Tempo Storm in Vegas: "A lot of people have over exaggerated the losses to MVP Black"

More in this series: COGnitive Gaming (2), Murloc Geniuses, compLexity Gaming (2), Cloud9, Tempo Storm, Furious Gaming, Team Immunity, Relics.

Tempo Storm was comfortable walking into the media room; you could tell they have been through these type of interviews before. They recognized a lot of us media types in the room, and seemed to enjoy the name tags. "It's because we still don't know who you are by now" someone in the crowd joked. This was followed by a series of "Hello? Team?" jokes, some marveling at the stage outside of this press box, and a discussion on if Tempo Storm's pull could secure Heroes of the Storm water bottles for the rest of us. After everyone took their seat, the interview started:

Who are you worried about facing, this tournament?

Dreadnaught: Mainly Cloud9 is what we are worried about. Overall C9 and us have shown to be above the rest.

Kaeyoh: compLexity has moved up a lot and shown a lot of promise. Before, I would only consider us and C9 but compLexity really has made a good showing. They really don’t have a record to reflect this. Sometimes they try too much and sometimes aren’t as strong as they are in scrims. But still, I would put them as one of the teams we have to think about.

Some teams say you are in the worst form you have been in. What do you think of that?

Zuna: For our team right after PAX it was like we didn’t have a good showing. I do think Sylvanas ban was a huge part but coming out of PAX we were all really sick. We were recovering from illness and regularly with these games going forward, I truly think we are above everyone - even C9.

What type of changes to your game do you need to make?

Dreadnaught: When it comes to Blizzcon, there will be some minor adjustment needed. But, a lot of people have over exaggerated the losses to MVP Black. I don’t think their skill level is too far off ours. There are little to no changes that needed to happen in order to dominate in this tournament. In the future though, obviously we are going to make those adjustments.

What do you think about Rexxar?

Arthelon: Some teams will play him but he is not really that good.

Other teams think the opposite. How will you respond to that?

So1dier: He fits really good into the bruiser meta, but we have adapted to that and we play really strong against the bruiser meta. I don’t think it will be an issue this tournament.

What do you think about your first opponent of the tournament, Murloc Geniuses?

Arthelon: Facing Murloc Geniuses is pretty tough compared to the international teams. They are NA so they have a lot more competition and will be the more experienced team.

Dreadnaught: Historically they have been among the more dominant teams in the region, everyone says that Murloc is doing well, but I don’t see the LAN experience as being a positive thing for them. Still, they are not a team we should underestimate. It might just happen for them. MG is a team that likes to jump towards new heroes and strategies. A little gimmicky, and sometimes it takes a little bit to adapt to what they are trying to do. But once we see a pattern, we can make the changes we need to. We usually come out on top but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them run Rexxar.

How will teams try and beat Tempo Storm?

Dreadnaught: It’s expected to see some of the non-standard maps picked against us. In every single qualifiers leading up to this we have had to face the same thing. This time around there are zero map bans. I am comfortable with our strategies on any maps however, even though I expect unorthodox maps.

Arthelon: We are used to playing on different maps and our history shows that. There are more maps than ever now, but still I think we can. This format isn’t even close to ideal, they seemed to have planned on having C9 and us not face each other early on, and I feel like no map bans is pretty dumb.

Dreadnaught: Yeah, the lack of map bans really makes the depth less intuitive. Not having map bans is very unfair. It pulls away from strategic value of the game and pulls away from the skill level of the game. It’s hard to spread yourself over the 8 or 9 maps. To find the best team of the world, you can’t expect them to absolutely beat EVERY single team on 8-9 maps. It’s a little frustrating.

Is the game actually ready for a huge international esports?

Dreadnaught: (lets out a long sigh)

Arthelon: A couple minor tweaks. Mostly they need an in-game draft system. And it’s a little silly we have to use a third party website.

Was PAX a good primer for this type of stage?

Arthelon: Any LAN experience will help. The MSI crowd was small and much bigger and much louder already. The people who went to PAX didn’t go for JUST that tournament, but this crowd is going to be a lot more explosive. Nothing seen like it before. If teams aren’t ready they are going to be really nervous.

Kaeyoh: In general we have the best presence on stage when it comes to playing at LANs. That happened with bringing Zuna. He is the single most loud person at LANs and we always feel comfortable.

Zuna: I’m in it to win it. As long as I follow the rules, I’ll do whatever it takes. If that puts some people on tilt, then I will get louder.

Where does this hype come from?

Zuna: If I make a play and someone messes up, I am going to get hype. Their whole team will remember that when they messed up. Sometimes it gets to people's heads, sometime it doesn’t, but it helps boost the morale of my team so I will do it.

Dreadnaught: LAN environments do one of two things. It will show the flaws in your team's confidence, or it will do the opposite, it will push it to the best you can be. The LAN for us will gives us adrenaline and concatenation. The crowd carries you to a certain extent, especially when you plan on being the team to make plays.

Are you expecting support from the crowd?

Dreadnaught: I don’t know. I think our name is pretty well known and received. Of course, I hope we have a huge fan base.

Zuna: I live in Vegas, so yeah, I expect the crowd to be on our side.

Do you still love Kharazim?

Dreadnaught: Kharazim. I still like Kharazim. Like a lot. The team opinion and my opinion is a little split. Bakery from BOB? is the only support player that shares my opinion in saying that he is one of the best supports in the game. The whole team doesn’t feel that way, so that is more important. He just doesn’t excentuate what we are good at, and we sit in a position that, until we see a large road block, we don’t have to change our style. We won’t fix what isn’t broken.

How should a team go about beating Tempo Storm?

Dreadnaught: Win the early game. If you don’t take that there is no chance. If you don’t win the race to 10, you won’t win the game. You can’t give up any advantage that you might be able to take. You can’t give up resources. We will pounce on that and make a comeback, and pull out a win.

Tempo Storm