After an elongated break from Australian competitive online play in CyberGamers season 1 Pro League, We're now staring down the barrel of Season 2, brought to you by AC Ryan who've kindly sponsored the league and put up a prize pool of over $1,300! such a large prize pool alone is bound to attract some solid competition and awareness to CyberGamer.

The game is constantly evolving with new heroes being added almost weekly, new items and item tweaks, hero overhauls and map adjustments the strategy, game play, teamwork and base competitive nature of Heroes of Newerth will make this competition a very exciting homepage for my internet browser!
To get a feel for what the teams think about the upcoming competition I've interviewed a few of the players who will be taking part;



FRAY
Wytaliba
Shinkz

• Shinkz, recently Fray have been winning everything Australian HoN has to throw at them, why is this?
  
Shinkz: Slickz. No… but seriously, Slickz. On a more serious note, as manager of the side my role is to continue to strengthen the clan’s ranks by replacing inactive players as well as keep the team on track to compete in as many events as possible. People may have noticed a few team changes recently with DirgeSnoopy now playing for Frenetic Array League of Legends as well as Valkyra and I lowering the amount of competitive games we play, we have some new player pickups from the DotA secene that will hopefully allow us to continue our dominance of the Australian and New Zealand scenes through their transistion into HoN and well into DotA 2. Also, it’s hard to forget the difference our new Razer gear has made


• Arguably the two best players on the team Slickz and Dirgesnoopy are still tagged for DWi, do you feel this is a good or bad thing for Fray and how does it impact the team if at all?
  
Shinkz: This is not a problem for us, it allows us to utilise strategy that has not made it into the Australian meta game and gives us a pretty massive advantage over our opponents during the picking phase. In the past we have competed internationally as a team and with the difficulty of game times (4am-6am starts normally), server issues and other complications we have recently not participated internationally, however this is something that we are looking at getting back into sooner rather than later.


• Wytaliba you've been representing Fray in NZ for a while winning the Lan competitions down there, and recently few over to Australia to compete, how do the Aussies fair up against the Kiwis both in game and RL? Were there many sheep jokes?
  
Wytaliba: We've got some great upcoming talent in some of the kiwi players, the iPlay team and some others out there (sho & noshz, even beast :O ) Lucky for them I am moving to Aus, so the LAN scene will be very quiet, but they can't slack off as I'm only a $150 plane ticket away from beating them!
The sheep jokes got too much, which is the main reason why I am moving over to Aus. You know what they say: if you can't beat them, join them


• Fray has a team full of people with an exception level of individual skill, when it comes to drafting lineups and general in game leadership, is it a case of "too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth?" If not how has the team learnt to bind together cohesively?
  
Shinkz: When it comes time to clan war we generally don’t have a problem with drafting or in-game leadership. We aim to treat every game as serious as the next no matter who the opponent and cool heads are expected. Out of all the teams in the scene ours has played more competitive matches than any other and we know what’s expected. We all treat each other with respect in the drafting, just some get more respect than others. George Orwellian up in here.
Our coordination is something that we have been working on and its certainly something that we have improved on significantly in all these LAN tournaments.


• Fray is probably the most 'active' team on the international circuit coming from Australia; do you find the game play very different from what we experience in competitive play Oceanic wise? And does this differ how you approach games?
  
Shinkz: We try to be as active as possible on the international circuit and this is something that we are aspiring to continue as new things are going to be announced for the HoN community. The international scene is a lot more developed (in the meta) than the Australian scene and I think you’ll find that Australian players PSR’s etc are over inflated or otherwise temporarily risen (coughLoccoughShadow)
Our approach doesn’t change regardless of the team we’re facing. We look to win every game no matter who the opponent and always draft to our strengths.


• Shinkz you're currently banned from partaking in CyberGamer games, is it very painful to have to sit in vent and listen to games unfold without being able to contribute "in-game"?
  
Shinkz: Not at all. It actually makes me happy to see the team absolutely decimate teams even without me playing.


