Support NeoGAF

[kirblar]

What does any of that stuff have to do with archon mode though? I thought archon mode was just like coop starcraft (macro/micro mod if you're familiar), are their super units and stuff in there too?

You both have full control of everything, IIRC. This would enable something like Gall taking command if Cho D/Cs. (please be in game please be in game.)

Didn't they just say at Blizzcon that it's the same team now?

That's because SC2 is shipping and requires much less maitenance and content post-launch. HOTS has been a separate sub-team sharing the same art team.

Arthlon/Zuna have left TS per Jake. (I had the wrong one pegged.)

 

[Ketch]

I thought it would have been soldier and zuna.


still not seeing the connection to archon mode tho.

 

[Alur]

You both have full control of everything, IIRC. This would enable something like Gall taking command if Cho D/Cs. (please be in game please be in game.)

Already been asked at the panel. It's not, but they improved the ping system for Cho-bot til they can get it in.

 

[Ketch]

did they say anything about the reconnect system at blizzcon?

 

[Alur]

Attempting to reconnect you to the Blizzcon query answering server...

Spoiler

aka no

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I think I called Arthelon at least.

That means no Sylvanas obsession for TS

 

[Alur]

Annoucement is out?

EDIT: Yep, those were my two guesses as well. So1dier had pretty much confirmed on stream that he wasn't one.

 

[Ketch]

Annoucement is out?

https://tempostorm.com/articles/tempo-storm-releases-zuna-and-arthelon

 

[Alur]

Arthelon's comments are interesting as fuck.

It's been a year and a half with Dread Kaeyoh and So1dier. I will probably explain more later, but although this sorta paints me in a bad light, I did not want to play with the team anymore after blizzcon. I have one goal and that is to to be one of the best players on one of the best teams. 2016 i hope to pull that off! Best of luck to tempo, it was a hell of a ride.

Then someone was like YOU WERE one of the best players on the best team and he says:

We were one of the best teams, but only because other teams hadnt become good yet, not that we were really good players. Ill be on a new team soon, none of the current sponsored teams or amateur ones though

Someone else said there was a rumor Zuna and Arthelon wanted rid of Zoia as manager:

Thats not even close to being true. Me zuna and solidr wanted zoia not to be manager for other reasons

FOTS SHIRED and all that. Damn. Arthelon going hambone.

EDIT: Added more comments.

 

[Ketch]

That still sounds like he's just salty that c9 has better players then them.

Tempo always won games on the back of team play and strategy not raw mechanical skill. I mean they're really really good players, not the best tho, but they made up for it with teamwork and ruthlessly ending games.


Sad for arth because he'll never be as good as king caffeine or idream.


Zoia needs to go. This whole fiasco is a failing of team management more then anything else.

 

[Alur]

Wouldn't Arthelon be more comparable to k1pro and Fan/iDream (depending on which point in the year you choose for the normal ranged assassin as they swapped and Fan went ranged/flex with iDream going melee/flex about the time they started winning again)? KingCaffeine is always tanking. He's the best in the world, but it's not exactly apples to apples.

I'm the rare dude who loves Zoia mind games, skullduggery, showmanship, and general asshattery 95% of the time. I think it's good for Heroes of the Storm and storylines. It would be better for Tempo Storm if they went on without him though.

He can be the Official Observer (TM) and focus on that and podcasting and casting games and Tempo can rebuild around whoever sticks around once they find out what options are available.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

Man, I've been getting put into games with rank 1-5 people for no clear reason. I felt like I never saw them before, and now it seems I get them every game. They're almost always ultra toxic and fly off the handle at the smallest mistake. I didn't always check to see if they were a 3/4 stack, so maybe it's just the time of day I play or something I dunno. Like the last game I played was two 4-stacks with me and some other rando on the other side, so I guess it just found two people in solo queue with similar MMR and threw us in with the sharks.

