Srey: "Learn a handful of heroes and be critical of your own play"

We have an exclusive interview with Srey for you today. Srey is the number one player in the North American region in terms of MMR, officially posted by Blizzard for the September preseason. His HOTSLogs MMR averages a whopping 4300, although he's gone up to around 4450 at some points, putting him at Masters 1 in Hero League at his peak. We took the opportunity to ask him about his thoughts on the current Heroes meta with the Artanis patch. Additionally, we managed to get some very handy tips for your 'average joe' solo queuers.

In your opinion, who is the best support hero in the current Artanis patch?

Uther.

Why do you think this hero is the best support?

For those that aren't aware, Uther is not only the best Support Hero, but also the best Hero overall in the game, at least in competitive play where he is first pick/ban. The reason behind this is that Uther is extremely solid all around. He has good healing, is difficult to kill, Divine Shield is an extremely good counter to many Heroes and synergizes with even more. But above all, Uther is versatile. He fits every team composition and is also a safe and reliable first pick.

Do you think Lt. Morales will see lots of competitive play? What is your take on Lt. Morales?

Not really. She isn't bad, she's just a niche pick. Her complete lack of self-peel and self-healing means that she is totally reliant on her team to keep her alive. Even in 2+Tank teams, if the enemy team has good dive and assassination there is no way for Lt. Morales to survive. I would only pick Lt. Morales in double healer comps with good frontline versus teams with no dive.

Side note, Medivac is extremely powerful. I would say that it's actually the best ability in the entire game, at least in competitive, but it still isn't good enough to make picking Lt. Morales worth it.

What do you think of Artanis as a whole? Is he a viable tank or similar to Sonya? Can he be played as a solo tank or is he only good in duo tank compositions?

Heroes like Artanis, Sonya, Diablo, Anub'arak, Tyrael, and Rexxar all fall into the same category (in my opinion): Bruiser/Off-Tank. They are not tanky enough to substitute as a solo Tank but don't deal enough damage (or aren't mobile enough) to be considered a melee Assassin. You want to always have a designated solo Tank OR pick these Heroes in groups of two.

As for Artanis, he is definitively worse than Sonya. Sonya deals far more damage and is much more mobile. Artanis' strength is extended team fighting and fighting while below 50% health, thanks to his passive, but he lacks any mobility (aside from Phase Prism [E]) until Level 16 with Zealot Charge. This makes kiting Artanis extremely easy and any team with half a mind for coordination can kite him until death. If you insist on playing Artanis, you want allies with lots of Crowd Control, Jaina being the perfect ally. Conversely, you want the enemy team to have as little Crowd Control as possible.

Who is your favorite hero to play, which hero do you enjoy playing the most and why?

I don't really have an all-time favorite Hero (maybe Sylvanas or Zeratul?), but right now I really enjoy playing Kael'thas, E.T.C., Thrall, Sgt. Hammer, Murky, and The Butcher.

Chen has been recently buffed, do you think he has become more viable as a tank or is he still a weak pick? Why so? Who do you think is the strongest tank in general (You may pick 2 if you like)?

With the nerfs against waveclear Tanks, you really want your Tank to fulfill a specific role (disruption, peel, CC, engage, split-push, etc). The only thing that Chen offers is moderate DPS. Not only does he lack CC, but he is very vulnerable to CC himself. I would say that he might be an OK choice in a double tank comp vs a team with 0 CC.

As I said, Tanks need to fill a specific role on your team, so there is no “this Tank is the best above all others,” it's more “this Tank is the best at this one specific thing that we need.” Briefly, Diablo has the best engage, Muradin has the best control, Leoric has the best waveclear. Arthas has the best sustained survivability (but dies horribly to burst) and sticking power. E.T.C. is a mix between Diablo and Muradin, Johanna is a mix between Leoric and Muradin. I don't value Stitches because he doesn't do anything better than other Tanks, unless you can always land good Hooks. All of the other Warriors in the game are off-Tanks.

"Be critical of your own play"

In your opinion, who do you think is the strongest team in the world? Furthermore whom will you root for in Blizzcon?

I really haven't followed the international scene at all, so I can't say who I think will win other than the favorites. I'm rooting for Tempo Storm though, in spite of their team troubles. I've always been a fan of them as a team and because I know some players personally. Cloud9 is too arrogant in my opinion. DunkTrain's don't help either.

