[Inside Lounge] - First Wind

In the fall, Heroes Lounge expanded to the North American region and picked up 5 divisions of great teams. Blowing into Division 1, we have First Wind. First Wind is a team that is made up of Warshington, Rage, Volk, sNaSamus, and Hazeroni. I was able to send these guys out some questions to learn a little bit more about who they are. Heroes Lounge is always made up of people from all realms of life. Hopefully, this will shed a little light on what makes this team tick and what makes them a success!

Tell me a little bit about yourselves?

Warshington - I'm 32 years old I've been playing video games since I was 16 I really like all forms of role playing games as they take you out of your element in the day-to-day real world.

Rage - Early 30s, living in Montreal, enjoying life through friends, events, parties, activities, etc.

Volk - I'm a gamer, former guitarist for a metal band, former veterinary technician, and currently an attorney in New York. Been a fan of Blizzard games like Diablo and WoW for several years before getting into HotS.

sNaSamus - Semi-pro.

Hazeroni - Currently, I attend Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN, studying chemical engineering.  I am in my junior year here.  I started playing HOTS as soon as the game hit open beta.  My brother had closed beta access and got me hooked on the game through his account.  We started playing together once the beta went open, and I have stuck with it ever since.

What do you do for a living?

Warshington - I do Information Technology support for work.

Rage - I work in finance as a director in Asset Management for an international bank.

Volk - Currently an attorney in New York.

sNaSamus - Semi-pro.

Hazeroni - A chemical engineering student.

How do you find time to play HOTS?

Warshington - I find time to play in the evenings after work while my beautiful girlfriend is at work. 

Rage - That is my main issue: currently evenings and weekends when life does not get too busy.

Volk - Being funemployed has its perks currently, but I'm sure this answer will change soon tm. 

sNaSamus - I don't. 

Hazeroni - It can be difficult to find time to play with my busy college schedule, but I try to always make time to play with my team on practice nights, and with my brother and friends on the weekends.

How do you feel about HGC not being around in 2019? Will that effect whether you will continue to play the game?

Warshington - It's hard to say this is a very community-based game and even with all the trolls and smurfs if the community starts to die then there isn't much incentive to keep playing.

Rage - It is quite unfortunate that HGC is out; however, they invested a lot in this game and it has a steady base of players. This should be able to create opportunities for other parties to start their own leagues, or expand Heroes Lounge, as they did for Division S.

Volk - HGC 2019 not happening absolutely and undeniably negatively impacts the pro scene, but it doesn't and never would affect me since I just enjoy playing the game as it is. Though I'm not sure how the new experience changes will affect the game in the long term, I think the game was in the best balance state it's ever been right before the changes. 

sNaSamus - I don't feel anything, I'm dead inside. 

Hazeroni - I never really followed HGC all that closely, so the announcement of its closure didn’t affect me very directly, as I never really thought I would ever reach that level of play anyways.  The announcement that I’m more bummed about is that HOTS won’t be getting the regular updates and new content we’re used to.  It kind of sucks that development for the game is going to slow down, but I think I will continue to play this game for as long as it’s around, since I enjoy it so much.

How did the team form?

Warshington - I met a few of them while playing Team league using the new voice chat system and we just clicked with our maturity in our attitude towards the game and hero picks and it all just came together.

Rage - We mostly played the game often enough to see recurring people in the same games, got to speaking through the onboard voice module in games, and had great times together. 

Volk - Warsh and I met in HL queues, played a few games together, and it took off from there. The TL changes made it a lot easier for us to try to get into ranked games together, so we filled the roster with our friends so we can just enjoy playing the game together and flame each other as much as possible. 

Hazeroni -  I met my team on the Heroes Lounge looking for teammates chat back in October.

What have you thought of the inaugural season for NA?

Warshington -  I really like the new season for na because our meta picks are different from Europe and Asia and it's it's fun to be competitive and on your home turf and try new things with the the few people you have that you play well together and overall it's a really good time especially when this is how this game is meant to be played in the thought out competitive environment.

Rage - Love it so far. 

Volk - I'm enjoying it so far, and the teams have proven to be great competition so it gives us more motivation to just absolutely trash each other's gameplay with hopes that we can improve. Don't know about the last part though. We will see.

sNaSamus - Huh?