France is where this team and player have called home for years, but cramped hotel rooms and noisy flights have been more of a home as a late. Rogue are champions, nothing can take that away from them, but they have been slightly tumbling down the Overwatch Contenders hill. Alas, the potential that is within this team is something that has gotten them over slumps in the past. We are talking about the winners of APAC 2016, TakeOver 2, and the Atlantic Showdown. I had a brief chat with Dylan "aKm" Bignet about Overwatch Contenders Season 1, his thoughts on their match against EnVyUs, and what's to come from team Rogue.

Bonjour, aKm! Thanks for stopping. I wanted to first congratulate you on the win over Kungarna, but let’s not beat around the bush. How much a relief is it now that you're back home in the US?

It feels good. The whole team has been staying in hotels for months, not playing on our own setup. So it definitely feels really good to be back home.

There has been a ton of obstacles leading into Contenders Season 1 for many teams and yours included. How much do you think the recent traveling from World Cup to the United States and then to Canada has affected your gameplay overall?

We have been playing poorly for 3 months, after being undefeated in the West the whole year. Being in Canada has affected our gameplay overall because our lifestyle wasn’t healthy at all, but it isn’t an excuse to play that poorly, and we should have been able to do way better than we did. We’re lucky to have one last shot to make it to the playoffs.

Speaking of World Cup, I’d love to pick your brain about it. How was your experience overall? Was there any team that surprised you at all?

There was sadly a lot of organization problems, which will surely be fixed for the next times, but overall the experience was amazing. The hotel was amazing, the matches were great, and we had fun! I got kinda surprised by China. Since APAC last year, I haven’t had the time to see any of the Chinese tournaments, and they improved a lot. They’ll for sure be scary in the future.

In your opinion, how much do you think the Visa troubles and being stuck in Canada has affected Rogue’s performance in Contenders Season 1? How much of a relief was it seeing your visa paperwork finally complete?

Like I said, it’s always hard to play on a setup that is not well optimized, and on a really bad internet. But even with those issues, our bad performances in Contenders is only on us. We weren’t on the level we used to be a few months ago. We’re getting better and better as the weeks go by, hopefully, it will be enough for EnVyUS!

Now, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the newest patch. How do you think Junkrat has affected the game in its current state? Has retaking Control points and attacking through tight chokes points become frustratingly hard?

Junkrat is overpowered right now and definitely needs a nerf. He charges his ultimate way too fast, the tire is broken, as it’s almost unhittable, and with the D.Va nerf coming up, it will be even stronger as no one will be able to really counter him. Retaking control points, and going through choke points has become a misery.

Staying on this new patch, Widowmaker has received some changes with her Grapple Hook and on her Venom Mine. What are your thoughts on the changes that Blizzard has given the French sniper?

Unlike Junkrat, I think this was good changes to Widowmaker because she was easily countered before with her hook’s cooldown being so long. Now she’s able to escape flankers or tanks such as Winston or D.Va.

Do you think there is any chance that we’ll see more Widowmaker in Contenders?

Widowmaker will most likely come back more and more on open maps with a lot of space.

What are some of your thoughts on returning to this weird mix-up of the metagame? Coming back to an ecosystem where Reinhardt is becoming more and more favored, in your opinion, which meta have you enjoyed the most and why?

The meta I liked the most was Gamescom’s meta when the meta was 2/2/2 with Reinhart-Winston/Zarya-Genji/Reaper-Lucio-McCree-Zen. This meta wasn’t RNG at all like most of the metas are now, it wasn’t “who dives first win”. I could rely more on my individual skill to carry a game than I am now. Now, pretty much before of D.Va, you’re not able to single-handedly carry a fight, and it removes the skill gap of the game, which is sad.

Next week you guys have a huge task in front of you as you face off against Team EnVyUs. What are some of your thoughts on the team and where do you think Rogue has an edge over EnVyUs?

EnVyUS has been beating everyone since they’re back from Korea. Last time we faced them, we beat them twice in a row, which was at Overwatch Rumble. Meta has changed now, and their team has changed, with Effect being in their team. So it will be a much harder task, but we are preparing for this match day by day, and we’ll hopefully be ready to beat them and get our ticket for the playoffs.

Wrapping things up, let the people know where they can find you and what's going on in the life of aKm.

I’m starting to stream more and more on Twitch.tv/aKm_TV, and you can also follow me on Twitter @Rogue_aKm.

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 and @tempusrob