By RizaRose
Alexander Leber is also known as Imbaboy, captain of Reason Gaming. Ranked third in Season 3, in the past few months they have won Onslaught 2 and placed second at DreamHack Summer. His team consists of Andreas “Z4NE” Leber, his co-captain and twin brother, Hardi “Tankafett” Hamshin, and Daniel “Nir” Bolving.
How are you feeling about your team and the roster changes that have gone on in the other teams?
Even though we just recently lost a player, I still think we should do just fine. Of course, having a new player always requires time to adjust the teamwork, but I’m confident that we'll be just fine in the long run. As for other teams - I would imagine that it’s kind of the same situation. It will be interesting to see who adjusts the quickest, because that team could potentially win Cycle 1.
What do you think about the changes to HoN Tour Season 4’s format?
I like it a lot, the past tournaments with group stages have been really fun to play and it increases the amount of games played, which is also really good. It will be the first HoN Tour season with a ‘new’ format and I think it’s better than the old one too, because with group stages you play every team once and, for example, you don’t lose to a specific team you can’t beat - so I really like that.
What do you think about the new Community Funded eSports Initiative, Paragon?
I personally think that the Community Funding is really awesome, it increased the last season’s prize pool by so much and it’s great to see how much support it brings to the competitive scene. As for the Paragon Initiative, I think it’s even better than the URSA one from last season. The rewarding system seems really good - like you actually get a lot of different stuff (selection circle, magic trail, and the mystery bonus which makes it even more exciting) and you can see beforehand which heroes will get avatars and plan according to that.
The Carnage Counter?
I think it’s really cool and actually fun to see how many kills you made with that specific avatar. HoN is definitely making a step into the right direction by doing more innovative things like this and one can only imagine what might be released next.
Who do you think the favorite team going into Cycle 1 is?
I’m not really sure on this one, but if I had to choose a team I would probably pick Ex-Sync eSports. My team didn’t play a whole lot the past weeks so that might end up bad for us, and I’m not sure how much other teams have prepared/played in order to win Cycle 1.
Reason has been playing remarkably well these past few months - you played well during Season 3, but have there been any changes, big or small, that you think will affect your coming performance?
Well, the only thing I can think of is obviously our new player. I have to adjust my drafts because a new player might not be as comfortable on heroes that our old player liked to play, and the team synergy might also be a bit off in the beginning - that will probably affect us the most.
Do you think the fact that much of your team has played together for a very long time has an impact on your performance?
That’s a good point honestly, I myself don’t think that I would play as well in a completely ‘new’ team because I have known my team for such a long time now and it’s a really fun but also competitive environment to play in. I think it’s a key factor to our success, probably also for other teams, but we have been getting along even better after meeting at DreamHack Summer and I think that helps a lot.
DreamHack Summer was your first LAN event, right? How was competing there as opposed to competing online?
It was the first DreamHack for Mathias`, Z4NE and myself. Nir and Tankafett both have been to DreamHack before with different teams and their experience at LAN have really helped us, as the whole LAN event was mostly new for us. Finally meeting my teammates, other competitors and the Frostburn staff was really awesome - they're all such nice and awesome people.
It’s so different from playing online with your team and actually sitting right next to them while playing - you also get really hyped when you score a kill/win a teamfight. I’m not saying that it’s not happening when you play online, but on LAN it’s way more intense. It was easily the best time I had while playing HoN.
Can you read your brother’s mind?
Of course, it makes ganking so easy when you actually don’t have to say anything! : D
[Rea]Imbaboy | [ex-Sync]iNsania | [BMG]Fusen | [Mint]cerenia | [coL]Formless
RizaRose is a student at the University of Michigan who is currently interning with Frostburn Studios. She studies Political Science and German and has also studied Creative Writing, specializing in fiction and nonfiction. In her free time she hangs out with her sorority sisters and pesters her mother for pictures of her cat.
