After its foundation in March, the LK has quickly become one of the fan-favorites in Western Overwatch. The team has shown itself as one of the most dedicated organizations to Overwatch’s esports side, as they’ve only continued investing while other, well established endemic teams, have been dropping their rosters. Ali "Alicus" Saba, LK founder and former Misfits GM, has succeeded in signing a multitude of highly-valued free agents, some of which were associated with well-established teams like Lunatic-Hai and TSM. Additionally, the team spent over a month, bootcamping in Korea and looking to hone their synergy and skills in what is widely recognized as the strongest Overwatch region. Last week, Esports Heaven had the opportunity to ask both players and staff a slew of question in regards to their time there.

As a squad that had just come together recently, how difficult was it to get scrims against the top teams when LK first arrived in Korea?

Alicus: “Not difficult at all. I have a great relationship with many of the APEX teams from having spent so much time here in the earlier seasons. Also, Lime (former coach of EHOME) helped us synchronize our scrim schedule with theirs. We almost exclusively scrimmed only top APEX teams.”

What was your experience with the Korean ladder and how would you rate it, compared to Europe's?

Greyy: “Honestly, Korean Ladder wasn’t as good as I expected, but it was at least more fun than Europe’s. There were some really, really bad games, with griefers, trolls, etc. just like in Europe, but the games that were good were insanely good - really high-quality games, which is extremely rare in Europe. One specific thing that I loved was that every time you’d make a good play your entire team would hype you up -- they literally just shout your name over and over while you are clutching a fight, it was so much fun. And if you happened to pop off as Widow, they would call you Taimou, it was hilarious.”

Mowzassa: “The experience was very good. It's not some sort of solo queue heaven, where everything is perfect, but it's definitely the best environment I’ve ever had competition-wise to practice as an individual on the ladder. The teams tryhard a lot, players tend to always pick good team comps. Even if they have to pick a hero that they aren't very comfortable on, or that they don’t even like, they will still do it because they understand it is for the best and it will be their best chance of winning the game, which is the [important] goal in their minds.

“Communication is very important there and even though I can't speak Korean, nor understand most of what they say, there are some things I could understand like when a target is discorded, when a target is low HP, when they need help, etc. They try to facilitate the communication when they understand you can't speak Korean by saying simple things as "Go dive Soldier, OK?".

“It's not that European solo queue is horrible, but in general there is a lot more trolling for no reason. People pick whatever they want, without caring about team comp more and there is a lot less communication, whilst in Korea almost all ranked games are very similar to how scrims feel.”

What were your personal expectations for scrims going into Korea? Did you perform as you expected?

Greyy: “We performed a lot better than I expected straight out the gate [laughs]. Even against teams that we’d lose a lot, I always thought that it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. [Right] from the very first blocks, I didn’t feel individually or mechanically outclassed at all -- this boosted my confidence quite a lot. I’m relatively new to the professional scene, and winning these duels against people that I’d look up to and think very highly of really made me happy about my current individual level. And then, from playing so much with those teams and dedicating time to going over maps, VODs and etc., we became so much better as a team in a really short amount of time.”

Linepro: “I expected to get stomped by the Korean teams and I think we were actually doing decent, not so bad.

Also, I think we didn't really notice the improvement until we got back to Europe. In Korea, they punish every single mistake really hard, so you try your best not to make any, and once we were back in Europe, it was easier for us to punish other teams' mistakes.

In this game, to survive is more important than to kill and the team who makes less mistakes wins.”

Is there anything different in how Korean squads play and practice, compared to European ones?

Claris: “In Korea, the coach gives direction to players, and [prepares] strategy and tactics. This means that in Korea, the coach has authority over the players. But in EU and NA, the coach is an equal to the players, and they prepare strategies and tactics together, and that isn’t good. It’s a time-waste. Player’s job isn’t to think about in detail about strategy and tactic all the time, that’s what coach does. Players need more focus on perfecting individual play and practice, during the time the coach [prepares] the strategy. [In the current] meta, it’s  too important to practice mechanics, it is the first problem [of players thinking of strategy].”

