Muma sheds light on new Gale Force roster

After a week of Twitter teasing that begin with the news that wgb would be standing in for Immortals for the Overwatch Open, finally Gale Force eSports have confirmed their new Overwatch roster. Combining players and partnerships from the pieces of Colorado Clutch, 20bOink… and whaz, the team looks more than capable of competing for a spot on in the North American top ten.

A plan was hatched by team captain wgb and the then prospective sponsor, Gale Force eSports, to build a team after the collapse of Colorado Clutch was confirmed in early September.

Enlisting the services of whaz, the former No Fast Guns player and generally ruthless gun for hire, the three former Clutchers - wgb, Calvin and coach Dart - set about quickly assembling a roster around their star quality DPSes. The other half of the team has come in a package deal from 20bOink, with bl4nk, Muma and D1sasta all impressing the selectors.

Gale Force eSports has a proven track record of nurturing young teams. Their last foray in Overwatch ended when they parted ways with their current compLexity roster after a two month stint in which they took 2nd at the Agents Rising LAN and rose to crack North America's top five.

Keen to hear more, I hopped on Discord with former ESEA Invite TF2 champion turned Overwatch professional, Austin "Muma" Wilmot, to discuss how the team had come about and what future may hold in store. Here's how it went down:

Tell us a bit about your recent Overwatch history, leading in to how you came to be involved in this new Gale Force project?

"My first real team I joined was with indust. He approached me asking me to try to dps on his team and while on it I bounced between main tank and dps with rr. When indust left to play for LG, rr also stepped down so nmly and I decided to make a new team, 20b0ink. That team featured kapoww, boink, d1sasta, bl4nk and ninjanick. kapoww stepping down to coach and ninjanick leaving for splyce left two big holes we were never really able to fix despite trying for 2 weeks. We decided we'd start to entertain offers from other potential teams... bl4nk was approached by whaz to tryout for this new team and after scrimming with them once, he convinced them to try out a merge including me and d1sasta. After playing once together, they figured they'd give it another try and we've been playing together since."

How is that you have ended up in the tank spot despite a veteran like wgb being on the roster? Did you experiment with roles at all in the new team?

"The roles we are playing currently have been our roles since day one. After my first tryout, wgb asked for my POV and said that the potential was there and that he's confident that I'd be a better tank while he'd also be able to learn and adapt to support just as quickly."

What has the approach to practise been like up to this point? How much are you guys scrimming and how much did wgb going to Atlanta impact that? What is the intended commitment level with this new roster? Are you all fulltime Overwatch players now?

"wgb, calvin and dart are in some suboptimal situations so scrimming has been less than what we plan to do. We've been playing for about 6 hours a day, 5 days a week but plan to move to 8. wgb going to Atlanta stopped scrims entirely but we decided as a team it would be a good opportunity for both wgb and Gale Force. Everybody on this roster is going to be full time. bl4nk has already put in his 2 weeks and will be free in a few days."

What are your plans with the GFe organisation? It appeared that their last team almost became too successful for them to support - are you hoping to build something more sustainable? What kind of support did your team require from the org and what are they expecting from you?

"The plan is to put in the time and effort in the hopes of becoming a top team in the scene while representing GFe. GFe has been very accommodating so far and are doing what they can to help us achieve that. They are providing monetary and potentially housing support which definitely are huge in terms of hoping to go far. I would say having some financial backing is definitely great from an org as it justifies the amount of time you can invest into the game. I know they don't expect us to be at the top instantly, but they do expect us to put in the time and grind in the hopes that we can do well in representing them in events."

Muma interviewed by eXtine at Insomnia 58's TF2 world championships. (Credit: teamfortress.tv)

What are your immediate team goals? MSI Qualifiers? When can we hope to see GFe in competition?

"As a new team, we're abstaining from partaking in events for a little bit to grind out and become a stronger team first. We'd like a little bit of time to scrim with each other before representing ourselves in a serious tournament. I'm sure we'll start competing within a few weeks... a week or two would be closer than a few weeks probably"

Who have you practise partners been? Are the top teams give you any games yet? What do you think of the current state of NA OW post-Overwatch Open?

"We've been scrimming with compLexity pretty frequently but that's about it in terms of top top teams. EnVyUs asked us to scrim today but we weren't going to cancel on compLexity. I think the coming roster shakeups should be really exciting to see unfold considering top level Overwatch is already really back and forth."

How are you enjoying the current tank heavy meta? Has it presented any particular challenges to this roster? How well is your team equipped to deal with ongoing meta shifts?

"I don't enjoy the current meta at all. Reaper is almost a must pick and there is nothing more infuriating than your team being wiped by an Ana boosted Reaper ult. The only challenges our roster has faced during this time is trying to decide rather whaz or Calvin are going to be our Reaper player."

Starting out as a professional player you are obviously invested in the success of Overwatch as an esport, but what hurdles do you see for the future of the game?

"Looking at the longevity of other Blizzard games, I definitely see Overwatch going far, especially considering the amount of advertising and work they've already put into it. I think the biggest hurdle Overwatch will face is making the game more spectator friendly. I'm not entirely sure how to go about this but honestly at times, the game is just a pain to watch."

Thanks for taking the time chat. We'll be watching your progress closely on over.gg - good luck!

"No problem. We hope to impress."

The new Gale Force eSports roster is: