Bigempct of Panda Global: "This LAN is more serious, there is so much on the line"

Sammuel "bigempct" Hua talks about 9 hour scrim sessions, his role on the team, and how he thinks Panda Global can win the NA Spring Championship.

After nearly 9 hours of scrims, followed by a 2 hour strategy discussion, the Panda Global team were ready to get a good night's sleep. However, Sammuel "bigempct" Hua must have felt restless, as he still had the time and energy to speak to me about the Spring Championship, how to be a better player, obtaining high ranks, and what struggles he thinks Panda Global might face in the future:

Hello! Can you introduce yourself and tell us your affiliation with the team:

Nice to meet you, I'm Sam aka Bigempct. Most call me big-E. I play ranged assassin for Panda Global and I have been playing with them for about 3 months.

What teams have you played for prior?

I have played in my competitive career with Kappa Wolves and I haven't left, we were acquired by Panda Global.

Did you play any games competitively prior to Heroes of the Storm?

I used to play in Challenger series for League of Legends, I played for team Games to Gear and eventually were picked up by Lolpro. By then, I then moved to sub-position. I also played for ingrained forest which is now team DK and after League, I played Infinite Crisis the DC moba. Played that for 2 months and competed in the Season 2 world Championships in Cologne Germany. After that, I learned about Heroes from Liquid Cris and Neurok from the EU scene, so I came back to Heroes and have been playing ever since.

The game is just very fun. It's so fast paced and there is no real laning phase or farming. You literally beat your opponent with raw mechanical skill.

You have a pretty high solo ranking in heroes, correct?

I've been top 5 in Blizzard leaderboards for the past 3 months. I got rank 3 last month but rank 1 and 2 were Singapore players. So technically I was #1 in NA? (laughs)

How hard is it to maintain that rank? How often do you play heroes?

It isn't "super" hard if you win a majority of your games. You do have to play 50 games a month to get onto it though. I generally really like to play Zagara, Greymane, or Lunara for ranged DPS. When I play tank I like Stitches and Diablo. My go-to supports are Brightwind and Lt. Morales.

What is the biggest tips you can give to a solo queue player?

The biggest tips would be to learn the powerful heroes for that month. Even if you really love a certain hero, if they are off-meta it's going to be difficult.

If you are having a bad run, go play something else or take a shower. Then come back and try again.

Try to effectively soak when your teammates are not.

Good map awareness is vital. If it looks like a fight is "about" to happen, you can give up a couple of waves of soak to just go and join the teamfight. This is especially iimportant in solo queue because not a lot of people have good map awareness and they won't rotate. You can outnumber your opponents easily.

Always look to punish after getting a hero kill.

Learn the cooldowns of the heroics and learn the timers for objectives so you can be in the right place at the right time. These are the biggest tips to maintaining a high rank.

How has it been like in LA since you and the team arrived?

Our general schedule is in 2 blocks of scrimming per day. We have one three-hour-block of scrim and than another 2 hour block of scrims; just a lot of practicing. Since we arrived here though all we do is sleep, wake up, eat, go to the studio and scrim the moment it opens until it closes. That is around 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Practicing the whole time.

Is this your comfort zone as a team or do you have to adjust?

This doesn't throw us off at all, it's not our first time at a lan. We are pretty used to this enviroment. We are all comfortable.

I still make mistakes as a top player but I just try to find what I did wrong and improve, not to be cocky, but I think i'm the best player on my team.

What moment or victory leading up to this had you feeling you really had a shot of winning all of the Spring Championship?

Prior to the event, we scrim a lot of the top teams. Whenever we win or the sets are in our favor? That makes me feel confident and happy. It makes me feel that we really have a shot. Tournaments do give us confidence and being able to get top 4 or top 2 feels good, but winning scrims feels great. I never thought our team was lower than top 6 and our scrims and the amount of time we practice makes me feel confident.

Do you guys ever reveal too many strategies during scrims?

We have a lot of strategies prepared, I mean, we run more of our standard line-ups when we are feeling uncomfortable with the match, but we have a lot of unseen strategies. We don't often feel the need to bust them out.

The meta has been changing a lot since the recent balance updates. Are you a team that benefits from this or is it hard to adjust?

It took a lot of practice to adjust. It made us practice other strategies but we have a really good knowledge of this meta. It feels good for us.

What are the most underated and overrated heroes?

In NA, I think Li-Ming is a little overrated. She is really strong, but she is easily to punish. Especially pre 13 if she doesn't go teleport build- very easy to punish. Other overrated? Rehgar is OP and Stitches is really good. Those heroes are solid. I don't think any other heroes are overrated.

When it comes to underrated, I don't think many NA teams play Greymane. He is my favorite hero and he has really strong poke and assassination skills. You can really set the pace and engage on his E whenever. I think Chen is really underrated. He is a fantasic tank and can win a lot of lane matchups that other heroes simply can't.

Who you think the strongest player on your team is and why?

I still make mistakes as a top player but I just try to find what I did wrong and improve, not to be cocky, but I think i'm the best player on my team. Zoia of Tempo Storm said I was one of the secret best ranged carry players in the world even!

Would your team agree that you are the best player?

I think so, yeah. Also on my team, I feel like bkid is super strong.

How does Panda Global win? What does your team look like when operating on all cylinders?

It depends on who we are facing. Our rotations are strong and I think we can punish a team for every mistake they make. We win pretty easily once we get an advantage. Our secret is our strategies and once we execute them right. I don't think we lose when that happens.

For example, we have had trouble with Cho'gall before but we created a strategy for that. As long as we execute it, we won't lost.

How do you feel about not having a live audience for the Spring Championships?

It's a good thing because an audience can make you nervous, but it's also a bad thing because the audience is what hypes you the most! If you are winning and you know there is a live audience cheering it makes you want to win even harder. It hypes you up even more and you play much better. I'm not saying we have a ton of fans, but if you know they are out there, it motivates you.

If you have no audience, if you lose you just have to gather your thoughts and reset.

If you make it to the main event, what region do you think will be the most difficult?

Our team isn't particular scared of EU- they may be ahead in the meta but, mechanically EU isn't as strong as NA. Admittedly, we don't know much about China, and we know Korea is very strong. Those two regions will be difficult.