Kristian "Kellex" Keller plays support for Boston Uprising and it's a job that, lately, has become pretty demanding.  Between trying to learn the newest hero Brigitte, keeping up with major changes to support heroes nearly every patch, and trying to stay alive against the best DPS players in the world in the middle of a dive-centric meta, Support players like Kellex are arguably under the most pressure in game, second to maybe Winston players.

So, when I spoke to Kellex, I wanted to talk about what it's like being a support hero in these turbulent times:

Tell me your experience with the new support hero, Brigitte.  Have you had a chance to dive into her kit at all?

I tried her out in the practice range for three minutes so I have an okay idea of how she works but not an in-depth one.  She seems like a hero that is very counter-dive. She can one-shot Tracer. If Winston jumps, she can use her Shift ability to knock kim back.  I would say these are very counter-dive.

Is she the type of hero you would see yourself playing if it proves to be competitively viable?

It’s hard to say for me right now.  It’ll be easier to say once we start practicing with her.  Right now, I don’t think so. Maybe later in the future because I don’t know how she will fit at all.

Right now, what is the hero you are most confident and most capable with?

It would be Lucio.  I’ve been playing him since Season 1.  Although I also played Mercy during her buff.  It’s either Lucio or Mercy.

" I don’t know if you’ve heard of DSPStanky -- but a lot of Lucio players go for boops and try to frag out. "

How has playing Lucio changed from Stage 1 to Stage 2 with regards to the new meta?

In Stage 1, you would only play Lucio if you played Pharah-Mercy.  Yet in the end, people would still run Zenyatta instead of Lucio. Now with Mercy’s nerf, people would pick Lucio more often, especially with dive compositions.

 It’s basically to make everything go fast. Since Mercy can’t insta-rez people anymore using Valkyrie, Lucio will see a lot more play. He used in a lot of different comps.

Say you were coaching me and I wanted to get better at Lucio.  What do you think would be the top mistakes that I’m probably making that I should improve on?

If I look at Lucio players on Ranked, they mostly go for these plays- --I don’t know if you’ve heard of DSPStanky -- but a lot of Lucio players go for boops and try to frag out.  I used to do that too, but once I joined this team, I was told that I should protect my other support player Neko because it’s Lucio’s main job to keep him alive as much as he can.

One mistake everyone does in Ranked is that they don’t protect their other support. That’s the biggest issue I’ve seen people do.

So most Lucio players are too aggressive.

It’s not that they’re too aggressive.  Let’s say you play Ranked and it’s dive vs. dive.  Most Lucio players will go frontline, jump in and try to do some flashy plays, but they can still speed your team up and still play safe.  

For me, if I want to go aggressive, I need to make sure that the threats to my other flex support are non-existent.  If both Winston and Tracer are dead or they don’t have any abilities, that means I can go aggressive because they won’t be able to kill the flex support.  But when they’re alive, I have to look to peel as much as I can.

What’s it like trying to peel and play that role against a team like NYXL?

The biggest challenge is that they coordinate the dives really well.  Usually, you want to boop the Winston or Tracer away. But Tracer comes from behind, Winston comes from the main and Genji is on your left.  It’s really hard to peel off everything so you need to tell your D.Va and your teammates to help you.

You can boop the Winston, but you can’t turn around and kill the Tracer 2 vs. 1 -- and then comes the Genji.  It’s really hard to peel against good teams. Against some other teams, it might be easier because of weaker coordination.

Everyone has been saying that Brigitte is good vs. dive and she allows for easier peels.  If this meta shift happens, will the teams who are currently doing well with dive become easier to face?

I don’t think it will make it easier.  When you practice, you will find ways to deal with it.  All teams keep learning. Maybe, in the beginning, it will make a difference.  But in the end, because you practice every single day, I don’t think it will do that much.

 It depends on how much you practice and how well you work with the new hero.

 Is there anything you’d like to say to the Boston Uprising fans or people who watched the game and are fans of your Lucio play?

Thank you so much for all the support.  We’ve had a tough Stage 2, but they keep backing us up and supporting us and it means so much.  I don’t know what else to say other than thank you. It’s incredible and I can’t thank our fans enough.

Are there any fan interactions or fan moments that have particularly caught your eye and you particularly enjoy?

When they make fanart of us.  When I scroll down Twitter, people send drawings of me and my teammates and I like that.  Or when people send pictures of themselves wearing the team jersey. 30 minutes before the match, somebody posted on Twitter with my shirt and I thought it was very nice.

I don’t know what to say- I really appreciate it!

All photos inside the Blizzard Arena stadium taken by Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment and subsequently released by Blizzard for publication.