Lockdown, Hide, and duckdeok return as Team Tempest

By: r_gg

Lockdown and Hide brothers are back in action, and they are joining forces with former Team MRR players, duckdeok, dami, and HongCoNo as Team Tempest. They are the ultimate dream team to shake up the Korean scene in Super League 2016 Summer Season, and they will be having their debut match against TNL on April 27th 10:00 GMT (+00:00).

As the founder of the infamous Korean Triple Warrior composition, MRR was a team that was extremely successful when it comes to consistently taking games off of MVP Black, with all their encountering going the full distance. MRR’s hyper aggression and their raw team fighting prowess was something that would often catch the old MVP Black off-guard. With the addition of two top-level players with a long history with MVP, Team Tempest could potentially be the “MVP Killer” that everyone is clamoring for, but they would have to first fight their way through Super League's group stage before they get a chance against the reigning world champion.

Team Tempest

Hide (Captain, Flex) - former MVP Sky
Lockdown (Flex) - former MVP Black
dami (Flex) - former MRR, Young Boss, SupermeMixtape
HongCoNo (Flex) - former MRR, Young Boss, SupremeMixtape
duckdeok (Warrior) - former TNM, MRR

Lockdown and Hide were one of the original members of MVP Black, and Lockdown was at the cornerstone of MVP Black’s success in 2015. He ended up leaving MVP Black at the end of 2015 in order to join up with his brother, Hide, who left Team MVP after struggling to find success in MVP Sky. Many fans were concerned when the two brothers disappeared from the scene during Spring 2016 season, but the two has finally returned as promised.

Dami and HongCoNo (aka RichardLee, EverGreen, RaverLord) are considered one of the most mechanically gifted duos of Korea. Similar to MVP Black’s Rich, both are former LoL Challenger players that have experience playing in LoL’s Kespa Cup. They joined the Heroes scene in summer of 2015 in Team MRR, and were the driving force of MRR’s aggressive 3-warrior composition that took the scene by storm. While they were relative newcomers to Heroes back in 2015, the two have gained considerable amount of experience over the past few months. Lately, the two have shown strong love for non-meta Heroes, showing no hesitation to pick Heroes such as Cho’Gall, Butcher, Nazeebo, Li Li, Azmodan, etc during their time at Young Boss and SupremeMixtape last season.

Duckdeok, a former WCS champion in SC2, was part of TNL’s sister team, TNM back in Closed Beta, and were the main warrior for Team MRR. He originally retired from the scene at the end of last year when he was part of Team Snake. However, he re-surfaced when he was spotted in Hero League matches on merryday’s Azubu stream during the release of Li-Ming. While he claimed he had no intention of coming back to the competitive scene back then, he debut as a temporary caster for OGN during the Spring World Championship, and now he is back on the frontline with two of his former teammates.

Based purely on the lineup, Tempest has more than what it takes to be the top 4 team of the region, and maybe even threaten a spot for the global stage. We had a chance to have a short interview with the team to get a look at what they hope to accomplish in this season:

Interview with Tempest

Q. Can you give us a short team intro?

Hi, I am Team Tempest’s Captain, Hide.
We are a team that was composed of former-MRR players: dami, duckdeok and HongCoNo and my brother Lockdown. We are a brand new team, so please give us some love.

Q. To Lockdown & Hide: It’s been about year since both of you have played together in a team when MVP Black was first started. How is it like to play together again on the team? Are there any difficulties in giving honest feedback or shotcalling because you are brothers?

Lockdown: We continued playing together even when we were on separate teams, so there weren’t any troubles syncing up our plays. We give constant feedback with each other and the shotcalling has been pretty smooth so things are going well.

Hide: We both started playing this game together, and we know each other well, so there’s no difficulty in staying honest to each other. Our teammates give us plenty of feedback on our plays too, so everything looks great so far.

Q. To Dami: Your Butcher plays have never ceased to amaze me. Where do you think Butcher stands in the current meta? How do you feel about the new changes to “Lamb to the Slaughter” where they added silence for longer CD?

I think the viability of Butcher is more about the skill of the player rather than the meta, so I think there’s plenty of room to use him right now. I tend to be a player that don’t worry too much about ult cooldowns. The new “Lamb” is incredibly effective against supports if it lands, so I really like it.

Q. To HongCoNo: Your hero pool has been growing at an incredible rate throughout your times playing in MRR and YoungBoss. Recently, you’ve shown a tendency to pick non-meta Heroes rather than going for so-called “1st Tier” picks. Who is the Hero you are most enjoying right now?

Among the so-called “non-meta” Heroes, I’m liking Azmodan right now. I actually think Azmodan has too many upsides for him to be considered a “non-meta” pick, so I think you’ll get to see him quite a bit in upcoming tournaments.

Q. To Duckdeok: In Super League 2015, you made a name for yourself as the “Muradin Master”, when Muradin wasn’t as quite a common pick as now. How do you rate other player’s Muradin compared to yours?

I think there are some incredible Muradin players out there, and I have lot to learn from them. I can’t quite compare myself to them yet since I didn’t get to show too much of my skills, so I think they are stronger for now.

Q. Please tell us your goals for upcoming Super League, and a word to the foreign Heroes of the Storm fans.

Duckdeok: Our goal is of course to win, but even if we don’t make it, we will fight on with good sportsmanship.

HongCoNo: If possible, I would like to use underrated Heroes that aren’t being picked in tournaments. I’m really grateful for foreign fans who love seeing unorthodox Heroes such as Cho’Gall. We’ll try our best to meet your expectations.

Dami: We will present you with spectacular plays that you have yet to see in Heroes. Be prepared

Lockdown: We will work hard for everyone who loves Heroes of the Storm.

Hide: I am always grateful for the fans that always showed interest in how I was doing. I will do my best to live up to their expectations in the upcoming tournaments.