News
Zyrhoes Interview: The New Season, the SPL and New Teams
Team Dignitas is back! With an explosive start to their SPL winning against Mousesports, Obey, and Rival so far, they've proven themselves as one of the best teams on the scene right now. A lot of this is down to their all-star captain and midlaner, Joakim 'Zyrhoes' Verngren.
Zyrhoes has been performing incredibly so far, leading his team to every single one of their victories. We got in touch with him and asked him about the new season, being back in the SPL, and all the new teams they'll be facing.
You're back in the SPL! How does it feel to be back as one of the top European teams?
Zyrhoes: It feels great! I've had a long break from competitive play ever since we didn't qualify for HRX so it definitely feels good to be back.
Which new team do you think has the most promise?
Zyrhoes: NRG. When it comes to the raw talent they got the most out of all the roster swaps in my opinion.
Which teams are you most excited to face? Which teams are going to be the ones to watch out for?
Zyrhoes: I'm looking forward to playing every team but probably Rival the most. They've always been pretty weak in the online phase but it seems like they've stepped up this season, so I'm looking forward to some good games against them.
Would you say you guys have improved since last year? If so how?
Zyrhoes: Yes. Even though we still have some issues in practice, we take scrims way more serious now (most of the time) than what we did last year. We really don't want to repeat what happened at regionals last year because of a lack of good practice.
Which teammate would you say has improved the most?
Zyrhoes: Arkkyl for sure. Last year when we picked him up, he had only been on lower-end teams while the rest of us had already been on top teams. He've always been incredibly skilled individually, even before he joined Dignitas but in the start when he first joined the team, his comms weren't that great: his English was pretty poor and he wasn't talking enough. Now, though, I would say he's the example of a perfect ADC where he has good comms and amazing mechanics.
What do you think of the new formats for the SPL and the fact that it’s now broadcast on Mixer?
Zyrhoes: I prefer BO3 rather than the two-game series we had last year. In a BO3, there's always going to be a winner which feels more exciting to me and probably the people watching as well. The fact that it's broadcasted on Mixer rather than Twitch doesn't really matter to me as long as the viewership isn't decreasing.
Do you think the changes in Season 5 are going to make the SPL more fun/competitive? How?
Zyrhoes: Yeah, I think the games are a lot more action-packed now in this current meta. Rather than everyone building tanky like in the end of S4, damage classes are actually building damage in S5. With everyone not being tanky, there's a lot more room for individual plays which makes the game a lot more enjoyable.
What's been your favourite change in Season 5?
Zyrhoes: The fact that early game pressure doesn't matter as much.
Do you think we are going to see less snowball overall this Season?
Zyrhoes: Yes for sure. With everything on the map having scaling XP/Gold, it's way easier to get back into the games if your team is behind.
Are we seeing Team Dignitas at worlds this year?
Zyrhoes: Hell yeah and we should've been there last year, too.
Do you have any shoutouts you'd like to make?
Zyrhoes: Shoutout to everyone that still supports us even after our horrendous performance at regionals last year and shout out to Yvonne.