Dignitas and Fnatic on HOTS trash talk: “Fans sometimes don’t realise that it’s all a joke”

At a pre-finals conference for Heroes of the Storm’s HGC Mid-Season Brawl, players from Fnatic and Dignitas came together to talk about their upcoming match, when questions turned to the two teams playful trash talk towards each other.

“I want to be clear that it’s never serious,” said Dob ‘Quackniix’ Engström, Fnatic’s carry. “Fans sometimes don’t realise that it’s all a joke, but that’s the case. It’s just to entertain and to build hype, but it’s never serious and we never want to be toxic to each other.”

This was backed up Joshua ‘Snitch’ Bennett, a Team Dignitas’ flex player, with Bennett mentioned that he felt like Heroes of the Storm felt like a big community, something that, in his opinion, very few competitive games have.

“It’s satisfying to be involved in a scene like this,” said Bennett, while Fnatic and Team Dignitas cracked jokes at each other.

“scHwimpi (Simon ‘scHwimpi’ Svensson, who plays for Fnatic) came under fire for saying NA was easy, but I hope that with time fans will understand that the players aren’t serious, and it’s just friendly rivalry. We’re all friends behind the scenes, and with the amount of backstage footage and interviews coming from events like this (the HGC Mid-Season Brawl), we’re hoping will show more about our attitudes to each other and the game.”

The thoughtful mood didn’t last for long, though. With the next question, asking how Dignitas are planning to snatch a win as they come out of the losers bracket to face off against Fnatic, who had a one game advantage, he responded with a smile “We know that Fnatic aren’t really that good, and as a result, we have to be careful they don’t try to cheese us with a pocket strategy.”