Now that the 2020 Overwatch League season has commenced, the players to watch have started to show themselves. The Philadelphia Fusion had a roster shake-up this year, and kept only a handful of veterans so they could bring on some new talent.
TGH was able to speak with one of the new support players on the team Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway about his transition to the Fusion and what it’s like moving to Philadelphia.
TGH: What is it like living in Philadelphia?
FunnyAstro: It’s great. We have a pretty nice apartment. A great practice facility right next to our apartment, I mean, it’s a really nice area to live in to be honest. It’s not bad weather, I actually kind of like it when it’s cold, it’s better than it being too hot. It can easily get hotter you can put more blankets on!
TGH: What about living in Philly has surprised you so far?
FunnyAstro: I’ve been to a lot of cities in my life, it’s nothing really special, but I really like Philly cheesesteaks. I’ve been eating them practically every day.
TGH: Where do you order them from?
FunnyAstro: I normally just order from Steve’s in Center City. Steve’s is really good!
TGH: Have you found any other go-to restaurants or food shops?
FunnyAstro: There’s this place in Chinatown called Chubby Cattle. It’s so good. We went there after both our wins last week. We had some really nice Wagu Beef, it was delicious. We’ve been there a few times now.
TGH: Have you been recognized on the street yet by fans?
FunnyAstro: I think a couple of times, people have been recognized when we were just walking around. Normally it’s when we’re in our jerseys or our jackets. It’s pretty obvious to get recognized, maybe some people have seen us and thought is that [Gael “Poko” Gouzerch] or is that [Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee]. I think it’s a lot easier to get recognized in our jerseys. I think a couple of times we’ve been recognized in our jerseys walking around.
TGH: We have a thing in Philly called Wawa. Have you tried it yet?
FunnyAstro: Been there many times! I’m not a massive fan of Wawa, but everyone else on the team loves it. I don’t get the sandwiches or anything. I go there for grocery shopping because I’m lazy and I don’t want to go anywhere else. I buy stuff like eggs and milk, that’s all that is in my fridge, just eggs milk and orange juice.
TGH: What do you like most about the city so far?
FunnyAstro: For us it’s really convenient. Everything is super close by. I don’t think I ever have to take an Uber anywhere, which is really nice after living in [Los Angeles].
TGH: How do you feel about the upcoming Hero Pools?
FunnyAstro: It’s going to be interesting. Definitely the most interesting thing for me is going to be seeing if teams can bring on their style week by week even with hero bans. Because you know, the NYXL have their classic passive style and the Shock and Titans have a more aggressive styles. I want to see, even with hero bans, say if Lucio is banned, I want to see if these teams can still keep that style through the hero bans and be more aggressive even with slower team comps. And, of course, practice is going to be hell.
TGH: Your Assistant Coach [Christopher “ChrisTFer” Graham] spoke about how you compete each week for a spot on the starting six for the next week. Are you concerned about team synergy with the possibility of different players competing each week?
FunnyAstro: I think we’ve scrimmed with our entire roster of players. There’s no synergy issues swapping people in and out because we have the whole team always working together, we always have everyone coming to VOD reviews, coming watching scrims, so everyone knows all the strategies. Everyone knows each other’s play style, and that’s really useful for synergizing. I’m pretty sure we could sub in whoever, just if they were better at one hero, we could swap out and it wouldn’t cause much of a problem.
TGH: Is there any music you listen to before matches to hype yourself up?
FunnyAstro: They’re not very Overwatch friendly, but the League of Legends songs are very good. They’re really good if you’re looking for a hype song. All of the League of Legends Worlds songs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7zyFh5fKs8
You can follow Jessica on Twitter @JessScharnagle
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