Seb 'numlocked' Barton and Jiri 'LiNkzr' Masalin are two members of an Overwatch team that Team Dignitas recently acquired. Both of them have had aspirations of becoming professional gamers for years but, this was their big break. Both of them were ecstatic, with numlocked taking a lot of pride. "Proud to be representing a prestigious UK organization", numlocked told Team Dignitas.

LiNkzr, on the other hand, was simply excited that he finally had a breakthrough. He told us, "I have been trying a long time to have a breakthrough and I'm so happy it finally happened."

Had they not managed to make a big break, their lives would be drastically different. While it's great to have dreams, if the dreams amount to nothing, you can't pursue it forever.

According to numlocked, if he wasn't playing games professionally, he'd most likely still be working a 9-5 job in law; Following that up with, "Very glad I'm not doing that anymore. 9-5 isn't for me!"

LiNkzr, on the other hand, would be studying. "I would probably be studying psychology in a university," he told Team Dignitas.

Their backgrounds are vastly different, however. numlocked is the veteran, having taken part in many LANs in the last 9 years. LiNkzr, the rookie, has played in 3 LANs, all Overwatch. The difference in experience has definitely established a hierarchy in the team with numlocked establishing himself as the team captain for the Overwatch team.

That comes with it's own fair share of responsibility, however. On a daily basis, numlocked told us that he "makes sure scrims are sorted for the week... scrim from 5 to 12... watch some vods until 1am." When asked what his main role is as the team captain, numlocked told Team Dignitas that he "handles the shotcalling - so like engages, teamfights, focus targets, etc."

Their roles for the team vary too. numlocked's role focus is that of a tank which allows for heavier focus on shotcalling whereas LiNkzr, is the flex, adapting to whatever the teams needs are in each individual game.

When asking numlocked why he decided to play tank, he told us that "[I played] whatever the team needed. When I first started playing Overwatch, I played a bit of everything (support, dps, tank), but when we were unable to fill the tank role, I made the switch and I’ve just been playing it since. LiNkzr, on the other hand, told us he "practices most of the roles equally" but he "leans towards more DPS kind of roles."

The core of the roster has played together since November under Creaton eSports. Artier, Draceus, and LiNkzr were the original squad. Bromas then joined in December/January with numlocked joining the team in February, Toxiken joining shortly after in May. The roster was picked up shortly before Gamescom 2016 by Team Dignitas and they played their first LAN together against Misfits at Gamescom 2016. Their first LAN, unfortunately, resulted in a 0-2 loss against Misfits.

When asked, what went wrong, numlocked said, "Our defence was really good on both maps, but our attack was pretty sloppy. Poor ult management cost us fights where we could have snowballed." The atmosphere was pretty bad afterwards. According to LiNkzr, "we were sad and depressed {and} we didnt talk at all at our way back {to the} hotel."

But things were looking up the following day. They were focused on improving from their mistakes and ensuring that the same mistakes didn't occur again. One concern that some critics had was the synergy that the team had but numlocked addressed these concerns.

"I think our synergy is really good. Artier, Draceus and LiNkzrr have been teammates for a super long time (even before Overwatch), and Bromas and Toxiken were close friends anyway. Everyone gets along really well too, both online (in other games for fun) or in person."

They have high hopes for the future and LiNkzr gave us some insight on what they're planning on working on.

"Well right now we are working on few solutions when it comes to swapping roles. It´s always important to keep working on fundamentals in overwatch, ex. how do we want to take this fight, or how do we use our abilities."

Despite the let down at the LAN, LiNkzr still felt that Gamescom was eventful. "I liked it overall. I met a lot of amazing people and the Gamescom booths and all were fun to visit."

Both players were born and raised gamers. numlocked started playing games with Fifa99, one of the first games he received on the PS1, along with Abe's Odyssey and Action Man. LiNkzr began his venture into gaming with a Nintendo device and played Mario for the first time when he was 7.

According to LiNkzr, "after that, games have always been a part of my life."

That brings in their families. Some professional gamers have found that their families may not be the most supportive of their goals and aspirations. But not for numlocked.

"My family are super supportive. They’ve always supported me in this path (even before it actually made money all the way back to TF2!)"

LiNkzr had a little bit more difficulty, however.

"Well, before Overwatch, they were skeptical because nothing was really happening. After explaining my plans for Overwatch and what it can entail, they were understanding and now they are even following my games!"

But what about the player outside of Overwatch? What other games do the players like playing outside of Overwatch?

For numlocked, he tends to focus on his profession. "I don’t really play anything outside of Overwatch. If I’m not scrimming or in a tournament, I’m usually playing competitive mode."

LiNkzr, however, dabbles. " Path Of Exile is probably the game I play when I'm playing Overwatch. It´s fun and complex enough to keep me interested with the new seasons and stuff they add."

At Gamescom, Blizzard announced a new Overwatch map in "Eichenwalde". The map itself is an Assault/Escort hybrid map where you attempt to invade Eichenwalde Castle or defend it, depending on what phase you're currently on. Our Overwatch team had a chance to try the map out and had differing opinions on it.

LiNkzr told us that he "personally enjoys it. It opens up new opportunities when it comes to line ups and the layout of the map in general isn't what we are used to seeing, so I´m excited to play it!" numlocked liked the new map as well but had one issue. "My only issue with it is the last point where everything is really narrow and cramped. With a lot of spam or Mei, it’s gonna be a really anti-fun point."

Blizzard announced a unique form of tournament in the shape of the "World Cup" where teams from different regions are pitted against each other. The catch? No prizepool. It's strictly an exhibition tournament. This had some conflicting opinions from professional players in the scene and professional eSports teams.

LiNkzr gave us his opinion on it. "Well, It's an event to get the community more involved, shed some light on the community members and professional players of Overwatch in a nice little way. I'm still kinda sad we don´t get a big Blizzcon tournament, but I like the "World Cup" idea in general."

While Overwatch is incredibly successful already, peaking at 80,000 views on Twitch for the Gamescom finals, Blizzard still has some finetuning to do to ensure the longetivity of the game as an eSport. numlocked elaborated on his opinion stating that Blizzard "definitely need to put focus on a proper spectator client, replay system, and more in-game stats for the spec client e.g. DPM, KDA."

That's all we have for now. Make sure to follow numlocked and LiNkzr on their various social media and welcome them to Team Dignitas!

numlocked' Twitter
numlocked's Twitch

LiNkzr's Twitter
LiNkzr's Twitch