Formerly under the Fnatic banner, Team REUNITED.gg has been playing FPS games together for a long time. We ask them about their brand, their style, and their future in Overwatch.
You’re now the team formerly known as Fnatic. What can you tell us about how the Fnatic deal came about, and how and why it ultimately ended?
Morte: We were with Fnatic for over two years, basically ‘silently’ transforming into their Overwatch team. However with our expectations for Overwatch not being on the same page yet we couldn’t justify staying without a solid offer on the table. This might seem like a crazy move who in their right mind would leave Fnatic, right? But we have so much confidence in the potential of Overwatch that creating our own brand just feels like the right move. Regardless, I’m pretty sure all big organizations will be acquiring teams relatively soon, they just don’t want to jump the gun too quickly.
2Easy: There is not really much to say about it, there was no real offer on the table yet. So we decided [to form REUNITED.gg] instead of waiting to create something we had been considering for a long time already. I think everyone can agree it’s a good starting point to be an independent entity in an upcoming eSports title with such potential.
Do you think it was too early to ‘brand’ a team considering the beta state of Overwatch?
Morte: Obviously not, else we wouldn’t have gone down this path. I guess it’s a pretty risky move but big things start with someone taking a chance on something. Building a brand takes time & waiting for the ‘perfect’ moment is not the correct move in our opinion when would this moment even be?
2Easy: Nothing more to add.
Now you’re under the moniker, REUNITED.gg Can you tell us what inspired this name?
2Easy: Well basically three players Winghaven, Huggos and stefan, that we have played with in the past returned to form a new team for Overwatch with us. For example, Morte and I won the Brink Championship at GamesCom together with stefan and Winghaven back in 2012. Although Winghaven never really left (he has always stayed around) we do really feel reunited,
on top of Brink he also played Battlefield 3 with us for a long time. Last but not least we have our manager Huggos that played Enemy Territory: Quake Wars together with vallutaja back in 2007 where they won multiple titles, including Quakecon!
@Huggos:?You’re a new addition to the team, only coming to the team after they became REUNITED.gg. What is your role within the team? What does an eSports manager and agent do?
Huggos: My job is basically to ensure that the players only have to worry about being the best in the game. This means that I have to take care of partnerships, external communication, daily operations and much more.
Morte: He irons my shirts and fetches me drinks whenever I’m thirsty.
I really like to play Kings Row. It’s a pretty straight forward map but it seems you always get close and exciting matches on it ... it’s like the de_dust2 of Overwatch.
What drew you to this specific team?
Huggos: Many years ago I used to play competitively myself together with vallutaja. We have stayed in contact ever since and over the course of these past years he has introduced me to other guys. That’s why I know all of them and their mentality very well. Therefore it was not a hard choice to make when I got handed the opportunity to join this group of amazing individuals on this new adventure in a game with such an enormous amount of (eSports) potential.
Morte: TL?DR He knows what’s what ?)
@2Easy:?It seems you are player on REUNITED who switches heroes most often? from offtanks to assassins. How would you define your roles within the roster?
2Easy: We haven’t really figured out the defined roles in our team yet to be completely honest. When we got access to the beta we basically just assigned roles/heroes to everyone instantly and just went with that. We wanted to learn the basic mechanics of the game and work on our teamwork as fast as possible, meaning we didn’t really look at what individual could really excel in a certain role or hero. It happened to be that vallutaja and me were the two guys that were assigned this flexible role, so to say. All I am trying to say is that we haven’t really set in stone what roles we will end up playing. When the beta comes back up we might have totally different roles than we had, even if it’s just so we all get a better understanding of the game as a whole.
?You’re one of the few people still constantly running Tracer? where do you think her strengths lie in the current meta?
2Easy: When I got access to the beta I played her almost every match, I just played her to learn the hero and she was my ‘main’. However, after a while I started noticing that she wasn’t that strong of a pick if you play against organized teams with a good team composition. In my opinion her strength mainly lies to be an annoyance in the back line or for example shutting down a Zenyatta. Basically there are way better picks to do her job.
