This past week I had the opportunity to interview the HHE team as they move forward from the Mid Season Brawl and look ahead to the first half of Phase 2. Here’s a little of what they learned along the way, enjoy!

Now that the MSB is in the rear view, how did your mindset differ going into this tournament compared to the Western Clash?



Khroen: I think that we had a bit of higher expectations going into this tournament than going to the Western Clash. With the WC, it was just getting our feet wet so to speak. It was our first international as a team so all we really wanted to do was to go there and learn, no matter our placement.

For the MSB, our goal not only was to learn, but we set a reasonable minimum goal of getting out of the group stages, which we did achieve. We had some moments of greatness, such as taking maps off of Tempest and Ballistix, but other times we didn’t quite reach that mark. Regardless, we know that we can clash with the best of them if we’re on our ‘A’ game, and the goal moving forward is to be on that ‘A’ game more consistently.

What did you think of the tournament format? Did you like this format better than Western Clash, and what if anything, would you change to make the tournament format better?



Khroen: I do personally enjoy the way the tournament was formatted. I believe that group stages where you have a chance to play every team in your group is optimal. You get to really prove that you end up in the spot you deserve and even if you mess up or play really well one day, consistency is something that’s rewarded.

You also do have a guaranteed chance to play and gain experience against the best teams in the world and that’s something that’s infinitely valuable to a lot of improving, up and coming world class teams.

Having gotten a chance to play almost all the teams from all the other regions in tournament or in scrim, how do you feel NA currently stacks up against the other regions?

Ishb00: NA has definitely made improvements of late and seems to have fully separated ourselves from CN and Wildcard regions which is definitely reassuring, but we still do have a bit of catching up to the top teams from KR and EU. Gen.G, Dignitas, and Tempest were all head-and-shoulders above the rest of the teams in this tournament and NA has yet to put a team up to their level yet, though Tempo did get close.

Were there any other regional metas or strategies that really surprised you, or made you think about certain Heroes in a new light?



Cauthon: After 2 years of almost every international bringing the same handful of heroes back into the meta, even if they were rarely seen for months prior, you’d think that I would stop being surprised by it at some point. However, seeing hyper carry Valla risen from the grave to prominence on the highest stage still managed to shock me this time too. Zera and Tracer followed the usual trend of seeing an uptick in play while in low-ping situations like internationals as well.

What did you see from some of the top teams that made them successful, and that you as a team want to emulate?

BBJ: The biggest thing I noticed top teams doing was playing insanely confident, the top EU/KR teams will not give you respect until you earn it. They will do things they shouldn’t be able to get away with because they expect you to be scared of them. I’m not sure it is something we will directly copy but i think that playing without respect can work sometimes. If you don’t have the synergy and mechanics to pull it off it looks really bad though.

Having gotten to try Alterac Pass, do you think it has potential to be a competitive map?

Ishb00: Potential? Definitely. The map in its current form probably needs a few balance tweaks here and there, but that’s to be expected. What I love about the map is that they managed to make the map unique without making it overly gimmicky like Hanamura or (arguably) Volskaya. It seems to have all the features of an enjoyable, competitive map (3 lanes, single objective spawn, multiple win conditions, etc…) but we won’t know for sure until teams start to scrim it in preparation for the new map vote at the player summit. As it currently stands, I’d say there’s a very good chance it makes it into next year’s map rotation over Braxis.

Looking forward to Phase 2, what are your current goals?

BBJ: Our normal goal of always improving and getting better every week will still be there, but now we have the opportunity to get the number 1 seed in NA and make going 7-0 mean more than it did during Phase 1 Part 2, though we will still be focusing on one game at a time and going 7-0 isn’t really the goal, it would just be our ideal results for showing improvement.

With the recent balance changes and MSB being played on an older patch, how do you feel the meta will look going into Phase 2?

Cauthon: With the short break between MSB and Phase 2, and recovery time from travel, we will have a lot of catching up to do on the new meta during the first HGC week. We will probably only have a few days of scrims to get back into form and adjust to any new styles of play so we will have to make those days count.



Blizzard reintroduced HGC Cheer before the MSB, and it appears to have been well received. What more would you like to see from Blizzard for HGC leading up to Blizzcon, and for 2019?

BBJ: I know Blizzard talked about making more rewards and incentives for people to donate more than just the minimum for their teams stuff, which they have done some with the emote packs and the loot boxes for the personal bits goals. However, I would like to see similar rewards in places for teams. After someone donates 1500 bits there is no more incentive if they don’t want the personal bit rewards. If they made a few team colored skins for certain heroes and made those high bit rewards I think it would bring in a lot of support for teams as well as giving the fans something really cool in game.

Thanks to the team for the interview! Be sure to follow them here on HeroesHearth as well as their Twitter and Twitch linked in their HH site bios!