Dignitas comes into Katowice hopeful recent roster changes have them ready to take down the other top European teams. The day before tournament play began players Bakery and Snitch took some time out of their schedule to talk to us not only about the state of their team and the current meta headed into Katowice.
How do you compare the build up to this event compared to last event? Loss of big players and rebuilding?
Bakery: In terms of preparation for this event we have been much better. One of the big issues last time is that our preparation was not really up to par with what the other teams did. We are putting a lot of effort into that this time. Not coming off of as much hype this time. Last time coming off the win of Enter The Storm, this time we did not get to play. We were fan favorites last time. A lot different from last time but think it is a lot better for us.
Snitch: I would not say we’re a dark horse but its more along those lines. We think we will do well. Interesting coming in this time without the pressure and the hype of last time, seeing how we perform now.
Did you learn a lot from all the behind the scenes stuff over the last few months?
Bakery: Yes I learned a lot. I think the biggest thing that we had with the lineup we formed after BlizzCon, was that we didn’t really respect communication and team interaction very much.
I think the biggest thing that we had with the lineup we formed after BlizzCon, was that we didn’t really respect communication and team interaction very much.
We were friends but that didn’t mean much once we got into the game. With this lineup I focused a lot on trying to build a lineup that had great communication and synergy in game and I feel like I’ve been pretty successful. We’re getting along in game as well as out of game. There were a lot of lessons to learn from what we did.
Do you get support from Dignitas in terms running the team or is it up to you for making decisions?
Bakery: Dignitas is, I think I can probably say, the best org so far I have worked with when it comes to managing the teams. They have always been working through solutions with us, always advising us what to do and I think because of that we have actually turned out with a very nice roster.
So have you had enough time to build up good team synergy? Do you think you have already reached the limits or do you think there is room to grow with the roster?
Snitch: I don’t think I’d say we are anywhere near our limits. I think we’ve reached a good level of communication. Like Bakery said, communication is a very big strong point for this team. This is a team where I’ve never spoken as much, and I’ve never had everyone else speak as much as any team I’ve played with before.
This is a team where I’ve never spoken as much, and I’ve never had everyone else speak as much, as any team I’ve played with before.
So it’s a big jump. It’s one of those things you don’t realize how little we used to talk until suddenly everybody’s talking all the time. So I think right now we are in a really good place but I don’t think we’re anywhere near our peak.
Is it the plan to keep this roster for as long as possible? After this event, and after Korea perhaps? Is it like the plan to build up the synergy or do you think there is a chance that you will be changing players again?
Bakery: I think that definitely depends on our performance at this event. If things go awfully then obviously we’ll look into changes. If things go well, so let’s say semis, then I don’t think we’ll see any changes. If we make it to Seoul then we definitely wont see any changes.
Looking forward what do you expect from this event, anything crazy or just what we saw last weekend for the NA regionals?
Snitch: I think there will be a lot more closer games here than NA. I mean NA was closer than it normally is, I think it will be similar here. Where the group stage will probably be quite close, everybody will want to hide things they want to use later in the tournament. As we get further in, there will be teams ripping out strategies they have had prepared. So I think a lot of the games will be close and it will be about who can adapt in the later rounds a lot more.
Is the new patch as annoying as everybody thinks it is or because it’s so minor it doesn’t really affect drafting and preparation?
Snitch: It’s definitely frustrating. You could say it’s minor, but it’s nerfing the most broken hero in the game. So it’s difficult to call it minor at that point when it takes him down from obviously tier 1 could even be like tier 2 maybe even further down in priority. A lot of teams, we have had to guess how effective he is going to be, and I think that might have an impact on drafts where teams will have to guess on the performance that he’ll show at this event and kind of draft around that.
Do you think people will underestimate the nerfs to Rehgar and still pick him instead of other heroes that are better?
Snitch: I think it is definitely possible that there will be a lot of underestimating him, but maybe if you don’t prioritize him enough it could hurt you as well.
