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[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Cattlepillar and Glau are roommates apparently.

Depends what the game counts it as. Any loss of control could be considered CC but some games only really count stuns/polymorph type abilities.

Felt like Dread didn't exactly know either at the time. I assume it's stats taken through their api.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

What the fuck is going on.

 

[Kioshen]

Man Glauraung is pretty quick to getting back to his old habits of going too deep on zeratul. He gave TS so much free XP for no reason.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I don't understand why they went varian over ETC.

Man Glauraung is pretty quick to getting back to his old habits of going too deep on zeratul. He gave TS so much free XP for no reason.

He never dropped them, he just didn't play much of Zeratul recently

Doesn't end well when Glau reverts to old ways.

 

[WonderRade]

ohhh glaurang, i like him. I think he has genuine passion for the game and is great to have on the scene, but it is crraaazzzyy how unstable it is to play with or against him. He definitely has some moments but it feels like other times its just a dry well.

I find myself rooting for team 8 alot but i think its cuz of justing, he seems really good. Although if I start thinking what team do I want representing NA I dont find myself getting behind any team in particular.

I dont know what it is about Tempo Storm but I just dont know how i feel about them, they definitely feel like they have the most synergy in NA but it still feels like they have some incomplete plays for sure.

Gale force doesnt seem dominant enough considering how much they are touted to be.

Everyone else is meh, naventic could maybe be something but they are very clearly held back.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Tempo Storm has no potential internationally, even dignitas farmed them in China. GFE and Naventic have that potential still imo, if they ever get their heads outta their asses.

Glau should sunset Illidan and possibly Zeratul and continue improving his hero pool in other directions. That has been working for him like nothing has last year.

 

[Dice]

Hammer time is bad and they should feel bad.

 

[Milly79]

AP ZJ is actually solid as fuck

 

[TheSadRanger]

AP ZJ is actually solid as fuck

Had a good ranked round with ZJ earlier and was amazed at how quickly I could demolish tanks.

If the enemy team doesn't have a strong single target healer (i.e morales or even malf) or some sort of back line harass you can completely annihilate an enemy frontline.

 

[brian!]

expert's team scales like crazy

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

expert's team is insane at goalkeeping turn in points. They've defended them 4v5

what they restarted? Fnatic already in a way better position getting that turn in, problem appeared to be on Expert's side though. Very risky core call, Malf and Zeebo have a lot of area denial and Leoric comes back early. More surprised it almost worked out.

 

[Maledict]

It feels like Europe has 4 decent teams now - Team Expert really capable of challenging the big 3 it seems. They took a game off dignitas last night and they already beat fnatic in game 1 here.

 

[brian!]

yeah for sure

i feel like medivh could have been one of those things that would have been good kept as a secret weapon, since expert spammed it so much it's gonna get banned constantly against them

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

graviton surge sulfuras incoming?

 

[brian!]

have no idea why dehaka was top that whole time

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Fnatic vs Dignitas is gonna be interesting. Ever since Fnatic beat MVP Black @Blizzcon their prowess has been a bit overestimated.

 

[kirblar]

Synergy's Falstad is godawful. Holy shit, use a goddamn gust.

edit: And why are you taking Longboat Raid if you're not willing to pop it when you need to?

 

[brian!]

how u gonna draft bw/illi and not take bw shield at 7

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Why would you pick Falstad there, Glaurung in particular loves that matchup on Zera

 

[Prelude.]

I still don't know if it's just the weekends (which happens to OW as well) or my MMR/noob players pool because I haven't even played 100 games yet, but these people I'm teamed up with sap my will to live. I just had a solo laning, triple tapping enemy holo decoys Nova, a Falstad with no Z button, a resurrecting into death Auriel in a single game.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Auriel taking resurrect was the first sign.


Man this game by TEAM 8 is a disaster. Edit: right as I say this they start turning it around.
How often does a team take a game after losing a keep this early and being behind so much early on. Sloppy play by GFE, hope they take the series since I want to see them at the clash more.

 

[brian!]

i thought clash was top 3?

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

It is. Forgot Naventic is out, haven't crunched the numbers on what it'd take for both to make it.

I'm gonna be crazy and call Glau Tyrael. Edit: Aw GFE spoiling it.

 

[Milly79]

Gfe is bad

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Wtf is going on with GFE. They have to take out tempo convincingly to recover from their last 2 losses, they should be better than this.

 

[Dice]

Hammer Time, my teammates don't listen to me for altars so we lose our lead and it's 2-2. Boss is up in 15 seconds so I mention that we just need to grab it for the win. Ping it, no one comes. Ping it again, no one comes. Set up some mines and ping again, no one comes. Start fighting it myself, a couple teammates ping that they want to grab it as well but inexplicably don't join me. I get it down to 1/4 life before dying, they never go get it despite me explaining that it is worth 3 points for instant win. Altars come up and I just know we're not going to grab the first one, and we don't, so we lose.

This is why I play AI.

 

[Milly79]

Bstep!!

 

[Celegus]

Gfe is bad

That's what happens when you have no warrior player. 4 flex and akaface, working so good.

 

[brian!]

lol mind control, hope bstep win

 

[Zackat]

well that was an easy gank with the MC

 

[Xeteh]

My winrate with Thrall is solid despite the fact that I don't feel like I contribute much.

 

[Zackat]

My winrate with Thrall is solid despite the fact that I don't feel like I contribute much.

he's probably my favorite hero. I think I have a 75% win rate on him or something. You can kinda just beast mode in QM, and he is never a bad pick in HL for the most part.

