This time around we shoot the breeze with Lounge favourites, Treehouse Gaming. Going into their fifth season, these sloths are still going strong and are ready to battle it out in Division 5.
Hello there! Firstly thank you very much for your time. 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
DiddlySquat: Griefings everyone, I'm Diddly, a 25 year-old Dutch Fekker! I joined Treehouse last season as a DPS at first, but then switched to tank halfway during the season. This season I'm once again the mage one trick DPS player for the team. I'm also the drafter of the team and I help out Eef whenever she forgets is too busy to schedule matches and practices. I've been active in Lounge since season 4 as a player/captain on various teams and as a co-caster.
Ranja: Hi I’m Ranja, like Diddly I am also Dutch (I promise we aren’t a Dutch team), 29 years young. I joined Treehouse for its inaugural season as a sub player before joining the main roster proper as a DPS and tank player. Currently I play DPS for treehouse.
Epixors: Griefings 
I'm Epixors, also a superior Dutch griefer who is 21 years of age. I used to play OD with Minion Genocide and am a self-proclaimed high brain, low buttons GM offlaner. Now I am a "coach" for Treehouse, which means I sometimes watch them and tell them they suck (and sometimes why) . Also currently captain for Wheel of ORDAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
Robb: My name is Robb, offlane main for Treehouse. Been in the team since it's first season, played in lounge since season 2 creating the teams Deported Support and Kinky. Have held pretty much every role that there is for staff in Heroes Lounge, currently serving as Content Manager (aka Eef's lackey). Fully believe that REEEEEHOUSE is a better name than our current one.
Epixors: Good point, I've been playing since Season 1, was lead Lounge dev for a while, OG griefer
Denker: GriefingsI am Denker and playing in lounge since season 3. I took a break last season but before that I played several seasons as captain on Griefers on Safari in division 1. So I just joined THG for this season as the new tank player Abathur one-trick, Africa tourist and shotcaller. My duties include reeeeing at my team for ignoring my calls/missing soak, complaining to Eef about never getting heals and flaming Robb for never being on my screen 
mirithil: Hi! I'm mirithil and I'm I'm the second best healbot main of the team! (out of two) I'm Italian and given everyone's age, let's just say I'm old. I randomly met Eef while looking for a team as a free agent a few seasons ago, and I was summoned to the Treehouse to make everyone feel better with my absolute lack of mechanical precision, mostly shown when playing Hanzo.
Eef:Hey hey, Eef here and founder of this team 
I'm 27 years old, arguably 28 by the time this article is published and from the Netherlands. I've joined lounge in season 3. I have tried many different roles, however I always keep coming back to the support role. My history with lounge, well yeah, I'm currently part of the board as chief communications as well as Division S lead, which takes a fair chunk of my time. But this is why we have the @House elf role in this discord and @GiddlyDiddlyGiddlyWiddly as my PA to make sure the team doesn't suffer.
This is the 5th season that Treehouse Gaming has been slothing around in lounge, how did you all come together as a team? And what is the origin of your team name?
Eef: How did treehouse come to be. Its a combination of things really. My first team disbanded, and then I tried to be a FA two seasons in a row, and although I finished season 4 with that team, our season 5 team collapsed and I didnt fancy having to find a new team every season. I love the social aspect of the game, and I think most of us here share that sentiment. So I gathered some people I knew from previous teams / circles like Miri and Ranja and decided to see if we could make something happen. The discussion originally started in a private discord server called 'secret treehouse' and we kinda stuck with the name. It also allows the rest of the team to meme me 'back into the treehouse' whenever they force me to play Malfurion 
Robb: Eef you love Malfurion and you know it. Personally I had just found myself without a team for the first time in several seasons, and wanted to test the waters to see who would want me. Luckily Eef messaged first, and I ended up making some of the best friends I have here. Our logo is effectively based on Eef and I, with her stuck in the treehouse and me trying to burn it down as blaze in my bunker!
Eef: Don't burn down the treehouse?
Robb: 
Ranja: Eef already mentioned me but I came from focus the tank which was disbanding around the time that treehouse was forming. Discussions in the secret treehouse led to an actual treehouse that we can send eef to. The name fit the first season where malf was our most picked hero 
DiddlySquat: I met Eef at some IRL meeting in the Netherlands and was looking for a team after a break of a season. I got pretty fed up with the stupidity and toxicity in Hero League, so I wanted to play for fun and not grind HL anymore to improve at pushing buttons. Apparently Eef didn't hate me enough during our meeting to dislike me, so that's how I joined the team.
Epixor: Not hating Diddly enough
Ranja: The true punishment is playing for Treehouse
Epixor:
That does seem
Last season you finished 7th in Div 5, and made it to the knockout stage of the Epic Cup. How did this match your expectations for that season?
Eef: We started that reason off really badly to be fair, we had lost our shotcaller and main tank, and I switched from support to main tank for the first half of it. Needless to say, it did not work out too well. So Diddly was a hero and stepped up and we actually started winning games. I think it was the last week and about 5 days before the season ended a mod messaged us saying we had a chance of playoffs. I don't think any of us really realised we did at that moment in time, so it came as a massive surprise.