When Reunited were invited to Korea for APEX S1, you were hesitant about traveling there and ultimately decided against it. What has changed for you since then?

Kyb: “When I was on Reunited, I didn’t feel very motivated at all, and it wasn’t the team’s fault. I just wasn’t in the right mindset to play Overwatch at the highest level and maybe it was stupid, but I felt I needed time to think about what I wanted to do in life, and if I wanted to continue playing Overwatch competitively. I decided that I want to do that and now I’m very motivated and ready to be at the top again.”

Please explain for the newer Overwatch fans what's up with the sushi chef meme. How did it originate?

Kyb: “I think ZP called me that in an official back on Reunited and it just stuck.”

Greyy: “I just wanted to point out that he has actually never had sushi in his life (:”

Are there any takeaways, or something you learned from living together in a gaming house?

Linepro: ‘I think being in a gaming house helps us a lot to know each other better, not only in the game but also outside of the game. And knowing each other better outside of the game also helps ingame, and it helps to our communication. By knowing the rest I also learned I'm not as normal as I thought I was [laughs].”

spazzo: “The biggest thing for me was seeing everyone’s true dedication. You learn personalities very fast, tackle issues faster and more efficiently, and being in close proximity to do other things outside of game creates a special type of bond that only over online can't achieve. I think in the long run it made us a lot stronger and closer.”

In League of Legends, gaming houses are extremely popular, but the CS:GO scene has been heavily resistant to them. As an insider, which way do you see Overwatch heading in that aspect?

Alicus: “There’s a lot more strategic depth to Overwatch than CS:GO, and as far as tactics are concerned, League of Legends can’t compare either. Overwatch is really fast paced, and has a lot of variables. I think gaming houses are the way to go, because everyone being physically together and being able to easily highlight locations during review etc will enable the team to grow most efficiently.”

All the players on the team are recognized as skilled individuals, but some fans have been concerned with your cohesion as a unit. How has the synergy been so far?

Alicus: “It’s something we’re working on. Obviously, it’s a challenge, especially with the language barrier, but I’m very proud of Munchkin and Claris, They have improved their English by a large margin in just one month. The team environment is super-great, everyone gets along really well, we pretty much do everything together or at least in groups.”

On the current patch, we've seen a lot of teams show off different playstyles and compositions in official matches. What's been working best for Laser Kittenz and what does the team enjoy playing the most?

Alicus: “I suppose you’ll find that out in Contenders! [laughs]”

What are your thoughts on the current metagame? How does it compare to previous ones?

Munchkin: “I’m having fun but there is not [much] depth. It is all about personal skills, but I have confidence, I can kill any opponent Tracer 1vs1.”

Greyy: “I really love the current metagame; for one, team compositions-wise, it’s super dynamic. There’s so much stuff that you can run, there’s so many different  strategies and approaches to a map people can do and there are so many teams with “their own identity”.

It’s awesome!

Secondly, in my opinion, there’s a lot more potential for “clutch” plays in the current meta - quite often you see fights that should be lost, but suddenly, someone pops off and that’s a result of the current meta heroes. For example Genji , Tracer, Zenyatta and Soldier 76 are all heroes with the potential to turn a fight around with just a couple of well landed shots. In previous metas, quite often fights would be lost before they even began, because someone would get picked early, or the ultimate disadvantage would straight out make the fight unwinnable. In the current meta, no fight is over until it’s really over.

“I kind of struggled to adapt to the new Ana, though. Her nerf is not simply “a nerf”, the way you played the hero changed dramatically in my opinion, e.g: I’d throw grenades to the enemy backline because I trusted myself to hit two bullets afterwards; now that I need to hit three bullets, more often than not it’s a bad idea to nade the backline if my teammates can’t follow up. But the one thing I love the most about the current meta is the fact that “flex support” actually means flex support, and  not “one-trick Ana or Zen or Mercy”  like [it was] in the past. I play all of those three supports plus Sombra and Soldier 76 right now, and I really, really enjoy the fact that I get to flex so much. Really!”

