Written by Volamel

**Tridd from the table next to us: “Do you want to know the current score? It’s Canada 2-0.”

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 to follow his thoughts you can follow him at @Volamel.

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

The post-BlizzCon 2018 coverage continues forward as Esports Heaven was able to sit down with British Hurricane’s team manager, Ysabel "Noukky" Müller following the upset between Team UK and Team USA at the 2018 Overwatch World Cup. Noukky and I chat about the team’s successful performance in the Contenders Trials, the Angry Cup, and the success of Team UK and what it means to the European region.It makes me feel pretty proud. I’ve known Kyb since Open Beta, I used to play with him on my first team and now he’s winning World Cup for his country. It’s really, really good! Fusions I’ve known since some of the earlier seasons too and he always stood out to me as a player the never got picked up but, [like] a diamond in the rough we managed to build him up and make him a successful player. I’m really happy he’s performing so well on LAN.Winning as the “only acceptable outcome” is pretty relative because the ultimate goal for every player and for us as staff is to enable the players to chase their dreams and to get into the Overwatch League. Since that is their biggest goal we’ve tried to set them up for success.I want to play Classic World of Warcraft! I’m going to quit my job as team manager to become a PVP player in Classic World of Warcraft! … no, I’m not, but I know that some of my guys are pretty excited for it and I’m pretty excited [about] it. I’m also pretty excited for WarCraft 3 [Reforged] because it’s one of the earliest games I played online and it’s just good memories. It’s just a [very] nostalgic BlizzCon.If I am interpreting her [abilities] right, the dynamite looks a lot like Torbjorn’s new ability. So it might do extra damage to armor, because of the whole “flame theme” Torbjorn has, too. So I think she’ll see play time in Europe and she might be the reason to finally get Europe off GOATs.Goals and expectations definitely. We really want to have a good [performance], but we are trying to use it as preparation for Overwatch Contenders more or less. It’s not something we want to chase too vigorously and tire out the players before Contenders starts, but I think we have a pretty good shot and we’re looking forward to seeing Angry Titans. They are one of the teams we did not get to practice against all too much and they just came back to scrimming because they took a break after Season 2 so we’re looking forward to seeing what they have in store now.I think so, yeah. I think Paris did a great job of representing Europe with their team. There are players there that can definitely shake up the Overwatch League a fair bit. And as Philadelphia has shown us—granted Paris is only European—there is so much talent in other regions that people tend to overlook quite frequently. So I hope people pay closer attention to the region and not just stamp us as the “oh, they just play tanks and GOATs” region.The dominance from GOATs comes from how they are exclusively playing it or how they are playing it primarily. And the big gap between the European GOATs and the North American GOATs is that [Europe] tries to master it. But, as I said, I don’t want that to represent Europe because Europe is so much more diverse than just tanks and just GOATs and maybe a Mei here and there. So it would be nice to see France be a little more diverse in their match against Canada. But it’s really two different styles clashing against one another. xQc is known as a really good Winston and Agilities for his Genji so I think Canada will take more of the Dive approach. And since France has Benbest in their front line and he’s a leader personality in their frontline as Reinhardt they’re going to try and run GOATs more. If Canada can surround France and crack the backline a tiny bit, I think they have a good chance at beating France.Unlucky. I resign, hahaha!Let me think. I’m trying to think of people. One of the guys that the European casters really liked was naGGa, I think he has potential. I think he could step up in Contenders itself. He could be picked up by a team in Contenders with a strong coaching staff. He seems to be very workable. Then one of the guys from We Has Org from Season 2 that I’ve had a look at was Jofi. He is also a really talented individual when it comes to his hero, because he’s a Lucio main support, but he’s a diamond in the rough who needs to be coached a tiny bit. Of course, I want to advertise my players! Kyb and Fusions are really, really strong and deserve to go up a tiny bit. I think people are really sleeping on Kyb because he’s is one of the most flexible players in European Contenders right now. He literally plays close to 10 heroes for us -- 11 maybe. People probably think bock1 is too old, but people really sleep on him. He is not too old for Overwatch League. He wants to be there.