NoVa’s Sharing his A-Game

NoVa’s Sharing his A-Game

NoVa— doing what Will Smith did with shades back 1997 for the Man in Black but for HoN instead – the man’s making the game look good. The celebrated support player from Germany teased Thai gamers a few week backs with a rather leading video that ended with a square shot of his trademark pair of sunglasses. That tease was soon followed up with the announcement of a collaboration with Garena and Illuminary Entertainment for the establishment of a swanking new team under the stewardship of NoVa himself. Unsurprisingly this caused quite a stir in the local HoN scene, especially among gamers in Thailand with hundreds taking to his Facebook page to express their approval. So we set off with this exclusive interview with Nova, aka Jascha Markuse, to find out more about his South East Asia endeavor.

Greatly impressed by the friendliness afforded to him by the locals and the regional HoN faithful, NoVa admits that he has had no problems settling in thus far. “Feels like half of Thailand’s HoN scene has already welcomed me already, people here are very friendly! Which is one of the reasons why arriving and accustoming myself to the new environment was pretty easy,” explained the enthusiastic veteran, “it feels like I’ve been here for several months already, not one week!”

Hard at work since, hopeful applications who submitted their gaming dossier two weeks back would have been subjected to a grueling selection process come Tuesday this week, at Shooter Cybercafé, where NoVa’s team would have been formalized. Taking to social media yesterday, NoVa proudly put out the complete roster of team Thailand bearing a cleverly contrived moniker NoValty. Captained by the man himself, the team looks to feature Saranon ‘BassStomp’ Boonsalub, Chutipong ‘Warnuts’ Chutitunyarat, Prapawit ‘XerOphite’ Wangperm, and
Chaiyasit ‘Zendorphin’ Sakularamwong.

The team, which will be inducted into the Impunity set up as Impunity.Storm, looks set to participate in the upcoming HoN Tour SEA and skipper NoVa has set his sights firmly on silverware despite the relative vernal nature of his team. “Yes, HoN Tour SEA is definitely the go-to tournament right now even though we will have little to no practice time. The expectations are the same of any other competitor though. Go there to win it all, nothing less.”

Professing his fascination for the SEA culture NoVa hopes and expects great things to come from the eSports scene here in South East Asia and is glad that he can be part of the change. “For many years now I’ve been interested in Asia’s eSports culture, from ranging from Philippines, Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. There are many exciting aspects you won’t find in the EU or NA scene. Thailand is the biggest HoN nation for sure but eSports is not acknowledged here yet. It’s a risky move but I want to give it my best.”

“Looking at how Garena/Playinter pushes the scene with more tournaments and also how more and more gamers who work really hard and show dedication to their dreams, I have a positive feeling about this. Perhaps someday, SEA will acknowledge eSports like USA did recently but at least, we should try to help our parents understand that professional gaming isn’t entirely a waste of time.”

In between training with his team and running of logistical matters, the German gamer has expressed a desire at opening his own training academy to “share his knowledge and experiences” with would be HoN and MOBA professionals in SEA. This plan however remains very much a pipedream for now but you can bet on it materializing in the weeks following should his Thai-team mission take off.

“To the people who have been actively supporting me, a great thank you and I heavily appreciate the overwhelming welcomes and best wishes. My apologies for not being able to reply to all of your messages. I’ll do my best and present great matches to everyone and hopefully it can be motivational for you to achieve greater heights,” he thanked, “last but not least, I want to shout out to Illuminary Entertainment, Shooter Cybercafe and Garena/Playinter for making all this possible!”

For more information on NoVa and his new team, head on over to his official Facebook fanpage at https://www.facebook.com/supportnova?fref=ts.