By GinArgent
October 29th
Ahead of the 2023 Overwatch World Cup Group Stage, Kryix interviewed IRP, support player for Team Hong Kong, and cuFFa, tank player for Team Australia.
Leung “IRP” Chin-hang lives in the United States, so he plays a unique role for his team. We were able to interview IRP in part because he lives stateside and speaks English. When asked about shepherding his teammates around Anaheim, he said “why not,” but that “most likely the entire Overwatch community” would be “looking for the Moira 1 trick player.” Playing at BlizzCon doesn’t intimidate IRP, and he isn’t doing anything special to prepare for his first offline tournament. As a streamer, he’s used to playing for an audience. Additionally, his work requires him to stand “in front of [a] big group of people,” so he “[doesn’t] really feel nervous.”
Unlike IRP, Riley “cuFFa” Brown has a lot of travel to contend with. Adapting his sleep schedule to avoid jet lag is a big part of his LAN preparation. The prospect of a LAN experience excited cuFFa, who called it “a whole new experience.” While IRP is nonchalant about the crowd, cuFFa could not be more eager. “More than anything,” he wants to “play in front of a crowd.”
2023 is the first time in a few years that the APAC region, including Hong Kong, has gotten significant support from Blizzard. IRP wants to bring esports into the spotlight and get more support from the official circuit. In the even more isolated Australian region, cuFFa wants more international tournaments. In Asia, iron sharpens iron. IRP isn’t afraid of South Korea. “They are not as strong as I expected,” he said. Granted, this is South Korea we’re talking about, so Korea could be “not as strong as [IRP] expected” and still win the whole tournament without dropping a map.
IRP said to watch out for So “Kurumi” Chun-kit, one of Hong Kong’s DPS players, to make a splash at BlizzCon. Kurumi is a hitscan DPS who has played in the Tier 3 scene of Southeast Asia and Oceania since 2021 and came just shy of making Contenders Asia-Pacific Summer Series in Asia-Pacific this year.
In the past, Team Hong Kong has fallen short of making the OWWC main event, and this will be their first appearance at BlizzCon. IRP said he’s disappointed in the results of that “Fire Dragons” era. This year, Hong Kong has new branding, with a lion motif. “Both Dragon and Lion are the legacy and heritage of Hong Kong tradition," he said. The lion has roots in Hong Kong’s British and Chinese pasts. “It’s good to change something, including nicknames and rosters,” said IRP, and change is in the air. IRP’s fellow support players Wong “ManGoJai” Kin-long and Lai “AmCrazy” Cheuk-pang are the only returning players from the Fire Dragons era. As a self-identified Moira one-trick, IRP embraces being a role player. “Just vibing,” he said of his role in this support rotation.
Australia is also filled with new blood. Once Punk stepped down from the team after the qualifiers, none of the players on 2023 Team Australia have been on a prior Overwatch World Cup team. From this next generation of Aussie Overwatch, cuFFa said to watch out for DPS player Kai “Nanda” Grey. “Nanda is pretty underrated and quite flexible,” said cuFFa of his teammate. “I reckon he will impress a lot of people this tournament.” In the constant musical chairs of Contenders Australia teams, cuFFa and Nanda have, to the best of our research, surprisingly never been on the same team at the same time.
cuFFa feels he has a lot to show individually. While most known for his high-level Winston play on triple-digit ping, cuFFa said he’s more than an Australian Guxue. “I think I'm pretty competent on almost every tank, especially when on low ping. I've definitely worked on my hero pool a lot… the guys trust me on all heroes.” cuFFa has stepped up to be the solo tank. “Being a leader… is [a] great responsibility but also an insanely good opportunity to get my foot in the door at the highest level.” As such, cuFFa said Team Australia has not changed its strategy.
IRP and cuFFa have very different personal and team expectations heading into this Overwatch World Cup. IRP is cautiously optimistic about Hong Kong’s chances: “Shall we see what [happens] in this tournament at the end?” Meanwhile, Australia is in a tough group with Canada and the United Kingdom. But both are extremely excited that this international tournament has returned after a four-year absence, and are ready to represent their homes on the world stage.
Ben is a correspondent for Kryix. You can find them on Twitter at @achtungbabeyy.
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