Imagine you could select a dream team (Forget language barriers or team chemistry/relationships), who would you want in your team, including yourself? You can pick 4 people from any region or team.

Again, I don't really follow the international scene; I really don't know who is good. Team chemistry is extremely important, so the question is really “who do you think is the best at X role?” Dreadnaught is the core player for Tempo Storm but I think his strength is his shotcalling, not necessarily his play. Anyway, I'd have to say Arthelon, iDream, and KingCaffeine. I'm undecided on the Support player.

Do you ever solo queue hero league? What is the experience like for you?

I rarely play Hero League at all anymore. The games are so unbalanced that I no longer find them fun. Queuing alone exacerbates this.

Do you have any interesting tips for players who want to rank up in hero league?

Learn a handful of Heroes and be critical of your own play. Only focus on what is in your control, and while you can communicate in chat and via pings, they will ultimately make their own decisions. Blaming (and flaming) your teammates is at best therapeutic and at worst the reason that you lose the game.

How would you improve Heroes of the Storm (HotS)? What features would you implement?

The obvious answer is matchmaking and making a single central N.A. Server to unite the playerbase, but that's too easy. Spectating friends or featured games, clans, and Grandmaster League would be good additions to the game.

What hero would you like to see introduced at Blizzcon? If you could invent a hero, what would that hero be like?

I'm not really too entrenched in Blizzard lore, but I'm looking forward to Kel'Thuzad (as we all are). Alexstrasza would be cool too.

What do you think of the roster changes and issues going on around the pro scene? (Ex. Tempo Storm potential disband).

I only know about the Tempo Storm drama. All I have to say is that it's sad that it's gotten so bad. They went from being one of the most dominant teams in any eSport to struggling to make it out of groups in Worlds.

At a high level of play, for top MMR players, what usually determines a win/lose? Is the composition the most important or is it punishment from bad positioning (Waiting for a team to make a mistake)?

My honest answer is that it's mostly random. Your allies either know what they are doing or they don't. Just recently I got a game where my team drafted Artanis and Kerrigan on Haunted Mines. It would have been winnable if our Uther had any idea of how to build Uther and at least got Divine Shield, all 3 of these players would repeatedly fight when we were at a disadvantage. Games like that are unwinnable. So to answer your question, by far, the biggest mistake that players make is fighting while at a disadvantage. 4V5s, level 9 to level 10, abilities on cooldown, you name it. Instead of turning in Gems on Tomb of the Spider Queen and pushing with them, players will instead look for fights. I've never seen such total inexperience at a “top MMR” for any game. Ever.

"The biggest mistake that players make is fighting while at a disadvantage"

Do you play Heroes with your friends from time to time?

When I first started playing I only played with real life friends who were far more experienced than me in the game. Eventually, I played more and more and took it more seriously, and having fun meant winning. I miss just being able to enjoy the game, even when losing.

What do your family members think of you playing Heroes? How about your friends? It must be cool for them to know top players personally.

My parents don't mind, as long as I'm able to gain something from it. My friends don't really care other than “that's pretty sweet,” but my ex thought it was awesome, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

What is your best role? (Assassin, specialist, etc.)

Currently, my best role is Tank (Warrior). This is because the central and eastern servers were disabled for several months (I'm central), forcing me to play with 100-140 ping. Support and Tank require less mechanical finesse to master and I find Support boring, so I began only playing Tank. Tanks are also the least common role in competitive player, so every team I play with needs me to play Tank, which is why I've stuck with it. However, I enjoy playing DPS more and would gladly transition back to it. I consider myself a Flex player (anything but Support).

So Srey, you are the top player in terms of MMR in NA. Do you have any prospects of joining a pro team?

I've actually been playing competitively since February, mostly behind the scenes. I've scrimmed nearly every day for the last 3-4 months and I'm currently captaining a team, although we don't have a name yet. So to answer your question, yes. However, I'm currently not signed to any organizations.

Is there anything you would like to say or comment about in Heroes, maybe some words of inspiration for your fans?

I really, really hope Blizzard announces something big at Blizzcon for HotS this year. Bliz pls. Haha, words of inspiration? If you're trying to improve as a player the best thing you can do is focus on yourself. Watch your own replays and practice your mechanics on a handful of Heroes.

Srey streams on Twitch at twitch.tv/sreylol

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QUICKPOLL When playing, do you focus on one role or play all roles? I specialize in a single role.

Thank you for voting! I would consider myself a Flex player.

Thank you for voting!