Coach Nabby’s Thoughts After MSB Group Stage

Throughout this week, HGC teams from all over the world have been battling it out at the Mid-Season Brawl group stage in Stockholm, Sweden to give themselves the best possible seeding for the main tournament at DreamHack Summer. Our very own Team Dignitas squad was of course in action as well, and, with the final results from the group stage counted up, it’s time for some reflection before the biggest Heroes of the Storm event in Europe begins. We caught up with Team Dignitas' coach, Nabby, to hear his thoughts on the recently ended group stage and how the team coped with the mental struggles they had to deal with after the slow start.

Day 1 - Team Dignitas vs Tempest / Team Dignitas vs Method

Team Dignitas had a rough start coming into the tournament, being proclaimed one of the best Western hopes to take down Korea. Things did not go smoothly though, as the team, true to tradition, had a bit of a shaky start to the tournament. Not playing up to your best is not ideal when the opponent in the first match is called Tempest, and Team Dignitas suffered a 0-2 loss. Later the same day, the Dignitas squad was back in action, this time against fellow EU rivals, Method. Team Dignitas was filled with confidence that they would go into this matchup as favorites, as they had already beaten Method twice in HGC EU this season, but the two EU teams ended up splitting 1-1.

Nabby: Day 1 was definitely our hardest day with the way the schedule was set up. We end up dropping three maps, but the only map that I was truly dissatisfied with was the Battlefield of Eternity against Tempest. As for the other two maps, it clearly showed our weakness and what to work on. I think we should have been able to close out the Battlefield game, but, regardless, the whole day was rough. We were able to take a lot of things away from it and sat down to have a discussion about it at the end of the day, and showed up the other days.

Day 2 - Team Dignitas vs CE

China was a big question mark coming into the tournament. For the first time in while there were no visa issues, which meant that CE could show up with their strongest roster for MSB. Luckily for Team Dignitas, this meant that researching the team's strategy was easier, and in the end, the boys in black and yellow were able to secure a 2-0 and show the world that they were here to win.

Nabby:  With how rough Day 1 was and how hard we critiqued it at the end of the day, I think our rapid improvement was truly a reflection on how we tackled the situation. It was a lot cleaner and not only did we get the drafts we wanted, but we were also able to play up to the standard we expect of ourselves. Overall, I was very satisfied with Day 2.

Day 3 - Team Dignitas vs HeroesHearth

Oh boy, here it comes! Last time Team Dignitas and HeroesHearth faced each other, HeroesHearth ended up taking a game with a nail-biting ending where Team Dignitas’ core ended up going down to a Tyrael explosion at the Western Clash. This time Team Dignitas did not let the Americans near their core though and secured themselves another 2-0.

Nabby: Day 3 against HeroesHearth was definitely the next hurdle we had to overcome if we wanted to secure ourselves a good standing. Again, we were able to close out our games. This was something we talked about after Day 1, and I’m happy to see that we improved on that.  

Day 4 - Team Dignitas vs Luna Meow

Team Dignitas made history and made sure that they’ll be talked about long after the Mid-Season Brawl will be concluded. They pulled off the feat known as “The perfect Towers of Doom game” or “The 40-0 dream.” This is a legendary occurrence that rarely happens. Team Dignitas won every single alter during the game and didn’t lose a single hit point on their core. Afterward, Team Dignitas also won the next game in short fashion and ended the group stage with yet another 2-0.

Nabby: On Day 4 against Luna Meow, I was happy to see that the team was still able to focus and had the professionalism to keep playing on a high level. I know we were the clear favorites in the matchup, but I’m still happy that we focused and had strong drafts. It was good to finish the group stage that way.

Nabby’s Overall Conclusion

Nabby: I’m happy that we were able to get back after our rough Day 1. I know that the community says that Dignitas always has a slow start in tournaments and then show up with their final form later, but this is something that we want to improve on. Hopefully, in the future, we’ll be able to show dominance from the beginning of the tournaments. Facing Gen.G in the upper bracket will be our hardest challenge so far. It is very exciting though and we look forward to being pushed all the way to our limits. I think as a team we have a good chance, we withheld some things in the group stage and we are ready to bring that out. Our goal in the group stage was to make it to the upper bracket, and from there we just want to make sure that we play up to the standard that we know we can and will be happy about. For now, we’ll just take it one match at a time.

I want to thank the fans that stuck with us through our rough Day 1 and have seen us all the way through the group stage. Keep supporting us and I’ll hope that we can reward you back with a title for Team Dignitas.