Recent I got the chance to speak with the most underutilized analyst in all of Overwatch; Matt "Flame" Rod. We sat down and talked about the PTR, changes to Lucio, potential career moves and how he might change Overwatch if he were Lead Designer.

We will skip the fluffy pleasantries but, for those who are new to “Flame” could you describe yourself and what you do for Overwatch in three words?

Professional Overwatch analysis.

With your background of HUD and User Interface modding for the Team Fortress 2 community, what are some of your thoughts on the design of Overwatch’s HUD? Is there anything you might fancy changing?

I think the UI as is needs a ton of work from not only a spectator point of view but also a player one. Generally speaking, I would say the colors and animations currently do not do a great job for the player of alerting them of their health and cooldown numbers in an easy to look at manner, as they are on opposite edges of the screen instead of closer to the center. I also think there is still a lot of information missing from the spectator UI but I have sent feedback to the dev team in that regard already so I don’t want to dive too much into it. Mostly missing information like who used an ult, who switched heroes, and stuff of that nature.

While skimming through some of your past teams, I stumbled across your old Overwatch team “Fine, I’ll Go McCree.” Forging CS:GO and TF2 with Overwatch, how did that team come about and who came up with that name?

I think at that time McCree was the flavor of the month. That was during the days when you could run two of them and High Noon could be canceled for 50% ult refund, and Fan the Hammer did 400 damage and could instagib a Winston almost. That team was mostly TF2 players to start and the name came about because whenever we would lose scrims someone would eventually just be like ‘fine, i'll go mccree’ and instantly you’d start winning them.

After “Fine, I’ll Go McCree” you and half the squad moved over to Splyce. You’ve mentioned in the past that you were doing most of the calls for this team, while also in a DPS role. Do you think it is feasible for players to call on other roles, other than support?

Yes, but it's very difficult. The success was dependent on mindset at that point. Getting home from work to scrim and being tired made it pretty hard to play AND shotcall from DPS/Flex position. I think it’s completely doable and if I didn’t have any distractions like a job and could focus primarily on Overwatch during the day it would be easy even now. There’s no guarantee your Lucio is the smartest player on the team.

With my last interview with numlocked and now with Zebbosai’s comments on Oversight, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the recent Lucio changes? Do you think this passes through the PTR and what changes would you make to Lucio, if you could?

I don’t think the changes will pass through PTR completely as is. I do like that they are trying to change his playstyle to be a bit more engaging and fun but the core concept of him giving speed is the issue. I think if it were up to me I’d up everyone in the game’s movespeed ~15 to 20% and replace his speed aura with a jump height aura to reflect his treefrog-esque character design. Too much healing from the aura in the next patch might be too strong for tank compositions and for that reason I do not see it being enjoyable to play against.

I frequent your Discord, as should everyone, and I know that you have an affinity for Zarya. Why do you think teams tend to stray away from her? Do you think she is worth dropping in favor of another DPS hero?

Zarya’s kind of all-in when it comes to execution. If you mess up a graviton or two you can very well lose your team the game. It is sometimes easier for teams to rely on dps getting teamwipes through raw aim and deathmatch than to rely on perfected teamfight execution with a hero like Zarya which is why I think NA is starting to drop her much more than KR at the moment. They are obviously on different patches at the moment, but idea is also if one team is running three DPS and you have a Zarya it gets tricky for Zarya to get energy since most hitscan heroes can just stop shooting bubbles.

Staying on board with some of the patch changes, Sombra did see a little bit of love with her Translocator cooldown reduced. With pros like Rascal piloting her to some degree of success, is this change enough to push her into the limelight?

She could’ve been in the limelight already but the issue is that she requires you to build a composition around her. Realistically if you play completely around EMP I think there are better heroes suited for that than some of the compositions we’ve seen involving Reinhardt and Roadhog like Complexity. I would like to see more Sombra in a full on dive comp replacing the second healer and just leave a solo Lucio.

This topic has been tossed around in small talk, but on a serious note: Do you think you’d ever go back to playing professionally? Do you think you would want to be a coach or analyst for a team or would you rather just do desk (casting, hosting, analysis) work from here on out?

