After? revealing that Tempo Storm is going through issues as a team on the community podcast Town Hall Heroes, Zoia explains the situation candidly.
Everyone who follows the Heroes of the Storm pro scene knows about Tempo Storm's recent tournament performances. The team that at one point had a 20+ game winning streak has fallen from their rank 1 position and the once one sided rivalry between Cloud 9 Maelstrom has been turned on it's head. No one knew what was happening to Tempo Storm, but just recently the veil has been lifted.
In his typical style, Tempo Storm's manager Jared "Zoia" Eggleston pulled no punches when explaining the teams internal struggles on the most recent episode of Town Hall Heroes. He warned before he started the explanation that it won't be "fluff":
"It has got to the point where if we could of made roster changes, we would've been fine. But, we are at a point where half the team hates each other. Like- it's bad. It's affecting our play hard. We can't do anything about it, we are just stuck. We have been stuck in this roster for 6 months since we qualified, eStar has been [stuck in a roster lock] for even longer. One thing that this did from an organization perspective, from my perspective,is it immediately took all power away from the organization. When the players know they are safe, they can do whatever they want and there is almost nothing we can do about it."
Players are depressed every single day. I get players coming to me in tears- they don't want to be here, they don't want to play.
Zoia was referencing the fact that Tempo Storm was unable to make roster changes due to a lock enforced by the Road to BlizzCon tournament rules. The rule states that the 5 players that qualified for BlizzCon must be the 5 players that compete at BlizzCon. Tempo Storm qualified so early, it essentially guaranteed the team would stay as 5 until BlizzCon.
"We are just at a point where there is conflict and there is nothing I can do to motivate some of the players that just have no motivation. It's really bad- this situation we are in as a team. I don't think anyone at Blizzard would've suspected the roster locks having this kind of impact, but it did. We would've went through roster changes back in July- that is how long we have been wanting to make roster changes. At this point, it wasn't bad but it's like a tumor has just been growing and growing. Players are depressed every single day. I get players coming to me in tears- they don't want to be here, they don't want to play. this potentially could of ruined a few players pro-gaming careers because these last months have been so toxic for them."
After the bomb dropped, Artosis and Solid Jake attempted to bring a different perspective to the discussion, mentioning the importance of protecting players and questioning the contracts of the players. Jake went on to say that perhaps the contracts should have specified that if a player fails to perform to the best of their ability or practice, they should be fined.
Zoia's response?
"We have fined. They don't care."
Silence.
If you want to listen for your self (and really, you kinda have to), check out this past broadcast. The discussion starts at 1:07:40 and it's a fascinating discussion on the inner workings of Tempo Storm and just how hard it is to stay together as a team. Things get a bit more positive and Zoia concedes that the team is still taking BlizzCon as seriously as they can.
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