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With the opening match of Season 8 coming this Thursday, it’s time to take a closer look at another of our Premiership teams. This time we’re talking 
Highpander©. After finishing Season 6 as champions, a strong season ended disappointingly with a playoff loss to PremTech leaving them in 3rd place overall. With Heavy 
Piddox leaving the team shortly after the season, the team managed to win the Experimental Highlander One-Night-Cup #6 sponsored by scrap.tf using a much-changed roster that notably included Steve! on Medic and 
Kissakala playing Scout. We spoke to 
Hildreth to find out how the Pandas are shaping up for Season 8.
Firstly, how do you feel about how last season went for you as a team?
Hildreth: Obviously for us, coming anything less than second was unacceptable so to not even be in the final was beyond belief considering pre-season we felt invincible. Whilst many of the players were utterly disappointed in themselves and how we performed as a team, I can only praise our opponents for improving over the season and knocking us down.
Are there any roster changes the people need to know about?
Hildreth: We like to keep people guessing, the core of the roster will still be there, we may only have 1 or 2 new additions to the team in total. We’ve switched Kissakala back to Scout (his Season 6 role) as I felt the Medic wasn’t working, and picked up 
Spreijer. We may also pick up a new Heavy: Piddox, 
Polk and another Heavy are in the frame.
How has preseason gone? Have you been playing much or enjoying the time off?
Hildreth: You make it sound like it’s a job! It’s always a pleasure to play with my team, but a lot are busy with some aspect of their life either work, school or 6v6 so we’ve been playing once a week. We won the Experimental Cup and that was our first game since the defeat to PremTech, we did two pcws in two weeks since then versus Tourettes Chessclub, haven’t won a map yet but we’re not going overboard with practises at this stage, I want my team to peak during playoffs not during preseason like we did last season.
What do you think of the map pool? Is there anything you’d change?
Hildreth: Map pool’s fine really, a lot more thought has been put in this season than last season (lol reservoir), we got a few new maps to learn and some existing ones we can try and perfect, maps like Gpit are always the best to play, you can see unique strats and such, we may have lost every round last season but we were trying to play our own way. You’ll notice teams will do that, play their own style on a map like Gpit which is what I love about it.
Which players do you think will be the most important for you?
Hildreth: That’s easy – zoob and 
phromelo. Both are always big players for us, the stats don’t reflect it but zoob is the heart of our flank and is always making the right calls which as a combo we learn to play off, or he is learning to play off our combo. That’s why we’ve moved Kissakala back to scout, as they work together a lot, 
YanG "Пальмира" was more a solo DM heavy player who came into the combo. phromelo was a big miss for us versus PremTech, he is the sort of sniper that makes other teams afraid so when he told me he should be able to play this season I was excited, I just hope he sticks it out. The rest of our team has great players in every position, our combo will be solid and if I can maincall properly this season and keep ahead of the competition like I did in Season 6, we should win. We were confident last season and in S6. It changes when you win a season, the team expects to win more so I will keep reminding them of our defeats so they know we need to work hard and focus.
Who will be the biggest threat to your team this Season?
Hildreth: Well Tourettes Chessclub of course, I am not convinced PremTech will the same without ShaDowBurn, doesn’t mean they won’t be a threat but I don’t think they can win without him. 
Stacked have a stable roster this season, I can see them improving because they will practise a fuck ton, I don’t see any other team competing for the championship but 
Fair Enough will be able to pull off some surprise results.
Any shoutouts?
Hildreth: Shoutout to Arie from serveme.tf, to the HL admins except kKaltUu and to my team of course. 
foungi will get a shoutout for DeutschLAN as well, I hope we can go there in some capacity. Oh and BlackOut TV + Jon.
Fighting talk from the man in charge, but will his team come up with the goods to back up his confidence? With Steve! back to Pyro and Spreijer coming in, the focus will be on finding the right Heavy for the team. 
Zebbosai has joined the roster as a backup, but with the mystery Heavy still unidentified is Hildreth merely trying to throw us off the scent? No matter who the final piece of the puzzle turns out to be, the team are looking strong. Spreijer in an experienced Medic who put in some excellent performances for Chessclub last Season and Kissakala has been impressive on Scout. The unchanged flank and pick classes will provide stability and players like zoob and phromelo will remain the envy of the other Prem teams for their contributions.
The early weeks could prove crucial for Highpander©: A week 1 clash with Tourettes Chessclub followed by PremTech in week 2. Dropping points to their biggest rivals early in the Season could leave them under severe pressure later on, while wins could set them up for a dominant season. Only time will tell!
Big thanks to Hildreth for talking to us! Tune in to BlackOut TV on Thursday at 21CET to watch Highpander© take on Tourettes Chessclub on pl_upward to kick off Highlander Season 8 powered by Tt eSPORTS!
March 25, 2015 
Grenja
Posted by profsciencephd in Highlander, League 
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I really enjoy these posts (Y) ! Nice work prof !
kkaltuu_down