• After winning season one, now coming in to season 2, has the strategy changed? How are you approaching games?
  
Shinkz: Well we thought about changing our winning strategy, as it clearly didn’t work in Season 1, then we thought, nah. Sadly the game hasn’t been evolving lately, although we have been seeing a few more jungle strats lately, which is always good to see away from the trilane meta-game. And it’s a little known fact that we do have the best-in-west Ophelia on the Frenetic Array side, so we might see some of that come Season 2.


• Who do you feel are your biggest threat/who do you feel most excited to go up against/what do you feel will be the most interesting matchup? – Coming in to season 2?
  
Shinkz: The top 3 teams aside from us (of course) are probably Quixotic, (came second to us last season as EndZone) Zenith Gaming (probably the most active team and have quite a few unique strategies of their own) and Perfect Storm (of whom has shown activity and dominance of the Qlimax Crew [qmX] team recently). Having another rematch against the full Zenith lineup will be the most anticipated match this season, no doubt.


• Lastly as I mentioned in the intro the game is constantly evolving growing and changing, this naturally correlates with strategy and drafting changes – do you find any of the newer heroes viable for competitive games such as Emerald Warden/Fluxx/Silhouette?
  
Shinkz: We have been practicing new strategies, some people may have seen a flux-magmus strategy we used against Zenith Gaming in the Red Carpet Gaming Nationals Qualifier. Emerald Warden is a hero that doesn’t fit into the competitive scene at the moment, she would need another targeted spell so she can silence the nullstone hag/madman/valk/shil etc. Silh is used occasionally but doesn’t quite seem to be able to compete to some of the more bread and butter carries

QUIXOTIC
Rogerdodger

• Roger you're the second best Mid player in Aus since Fives' 1v1 competition, I'm sure there are other teams out there with players who are keen to take that crown from you – Does your strategy, in terms of drafting and planning, differ with who you're vsing? For example if you're against someone say Slickz do you draft yourself a hero you're comfortable with to try battle him in mid or do you take an entirely different approach?
  
RogerDodger: The mid competition didn't really mean that much in terms of actual game skill. I don't think many people care about titles as opposed to just becoming a better player. But considering Australian players, I can count on one hand people I consider to be on my level. In terms of opponents affecting drafting, of course. There's some obvious ones to point out, like banning Tundra vs Wytaliba; there's also just different opponents affecting our overall line up. I don't play mid often, but we're obviously going to pick heroes we're comfortable with.


• First things first – new sponsorship, new team, new members, does this all make you more or less confident going in to season 2?
  
RogerDodger: The sponsor won't change anything for online matches, but we're really looking forward to the opportunity to participate in LAN events now that a sponsor is paying for our flights. I wouldn't say we're any more or less confident about winning than we were last season. The players are pretty much the same, only difference being we substituted one mid feeder with another .


• After a very good result in season 1, is there anything you have learned coming in to season 2, and perhaps any adaptions to how you will approach games?
  
RogerDodger: There's always new things being learnt and everyone is always improving. I know we've got some new strategies to bring to the table if the circumstances permit it.


• Who do you feel are your biggest threat/who do you feel most excited to go up against/what do you feel will be the most interesting match up? – Coming in to season 2?
  
RogerDodger: Fray. They're all great players and great people. They've managed to be together long enough to get to the level of co-ordination that a strong team needs and I look forward to playing against them more than any other team.


• Lastly as I mentioned in the intro the game is constantly evolving growing and changing, this naturally correlates with strategy and drafting changes – do you find any of the newer heroes viable for competitive games such as Emerald Warden/Fluxx/Silhouette?
  
RogerDodger: Some of the new heroes are great, and they add something new to the table that you can work with. There's a lot of niche heroes in the newest batches that I wouldn't expect to see much action from, but that doesn't mean they won't pop up as a total game changer. I'm a bit reserved in saying what'll happen, because I can see the potential these heroes have, it's just a matter of someone being able to apply it.

