morpheuZ, a chat about the HoN Super Series

I recently got the chance to interview Andreas "morpheuZ" Schaetzke, the Head Admin of the HoN Super Series, Chief Marketing/PR Officer for KD-Gaming, and former manager of diamondZ.DotA. After my-liga.de announced the HSS as the "first international HoN league," I chatted with Andreas to find out more information on what could become the "official" HoN league.

I don't know much about the German scene, what's the history behind my-liga.de? Has it always been involved with HoN?

My-liga.de was a league for consoles, especially Xbox and PS3. We are a German team, so it's currently a German site and URL, but after great feedback and good development, we are actually creating a new, big site for PC and consoles. In the future, we also want to present most of our leagues in the English language. HoN is the first PC title, but we will soon add other titles!”

The HoN Super Series claims to be the first international HoN league. Do you think that you'll get a good turnout from teams outside of Europe (North & South America, Asia, etc.)?

When we created the league, our first idea was to make it really different from the ESL or other leagues. I think a good league needs to be really well-customized to the community and teams. The other thing is that we are working with S2 Games to build it as the "official" HoN league. So we will build up special divisions for the fun teams and "non-professional" players. Then, we will release some new things: we want to run the seasons for around one year, not like most leagues do for a half. With the opening cup and the first season, we will try one model of the league. If we have some discrepancies or heavy problems, we will change to a different type.”

If I'm correct, the HSS has 3 divisions: Premier, Amateur, Third. Will teams be able to move up or down at all during the year-long season?

That's the first model we have chosen. A Premier league with all the best teams from Europe and America. We're also trying to arrange it with the Asian players, but we are waiting on S2 and their solution. The Amateur Division will add the upcoming top teams and other rising teams. The Third will be an open ladder that every team can join and try to claim a spot in the leagues. But on the other hand, we will try to find different solutions for the non-professional teams, like some cup series and other events.”

Will you be setting up any live-streaming or casting for the HSS?

Mhmm, actually, we want to work with Honcast. Then, we want to release interesting matches with S2 Games. But if the league grows, we will try to support the streaming of it in our own way.”

I don't know how much you have planned yet, but when will the first season start, if you're able to give me a date? Obviously, after the opening tourney is completed.

Yeah, I think we are gonna start the cup around February 6th - 13th. So after the cup, we need one or two weeks to set it all up. I would say in April we will start the HoN Super Series.”

I wanted to ask you about the major re-balancing patch that S2 has planned with feedback from pro players. Do you think this is a good idea or not?

I've known the game and scene now for about three years. Like in DotA, Icefrog did it; I think S2 has chosen the best way, to involve professional players. This game lives on good balance and many ways of using the heroes and strategies. And no one knows that better, as the pro players are geeks (don't be angry about that now :D)!”

So if the game goes through some drastic changes, do you think the best teams will remain on top? Or will it become more of an even playing field?

That's a really interesting question. It could be like in DotA: big changes in the game resulted in drastic changes with the leading teams. DotA is a farm-game if you look at Chinese or Asian players. And HoN is, in my opinion, more focused on team-play and interaction between the players. In addition, HoN also has so many strategies, so I would say that every team could hold their position with some practice and enough game experience. Mostly, the changes apply to the picks and laning, so we will see!”

I know that it's a lot more complicated than hosting online events, but are you hoping for LAN events in the future ever for the HoN Super Series?

Yeah, I've been waiting for that question. I can tell you it's very probable that we will have offline finals for the first season. Actually, I am talking with some locations and organizations for events; we will update this in the running season.”

Thanks very much for your time, anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you too! I hope we can bring a new movement to the whole HoN scene. Don't be to fast with your judgment about the league, we want to hold on and fit the HSS to the players and community in the best way we can!”




Links
honss.my-liga.com - Official site of the HSS
facebook.com - HSS on Facebook
gosugamers.net - HSS announcement + teaser video