Captain Interview - Pasca

Diamond has a chat with Pasca as he continues his captain interview series.

Per iCon’s recommendation, I sat down and talked with Pasca, the captain of No Pros Here and BYE. 

Diamond: How did you find out about THL?
Pasca: The first time I discovered that there were organizations where anyone could play Hearthstone tournaments for fun is when I stumbled upon a Reddit post about the Call Of The Wild League (it's quite similar to Challenger but wild format). I was a super casual player at the time, but I decided to try it, and it was more fun than I could have imagined. So I started looking for other places to play and I found No Pros Here. Back then it was just Gamble organizing 8 player tournaments simply to make content for his stream. I played in every one of them, and at some point, I started helping Gamble and SKItLLeZ administrate them. 
The NPH community tournaments attracted people who like to play conquest for fun, and of course, that player base overlaps with other communities. THL became a familiar name because Derivus, Cmaccomph, and ItsMeMikeV referred to it (and asked why the hell we were not there). So at the beginning of last season, I messaged Derivus to see if his team was looking for a new player and that's how I joined Bad To The Bone. Then the board said that they had an uneven number of teams in Hero so I told SKItLLeZ "let's bring our squad!"


Diamond: As a newer captain, how would you say the experience has been?
Pasca: I am loving it! It helped cement our community by giving the players on the team a reason to be active and to help each other. It also gives them the opportunity to appear on stream, which in some cases is why they came to NPH in the first place. The level of competition is very high and the team format allows everyone to find a niche. THL has been super welcoming. 

Diamond: Is there a difference in the team dynamics of NPH and BYE?
Pasca: NPH uses the main NPH Discord server and the name, so there's a real feeling of representation. BYE is made of people from the NPH community but does not have that kind of official link.


Diamond: Do you think one of your teams can win a championship this season?
Pasca: We are rated #2 in Hero by all accounts, so we will do our best to go as far as possible into the playoffs. As for BYE, we had some tougher weeks, but we know that we have enough talent to turn it around.
 
Diamond: How would you describe your captain style?
Pasca: I think I'm pretty good at building a good roster and because of this, when the season started most of my work is already done. A good roster is not just about having 5 players with good talent/PR value to win games in every seed (secret tip: hire wild legends who don't have great finishes in standard). It's also a group of players who understand the strategy and the metagame, help each other, are autonomous, respond to pings in a timely manner, schedule their matches early and show up reliably. Preparation for our matches goes so smoothly because we all love doing this kind of work. SKItLLeZ and I are practically co-captains in Hero (he proved that he's excellent at this job so I'm not worried when I go AFK), but the real MVP of match preparation is Disco. He goes to great lengths to make sure that everyone has the best possible lineup, knows their matchups, finds out any information that's available about their opponent, etc. With teammates like this, I can sit back and be confident that we have the best chances every week.

Diamond: Who has been your hardest opponent in each series?
Pasca: I want to highlight the two teams who managed to beat us in Hero: DSM5 and DadLegend. In those two matches, it felt like we were really outplayed; they are insanely good teams. 

Diamond: Do you feel NPH has a chip on their shoulders because they are representing a whole discord?
Pasca: That's not how it works. You will never have people waiting for you to represent them. It's the other way around. Take the initiative, grab opportunities and you will have people joining, cheering or hanging around. In other words, it's not a pressure to compete because we have a name; we have a name because we compete.

Diamond: What do you think the ideal team layout of the PR capped series is?
Pasca: No one needs a 550. It's possible to find players at 450 who will win more than 50% of their matches in the first seed. So this extra 100 PR is better invested in the lower seeds.

Diamond: Have you thought about captaining in the pro series?
Pasca: This idea has crossed my mind when I fantasize about concept teams. For example, I would build a team only out of local players from my hometown, or I would try to bring back some of the most notorious former THL players (telling them, you know, I came here too late and haven't had the chance to play with you so please come back for a season together). When I think about it seriously, I really want to stay with Bad To The Bone for as long as I can because I learn so much from playing with Aviously, Eggowaffle, MannySkull and A2Battleship. These players are completely out of my league, and it feels like I should pay them for coaching. I feel very privileged to have them as teammates.

Diamond: Who should do this interview next? 
Pasca: All of the other captains. If I have to pick, I would be especially curious about what Cmaccomph has to say.

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