Harsha Bandi is a person who any content creator in the Overwatch esports space can and should look up to. He has successfully engrained himself within the space with a prosperous Youtube channel where he gives his analysis on specific plays and concepts that he finds interesting. Harsha has also had a frontline role as a journalist, writing many timeless op-eds. He is a consistent co-host of the inconsistent, chaotically fun podcast; Through the Grapevine and is a member of the San Francisco Shock’s coaching staff. Harsha took some time to talk about his transition and journey from a aspirants career in freelance content creation to a professional coach of one of the largest esports ventures in recent memory.

Now, we all know you for your mass amount of content creation and analysis, but now that you’ve been added to the San Francisco Shock’s support staff as a member of the Coaching staff and as an analyst, could you share what a normal day for Harsha is like?

It depends on the day! Sometimes I'm with the team, watching scrims alongside them and going through map walkthroughs or VOD reviews with them, and sometimes I'm prepping for the teams we'll be playing over the week and creating strategies to take them on as efficiently as possible from home. There's no real rhyme or reason and I kinda just choose to get the prep work out of the way earlier so I can spend more time with the team leading up to matches.

I know that Babybay has a large presence in the team's communication hierarchy, but it seems like Dhak does as well, but in a different sense. Could you touch on exactly what Dhak’s role is in the team's communication?

dhaK is basically the team dad in-game, where he's reminding everyone to keep track of ults, calm down when things get messy, etc. He basically is the team's veteran in that sense and is one of the people who try to make sure that the team stays focused. In fact, if I had to say he has a catchphrase, it'd be "Focus!" (but in his Spanish accent).

Talk to me about Lijiang Tower, what was the overall consensus in the dugout throughout the tiebreaker with the Boston Uprising? What was the atmosphere like?

It was a bit rough because we tried to make sure the guys were calm going into the match after a pretty bad defeat on Eichenwalde and we knew a lot of stuff was out of our hands, and it was especially scary when they capped the first map 100-0, but the guys were cheering hard when we started turning the match around. Overall it was really positive. We had a guy from the org who isn't too familiar with Overwatch in the dugout during that game, and I distinctly remember him saying "That was really cool!" after the match was over.

I got the vibe that during your game with Boston that Kalios and Gamsu were some big targets you guys were focusing on. Would you say that focusing tanks is a part of your macro strategy? Is that on-base here, or did the players make that call mid-match?

They were definitely people we focused our prep on because despite being talented players, they had some tendencies that we thought were exploitable. DreamKazper is another ridiculously good player who has tendencies that can sometimes backfire, so we mainly focused on those three, and unsurprisingly, they tend to make up Boston's dive core.

After being within the professional coaching ecosystem for a bit now, I wanted to get your immediate thoughts and reactions on this quote from Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykkles during his time coaching Counter Logic Gaming. “I can trust Doublelift to have insane Vayne mechanics, I’m cool with that. As a coach, you’re bringing that big picture strategy, you’re bringing that experience of watching film for hours and hours. So, it’s more about changing; the way players communicate with each other, instilling good habits, and having them understand ‘strategy’ at a very high level. And then you kind of release them into the game and hope they do well. Which is very nerve-racking too because you lose all control.”

I can definitely empathize with the last sentence especially. Our loss to Fuel was really rough because we felt that we were prepared for every single thing they brought to the table, but were unable to perform when we needed it. At the end of the day, players have a better understanding of their position in the game and their limitations on their hero, so the best things we can do as coaches are to provide strategy and instill teamwork. As Monte said, the rest is on them.

With the new patch and with its use on maps like Lunar Colony, heavy tank compositions look like they’re potentially coming back into the forefront. What do you think the crux of this strategy is and do you think it’s being used to its fullest?

I think it's really similar to how Ana used to play with tank-stacking compositions back in early 2017. Tanks can create space and exert an enormous amount of pressure if they remain healthy while walking forwards, and speed from Lucio just exacerbates that issue while Moira keeps everyone topped off. I don't think there's a real crux, but rather a lot of heroes work well together—too well some might say!

In a previous interview with Esports Heaven, you mentioned that “ ... I think I'm a bit too young to coach a professional team at the time being … ” What have some of your biggest hurdles been during your time with the Shock and how have you worked to overcome them?

To be honest, my opinion still holds true insofar as being a head coach, but I think that I'm in a fine spot as another member of the coaching staff. The biggest hurdles will always be getting the respect of your team, and that comes with time after proving yourself. I guess the age thing is not as much of an issue with a beard!

This week you’ve got quite an interesting week. You open Week 4 of the Overwatch League with your match against the Houston Outlaws. What kind of expectation and mindset do you try to instill into the players when approaching such a difficult opponent?

The Outlaws have looked really hot as of late, but every team has their tendencies that we can break down, so that much isn't a worry. We just need to focus on bouncing back from a week of tough losses, making sure our mentalities can stay strong and stabilize on stage, and playing our own game. If we get everyone to focus on themselves and how they can help their teammates, we can beat any team in the league.

Following that match, you’ve got the Florida Mayhem, who looks to be a bit more digestible. What do you think are some big-picture ideas are going the match that will be the deciding factors for a Shock victory?

Like any team, Florida has its tendencies. I think the biggest thing is that their individuals have been performing adequately, but they haven't been able to fully come together as a team this season. We likely look digestible to them as well, and they're certainly hungry for a victory, so it won't be easy—that said, the same answer I gave regarding Outlaws applies here. We just need to focus on ourselves and the game will come to us.

To end, could you give some advice to all the content creators who look at your evolution from journalist to coach/analyst with a sparkle of inspiration in their eyes? What is the biggest thing, in your eyes, that lead to that evolution?

I'll say that nothing really works as a good substitute for actually getting your hands dirty and doing the work. I think that being in environments where I was forced to watch a lot of scrims and work with tier 2 teams over the summer helped quite a bit, as it really forced me to level up my game knowledge and allowed for me to make the next step. Overall, I think that you either put your name out there and work your way up, or you come up together with a low tier team that you were a part of from the beginning. The former sounds far more reasonable!

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLG’s of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel.

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.