Three of Team fiVe talk HoN

Interview by Ethan "Z3ph" Holleran

Let’s get a little background on your competitive gaming experience. Which games have you played at the competitive gaming level, and to what results?

Bdiz: I don't really have that much competitive gaming experience. I played a season of CAL-O CS:S a few years ago and that hardly (counts) as experience at all. As far as DotA experience goes, I played it on and off for a few years. I'm also a former WoW Gladiator and that doesn't really count for much either because Gladiator is an easily achievable feat.

China (pictured): Sorry, I'm not Testie. :b Was a big pubstar in them high-level Garena rooms, but hey, a pub is a pub.

Tabako: HoN is the only game that I've been able to play at the very top competitive level. I had obviously played dota before switching to HoN, but never managed to compete at the top level. I have spent some time thinking about why I suceeded in hon where I failed in dota, and I think there are a few reasons for the difference. A lot of it has to do with the players I have been able to surround myself in the two games. Because I was invited into the hon beta so early, I have been one of the top competitors from the start. Being able to play against the best competition really helped drive me to improve as a player. Having good teammates who are playing a ton and striving to improve is also crucial in improving ones play. While I liked and enjoyed playing with the team I played dota with, there were some serious talent and dedication gaps between them and my team in hon. Testie in particular has been hugely important. Despite a number of roster changes, he has always been there playing a ton and anchoring the team. Secondly, I've really been able to dedicate a ton of time to play HoN over the past 6 months or so. I graduated from college this month and only took 3 credits my final semester, and spent a huge amount of my free time playing HoN. Talent is certainly important in dota/hon but I think people really underestimate how crucial it is to just play as much as possible. Of course, not having to play against maphackers in tournaments helps too. Besides dota and hon I've made a small amount of money playing poker, but there hasn't been any other games I've really competed at the top level in.

HoN has recently transitioned from the beta phase into a full-fledged retail game. Do you think HoN was ready for retail? What does S2 need to do in order to ensure that HoN will flourish as an e-sport?

Bdiz: I think HoN was both ready and not ready for retail. In terms of game play and the amount of heroes that were both ported and created by S2, I'd say it was definitely ready for retail, however I would've really liked them to fix the game crashes which happen occasionally when you load into a game, they're super annoying. Also, I think that S2 has done a fabulous job thus far ensuring that HoN will flourish as an e-sport by sponsoring tournaments, aswell as partnering up with huge DotA sites (MYM/GosuGamers). As long as they keep following the same model that they have already, and we don't have anymore HunteR_ fiasco's I think HoN will become evermore popular in the e-sports world.

China: More ports, namely Beastmaster/Kunkka. Personal favorite is Centaur. Soul Ring too. Need that item.

Tabako: I think HoN has been ready for retail for a while now. Despite some people complaining that it isn't ready, I think they don't understand that there will always be some bugs being ironed out and new content on the horizon, and eventually the studio just has to release the game. S2 is doing what they need to do to make HoN work as an e-sport, which is have high profile tournaments.

There was a fairly popular thread on the HoN forums that called out Overrated/Underrated players, were any of you surprised to be mentioned in the thread?

Bdiz: I don't read that much into most posts on the forums, as it's mostly just trolls. However I think one thing that the entire community can take away from that thread is that Tabako is extremely overrated.

China: Well, I've played Vindicator/Glacius/Hellbringer a fair bit and have gotten PMs from 'fans' about it. In the end, its a ***** role that doesn't get much glory - Afterall, you're not getting frags. Background support never get as much fame as offensive support/initiators/gankers & lastly, carries.

Tabako: I wasn't surprised to see people from my team listed in that thread. When reading the threads on the forum you have to take everything with a grain of salt. Its almost like people talking about professional sports. They'll repeat something they heard from somebody else in a tone that implies they know a lot about the game, in order to sound like they know what they are talking about, even if the're knowledge is very limited. And when you start throwing around words like overrated and underrated, whose very definitions are based on the perception of how skilled a player is, its pretty easy to justify whatever position you want. That said, I suspected I would personally be mentioned in the overrated/underrated thread, because I had been mentioned quite a bit in the "top 3 players" thread. If I had even been one of the top 3 players in the world when that thread was made, I wouldn't say I am anymore, so I understand being called overrated when going by that.

Stemming from that thread some nicknames were given out, what do you guys think about ‘Killstealing China, Public Player Bdiz, and Feeder Tabako’? Do you guys enjoy the back and forth trash talk between the top-tier players and some forum members?

