EPTHey Beats, why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about yourself, your history with competitive gaming, and what you’re doing right now in Heroes of the Storm.
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Beats
Hello I am Josh Cho, one of the players on Team Ghost. I am 18 years old, and was a High Diamond 1 League of Legends player before Master Tier came out on LoL. I was invited to the Heroes Alpha in March with the help of lastshadow. I’m planning to play in future Korean Heroes of the Storm leagues with my current teammates Lockdown, Hide and Nagu. We are currently looking for a 5th member because "Player 5 has left the game."**
**Beats is joking because the player named Player 5 in the early alpha was famous for quitting games early, and Team Ghost used to play with him. (He's also known as Aquinas), until he recently left the team
So, you're on a Heroes team in Korea. What's your team practice like?
Team Ghost is a very new team in Korea. So we had to decide who were going to play certain roles and shotcaller. It took us about a week to sort everything out and get to actual practice. Luckily, the roles given to each player on the team were all their main roles that we played on solo queues. We practice from 6PM to 12 AM everyday and other remaining time before sleep is spent to practice solo-queue or trio-queue to learn how to carry others, which we thought helped us with our personal performances.
Wow, so about six hours a day. Do you guys also attend school? Is it hard to manage that schedule?
No one attends school because we picked up players from Heroes solo queue who were really eager to play in the pro scene. Also, it wasn't so hard to manage the schedule because people came on time.
Nice, sounds like things are going well. So, moving on to what most foreign fans are really interested in-- The Korean 'roles' that have been listed online in player rosters. They're usually listed like this:
- Main Dealer
- Sub Dealer
- Main Tanker
- Sub Tanker
- Supporter
Can you tell us a bit about these roles, what does each of them mean, and maybe give an example of a hero that fits each role?
So people have fixed minds on the Meta at this point in Korean server. People think 1 Main Dealer, 1 Sub Dealer, 1 Main Tank, 1 Sub Tank, and a Support gives best chance to win on Random maps in 5 man queue. So Main Dealers are usually heroes like Tychus, Raynor, Valla, Falstead, Nazeebo, and Sgt Hammer. These damage dealers have very high burst damage or very constant damage for long periods of time and get the most support from supports in the team. Sub Dealers on the other hand are like Tassadar, Tyrande, Abathur, or any other heroes that are left on Main Dealers could fit on this if others are picked, banned or just not fit on the team comp that the team imagines. Main Tanks are heroes like Arthas, Chen, Stitches (Putrid Bile) and Diablo. These heroes don’t have strong CC but can survive for long period of time. Sub Tanks are heroes such as Stitches (with Gorge), Anub`arak, E.T.C, Illidan, Sonya, Muradin, and Tyrael. They have very strong CC which helps the team to initiate a team fight and cut one off before team fight begins. I would also like to say that Assassins also belong to this category. Koreans sometimes run 1 pure main tank listed above and runs Zeratul, Kerrigan, or Nova for early advantage. Supporters are heroes that heal and usually have strong CC. Heroes that fit in here are like Brightwing, Lili, Malfurion, Uther and Regar.
So you’re saying that a team might also choose to pick another ‘main dealer’ type instead of a ‘sub dealer’ if a hero that fits their comp is available?
Yes. Because it gives the other team more stress that they have another damage which makes them have to think harder about their targeting. Also, in tournaments, people often run another main dealer instead of a subtank, in order to block the other team from getting a main dealer that they want, or to just give them fewer choices. But those are all just strats.
Very informative. What’s the tournament structure right now? How are the tournaments in Korea doing picks and bans?
There is a very small online tournament in Korea right now Called Zotac Heroes Arena. This tournament does not have a ban system which makes the team with more OP heroes win the game if both teams are at the same level. People usually pick Brightwing first. Next priorities are Tychus, Arthas, Stitches, Falstad, Uther, Valla, Raynor, Chen and Abathur. The pick system is the same as ranked play in League (except no bans as mentioned), and will be the same as the upcoming ranked play in Heroes. But most Korean tournaments in the future will implement a ban system.
How many bans do you and most Koreans feel should be implemented in a tournament system?
One ban for each team, so a total of two bans. Two bans for each team is a total of four which is too much at this point where they can ban all the good and popular picks.
Can you tell me about the Korean teams that exist right now? How many are there, and do you think the scene is growing? Which team is the strongest?
Teams that that most Koreans know are TNL (Team No Limit), TNM(Team No Mercy), and Team Young. There are many other teams that are still forming and there soon will be an MVP Heroes of the Storm team in Korea which is not doesn’t yet have a finished player roster. At the moment I think TNL is the strongest team in the Korean scene because they have been practicing for the longest time of all the other teams, since NA alpha.
I know that
Sniper and 
duckdeok from SC2 switched over and play on TNL, but do you know of any other famous players that are practicing that we might not have heard about yet? I know you might not be able to say all of them, haha.Not really that I know of right now, but I know some OGN casting personalities are playing, and the ex-League pro Reapered.
Haha, okay. I’ll be on the lookout for any ex-pros I can find! Do you think the players that come from League of Legends are the strongest right now, or is there a lot of new blood coming into Heroes that’s talented? Also, what about the SC2 pros on TNL, have you played against them much?
For personal performances I think League of Legends players are the strongest right now. But it's possible that new young bloods coming into Heroes could be better in the longterm. I think SC2 pros on TNL are very good with their teamwork and it’s clear they put a lot of time and effort to this game. However, I think their personal performances could have limits because they weren't MOBA / AOS pro-players. I played against them in solo queues and in a tournament once and felt that their teamwork is very nice and who ever is shot-calling in the team gives makes very good decisions.
By personal performances, you mean their individual performances?
Yes. So if like, five League of Legends progamers come to this game and practice for a bit, I think they will beat TNL since all five of them have better MOBA mechanics, whereas TNL is all former RTS progamers.**
**The other players on TNL are former BW B-teamers, from what I could find
Gotcha. Last question, what are Koreans saying about balance? Are there any heroes that are too strong? Who is the weakest?
People say that Heroes balance is very unstable. Some heroes that people say are too strong are heroes like Chen who is very hard to play against if people don't know how to play against him or don't have any CC on the team to kill him. Also Zeratul in solo queues because of his later damage and Boss steals on certain maps. People also think Jaina should be buffed a little because she has no escape until level 13. Also people say that there should be a rework with invisibility to heroes like Nova and Zeratul should be changed to mana cost for every second that they are invisible.
Thanks so much for this interview, Beats! Do you have any shoutouts you want to make as we close this out?
I just want to say thanks to everyone out there who's interested in the developing Korean Heroes scene! You can watch my Heroes stream at http://tvpot.daum.net/yoopoong96.live
EDIT: Hotslogs Profile for those interested-- https://www.hotslogs.com/Player/Profile?PlayerID=354016
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