I mean I’ve considered it even now, and have had offers to play on a few teams and coaching offers from almost every NA organization at the moment. I want to focus on myself for now I think. Analysis desk/casting seems like the most appropriate path in my opinion and the one where I’d succeed the most in. I have a lot of leadership experience outside of gaming and professional experience from working so if the analysis doesn’t work out I may very well go full time coaching and just make some team better, or play myself and shotcall. I don’t really think about those scenarios too much though because I am just focused right now on ideally getting an Overwatch League analysis position.

With Cloud 9 coming back from Korea with B1shop as their new head-coach, what are your opinions on the boys in blue? Do you feel like more top North American organizations with be pushing for stronger coaches and support analysts?

Probably eventually, C9 has personality issues to my knowledge in terms of conflicting ideals and thought processes. Whether or not B1shop is able to fix that I guess time will tell. They looked pretty strong in KR. NA orgs are pushing for coaches and support analysis though some orgs want to combine the two. I have offered to analyze for a few teams but most of them are combining the positions. I think that disconnect is a problem. I could very well commit to paid analysis for an org but coaching is a massive undertaking when done right.

Let's say for instance, a team approached you with a “head coaching” position and you had to build an all NA roster to compete in APEX. What might that roster look like, with Coach Flame at the helm?

I have ideas if that were to ever come up. I would definitely consider that as an opportunity though since I do think it is important for the coach to pick the players, not the players to pick the coach, but I’d prefer not to answer in case that becomes a reality as we get closer to OWL =).

I’ve heard you affectionately mention Dota 2 and Icefrog, is there anything you think Blizzard and Jeff could take and add directly to Overwatch and see immediate benefits from? Anything in particular you would take from Team Fortress 2?

From DOTA: A pick phase. I think currently there is massive lack of analysis in professional casting, but I think it has to do with the pacing and timing of things in the match. I have advocated for spawn waves to slow the game down a bit, but I think a picking phase before the round would be good to give casters/analysts time to talk about the strategy and thought process of the team going into every map. I think you should only be allowed to swap heroes when you die, and this way the picks would mean something.

From TF2: Spawn waves and defensive nerfs. TF2 tried to sync spawns with teammates as much as possible, punishing early deaths, rewarding later deaths, and HEAVILY punishing very late deaths, like you see when people 1v5 as Tracer on the cart. I think defense in Overwatch is too strong and it leads to very stagnant gameplay and matches sometimes where it feels like the Defense can keep zerging out of their spawn to delay and efficiently trade on the cart.

Is there any hero or archtype from Dota 2 that you wished Overwatch would experiment with in the future?

Not particularly, I think the Overwatch team could rip all of the supports out of Evolve though and shake things up. That game suffered a quick painful death but I think the character designs were great. Nade-based healers, and cooldown-based resurrections for single target could be very interesting.

Last but not least, to break up the monotony, here are a few quick and light hearted questions!

Favorite TF2 memory?

Probably casting at GSL 2014? I think it was 2014 or ‘15, doesn’t matter. The community for that game was a blast, even if the game never really took off everyone had each other's back and it felt pretty tight knit, was awesome.

Will we see more Flame apparel? Flame beanies? Flame hats?

There are people already asking for more t-shirts and different hoodie styles so probably. I think growing a brand is important as an individual. Having a logo and stuff just helps people recognize you or your content.

Why does InternetHulk want to wrestle you?

He got mad when he named himself Hulk but realized he was half my size so he feels like he has something to prove. Lucky for him I was raised better than to beat up on old men.

Would you rather have two more dogs or have to install your kitchen floor again?

I’m already considering another dog. Issue I’m having right now is stressing about how I’m going to take the one I have on travel with me.

Favorite part of Breath of the Wild?

Not sure, probably the late game grinding. I get enjoyment out of completion. Max upgrading armor and finishing the shrines was pretty good.

And finally to wrap this interview up with a bow, you have the floor for any and all shout outs, comments, for-hire signs, anything at all.

Yeah, I mean shoutout to my Discord, all the people who watch my Youtube content, and the people who come hang out in my stream even when I’m not doing anything particularly interesting. The support is great, and the fanbase is awesome to have.

If any OWL team owners want someone to make a roster for them, I am 100% available to assist you and whatever else. Most of my conflict comes from having a full time job at the moment. I will gladly quit it for something stable and long term. ;)

Interview written and conducted by: @Volamel

Follow Flame!: @mattr0d

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment, MLG and @mattr0d