 

[brian!]

tyrande is actually a really great tech pick w/ varian, all the teams have been going ham trying to do taunt -> sulfurus, but tyrande's cds align a lot better w/ varian and the effect is pretty much the same

 

[Xeteh]

he's probably my favorite hero. I think I have a 75% win rate on him or something. You can kinda just beast mode in QM, and he is never a bad pick in HL for the most part.

I like him a lot but I'm not very good with him. I only play QM (zero desire to play hero league) but idk... I think I'm too aggressive with him, I'm not good at picking fights and I engage at bad times. Doesn't help that half of my QM games have no healer/warrior so I might end up being the only melee on my team.

I do like him a ton, I want to get better with him.

 

[Maledict]

What the hell is up with GFE? That's two losses they shouldn't have had, and whether they make the clash is up in the air now. Real shame as I like them as a team, but they seem to be really struggling.

Have to say though - NA is going to creamed at the clash. I think Team Expert could best any of them right now...

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Was a weird series it was decided by the draft all but the braxis game and the teams would just roll over the other.
You'd think with the range of heroes GFE has access to they'd take an easy 3-0 in that scenario.

 

[Maledict]

GFE has some incredibly talented players, and none of them stand out as a weak link like Kenma does in Nav. But something isn't working right now - like others, I suspect it's the lack of fixed roles which is hurting them. NA really seems to suffer from not having dedicated tank players.

On the plus side, the league format has done what was intended and thrown up some new teams who would have been buried under the old format. In Europe it looks like the big 3 will cling onto the top, but Team Expert are clearly chomping at their heels and might get there after the clash. In NA I'd say everyone's predictions have turned out wrong - Naventic doing so badly, and Team 8 being in contention are both surprises. Heck, I remember someone on THH saying that Chu8s team would be one of those fighting for relegation, and right now it looks like they are probably going to finish second.

(Similarly, Jhowe saying Tomster would be the breakout player and Naventic have done terribly - there's a good chance they will have to fight for relegation now. What the hell has happened with them?)

 

[Milly79]

What the hell has happened with NA period

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

It's the Buechters, when was the last time Zuna carried? BigE, bkid and Tomster are performing pretty well, they are a strong core if NVT finally kicks Kenma.

I think no tank player can work out for GFE once Khroen's and Equinox' pool intersects more.

 

[Maledict]

What the hell has happened with NA period

It's a real shame that one of the best casters (Dread) is stuck casting NA. The disbelief and confusion in his voice at what is happening is just sad. Compared to what NA uses to have with Tempostorm and Cloud 9 it's such a massive drop in quality. Some of the 'pro' matches could be hero league games.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Nah. Cloud 9 and Tempo Storm would both crash and burn right now, relatively the quality might have been better but the whole heroes scene has improved so much since.

 

[Maledict]

Oh, I don't doubt that (just remember how hard Navi fell!), but their quality at the time was high - they were legitimate top tier teams, who weren't blown out on the international circuit, and who set the met for their region. Admittedly, NA has always been behind the times on the meta (C9 murky game aside), but they still performed well.

What is the NA meta currently?

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Tempo was blown out on the international circuit.

Meta is Varian, Ragnaros, Tassadar, Valla and heroes that are good with those.

 

[Alur]

Heck, I remember someone on THH saying that Chu8s team would be one of those fighting for relegation, and right now it looks like they are probably going to finish second.

Well to be fair, that is basically what chu8 implied they were going to do on his appearance on THH. Shedding him and actually going into to full-on try hard mode has definitely helped because he made it clear in virtually every statement prior to leaving that they weren't going to practice very much.

If I had a team for this first season of HGC it'd be GFE, but honestly I'm more happy that a few of the forgotten or discarded teams/players are doing well and most importantly, Naventic is doing poorly.

Two other things: I wonder if (though the numbers aren't great the day after) Blizzard having this production and setup and being so quick on these VODs will create a nice little snowball for them financially on YouTube? I don't mean like bankroll the league, I just mean kind of in the way you might start a small savings account to buy something moderately expensive a year from now or something.

And damn I wish Lucio was going to be on live this week. Support on PTR is the penultimate shitshow from what I remember with Morales. I wonder what else they are putting on there that they feel needs to be tested?

 

[Maledict]

Tempo was blown out on the international circuit.

Varian, Ragnaros, Tassadar, Valla and heroes that are good with those.

Yeah but to be fair that's at the point where the team wasn't even speaking to each other thanks to the Funion saga (admittedly, Dig managed to come second and were in the same boat with their shotcaller not talking, but even so).

And re meta, so basically hero league games? ;-)

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Even before Blizzcon Tempo and Liquid got blown apart by MVP black in a summer event, with Cloud 9 showing they only suck against Tempo.

Hero League meta isn't completely disconnected from competitive

 

[Milly79]

The comps hardly varying made it hard to watch

 

[Maledict]

Even before Blizzcon Tempo and Liquid got blown apart by MVP black in a summer event, with Cloud 9 showing they only suck against Tempo.

C9 used to have a horrible time against Tempo because they wouldn't finish games. It was so annoying to see them dominate the game all the way to the end, then Tempo would win one team fight and core off that. They had a real issue with pressing their advantage.

(Part of which I assume was Tempos superior shot calling with Dread).

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Also a really enjoyable quirk of the NA competitive meta is Greymane, I've really missed him. Fnatic also ran him 1 game I believe.

 

[brian!]

It's the Buechters, when was the last time Zuna carried? BigE, bkid and Tomster are performing pretty well, they are a strong core if NVT finally kicks Kenma.

I think no tank player can work out for GFE once Khroen's and Equinox' pool intersects more.

Tbh bkid really stands out as a weak link to me, tho ofc everyone on the team has been having their own shitty play of the game. Na really is just full of bad teams right now, can't recall a game that didn't involve a needless throw. Still enjoy watching it tho