[Inside Lounge] Oil Rig

This time the hype train is passing by the former Oil Refinary now rebranded as Oil Rig. This team initially played in div 4 but managed to jump not 1…. but 2 whole divisions up to div 2. So far this season Oil Rig has scored a whopping 5 wins out of 6 matches and have positioned themselves near the top of the division.

But let us meet these slippery guys. Would you please tell us a little about yourselves?

Tiago: Hi, I’m Tiago, mage player and captain of Oil Rig.

FajL:  Hello, I’m FajL, I’m 25 years old and from Sweden. I’ve played MOBAs for roughly 10 years, starting with DotA Allstars in WC3, and now i play HotS for team Oil Rig.

Lio:  KONO LIO DA! I’m mostly a bruiser/offlaner player. Due to my name, I was destined to become a Leoric main. I’m most comfortable playing tanky dudes, who don’t need to worry about getting one-shot. I have always wanted to become a pro Kel’thuzad player, but a mister by the name of Babiker wouldn’t allow it because of me being: “complete shaite” (citation needed). This might be linked to his dissapearence.

Artéss: Hi, I’m Artéss, and I’m a support player most of the time. I’m a Russian, and I’ve been playing HotS since beta. You could probably call me a very team-oriented player, because I find more pleasure in supporting and enabling a great team in our plays than in carrying the game myself. Although I’m also happy to jump onto a damage dealer and poke my enemies, letting them taste some cold sharp sticks. The most important things in the game for me are playing with a great team, enjoying ourselves, spending evenings in an entertaining way and victory at any cost.

Riskiwi:  I’m Riskiwi, noob of the team main tank and shotcaller for Oil Rig. I’ve not been playing HotS for very long, and it’s my first moba, so basically I have no idea what, I’m doing, and I let all our good people carry me.

First of all I would like to ask you guys, how you all came together as a team?

Tiago: We had already played a few times together in Season 5 I believe, some of us as subs, with a Division 5 team called Focus the Tank. That was the first time, we tried Heroes Lounge, and from then on we thought, playing in Lounge could be fun.

FajL:  I joined the team this season. After being invited to play by Riskiwi, whom I’ve known a while through another discord-server. I loosely followed the team during season 6 and felt they improved a lot. Therefore upon me joining, we also added 2 subs, Dhairyugly and Maluco, as to get rigged into a higher division with a recalculation of team mmr.

Lio: My last team which was basically a FAT team split up and I started playing mostly with people from Focus the Teamleague™ discord channel. One thing lead to another and we made a team. (Atleast that’s roughly how i remember it)

Artéss: Speaking for myself, I knew Riskiwi from a casual player group we both had been members of, and he invited me to try-out for the team they were putting together with a few friends. I stayed awhile and listened, and I met everyone else, when I joined the team. After our amazing performance last season, we were able to attract and sign strong players that boosted our roster and improved our MMR, so that we got seeded into Div 2.

Riskiwi: So most of the others played together a lot, before I knew them in a div 5 Lounge team. I ended up playing with them once as a random they picked up over discord, cos they needed a 5th for Team League. For some reason they asked me to keep playing with them, even though I was bronze 5 at the time (that’s not even a joke, my rank was literally bronze 5). Then that team disbanded and some members went on to form Treehouse Gaming after some switcheroos, and so Tiago and I were like ”Let’s start our own team” and gathered this group of miscreants together.

How did you come up with the very interesting team name; Oil Rig? Is there a story behind it?

Tiago: We had a friendly rivalry with the Division 4 team Treehouse Gaming but they already had a full roster of members so we decided to make our own team with a name that sounded like the complete opposite of their team name, hence Oil Refinery. After last season we changed it to Oil Rig because three of our members disconnected versus N.E.W.T. in the cup, as if we were being hacked (it was actually problems on Blizzard's end that day). We thought that was completely rigged, hence we changed your team name from Oil Refinery to Oil Rig.

Lio: Last season during the tournament(?) there were problems with Blizzard servers and three of our players (me included) were losing connection so often that the game was unplayable. We we’re disqualified and because that was obviously rigged I pitched the idea of changing our name to Oil Rig.

Artéss: Last season it was called Oil Refinery, as opposed to our friendly rival team Treehouse. Unfortunately, after certain events that I probably shouldn’t describe in detail, we understood that the game is RIGGED! And if you can’t beat the system, join the system, you must evolve, so we went ahead and adjusted to better fit in. IT’S ALL RIGGED, I TELL YOU!

Riskiwi: I’m sure everyone has explained this already but as I said we were good friends with a lot of the members of Treehouse and considered them rivals so made our team name Oil refinery to be the opposite of them and bring down the trees. After the whole rigging vs NEWT in the playoffs last season we (by we I mean myself and my own genius sense of humour) suggested changing it to oil rig because we got rigged out of the cup.

You are already doing quite well in div 2 this season, how are you finding the season so far?

