With froyotech’s recent victory at Esports Arena’s Rewind II comes yet another LAN win for the majority of froyotech’s squad. But for yomps, the team’s newest member, it became his first LAN victory, after placing second at GXL LAN 2015, RGB LAN 2017, and placing third at the Esports Arena Rewind 2017 Invitational.

The team breezed through the group stage unscathed, losing only three rounds across three best-of-two series. Starting in the upper bracket in the playoffs, froyotech remained undefeated all the way to the grand finals, where they defeated Ascent 3-0, crowning themselves the uncontested champions of Rewind II.

yomps finally gains his first first-place LAN placement (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix and Jasmine "Jasbutts" Ho)

With Rewind II behind us, yomps was able to give us his thoughts about his new team’s victory, their performance at LAN, and the future going forward as the ESEA season enters the second half of its Regular Season.

How does it feel to finally win your first LAN event?

It feels pretty good to finally win something. It definitely makes me want to win more than just one LAN.

How do you think your team performed at Rewind II?

I was happy with our performance up until grand finals. Even though we still won, we didn’t do it in the fashion we wanted. I was definitely part of the reason for some of the round losses. Moving forward hopefully that doesn’t happen again.

What were your thoughts on Esports Arena's Rewind II as an event?

Compared to last year, the venue has definitely upgraded. They already had 144hz monitors for us to use and we didn’t have to sit on pieces of scrap metal this year as they provided proper chairs for everybody to use. I wasn’t able to catch much of the stream so I can't really input on the production; I assume it was top-notch.

How does the team structure in froyotech compare to your previous teams?

The biggest change from my past teams to froyotech is the Demoman. How much they get healed, what they do on pushes/holds, how they comm, etc. froyotech plays way more around habib than Ascent plays around Bdonski.

Has your gameplay changed moving to froyotech?

froyotech's way of playing is a lot different than my past teams, but I don’t think my style of play has changed at all. The only thing that’s changed really is the class I’m playing. I still coordinate with my roamer/team just like I would on flank scout [and] I still frequently feed like I would on flank scout. I’m not sure if I could answer how important my role is really. I’m sure plenty of people can play like I do.

Building off of that, how easy was it to transition to froyotech? Were there any hurdles you had to jump with the change in maincalling, etc.?

It was super easy to transition. I had no problems with the change at all.

For most of your Invite career, you've mainly played as a Scout. However, you played as Pocket Soldier at Rewind II, where you did exceptionally well. How was it to play the role that was relatively unfamiliar to you and how confident did you feel playing it at the LAN?

I've wanted to play soldier on a team for a very long time. Mainly because, with practice, I've always thought that my soldier could be better than my scout. So I'd say I was pretty confident going into the soldier role for LAN and ESEA. Hopefully by the end of the season, my soldier WILL be better than my scout, but it’s still a work in progress.

How did it feel to play against your old team at LAN?

I didn't think anything of it. They were just another team.

How do you feel going forward into the current ESEA season and beyond?

I feel pretty good going into the season. Our results are looking pretty promising for a fairly new roster. We definitely still have some things we need to improve on however, as we can't be complacent and underestimate teams like Ascent or SVIFT NA. And considering Ascent’s roster for Rewind II was much different than their current ESEA roster, I feel the same way I did when I first joined froyotech: confident but cautious.

Speaking of Ascent, how do you feel they did, having to use two stand-ins for both of their scouts?

I think they did pretty well considering the situation they were put in. As Ascent were missing two of their best players, I think they should be happy with their results this LAN. sigh and bo4r still played really well for them without needing much practice with the team. Though if corsa and slemnish were able to go, the grand finals would have been a much closer match.

Many people expected the Grand Finals of Rewind II to be froyotech vs Se7en. How do you think Se7en performed at the LAN as a whole?

Considering how close the top 4 was in terms of how the teams stacked up against each other, I'm not too surprised they placed what they placed. Maybe things would have been different if kaptain were able to play for them for the entirety of the LAN. Hopefully they'll want to keep playing and improving so they can bring a stronger roster (and stronger stomachs) to the next LAN.

How do you feel about the future of competitive TF2?

I just hope there is a future to be honest. In NA, I think it’s been looking pretty good so far with ESEA bringing back its IM division and Open having a bunch of new teams. If we kept on that upward trend the future is looking pretty good.