News
Interview with JayPL on DIG HOTS Top 4 Finish at the Blizzcon World Championship
Jerome "JayPL" Trinh is the Tank for the Team Dignitas Heroes of the Storm team, which made it to the top four in this year's world championship. After Blizzcon's conclusion, Dignitas's Novalas found JayPL for a quick interview.
Hey Team Dignitas Fans, I'm here after Blizzcon 2016 and here with me is JayPL, Tank Player for Team Dignitas's Heroes of the Storm Team. So, tell me, how did you enjoy the event?
JayPL: The event was pretty good, like, as last year, it's something just marvelous, it's just a dream to be here. Every time, the crowd, the event is just fantastic.
Did you see all the announcements, especially for Heroes of the Storm, the new map, the two new heroes? What did you think about all of them?
JayPL: I actually didn't see them. Yeah, I didn't watch the news, I was just focused on my game, so I didn't check, sorry.
Not a big deal, but I'm sure you're probably going to be into them a lot after you check them out after the event. So, talk to me, you had a great run in this tournament, got into the top 4, which was expected; unfortunately, you got kicked out in the semi-finals against Ballistix. Talk to me about what went wrong in that series.
JayPL: I think, as I said at the beginning, with the team, if we don't have an equal draft, we'll probably lose...and this is what happened. I think every match we lost was because of the draft. Otherwise, as you can see, we won one match, it was kind of easy, and it was when we outdrafted them. But yeah, just mainly the draft.
So was the result something that was expected based on your experience in Korea, when you bootcamped against them?
JayPL: Yeah, I mean we always try good on the draft and sadly, we didn't figure out what they wanted, and what we wanted, and we just drafted badly. We just didn't make it on this, sadly.
Talk to me about this, then: as a European team, do you expect that in the future, at future events, and at future Blizzcons, do you think it will be possible for you to make the gods - AKA the Korean teams - be able to bleed?
JayPL: I think for now it will be kind of hard, because at the moment we are still kind of weak, and we don't have the players or the teams to train very good; I think in Europe we've got a high chance, as we can see we had one team that went to the final, and us who went to the semifinal. So yeah, I definitely think that next year we will be able to beat them.
Speaking of that, since Fnatic did make it to the finals, were you surprised that they managed to beat MVP Black, or was that an expected result?
JayPL: I seriously thought they would lose against MVP Black, for sure. The whole tournament they had kind of bad series, the players didn't play that good, but suddenly they got a chance against MVP Black; MVP Black was a bit shaky, and they just punished them. Yeah, surprisingly, on the last day, they played incredibly good, and I respect them for that.
So now that Blizzcon is done, how do you expect 2017 to go?
JayPL: I think 2017 will completely change, because obviously there will be more splits without Asian [teams], so I think we can definitely win all of our Western championship, and I think again we will just focus on Blizzcon and the global against Koreans, and I think we can definitely make it.
Would you prefer that there be even more Heroes tournaments to participate in, or do you think that what's going on right now, the international competitions, is enough?
JayPL: What's going on right now, I think it's fine for next year. Obviously this year, it felt like every month we were going to an event, and actually it's really tiring at some points. I mean, CS:GO is doing it, but let's say we are not robots like them, we are humans. It's different and I think it will be better. I need to check out next year, which way we will go.
Anything else you'd like to say to the fans?
JayPL: Yeah, thanks, for everyone. Just thanks.
Be sure to follow JayPL on all of his various social media, check out Team Dignitas, and be sure to follow our Heroes of the Storm team next year!