Behind the curtain of every hero is a story. Behind every story is a spirit. The essence of heroes is an ambitious interview series that aims to uncover the nature of each hero by asking its most skilled specialists to reveal their thought processes. In doing so, we also learn a lot about the hero behind the keyboard. This time we ask: What is essential to “The Art of Ana”?
You first major success in the esports world came in Bloodline Champions. You, together with now famous League of Legends support player Mithy, won Dreamhack Winter in 2011. Was your focus even back then to become a professional player or was it something you did on the side and never pursued actively until you fell into it?
I’ve always loved competing. I played soccer for a long time and have always wanted to win no matter what I do. When I started playing BLC I didn’t have the intention of going pro or anything. I just really liked the game and played a lot. I got to know a lot of other players and signed up for tournaments for fun. I had the opportunity to go to two Dreamhacks and that was a lot of fun :) After I quit BLC, becoming a pro player has always been what I wanted to do.
Experts of the BLC scene described you as the best Alchemist in the game, as well as an outstanding support player. The hero Alchemist, when looking at the abilities at first glance, strongly reminds of Ana with its sleep, heal and damage capabilities and its potions. Alchemist also lacked mobility, which made positioning all the more important. Were there underlying principles you found in the Alchemist you could directly translate into your Ana or does it play very differently despite the similarities? Where did you have to adjust?
I’ve always liked playing support characters in games, typically the ones with offensive capabilities. In BLC you had to aim your heals, which made it very fun and challenging for me in a way. I think that was the thing that drew me a lot towards Ana, the fact that heals were projectiles and hitscan. If any of the skill transferred, it was probably the need of good positioning and awareness.
Let’s get into the “Art of Ana”. Would you say your mindset is mostly proactive - so anticipating what the opponent will do before he does it- or reactive - rolling with the punches and solving the riddle in the moment? How much of your Ana play is preparation and how much is intuitive feel?
Hmmm… 50% preparation, 25% reactive, 25% where are my teammates and where do I help the most.
In your understanding of Ana, which role/hero does she need to communicate and synergize most with? How’s your rapport with that player on your team?
Maybe the Genji? But we don’t really play it. So think it’s mostly me and Harry’s Reaper/Soldier. Our communication is very short and simple. Works really well I think.
With your roster changes at the end of Apex season 1, the roles switched as Mickie was introduced into the team. Did you have to change up your playstyle significantly and if so, how?
With the roster change there was also a new patch, which made D.Va very very good, and most teams started playing triple tank. I don't think I can remember if I played differently before… But landing big grenades became very important, and a lot of spam healing was involved.
You and Ryujehong are often described as 1a and 1b when talking about the best Ana players in the world. Most often, analysts describe you as the more defensive Ana that generally puts out more healing while Jehong tries to go for picks, and both of you show stellar sleep dart plays. Statistically, you die a lot less than he does while he scores more kills. All other metrics we have access to are remarkably similar (source: Winston's Lab). Do you think that is a fair assessment of your playstyles and if so, how and why did you choose yours? Is it an expression of your skillset or something you felt the team needed?
I think that’s an accurate description. I feel like I play way more aggressively during scrims and practice, but when we end up on stage I just want to play it safe and try to keep everyone alive. Playing dive comps like Lunatic-Hai often does allows for more offensive plays too I think.
Logically it follows that with the Ana nerfs, because of the damage reduction from 80 to 60 per shot but healing being unaffected, your playstyle should benefit. What’s your take on the upcoming balance changes? Will you be able to reap the relative benefits of the nerfs to your opposition or will Ana play a smaller role in the meta?
I still think she will be very strong, all her other abilities just do so much. Instead of just solo killing people maybe it’s more valuable to just assist shooting the stuff your teammates are shooting. Get that extra little bit of damage in.
You are to make an RPG character. Your goal is to create the best Ana player in the world. You can spend 10 points to maximise your potential. There are no limitations as to how many points you can spend per category as long as the sum is 10.
- Aim - 6 points
- Game sense - 4 points
- Shot calling - 0 points
Viewers of your stream have described you as a silent rager on your streams. Is this a solo queue occurrence or do you also have these emotions when playing competitively with nV?
I really don’t think I’m a rager :x. I think I just get disappointed with my plays sometimes and am quite silent on streams most of the time anyway.
Complete the sentence.
The patch changes have made EnVyUs…
...realize they need a projectile DPS player.
The second best McCree on our team...
...is Taimou, hehe.
Seven or more player rosters in professional Overwatch...
...will probably be a thing in the future, I'm not a fan.
Mickie's hitscan is...
...untested, luckily for our opponents.
Thanks for your time! Shoutouts to fans & sponsors go here.
Thanks to everyone supporting me, thanks to my team and sponsors :).
Keep current with all the latest competitive news via @GosuOverwatch on Twitter.
