This week on Inside Lounge, we are joined by lounge veterans and known memers, Division 4 team Potatoes007!
First of all, thank you all for your time in doing this interview, let's start off by having you guys introduce yourselves to our audience, and tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Zembar: I'm Zembar, King of Potatoes, Feeder by example. I've been the Swedish captain of this bag of roughly hewn chips for five season, and am currently in the position of refusing to heal my team as support.
MaxiMonster: I am Maximonster, the Dutch protector of the potatoes, my main job is trying to keep the feeding of the other potatoes to a minimum while feeding myself and yelling at Zembar for going melee-mode into things like Garrosh and Diablo...
TheRoughBaby: Well, hello there. The name is TheRoughBaby. I'm a 30+ years old Slovak, serving his potato sentence for the 5th season now. In-game I'm that squishy little thing running around, wondering, who to miss with my skillshots. Gazlowe main, also PUBG competitive wannabe.
Dawntree: Hello I'm Dawntree, I'm the Italian guy who doesn't play vidya anymore but still hangs around because :potato: are good XP bots good friends so when I want to play they always accept my feeds and my rage without much problem. PS: after I stopped playing Potatoes got gud. Coincidence? I think so
Orieal: Hello, I'm Orieal - the resident Brexit expert in the potatoes. I don't really play with the potatoes, as I'm mainly soaking back the XP in the off lane that the team lost by randomly face-checking bushes. I spend a lot of time missing all skills hots, but still winning the lane because Sonya. Happy to equate the potatoes win streak with me joining this season. Correlation = Causation.
Lucifer: Hello I'm Luci, I'm a Dutch griefer that has been playing with potatoes since season 2. I'm the ranged flex Kel'Thuzad one-trick of Potatoes and currently in charge of shot calling and drafting yelling at the team for not following my calls.
Erik2609: Hi, in my previous life I was an owl rehabilitator, but now I am known as Erik. I am yet another Dutch pleb. I am very good at ignoring shot-calls whilst reading Icy-Veins or whilst writing the wiki about owls. I may not know much about heroes, but did you know that a group of owls is called a parliament or otherwise known as a dead Malfurion.
Potatoes are one of the oldest teams in Heroes Lounge, having been around since Season 2. Can you speak a little about how you got into Heroes Lounge, and found yourself a Potato?
Zembar: For me I ran into the old Agents007 team in Cris's discord where they started, and they got me into it. I came up with the name Potatoes007 in their discord after that as a joke, but then decided to actually make it. I then held try-outs where Froge helped me grief the applicants to see who reacted in a reasonable way, since being able to handle tilting situations would be commonplace with me as captain.
TheRoughBaby: As a long time viewer and mod of Khaldor, I saw him cast a couple of Lounge games in season 1. I signed up as a free agent and played one game with a team that disbanded afterwards. Before season 2 I read Zembar's recruitment message in HL discord and went for the try-outs. They were young and stupid at the time, so they took me in and I've been feeding of the Potatoes ever since.
MaxiMonster: I was playing hots, and I started to talk to someone, saying I wanted to practice with some kind of team. He referred me to the lounge. I put up a post in players to recruit and Zembar approached me to become a sub. I was so happy. Then it took multiple reminders and 2 weeks till I finally got a try out. I thought I fit well into the team, and apparently, they were so speechless I didn't hear anything back for about a month. They liked me, but the sub wasn't leaving by then, so I had to think about if I wanted to be a second sub or if I was going to search for another team. 2 weeks later their tank stopped, and they had a slot open in their main roster. I took the slot and I am still very happy as their tank!
Dawntree: I was spamming in Lounge discord before everyone else (seriously, I was spamming on day 1 of discord server). Then Agents007 ripped at the end of season 3, I found myself teamless so after evaluating a bit my best course of action I decided to take the coveted bench role for Potatoes. Griefs may or may not have occurred when they needed a 5th for some matches.
Lucifer: I got into HotS around season 1 of Heroes Lounge. I started looking for a team around the end of season 1 and that's when Epixors told me that Zembar was trying to put together a team of feeders of the highest order. So I tried out and I've been playing with potatoes ever since.
