The Guangzhou Charge have had a rough first season in the Overwatch League. Squarely in the middle of the pack with an overall record of 5-19, the Charge will need to surge both in the last two Stages if they want a chance of making the playoffs cutoff. Luckily for them, there’s new blood coming off the reserve list for Stage 3.





Charlie "nero" Zwarg will be turning 18 on May 31, making him finally eligible to play. A DPS player, nero was one of the standout players from the Toronto Esports roster. Upcomer caught up with nero to talk about his time on Toronto Esports, getting to scrim in Asia, and what it has been like to wait on the bench.





You’re turning 18 on the 31st, how ready are you to come off the bench for the Charge in Stage 3?





Nero: I'm actually very ready. I've been grinding ranked and watching a bunch of vods and just, I guess just watching scrims so I'm very ready.









What was your role on the team while you weren’t eligible to play?





My role I guess has just been sitting on the sidelines and just watching and looking for small mistakes and just helping give feedback because sometimes players can't see it themselves. So I can, since I'm spectating all the time.





What does your playstyle bring to the team that’s different from the other DPS players on the roster, like Happy?





With the 3x3 meta, I think I'm more aggressive and I think we've been more passive recently at least. So yeah, I think just being more aggressive would be better since we kind of lost our confidence recently.





Before being on the Charge, you were on Toronto Esports. How would you describe your time in NA Contenders compared to now?





Contenders? I don't think it was rough and NA contenders has more resources than probably every other contenders region, but it's still like hard to make it to Overwatch League. Like if you're not on an academy team, like you don't make a salary, there aren’t that many eyes watching you. And it's so easy to just go under the radar and not make it to Overwatch League. And I feel like that's what's happening basically with all Contenders right now.





In January you tweeted that you felt your skill level was capped while in Contenders. What do you think specifically causes that stagnation?

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It's just resources. it, When I was in Contenders, one of the seasons, I didn't even have a coach. It doesn’t feel like every Academy team is given full resources. But while I’ve been on the Charge I have four coaches now. It's just there's so much more that gets put into you when you're in Overwatch League than when you're in Contenders. It's unreal.





You started your professional career pretty young. What was it like balancing both school and competing at a high level?





I wasn't really good at that. I let my schooling and my grades just go and I kind of just focused on gaming, which was kind of bad. But I guess it worked out then, you know, I'm doing something that I'm more interested in now and I don't think if I continued in school I would've been happy.





What do you think of the current state of the Overwatch Meta?





Personally, I kind of like it because it forces you to play as a team and actually use your brain instead of just dps characters popping off. So there's not that many moments where people can shine and just the better team wins mostly.





Speaking realistically, what would you consider a successful first season in the Overwatch League?





I'd say making the playoffs would be, I'd be satisfied with that. I think it'd be a good run, but it's going to be really hard. We had a rough Stage 2, but I think that's doable.





Is there any specific player you want to match up against?





Not a specific player, but just a specific team. I want to play versus the Boston Uprising cause I was on their academy team and yeah, I had a rough time there. So, I want to beat their whole team.





You're one of two western players on the Charge roster. What made you want to play on the Charge versus one of the North American teams, like the Washington Justice or the Atlanta Reign?





Just when I tried out for this team, I just knew it was good. I really liked these players and it just felt like family basically right away and I knew I would get along with all of them.