Note from the Editor: This interview took place before One Trick Pony’s match with compLexityGaming.

Today I was approached by ArchiTigeR, the leader of One Trick Pony as you might know. Let's begin!

Hello, Sanel 'ArchiTigeR' Talic, thanks for sitting down with me. Tell us a bit yourself.

Well my name is Sanel Talic, and my Nickname is ArchiTigeR "Important Capital Letters."

I’m 20 years old and currently studying web design and in my free time I usually play HoN or hang out with my friends.

We have never officially met, but I recall your name back then when I left HoNPortal, you joined my team together with Jonassomfan which later got renamed to today's [FiT]BetterLookingThanYou. Can you give us details on this?

That was a long time ago :P. I remember that I wasn't really feeling like I should be in that team because it didn't feel like "home," and to able to be in a top team and play well you have to have fun and feel welcome by the players. It wasn’t a good fit for my style of play.

With FiT, I didn't play well and I was kicked because I lacked skill I believe :P.

How did you gather players for OTP?

To be honest I was gonna join Druidz eSports but we didn't like our captain, and that was where I found fUzi. I wanted fUzi to join my team instead because I saw him as a good player and funny to play with. And after that Znoowy was playing as a stand-in and we played so much better with Znoowy than with our old captain.

Then I just said let’s talk with Druidz about making a new team and we did. Then I asked Streufutter because he got kicked from Pikachu and I have always liked Streu. Znoowy invited Xibbe and now we are five.

Help us meet the team then!

I usually play semi support / jungle, that's my role. I think where I shine is with the jungle heroes.

Znoowy plays support; we help each other all the time with the warding and supporting. Znoowy’s previous team was Decerto I believe—it was a long time ago—where they managed to win the EsportSm Qualifier at Malmö, but after that he left the team. Znoowy was also the first teammate I played with when I joined my first "comp team." So I have known Znoowy for a long time.

Then we have Streufutter who is our drafter / suicider. Streu didn’t play suicide lane at first but we had to change roles and right now Streu is playing really well and he loves it! Streus’s strength is that he is a great suicider and a stable player.

fUzi is our main carry—he loves Forsaken Archer :) and loves to farm. He impressed me so much with his carry role and he is also a funny-mannered guy which I love.

Last player is Xibbe—he is our best solo player. He loves to play 1on1 and he always dominates them :P. To be honest I have never seen Xibbe lose a 1on1. He always yells about getting 1on1 mid and Streu always says there will never be a 1on1 in scrim :P.

I recall Streufutter from Team Pikachu; did he leave Pikachu because he wanted to join OTP or was he clanless already when you invited him?

From what I heard about that situation, he got kicked because they wanted to play with Swindle instead of Streu. But I loved that he got kicked, or else he wouldn't have joined my team so in that sense it's a win-win situation.

I understand that you have beaten some of the very talented teams, the most recent ones being your victories versus Experience Gaming and UV Gaming, both ending 2-0 in favor of your team. Did you expect such success out of your team, making it to Diamond Division?

I was kinda surprised that we managed to beat ExP 2-0 with a huge lead in both games. But against Ultraviolet Gaming I think that we should have won 2-0. We even picked a funny lineup versus them xD (Flux Engi Kraken Tempest Glacius) :).

So now that you are actually in Diamond Division, I believe it should be very exciting that you know you are with only the best teams in the world right now. How do you feel about this? Do you fear facing any teams, or have any victories to predict?

I feel happy :D. It was my goal to reach to Diamond Division, and now that we won our latest match against Pika with 2-0 I’m even happier. There are a lot of teams to fear but I believe that the top teams right now are coL, Tt eSports, Trademark eSports, and Gary Johnson 2024.

Who do you think will finish HoN Tour first and who will finish the last?

I’m Hoping that someone will be able to beat coL because it`s getting to be like when Fnatic wouldn’t lose any offline tournament, and I hope that someone will counter them :). I have no clue who will be finish last—there are so many teams out there right now that are in the same skill level.

HoN Tour is quite a busy schedule. How do you handle this volume, in terms of practicing with your team, theorycrafting, etc.?

We used to scrim every day but now that HoN Tour is on it takes up our scrimmage time. But I'm really happy that HoN TouR is going through. The only sad part is that you have to play on weekends, but if I’m not mistaken that won't matter after the Qualification.

Editor’s note: There are weekend games throughout the tournament.

Are there any undiscovered new heroes that you think have potential in the current competitive scene?

I have something on my mind but I don't feel like telling—they are going to be our secret card ;).

There have been some discussions about Monkey King after ExP's game versus QsQ. Do you think the hero is fine or in need of another nerf? If yes, what can the nerf be like?

I think the hero is fine, it was just only that he played versus someone that didn't have a disable. And when you have a good early game with Monkey you can just snowball and keep getting kills. I don't think he needs to be nerfed again; before he was Op now he is just a normal hero if you know how to counter him.

Thanks again for this interview, it's been great to know you and your team closer. I wish the best of luck to you guys in future! Do you have any last words or shoutouts?

Thanks a lot Roland, you are doing a fantastic job with all this coverage. I love reading them :). Shoutout to TibTib for being an awesome Frenchie, and my team Xibbe, Streufutter, Znoowy And fUzi. Also shoutout to Archisbitch, who is our Cheerleader!.

Please click here for the match recap of OTP vs Pika. If you have any requests for interviews, match recaps, previews, or anything you would like me to cover HoN related, just hit me up on my wall!

- RoLanD

Big shoutout to [S2]Kros for being so helpful maintaining my community channel, he helps me without getting bored of it every week on patch days, he is THE best!
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