This week I had the chance to talk to Fury who will be moving to the Warrior role for LFM Esports starting HGC Phase 2 this weekend. I wanted to get his thoughts on the transition to the new team, HGC, Warrior play in general, and what to expect from him moving into Phase 2.

With the move to LFM Esports as their Main Warrior player, what are your personal goals, and what are your team goals for Phase 2?

Moving to LFM as the main tank my personal goal is to perform at a top level that can match other international tank players. I have gained so much experience and knowledge from all the events I’ve been to and I will continue to use it all moving forward to prove no matter what roster I play for that I will always do my part at 100% and show I still am a threat on the frontline. As for our team goals, LFM would like to attend its first LAN event and try to claim a top 3 standing for NA. It won’t be easy at all and will be a lot of hard work, but for me personally that’s how Heroes has been, taking the hard route trying to find success. But I believe this roster has a lot of potential!

LFM Esports appeared to be on the cusp of a breakout several times in Phase 1. What is the team doing to prepare for the Phase 2 competition?

When I was watching LFM esports in Phase 1 they seemed to be improving towards the end of the Phase. With this roster I am joining I plan to help improve our chances to climb up in standings as long as everyone puts in the work and dedication. We’re preparing like almost every other team in HGC which is scrimming and playing Hero League with a little vod review and draft preparations.

How is having a coach helpful for the team, and do you think this is a position every team should maintain if they don’t have one already?

I think every HGC team should have a coach, there is a lot of value in having one it just depends what your roster might need from the coach. You can have a coach work with players on fixing positioning in team fights, macro rotations or just help your drafter. Our coach ( Hero ) watches our scrims, takes notes, and pins timestamps where we make a key mistake. He does a lot more than that but for every coach in HGC it really depends what your team needs help with and tasking them to focus on that.

What are your thoughts on the current Heroes Meta, specifically the Warrior Meta? Do you feel as if we’re in a good spot?

To be honest the current Heroes meta seems okay overall, most of the OP heroes have been balanced down. My main issue is how awful the pool of support heroes “meta” is because almost every game you will see a first pick Malfurion. The off lane role seems a little low on Heroes as well but not nearly as low as supports. I worry the meta will be “Which team can waveclear fastest” because there’s not many meta heroes that can waveclear well but we will see in Phase 2 how the meta develops. The warrior meta seems really good at the moment, the pool of warriors is large currently with the only “OP” warrior being Garrosh and maybe ETC over all others. There’s just a lot more warriors currently you can pick depending the map and what comp your team has and I’m excited.

With Yrel coming into the game as the newest Warrior, what are your thoughts on her (and where her place on a team is), and do you think we’ll see her in competitive play?

*(Disclaimer, this was written before the most recent Yrel Balance Patch) Currently Yrel seems a bit undertuned compared to all the other warriors we have at the moment. She get punished by a lot of Heroes for charging up her abilities which is her core gameplay and playstyle but my issue is it doesn’t feel as rewarding to finally channel an ability to maximum power. I don’t think she will be seen much in HGC which is sad to say because I enjoyed her a lot playing quick match to level her up but she gets out classed by every other tank in her current state. I have tested so many builds, played around 30-40 games of Yrel in scrims/QM but still feel like it will be very rare to make her feel valuable over other tanks. I would compare her a little bit to the way you play and draft Tyrael but the biggest downside to Yrel is she doesn’t have a Heroic ability that benefits her team, only herself, compared to Tyrael having Sanctification that benefits himself and his team if played properly.

What are some of your top tips for a player looking to improve their Warrior play?

For any newer warrior players who want to play it very well for the team I would recommend always looking up the top talent builds pros pick for each warrior and understanding what that specific warrior does for the team. If you have the time you can request an HGC tank player for personal coaching to help guide you for a small fee. Other good ways to learning how to play tank is just by watching streamers or HGC and keeping an eye out on the tank players and just watch what they do in team fights and rotations. The biggest thing a tank player should do early game is be hiding in bushes and give your team vision while also giving them information that they are all bottom so top side can play aggressive, or looking for your own ganks. The main thing is showing yourself on the map as little as possible unless you’re engaging on someone or forced to soak a lane because you never want to miss getting creep xp unless you have to rotate down to an objective.

How do you feel about the structure of HGC? What are some of the things you like, and some of the things you feel could be improved upon and you would like to see going into Phase 2 and the 2019 Season?

I’ve been really enjoying HGC overall, it’s the first steps of making this an actual career for players to focus on the game while not having to worry about bills as much. So far the scene has been growing slow and steady and I’m happy to see that, but my main issue is this “west server vs central server” between teams and sometimes you will have one team having to play with 80+ ping one series which can be a big deal. I know HGC is in its early stages but I’m hoping one day we will grow into a LAN weekly matches like LCS because having ping issues for teams is not as fun as LAN events back then qualifying for Blizzcon required you to play at a NA regional which was fair for everyone who were top 8 in NA. Slow and steady, I hope to continue growing with HGC as long as everything continues to grow towards the big esport we all want it to be.