Tales of the Mighty: Sage Meets Booty Sweat: SirLos!

Hello THL! It's almost expansion launch time, and to tide you by in the days coming up to the Witchwood (hype), we have something very special for you: our homeboy Sage has interviewed each and every one of our Sylvanas League Season 5 Champions, Booty Sweat, with a different one coming up each day and the final one you on launch day! Up next in this series, we have Booty Sweat's 2 Seed: SirLos!
-rebobson​​

Little known fact: SirLos is a Panda. Seen here in his automobile.

Sage: Hail, and well met! First things first, congrats on winning the Sylvanas League Season 5 Championship! Thanks for joining me for this interview today. To get things started, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?

SirLos: Greetings! And thank you! Well I'm SirLos, knighted on the 31st day of December. I hail from the island of Puerto Rico, but currently reside in the state of Georgia. I'm an avid gamer, but when I'm not playing games, I'm either watching movies/TV shows or listening to music. I enjoy sports games, RPGs, and just good quality games in general, while also playing card games, such as Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, Slay the Spire, and others. Currently I've fallen into the craze of Fortnite and have enjoyed it!

Sage: Quality games are the only kind I play. I've also dabbled in some Magic. What's color(s) do you play? I'm White/Red soldier deck player myself.

SirLos: I'm a fan of sultai (Green/Black/Blue) decks.

Sage: That's an interesting mix. Not sure what their strengths would be, but I'll have to look it up later to find out. Moving on, what kind of prep did you utilize and what do you think helped most?

SirLos: This season was a little weird, starting with the first few weeks of the season, I think I may have done a little too much experimenting, due to new meta and expansion. I generally try to not play the best decks but play decks that I enjoy and have fun with. Then the nerfs hit and the meta kinda just became bring Warlock(which usually got banned) and the next 3 best decks/classes. Once we made the playoffs, or at least knew we were locked for them, I brought what was considered meme decks. Funnily enough, they were performing very well so I was "allowed" to bring at least Kathrena/Secret Hunter and Kazakus Mage, while filling the other two slots with Cubelock and Combo(inner fire/divine spirit) Priest during the playoffs. I may have switched the Kazakus Mage to Secret Mage towards the latter half of the playoffs, but yeah that was kind of what I did during the season. To answer the question more concisely though, I think that I just played and didn't put too much thought into prepping for matches. I mean I would analyze my opponents classes and kinda base my deck choices on what they might bring but eventually I figured I'd just bring what I wanted to play. A lot of the classes were versatile and trying to gameplan for a certain lineup sometimes didn't pay off. So sticking to what I knew and was comfortable with helped the most.

Sage: Going for comfort over counter is definitely a smart choice. Is this why you brought both Hunter and Mage going into the finals, despite them both being secret classes and vulnerable to Eater of Secrets?

SirLos: Yes it was, I was much more comfortable with them, and had much more experience playing them than switching to something else that may have been "better".

Sage: I'm not trying to say it was a bad choice, after all I brought both week 1 against Ericokey. Your opponent in the finals was Switters. After his incredible season in both leagues, were you nervous about facing him in the finals?

SirLos: I wouldn't say nervous. I was aware of his success in both leagues during the season, but I had to just focus on what I could control. I obviously wanted to win the match but knew that if I could get at least 2 wins it would ease the pressure a little on TheAnarchist. And to be fair, we both drew well in game 5, but he was on the play and was able to establish the Mana Wyrm before I was able to get down my secret keeper. If it was the other way around that game may have played out differently.

Sage: Turn 1 Mana Wyrms win games. They're too good. They need a nerf! If you could nerf or HoF one card, what would it be?

SirLos: Oh man, hmm, that is a tough question. But if I had to choose just one card, I'd have to go with Edwin vanCleef. Not to hate on the Rogue players out there, but man that card can go. I know it hasn't had much play in the current meta, but it is by far one of the more frustrating cards to play against. Honorable mention would go to another Secret (besides Ice Block) and that would be Counterspell. It's just not fun to have your cards/spells not do anything. But Secret Mage will probably go away with rotation so it might not be as bad.

Sage: RIP Secret Mage. My heart breaks to know tempo mage is going into the dumpster once again. But I agree 100% with Edwin, turn 1 8/8s are not fun. I'm not sure how much you read the THL Discord chat, but a whole ton of wholesome sportsmanship has been happening this past season in it. Regarding this recent trend, who in THL would you most like to get a beer with (or other preferred beverage)?

SirLos: Well I'm not necessarily the most frequent visitor to the Discord, something I hope to change in the coming season(s). But just from all the content, Discord, Twitch, and Facebook, I'm a big fan of rebobson. Back in season 7 my only regular season loss that year was to him in week 1. And I would give him some credit for me winning MVP that year. Since then he's been on my radar and I've enjoyed his content. Cheers mate!

Sage: rebobson is one of the best people in THL, and is also the person that asked me to take on your team's profile. All hail our Lord and Savior, rebobson! Do you have any plans yet for the next season of Sylvanas league?

SirLos: I believe my plans are to return with Booty Sweat and defend the title. It was a lot of fun and a long journey. After 2 seasons in back to back Rag finals and unfortunately losing those, there were definitely questions about taking a break and not playing. But I decided to play and to make it to the finals and win. Man...it just kinda validated all the time I put into THL. So yeah, I'll be returning for season 9.

Sage: Really glad you guys decided to keep with it. The league wouldn't be the same without you guys. What would you say was the most awesome and memorable moment from a match or even a teammate's match at any point during the season?

SirLos: Oh man, the game between Shunsui and DurtyMike. We kinda held an event at the house that week, Booty Sweat vs Tan Pam, week 7. The rest of us just spectated the games between them, making sure there were no shenanigans and let me tell you, I have no idea how Shunsui won with that Shaman deck he built but damn it if Hearthstone isn't king of RNG! But yeah, that was probably the best/most fun I've had watching a game all season.

Sage: Cody vs DurtyMike you mean. <_<

SirLos: hmmmmmmm maybe im thinking of Ragnaros… Yeah I am. Awkward.

Sage: Not horribly so. It still sounds like you guys had a blast with it!

SirLos: We did, but as for Sylvanas league I guess I would point to a game against Jammies that I had, where somehow I was able to grind out Control Lock with Combo Priest. Still have the replay for that one saved somewhere.

Sage: Before we wrap up the interview, would you like to say anything to your teammates or the league?

SirLos: I'd just like to say thanks to my teammates for carrying me in the finals, we had a lot of fun and it was a great environment all season long. As for the rest of THL, continue being the great community we are and drink booty sweat baby!

Sage: Thanks for your time, SirLos, and congratulations once again on the big win. I hope to see you guys making playoffs next season as well. Good luck!

SirLos: Thanks to you for doing this Sage, and thanks, we hope to make it back as well!

-Sage & SirLos

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