Just moments before the finals were played in the Europe Championship in Prague, two members from both participating teams (Na'Vi and Dignitas) agreed to answer some of our questions about the event, the game and the future.
After being busy all weekend with practicing and playing matches, the two teams that were left in the event finally had some spare time on their hands to answer questions from the press. This article consists of the interview questions for Dignitas, while the interview with Na'Vi will be postled shortly.
What did you guy think about the groups when they were announced, namely the group of death you were in (Team Liquid, Na'Vi, Dignitas, Pirates in Pyjamas)?
Bakery: It felt kinda bad that one of us would end up at the top 6th spot, since the teams in the group didn’t deserve that. In the same way it was exciting, because group B was very close as well because of this distribution.
When we spoke to Grankpkt he said he liked it as a player to prove himself.
Snitch: In terms of that, the group was good, but I would prefer double eliminations. It’s disappointing for Liquid do so well during the year and then they end up where they are now and don’t get anything. It’s a good way for the top 3 to prove themselves, but other than that it’s bad.
What are your confidence levels before the finals?
Snitch: We are more confident now than during the group stage, we already qualified so it not as pressuring. We will have more ability to adapt. The first time they picked things that we weren’t prepared for at all, but this time we will be better.
You played Na'Vi a few times this event, what did you think when you saw their Butcher and Falstad combo for the first time?
Bakery: It’s definitely not something we saw from them in scrims. It was very surprising. We did predict the odd ults; we knew they would go Mighty Gust and Lamb to the Slaughter, but we screwed up the laning phase and fell behind.
What are you excited about for Blizzcon?
Bakery: I said yesterday that I would like to play MVP, but that sadly won’t happen because they lost, so now it’s playing Team DK.
Snitch: We hope to prove we are better than at least NA, if not the rest!
Which teams will be the most challenging at Blizzcon?
Bakery: I think EU will have a very strong showing at Blizzcon, I think we can definitely take top spots along Na’Vi. Team DK is definitely the team to beat.
Is it difficult to get used to the new arena, new stage and get ready for the games?
Snitch: We are quite confident playing on stage; the arena is really cool and it was cool to see the stage get built.
You were Bob? and now you are Dignitas. I am sure you got a lot of offers from top organizations. Why pick Dignitas?
Snitch: When we spoke to everybody that approached us Dignitas seemed like a team we want to represent. Obviously us being in the UK was a big advantage. From all the options we had, Dignitas was the most obvious choice.
You guys called yourself a group of rejects. Did you get lucky with the people you got or was it hard to find the synergy?
Snitch: When we were SK Gaming we were really strong players, but we didn’t have any direction. Adrd is a great captain, he has a lot of knowledge about the game. When he became a free agent it was basically the right place at the right time. We worked super hard to get to where we are right now.
Bakery: We had a decent amount of time between SK and Bob? so we waited to find those players. As soon as adrd became a free agent and we played with Athero for some time, we knew those were the ones we needed for the roster.
When you communicate during games is it one person says things and the rest follow or do you all suggest stuff?
Bakery: Our comms is a lot about feeding info. When we lane we always give updates like “who's in my lane”, “how's their clear” poke, sustain. Main shotcaller is adrd, but the rest of us give calls like boss, tribute, stuff like that. Adrd takes it all and gives the final call
Snitch: Yesterday when we won the boss fight against ROCCAT, Athero called to go core, adrd didnt even see it and it worked out in the end.
Is it fun to play with Atheroangel and his off-meta warrior picks?
Snitch: It’s pretty cool, yesterday against ROCCAT we forced them into no cc and then went out with Chen and he was unkillable. It’s cool to have those niche options. I am drinking on their team, there is nothing they could do.
What do you think about Rexxar?
Bakery: I think Rexxar’s issue is that it requires so much to change your individual playstiyle and team playstyle and even if you do it well, it doesn’t bring that much more than a normal warrior.
Snitch: He feels clunky and I believe next patch with his fixes he will bring more utility and he might see some more play.
We know LT. Morales is about to arrive. Bakery, being the only support here, are you excited to start making plays?
Bakery: I think a lot of people are at first overestimating the medic and then, underestimating her. High heal is very big from her Q and the utility her W provides is good, her E can also be used effectively. But she can’t heal herself and that's when people realize that she goes down quick. I haven’t tried her at PTR so I am not sure if you can play her without taking damage. I thought Medivac would have a 120 sec CD , when I found out it's 50 I thought it was a bug. It seems broken at the moment. It’s pretty fun though.
Do you feel like there is a big hole in support abilities, a different kind of supporting that isn’t in the game (enough) but should be in the future?
Bakery: I think that ‘healbot’ supports are a quintessential part of this game, and supports would not be able to be designed any other way. If supports’ healing numbers were lowered so that 'utility’ style supports were able to compete with them, then no form of support would be picked at all.
Utility supports work in LoL because there is a limited amount of gold and experience on the map, which you compete with your team for. There are a lot of reasons as for why it is most efficient, but in short one player needs to survive on low xp, low gold. Characters that excel with low xp and gold are usually best suited to the Support role, and the reason why they excel with low xp and gold are because their kits are packed with utility.
In Heroes, the issues surrounding gold and xp are not present, which means that every player on the team gets an ample amount of power to play their Hero to its full potential. Couple this with the absence of the need get ‘ad carries’ to survive the lane phase, and the support roles in LoL are useless. Characters designed in that style would not be able to provide more utility to the team than warriors or damage dealers, and hence would not be picked in the almost every scenario. So in short, while I would love to see different styles of Supports, I don't think it would be possible, and would rather more interesting damage or warrior Heroes were released instead.
Final words to the opponent?
Snitch: I think it will be a close match. Both teams are high skilled and we will see a lot of adaptation through the series.
And a final question, have you played Overwatch yet or have you been too busy?
Bakery: We didn't have time to play yet.
Snitch: We just gotta go through this quick final here and then we’re going!
After the final series, we reached out to Dignitas' Bakery again, and asked for his thoughts on the final series:
Bakery: Natus Vincere really put their bootcamp to great use, and it showed. Their preparation was on a completely different level to anything we've seen in Heroes before. We were completely caught off guard by it, and they completely deserved their flawless run. I am confident that, if possible, both European teams will be able to win take a top 2 finish at Blizzcon!
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