From Open Division to Contenders and beyond, Hunter "Dino" Traupe has made a name for himself in the North American Overwatch scene. Playing with former amateur powerhouses like Fractal Esports and Last Night’s Leftovers, Dino has plenty of experience when it comes to playing at a relatively high level. He now resides with the Boston Uprising’s academy team, Uprising Academy. Dine took some time away to chat with Esports Heaven about how he got into esports, how Zenyatta’s should be using their ultimates and much more!

I played League of Legends for six years and loved watching worlds [and] always wanted to play on stage myself after watching some other tournaments from other games like CS:GO and early Overwatch tournaments.

I didn’t really tell my parents until I got signed. It was my second year at community college. I told them I was going to be dropping out of college and doing this full time. My mom didn’t think I could make a career out of it at first, but my dad supported me all the way through it regardless of what I wanted to do.

When we went to Denny’s, I don’t really remember what people ordered, except Asking. Whatever he ordered he just said it was so good and wanted more food. I usually got a burger. The only thing that stood out [about] going to Denny's at 2 a.m. was how cold Canada was at night.

My top three would probably start with Dive. [More] than anything with Ana then some of GOATs— anything that lets me play Zenyatta and Ana is meta I can play. I’d rather not play [in a] Mercy Lucio meta, I want to aim, something that I need to aim with, unlike Brigitte players.

So far MikeyA was a player first then when he transferred to a coaching role it brings another perspective because he was in our shoes so he can relate to some of our strategies and play styles easily.

After our first week match, we kinda thought that we could try new things for our next match. Bringing out a lot of new stuff we never tried before against harder teams trying to adapt to their playstyles and habits, but after playing Second Wind that type of play style backfired on us in the end.

I really don’t think using Transcendence as a tempo [play] is a really good idea. It starts to make bad habits of running in aimlessly when you can just disengage or counter the Transcendence for a good advantage.

I haven't followed too much of European Contenders, [I’ve] mostly focusing on NA so I don’t really have an answer for this, but any great European flex supports I would love to play against.

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 like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel .