't care if ranged, melee, aa or mage, do them all and those I don't do, I might practice with them. I don't do Gall, I suck on him, I leave that assassin to blue  Note: We all dread the small sounds from the babymonitor. "Save your words, primate. Spare me from hearing your orifice flap." 

DarkWanderer: Well the only thing I struggle with is lowering my expectations since I watch streams of the best and at times have played with the best, so adapting to that was a slight difficulty. In regards to my role, I mean just watch the game vs Epiphany, 2 words: ‘got Rekt’ , thanks to me of course.

DEX_Crowind: I'm practically that treacherous bastard that soaks all the time and shows up only for critical moments. I actually have never had the pleasure to watch our dear Cho'gall's amazing plays, as I'm always on the other side of the map pushing like there's no tomorrow. As I said before I played tank and healer too, once ranged dps too. I have a wide pool of heroes I had to learn for Hero League, just don't make me carry or dive with burst squishy melee heroes. I would have loved to pull some more heroes like my beloved Zagara out of the hat, but there will be time for that when we are in the off-season...

Are you yourself satisfied with how the season went for you and what are your goals for the next season?

thebestofblue: I think if we view this season as a starting point, I'm quite happy with what we have managed. Next season though, I'd like to get a lot more practice in and really work on improving as a team.

Bredcrumb: Yeah, I'd say for a FAT team, we did alright! We've at least won one match so I'm happy! (I wouldn't let them pick Cho'Gall until we at least won something... turns out we should have played him all along).

DarkWanderer: i just want to see how bad this division was. As it turns out, it's pretty decent, but it doesn't show player skill at all! Only the practice they put in with their teams, so yeah, it's alright.

BWBloody: Not quite, should have gone a bit better, ranked higher of course. But overall it has been good. Like what Dark says, it shows who has put in lots of practice vs us who scramble for practice. And as blue says "i will carryheal the team to victory"  The goals for next season is to put our team on everyone's tongue. And i have been trying to put up a good discordchat for both FAT Sloth (maybe namechange) and it will sport channels for "outside" players and voicechannels ;) "Hmmm, the evolution master. You may be of some use to me."

DEX_Crowind: Technically it was a good run! I'm a bit unsatisfied for some bad losses we could have avoided had we thought it through a little more, but for our first season it turned out pretty good!

So thank you for your time, any shoutouts you want to give to conclude this interview?

thebestofblue: Shout-out to Bloody's son for disrupting so many practices!

Bredcrumb: Shoutout to PeterRabbit, whose sucky internet gifted us the god that is DarkWanderer.

BWBloody: Shoutout to FAT Sloth!!!!!! For the GLORY! Shoutout for Dark to come in to be the shotcaller, we didnt have anyone shotcalling after Peter left. Edit: Shit all that, shoutout to ME for beign so godlike! "Are you truly the best this realm can offer?"

DarkWanderer: Shout out to myself obviously, but I wanna thank the team for inviting me in, it's been great.

DEX_Crowind: Bloody put a lot of effort in managing the enemy teams' stats and other things, so props to him! 

This concludes our interview with FAT Sloth. Thanks to FAT Sloth for taking time to answer some questions, and to all of you readers supporting the Heroes Lounge blog. I hope to see you all again for our next Inside Lounge interview. Should you have any suggestions or criticism, you would like to share with us, you can always find us at the Heroes Lounge discord.