Based on watching APEX and practice, who are the two teams that you think will make the finals of the tournament? What are the strengths for each of them?

spazzo: “EnVyUs and KongDoo Panthera.

EnVyUs not only has a very strong core, but their synergy is one of the most polished in the game. I think because of this and their ability to play the game to their strengths and tempo will allow them to make it even, though I think X6 is a very strong up and coming team. With tournaments like this, experience and the ability to adapt prove to be most valuable.

“As for KongDoo Panthera, I think they're one of the more adaptive and strong teams. Their hero-pools alone allow them a lot of freedom in the strategies they want to achieve and I think their roster has some of the most raw talent in APEX. Birdring joining Rascal and Void is menacing. I think this, with the combination of WhoRU no longer being able to play with Lunatic-Hai will allow the best chance for KDP to prove themselves.”

Crems: “I think LuxuryWatch Blue and KongDoo Panthera will be in the finals, unless Lunatic-Hai can get WhoRU to play. LW Blue probably have the best DPS player in the world. birdring is probably equal if he’s having a good day but seems inconsistent, at least in scrims.”

What does Laser Kittenz' daily regimen look like? Is it all work, or do you get a bit more time to explore the city and have fun, since you aren't playing in APEX?

spazzo: “After warm-ups we usually start around 2PM everyday, three two-hour blocks on most days, with map discussion and VOD review sprinkled in throughout the week. Since we weren't in APEX we had no pressures to perform, but we still took it very seriously nonetheless. Our schedule had off-days to enjoy Korea or watch OGN live at the studio, but for the most part we stayed focused on the end goal throughout the bootcamp.”

Crems: “I think we had a pretty good balance between playing and having fun -- Plenty of opportunities to do what we wanted.”

Since our last interview, a lot of organizations have dropped their Overwatch teams, but you've only continued investing. From your point of view, why are other organizations dropping out, and why are you so confident in Overwatch?

Alicus: “There have been a lot of rumors and discussions about the price tags for the Overwatch League, and obviously most endemic organizations cannot afford that kind of buy-in, without taking on investment. I also think most of the teams that dropped out were having roster issues, so that only made it more convenient. Furthermore, we kind of have this trend in esports, where decision makers in orgs make decisions based on what other orgs do, and not based on personal research or substantial data.

“I remain optimistic about the competitive Overwatch scene, and I feel like this really is the title where franchising makes the most sense. This game has the highest potential to pull in the mainstream audience, it’s generally easy to understand the objective whereas other titles usually have a high burden of knowledge.“

The final words are yours.

Alicus: “Shoutout to our homies at NVIDIA, you’re the best!”

Next time you can catch Laser Kittenz playing is in Overwatch Contenders S0, where they’ll be facing Misfits, NWA and TeSC during the group stages for Europe’s side of the action.

You can keep in touch with the team’s activities on twitter at @LaserKittenz, as well as all of the players and staff at the following links: Linepro: twitter, twitch Greyy: twitter, twitch mowzassa: twitter, twitch Munchkin: twitter, twitch Crems: twitter, twitch claris: twitter, twitch Kyb: twitter, twitch Skipjack: twitter, twitch spazzo: twitter, twitch NamedHwi: twitter, twitch Alicus:  twitter

Photo credits: Blizzard, Laser Kittenz

About the author: Hello readers, I go by the ID RadoN! I’ve been following different games within the esports industry ever since finding out about it in 2009. The titles that I follow closely for the time being are Overwatch, CS:GO and Quake Live, while occasionally dabbling in SFV, Dota 2 and LoL. If you wish to reach out, follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on esports and gaming, you can find me on twitter at @RadoNonfire.