Staff Reflection & Season 4

As Season 3 comes to an end, the creators of Friend or Foe sat down to reflect and express their thoughts on how the series has gone so far.

Could you give a quick description of who you are and what you do on FoF for those who don't know?

Theroclease: Tournament Organizer, players main point of contact, draft conductor, referee, color caster, live graphics conductor, and staff scheduler.

Raptearer: I'm a tournament organizer/shoutcaster for FoF. Outside of that, I work as a social media assistant for an esports news site.

Chrisedgeworth: My name is Chris, and I am the Observer and Broadcaster for FoF.

Sharogen: Zachary (Sharogen) Kelly. I'm one of the primary shout-casters for the Friend or Foe Series and host of the FoF Lounge.

Chris Sunga: I'm the owner and kind of like the lead artist/designer for the whole project.

What are your thoughts on this season compared to our previous seasons?

Theroclease: I think we've made major improvements. Mainly in structure with separating powers and responsibilities, and of course the visual graphics. I would say our overall tournament satisfaction and quality assurance has been about the same or below and I think that should be our focus moving into season 4.

Raptearer: I thought it was surprisingly more top heavy than in previous seasons, with 7 of the 8 teams in the top 4 making it to the losers and winners finals.

Chrisedgeworth: This season show more coordination than seasons past. Players are playing better as a team, and are thinking more critically about their matchup against individual players and how stylistically their team overall matches up against others.

Sharogen: In addition to the rebranding, and the evolution/solidification of the visuals for the tournament, this season has seen an influx of new blood that has ignited a fire in the competition. This has been by far the most intense with the widest ranges of skill match ups in both the Heroic and Mythic league.

Chris Sunga: The competition is a lot better this time. I had no clue who would end up in the finals when the season first started. I think as the league continues to grow, it starts to attract more challenging teams. When we first started the series, I mostly just invited everyone that I knew on my friends list, so I knew almost everyone in Season 1 and 2. Now, there are so many new names, I've barely had the chance to meet all the new players. It's kind of sad sometimes to see old friends retire from playing in the league, but I'm happy more people want to play.

How have your duties changed transitioning from Season 2 to Season 3?

Theroclease: I would say drastically. In S2 I was a player, color caster, and analyst. I've moved to a way more active and engaged role that almost feels like another job. It's very rewarding but there are a large amount of hours put in during and off the show.

Raptearer: I've picked up a lot more responsibilities taking on one of the TO roles. doing things like ruling on issues, helping ref, directing, and anything else I can do to help production.

Chrisedgeworth: Now I present for every game that goes to broadcast across both leagues, so its a lot more time spent on our production. I have also taken over handling our interview segments so now I have a chance to get my voice on the broadcast!

Sharogen: My job has mostly remained the same, just the scope has expanded to include running the FoF Lounge.

Chris Sunga: For Season 1 and 2, I was running the project nearly by myself. Truthfully, my mental health started declining while I was attempting to handle the tournament and production. Now, I'm extremely grateful for all the volunteers that help out with the tournament and allow me to step away sometimes to work on myself or other projects.

Are there any specific players you remember watching that stick out in your mind?

Theroclease: I would say the player that sticks out in my mind the most is TUB Rhyre. That guy was an absolute playmaker and titan in his role. When he was able to get Viego, you know you were about to see something special. For Heroic, I would say Orphic. Even in match-ups where he wasn't winning lane, his ability to effect the map was incredible and he shined in duels.

Raptearer: Brian Tsang and Utility Monster both stick out to me, both for their high level of play, and for the latter, their crazy champion pool.

Chrisedgeworth: I've known players from the Season 1 teams since my own time in the league. Players like Ahn Bo and BoExplode have long been staples of the Heroic league, as well as BurstLimit and Torrez from ACE in the Mythic.

Sharogen: The JeffGodGamer and Brian Tsang duo is like a well oiled machine of death. Watching them in the bot lane has been amazing!

Chris Sunga: In general, I love watching players that have been playing in FoF since S1. In Mythic, my favorite players to watch are, SGR Frozen, POG Fat Ectomorph, and my younger brother (ACE Burstlimit). In Heroic, I only enjoy watching BBZ Red.

Who have been your favorite teams this season?

Theroclease: I really enjoyed working with Team Sword. They conducted themselves very professionally and even had a few upset moments in the season. RLS also have been just really nice people and the support that Ahntye and MKStroam have give behind the scenes has been incredible.

Raptearer: Heroic: YUBI, I just love the goofiness. Mythic: RLS, cause they're plucky, and SGR, cause StreetSmurf

Chrisedgeworth: I had the most fun with the games from Yuumiversal Basic Income. They were all exceptional interviewees, not to mention their fun drafts and crazy bot lanes!

Sharogen: Ruby's Light Up Sketchers and Yumiversal Basic Income were some of the funniest players we've had.

Chris Sunga: When it came to production, SGR and TUB were always the easiest teams to work with and the easiest to talk to. Same with YUBI and SPE/SWO. Other than that, I often watch everyone’s games when I can.

Did Playoffs (for both Mythic and Heroic) go the way you expected it to?

Theroclease: The Heroic playoffs have been a rollercoster. Anytime I felt a team should win, it didn't go that way. There wasn't a universe in my head that Winners Finals was going to be played between 3 and 4 seed and 1st and 2nd played it out in Losers. If we had pickem's, I probably would have 0 points. In Mythic, I didn't expect TUB to be eliminated so quickly but everything else is how I would have guessed.

Raptearer: Not at all, I thought YUBI would coast to the finals and BBZ would be 4th overall. BBZ in the finals through winners is a crazy storyline, as is YUBI coming back from losing to them in the first place. Mythic was kind of the same, I thought TUB would at least make Winners Final no sweat, but they bombed out in the first round. ACE made it further than I thought too.

Chrisedgeworth: Not at all! I think mostly every seed proved to have teeth and made the whole bracket interesting.

Chris Sunga: All according to script.

Who do you think will win Heroic and Mythic Playoffs?

Theroclease: Again my understanding of Heroic players is off so I would take this with a grain of salt. Between YUBI and BBZ I feel both teams have lost now and feel like they have something to prove. The story arc between these two teams wrote itself and I'm excited to see the final chapter of Heroic Season 3 unfold. I'm going to give the slight edge to BBZ. In regards to Mythic I think it’s incredible that we’re seeing Season 2 runner-ups StreetSmurf and Bobrovsky battling it out for the title that was denied from them. I'm going to say SGR has my prediction though.

Raptearer: I think SGR's gonna walk away with the Mythic title 3-1, and I think YUBI is gonna take Heroic 3-2.

Chrisedgeworth: Heroic could go either way. BBZ won the earlier matchup but YUBI was scary all season. For Mythic, I think the series should go to POG convincingly, if they play their best drafts throughout that is.

Sharogen: In Heroic, it's gonna be a hard fought battle, but I believe that BBZ will come out on top. In Mythic, SGR was able to 3-1 POG in the winners bracket. I expect POG learned their lessons, but I think SGR will beat POG again.

Chris Sunga: Charity and the audience. Both will go to game five and it won't matter who will win.

Any info on new projects or Season 4?

Chris Sunga: FFS4 starts August 19th for Heroic and August 23rd for Mythic. You can register now if you’d like. More details regarding format changes will come out after the season ends, but one big change you should plan for is that Heroic games will be on Thursdays and Fridays this time, and Mythic games will be on Mondays and Tuesdays.