10 Mar 23

Interviews

Apollo

Andy Talks Winter Split Progress and New Teammate Evoh

Dignitas pro Rocket League player Andy discusses how the Winter Split has been going, as well as how things have been going with the team’s newest player, Evoh.

As the third regional event of the Winter Split is set to get started, Dignitas finds themselves in a position where making the Major is entirely possible. We were able to chat with one of the members of the team, Andrew “Andy” Nolan, about what got them in this position, as well as the newest player on the team.


Hey, Andy! So, you guys are currently in bootcamp for this upcoming regional. How is it being with the team in person?

Andy: It’s going well! It’s nice to all be in one place and in person. It makes it easier to sort things out and work on things together as a team.


Obviously you guys made a pretty big change before this split, bringing in Evoh to replace Delta. What makes Evoh such a good fit with yourself and Dreaz?

Andy: I think it’s just the fact that he has so much offensive firepower. Our ceiling feels much higher because of it. He really seemed like he’d be the right fit and has tons of potential to improve, so we picked him up!


Let’s talk about your first regional together. You guys made it through closed qualifiers with a solid 3-1 record, beating Zero2One, Ghost and Knights, with the one loss coming against Shopify Rebellion. How did it feel to get those first games under your belt?

Andy: It felt good! It was good to finally get back to work again. We didn’t go anything super crazy in qualifiers, it was more about feeling out how this team wants to play and figuring out what we can build on for the future.


In the main event, you got put in a group with Complexity, Gen.G, and KOI. You went 1-2, you fell to Gen.G and Complexity, but did clutch out a 3-2 series win over KOI to send you to the bracket. Tell us about those games.

Andy: Those first two series against Complexity and Gen.G were tough. Those ended up being the top 2 teams in the whole regional. They both played extremely well. With KOI, we went into it a little bit unconfident after losing the last two series in a row. We did lose the first two games to KOI as well, but we were able to bounce back and pull out the win.


Your first match in the bracket was against Version1, who had just finished Top 8 at the Fall Major. You ended up sweeping them. After that, you got a 4-2 win against another Fall Major team in Spacestation Gaming. Two pretty impressive wins! Talk a little bit about those two games.

Andy: We went into those series not expecting anything. It’s our first split together, and this was only the first regional. We played with a lot of confidence though, and we played like we had nothing to lose. We didn’t place super high expectations on ourselves. That allowed us to play more freely, and the more games we won, the more confident we got.


The journey did come to an end in the next round against Complexity, but the results were obviously very promising. How did it feel to get Top 4 in your first regional with this new roster?

Andy: It was great! I don’t often get Top 8 as a player, but I feel like getting a Top 4 breaks us into a higher bracket of teams. I hope we can continue to get those types of results because that’s what we need to do to start making LANs.


In the second Regional Event, you were grouped up with KOI and Gen.G once again, but instead of Complexity, you had Optic Gaming. You went 2-1, beating KOI again and getting a win against Optic. You didn’t beat Gen.G, but you did do well enough to finish second in the group. How’d you feel about those games?

Andy: Those games were good! Gen.G has definitely been dominating us lately. But they’ve been dominating everybody. They’re the best team in the world. That’s not really a match we’re always expecting to win. We always want to try to take some games and maybe come out with a win, but we don’t have super high expectations against the best team in the world. Against Optic, we were super confident. We haven’t really played them as a team, and we don’t typically scrim them, but we know they’ve been struggling a little bit, especially on the mental side. So, we were able to take advantage. As for KOI, we were also confident. We feel like we’re the better team there.


You guys did fall to Knights in the first round of the bracket, giving you a 9th – 12th place finish. This, coupled with the results in the previous event, have you in position to make the Major with a strong performance in the final event. What would it mean for you to make it to the Major and what’s the mindset going in?

Andy: The 9th – 12th finish definitely hurt. But, like you said, we still put ourselves in a good enough position to make the Major after that Top 4 in the first Regional. Like, I think a Top 8 here plus a little help from other teams would get us in. It would be really good, especially for our first split together. As a player, I also think Majors are super important because it’s kind of a new echelon of professionals. The more of them you make, the more likely you are to stay in that range.


Thanks for your time, Andy! Where can the people keep up with you?

Andy: People can follow me on Twitter and, although I don’t stream very much, I do have Twitch.



You can catch Dignitas in action during the RLCS Winter Invitational this weekend (March 3rd – 5th)!

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