Interview with Bakery on The Western Clash in Katowice

The Team Dignitas squad is bootcamping in Germany to prepare for the upcoming Western Clash at IEM Katowice. During their time in Germany, the team announced that Dunktrain will be joining them as their coach to help them reach their goal of winning the tournament.

We asked Support player and Team Captain James "Bakery" Baker about his view on the other teams, Lucio, and the addition of Dunktrain.

You guys are heading out soon to Katowice for the HGC Western Clash. Going into the Clash, what is the goal for the team?

Bakery: I think, as with any tournament that the top Korean teams won’t be at, the goal is to win. We know it’ll be hard with how good Fnatic and Misfits have looked recently, but we’ve been training hard at our bootcamp, and we think we have a good shot at winning the tournament.

Looking at the lesser known regions of Australia/New Zealand and Latin America, how do you think they will stack up against Europe and North America? Have you been monitoring their scenes?

Bakery: Building an internationally competitive team is a hard thing to do, and it takes a long time. To build an internationally competitive team in a region that is lacking competition makes it near impossible this early in the game’s lifespan. I think there’s a chance that either Infamous or Nomia can have a great tournament and get a series win or two, but I would be surprised if either team made a deep run at the tournament.

There seems to be a pretty big rivalry between Europe and North America. What is your opinion on the teams coming from North America? Do they have what it takes to challenge Europe?

Bakery: In most esports EU vs NA is a huge deal, and Heroes is no different. Over the course of 2016 I think it was clear that EU was a step above NA, but with the stability and structure that HGC has brought, I think the NA teams have a chance to turn it around. I think it’s unlikely that they will.

Do you think we will see the same kind of meta we’ve seen in the 5 weeks of League play, or will the other regions bring any changes?

Bakery: The meta has shifted a huge amount from Week 1 of HGC, and it’s definitely still settling. I don’t think that NA or EU will have the time to adapt to each other's meta, but maybe the Wildcard teams will have some tricks up their sleeves.

Looking back, have you noticed any specific improvements during your 5 weeks of HGC League games?

Bakery: I think everyone can see how much we’ve improved from Week 1 of HGC. We’ve had issues with drafting in most of our HGC series, and our synergy has improved drastically across the 5 weeks of League play.

What are you focusing on at the bootcamp session in Germany? Where does Team Dignitas need to improve going into Katowice?

Bakery: We have two goals for our games in Katowice: get a solid draft and understand how to play our draft against the enemy composition. We’re working hard with our coach for this event, Dunktrain, to try and meet those goals.

The Western Clash will also be the first chance for the HGC teams to pull out Lucio. How do you like him? How is his character design?

Bakery: I think Lucio is one of the most fun Heroes that Blizzard have released in a long time. His kit flows beautifully and he has perfectly met their goal of being easy to pick up and play, but difficult to truly master. He does have some issues in competitive play though, his lack of both Cleanse and instant heals makes it hard for his team to play with him when the enemy team has high pick potential, and he often doesn’t bring enough damage to play the counter-engage style. We’ll definitely see some Lucio, but he won’t be a high priority pick.

Some say that he is very overpowered, while others say that he won’t be viable. Is there anything you would change about him?

Bakery: I’m not sure how I would feel about changing him this early, Heroes are supposed to have both strengths and weaknesses. If my objective was to make him a viable competitive Support, I would give some form of Armor, burst healing or shielding on his Level 7 talent tier. Maybe something like “Using Amp It Up with only 1 ally Hero in range gives Lucio and the target (40 spell armor/25 armor/400 point shield)” or “The first 1.5s of Amp It Up heals 75% more, but the last 1.5s heals 75% less”.

What kind of team composition does Lucio pair well with?

Bakery: Lucio pairs well with almost any allied team composition, it’s all about the enemy team composition. If they have a huge amount of kill potential then Lucio definitely isn’t the Support you want.

You’ve brought in DunkTrain, a notable ex-player from NA, as the new coach for the team. What do you hope he can do for you?

Bakery: I think a lot of people are focussing on the fact that DunkTrain is indeed from NA, but that wasn’t a consideration for us, we just saw that DunkTrain has a great mind for the game and he has the rare ability to express his thoughts eloquently and effectively. There are very few people in the scene with that ability.

What was the process for getting DunkTrain involved with the team?

Bakery: We’ve been casually looking for a coach for a long time now, even as far back as Blizzcon 2015. The core trait that a coach needs is that he needs to command respect, and we could never find the right person in the right situation to bring them on board. With the backing of the Sixers and DunkTrain not being actively involved in a casting role, we saw the opportunity to approach him about trying out as our coach.

What does the role of a coach involve, and why is it important for teams to have a coach?

Bakery: The big advantage that the coach has is the ability to not be influenced by the emotions of the game like a player would be, which allows him to point out things that we miss in the heat of games, and objectively present opinions about the game from all over the World. DunkTrain sits in on all our scrims and starts the dialogue of why things turned out the way they did, and how we can use that to our advantage.

Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us! Do you have any shoutouts for your fans, team, and sponsors?

Bakery: Thanks for the interview. Thanks to Philadelphia 76ers and all of our sponsors, Killer, Alienware, Twitch, tp-link, and WD! First off a shoutout to all the fans who have been cheering us on in HGC so far, and I hope that we can make you guys proud at IEM Katowice. If any of our fans are at the event, please do come and say “Hi”! If you want to follow me you can do so on Twitter, @BakeryHeroes, and on http://HeroesHearth.com.