Interview with Team No Limit

by r_gg

As the first professional Heroes team to merge out of Korea, Team No Limit went through several ups and downs throughout their career. While they won Super League 2015 gloriously against MVP Black, they were unable to live up to expectations during Blizzcon's 2015 World Championship. Despite several hardships and slumps, the team managed to keep their roster in-tact, and still remains a force to be reckoned with. With GHL 2015 Grand Finals starting next week and the playoffs of Super League 2016 Season 1 soon after, TNL hopes to signal a new beginning of their legacy in 2016.

We were able to get in touch with Team No Limit before they left for China to ask a couple of questions about the state of the team, what they think about the different regions right now, and their outlook for upcoming tournaments.

Q. What are TNL's greatest strengths?

Our strong coordination of CCs followed by focus fire. Also our strong "macro" game.

NOTE: "macro" refers to lane rotations, merc pressure, objective/map control, etc.

Q. What is the secret to consistently remaining as the top team since early Alpha?

We think it's due to our team dynamics. We have very strong trust and faith in each other, so we don't breakdown due to small mistakes.

Q. TNL is currently the longest running 5-man team in professional Heroes of the Storm. What is the reason you were able to stay together despite several hardships?

Same answer as above. It's because we have strong faith in each other.

Q. What prompted you to start playing Heroes?

It is all thanks to the current OGN caster, aMeBa. Team No Limit would not have been born without him.

Q. As former SC2 players, what are some things from SC2 that helped in Heroes?

Detecting stealth heroes, and our ability to watch the mini-map and "macro" the game.

Q. What is each player's favorite hero to play? And a hero that you like having your teammate play?

Q. Who are the strongest heroes right now? What do you think about the current meta?

The draft seems to revolve around Muradin, Kael'thas, and Tyrande. The current meta focus too heavily on strong CC and ganks, but we think it is better than the waveclear meta from before.
However, heroes without strong CCs are too neglected right now, and Tyrande's Hunter's Mark feels too OP.

Q. Who is your biggest competitor in Korea right now?

It is MVP Black.

Q. Do you keep track of tournaments in other regions often? Which team or region are you keeping an eye on right now

We follow the Chinese and European meta quite often. The teams that we are watching out the most are China's eStar and Europe's Fnatic.

Q. You got to play against several teams from different regions at Blizzcon. How did you think about each region?

NA seemed to have very little restrain or prejudice in their drafting.
EU not only has wide range of drafts, but also tend to stay ahead of the meta compared to other regions.
China is quite similar to Korea. Rather than composition or strategy, we tend to focus more on mechanical plays and team fights.

Q. In Blizzard's monthly leaderboards, Korea tend to have more professional players actively participating in Hero League than other regions. What are your opinions on Hero League? Do you find it helpful in developing as a competitive player, or is it mostly "for fun"?

There are several different opinions about this even among our teammates. We do think the current Hero League matchmaking is a bit problematic. It might be due to the lack of players in Korean server, but there are times when Rank 1 players get matched with Rank 30 or 40 players.

Motivation to rank up is low compared to other games, and Grandmaster needs to be released quickly. People should be matched within the correct MMR, but there are often times when you get frustrated by players that do not understand the game.

But we don't think Hero League is completely useless. We think it is the correct place to build basic mastery of individual heroes.

Q. A couple of members of TNL, particularly sCsC, were seen playing Hero League quite actively during Blizzcon. How was NA server compared to Korea?

The queue time was a lot quicker, but the games in Korean server tend to be significantly higher up in skill.

Q. With the loss of sponsorship from China and some of the top-level teams disbanding, the practice environment in Korea must have gotten quite rough. How are you preparing for GHL grand finals?

It was definitely unfortunate that Team AsD had to disband, since we were together in China. Our situation in Korea is quite difficult, as you can imagine. Right now, we are each practicing at our homes through scrims and Hero League. The teams that we scrim with the most are RAVE and Danawa Joker.

Q. Whenever TNL is having trouble, there have always been concerns that "TNL is weak to meta changes". What does the team feel about those criticisms?

We don't think we are weak against shifts in meta. But it is true that we tend to go for safe picks and don't like changes. Due to our long career as professional gamers dating back to SC2, each tournament is very important for us so we tend to avoid taking risks. But we have been learning a lot from our new coach kinnu, who was the captain of AsD. We think we will be a lot more confident in our drafts this time.

Q. If things go well, you might be facing Cloud 9 again in GHL. What do you think about the match-up?

It will be great to meet Cloud 9 again at Gold League. We want to return our debts from Blizzcon.

Q. Which team are you most concerned about for GHL?

For GHL, eStar is our biggest threat.

Q. After coming back from GHL Season 2, some players of Cloud 9 expressed that they were unhappy about their experiences in China. They weren't able to scrim against China's top teams (eStar, EDG) as much as they wanted, and they found the practice environment to be poor. How were your experiences in China during Season 1? How was it like compared to Blizzcon in U.S.?

We can't say the practice environment during Season 1 was great, but since we have been practicing in even worse conditions back in Korea, we didn't have any problems. We were able to scrim frequently with players from EDG and eStar.

The training environment at Blizzcon had great setup, but we were all practicing in the same location so everyone was able to see each other. So technically, the conditions were better at Blizzcon, but you often had players and coaches from other teams watching over you so it was difficult to prepare surprise compositions or strategies.

Q. Are there any things you'd wish Blizzard to do for the scene?

We would like to see Blizzard hold more tournaments. Also, we think Blizzard needs to start making progamers become more like real professional athletes like Riot is doing. Blizzard used to be the founder of esports, but it is unfortunate that they are falling behind.

Q. Who will be your key player for upcoming GHL and Super League?

It will be sCsC.

Q. What are your goals for 2016?

Our ultimate goal is to go to Blizzcon again and win. For now, we want to win the GHL finals.

Q. Any words to the overseas audience?

We are always grateful to see people cheering for TNL, and we hope to do our best.

Remember to follow us @LiquidHeroes for up-to-date news coverage and top quality strategy articles! Teamliquid.net is the best source of information for all of your Heroes needs!

Interview with Korea's Team No Limit (ex-Team DK)

Interview with Team No Limit

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