 

[Ketch]

Zoias bullshit is good for a hots personality but not for a team manager. Managing an esports team is hard work not for clowns and I think he did a Terri lie job handeling it by large. Bringing it up oh THH in the first place. Bitching about it on THH later. Letting your team fall apart publicly before the big event in general... Like that's your job. Keeping the team together. Not being a loudmouth. Just being on THH as a regular host in the first place is kind of messed up.


I mentioned KC and idream because i think they're the two best players in the world and I feel like arths statements imply that he thinks he's that good. He is one of the best in NA but I don't think he's good enough to quite TS and somehow get better results. Tempo wasn't holding arthelon back. Like, holding him back from what?


As a plus TS dropping not one but two assassin players leaves the door wide open for TS.McIntyre.

 

[Alur]

As much as I'd love to see that, I dunno if it works. I would assume they are wanting someone who is awesome as well as someone who is the opposite of the Zuna/Arth mold that reddit is describing (always disgruntled/disagreeable, individual player, etc.).

Mc is legit awesome at this video game for sure. That said I don't know that he's a dude willing to take orders and fall in line and keep his mouth shut. Doesn't seem like his personality. He's always struck me as a guy who wants to lead or at least influence the leadership and who knows if he can get that with Dread in place. Last time Dread gave up some of his power TS went on a tailspin of epic proportion until they kicked Glau.

I guess ultimately we don't even know that any of them or all of them are staying with Tempo Storm though. Could be a whole new roster or just Dread or just Kaeyoh and So1dier or what have you. I wanna see TSM and CLG in HOTS like yesterday now that we know about all the money that's going to be in the scene next year.

 

[kirblar]

They likely know who they want to grab already given Zoia's comments. Trying Mc would make an enormous amount of sense.

 

[Ketch]

As much as I'd love to see that, I dunno if it works. I would assume they are wanting someone who is awesome as well as someone who is the opposite of the Zuna/Arth mold that reddit is describing (always disgruntled/disagreeable, individual player, etc.).

Mc is legit awesome at this video game for sure. That said I don't know that he's a dude willing to take orders and fall in line and keep his mouth shut. Doesn't seem like his personality. He's always struck me as a guy who wants to lead or at least influence the leadership and who knows if he can get that with Dread in place. Last time Dread gave up some of his power TS went on a tailspin of epic proportion until they kicked Glau.

I guess ultimately we don't even know that any of them or all of them are staying with Tempo Storm though. Could be a whole new roster or just Dread or just Kaeyoh and So1dier or what have you. I wanna see TSM and CLG in HOTS like yesterday now that we know about all the money that's going to be in the scene next year.

There was a lot of talk of Zuna helping with draft and calls as well when they were meshing. I honestly don't get the feeling your describing on McIntyre. Yes I understand it comes from the circumstances of his separation from col but I really think that has to do with the rest of those guys being total douchers (look at what's gone on there since they ditched him). Like trammel erho thinking they're better then they are & not wanting to listen to mc who is actually way better then them.

If dread and Mac get along it could be pretty fucking amazing and I think any chance of TS.macintyre is entirely dependent on those two getting along.



Edit: I don't know about the money next year. What was the big esports announcement?

 

[WonderRade]

From what little I have paid attention to THH, Zoia doesnt seem all that great to me.

But i tend to hear alot of negative things about him, so IDK

 

[Alur]

2016 Global Championship Circuit was announced. 3 regional tournaments leading into 3 international LAN's with $500,000 price pool at each international event (aka the Blizzcon prizepool we just had). Spring/Summer/Fall for the tourneys.

There's also a little more:

Additionally, in order to help feed players and teams into regional competition, we’re going to not only hold open qualifiers, but will also partner up with major tournament organizers to run sanctioned third party tournaments as part of the Global Championship Circuit.

And re: Mc, Erho was gone well before he was IIRC. I dunno about the others.

 

[Ketch]

I thought erho was the one who ditched him at the qualifiers leaving him without a full roster to play.



Really interested in turn burgers opinions on all this.