QLIMAX CREW
BoostN
FurbyKirby

• BoostN, the man with a whole lot to say about a whole lot of nothing and "Undisputed call out king," (now that Cujo has moved on again..) You're another one of the teams with a new sponsor on board, it seems the roster has had some minor adjustments to it as well, are you feeling confident going into season 2?
  
BoostN: Haha nice title! but i think Cujo is still the "True" call out king but back on topic just like any other team i think we went through a few hurdles and hiccups just like any other team would but ultimately nothing has really changed except the attitude and way we present ourselves from now on. This relates to the image all sponsored teams should have i mean having a company like TRITTON backing you is a big thing and you're representing them when you're playing but i think this season we have alot to prove and i think we should do very well.
FurbyKurby: When referring to a person as WhiteKnight it's generally a term directed towards a male whom feels the constant need to rush to a female's aid. Said person also generally has a reason for doing so, or at least it's perceived that their reason for doing so is to gain a deeper level of trust from the aforementioned female for obvious reasons.


• After not quite finishing where you would have liked to in season 1, what are your plans to try to make that final game this season and try finish on top?
  
BoostN: Well last season we were pretty much undefeated until the last game against Quixotic Gaming and i think we underestimated them as alot of teams do, we went into the match thinking we had it in the game and didn't bother to practice and it all blew up in our face. At least now we know to take them seriously and I'm sure we wont make the same mistake again.


• Furby "wut do" Kurby, it's my understanding that you're the support player of the team and Emkay/Boostn are the mid solo powerhouses, but against people like Rodger and Slickz they make have a hard time, are there any specific game plans going in to the larger matches to combat keeping the big players on other teams down?
  
FurbyKirby Wut do? X) yes Im da support. Emkay / BoostN / Trueskiez / It`Takesmore all circulate around mid lane. But against people like Roger & sLickz not only both of them but people from zenith very scary to.


• Who do you feel are your biggest threat/who do you feel most excited to go up against/what do you feel will be the most interesting match up? – Coming in to season 2?
  
BoostN: I think our biggest threat to go up against is fray and I'm sure everyone agrees with me here that slickz is just in a league of his own and regardless of the other players on the team (not taking anything away from them they're good blokes) is that his just in a league of his own. I think I'm pretty excited to vs the guys over at Zenith Gaming just because they're a good bunch of dudes and we get along quite fine it would be a pretty cool grudge match . The most interesting would have to go towards Quixotic Gaming just because of there recent roster changes and new sponsored i really wanna see how they mesh with the new players.


• Lastly as I mentioned in the intro the game is constantly evolving growing and changing, this naturally correlates with strategy and drafting changes – do you find any of the newer heroes viable for competitive games such as Emerald Warden/Fluxx/Silhouette?
  
BoostN: I think newer hon heroes still have to be tested and used in competitive play and actually see how they work out in games because at the current moment while you could pick a few of the newer heroes there are alot of heroes that can do what you're asking of it but better.


• Anything else?
  
BoostN: Last but not least I'd like to take the time and give a big thankyou and shoutout to TRITTON, FragLabs, Enzui Clothing and also STIPE who have backed us all the way and we hope will continue to help us reach our goals.

PEST
Fives
Lordo

• Fives, Now that you aren't associated with CyberGamer in terms of content and administration it should give you more time to play the game you know and love, do you feel this will provide your team with a better chance going in to season 2?
  
Fives: I don't think that those two events are particularly correlated, but nonetheless I feel that this season we have an overall stronger lineup with the addition of SkillShotz our solo player who is probably one of our best if not our best player (sorry xt). Although I'm not held by any illusion that we will be able to topple the mighty trinity of zenith, fray and quixotic, I am optimistic for my team's performance this season, especially considering our strong recent performance shown in our 15 minute dumpstering of qlimax.


• Can we get a little taste of "Fives' mystical predictions for season 2!?"
  