Speaking of the legacy of the Potatoes, you have found yourself in the lofty heights of division 4 this season, having traditionally been a bottom division team. Moreso, you're actually unbeaten this season! How has the jump up in skill level been for you guys, and what do you think is the reason for your performance this season? (please note this interview was conducted before Potatoes007 lost their first game of the season vs Team Upside)
Dawntree: My external support* has proven to be the key factor once again.
*: by external support I mean "I'm not even replying to Zembar pings"
MaxiMonster: I think Luci's shot calling is one of the reasons we have been undefeated. Luci took a break from the main roster last season, but now he is back with a vengeance. And we are so happy to have him back, we occasionally listen to calls he makes.
TheRoughBaby: Considering Zembar's incoming essay, I'll keep it simple. We the patatas are the example of 2 things. 1st is the fun we have playing and memeing together that also keeps us together. 2ndly, with relative stable roster for 5th season, we know how to react and play off of each other in-game and cooperation being key to HOTS, we have that as an advantage in HL games. So, bottom line is, the long-time we are together made us better as team and same can be achieved everywhere with a little will and patience.
Orieal: I'm actually genuinely surprised to find out about the legacy of potatoes being "bottom" division. I'm clearly new and agree Luci has been great this season in both play and shot calling - but it surprises me the legacy team was a bottom division team. Sure, we (myself included) make mistakes, but I certainly don’t feel like I'm playing with bottom division players at all (and Erik is clearly a Division 1 Tyrande)
Zembar: There are a variety of reasons why we're currently at the top of division four. Firstly, we have the internal ones: For the first time, we have a roster where we all are really comfortable in our roles. We also have a solid shot caller that we all trust. We prepare for our games by researching our opposition, both in drafts and playstyles if possible. We draft compositions, not just comforts (although comforts are always nice if you can get compositions that work with them). We try to communicate the game plan and our win conditions to our entire team before the game. Secondly, there are external factors: We've mostly been matched with less experienced teams, that probably lack some of the things we've built over time. Mechanically we've faced teams that are probably as good or better, but that have been too one-sided in their drafts, or that have been accustomed to being able to beat their opponents through team fights and not macro play. I think that as the season goes on we're going to face much harder challenges, and I also think some of the teams we faced earlier would have been much harder to deal with later in the season as they learn how to play together as a team, and in an organised setting. As of writing this, we're at 5-0, but I suspect we're going to face tougher opposition very soon as the lounge matchmaker becomes more accurate over time. But even if we face teams tougher teams or not, either way everything is clownable.
Lucifer: I have little to add here that Zembar didn't already note in his essay. This season we've had a few roster/role swaps which I think put everyone on a role they are good at and enjoy playing. On top of that we're getting better as a team every season we play together, as veterans of Lounge that is an edge we have over teams that haven't been together that long.
As a lower level team, how important is something like Heroes Lounge for you guys? Is it a big difference to just playing Team League for you?
MaxiMonster: About question 4; I feel like HL gives us a reason to practice. Most Heroes Lounge games are really close, and I personally like being able to do some research about our opponents. Team League at the moment is more of a clown fiesta for us, with maps we'd rather not play, and not being able to swap heroes hurts our flexibility.
Orieal: I think the premise of the question is slightly misleading, I think Heroes Lounge is important for everyone irrespective of skill-level. For someone like myself, who enjoys the game but ultimately cannot grind HL endless due to professional commitments, the chance to play with like-minded friendly people in a competitive environment is only served by Heroes Lounge. So, it’s a huge difference for me in enjoyment of the game. I also like the fact there is a range of "team types" in Heroes Lounge: playing with Poatoes and Don Our Fedoras was a great experience of friendly people where winning is important but not the end of the world; while other teams allow the more "uber competitive" types to play which is great if that’s the environment you are looking for
Zembar: If it wasn't for Heroes Lounge, I would have stopped playing and just watched HGC ages ago. The community is extremely important, and also playing with a team, experiencing HotS the way it's supposed to be played is like night and day. I haven't played Hero League since season 2 in 2016 more or less, and I don't plan on playing it soon. Solo queue in any game mode has in fact become unplayable for me. For team practice I actually prefer unranked to team league since there's less smurfing going on. But none of the built-in game modes come close to playing competitively for me.
