Week 1 Recap
The first week of HTC Ascension came to an end with six teams maintaining an undefeated 2-0 record. Among those teams, there were four (Team Frostbite, Team Liquid Academy, Zenith eSports, and Team Ares) who didn’t drop a single game. The most interesting matches of the group stage thus far saw Zenith face off against the fan-favourites on Top Dog Gaming and Frostbite clash with Latin America North’s top team, Lyon Gaming.The spotlight during the Zenith-Top Dog series was shining firmly on Zenith’s jungler Contractz. He picked Lee Sin in both games of the series and dominated NintendudeX’s Zac and Nidalee picks. He started his teammates snowballing and punished Top Dog Ktsmurf’s Veigar, leading to Zenith upsetting Top Dog 2-0 and topping group B after the first week.
The first game of the Lyon-Frostbite series was marked by the Frostbite jungler Hairyabs's dominance. His Nidalee was prowling across the Summoner's Rift and together with Wolfe's Varus and TM8's Mordekaiser, they were securing objective after objective. Lyon was soon forced to give up the base. In the second game, Frostbite opted to play a more reserved composition with Kindred AD Carry and a pocket pick in the form of Lux against Viktor in the midlane. Lyon's defences were proven too fragile once more and Frostbite closed the series in convincing 2-0 fashion.
Week 2 Preview
Week 2 of the HTC Ascension will feature another 16 games between up and coming Challenger teams in North America. Teams currently on top like Frostbite, TLA, Zenith or C9C will try to fortify their positions for the later playoffs race, while fan favourites like Top Dog Gaming and Lyon Gaming will try to recover in their matches this week.Match of the Week
Next week Frostbite will face an even harder challenge in the form of Cloud9 Challenger. C9 has dropped two games so far but haven’t dropped a series. Tune in to see which which of these teams is forced to add a 1 to their loss column first.
While Frostbite opened HTC Ascension with two convincing victories against AKA and Lyon, Cloud 9 Challenger led by Keith and mancloud dropped games to both DatZit Gaming Storm and Tabula Rasa. While mancloud never recovered since his Vulcun Techbargains days, wolfe himself wasn't getting much praise throughout last season of Challenger scene. Considering that the lanes are evenly matched across the board, the midlane showdown will likely decide the result of the central series of the week.
Winner's Interviews
Hakuho - Support, Team FrostbiteCongratulations on going 4-0 the first week; do you mind briefly introducing yourself to the public?
I'm Hakuho, I play support for Frostbite and we recently got involved in the HTC Ascension tournament; I'm excited to see how the other challenger teams play and get the chance to compete with them since a lot of the rosters seem strong.
You played in professional teams as well, what is key difference between them and Frostbite?
Frostbite has a good team atmosphere, we all get along with each other and joke around; we don't have any issues with in-fighting or extended arguments so this helps us develop and stay focused on improving. A lot of challenger teams suffer from clashing personalities and I think it's great that we didn't have to deal with that.
Frostbite has some players that have been in the scene for quite some time, like wolfe or BillyBoss. Surely, HTC Ascension isn't your only target for upcoming 2016?
HTC Ascension is essentially us testing the waters for a competitive tournament; we are planning to play in the next challenger series.
Considering that you 4-0'd first week convincingly, are you already thinking about playoffs/possibly winning this?
We were always planning for playoffs and I think we have a good chance of winning the entire tournament.
Let's speak about supports then. Do you like the current meta? How would you describe yourself as a player?
I enjoy the current meta aside from the occasional slow games due to double TP; I view myself as a mechanically strong support and prefer aggressive styles of play over prolonged farming. I prefer play-making supports that take advantage of vision control along with jungle support.
Are there any supports you looked up during your career?
I enjoyed watching Mata's early play back in season 3 and spent a lot of time watching his games and seeing how he controlled the map; I would attribute my early development in competitive to this. I don't focus too much on other supports now and instead have been improving my own style of play.
If you were to rank the current top supports, who could be on top right now?