Fives: It's going to be a very interesting race within the top 3, and another interesting race in the bottom 5. With recent lineup changes in both Zenith and QxG it's all eyes on both of them to see if they have what it takes to topple Fray. Personally I think that the team with the best shot at that will be QxG, depending on how well their new recruit can fill the shoes of class. I've consistently maintained that RogerDodger is second only to slickz in terms of being the top player in Australia, and I think that's really going to manifest more obviously this season. In terms of Zenith, I see their outlook as a bit less promising since their acquisition of pub superstars mozsy and hibonaki, who are very good but lack consistency necessary to perform at the top level. Xclusively and DoomDriver are terrific players though so if they can get some practice in they could be a credible threat as long as they bench noshz.
As far as the bottom five goes, I'm very confident that we'll have little trouble dealing with them, qlimax was our only main competition and they've hit hard times recently and it's likely to stay that way until furby assembles the asian warriors again. Shoutout to JoaX who are really nice guys and who I want to see well. I don't know why 1day are in pro though, especially with at least 2 Main teams being way better than them.

Here's my predictions:
1. Fray
2. QxG
3. Zenith
4. PeSt
5. tSFg
6. qMx
7. JoaX
8. 1day


• Lordo, undoubtedly you're a good player to be playing in the prestigious pro league, however most people, myself included, really know very little about yourself and most others in the team due to Fives hogging up all the limelight, can you use this opportunity to give us a little background or somewhat a more in-depth look at the team?
  
Lordo: Haha.. That's Fives for you... I've been playing HoN since beta - a lot of just pubbing with mates and burning about BRs. I first started playing HoN competitively with GN (Good and Nice), with Nofsky, ZeLinK, sivvon and <constantly changing 5th> We played a few ladder games together but mainly just scrims and such.
From there I went on a bit of a haitus from HoN as I had just started full time work and was moving to my new place. Also played a lot of SC2 and was a diamond player before I called it quits on that. Coming back to HoN was pretty awesome -- the game had changed a bit (I quit before TMM) and it was good to start playing with FiveS whom I knew from scrims and GotGames.
As for the other guys in our team, it consists of Trippz, Xt_Unknown, FistMyAnus aka Skillshotz, BustaRhymes_ and Miara. Usually it just involves me and Fives on support and the others playing a mix of solo's and carry. We've been playing together for a while now and will be looking to pick up a more steady prac regime when the league gets underway.


• The Pest team can be seen as somewhat of a dark horse, you've played a few LAN comps, been getting more and more involved in the online tournaments, surely all of this training and bonding for you team has you feeling pretty confident about Season 2, is there anything in particular you've changed or adapted in order to try take down some of the bigger powerhouse teams?
  
Fives: We've definitely come a long way since forming, and I feel that we have our best lineup as far as chemistry goes. We haven't really adapted team-defining strategies, but I am extremely satisfied with the extent to which we can read eachothers plays and have become synchronized during fights.
Lordo: If we can stop Busta from first picking Wildsoul and readying in TMM, we should do much better in Season 2. I suppose the main thing we're looking to adapt to is building up our core lineup in terms of playing together. Skillshotz has possibly the most horrid sleeping patterns known to man and will rock up at 4am looking to scrim. Definitely getting more involved in competitive play is the easiest and best way to have a dig at these more established teams!


• Who do you feel are your biggest threat/who do you feel most excited to go up against/what do you feel will be the most interesting matchup? – Coming in to season 2?
  
Fives: Most interesting matchup of the season will be QxG vs Fray, QxG vs Zenith or tSFg vs Qlimax, I want to see how bad qmx really are. Obviously I'm keen to go up against QxG because I really like the boys from that team, but as far as challenges go, I'm probably most excited to face tSFg, as they have steadily been improving recently.
Lordo: Biggest threat? Well they all are! The teams in Pro are there for a reason and each game we expect to go in there guns blazing from both sides. As to who I feel and hope will be the best matchup, definitely QlimaX. After our last match and... what followed.. I think there should be a fair bit to air out in that game. That game will be a must watch!


• Lastly as I mentioned in the intro the game is constantly evolving growing and changing, this naturally correlates with strategy and drafting changes – do you find any of the newer heroes viable for competitive games such as Emerald Warden/Fluxx/Silhouette?
  
