BShadowJ

In a follow-up to the DreamHack Interviews series, another team joins us as the tournament's sensation Team Echo Zulu, composed of ImpacT, Tahz, and Mittaen, join us to discuss the tournament and the team. This interview was recorded on the final day after their loss in the quarterfinals vs Dignitas.

 

This is BShadowJ from Octane.gg and have here the newest, hottest team of DreamHack Leipzig, Team Echo Zulu. They just finished their match against Dignitas; first of all, because a lot of people might not know you, I would like you guys to introduce yourselves so your new fans you probably got after this event get to know you.


ImpacT: I'm ImpacT, better known as the ball chaser of the team. I go for crazy stuff, ceiling shots, etc. Mittaen and Tahz just let me do the thing.


Tahz: I'm Tahz, I'm basically the wall. And sometimes when I need to I'll score a goal, that's basically it.


Mittaen: I'm Mittaen, I'm the guy who just is consistent and stays in the back a lot, and I'm just trying to be as reliable as possible for my teammates, to let them do their thing.

 

<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CrPcxDF.jpg" style="width: 80%; margin: 10px auto;" /></center>

Tahz from Team Echo Zulu on the main stage


You've played against a lot of good teams, so let's go day by day. Day 1: This went a bit under the radar because of the mCon upset over TSM, but before that you guys defeated Triple Trouble as well to advance to the next day. How did you guys feel after that win first of all?


ImpacT: Pretty amazing. We saw Triple Trouble playing against Dignitas, we saw they were playing pretty good. They went to Game 5, I think. So we were a bit scared to go [against] them. But we played our game and 3-1'd them.


Tahz: Yeah, Triple Trouble. They played really well on the first day, and we were just like "Just keep the comms [sic] up!", and the rest will come, just see how it goes, and in the end we won so it was really good. We were really hyped for the next day.


Mittaen: Triple Trouble was... We were scared because we were probably gonna go against them since the beginning, we already knew. But, that play against Dignitas, it was really good so we didn't know what to expect against us, but we managed to counter their play and win over them.


Then moving onto Day 2, first you played EG and you swept them; it was off-stream so people didn't get a chance to see that match back home so, what happened exactly?


Mittaen: It was 3 overtimes, so it was really crazy, second game even went to 10 minute overtime! But their play, they were really consistent in every hit they made, it was really good so it was hard to make good plays, but eventually got through their defense by letting them make mistakes.


Tahz: We were both really consistent, so we didn't miss almost anything, and that's why we had 3 overtimes because we just saved everything. We did score a few good goals but we couldn't get through them until overtime, 10 minutes... [laughs]


After that you went to the stage for the first time and you played against Vitality where you went to five games, very close series... People were already rooting for you by then but you eventually did lose, how did you feel about that loss, was the morale low and were you worried about your following match, or did you keep your spirits high?


ImpacT: It was our first game on stage, so we tried to get used to the setting, the environment. We didn't expect that much, but we did play really well to be honest.


Tahz: We didn't get down after the loss, because we didn't even lose that bad to Vitality, and before that we won against Evil Geniuses, so we were already happy about our performance. And so after we just thought, "We can beat Ghost". We're not a team who can't beat any RLCS teams right now, because we were really competing at a high level, and we managed to beat Ghost as well, it was really good.


Mittaen: My morale went higher up after the Vitality game, because it was a really good match we played versus them; although they played really defensive against us. But we knew our capabilities of how we play, so we knew Ghost could be a tough match up, but we managed to get a 3-0 against them.


 

<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/TyezVCu.jpg" style="width: 80%; margin: 10px auto;" /></center>

Mittaen from Team Echo Zulu (second on the left) on the desk alongside Dreadnaught, Gibbs, and Achieves after their qualification to Day 3

Speaking of Ghost, I was going to ask you; how did you feel coming back into the stage and just making it to Day 3, did that beat your expectations? What were even your expectations coming into this tournament?


Mittaen: Well our expectations, we just wanted to get to Day 2! That was the objective for us, but we eventually made it to Day 3. What we planned to play against Ghost was just, play our game and hope for the best. We scrimmed Ghost before our match against Evil Geniuses, so we knew they played physical, and we tried to avoid their playstyle and play our own game to not make any mistakes.


Tahz: We didn't adapt anything on our playstyle, we were just playing our own game, and we were just relying on ourselves, and we knew we could beat Ghost just with our playstyle, because we did it before to some RLCS teams, so we were pretty confident to beat them. And after we beat them we were really hyped of course! [laughs]


ImpacT: We had so much pressure on Ghost, I tried to play physical as well and it worked out.


This might be your first major LAN, but you've actually gotten some experience playing for Kayzr League. I want to ask you guys, how important do you think that was to prepare you for this kind of environment, did it help at all?


Mittaen: I don't really think so, because the crowd, environment, etc, is way different. You also hear the commentators really loud even though you have headsets sound, so it's just getting used to how everything goes with all the extra sounds you have on stage.