Bdiz: We all take it in good fun, except for Tabako's nickname you have there. It's gotta be Rambo Tabako because all he does is tunnel-vision the kill and dive at all costs ignoring the risks associated to get that kill! I think we all enjoy the trash talking that does go on because we don't take any of it seriously, its all jokes.

China: Of course. Bdiz really is a public player though.

Tabako: I don't think too much about the nicknames that get given out on the forums, and don't particular care for the people trolling the threads in the competive chat forums. I do, however, very much enjoy the back and forth trash talk with players from other top teams. bkid is easily my favorite to troll, but sometimes it feels like I'm picking on too easy a target ;)

With the most recent patch from S2 featuring a port of Puck from DotA, what hero would you most like to see ported from DotA?

Bdiz: The one hero that I've been dying to see ported is Morphling, he's one of the heroes that I really enjoyed playing in DotA, and I'd love to see him come over to HoN.

China: Beastmaster.

Tabako: Puck is a great addition and I look forward to seeing more heroes ported over. Theres a ton of heroes I'd like to see ported over, so I'll just pick one of each attribute: morphling, centaur, and pugna.

If you could have any 5 heroes from the current available pool on one team, which 5 heroes would you select and why?

Bdiz: Accursed, Jeraziah, Soul Reaper, Demented Shaman and Voodoo Jester. What's more boring than a 5 healer team when you literally cannot kill anyone . :D

China: SR/Accursed/Defiler/Engi/Mag.

SR/Accursed = Defensive pair which is really tough to crack unless they fall out of position at level 1. Also susceptible to -mana skills. Outside of that, it basically gives freefarm to SR, one of the stronger heroes in the game.

Engi/Mag = More offensive pair. At level 3 Magmus can easily line up stuns and Engineer can follow. Engineer also synergizes quite well with Defiler, and is a great hero overall - Can gank/carry/support just fine.

Defiler = Solo middle, for obvious reasons.

As you can see, 3 carries 2 support, but also great presence in the early/mid, which doesn't dampen in the slightest late. That doesn't mean it's perfect - I'm sure great play as well as counterpicks can cope at least moderately well. It's a solid lineup though.

Tabako: Theres a lot of viable choices for this question but I'd pick a team whose pushing power would be unable to stop, such as: Hellbringer, engineer, slither, chipper, ophelia.

Do you have any points that you enjoy or dislike about the current metagame?

Bdiz: I actually am enjoying the shift in the metagame right now from being push oriented into now being a bit more gank heavy, it makes for a lot more interesting and entertaining games. One thing that I dislike, although its not exactly part of the metagame, is the strength of engineer. He's way too versatile and powerful and I'd like to see him scaled down a bit.

China: It's far more balanced than it used to be - A lot of lineups are viable, and its just that some heroes are lacking. Namely things like Electrician or Nymphora. It's far more interesting than the days of banning Plague/DS though. Once 4 bans gets placed into BP, you can expect far more interesting lineups, IMO.

Tabako: The current meta is pretty enjoyable for the most part. Theres always going to be some imbalances, but I think S2 has been doing a good job of maintaining a semblance of balance and keeping the game fun. Maybe its slightly too easy to push outer towers down due to a number of certain heroes, but this is a minor concern.

With many larger tournaments on the horizon, what can we expect from Team 5 in terms of success?

Bdiz: Complete domination due to Testie's solo-mid pyromancer of course.

China: KDe is looking quite strong with their addition of Mania. LOAD isn't a team to snuff, and I don't remember the last time we've played MSI, but they did beat us I think. Speaking for these 4 teams, you can expect us all to do well - But think of each team as part of the whole rock < paper < scissors thing right now. There's no definite best, but we'll all have some measure of success.

Tabako: You can expect Team fiVe to stay near the top. We've never come close to disbanding due to slumps or roster changes, and I think we'll be able to maintain that trend and continue to win tournaments.

Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions guys, any final remarks or shoutouts?

Bdiz: I've got a few shoutouts. Shoutout to [tSm]Chow for creating the Public Player Bdiz meme. Shoutout to both hillsburrito and penisbird for being awesome. Shoutout to the man behind the scenes at hongossip, everything you say about Katsie is 100% accurate. Shoutout to NerdStomper.com which will be launching around the weekend of June 4th to coincide with MLG Columbus! Be sure to check it out for instructional videos created by myself aswell as other HoN pros!

China: I don't know why this was so serious. Shoutout to all the [Lady]s.

Tabako: I would like to thank hanni for carrying me in a europub yesterday, that is all.