Fives: I feel that many teams are scared of these new innovations. Sure Fray went big with flux magmus on lan, but that's basically just slickz and bobo doing work which wouldve been done regardless of hero picks. I do rate flux and warden as heroes though, despite thinking silhouette is a bit garber since the nerfs. This season I will try to incorporate some of these new heroes into our strategies, but it's difficult considering all the new trash heroes s2 keeps bringing in every 2 weeks.
Lordo: Personally I think Warden is one of those heroes who could either go huge or completely suck. I am beyond horrid at him, but that's not saying much. I look forward to seeing what the foreign scene does to adapt to him and whether he'll be integrated into the meta game. Fluxx I think is one of those heroes who, with the right person playing and the right team composition, can be a huge pain in the ass. At the very least this hero makes for some pretty funny plays (referring here to the video of FreshPro using his ulti and getting someone trapped in neutral camps in the HB jungle). I think the recent nerf to Silhouette will see her being less popular, but people like N0Tail will still continue to melt faces with her. Similar to Fluxx in a way - right person and right team synergy.


• Anything else?
  
Fives: These are really impressive questions my man well done, hopefully all of the questions for each team are as individually tailored
Lordo: Yeah, cheers for the new content and thanks for the questions also a big thanks to CG for putting in the effort to get the Pro league back with the awesome sponsorship.

ZENITH
Locshadow
Xclusively

• Locshadow as a long time friend of mine I've found you've come a long way since closed beta – Constantly representing with top tiered teams since release, how do you feel your current lineup fares (in terms of cohesion/skill level/rage levels etc) against previous teams you've represented?
  
LocShadow: Well Tyson, every team I've played for has had a different range of skills, players come, players go, but there is always one thing that stays the same, loyalty to your fellow clan members, if I'm in a game and I see Alex feeding, I wont call him trash, i wouldn't even say give some one else that hero next time, I'd throw him on my back and use my hon IQ of 300, to carry out the game. All clans have the 1 or 2 ragers, but end of the day, we laugh it off, and the skill level of each clan I'm in is higher than the last, since everyone is improving and learning something new each day, making HoN such a good game.


• NoFriends 'Alex' Xclusively you've also competed at the highest tier of Australian HoN for quite a while but more so of an 'On again, Off again' relationship not giving HoN your un-divided attention, do you think playing other games increases your HoN skill level? (We've seen players like [SK]AngryTestie come from a strong Starcraft background and become arguably one of the best players in the world).. Do you still play other games in conjunction with HoN?
  
NoFriends: When i tend to go on my long breaks from hon its normally due to a streak of dissapointing losses. When i feel i start playing sub par and not up to my usual standard for a prolonged period i like to take a brake and try other games. The only game i used to play with as much focus as hon would be WoW, and i played casual pvp arena, topping at 2400 rating. After getting bored with these other games i like to come back to hon and i find my concentration and willingness to improve is increased and i can play at a higher standard.


• All of this seasons 'Top Teams' have a well rounded solid roster, yours is arguably the team with the most depth, with players like Bettch and Doomdriver who've played for teams like IPL and WASP in the past surely you're going in to this season with aims of finishing 1st?
  
LocShadow: Yes, I'm aiming for a first place this season, I believe we're quite capable of it, all of our players have been in a number of clans, so we bring a lot of depth to the clan, in general.


• Recently Zenith attended the Sydney City Hunter tournament, coming 2nd to Fray, did you have any comments on that result?
  
LocShadow: That was definitely a good day at city hunter, was nice meeting the fray boys, as for the result, we learned a lot from the finals, it'll be interesting versing fray next time when we don't have a spastic behemoth and i don't play puppet.


• There was a video after the tournament finished featuring BoBo_ and Wytaliba, where dave said "I traveled a long way, but it was worth it to beat LocShadow" do you have any comments on this?
  
