When we greet Ikzu, we catch him just before lunch. Some cereal and milk, and we are off. The 20-year-old from Katrineholm, Sweden, is an unemployed footballer and of course a Heroes of Newerth player.
- I have all the time in the world to play this great game and come up with new tactics, smiles Ikzu.
Heroes of Newerth is the only game he has fallen in love with, despite playing Counter-Strike and DotA before.
Ikzu (left) at a party with Loda (right)
TIPS & TRICKS
What kind of suggestions would you give a newcomer to Heroes of Newerth? Which hero should I start out with, what must I think differently compared to in DotA?
- First of all, you should always start with joining games with the name "Only noobs", that way you can hopefully dodge the flamers and ragers who might complain on your inexperienced play. Legionnare would be the easiest hero start out with in my opinion, he works exactly like Axe in DotA. The engine of the game ain't the same, the AI and path of the creeps aren't exactly the same either. These things you'll learn by playing.
What kind of suggestions would you give a newcomer to Heroes of Newerth? Which hero should I start out with, what must I think differently compared to in DotA?
- First of all, you should always start with joining games with the name "Only noobs", that way you can hopefully dodge the flamers and ragers who might complain on your inexperienced play. Legionnare would be the easiest hero start out with in my opinion, he works exactly like Axe in DotA. The engine of the game ain't the same, the AI and path of the creeps aren't exactly the same either. These things you'll learn by playing.
TEAM MATES TALK IKZU
Druidz.silas: Ikzu is a really great guy! He never starts whining, and he keeps the spirits up. Game-wise he is an overall strong player who knows how to play every hero. He's also handsome IRL!
Druidz.silas: Ikzu is a really great guy! He never starts whining, and he keeps the spirits up. Game-wise he is an overall strong player who knows how to play every hero. He's also handsome IRL!
Ikzu is the team captain for the Swedish organization Druidz's new team, which previously went under the name Sweets 2 you. After having played as a stand-in for KDe and Unique for some time, he reformed the lineup to find five players.
The team officially consists of Ikzu, Iskill, Velociraptor, Hubris and Silas. They have already made a mark in the HoN scene after beating B0SS in Honcast III.
- I feel that we do have a chance to pick up a fight with the top tier teams in the near future. Some of my players aren't used to meet teams as fiVe, FnaticMSI and KD-gaming but we're working on it and I have full faith in my guys, says Ikzu.
Loda to be undisclosed in Druidz
- I really like to speak my natural language in-game since it floats on much faster and it's easier to explain what's happening in-game and what I want my team mates to do. With the lineup announced yesterday, there is yet another undisclosed player: Jonathan "Loda" Berg.
Loda and Ikzu played together in ButtonBashers, the team that disbanded after some internal fights.
- We were on a great way to become the best team in the world, we were, at least in my opinion, the best team in Europe at the end. But the reason for our disbandment was because of the social skills, we had some fights inside the team and it ended with Fresh and kay leaving the team. With that major hit to our roster, I decided to disband the team.
Ikzu tells us that the reason Loda was not announced in the official release is because of some contract issues. Loda, who also plays DotA with Ducky's DreamTeam (DDT), will travel to DreamHack with the rest of the Druidz team, reveals Ikzu.
The team is given LAN and travel support at the moment, with no salaries involved.
"HoN has a lot smoother and faster gameplay"
While Ikzu wouldn't call his DotA experience as deep as team mate Loda, he was playing in the third division of DotA-League.com. He further say that his understanding of Heroes of Newerth has evolved into some thing completely more than his understanding for DotA ever was.
- I played DotA mostly for fun, smackdowning my IRL friends and so on. Comparing the two games, I would say that HoN has a lot smoother and faster gameplay. With that said, the tactics in DotA doesn't always work as well in HoN. HoN lacks a big enough hero pool. A lot of the tactics these days include the same heroes and there are some 'top tier' picks that almost always gets either picked or banned.
He agree to the masses that HoN still needs a lot more heroes and a better balance. Should there be more heroes available for competitive play, a lot more various tactics would be created.
There have been discussions on that there are no real 'supporter' heroes in HoN yet, and instead just 'gankers'. What kind of heroes do you feel is missing?
- Well there are a lot of heroes I do miss, but I don't play supporter roles that much and in DotA I mostly played carry roles so the supporter heroes aren't something I miss that much. Although my favorite hero fo all time, Kunkka, is missed. I love the gameplay and spells that character have and with a lot of skill you can do some really remarkable things with him.
What do you think of the new heroes available in the DEV mode? Gauntlet and Balphagore?
- I haven't tried them so much yet. The only hero I tried is Balphagore and he's a decent hero. Not imbalanced and not bad, you just need to have the right setup to make him work. Gauntlet I can't say much about, he seems nice but I still haven't had the time to try him out.
Anything else you want to mention before I'll let you go practice?
- Yes, I would like to thank Druidz for giving us this opportunity and also I would like to thank our sponsors Qpad and Gigabyte. I also want to give a shoutout to Budgi, Kicker, Mizha and Polisen!
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