 

[Alur]

Oh, you're talking about Bad Blood then. That was after Complexity. I thought we were only talking about Complexity.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I was always surprised how professional Zoia turned out to be when it counted and you can be sure he vetted it with his boss before he dropped the bomb. If he didn't he'd be out of his job within seconds for hurting the brand.

And he did it not for personal reasons, probably venting his frustrations as well, but so no team would be caught in such a position again hopefully.
Who knows where C9 would have been at this tournament if they had been locked into their team since june. Dignitas wouldn't have existed if Gamers 2 were locked into their roster.

Blizzard and his team weren't going to work with him so he put pressure on both parties by making the situation public.

I thought it understandable that the Braveheart situation made him go on a rant, unprofessional, sure, but that THH is unprofessional is by design has been established time and again.


Arthelon was always a player that never stood out to me, he's the guy you forget. The drummer basically. Interesting though that he mentions a new team which makes it sound like there's new players entering the field, which is a positive sign.

My sides, thank fuck people only take the Siege Giants way too early in my MMR range

 

[Ketch]

I guess I'm just trying to say that I think it's more like Mac has just been surrounded by the types of players you're describing rather then being one himself.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Ad McIntyre

McIntyre has a team in the works already, they're just missing a support player/waiting for the next series of tournaments to start.

 

[Alur]

I hope so. I want to see him on a top team. And it's not even in his interest to join a team that won't be a surefire bet because it'll be a step back in pay otherwise.

 

[kirblar]

Someone brought it up on Reddit- ZPs is already on the TS banner- did they want to bring him in to pinch hit, maybe? Would make sense for him to be an alt for them if he doesn't go for another team.

 

[Maledict]

It's the one thing that makes HoTS really stand out.

Wonder why Lunara is an assassin when Nazeebo is a specialist

Name I is only a specialist because he's a character from early design when they didn't really know what to do with the specialist tag or traits. He's been improved over time but he's absolutely an assassin and not a specialist (and his trait remains pretty poor compared to newer heroes).

 

[kirblar]

Zeebo's trait is a bit deceptive- it's fantastic for lane sustain and is a big part of why he's so good n uncoordinated QM. Healing without a healer is terrific.

 

[Maledict]

Sorry, Gould have clarified - I find it a really boring trait, and it's a built in last hitting trait which I really don't like. It sounds like Lunara will have a lot more that plays off her trait poisoning people, which is what Nazeebo should do as well.

 

[Milly79]

Zoias bullshit is good for a hots personality but not for a team manager. Managing an esports team is hard work not for clowns and I think he did a Terri lie job handeling it by large. Bringing it up oh THH in the first place. Bitching about it on THH later. Letting your team fall apart publicly before the big event in general... Like that's your job. Keeping the team together. Not being a loudmouth. Just being on THH as a regular host in the first place is kind of messed up.

I think he went public so the fans wouldn't be like wtf when they eventually lost out. Maybe I'm saying that because they got bodied by BH, but idk.

RIP Arth
RIP Zuna

Really curious who they pick up. I was listening to an old THH yesterday and they were mentioning that there isn't much FA talent out there and you'd likely have to snipe from other teams. Has the scene grown enough yet?

 

[brian!]

Gota echo arth on ts not being particularly good and it being a matter of time until the other teams caught up, thats kind of how i always felt about this game skill/knowledge-wise, excited to see where teams are at come 2016 (will we begin to see more league imports?). Murloc geniuses looked on the rise to me

 

[Maledict]

Yep, think we've all commented at some point how TS win games through better map control and an ability to end games, whereas other teams with better mechanical skills didn't do that and lost games they should have won. I remember one game on Tomb between Tempo and C9 that C9 clearly should have won, but despite having taken out Jaina at the 22 minute mark they didn't just end the game - which you can guarantee Tempo would have done. Eventually other teams figured out how to strategically play like Tempo, and punish Tempo for their weaker team fighting skills early on.