LocShadow: Well Dave, you flew 2153.61 kilometers, and that is somewhat close, to the amount of psr I'll take from you, cya@midlane


• Do you feel the end result of that tournament has taught you anything coming in to season 2 about yourselves or any difficult opponents?
  
LocShadow: Yes, I've learned a lot about my fellow clan members, and the skill they process, I just gotta make sure I use that to my advantage. We'll meet some difficulties along the way, but nothing we haven't beat before.


• Who do you feel are your biggest threat/who do you feel most excited to go up against/what do you feel will be the most interesting matchup? – Coming in to season 2?
  
LocShadow: Main threat. slickz, It'll be exciting beating most of these ego inflated teams who have a mouth but no mouse ...(skill)


• Lastly as I mentioned in the intro the game is constantly evolving growing and changing, this naturally correlates with strategy and drafting changes – do you find any of the newer heroes viable for competitive games such as Emerald Warden/Fluxx/Silhouette?
  
LocShadow: Definately flux, as slickz demonstrated at the lan, huge ganker early, and epic teamfights with certain heroes, (mag and behe). Emerald Warden and silhouette dont phase me, with the silhouette nerf, I don't think we'll see him in many competitve games.


• Anything else?
  
LocShadow: Lastly, Shoutouts to Zenith Gaming and Molten Servers, for assisting our HoN team.
I'm Ryan fantana and you're watching channel 4 news.

SUREFIRE
WLG

• WLG, your team is definitely the underdog of this upcoming season, and relatively new to the Pro leagues, can you give those people who don't know very much about the team a little bit of a background?
  
Well the team consists of me, kingmagmus, divine`rape, meloske, rekerth, the team started when me and kingmagmus were sick of playing pub and wanted to try out competitive play, we then created a team called Gigl, which did extremely well in CGo last season, from then the team has reformed with a few new players and are hoping to do well, the team roles are myself playing the trilane carry, kingmagmus on hard support, divine`rape solo mid, meloske solo and rekerth secondary support.


• What are the goals for the team coming in to Season 2?
  
Our goal as a team is to finish the season happily and to place around 5th or so, we would be happy with that.


• The roster seems quite small, is this just because you have a very active team or because you're still in the recruitment phase looking for some new faces? Is there a message you'd like to send to anyone feeling up to the challenge of getting involved in the Pro league?
  
The team has recently been scouting and has picked up a few new players who have seemed to be great additions to the team, our team is always active playing together whenever possible.


• Who do you feel are your biggest threat/who do you feel most excited to go up against/what do you feel will be the most interesting matchup? – Coming in to season 2?
  
The biggest threat for our sakes would be have to be fray, they look amazingly strong at the moment, winning the honerific lan and taking out last seasons Cgi, they are surely the top seed. Most interesting match up would have to be Zenith vs QxG, i think this game would be extremely close, i love watching these teams play, shoutout to hibonaki.


• Lastly as I mentioned in the intro the game is constantly evolving growing and changing, this naturally correlates with strategy and drafting changes – do you find any of the newer heroes viable for competitive games such as Emerald Warden/Fluxx/Silhouette?
  
I think that emerald is a good hero in the low tier public games, but higher level games she will struggle to get the freefarm she needs to be effective, flux on the other hand is an awesome initiator who can set up amazing team fights, he is amazing with tempest, kraken or bombardier to provide maximum potential with the teams ultimates.

Write up by Tyson `2theDAYS Groves of Frenetic Array & CyberGamers Content team,
"The days teach much!"

Edited once, 22/7/11 - 12:07am.

niwce

hey, thats my sig! haha

yeah I for the life of me couldnt find one without your name in it, if you inbox me one I'll be glad to swap it out

Awesome job man!

goot read! cheers for the content 2thedays!

Good write up. Welldone man

fun read

very nice 2thedays looking forward to more content. good read.

good read.

best of luck to all teams

Good read Ty, keep it up matey

Good read.

Good luck everyone competing!

Fray's interview added, happy reading, thanks for the feedback!

Which Ophelia player is Shinkz referring to?

Best-In-West secret weapon Ophelia.

Highly classified I imagine