Riskiwi: We didn’t really know, what to expect in div 2 coming from div 4, but so far it’s not so bad and we’ve improved a ton. So far scrims have been going well, but as far as our Lounge games goes it’s hard to read, as we got a free win then won really hard then lost against a really good team, so we could be anywhere from 2nd to 2nd last. But, I’d say, it’s better than we expected, so we’re hopeful.

Artéss: It’s definitely different, but we’ve grown accordingly and are stepping up to the challenge. With every match we are learning something, getting better and better. With every victory comes better understanding of our strengths. With every defeat we learn something new and make sure it doesn’t happen again. With every kill we perfect our techniques. With every death comes honour. With honour, redemption.

Lio: I honestly don’t know, if we’re playing a scrims or actual matches anymore. I think we’re doing pretty well, as there haven’t been any crushing defeats, like when we played against a top div1 team.

Tiago: We had an auto-win versus a FAT team in game 1, because they didn't show up, a fairly easy win against another team on game 2, and we lost 0-2 on game 3, so there's no guarantee we'll play it into the playoffs. Gotta practice and keep our oily game top notch.

FajL: Since it’s summer, there haven’t been that much time to practice either, but I hope, we can pull off more wins in the following weeks.

What are your ambitions for season 7, and how have they changed from last season?

Lio: Git gud, win more. ’Nuff said.

Artéss: Last season we played in Div 4, and our goal was to move to Div 3. This season the ambitions most certainly changed, and we no longer desire to move to Div 3. It would be great if we could qualify for the championship, but even finishing in the top half of the table would be a good result, in my opinion. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we would willingly settle for anything less than the best outcome possible. It’s time to accelerate!

Riskiwi: Last season our aim was to get into the cup which we (just about) did but sadly that ended in an anticlimax *cough* rigged *cough*. I think we’re aiming for Championship this season, but really we’re in a new division, and we just want to improve as a team and do as best we can.

Tiago: Last season we aimed to get into the playoffs, and we did just that. Obviously we don't know how far we would have gotten since we had that whole rigged disconnect issue while playing versus N.E.W.T., a team we previously defeated. While there's no guarantee that we would do well against Le Gag or Bushville, I think we had a shot at winning the whole thing. This season we have two dreams: 1. We'd like to reach the playoffs again and 2. We want to fight against General Raynor's Interdimensional Exploration of the Frightening, Incredible Nexus where he's Gathering Skulls!!! because they have the best team name in Lounge.

FajL: Personally, i’ve played MOBA games for roughly 10 years, DotA, HoN, Dota 2, Smite and now HotS of course, but never in a real team in tournaments like Heroes Lounge. Therefore, my personal goal is mostly to learn playing in a team-environment, rather than having the solo-player mindset form before. Although, I am also a very competitive person, so reaching the championship like Tiago said is also a big goal of mine!

What are your thoughts on Heroes Lounge, and are there any particular things you really enjoy or dislike about the tournament?

Tiago: I think maybe the cup and the championship phase of Lounge should be given a bit more thought. I don't know of any good answers, but there's a lot of teams who simply quit because they can't spend a whole weekend playing the game.

FajL: I really enjoy the format of getting a new team to play every week, it makes it possible to both play HotS in a team and manage real-life stuff. Since this is my first season, that’s all I can say for now, although I am very excited to see how this season pans out for us!

Artéss: Under advice of legal counsel I am not allowed to discuss the shameful events of last season’s cup gameohl;jaip ;’ag’asdhuv  o79qt34 agrw ;;iho[ршщ дкфуп99е34стщшс348и6щй34

Everything is good. Good game, good tournament, thank you very much.

Riskiwi: My experience with Heroes Lounge has been a really good one so far and I think for a community-based tournament it does a great job. In terms of things to work on, it’s hard to say really, because obviously scheduling playoffs and such can be such a nightmare, but I think maybe making a bigger thing out of the playoffs would be fun, because I know teams throughout all division get so hyped for the playoffs, and it’s a really great focal point for the season. I’d also love to see maybe a bit more outreach into bringing some newer or lesser known members more into the community, as it’s such a fun community to be a part of, and I know many people who play in Lounge, that weren’t even really aware it existed. That being said, I think everyone does a great job.

Do you have any shoutouts?

Tiago: Yeah. Shoutout to Maluco, a former player in Treehouse Gaming and now a player in our team. I met him in Hearthstone, and I wouldn't be playing this Children's Moba Game if it weren't for him <3.

Fajl: Shoutouts to the Cupcakes of Division 4 who are good friends of ours, basically a group of people sending each other pictures of food and cats. Also, to Heartsickruben, who is in another team in div 2 FAT Mind Flayer, I hope, I get to face him soon!

Lio: Shoutout to my PC for not breaking down completely yet.

Artéss: Ahem. Pretty much everyone I know who might be reading this is already on my team, so I’ll just use this opportunity to wish good, fun games to everyone who’s playing this season. Looking forward to seeing you in the Nexus!

Riskiwi: I guess shoutout to my team for being such great guys and carrying my noob ass. Shoutout to my 3am Team League squad as well for completely ruining my sleep schedule and also thank you so much for the interview Penelope!

This concludes our interview with Oil Rig. Thanks to the team for taking the 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.