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Interview with Athero on DIG HOTS Top 4 Finish at the Blizzcon World Championship
Lawrence "Athero" Harper is the melee flex player 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 Athero for a quick interview.
Hey Youtube and Team Dignitas fans, I'm here after Blizzcon 2016 and here with me is Athero, melee flex player for Team Dignitas' Heroes of the Storm team. So, talk to me about how this Blizzcon has been so far!
Athero: Blizzcon's pretty good, second time being here, it never ceases to amaze me how many people turn up, and how hard it is to get in.
Talk to me about your adventure here! You've had a great showing at the tournament, top 4 finish, so first off, the series against Astral Authority: You guys did an amazing job there, talk to me about that series: what went right there?
Athero: The starter series we thought, yeah, we should have this, but there's always the pressure of NA vs. EU, stuff like that. They got a little bit of an early lead, they killed me a couple of times, but I think our strong mid-to-late-game draft and teamfight was too much for their comps.
Despite the NA vs EU thing, the crowd was behind you guys. How did that feel, being in North America for Blizzcon 2016, but more than half the crowd was cheering for Dignitas! How did that feel?
Athero: It's always great, coming to an event with the majority of the crowd cheering for you. It definitely helps for showing up, and how we play; it definitely improves our play.
Talk to me about the series against Please Buff Arthas; it was supposedly going to be a little more difficult, a lot of people were concerned about it; Talk to me about that; I mean, you guys borderline demolished them in that series as well.
Athero: We prepped a lot for that because we didn't know exactly how well they would play; they almost beat Fnatic, they almost beat quite a lot of teams, so we were like "we can't underestimate them". We definitely stepped up as a team, and it looked easy, but we played really well that series.
It was definitely a great job by you guys! So, prior to Blizzcon, you were in Korea bootcamping in the Korea Hero League ladder and just trying to practice there. So talk to me about that, you played against Ballistix and MVP Black, and then you ended up playing against Ballistix in the tournament, and were unfortunately kicked out by them in a 3 to 1. So how were the scrim results, what were you expecting out of the semi finals?
Athero: So when it came to scrim results, it wasn't like we expected to win going into the Ballistix series; we definitely had a chance, and if we had drafted and played better, we could definitely have beaten them, but I wouldn't say we were favored going into this matchup.
Unfortunately, they did win; and they ended up taking the entire tournament against Fnatic. Speaking of that, did you expect Fnatic to get as far as they did?
Athero: We never expected Fnatic to go as far as they did. We expected them to have a good showing against MVP Black, because their meta is really good into the Korean meta, but we never thought they were going to beat MVP Black. MVP Black didn't show up and they regretted it.
Let's say your places were reversed: Team Dignitas versus MVP Black, instead of Fnatic. Do you think you guys would be in the finals, and how do you think that would have went?
Athero: I think it would have been a lot closer than what the Fnatic series was, because we scrimmed against them a lot in Korea. They know what we play, we know what they play, but if they play the same as they played, and we played okay, I think we still would have beaten them the way they played.
For the tournament overall: North America had a pretty unfortunate showing. Talk to me about that, what do you think contributed to the fact that North America is just not showing up in these Heroes of the Storm tournaments?
Athero: Roster stability is definitely a big problem, and their meta is kind of weird. Every time they go into a global event, they think they know what is really good, and they'll sort of go into an event, not adapt, and not show up. I think as long as their rosters stick together and they actually work towards having a stable meta, stable rosters, and stuff like this, then they'll definitely look to improve. It's going to take a little bit of time.
So, this Blizzcon, there was a lot of cool stuff that was announced for Heroes of the Storm. Ragnaros and Varian are both very unique; there was also the new map. Talk to me about the changes; what champions have you tried out, what do you think of them?
Athero: I tried Ragnaros on Dragonshire, and the hero is OP right now. I assume it's just an early state and they'll have some tweaks to him, but right now the way that Ragnaros is, if you have him on any map like Cursed, or any map where it's huge and you have to do side lanes, he's going to be first pick first ban. He does way too much in terms of anti-sieging and soaking with his ult.
What do you think of the map?
Athero: I think it's a cool idea, I probably won't end up playing it because it's a brawl, and I prefer playing the standard maps. I think it's a good idea of an attack and defense map, I hope they bring something like that to competitive, but I didn't try it so I'm not 100% sure how good it is. It looks like a cool idea.
What do you expect for 2017? The year's almost over, you guys have had a great time this year, a strong showing at Blizzcon, what do you expect from next year?
Athero: For next year, I assume Fnatic, Misfits, Dignitas are still going to be the top three, battling it out for who's the best. As long as we keeping working out our problems, working at being better individually, especially me, there should be no reason why we shouldn't be top one next year.
MVP Black did lose in this tournament, do you expect that in the future, a European team (or Team Dignitas) can take the title next year?
Athero: I think that as long as all the rosters stick together, and as long as we have our own European meta, and go into a tournament and stick with it like we did last year, we can definitely win a title. We just need more time to catch up.
Do you have any last words you want to say to the fans?
Athero: Thanks to everyone who showed up to Blizzcon; it was really loud, it was really good for us to hear everyone while we were playing, and it definitely improved us in game.
Thank you guys for watching; be sure to check out Team Dignitas' Heroes of the Storm team. Also check out Athero's social media and follow all of his content. See you guys in the next video.