Tempo was in many ways the opposite of Team Liquid in Europe - TL had far superior mechanical skills with Illidan and Zeratul, which allowed them to win games with comps that absolutely shouldn't work. Once other teams improved in mechanical play they fell apart.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

The coming weeks will be very interesting, Stellar Lotus apparently already parted with one of their players.

TL still has a 2 spots to fill, Fnatic has to find a new tryout instead of Blackscorp, Virtus Pro gotta make more changes than just Kunichan,...

Blizzard's push next year should attract new sponsors and talents. It's almost more exciting to witness than finals.

 

[Maledict]

What happened with Blackscorp and Fanatic?

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

He was recruited to try out with them, participated in one tourney where they lost in the finals. Then there was some tweet of him hinting he'd quit.

Blizz is already nuts with the sponsors on the face of it, league only had one sponsor for their lesser tourney (coke), i dont pay enough attention to dota but they probably have none as the only real tourney valve has is largely crowdfunded.

I was referring to sponsors looking for teams. I'm gonna need a Windows 10 Game DVR Replay of all of Blizzard's sponsors to remember them.

 

[brian!]

Blizz is already nuts with the sponsors on the face of it, league only had one sponsor for their lesser tourney (coke), i dont pay enough attention to dota but they probably have none as the only real tourney valve has is largely crowdfunded.

 

[Alavard]

Blizz is already nuts with the sponsors on the face of it, league only had one sponsor for their lesser tourney (coke), i dont pay enough attention to dota but they probably have none as the only real tourney valve has is largely crowdfunded.

Yeah, I was more than a little surprised to see the jump from the Americas (Gigabyte and those pizza rolls...) qualifiers to Blizzcon (where we had Microsoft Windows 10 and Intel).

 

[Alur]

Like I said, I'd love to see some of these major (or maybe I should say popular?) team sponsors get into the mix here.

TSM McIntyre? EG McIntyre? CLG McIntyre? Archon McIntyre? TiP McIntyre?

Wouldn't you love to see one of those? Any of those would look good. With Blizzard backing and funding not only regional qualifiers and international LANs 3x a year (and presumably a 4th for Blizzcon), as well as open qualifiers, I think it's safe to assume we'll see an influx of some new talent as well as more Titan Arena/Kings of the Storm/HTC Invitational type events but with bigger prize pools now...

...which means that surely one or two of those teams will get involved, right? It seems like a no brainer for EG to come back. TSM has a Smite team already, would make sense for them to get into HOTS with this kind of money available. etc etc.

Like Familie said, watching what happens with the teams/sponsors and further news from Blizzard will be pretty exciting. Maybe not Doublelift to TSM level of shock, but still.

 

[brian!]

Would love tsm for sure, my fav
Arth said hes getting into a new org i think, i dunno if zuna is burnt out by the community or still playing, id guess the latter tho since the money is starting to come in

 

[Alur]

IIRC from what Zoia or one of them had said one of the players no longer wanted to play HOTS at all. Since we know Arthelon already has a team, I'd assume that's Zuna.

And yeah I'd like to see TSM too. Need someone to compete with TS for ultimate heel team.

 

[brian!]

Ugh arth and zuna on tsm talking shit on ts would make the best heel team

 

[Yoshichan]

Question

If I get sponsors, let's say Razor. And I break one of the Razor products on stream (rage), will they send me a new product? Is there a chance that they might remove me from the sponsorship because of this act?

 

[brian!]

Yes to both i guess

 

[Ketch]

Idk you guys act like TS wasn't clearly better then every team but one in NA and most of the teams in EU. Even mechanically, they're still really fuckin good.


I would much rather see Mac in TS then a new org with with a bunch of sitters.

 

[brian!]

Ts was contextually good id say, i dont think anyone is saying they were bad

 

[Alur]

Like the others said, I do think TS was good. But all along we noted how they were just so superior late with the shotcalling and timing and that was their real advantage. Even when outgunned Dreadnaught pulled them through. Once the other teams gelled and the skill level improved even further, they kind of lost their edge.

