Damon "Apply" Conti is the DPS player for Florida Mayhem and Mayhem Academy. Clawing his way up from T3 Overwatch, he's landed himself into a respectable position as a projectile DPS specialist with Mayhem. From speaking with Apply, I learned that the current meta strongly favors Doomfist and Sombra, but there's still an opening for Genji to shine. I also learned about the particulars of how Pharah counters GOATS.

This interview was performed in the duration of the previous week. Apply has recently accepted a two-way contract and now plays for both Florida Mayhem and Mayhem Academy.

What is your favourite moment from last season?

I can't find the actual clip on stream, but here's the tweet from Mayhem Academy:

▲ Pharah 5K against GG Esports Academy.

What are your thoughts on ZachaREEE's comment about Sombra, Doomfist, Winston, and Ana being overpowered?

I thought it was hilarious when I first heard him say it because its completely true, all those heroes are insanely overpowered. And plus Winston does have a pretty broken bug right now. Also, I love Zach.

Since Winston's jump pack bug is only active on the World Cup patch, is he still overpowered without that bug on the Live patch?

He's still the strongest maintank for sure and probably will be always played unless something better than him comes out or he gets nerfed. I wouldnt personally say overpowered, just compared to every other maintank besides Hammond right now. I guess he's a must play due to his mobility.

When do you take Hammond over Winston?

I'm not sure actually, I havent really played with Hammond as much as other Contenders teams since we're on break for a bit. But if I remember correctly, Hammond wasn't played too much.

Is the popularity of GOATS 3/0/3 starting to die off with the new dive variants coming in?

Yeah, I also think GOATS was just super OP because there was just no answer to it. when goats the actual team first pulled it out in whichever tournament it was I forgot, the reason it was so good was because people just didnt know what to do. As time went on, people realized some strong ways to beat it: Pharah, Doomfist, and Sombra.

Sit from GOATS has said that Pharah & Junkrat (double spam) were good counters to it. Do you agree with Junkrat being a counter?

Yeah, I agree. But I also think Pharah is just better. Pharah has more mobility and a more reliable ult. GOATS being so standard and the only thing that can really deal with Pharah is your D.Va makes Pharah better than Junkrat in my opinion.

My teammate Paintbrush has a good run down vs. GOATS. Pretty smart player.

▲ Paintbrush explains how Pharah counters GOATS.

What's the state of hitscan DPS in the current meta?

I think hitscan DPS are really bad right now. The only relevant hitscan in the past meta that was playable is Widowmaker. And by hitscan, I'm not counting Tracer and Sombra since they're flankers. I also don't think it has anything to do with the heroes themselves (McCree, Soldier:76), I think it has to do with the rest of the heroes in the game. One of the biggest downsides of the hitscan heroes right now is their movement and we've been in a super mobile meta (besides the brief period of GOATS) where these heroes with less mobility get completely shut down.

When do you take Genji or Tracer over Doomfist or Sombra?

I think right now Doomfist Sombra is just a lot better due to them just being OP, like Zach said. But you also always want to play to your team's strengths, so if you have an insane Genji player and he's not very good at Doomfist, you could run the Genji. Right now I think Doomfist and Sombra are just too broken to not play.