@2Easy: ?Of the all the offclassing you do? who do you feel is your best hero?
2Easy: Because I had to switch heroes so much I find myself pretty average with all the heroes I played. If I had to pick my best hero right now it would have to be Tracer.
What is your favorite map & why?
2Easy: Even though we are not really good at the map, I really like to play Kings Row. It’s a pretty straight forward map but it seems you always get close and exciting matches on it.
Morte: Probably King's Row, just because it’s like the de_dust2 of Overwatch.
Who is your favorite Overwatch player not on the REUNITED.gg roster?
Morte: To be honest, I don’t really have a favorite. I like focusing on myself and my team mostly!
2Easy: NicoGDH, because it’s so easy to get into his head.
You’ve struggled against the North American teams, Hubris and NotEnigma. Is their play style different than what you’re used to playing against? or are your struggles attributable to some other cause?
Melty is a great team and at the moment they are the best in Europe. I would describe them as a team that doesn’t really rely on their aim or individual skill but more on tactics and teamwork
2Easy: No, I wouldn’t say their style is different. It’s just that they are a bit ahead in terms of meta, what to use and what not in certain situations. It is true that we have struggled a bit but I think that is mainly because they had roughly three more weeks of beta access and so got quite a bit more experience in the game as a team. I am pretty sure that EU teams will catch up really quick to the NA teams purely because there is / will be way more competition in Europe.
Within your region, Melty is clearly your biggest rival. So far they’ve gotten the best of you, but recently the matchups have been much closer. Tell us your opinions on Melty as a team, and what you’re going to have to do to finally beat them.
2Easy: Melty is a great team and at the moment they are the best in Europe. I would describe them as a team that doesn’t really rely on their aim or individual skill but more on tactics and teamwork. Against Melty we have gone from getting totally destroyed in the first week to winning a BO3 and almost winning a BO5 in the last week. I would definitely say that we posses more individual skill and raw talent so it won’t take that long before we will beat them in a fashionable manner.
Your team has the reputation as a group of players who are ‘grinders’, who will really put the hours in as a team to get better. How extensive is your practice schedule, and what are you doing during the Overwatch hiatus to improve as a team?
Huggos: The roster is used to adapting to new games, they have done that multiple times with great success. We do, because of this, believe that we know what it takes to master a game and rise above the competition and that does include playing a lot, primarily 8+ hours a day, 7 days a week. It has to be said however that just putting a lot of hours into the game is not enough, you also have to be smart about it and constantly reevaluate and shuffle stuff around to keep the learning curve steep.
2Easy: If you want to be the best you have to grind it out. This applies to everything in life and not only gaming. You just have to put hours and hours in it, this is the only way to fully master something. Just to give you an insight in our practice schedule, for the three weeks we were in beta we averaged around eight hours per day.
With Overwatch Phase II right around the corner, what can we expect from REUNITED.gg in 2016?
Huggos: We will continue to catch up to the current top teams, who all had beta access for a few more weeks than us. We also wish to add (the currently missing) "BlizzCon Champion" to our track record. We really hope to see Blizzard announcing something in that regard soon ?)
Morte: Big things…
2Easy: I don’t know, it’s all still in a pretty early phase. It all depends whether or not we can find support for REUNITED.gg. The only thing I can say for sure is that we will win (a lot of) tournaments!
Any last shout outs?
Huggos: We dont have any official sponsors to thank yet, so for now we would just love to invite the community to follow and join us on our journey moving forward at http://twitter.com/reunitedgg – we basically won't get anywhere with REUNITED.gg without
support from the community, so we hope that you guys will continue to support us even though we are not under the Fnatic name anymore.
Morte: We’d like to thank everyone who still supports us even after leaving Fnatic. Knowing we have real fans backing our move really means alot to us!
Find more information on REUNITED at Reunited.gg, and follow the members on Twitter.
@REUNITED.gg, @Vallutaja_, @TwoEasy_, @ezstefan, @uNFixeddd, @Mortie_, @Winghahaven, @Huggos_
Follow us @GosuOverwatch for more eSports news.