If I were to rank supports right now, I would probably put Piccaboo/Wolf at the top, I think Korea still has the best support players in general but the new season is changing the game a lot so would probably be better to judge how pros adapt.
What are your own goals for Season 6?
My goal for Season 6 is to get into the LCS.
Hopefully, it all works out. Any final words/shout outs?
Be sure to watch the rest of our games in the HTC Ascension tournament and look forward to us the challenger series. If you want to follow us on social media check out @Frostbitelol.
Contractz - Jungler, Zenith eSports
Congratulations on going undefeated the first week. Can you give an introduction?
Hello. I am Juan Garcia or better known as Contractz and I play jungle for Zenith Esports! *laughs*
How would you describe yourself as a jungler?
I'm a very aggressive player. I'm the jungler that is always going to be in your face and put as much pressure on the map as possible. I love looking for opportunities to gank, counter jungle, or look for 1v1 skirmishes.
Who was your inspiration to become a jungler?
I really look up to KaKAO as a jungler. He's super aggressive and is always looking to make plays. I copied his nidalee build and playstyle and tried to make it my own. Overall, I just enjoy jungling more than other roles because of the way you can dictate a game.
‘NA Jungler’ or ‘NA Ganks’ has become a meme, joking about junglers in the NA LCS. What are your thoughts on this?
People always look down on NA and say they're trash or one of the weakest regions. Partly some of it is true in my opinion. NA has its flaws and its strengths, but all I can do to help it is show that I have what it takes to change people's minds when they say that.
Season 5 featured bunch of major reworks for the jungle, both in the preseason and then during the season itself. Which meta was your favourite?
My favorite jungle meta has to be the most recent patches. Just because of the high pressure junglers in Nidalee, Lee Sin, and Reksai. The meta which I disliked the most is most definitely the Gragas and Sejuani meta. It was just a snooze fest to see which jungler could be the tankiest with the buffed Cinderhulk.
Do you think Riot is taking the right approach here?
Oh I definitely agree with most of Riot's changes to the jungle this season. I love that you can hard carry from the jungle because of the increased gold and experience you get. They made it so you have multiple options on how to approach jungling. The only change I disagree with is the Cinderhulk change. That change was way over the top.
Let’s talk about esports part a bit. Is Zenith your first squad?
I've been on multiple small teams before, but they were never as good as this team. Zenith is the first team I've ever felt successful on even though we haven't accomplished much yet.
What's the environment like for you there?
I feel really confident on this team because if I try to make a play or call something they all trust in my ability to pull it off. And if it doesn't work it's okay. No one gets upset at each other. We all get along very well. I don't feel restricted at all because I believe in my team to pull through in whatever we do. I love the competitive environment on this team because we can all put our game faces on when we need to. Even though we all can be a little troll at times. It's fun.
Zenith are 4-0 in HTC Ascension right now, with pretty convincing back-to-back victories. What are your goals for this tournament, and what are plans post-HTC?
My goals for this tournament is just to try to make a name for myself. Get people to know that I am a good player and I can compete with the best. Hopefully winning it all as we go. Our plans as a team after HTC are just to qualify for NACS and to see how it goes from there.
When you faced fan-favourites from Top Dogs, you turned a lot of heads by outplaying Nintendude and crew. How did you feel upsetting the better-known team of established players and coaches?
It definitely felt great to beat them. I have a lot of respect for NintendudeX as a player, he was a legendary player and to this day outclasses many challenger junglers. I just hope to continue improving as a team to prove we can compete with the best in this tournament.
There are two young NA junglers, Moon and Hard, who're considered new regional hopes. What are your thoughts about them?
I respect Hard and Moon a lot because they are hands down the best challenger junglers along with Dardoch. I really do hope to prove I can belong in that list eventually. All I can do is continue to improve and work towards that goal.
Any final words/shout outs?
Thanks to all my fans (if any *laughs*)! Other than that I'll try to improve as a player to get rid of that ‘NA Jungler’ meme! Thanks so much.