Ridouan "ioStux" Bouzrou · @ioStux
20th Sep 2018 from TwitLonger
My honest thoughts on what makes every player on @XL2 amazing.
For those of you who don't know me, I am a coach for XL2, the Contenders Team of NYXL. Over the past season, we have all put in a ton of effort to become the best we can be, and I wanted to take the time to share some thoughts I had about every player on this team. They are all incredibly dedicated and talented, but these players bring so much to the table that you can't always see from the frontlines.
-Adam
Adam was our Main Support, and if I had to point out one positive about him, it would have to be his incredibly positive attitude and outstanding Ult Tracking. I think many people don't quite understand how difficult it is to keep track of 6 enemy ultimates at once while also playing your characters to their fullest potential, and Adam makes it look incredibly easy. I never experienced another player so confidently call out someone's ult charge +-10% or so. He is incredibly accurate, and that alone can carry a team in my opinion.
-Goliath
It's very clear from all the video content he produced with XL2 that Goliath is incredibly professional, mature and accepting of criticism. I still remember my first 1 on 1 with him very fondly, the way he soaked up information and immediately implemented it in-game made coaching him feel incredibly rewarding. I think the first thing people will notice when they start working with him is how involved he gets, every single time we reviewed something together, he would share his thoughts, ask excellent questions and move the discussion forward.
-Cloneman
I think it's no secret that Cloneman is incredibly dominant on Reinhardt, but what I really appreciated the most in him was his commitment to the team. The only thing Cloneman is interested in is the success of his team; he didn't care about being the star player or getting a ton of playtime, he would put every last second of his time into helping his teammates. I really don't think we would have made it as far as we did without Clonemans positivity and nobility throughout the season. Most players I know would struggle if someone else on the team played the same role as him, but Cloneman always took it as a learning opportunity to grow as a player and move the team forward.
-Mangachu
I want to raise some awareness regarding Mangachu because I feel like many people don't really know what he is fully capable of. He is mostly known for his incredibly dominant Pharah play, but people quickly dismiss what else he brings to the table. Working with him was great because of his flexibility, he's not a one trick, he is an excellent Hanzo, a phenomenal Junkrat, and I swear to god I think he is a living example that chivalry, in fact, is not dead, he was BLOOMING whenever he got to play Doomfist. He is an incredibly confident and aggressive player, and his vast hero pool and thirst for reaching the top should make him a definite pick up for any team.
-Nenne
Remember his name, because some time from now you'll see it at the top of every leaderboard imaginable. I honestly don't think there are words that can be used to describe just how amazing Nenne is as a player. I still remember his stall on Lijiang Night Market as Tracer, 1v6 against the entire enemy team until the rest of his team could regroup. He is a star player, and there is no doubt in my mind that he will succeed in the Overwatch League. It's as if he breathes Overwatch; he would always inspire his teammates to put in everything they've got. Every single day he would spend extra time into analyzing VoDs or researching strategies, and that dedication affected the rest of the team, it showed us what it meant to dream of being a top tier player, and his hard work has paid off. Any player currently in OWL should be scared of facing him, when he is giving his best (i.e. always) he is an absolute monster in the game.
-Tizi
His Winston play is outstanding, and I think the players on XL2 are going to miss Tizi's phenomenal play once they move on. Having Tizi on your team automatically turns the difficulty of the game down, the amount of space he creates, the number of resources he forces the enemy team to blow on him, the amount of attention he draws as monkey make it SO incredibly easy for the rest of his team to do what they did. I think Tank Players don't get enough attention, but Tizi is a player that defined our playstyle and made almost every single top play that we pulled off during the season possible. Having Tizi on your team raises the ceiling of what is possible for everyone else on the team.
-WooHyaL
WooHyal has proven that his stay in Contenders was only temporary, during scrims it was always clear that he was on a completely different level compared to his competition. He's not a player that goes for flashy plays or huge six man bombs all the time, WooHyaL's playstyle is focussed on playing the game as cleanly as possible and consistently giving his team advantages. WooHyaL would find out what needs to be done to win the game without taking huge risks and he would execute that plan flawlessly. And that's just his gameplay; I think his personality is just as noteworthy! He actually reminds me of another specific positive person currently in OWL, he is always in a good mood, ready to play, doesn't get phased when we lose a couple of rounds, him and Cloneman are really what keep the Team spirits high and I think you really can't go wrong with someone that plays incredibly consistently while also being a great person to work with!
-Nanohana
Or as some people might know him, "Fl0w3r" is hard to appreciate without knowing the full picture. As some of you know, Nanohana has been struggling with wrist issues for a while now, and that makes his dedication even more impressive. His play is incredible, especially his Genji is phenomenal, and he consistently practices day by day. Most other players would have given up if they faced the situation that Nanohana faced, but he pulled through, he kept on fighting, and he kept on grinding. It's as if he practiced with 100-pound weights on his ankles. And now that those weights are gone he is ready to establish himself as one of the worlds best flex players available.