[Inside Lounge] Dark Angels

This week on Heroes Lounge, we are joined by Division 5 team, Dark Angels!

A big thank you to Dark Angels for joining me for this interview. To start off, can you please introduce yourselves and tell our audience a little bit about you.

MadMorth: I am MadMorth, the new angry dude in the team. I am the tank player. Mooooooo. #muielasaraci

Physicsman: - Greetings Friends!

A big thank you to the Robbster and all the other people in the Lounge for making all of this fun and high jinks possible. Being interviewed is swell - makes us feel like royalty!

As to who I am, I'm your friendly neighbourhood Physicsman! My job on the team consists of herding cats - in other words, I'm the Captain of this 'orrible lot!

During games, I play the Support role and spend all my time trying to keep everybody alive, despite their best efforts to feed the enemy team!

Velociraptor: I'm Velociraptor continue playing in the hopes of sometime having casters say, "clever girl" when I do something good for a change, and I'm supposed to feed as DPS, but for some reason I often end up playing solo laner.

Prodigy: En Taro Adun!

I'm Prodigy, the Teams resident Shotcaller, Drafter and Melee/Bruiser - in short: the one to pile all the blame on! I usually spent most of our games trying to prove my own name wrong, and succeed in doing so, I might add!

Azmodai:  Hello there! I'm Azmodai, like raptor I’m also a DPS player with this being my second full season with Dark Angels. I bring sarcasm and dry wit to the team.

Ani: I'm Ani. I'm one of the substitute players in the team, so I step in and try to fill whatever role is in need at the moment. I'm trying to improve my game which is why I dabble in the ranked matches.

You guys are good mix of grizzled vets (like Physicsman) and fresh newbies (like Velociraptor). With your varying experience levels, how have you found your experience in Heroes Lounge thus far, and what drew you to take part?

MadMorth:  This was my first season in the Lounge and despite having some issues with the team where I first played, before the season started, I enjoyed the experience. As for what drew me to it, I would have to say that it was a reddit post advertising the new season.

Azmodai: Sometimes we get a bit of a clash but we’re quickly working on getting over that hurdle.  I first found out about Heroes Lounge through watching Khaldor on YouTube and wanted to see how I did in a more structured and competitive play style and I found plenty of new and inventive ways for me to get my arse handed to me

Still I wouldn’t change it at all. Made several new friends and had some of the best games I’ve had, and I’ve improved a Hell of a lot from where I was before I joined

Velociraptor: I decided to take part after some Swedes (namely Pittor and Zembar) wrote about Heroes Lounge in the discord of STHLM e-sport, which is an organisation I'm the head of. At that point I'd more or less stopped playing HotS as I didn't like playing alone and the toxicity of HL, but I liked the thought of playing as a team in a competitive environment and decided to try to find a team.

So far, I've enjoyed getting to know and play with people from all over Europe! We might clash from time to time as Azmo said, but I like the fact that we are able to work on not only the mistakes we make in game, but also how we communicate with each other. No matter if we win or lose, I enjoy improving my game together with my new teammates, and the veteran Physics has made me feel most welcome in Heroes Lounge.

Physicsman: Each season of Heroes Lounge just gets better than the last - there's continuous improvements in organisation that just makes it such a blast to play in. EG. fixing issues from Season 1 around large numbers of inactive teams leading to a mass of free win "byes"; or random matchmaking in Season 2!

I eagerly await each week's match with excitement and am already looking forward to the next season!  Abathur would approve of the way that the Lounge has adapted, evolved and improved with each season.

Well done to all involved - it's a logical decision!

I'm happy to say I was there at the dawn of Heroes Lounge, having seen a Reddit post by the one, the only "the_Petman" enquiring whether there would be interest in an EU amateur league akin to Chair League in the US. As soon as I saw that post I was all over it like white on rice, so I could join as soon as it was ready!

What draws me to Lounge matches is the additional strategy and skill elements to playing in a League.

We can build strats for particular maps to play against teams scouted in advance and target ban their hero pool. It takes the game to the next level much closer to the HGC that we see. Of course, we always find new ways to bumble and stumble through the execution but that's a different matter entirely!

It's a whole different feel to the game to what you experience in solo-Q Hero League on random maps with random teammates versus random enemies.

Editor note, the thought of going back to random matchmaking makes me shudder

Prodigy: We may have varying experience levels when it comes to Heroes in general and the Lounge in particular but the one thing that we have in common, which fascinates and excites me about our team every time over, is that not only are we able to criticise each other in an adult fashion and know no one will take it the wrong way, but we're all very reliable and in it for the long term it seems.

I have played in seasons 1 and 2 but never finished either because my teams split up at some point due to inactive people and not being able to replace fast enough. Even if we hit a streak of bad games we pull each other up at the bootstraps and keep going, I love that spirit. As to what drew me to take part; I was always jealous of NA's Chair league so when the lounge got announced I immediately jumped the chance!

Ani: it's been an interesting ride as far as team composition has been concerned. As a substitute member I've not been here that long, but I feel we have a pretty good core group. For me having a nice, pleasant team experience while playing Heroes is extremely important. I'm not a fan of the general toxic environment in online games. And it gives me an opportunity to learn a bit from others, which is always important.

You mentioned how different playing something like Heroes Lounge is to something like solo queue Hero League. As a Division 5 team, that puts you in the lowest bracket we have in terms of "MMR" (Editor’s note: We use Hotslogs for MMR seeding) How important do you think something like Heroes Lounge is for providing true co-ordinated play for players of a lower level? Has it made a difference in your level of play?

