Hey Dreadnaught, first of all, thanks for being here tonight, could you introduce yourself to our readers who might not be familiar with you and give us a rundown of your history in heroes of the storm?

I am Wade Dreadnaught Penfold. Team captain and shotcaller for Symbiote Gaming. We compete in the ECS, HPL, and MYI invitational. I have been in the alpha since the first wipe, and have been a part of the scene for as long as it has existed, really

So how did Symbiote gaming start? Did you form the team and recruit the members or did you get recruited? How did you pick the members?

I was recruited from a post on Reddit. I applied and after the first tryout session I was asked to join the team. Kaeyoh, Arthelon, and myself were all on the team during that period of time. We began to realize that we felt the original creators were holding us back in a sense, and decided to move on without them. We later searched for the final 2 players for about 1 month. After that we got Madtimmy and So1dier, and since then we have been a very solid 5 man.

Very solid is a bit of an understatement, Symbiote Gaming is considered one of the best, if not *the* best team in the Alpha right now, what do you attribute your success to?

I would argue that our success is from our ability to adapt. I feel our strongest feature is our ability to understand what are opponents strengths and weaknesses are, and exploiting them. We get along very well in and out of game as well, and I like to think that has some influence on our abilities in game.



Since we're talking about getting along, are there any teams in the scene that you and your teammates get along particularly well with, or particularly bady with? Rivals and friends so to speak

I wouldn't say that there are any teams that we really get along with or do not get along with. There are quite a few teams/players that we have a lot of respect for, for example Snowflake. I personally don't really discuss a lot with them, but they are a very respectable team all around. I also don't feel there are any teams that we would be able to consider a rival, if any if would be snowflake just because our games against each other are so close/good.



Since you brought up snowflake, that's the team you faced in the finals of ECS, which airs this Saturday, your team showed a stellar performance against ESV Wildfire in the semifinals. Going into those games, did you guys have any particular strategy in mind? Was there anything you were particularly worried about ESV Wildfire doing?

Yes, ESV Wildfire has 2 specific compositions they are very strong with. One revolves around Falstad and AoE CC. They build a lot of AoE CC and use the shock and awe to cripple the opponents. The other is a protect the Malfurion composition with double tanks. It is very difficult to kill anything in that comp, we centered all of our picks and bans to make sure they could not have either composition that they desired. Hence, our bans on Uther for the AoE CC, the focus on picking Falstad early in the pick/ban phase, and taking away Malfurion.



That's the type of thinking and research that really shows the difference between good teams and great teams. How do you guys prepare and practice in general? How much time would you say you spend practicing?

We prepare practice just by trying to find the most amount of scrims that we possibly can. We have the mentality that you can't practice comps against solo queue players, because it is almost impossible to gauge the quality of the comp against unorganized players. So all of our testing/experimenting goes into our scrims. We practice everyday for 4-5 hours, except for Wednesday.



Moving a little away from your team, and more on to you, you usually play the tank on your team, is this your favorite role, or have you adapted to fit your teams needs? If it is your favorite, why is that?

I have a history in MOBA's for playing tanks. When I first started playing League of Legends, my friends never jungled so I took it upon myself to learn that role. That role typically is a tank, and so I learned a lot of how to tank from my background. I wouldn't say that it is my favorite, but I definitely enjoy it. I would say that my favorite role would be the assassin role. The ability to outplay your opponent with that role is too satisfying at times.

Ahhh, I understand completely, there's nothing quite like landing a key snipe with Nova. In that vein, what is your favorite hero? Are there any heroes you wish were slightly more competitive so you could play them in real matches?

My favorite hero would probably be Stitches. He is definitely has the most potential to make flashy plays for tanks, and I really enjoy that potential. Landing the perfect hook is really satisfying. There aren't really any characters that I wish were more competitive, I feel that for the most part almost every character is currently viable.

Obviously the game is still under development and adding new heroes. Are there any new heroes you're excited for based on just the lore? Any new mechanics or mechanics from other games you wish these hereos would introduce?

I definitely hope that the new characters pull mechanics from all other games in the genre. In my opinion, the more diversity the better. One specific mechanic that I always enjoyed from League of Legends was Zed's shadows and the mobility that they provide. I hope something like that makes it to Heroes. As for lore, I think I would like Garrosh Hellscream.

Those are some awesome ideas actually. A bit of a jump, but I always try to sneak in at least one question about maps, because I think they're one of the most important things that distinguishes heroes from other mobas. Do you have a map you consider "best" for competitive play? A map you consider your favorite?

The map I would consider best for competitive play would have to be Dragon Shire or Cursed Hollow. I feel that both of those maps require a solid team to be played correctly, while still remaining balanced. My favorite map would be the old haunted mines. Before the rework, I personally felt that it was the best map.



I felt that the old haunted mines left so many different strategies to be viable, there was no structure on how to play it. Because of this, every game was different and each time you got it you had to adapt to your current situation.

That's a really interesting point I hadn't considered. Huh. Since the custom games are supposed to be coming back soon, how much do you think knowing the maps that games will be played on will affect team compositions? Are there any map specific pocket strats/lineups you're excited for?



I am excited to see each map get it's own "meta", if you will. I don't think you will see many compositions completely dedicated to certain maps. Many teams feel that certain characters are really weak on specific maps and really strong on others. I feel that some characters do have a bit of advantage/disadvantage on specific maps, but not enough to completely disregard them as a pick on specific maps. As a whole, I feel the maps will only shift compositions a little bit, but I am definitely excited to see how it all plays out.



Its certainly going to be an interesting time to watch and play heroes. Since you're one of the best players in the scene, here's a question that comes up every time a game begins rising in popularity. What do you think is the best way for a new player to hone his skills and eventually "go pro"?

I think being able to really analyze your gameplay is key. Be able to break down all the mistakes that you make as if you were someone else. If you as a player are not able to critique yourself and improve, who will? And, I think it is important to play to improve rather than playing casually, the habits you build from playing casually will hurt you when you really need your gameplay to be top tier.

So going pro is in part about setting your goal and aiming for it. I see. One last relevant question to the discussion that always follows heroes around. Do you have any thoughts on the current buisness model of Heroes? Do you think there's anything that could be done better or differently, or do you think this is the best way to do things?

The only large critique that I would have is the increase on gold on new characters. I feel that 15,000 gold is far too much for a new character for the first week, especially when every competitive player is expected to understand everything that a character can do within a day of its release. For the current state of the game, and the scene, it just seems to be a bit high.

Well, thats it for questions from us, do you have anything you'd like to add? Any shoutouts?



Shout out to everyone of Symbiote Gaming, I love playing with these guys and we have a good time. Shout out to our manager, Katia. Also, shoutout to LiquidSheth for everything he has done for us.

Well, thats it folks, thanks a ton for the interview Dreadnought, and we'll all be following you and Symbiote Gaming closely, especially in the finals of ECS

