After a chaotic match against the Seoul Dynasty, we sat down with Jonathan “HarryHook” Tejedor Rua of the Dallas Fuel to talk Stage 4, Season 1, the Spanish World Cup team’s prospects this year, and more.
Well Harry, it didn’t quite go the way you wanted it to today. What was the team struggling with? What did Seoul bring to the table that made things more difficult than anticipated?
Well, they prepared really well against us- though we did the same. They just did better in the game than us. For example, on Horizon, our idea was to set up on the right side- they know that, so they jump into us, we die, blah blah blah. There’s many ways to counter that, but we didn’t, and that’s our mistake- it’s not about plans or ideas, it’s just about adapting in the game. You have to know that “This is not working, let’s go for some other thing.” We have a plan B, we just never used it- because we’ve never needed to. We just didn’t adapt at all.
So speaking of planning… the big talk around Dallas has been Aero’s impact on the team. What is he going to say in the post match meeting with you guys?
We already had one- he pretty much told us just to think about the next game. Playoffs don’t matter so long as we grow as a team. That’s what we’re doing, right? Like, this is the first stage where we have a chance to make playoffs, and it’s hard, but I think we should still be proud of that.
It’s been a crazy season for the Fuel, and you’re not quite done- but what is the most important lesson you’ve learned this season so far?
When I think about lessons, I think about the coaching staff. For me, I had never had a coach before joining Team EnVyUs, so I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I think I’ve learned a lot about coaches since joining EnVy- about what to do, and why, and how to respect them. That’s a huge deal for me, at least.
What are your guys’ plans after stage 4? Win or lose, you’re gonna have a lot of downtime.
For myself, I’m gonna be doing tryouts for the Spanish World Cup team. I’ll be pretty busy with that, but I’ll get some practice at least, which is good. The rest of the team, I’m not too sure what they’re gonna do- I’d guess that they’re gonna do exactly the same, honestly. Besides that, well, there’s some time for a break in there somewhere.
Day one of Season 2. What skill do you want to go into that first game with that you don’t have right now?
Maybe improving my Mercy? Mercy is way too difficult to play in this meta, in my opinion. You have to know when to go aggressive and when to hang back, and you have to keep an eye on the Widow 24/7, which isn’t even your job. But if you’re team doesn’t do it, you kinda get… f****d. So it’s really risky to play her against a team like New York, for example, because they have Pine, and Pine plays super aggressive. You need to know how to move. For me, then, my goal will be to work on my Mercy play style, and how I play with the tanks.
With the tanks? That’s pretty important to consider, with how much the front line shifts in this meta. How is your game play affected by the variety of comps run in OWL right now like Rein/Zarya, Dive, or 3/3? What do you have to do differently?
So when you run 3/3- which is triple support, triple tank- you kinda need to poke the Rein a lot, or the Brigitte. You always need to have your priorities down. It always depends on how your team wants to play. If there’s a monkey, you can go aggressive with him- jump in, boost the monkey, go back, go back again and heal. As long as- and this is the most important thing- as long as you know where the Widow is. You don’t want to get shot. So let the monkey jump, wait for the moment when you know the Widow is busy, and then you can jump.
So you just have to wait until she’s preoccupied.
Exactly. The Widow is a priority. As a priority target, your main tank (which is monkey in this situation) has to take care of it. Widows and Tracers can take care of her too. No matter what, though, I will never engage unless the Widow is busy, and I know I’m not gonna get shot- at least not right away.
Going back to the World Cup- do you think the roster is going to be largely the same as last year? Has there been an influx of Spanish talent stepping up that you can work with?
This is actually a really interesting point- we have a new tank, his name is Network, and he’s actually really good. Like, not “just the best we have, so we have to play him,” no, he’s actually good. So I think we can definitely improve in that way.
The only problem right now is that we have three supports- Dhak, me, and Neptun0. We need to feel the best way we can- Neptun0 is playing DPS right now, I’m playing Zen and Mercy, Dhak is doing the same. I think at least for sure we’re gonna do better than last year.
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