With HoN Tour here it's time to get acquainted with one of the competitive scene's regular players, Linus Blomdin, better known to us all as Limmp. For those of you who do not know Limmp it's time to get out your notepads, as we're about to shine a light on this up-and-coming Swedish player in our Player Spotlight.

Background

Born on 31st May, 1995, and hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, Limmp is an avid gamer and along with his brother Chessie has been playing various games such as Counter-strike 1.6, World of Warcraft and Tibia.

Coming onto the competitive HoN scene a little over a year ago, Limmp has played on some big-named teams, including PORT and TiG, and currently holds a spot in the re-formed Trademark eSports.

He classifies himself primarily as a solo mid/ganker but with the versatility to brave the suicide lane if his team requires. Although he hasn't had much competitive success with his previous teams, Limmp sounds optimistic about his team's capabilities.

If their current level of play keeps up, who could blame him?

Accomplishments

TiG - First place It's Gosu May Invitational (2012)
PORT - Runners up fnaticplay Tournament (2012)
Tdm - Runners up Dreamhon Summer Championship (2012)
Tdm - Runners up Redemption Tournament (2012)
Tdm - Current 1v1 Showmatch champions (Oct 2024)

We got the chance to catch up with Limmp for a peek into the mind of one of the top-tier competitive players. We'll be touching mostly on the upcoming HoN Tour and the recent balance patch.

Q: First off I'd like to thank you for sharing your time with us today, Limmp. As you know HoN Tour is starting this weekend and looks to be one of HoN's greatest competitive works yet. What are your thoughts on HoN Tour?

A: I'm really excited for HoN Tour, not only for the reason that we've been waiting for it for a while now (let's be honest) but also the new system, which makes it a lot easier to play. You don't have to find your opponents and it's choosing the server for you. I think it's really good that the low-tier teams will be able to compete as well and earn some dollars, and of course there's the big money for the top teams in Diamond league to compete for. So yeah, soon is finally here and it will be BIG!

Q: I agree, not everyone can be in one of the top teams so it's nice to know that scrubs like myself have a chance to play competitively. What do you think HoN Tour will do for Heroes of Newerth as a whole?

A: It will certainly bring a lot of attention to HoN. I heard on HoNCast yesterday that it was about 1000 teams that had signed up for HoN Tour, which is as BreakyCPK said is ridiculously much and really good for the scene. I think it will bring more players to the game and perhaps bring some old school HoN pros back to compete for the big prize pool.

Q: That being said, HoN Tour runs for approximately 6 months and games played will not conflict with any other tournaments that will arise. Could you consider HoN Tour a way to keep your team active and use your matches as practice for the bigger events including DreamHack?

A: Well there are a lot of games to be played. Not to flame or anything but the early stages will be pretty easy games but still practice for sure. Even without the HoN Tour we would keep scrimming but it is good practice before like you say, DreamHack.

Q: Well said. Could you give me a list of the top 5 teams you believe will reach and stay at Diamond Rank?

A: compLexityGaming, Trademark eSports, Tt eSports, The Returners (Domain of Pain) and Gary Johnson 2024, in no order.

Q: I'm sure most would agree that those teams seem to be at the top of the ladder at least skill-wise. Enough about HoN Tour–I'd like to ask you about the recent balance patch that was added in last Friday, which saw changes to the Neutral Creeps as well as a Magic Armor change. What are your thoughts on these changes and do you believe they will have any major effect on the competitive scene?

A: I am not the guy who reads the patch notes very much, though I should when I am playing in the top. I like the forest change mostly because my boy Legionnaire will be able to kill those hardcamp Minotaur spawns easier as well as other spawns. I think forest heroes will be even more valued now, so it will be fun to see if it changes the drafting somehow. As far as the Magic Armor change goes, I don't really know too much about it.

Q: As you said, Legionnaire will benefit from having another creep in the hard camp when a minotaur spawns; what of other more competitive heroes such as Ophelia?

As you probably know a few of the Neutral Creeps have had a damage buff, most notably the once piss-weak Skeleton King has had its damage boosted from 38 to 50. Obviously that, paired with the long range and 1.5 second hold, can be deadly early-game.

A: Ophelia has always been a very good and banworthy hero–depending on what team you're facing of course–but she will be very dangerous (now more than ever) if a good Ophelia player get their hands on her. Ophelia will especially be a pain in the ass in TMM.

Q: As we all know, your brother Chessie also plays competitive HoN and happens to play for compLexity, which some may consider to be one of your top rivals in competitive play. Does this rivalry carry over into your personal lives? Do you guys have fights at the dinner table, or is everything what you'd expect?

A: Ha ha, I've been asked that question too many times and most people seem to think it affects our personal lives but it really doesn't. We don't speak too much about the games but for wishing each other good luck, and afterward it's normal.

Our parents are making a big deal of it at the dinner table though, like, “Are you excited facing each other?!” It's fun playing my brother and I obviously want to win against him but it's not affecting our personal lives.

Q: Once you're in a game I'm sure all thoughts of brotherly love go out the window. Well I'd like to wrap this up with one last question: Where do you see yourself and your team within the competitive scene and what would you like to accomplish while with Trademark eSports?

A: We will obviously keep practicing hard to stay in the top teams and I would really like to play a tournament somewhere far from Sweden, which is what I hope HoN will be able to provide in the future. We will practice hard for HoN Tour and DreamHack now and I would obviously not mind winning DreamHack with tdM.

Q: It's been a pleasure Interviewing you Limmp. Are there any shoutouts you'd like to make before we conclude?

A: Thanks for having me on, and shoutout to my team noobG, Mynuts, zai`, iNsania and our sponsors Razer and Raidcall.

This concludes our Player Spotlight for Linus "Limmp" Blomdin. We look forward to seeing how his team competes in the upcoming HoN Tour this weekend and wish him the best of luck.

- Leland "_Leeroy_"
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