Interview with Bakery on Korean bootcamp and Blizzcon

The time has come! Finally we will see the best Heroes of the Storm teams from all over the world battle it out at Blizzcon. Amongst the teams fighting for the title as Blizzcon World Champions is our guys from Dignitas. After their bootcamp in Korea, they are now in LA doing the last preparation before their games begin. We had a chance to ask Bakery about some of his thoughts leading into the tournament.

Last year Team Dignitas made it to the Grand Final at Blizzcon, do you think that this experience at the biggest stage in the scene gives you an advantage over the teams consisting of players who did not compete last year?

Bakery: I think individually, there's always an advantage to more stage experience, but we have changed so much as a team, and our dynamic is so different, that I don't think we really have that big an advantage in that regard.

Can you feel a difference on the team after bootcamping in Korea compared to bootcamping in the Katowice Gaming House (Poland)?

Bakery: That's a difficult one to answer, because we would never know what our team would look like if we had bootcamped in Europe, but I can say for sure that the facilities that were available in Korea were fantastic - far better than anything we have used before. The practice room PCs were very spaced out (which allowed us to have our own personal space, as well as crowd around one PC for a replay or draft) and the room itself had a whiteboard, a projector, and a table full of food, drinks and snacks that the bootcamp staff would provide. Each individual room had a fully featured kitchen, including a microwave, fridge, freezer and stove.

So far we have seen most of the Global Championships develop their own new meta, do you think this will happen again at Blizzcon? And if so, are you prepared for it, or are you going to stick to the plan around your comfort picks?

Bakery: I think a huge reason why both Cloud9 and Tempest were able to win their respective World Championships was because of their flexibility and adaptation to the meta across the tournament. Since we currently have a meta that straddles the line in between EU and Korea, I think that we are in a great position to adapt as the tournament progresses.

Do you think that Team Dignitas is a serious contender for the Blizzcon Championship title this time, after looking back at a year where you have won 4 out of 5 European Regionals, and being the only western team to win a match against one of the Chinese or Korean teams in the latest Global Championship in Sweden?

Bakery: It is true that our domestic results have been arguably the strongest in the world, but domestic success means very little on the Global stage. I so think that we have a chance to win this tournament, but to put us in the same slot as Ballistix or MVP Black would be too far I think.

Considering that your team is able to flex pick heroes between 2-3 guys (JayPL playing melee assassins, Athero playing Tracer, Snitch playing Tassadar and Medivh, and having 2 players be able to play warriors at the highest level), do you think that the addition of Athero to the roster has made your draft even stronger than it was before?

Bakery: Honestly, I think this is something that hurt us at first. This kind of flexibility sounds great in theory, and at first we were excited for it, but over time we realized that it was splitting the practice time on key Heroes, and we were losing a lot because of that. We have a much more rigid structure in our frontline now, but I think we have retained the flexibility in our hero pools.

Are there any other teams you are concerned about facing other than the obvious Chinese and Koreans? Or do you feel confident that Europe has moved up amongst the top regions in competitive Heroes?

Bakery: I think Fnatic is definitely a concern for us, since they are a team that has a great understanding of the distinction between being the better team and being the team that wins the series. Having said that, if we are able to react appropriately to anything they pull out, I think we can deal with them quite easily.

And a funny little question to wrap up the interview, have any of the guys on the team made any promises if you should win the tournament? Like shaving their head or stuff like that?

Bakery: I think Athero actually said something in Twitch chat that he really does regret. I think the exact quote was something like "if we win Blizzcon, my hair is going Khaldor style".

Thanks for the interview, do you have any shoutouts to your fans and sponsors?

Bakery: As always, thank you very much for interviewing me! I'd also like to give a shoutout to Team Dignitas and all of our sponsors, and urge people to follow me on TheNexusGG! Finally a shoutout to our fans, and I urge any of you who are at Blizzcon to please come up to us unless we look particularly busy, we always love to meet fans! We'll try our hardest for you!