Kevyn “TviQ” Lindström runs flex-DPS for the Overwatch League’s Florida Mayhem and is known for being one of Overwatch’s longest-tenured players with one of its deepest hero pools. Having played in tournaments across Europe, North America, and Asia, TviQ’s experience with Overwatch budded in the closed beta under a friend’s “Pluppie” alias before blossoming on teams like MyDong, IDDQD, Sweden’s World Cup team, Rogue, and ultimately the Misfits who then transitioned into the Mayhem. A versatile player with high game-sense, TviQ has helped captain a Mayhem team that went from winning just one match in Stage 1 on a -22 map differential to notching three wins and a -12 map differential in Stage 2. Now, as the Mayhem try to cause some of their namesake in Stage 3, we had a chat with TviQ about his path, team, and opponents as well as his thoughts on the ladder and the immersion of Florida’s two highly-touted Korean recruits.

* Featured image credit to Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment. Credit to TviQ’s Twitch mod and Discord admin Neto for some of the backstory. *

Rapid Fire Round

[Tepojama] Favorite music genre?

[TviQ] “Anything close to metal and rock.”

Favorite sign or fan-art so far?

“Ah, There’s been a bunch. [Laughing] There’s been a couple where they show off kebab sizes and a couple of the Leek spray as well.”

Favorite Overwatch League Twitch chat copypasta?

“Can’t say I’ve been paying much attention to OWL chat so I’m not exactly sure, but all copy pasta is good copy pasta.”

The ‘viQ Himself

[Tepojama] A ton of current OWL players are your former teammates, do you save any trash-talk or “tactical crouches” for anyone?

[TviQ] “There’s definitely lots of trash talk going on. Maybe not publicly, but definitely behind the scenes. [Laughs] It just might not be very safe for the public, you could say.”

What’s up with the arm-sleeve? Is it helpful or inspired by anyone?

“It has no purpose whatsoever. Or, it has a purpose, but it hasn’t been inspired by anyone. I use it because it removes friction between my arm and the table and since I always rest my arm on the table it allows me to move around freely. Also, a year ago I was having problems with tennis elbow and I thought this could maybe help keeping it warm.”

Are you going to start rocking a second one?

“Oh yeah, I’ve got plenty and I’m probably going to be buying a ton of them in funny, different colors as well. It’s gonna be like my sock game where I got tons of different, dumb colors.”

You’re one of the league’s premier flex DPS alongside guys like Libero and Fleta, how do you stay so consistent on such a wide variety of heroes?

“At the core it’s just a matter of mindset. You need to be able to understand if you need to play differently or have a specific style that you’re constantly playing on different heroes (like the constant flanker). It’s not so difficult mechanically, because that’s just a matter of consistent practice, it’s more what the team needs and how you’re supposed to be playing each hero for your team.”

Do you measure yourself against the other flex DPS or watch them in particular?

“Personally I’m not overly focused on people playing the same role as me because they’re not exactly the expertise in their field, they’re just someone who is good at playing many different things. I’m always focused towards the guys that are basically one-tricks because that’s how you actually learn the new small things since they obviously have more hours on X specific hero than you do.”

Are there any one-tricks that you watch in particular? For example on tracer?

“Striker would be a pretty good option. He’s a pretty good tracer duelist and good at shutting down or marking the enemy tracer.”

The Ladder

[Tepojama] You’ve voiced concerns with the ladder on twitter and stream, what’s your ideal solution for Overwatch’s competitive mode?

[TviQ] “For a very long time now I’ve been trying to make role queue a more popular thing because at times the matchmaker just kind of puts you with 5 different DPS mains and that’s… not really great. I’ve been talking about this with Blizzard and without getting too much into it: it’s something that’s being thought of, but there are some difficulties in theory so it’s not being implemented right now. It’s a very hot topic and being discussed, I just can’t say personally if it’s gonna come tomorrow or if it’s going to come in 4 months or 6 months or something.”

Favorite person to randomly see on your team while queuing?

“Everybody who has a role to play so that we can play a good 2-2-2. It’s not like one specific player, it’s more like “Wow, we can have a real team comp!” The players don’t really matter because it’s still the ladder, so as long as we can have proper, constructive playing time then all the better.”

Least favorite person to see on enemy team? Maybe a carry DPS like Carpe or EFFECT?

“The one-trick that destroys the game. I don’t want the game to be ruined for the opposite team or for my team because then it’s sort of a waste of time. I don’t play ranked to necessarily have tons of fun, I play it because I need more practice and want to practice more.”

The NMAyhem

[Tepojama] After having just six players in Stage 1, the Mayhem have now added Zappis, Sayaplayer, and aWesomeGuy. The Zappis addition, as a fellow Nordic and former teammate of Zuppeh’s, was unsurprising — but the two Korean recruits were unexpected. Did you know Sayaplayer and aWesomeGuy from your time in Korea?

[TviQ] “Oh yeah, I played duos and I played against them plenty of times on the ladder and scrims as well against both of them.”

CwoosH mentioned wanting another main tank a couple months ago, did you guys have your eyes on aWesomeGuy originally or what has the general process been like for finding players?

“Myself, Zebbosai, and the coaches have been in the most talks about players that we could potentially need or roles we could use reinforcements for. We want to have backups for all the slots so that risk of injury or whatever is out of the question for us.”

So you guys were looking to fill main tank and hitscan DPS roles, and did you prioritize Koreans intentionally?

“I can’t necessarily say if we were looking specifically towards Koreans, but they filled a role that we thought would be needed in the future, Korean or not. Obviously picking up a Korean makes a bit of difficulty in language, but to our surprise Saya’s and aWesomeGuy’s English has been much better than I initially thought and is already improving drastically. And that goes for r2der as well.”

