The current meta is an interesting one for flex support players. The 3-3 archetype is well founded at this point, but the options you have at flex support are many and varied – something Victor “Scaler” Godsk has been taking full advantage of.
With a variety of heroes and play styles to learn while playing for EU Contenders team One.PoinT, I figured it would be a good idea to sit down with him and talk a bit about what makes this meta tick, and what makes his team so good. His responses have been pretty enlightening, so enjoy!
Alright, introduce yourself! Who are you, what’s your story in Overwatch?
I’m Scaler, and I’m currently the flex support for One.PoinT in EU Contenders. We also played together last season, where we made playoffs. I’ve been playing Overwatch since the release of the game. I didn’t play in beta, but I’ve been scrimming right under the highest level – right under the current Overwatch League players, ever since the game released.
And are you balancing anything else alongside trying to go pro? Are you going to school, or working?
I used to balance Overwatch and school, but for the last year and a half, it’s been only Overwatch. I’m just trying to make it at this point, even though it can be super stressful without financial stability.
In your earlier days in the competitive scene, you played with a team called Golden Sausage. There’s not much info on this team out there, but I definitely want to hear about it. What was that team like? What’s your fondest memory there, and who else was on that team?
A lot of my currently good friends were on it, actually. Izzy from Shu’s Money Crew and Nlaaer from Atlanta Reign are some notable names from the team. We were a top Tier 2 team, I think, at the time? We played in the tournaments that were available for Tier 2. This was a time where there wasn’t really anything going on for Tier 2, since Tier 1 was Contenders back then, so we mainly just scrimmed and kept ourselves warm for whenever changes were about to happen to the scene.
So Curryshot joined your team a couple weeks ago at this point, and I’ve been asking everyone about a point he made – he said that EU is “ahead” in their understanding of the meta right now. Would you agree?
Yeah, I definitely agree. I think GOATS is really strong right now, and EU has been playing it ever since Brigitte came out and made the comp strong. And right now, NA and even Korea are just trying to catch up. And we think – we’ve obviously been watching VODs and such – we think that we have a bigger understanding of how GOATS is stronger.
Speaking of Curryshot, what’s it been like working with him overall? How does he stack up to other coaches you’ve worked with?
We tried out some coaches for this season, and we felt like most coaches were kind of trying to dictate our team. Like, telling us what to play and why we should play it. CurryShot, though, he obviously understands the meta, but he also lets us play what we want – what we feel like we’re strong at. He also has a lot of knowledge in the mental perspective of playing professionally, so that’s why I feel like he’s a really good coach for us.
Who’s a player that you’ve looked up to in Overwatch? Someone whose style you’ve tried to replicate, perhaps?
Definitely Alarm from NA Contenders – he plays for Fusion University right now. I think he’s really good, and I feel like his play style is more passive than others, which is why i like watching him. I value discipline a lot as a player.
Out of all the teams in EU Contenders right now, who would you consider to be One.PoinT’s biggest challenger?
Probably Samsung, I think. They have really good players from different previous teams that they set up together, and they’re now in a gaming house so they can isolate their focus on Overwatch. I think their tank play is really good, probably the best in Contenders right now, and we focus a lot on playing tanks, too. So I think they’re our biggest rival.
And if you could play a LAN show match against any Contenders team, who would you want to play against?
You’re a bit off brand from the rest of your teammates on this one. Most have said Fusion University outright. Horthic mentioned the need to drive home the fact that EU was better for a second time.
I know, but I think it has something to do with me coming from a background in League of Legends – Koreans have always been so dominant, so it has always kind of been a personal goal for me to win against a Korean team in any game.
So the current perception (for some people) is that EU does GOATS better than anyone – and One.PoinT is definitely on that list of teams that does it very well. Despite that, would you say you’re tired of playing GOATS yet?
I like playing it, but mostly because we’re good at it. Well, I do miss the flexibility of changing to dive comp in scrims and such, because it just made the game more enjoyable to play different stuff. But I really like to play the comp still, I don’t get tired of it.
Do you think Ashe will have any impact on that trend, or the meta in general?
I don’t really think so – I don’t think she’s strong enough. I think only B.O.B. can disrupt a team playing tanks, but I don’t think that she can do anything against shields and D.Va’s Defense Matrix.
Do you agree with the common sentiment that Brigitte is the big “problem” with GOATS’s dominance right now? Could there be other things that could also be changed to break up the meta?
I think Brigitte is the reason why you can play Zenyatta, mainly. I don’t think she’s the reason why GOATS is strong – obviously, giving armor to the whole team when she has ultimate is big, but I think D.Va is actually the main problem. If D.Va couldn’t Matrix as much, then you could play double spam comps like Junkrat/Pharah-Hanzo and such into GOATS, which we’ve seen before. That can work, but D.Va and Reinhardt’s shields just do too much to negate damage in spam comps.
So why do you think EU as a region is so largely overlooked by OWL teams? (With the exception of Paris, of course.)
I think there’s a money issue, because I’ve heard that visas just became even more expensive when trying to move to another country and play. That’s obviously an economic issue. But I think the lack of tournaments really effects EU. I don’t think people really watch EU Contenders that much, compared to NA and Korea. Maybe that’s changed this season, but before this season I think EU was just overlooked by everyone – and that makes it pretty hard for the Overwatch League to scout the talent effectively, I think.
So would you say that the best exposure you guys could get at this point would just be more tournaments? EU specific LANs or online tournaments?
Yeah, I think more tournaments could do it, but even just making Contenders more competitive would help, I think. There are changes coming now to Contenders like, with LAN not being a thing, but I think LANs are just something you need to have to make it interesting to watch.
What message would you send to an OWL scout that’s maybe on the fence about considering EU talent for their team? How would you convince them that One.Point is worth it, or that any EU team is worth it?
Mainly the fact that we’re still here. We’re still playing the game, even though very few of us in EU even have jobs. There’s obviously some people that go to school and have day jobs, but a lot of us don’t do anything apart from playing, which I think really shows our dedication to the game. Even though you could say the game isn’t doing well apart from the Overwatch League itself, we’re still grinding, and we keep going because this is what we want.
And for my last question – what message would you send to fans who have been watching you play since the beginning?
I would say that I hope that they keep watching, so they can see us when we finally get into the Overwatch League as individuals. I really think that everyone in my team, at least, has the potential to be part of the Overwatch League.
STAY UP TO DATE
Follow me on Twitter @thibbledork! Ask me questions, or tell me how I’m doing!
You can also message me on Discord! (thibbledork#0282)
Featured Image Courtesy of Liquidpedia
Follow The Game Haus for more esports and sports stories!!
Twitter: TGH Esports
Facebook: The Game Haus