Interview With Eonic, Exertus Smite Player

We sat down with Eonic, the support player for Exertus eSports SMITE, a team that has been on the rise for the last month in the competitive scene.  Exertus has achieved 3rd place or higher in the last 8 of 9 tournaments they have participated in.

Name: Sinjin “Eonic” Thorpe
Team: Exertus eSports
Role: Duo Lane Support
Twitch: twitch.tv/eonic
Twitter: @XTS_Eonic

 

So Eonic, how did you get into gaming, and what led you to playing SMITE?

Eonic: I’ve been playing video games since I was 7 and my parents bought me a gameboy.  Before I played Smite I used to play a lot of first person shooters, like Call of Duty.  My friend from school shared a Smite beta key with me last year, and I’ve been playing ever since.

 

When did you decide you wanted to get into the competitive scene?

Eonic: I’ve a very competitive person, so when I felt like I was good enough at the game, I tried to start my own team several times unsuccessfully back in november/december of 2012.

 

How did you finally break into the competitive scene?

Eonic: This is a pretty long story, actually.  Through my efforts to start a team I met my buddy EternalTact, who I would play on a couple casual teams with.  Through him I met my friend impsta.  The three of us basically spent 2-3 months playing together looking for others at a similar skill level to start a team with, but we never found anyone.  Eventually, one of impsta’s old counter-strike teammates, djpernicus, asked him to play on his team.  After impsta asked for me to be his support player, I ended up on the team as well.  Backfire did decently, we played in most of the Curse Monthly invitationals that were happening. Eventually Backfire disbanded and our mid player, Tocketty, joined what is now Reason Gaming.  After their support player left the team, I was asked to join RG.  Reason Gaming was pretty much my first “competitive” team.

 

What advice would you give to any aspiring competitive players?

Eonic: As much as I hate to say it, I think playing ranked and climbing your way up the ladder is the best way to get noticed by the top teams.  For example, Last Resort, a team that used to compete with the top 3 in August, was formed by Hero (a well-established competitive player) with 2 or 3 people who were top-ranked players and didn’t have any competitive experience.  Another example is Jjaja, who was one of the Top-Ranked players who got picked up by Team Mediocrity.  Now he players for COG, on the best teams in the North American Scene.

 

How did you decide you wanted to play support? Have you played any other roles in the past?

Eonic: I’ve been playing support since I started playing the game, pretty much.  I thought Sobek was overpowered so I started playing him a lot, eventually expanding to other supports.  Mid has also been my second-favorite position, I usually play mid when I play casually with my friends from school. When the 1-1-2 meta came about with the introduction of Bumba’s Mask, I started playing solo lane for RG.  Back then, the support role and the solo role were very similar to each other.  Most teams used to put only tanks and bruisers in the solo lane. I switched back to support when Wolfy joined the team.

 

Do you have any tips for support players looking to improve their game?

Eonic: I would say the most important thing is knowing your place in teamfights.  The tanks (most of the time) should be initiating the fight.  However, you can’t forget your responsibility to peel for your squishy mage/adc in the back.  Finding a good balance between the two is important.  Most of this comes with experience playing support, but it doesn’t hurt to ask your teammates what you could have done better and where you should be during teamfights.

 

How did you end up on your current team, Exertus eSports?

Eonic: I was kicked from RG in mid August.  The reasons I was given were because of personal issues going on at the time that stopped me from being online as much as I needed to be to prepare for the upcoming LAN tournament at PAX.  I’m not sure if performance was a factor as well.  I was asked a couple weeks later by BaRRaCCuDDa to join what was VishusNDelishus (we got our sponsorship later). After playing with them for about a week I became part of the roster.

 

What do you think Exertus needs to in order to break into the top 2 of Team Dignitas/COGnitive Gaming?

Eonic: To some extent, I think we’ve done that already.  We’ve beaten COG twice 2-0 in the finals, but we’ve never beaten Team Dignitas in a tournament game.  In order to reach that next level I think that the team needs to commit to calls made by our shot callers, Barra and Andi.  There’s been many times where we’ve lost fights because the team doesn’t commit to the call that was made.  We also need to become more consistent.  We’re the best team in North America when we’re in the right mindset, in my opinion.  If we can consistently be at the top of our game, we can definitely continue challenging DiG/COG.

 

Alright, to wrap this up let’s ask the classic question: If you could make a North American all-star team, who would you pick?

Eonic: Everyone on XTS, pretty much.

 

Alright, how about excluding XTS?

Eonic: I would definitely have Zapman on ADC.  I don’t think Allied or PainDeViande measure up to him when it comes to that role.  Support is much closer, I think Jjaja and ShadowQ are both very talented, but I think Jjaja has the edge there.  I would probably take Shing as my jungler, because uWonT (my mid player) isn’t scared of any jungler as much as he is of Shing… he practically wets his pants.  I think I would take Rushed as my solo laner, I think that he is one of the best 1v1 players in the solo lane, and he is very good at knowing when to rotate out of the lane and when to push.  Finally, I would take Tocketty as my mid player, because he’s 6’6”.

 

Is there anything else you want to say? Any shout-outs you want to make?

Eonic: Shout-outs to Dan and Logan, playing with them was awesome and helped make me into the player I am today.  Also to my friends Shak, Jake and Matt who got me into playing Smite.  Thanks as well to our sponsors End of Reality server hosting and TGN.