As you said, C9 always had the better players in nearly every role but they couldn't put it together. I feel like Cognitive and part of the new Complexity roster are both on the level of Tempo Storm in player skill (better in some spots, worse in others so that it evens out) since August or so. They just lack the Dreadnaught to make it go.

Question

If I get sponsors, let's say Razor. And I break one of the Razor products on stream (rage), will they send me a new product? Is there a chance that they might remove me from the sponsorship because of this act?

Haha, I'm hoping this is hypothetical?

If you did your patented desk judo chop or lamp destruction, etc. on stream you'd have a shitton of viewers for a while, at least. Maybe the viewers would eventually get tired of it, maybe the numbers would continue to rise. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which streams Twitch viewers accept salt from gladly and egg it on or spurn because of being salty.

Those viewers would get you sponsors, but I dunno if the sponsors take action or not. I guess if it were visible equipment (headphones, for example) they might send you some new ones. I can't say I've ever seen them pull a sponsorship for saltiness unless you got straight nasty with some slurs or something, but I've never paid that much attention either.

 

[Turdburger]

Zoias bullshit is good for a hots personality but not for a team manager. Managing an esports team is hard work not for clowns and I think he did a Terri lie job handeling it by large. Bringing it up oh THH in the first place. Bitching about it on THH later. Letting your team fall apart publicly before the big event in general... Like that's your job. Keeping the team together. Not being a loudmouth. Just being on THH as a regular host in the first place is kind of messed up.


I mentioned KC and idream because i think they're the two best players in the world and I feel like arths statements imply that he thinks he's that good. He is one of the best in NA but I don't think he's good enough to quite TS and somehow get better results. Tempo wasn't holding arthelon back. Like, holding him back from what?


As a plus TS dropping not one but two assassin players leaves the door wide open for TS.McIntyre.

Ketch none of this makes any sense. Zoia talking about the issues on THH was clearly an organizational decision made AFTER there seemed to be no other option. Arthelon made his decisions far before (as in, months) Zoia ever talked about anything publicly. And honestly, the reasons for bringing it up publicly were valid. No names were mentioned and it brought awareness to some of the major issues that the HotS esports model had.

None of us know anything about the internal workings of that team. Zoia likely held that team together on a day-to-day basis. Sitting here pining about his team management capabilities based solely on what was clearly a decision made in coordination with Reynad to talk about the issues publicly is ludicrous.

If you really have a problem with that I'd take it up with Reynad, honestly. That guy is a total shithead and his organization (and Zoia as well pretty often) reflects that entirely. Zoia doesn't talk about that stuff without talking to Reynad about it first.

To me it looks like Arthelon and Zuna got butthurt when C9 started catching up and either felt like they were better than the team or just straight disagreed with how the rest of the team handled it. They clearly didn't like Dreadnaught and didn't see eye to eye with him and his team leadership.

Honestly I hope Mac stays far away from that shit stain of an organization.

 

[brian!]

Maybe i have high standards (probably, its from watching mobas tho!) but ts's famouz shotcalling and decisiveness should be a given for the top 5-6 teams at least, it shouldnt be a special thing, esp since the game has kind of a flowcharty style, i think this part of what arth means when he says ts wasnt particularly good but a lot of the na teams were particularly bad

 

[Alur]

Definitely agree re: shotcalling. Should be a given.

I think HOTS is probably still a bit in the "best player calls the shots/has to be the captain" and not "best person for the job".

I'm sure there's great shotcallers out there languishing on teams with a great player making subpar drafts and calls. Cognitive I'm looking at you bb.

 

[Mengy]

Free rotation for November 10th - November 17th:

Chen
Malfurion
Thrall
Tyrael
Valla

Unlocked level 12: Sergeant Hammer
Unlocked level 15: Lt. Morales



Cool, I'll finally get to try out the Medic in actual games!

 

[brian!]

Siege drop free week Kreygasm

@Arth and zuna feeling salty after msi, one of the things someone from ts said in the tourney after was something like "as long as we dont face c9 in another bo10 we'll be ok", you could taste the salt.