After a strong performance during the Incheon World Cup qualifying stage, Joonas "zappis" Alakurtti positions himself toward the head of the pack leading into Overwatch League Season 2 as a free agent. The former Florida Mayhem player will take his vast experience within the league and his historical presence with teams like Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Gigantti. Zappis took some time out of his BlizzCon preparation with Team Finland to speak with Esports Heaven about the event in Incheon and his future in Overwatch esports.

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Yeah, this was my first time visiting Korea and it felt great. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and especially the food. Also, South Korea being one of the birthplaces of modern esports, it really felt inspiring to just play a tournament there. Too bad I only got to spent one day in Seoul, but I definitely will visit Korea again!

Going into half-time I was calm and collected, I felt we lost the first map by some misplays and hesitations against their composition. And on King's Row, we just beat them fair and square. The match, at that point, was anyone's to take and I thought we had a very good chance of bringing it home.

Overwatch Open and Dreamhack Winter were the tournaments we went in as the favorites but fell short by a small margin. I felt the team really had no major issues, we just couldn't bring [our] A game on crucial moments that decided those series. Maybe it was LAN choking or nerves, I don't know ... we just didn't perform the best we could when it actually mattered.

During the tank heavy meta, I think NiP would've fared well against the Koreans. I would even say a top finish in APEX was not out of the question. I've heard that NiP was studied a lot by the Korean teams during that era and it always makes me proud to hear that we pioneered a playstyle that affected the "whole" world. It is one of my biggest regrets pre-OWL competitive Overwatch that I couldn't experience and compete in the APEX.

Tanks are still pretty good, but the team dynamics and the metagame of Overwatch is not comparable of what it was during the NiP days, but having the experience from the "olden days” and with how we are playing tank compositions with Team Finland, it certainly has a nostalgic feeling in it. But unlike back in the days, we are not tied up to tank heavy compositions anymore and can run a variety of stuff, but one could say we are kind of tank specialists and experts.

I think it's just how North America centric Overwatch is at the moment. Overwatch League sets the tone on how players are imported and unfortunately, European Contenders does not provide any incentive to import people from outside of Europe, it is basically just a proving ground for European players.

Universally I don't think the quote has changed. Every map is still different and some comps work better than others on certain parts of the map and situations. [The] meta is heavily favoring counter picking at the moment and team compositions are up in the air. I think every team kind of builds their identity on what comps they start with and what they fall into if nothing is working so in a sense you still work around on your comfort picks and what you've trained with, but Overwatch at the highest level is so punishing if you can't play certain heroes anymore. You can't "one trick" comps like back in the days on certain patches, not how the game balance is at the moment and that's a good thing.

I don't really mind the rumors and whispering, I think it's inevitable and some things are sure to pop on to the surface. People are just so interested in what the new and old teams will bring on to their rosters. The downside, of course, is that usually rumors and whispers have some truth behind them but not the whole truth and usually don't paint the whole picture so to speak. So everything you hear has to be taken with a grain of salt.

BlizzCon is obviously a big stage where player skills can be highlighted and can give a positive impact on player careers. As a free agent, knowing this fact is obviously a positive point to increase my personal motivation to train harder and try my best with the team, but the main focus of that tournament is to have Finland succeed and finishing this tournament with no regrets. We have a clear goal with Team Finland and by working together we can achieve it. Personally, I'm just happy to be representing Finland and getting to play at BlizzCon once again, the support from the community has been massive and all the players really want Finland to prosper.

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Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at

@Volamel

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Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.