Ranja: What she said
DiddlySquat: Pretty much what Eef said. We had no expectations after the first couple of games, but we figured out the problem (Eef not shouting enough at members during games ) and then pretty much got everything going right. Qualifying for playoffs wasn't actually too bad when one of the teams in our groups got disqualified for smurfing, so we only had to win 1 match.
Random Flamer: (That's what she said)
Robb: I do sometimes wonder what would happen if we didn't role swap EVERY SEASON 
Ranja: At least we are consistent in deporting you to the offlane
Robb: Honestly I'm shocked I haven't been replaced yet
Denker: Same
Epixors: Wow toxic
So this season you have had a bit of role swapping, could you give us a quick summary and tell us how you feel this has affected the team?
DiddlySquat: We pretty much swapped back to the roles we had at the start of last season. We only temporarily switched players around to accommodate for the problems we had, as we didn't want to recruit mid-season. The swaps moved Eef back to support, which greatly improved the consistency in the team as we had used different supports every game up until that point. I moved to tank to make our playstyle more aggressive and decisive, as we lost most of our games to not acting quickly. It turned out pretty well with us playing much more aggressively and actually forcing mistakes from our opponents, rather than waiting passively for mistakes to happen. Personally I was happier on dps though, so we decided to use the season break to search for a main tank / shotcaller. Luckily we found one in Denker, so everyone is now back on their preferred roles. We obviously have to adjust again to the new situation, but I think this is currently the most optimal role assignment. Everyone is playing a role they like to play, which is the most important part.
Robb: My preferred role is Zagara, but I don't get to play it
Ranja:My preferred role is BANNED ALL THE TIME
Eef: @Robb exactly, the most optimal role assignment
Robb: Wow include this in the interview. I want the world to know, how much Eef is a booly
Epixors:
Random Flamer:
Denker:
What would you consider your teams greatest strength?
Epixors: Extraordinary feeding powers
Eef: 
Do I answer wholesomely?
I think, honestly, the fact that we're all friends, we've all met each other IRL, we know we can have good fun together, and even if we have a crappy game we know that next time there is beer and wine and grouphugs (especially including Froge). We are all here to have fun and we always make sure we do
Denker: Fake news, I never met miri and diddly 
Eef: Wasnt diddly at loungecon last year? I think Miri only met me and Robb?
Epixors: He did stop by yes
DiddlySquat: I think we have a good combination of tryhard and grief. Adding Denker and Epix was really important for the latter part, as we tended to be a bit too serious from time to time last season. Also most people knowing one another helps a lot.
Robb: *Grieef
Epixors: Not sure how the adding of a flamer reduces seriousness 
Denker however is of course a giant troll
What are your ambitions for this season? Do you think you can qualify for the Epic Cup again?
DiddlySquat: What's an ambition? 
We just want to GRIEEF (Get Rekt, Int, Enrage Eef and Feed). On a more serious note: I hope to qualify for playoffs and then we’ll see what happens.
Eef: That is exactly how last night went down tbf
Epixors: Exactly. Though then you could argue for Get Rekt, Int, Enrage Eef, Fodka
Random Flamer: seems like real news
DiddlySquat: Gameplan, Rotations, Int, Enrage Eef, Forfeit is maybe a more accurate representation of how we do things. Or just Grieef, gRieef, grIeef, griEef, grieEf, grieeF
Eef: We never forfeit
If you have any shout-outs/final words, speak now or forever hold your memes.
Robb: Shout outs to all Treehouse members past and present, especially Noz, Coup and Penelope who were such massive parts of what made this team so much fun to be in.Thanks to Poppin for the interview, to all the Heroes Lounge community for being awesome. Biggest shoutout to Eef for taking a chance when recruiting me when she really knew nothing about me, she has built an amazing team up that has been a pleasure to be a part of.
Random Flamer: recruiting Robb was clearly an awful mistake
Epixors: Shoutout to Froge for being prime flamer. And to current members for letting me flame them
DiddlySquat: Shoutout to all people that keep HeroesLounge running, you're all amazing. Shoutout to my team members for being awesome and filling 2-3 evenings per week with a fun activity . And a massive shoutout to ex-Treehouse member Godygamer. We couldn't have improved without you leaving the team, so thanks for your sacrifice
Robb: Wooooooooooooooooow
Random Flamer: Toxic
Epixors: Wooooooooooooooooooooow. My view of Giddly is improving with every passing day tbh
DiddlySquat: I'm 25 now, turned old and grumpy
Ranja:
Eef: Special shoutout to Penelope, Coup and Noz, without them treehouse would never have lived this long 
to Gody because he's a pain in the arse, to Typhoon, for planting the seed in my mind to create a team, to Maluco to cocreate this with me, to Pio and Arilli to force me to go ahead with this idea. To Anton and Cosmic to show we haven't forgotten about them.
To all the people I have met, hugged or has the pleasure of playing with over the years via Lounge. I love you all Or most anyways :3
Random Flamer: "or most"
Eef:
Random Flamer:
Epixors:
And so we reach the end of this interview, many thanks to the sloths of Treehouse Gaming for taking part.
We are currently under way with EU Season 10, and NA Season 3 is just beginning! Keep an eye on the calendar and in our Discord for games being casted!
If you want to get in touch, don't be afraid to head on over to our Discord and say hey!
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