What do you think about Li-Ming this weekend? Because EU hasn’t played Li-Ming as much as NA perhaps do you think we will see a lot of Li-Ming this weekend?
Bakery: I think one of the biggest issues with EU teams and Li-Ming is that a lot of the players who would be playing Li-Ming just cannot understand how to play her.
I think one of the biggest issues with EU teams and Li-Ming is that a lot of the players who would be playing Li-Ming just cannot understand how to play her.
That’s not really meant as flame, but like we see a lot of builds that don’t really make sense, and we see a lot of players that leave themselves to vulnerable where they get caught in the front line. Although we didn’t see her at ETS I think we will definitely see a lot of her at this event but I’m not sure it will be as common as in NA.
Will we see Greymane more than Li-Ming?
Bakery: I think depending on which teams are playing Greymane will be high priority or slightly lower.
The stats from last weekend where Li-Ming was the highest win rate, like 75%, and Rehgar had like 100% pick/ban. So you don’t think he is going to be 100% pick/ban anymore?
Bakery: I think there are some situations where Rehgar is not better than any two other supports. That would be Tassadar and Monk [Kharazim]. So I think it is definitely plausible we will see a few games without Rehgar. But in general situation I think he is probably going to be 100% pick/ban.
So you feel he should be nerfed a little bit more?
Snitch: I’m not sure if I’d say that. I think he’s in a fairly fine place right now. A lot of people are switching to the totem build, which was kind of gaining popularity, when he didn’t have a good lighting shield target. With the lighting shield build he can’t really get away with that, and that was his main problem is that with it the front line tanks could just stand on your team and with heroes like Illidan he was just getting ridiculous. I think with the root build he’s still a strong healer and, like Bakery said, he still will get picked but I don’t think he pushes the boundaries of what you should be able to do like he did with the lightning shield build.
So it’s not like Uther before where he just had to be nerfed because he was always first priority?
Bakery: I think at the moment Rehgar is in a very good sport as is Tassadar and Kharazim. It’s just the other healers are really underwhelming and they have their weaknesses which are too easily exploited by too many heroes. So I think there definitely needs to be some buffs to heroes like Brightwing and Uther and maybe even Malf, I think his offensive tools could be stronger.
You don’t want to see Lili eventually be competitively viable?
Bakery: I think it’s not the right mentality for every single hero to be competitively viable. I think Lili is very much a hero who is going to always be easy to play and very easy to get the most out of but is never going to really be the top pick in competitive.
Do you know DTheHunter? Do you use his stat sheets to analyze events or teams?
Snitch: I guess on some level yeah. I don’t specifically seek them out but I’ll look at a lot of the infographics where people pull the stats from him.
Bakery: I actually look at some of his things and I analyze trends mostly. But the big issue is there is not too big of a sample size of games so the statistics themselves are never really very useful.
Do you think it will eventually be important for teams to have analysts or do you think the scene will have to grow a lot more before that is the case?
Bakery: I think it’s at the point right now where a team that gets a solid analyst will actually have a big advantage, not so much, will actually have a small advantage over teams.
Do you think that’s something you might be interested as well?
Bakery: Picking up an analyst you mean? Yes of course.
Any shoutouts to sponsors or streams?
Bakery: As I mentioned earlier shout outs to OD along with of course Team Dignitas and all of our sponsors. Also a shoutout to our fans who have stood with us through this difficult time and of course my fans.
Snitch: Definitely a shout out to the fans. There are a lot of people who are upset with how the European scene has been changing a lot recently so it’s nice to have people who are still there. I mean even if you are following Athero and Schwimpi on other teams that’s cool too, it’s cool to see people sticking to players. Shout out to our sponsors and Team Dignitas.
Dignitas will start their fight for Spring Champions Saturday at 1200 CET where they will face Natus Vincere in their first group stage match.
Follow @GosugamersHotS for all the European Spring Regional updates!