TheRoughBaby: For me Lounge is mainly about people. Given, that love of HOTS drove us together in the first place and you will never have that kind of in-game experience outside custom competitive games as matchmaking by Blizzard is too screwed up at the moment to bring quality matches. Having said that, back to my original point, over the period of time Potatoes played together, we became more than just teammates in an online game. Some of us met already IRL and even at the hardest of times, I always look forward to playing, joking and memeing around with my team and it always makes my day better. We are actually about to discover each other’s sleeping habits in June, which I think is a next level in the relationship.
Editors note, Potatoes will be attending Dreamhack 2018 in Jonkoping with over 50 Heroes Lounge community members!)
Orieal: / non-sleeping habits
Lucifer: To me Team League and Heroes Lounge are incomparable. In Lounge you get to be able to prepare for your opponents, you know who you are playing against, can prepare for how they draft, know what heroes they like to play and most of all you get to know the people behind a team through Lounge. You also get rivalries between teams that have been playing in Lounge for a longer time making matches feel a lot more fun and competitive than in Team League where you are just facing a nameless opponent and where matches are usually just a shit stomp either way because of Blizzards amazing match making.
Looking to the future, what are your goals for the rest of this season? Is Potatoes in Playoffs something you are aiming for?
Zembar: My goal for the season was to get a positive win rate. So, I guess win one more and clown the rest?
So, the same as last season then?
Zembar: Pretty much
TheRoughBaby: As Captain "Zembar" Morgan said, positive win rate is the goal. Potatoes in playoffs would be nice though.
MaxiMonster: Playoffs! We are going to try to get as much out of this season as possible. We will keep trying our best. And remember this quote from Oscar Wilde:" One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards". So, if we can't win we'll cheese and meme our way out of sticky positions
Orieal: Finish top with an unbeaten record. Beat some teams in playoffs.
Lucifer: My goal for this season is the same as it's always been: try to get as far as we can. Getting to playoffs would be really fun and seems quite achievable this season.
Thank you all for giving up your time for this interview. Have you got any shout outs or plugs you would like to give?
TheRoughBaby: Big thanks goes to the whole team, for sticking together, all the fun and memes we have together and for tolerating my salt and tilt in the early days (except for Petman, the weak one, who just left). But also, credit to Petman for putting the Lounge together.
And shout out to Cpt. "Zembar" Morgan for dealing with all the "paperwork".
MaxiMonster: Yeah, the cat herding can't be easy, so big shout out to our captain potato. Also, to the team and all of the subs, shout out to mist, the one who gives us some much-needed yells. And all the mods and sloths at HL for doing a great job rigging, modding, and creating content.
Zembar: Shoutouts eh? To the fallen potatoes: Sardonic, Tetsu, Jwojwo, Petman and Locitus! To the subs (for pulling our asses out of the fire): Robb, TinyOwl and Vision! To the people who inspired me to feed and hone our griefs: Agents007 (particularly Froge), Epixors and Mist! And special shout outs to Fictional for being the fourth Pleboff captain, Elite AI for practically becoming our sister team, Hots Tough for being good frenemies over a couple of seasons, best mod Carvis and ping target Rikki! And last but not least, all sloths, for their relentless endeavour to conquer this earth.
Orieal: Shout out to Epixors for DMing say you were looking for a solo laner or I would never have got to join! Thanks to potatoes for accepting me - I haven’t enjoyed playing this much since don our fedoras
Lucifer: Shout outs to all the subs we've had so far, to all the mods making Heroes Lounge such a great environment and to captain Zembar for putting up with my endless OSslothing. (And of course, to Petman for making us win every season)
This concludes our interview with Potatoes007 Thanks to Potatoes007 (and on a more personal note, Zembar who is one of my very favourite lounge people) 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.
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