Prodigy: It's humbling really since I consider us to put quite some effort into our games and trying to improve, yet we still find so many opponents that are plain better. If we, as a coordinated group of people have issues executing our game plan, who am I to get annoyed at some random in hero League I have never seen before. It teaches me over and over again that getting the basics right is something you need to work on every time you start the game. There is no resting on your laurels, since every game starts from scratch you have to put in everything you got every time over. I love it.

Physicsman: A league such as Heroes Lounge is virtually the only way to get the true co-ordinated play experience providing the most fun and entertainment when playing HotS.

Even in Team League, the play is quite varied since opponents could be a 3 and 2 stack leading to wonky comps or mixed strats/tactics in-game. You also have no advance scouting information on the enemy team the way we do in the Lounge so it's much harder to come up with pre-set strats you want to execute. Everything has to be done by the seat of your pants if you will, or even if you don't!

Hence, for any player wanting that true co-ordinated play akin to HGC, Heroes Lounge (or equivalent) is essential.

I think playing in the Lounge has made a positive improvement to my play in solo-Q. Some of the things I've learned in Lounge are directly applicable in solo-Q and immediately improves my level of play. For example, tracking enemy cooldowns or objective timers etc.

Ani: I feel I'm learning things from playing in a 4-or-5 stack I wouldn't have normally and just having a reliable team with voice chat feels like it makes a world of change. At the very least it makes games more enjoyable. That's how I see it.

Azmodai:  It's improved dramatically, I know div 5 is considered the bottom of the rankings but even then, it's a whole new play style in comparison to solo-Q. This isn't trying to take away from the solo game but before I joined heroes lounge I was losing interest in the game because its really awkward to try and organise any form of tactics when you've got no proper communication outside of typing which takes too long. It's also stupidly good with how much it's helped me improve and actually come to enjoy playing characters that I rarely used to play.

 I never really played Greymane before this season, but the team wanted to try some new ideas and so I went off to practice both solo and in the practice games and found myself enjoying him a lot more... Still have to try and avoid the age-old problem of target fixation but they're getting used to hearing me go "I'm going in... oh crap, now I’m running, oh gods the pain." And certain builds for certain maps and certain situations, many things I always underestimated or didn't think too much about.

With that I’ve got to agree with what Physics said, if someone wants to do proper organised play then Heroes Lounge of variations of it that are out there are vital.

Speaking about proper organised play, you guys have had some coaching if I am correct? Can you talk about that experience, and how you think it has helped?

MadMorth: As I mentioned before, I was in another team at the start of the season. They too had a coach. A coach that would barely show us anything useful, never watch replays with us and assume we will do what he says because he was 2 divisions (not leagues) higher in HL. That being said, the coach of this team is one of the reasons we won some games. He helped me understand my role as a tank better than before and helped the team as a hole.

Prodigy: In my opinion, Reflection is key to improvement, and our coach Manages to find plays, decisions and shot calls that really help underline past mistakes to help improve for the future. Now, I am not saying that I am not still doing the same mistakes but now at least, I know I am...

Azmodai: Over the past two seasons we've had both Epixors and Morph acting as coach for our team, it's been great going over the replays and seeing their deconstruction of it, pointing out proper positioning and approaches, explanation behind recommended draft bans and picks and just in general the overall analysis. Even the slightest things have managed to dramatically help us improve like simple positioning that we took for granted, a slight adjustment and it's managed to improve both our ability to pick out targets in a fight and also keep ourselves alive that little bit longer. Admittedly we sometimes fall into bad habits but it's a work in progress.

Physicsman:  Yes, in S4 we had Epixors as our coach and last season (S5) onwards Morpheus is coaching us.

I find the team coaching to be enlightening in many ways - covering things we knew that we did not know, but also many things that we didn't even know that we didn't know. Egad! Never thought I'd be channelling Donald Rumsfeld!

Taking this opportunity to again extend our appreciation and gratitude to Epixors and Morpheus for all their hard work and efforts. We'll be doing more coaching in our training over this off-season as we prepare for Season 6!

Thank you all for you time! Before I let you go, have you got any shout outs you'd like to give?

MadMorth: 

Big one to the guyz in TDDVV. (muie la saraci)

Prodigy: Shout out to everyone involved with the Heroes Lounge. Every single organizer and player alike helps make this a fun and engaging experience for everyone. Happy to be a part of it!

MadMorth: Also that

Physicsman: Firstly, much obliged to you Robbster for conducting the interview - it was swell!

Credit to my team for working smart and hard to improve and staying positive/cheerful throughout the season.

Appreciation for the hard work from all the staff and casters to keep the Lounge running so well.

Last but never least, to all the Lounge teams and players past and present from all the seasons - this place wouldn't be the same without you!

Velociraptor: Shout out to everyone behind Heroes Lounge, I can't believe how much time and enthusiasm you put into the league!

Also, lots of appreciation to my new teammates who bear with me with my constant accidental innuendos, my slow rotations and my general confusion! And even more appreciation for the fact that I can play in an environment where my gender is of no importance, which is miles away from previous experiences.

Ani: What they said. Thanks a lot

Azmodai: Same, can't really say it much better than what they've already said

This concludes our interview with Dark Angels Thanks to Dark Angels  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.