Whenever a bunch of Blizzard fans enter the same room, you can always expect the following to come up in conversation: vanilla WoW, Overwatch, and how expensive Hearthstone cards. This time however, at the Americas Championships in Vegas, the conversation was squarely on Heroes. As Murloc Geniuses took their seats in front of all of us media outlets, I asked the first question that seemed most appropriate during introductions:
How did you come up with the name Murloc Geniuses?
Madtimmy: Well, half of us were Murloc Inc, and half of us were Evil Geniuses. It just happened perfectly.
Who is the team to beat?
Madtimmy: The team to beat is Cloud 9 Maelstrom. We think they are the strongest team at the moment, especially when they are at their A game. They have shown they can beat Tempo Storm before and they won't have a problem against other teams. Our first match, however, is against Tempo Storm. We have been focusing heavily on them, and that is our main priority.
So you have studied their games against MVP Black?
EquinoxHots: We have learned a lot from watching those Vods from Korea, and we are trying to incorporate that into our play style.
Furyhots: I think Tempo Storm will play pretty standard. We are a team that tries to do new things and Tempo Storm generally plays the same patch every time.
Do you think Tempo Storm might deviate from this?
Madtimmy: They don’t really deviate beyond that, they are just going to pick the heroes they are comfortable with.
Furyhots: And if you take a game off them, the next game they will specifically ban whatever you used. They want to make the games as standard as straight forward as possible. We try to mix things up and they try to remove that element.
What are some of the new things we can expect?
EquinoxHots: Thrall boys, he is really good. Rexxar is really good as well. We are very prepared for Rexxar and we have been using him a lot in scrims. Him being allowed in the tournament was a last minute thing, but we were just assuming he was going to be useable, so we prepared for that.
How do you prepare for the prevalence of the warrior meta?
EquinoxHots: We mostly build compositions around beating warriors. We know everyone likes to play that, so we build stuff that breaks down front liners. We also run double tank, so we can really do both.
CauthonLuck: Also, any sort of damage amplifying helps with taking down the front line.
Equinoxhots: We think the Meta is really diverse right now. Raynor, Thrall- you can pick a lot. The only thing that needs to change is the warriors. They aren’t varied and there are some heroes you can’t even pick like Diablo.
What is your banning strategy?
CauthonLuck: Kael'Thas is a huge hero we are going to be banning a lot. When he hits 13 he gets chain bomb and it forces the other team to play a certain way. On top of this, Tempo Storm has the best Kael'thas player in NA: Arthelon. We can’t let them have that. We look to win the game with team fights, not split up with map pressure. Kael'thas forces us to change that and it is detrimental to our play style.
Equinoxhots: Before they changed him, he had a really weak early game. Now he has a huge early game presence. He was fine before now, but he was such a big pub stomper he was changed.
Is being here really fun for you guys?
FuryHots: This is the first time I've been at a big eSports event, and we are excited. It’s going to be real fun.
EquinoxHots It’s going be a blast I can’t wait.
CauthonLuck: We usually don’t have this level of production, and pretty much never is it this big. The level of production kind of blows my mind.
How do you prepare for the big stage environment?
EquinixHots: The only prep we can do is focusing ourselves mentally. It’s hard because like... Zuna is really loud and he gets into your head. His team benefits from that because of his LAN experience and the pressure it puts on the other team.
Will you try to yell back?
EquinoxHots: Yeah, we will try! That is what we try to do at the scrims, Haha.
What type of things do you want to see Blizzard do to help the scene grow?
EquinoxHots: The type of stuff that league does. LCS is totally healthy and something like that for Heroes would really help the game.
CauthonLuck: There are only five stable teams right now, and it is no coincidence that those teams are here now. As long as there is warning ahead of time, there will be a LOT of people really trying to form new teams and up their game. It would promote a lot of growth if Blizzard gave people incentive to stick together and work together as a team. It’s a matter of incentivizing growth and helping teams avoid disbanding.
If you don’t get to BlizzCon- what happens next?
CauthonLuck: No plans really. After this and BlizzCon there is nothing to play for right now, and that is on Blizzard. We all want something consistent to really compete for.
Kayla "Faye" Murray
Drew "Madtimmy" Rodgers
Rori "CauthonLuck" Bryant-Raible
Jon "EquinoxHotS" Peterson
Manuel "Furyhots" Medina
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