Today we will be metaphorically sitting down for a chat with Mythic Championship winners, Forty-Two eSports. After only losing one game in the regular season they went on to avenge that defeat to Hold My Beer by defeating them in the grand final.
Hey there! Firstly thank you very much for your time and congratulations again on winning the Mythic Championship!
To get started if you could tell us a little about yourselves- who you are, your history with Heroes Lounge and your role within the team
Unreal: Hey, Thank you it was a really pleasure to play in the Lounge everybody had good fun. I'm the support of the team (Unrealxqt) unfortunately I could not participate in the finals, but the guys managed it very well :smiley: I know them for a quite long time now, we started to play some TL in smaller groups and by the time we had an idea that it would be really nice to try yourself out in a competition to see where can we improve and how do we stand. Personally, I haven't played much in this level this was the first time I joined to the Lounge. Earlier I participated in some smaller tournaments with some friends.
As a support of the team I'm really happy to playing with these guys everybody knows his role therefore my job is a bit easier because they don't put himself into a really risky situation. Obviously there are some ups and downs but if everybody has time to play and practice we can roll I believe :smiley:
Thunderbear: Hey I am Thunderbear, The team's main tank player! I started playing HotS a few years ago, met first Happycapped probably around 1.5-2 years ago and have been introduced to the rest of the team through TL since. Minor history with the Lounge: Me and Happy made a small Norwegian team that got Div 2 for this same season a year back and we enjoyed ourselves in the Lounge since
Happy: Hey i'm Happy (Happycapped), I am range damage dealer in this team and shotcaller. I have been playing for 4-5 years and always like the competitive part of HotS. I have done one season before with Thunderbear were we made a Norwegian team and got placed in div 2, we did ok but got the taste of competitive. So two seasons after me and Thunder wanted to make the best team we could so we can be the best team in Heroes Lounge. Unreal, Dhal and Dynouh was just what was needed to make this kind of team. Us as a team had little experience with competitive play and we noticed the first games it was harder then what we are used to, but we got better and better for each game :smiley:
Dhael: Hello i am Dhael, solo lane for Forty-Two eSports. I have played HotS since alpha. My first moba/brawler. Loved the game for its characters since I played SC/WC/Diablo. I watched HGC whenever I could and always tried to get the most out of my games. I had no prior competitive experience but always loved playing the game with others. Met some of the guys through Storm League and when Thunderbear asked me to join, I decided to give it a shot.
Dynouh:
Hello Mr. Interviewer
Dynouh's the name
The ranged flex player
Who wins at the game
I took HotS by storm
starting 2 years ago
and I'll keep my form
with room to grow
To the Lounge of Heroes
I joined with the team
We started as zeroes
yet finished with gleam!
You finished 2nd last season, looking back did this match the expectations you had for your team before the season began?
Happy: First off all we were sure we finished first since we had same points as Hold My Beer but we have better scores. But in the start of the season we thought we would do well but not sure how well since for most of us were new to competitive. So we hoped to do well, at least be in the top.
Start of the season we were like this, but after a few games we were doing just okay against the lower team so then were like this. Then we got better and better so in the middle of the season we expected to get 1 place so we were more like this, and we ended on top which was kinda unexpected as our first season! so we ended the season like this
Dhael: And this is why you have PR managers so that questions do not get answered in meme format
Happy: gif 's are not meme! just visual effect so they know the feeling!
Dhael: For me, since this was my first competitive experience, I did not go in thinking we would win it all. We were a new team, good individual players, but we had no idea how we would function as a team. Obviously there were disagreements about things, but we agreed to go in trying our best and to have fun while playing. Once we started winning more and more games and we got more confident as a team, it did not seem far fetched that we could win it all.
Going into the grand finals of the Championship you came up against Hold My Beer, the only team who beat you during the regular season. How confident were you going into that matchup?
Dhael: We lost vs Hold My Beer. Only match we lost and arguably our worst performance. We did not have our best night and the final map we screwed up our draft by going early Abathur while Vikings was up. Hold my beer really practiced the comp they played (evidence that they did the exact same strat 2 times in the playoffs). And they beat us in something like 10 minutes. Regardless we never felt that they were unbeatable and except for our misdraft it felt more that we lost that match than that they won it. At that point we were still confident we could beat them. I'll have to give a shout out to them though that they really stepped up their game during playoffs and we felt those matches were a lot better on both sides.
In the end it does not matter if we ended first or second during the regular season. We felt our team was capable to take the win. Now.. when Unreal decided to forget when the playoffs were scheduled and therefore booked a weekend away and missing the playoffs... that put us off our game. It took until the last minute to find a replacement and we were unable to practice with thedude. All kudos to him for stepping up. But this of course did impact our teamwork.
Dynouh: I'd say we were fairly confident. I remember me doing jokes about Superman and Kryptonite and how Hold my Beer is our Kryptonite but heck, that doesn't stop us. We knew what we were up against and that we can be better if we put our heart and mind into it and looking at the result it was correct!
Happy: We were confident to win like this, cause when we lost in the season i did a draft mistake and that's why we lost. But we don't like playing against them, they have strange comps and they play it well, so if we could choose we would pick someone else but it was a very even match so we were like. Luckily we ended up with the win
Thunderbear: Fairly confident, we knew we had lost to them before, but we also knew we could beat their comps if we banned the right heroes and set ourselves up to deal with their strong macro play.
What would you say your team’s greatest strength is?
Dhale: Dynouh would say Dynouh. I think that despite different personalities and ideas about drafts/tactics, we managed to come together and pull through. Every team has issues, it is the teams that manage to deal with those that get the furthest.
Unreal: I think we can adapt to different kind of play-style very well. There are many game changer heroes in the game like Aba, Vikings, personally I really hate playing against them because it ruins the basic macro so you will need to play in a different way. The hero pool we can play is pretty wide therefore we can answer to those kind of matchups and we are not panicking if a not popular hero is getting picked.
Happy: I would say high skill cap individually and because of this we felt we were better than everyone in team fights, that's why we focused on getting enemy teams to team fight heavy maps like dragon shire, tomb and BOE
There are team who have found good strats for some maps and some have found great macro strats on other maps. So since we are pretty new to competitive and had not found these kind off special comps for maps we focused on fights. Cause we know no team could out fight us in the long run
Thunderbear: Greatest strength? High individual skill and game understanding, we can usually trust each other with following each other up. If I engage, I can trust that they know to attack my target, if Dynouh/Happy make a play they know we will follow them up and keep them healed and peeled.
Dynouh: Me, as Dhael already suggested
So you are competing in Lounge again this season, what are your goals this time around? Do you think you can match your fantastic performance from last season?
Thunderbear: Goal: Winning again, trying for Div S/HeroesHype and improving overall as a team for other tournaments that come up. We don't only think we can match our performance, we believe we can and must improve it!
Happy: Yes. we should do as well or better
Wrapping things up, if you have any shout-outs/final words, speak now or forever hold your memes.
Dhael: The dynamic of playing in a team and in Heroes Lounge has been incredible. I experienced the most exciting matches playing in Heroes Lounge and therefore recommend everyone, from every skill level, to try playing with a team in Heroes Lounge. This game is so much better when played as a team; it truly is the best way to experience the game.
Happy: Shout out to the Heroes Lounge peeps for making it happened, casters make it a lot more fun to play. No matter if its Div 1 or Div 7. For people thinking about playing Heroes Lounge, do it... you will have some fun games and learn the game better, also see the game in a different way. SL and competitive is waaay different. Best amateurs are out! See you next time
Dynouh: I wanna do a shout out to Dhael for answering the first question for me
"Dynouh: I am the flex for Forty-Two eSports. When I am on fire I have enough self esteem to fill a stadium. I call my ego; Jill. She has her own chair. I play with 1 hand sometimes just to give the opponent a shot. But who am I kidding, they never have a shot. They say some people wear superman underpants. Superman wears Dynouh underpants. What was the question?"
Other than that, I wanna thank my mates, it was fun and is going to be fun again - huge thanks to the people that subbed in for when we were in need of one, to the casters that put in the effort and in general the whole organisation doing this, y'all are awesome!
So that's all for this interview, a massive thank you to Forty-Two eSports for taking part. We are currently under way with EU Season 10, keep an eye on the calendar and in our Discord for games being casted!
If you want to get in touch, head on over to our Discord and say hello!
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