Volamel
2023-10-28 11:01:03
First, we've got to know; any new World Cup memos to report? Is this Lijiang Tower debacle still happening in scrims? Haha! Thankfully the scrim circles have narrowed and the group stage teams are now all ENTIRELY familiar with the notion that Lijiang Tower is a waste of time. Yeah, there have been about 30 new memos to digest, sadly I’m illiterate so I couldn’t possibly tell you what crucial information they contained. Jokes aside, how have preparations for the 2023 Overwatch World Cup been going? Are you and the guys excited to get back to a live environment in some capacity? For a lot of the guys, this is either their first LAN event or their first event in many years. Everyone’s super excited to get their feet in the ground in L.A. and actually play in person rather than against SEA/KR/CN teams on 150ms! Australians are cursed to a lifetime of high ping scrims so it’s really exciting for the guys not only to meet some of their international idols, cuFFa has an unhealthy crush on Guxue, but also to have a shot at competing on equal footing for once! Regarding the roster, we've been hearing the name Kurt "naahmie" Pedersen since 2021 from a few different pundits and experts. Is he a breakout player World Cup fans need to be paying closer attention to? Kurt is chill. With Punk stepping down from the Overwatch World Cup roster, are you and the team concerned at all about making it out of the group? I’d say that losing Punk has no impact on the roster strength. Punk getting the majority of maps during qualifiers was a case of charity rather than a reflection on cuFFa’s skill. In all seriousness no, cuFFa and Punk fill quite similar roles as very flexible tanks, and while this may have altered our trajectory every so slightly I don’t think it’s going to stop us from making it out of groups. Aside from the more notable names, is there anyone on the roster that you feel deserves more credit for their performance? Kurt is chill. We spoke to FunnyAstro earlier and he mentioned that he "[...] definitely wants to beat Team Australia" to avoid being bullied. Outside of hopefully taking a win over Team United Kingdom and getting one over on some of your former players, is there another team you're looking forward to playing? I want to see FunnyAstro cry like he’s just spent three weeks in a Korean hotel quarantine room to get blasted out of playoffs. Similarly, I want to hear Danny’s thousands of excuses as to why his team, stacked with Overwatch League talent, couldn’t escape the group. Very happy with our group composition, we get to play against the two teams I wanted to face most. Lastly, for the 2023 Overwatch World Cup, we have a lot of familiar faces that have been around competitive Overwatch for a long time, yourself included. With the uncertain future of the Overwatch League, what does this World Cup mean to you? If you had asked me this question six months ago I would have said how this event is great for the players but for me it’s a bit of old news. Now that I’m unemployed and the Overwatch League is DEAD! I want to say this event actually has a lot more meaning for me. BlizzCon in 2019 wasn’t the first international event I competed at, but that year marked the start of my travelling overseas for Overwatch. Skipping forward 4 years, it’s insane to think that I’m returning to one of the places where it all started in a different role. Think of it as a metamorphosis, but instead of waking up the next day as a literal life-sized cockroach, it has taken me four years of scumming about in OWL to become the figurative equivalent. Having met so many wonderful and talented people over the years, it’s lovely to be given the opportunity by Blizzard to reconnect with so many old friends, former players and Gator.No better way to end my adventures in OWL than with the same young men that kickstarted my coaching career carrying me through EU, and Paavo I guess. A beautiful thing to come full circle and see how much they've grown over four years. Much love boys, thanks for the memories. pic.twitter.com/E4tBHVueNc
— Unter (@UnterOW) October 5, 2023