Tahz: Yeah I don't think we took it too serious. I think we started practicing a lot after Kayzr League, because we wanted to prepare for RLRS and DreamHack, so we were not really focusing on Kayzr League. It was a good experience, but it's not like this.


Speaking of RLRS; with your latest performance, you were already a favorite to qualify for the RLRS in the Play-Ins and now even more. However, how likely do you think that possibility is, do you think you guys will qualify? And now with this Top 8 result, do you feel any added pressure at all?


ImpacT: We grind so much to make RLRS, and were just gonna keep grinding and we will see. Obviously RLRS in EU is stacked so we're gonna do our best.


Tahz: I don't know if you can say that you're going to qualify, because RLRS is a real mess. First you got to qualify and then you got Play-Ins, and you got so many weird teams, and so many of them are really ball chase-y and it's just hard to play against them. Maybe it's even harder than playing here! Because RLRS teams you can just read them, but some bubble teams you have no clue what they're doing, so we can't expect to win it, we just have to rely on our play style again as we did today and yesterday.


Mittaen: I think there's no guarantee we can get into RLRS, but there's a high probability of getting us in. Even though it's a really stacked tournament, I'm really confident in our capabilities of how we play, but, like I said, there's no guarantee about it because there are a lot of high tier bubble teams right now like Nordavind, who were out of RLRS last season and they're going to be in Play-Ins as well, so there a lot of high tier teams that are going to try and qualify, so there's no guarantee.

 

<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jdr9Il5.jpg" style="width: 80%; margin: 10px auto;" /></center>

ImpacT from Team Echo Zulu on the main stage


Speaking of play styles as well, since we've talked so much about your play style and how you play; I have two questions: First, it seems that Benelux teams just have a different play style, like yourselves and mCon who did well at this tournament. There's even a general perception within the high tier community that would describe you as "ball chasers", but do you think there's any truth to it, and do you think your style is just superior to the rest of EU? What's your opinion?


ImpacT: I don't think we're ball chasers, we just play annoying. We try to keep the pressure always, just try to be annoying.


Tahz: No, I don't think we're ball chasing, we just want to keep pressure, we always want one to go [to the ball], and whenever we see they have low boost, especially these teams when they're struggling for boost or sit back a bit, we just say to each other "Let's pressure now, let's just full on pressure", just high risk. If we don't score, we'll probably get scored on, that's the risk of just pressuring.


High risk, high reward?


Tahz: Yeah, high risk, high reward!


Mittaen: Our play style is really based on pressure and letting them pressure, because a lot of times we're just with three in the back and waiting for a counter to come up, so we can get them on low boost and just play our game from then. If we can turn with boost, and we can get a pressure chance to get an opportunity on net, we just go for it, because we want to keep pressure on them and not on us, because it's better to play that way so we don't struggle in the back with zero boost.


My second question is: You never had the opportunity to play against NA teams before, and now you have. Do you feel any difference in NA's play style versus EU's?


Mittaen: I think NA play style is a bit more physical than EU's, and NA goes for way more passing plays, I have the feeling. Even though the higher RLCS teams of EU do it as well, but I think NA overall is a bit more passing and physical and EU is a bit more solo plays which work out in the end.


Tahz: The NA teams are really like, ground plays, especially the teams we've played, Ghost and EG. EU there's just more aerialing and backboards, and I haven't seen EG or Ghost do a lot of backboard [plays], I've seen them do a lot of ground plays, try to dribble or bump someone.


ImpacT: I feel NA wants to be the first to the ball, always. They go for every ball... they're a bit chase-y.


My final question is, you've actually been together for a fair amount of months, which is more than the Rocket League average. Do you think that helps you in any way with your chemistry and help you gel and play better for tournaments?


Mittaen: I think our play time together is really important because we have a feel for each other on the field, so we basically know where everyone of our teammates, most of the time, is. We also have a structure in our rotations and passes and stuff like that, so that's why we know how we play, and playing with each other during that time is really important.


Tahz: I just think most bubble teams just leave each other way too fast.


ImpacT: Oh yeah, and shoutouts to coach Ryuu, he helped us a lot, he helped us with rotating, and stopping bad habits. Without him, we wouldn't be here!


Awesome to hear. So you were watched by over 30,000 people in case you weren't aware; as such I'm sure you got a lot of new fans so where can they find you on social media?


ImpacT: Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/ImpacTrl_">ImpacTrl_</a>, only Twitter.


Tahz: Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/TahzRL">TahzRL</a>, and I got a Twitch too, <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/Tahzrl">Tahzrl</a> as well.


Mittaen: I got <a href="https://twitter.com/Mittaen">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/Mittaen_RL">Twitch</a>, it's both Mittaen, and <a href="https://twitter.com/TeamEchoZulu">TeamEchoZulu</a> if you want to follow our team as well.


Thank you very much for the interview!

One of the follow ups to the DreamHack Interview series, this time featuring Tahz, ImpacT, and Mittaen from Team Echo Zulu.