If Zappis brings his patented flex-tank and high IQ, how would you describe what Saya and aWesomeGuy bring to the team?

“I’m not sure if it’s exactly how the coaches are thinking of it, but how I look at it: more aggression. That pretty much sums it up. Right now our strong point is slow, passive play with a lot of pressure where we just take the space and walk up, for better or for worse. And I think that with these two pickups we will be able to play a more aggressive play.”

Given his Korean background, has r2der been the main guy getting them involved with team?

“Honestly it’s kind of been all of us. We want to get them in as fast as possible so everyone is working to their fullest to make sure that happens.”

Speaking of coaching, Mineral has gotten a mixture of flack and praise. How is it having a former teammate as head coach?

“I think it gives him a pretty good perspective because he knows what it’s like to play with us so he has this unique perspective that many coaches do not.”

I have to ask my go-to question: who is your most PMA teammate and who is the most NMA? No hard feelings of course.

“No, no, no. [Laughs] It’s no hard feelings because it’s not that it’s necessarily NMA — they just overdo it because they know the rest of us can hear it so they just go overboard with it. It’s not like in game, but when we sit there in practice and just go ham on each other. We don’t go ham on anyone else we just go ham on each other because we get into the same game or something. It’s basically team bonding so I guess it would just be the whole team.”

So the whole team is basically NMA.

“[Laughing] Yes. Especially when we go up against each other then… oh, it takes a turn. But its all for the shits and giggles. It’s all for fun. We’re all NMA and were all PMA.”

Competing in Stage 3

[Tepojama] How are you enjoying this map pool? How do you see the Blizzard World strats evolving?

[TviQ] “I honestly really like Blizzard World. Second point is a little off, because it’s a little too easy to stall. But that is being worked on already so I have to wait and see how that change works out, but I think blizzard world is one of those maps where we could see a bunch of variety of strategies because the map is so different from all of the others. There’s a possibility that dive just might be the most dominant because dive is so good and can be played anywhere, but I think there’s a good chance that Blizzard World might have a variety of strategies when it comes to teams specifically.”

Kind of like Junkertown’s variety and evolution of comps?

“I think it’s just one of those maps where on first point X thing is ridiculously strong, but once you get to second point Y thing is much stronger and X thing doesn’t necessarily work. Just trying to find the middle ground with the heroes you want to play so that there’s easier transitions between hero swapping so you don’t lose ultimate economy would be the biggest thing to look for when it comes to Blizzard World.”

Who is your MVP favorite right now? Besides yourself, of course.

“Hanzo.”

Ah, a Hanzo main by the way. Libero, Carpe, LiNkzr, and Kariv seem to have embraced the dragon too. Who is the best Hanzo in the Overwatch League?

“I would say that I’m the best Hanzo in the league and that second place would be Hanzo.”

On the real though, which DPS in the league do you think has the biggest impact?

“I don’t think that one player does it all by himself, but the one with the biggest impact individually from the way I see the game would be Saebyeolbe.”

Because of his leadership and impact on team morale as well or just his style of play?

“I’m not sure about how much he’s calling or what the team’s communication is like, but definitely when it comes to finding the value of Tracer and working with his teammates to ensure he gets even more value from his Tracer. You can obviously see that from an outside perspective. I think that he and profit both do it very well.”

Your competition over the first two weeks of Stage 2 and 3 has been brutal with matches against Philadelphia, New York, London, and Boston. Are you used to that now or is it a stressful nightmare?

“For me personally I don’t necessarily budge or get stressed when it comes to opponent. I think of everyone equally in that sense because the way I philosophize the game, how I want to be competitive, I want to play against everybody and I want to beat every single one.”

You play Boston this week and they’ve been red-hot since their minor slump and trade rumors. Why do you think they have improved so much?

[Editor’s Note: This was before the DreamKazper allegations came to light]

“Not necessarily from having inside information, which I don’t, but having a sense from looking at them — it seems like they have come to more of an understanding when it comes to how they want to play the game. It actually doesn’t really matter if what you’re doing is the best or if what you’re doing is the worst, as long as everyone is kind of doing it together then you have a higher chance of succeeding. Getting to that point is not always as easy as it seems, but once you get to that point it becomes a lot easier to just play the game and get the wins.”

The Wrap-Up

[Tepojama] Any buffs or nerfs you want to see to heroes right now?

[TviQ] “Ehh. I want new heroes. I want more heroes.”

Jetpack cat?

“[Laughs] I’m not entirely sure whether I want more buffs, more nerfs, or whatnot. This is just one of those games where changing the heroes that you already have won’t really change too much. We just need more heroes to make it more interesting I think.”

Any tips for aspiring young Hanzo mains?

“Hanzo.”

Embrace Hanzo?

“I would say that everybody should think of Hanzo, but also realize that you’re not supposed to be a one-trick.”

Do you have any interests or hobbies that you think fans might not know about or expect?

“Hm… I play games!”

Any shout-outs?

“Obviously shout outs to the rest of the team and the organization and shout out to all the fans specifically. Just all of them. Everyone is great, even the trolls.”

How about some closing words for the Mayhem supporters specifically?

“Thanks everybody for all the support that they have been continuously giving us when it comes to our struggles. We will sort this out and you just need to hang tight and we will eventually figure it out.”

Any words for your opponents?

“You’re about to get rekted.”

Many thanks to TviQ for taking the time out of his busy schedule to get this interview done with us and for being so thorought with all of his answers. Make sure to follow him on twitter, twitch, and join his Discord! If you have any requrests for future interviews then feel free to let Tepojama know on twitter!