Since the Overwatch beta more than a year ago, Dennis “INTERNETHULK” Hawelka donned blue for Team EnVyUs. Since being cut from EnVyUs over the weekend, however, he has still been wearing blue—but it’s a slightly different shade.
INTERNETHULK will travel to South Korea to coach Rogue’s Overwatch team as a free agent, where he’ll likely come up against his old team. “I really had nothing to do with the victory [at Rivalcade’s Overwatch Rumble] at all, all it produced was a smile,” INTERNETHULK told Dot Esports. “If Rogue meets EnVyUs in OGN, I will make sure Rogue does not drop a map.”
He initially intended to join new esports organization Laser Kittenz as a coach during their Korean bootcamp. When Laser Kittenz CEO Ali “Alicus” Saba approached INTERNETHULK with a trial offer, he immediately accepted. Being in Korea—and learning from Korean Overwatch infrastructure—is top priority for INTERNETHULK.
Though he sees serious potential for Laser Kittenz as an Overwatch team and as an organization, a more tempting opportunity arose—and it would allow INTERNETHULK to participate, still, in the OGN Overwatch APEX. That’s Rogue.
“When Rogue heard what happened, they had a talk as a team and said they would want me to help them,” INTERNETHULK said. “They respect me, and it was a surprise to me.”
Rogue, however, is an all-French lineup, despite operating out of a team house in Las Vegas, Nevada. INTERNETHULK imagined that language barrier would make it impossible to help. “I didn’t bother to ask them, despite having a good relationship with most of the players,” INTERNETHULK added. “I was almost certain it would be extremely hard helping them.”
Working through that, INTERNETHULK will operate as Rogue’s analyst and strategic coach—a role he’s been preparing for even as a player. On EnVyUs, INTERNETHULK was already functioning as a coach, on top of his role as a support player.
“Building [EnVyUs] and winning without a coach for so long underlines my ability as a coach,” INTERNETHULK said. “I was functioning as a coach in some ways more than others, which also made me less of a player and maybe even lead to what happened to me after we picked up another coach—or a real coach that was actually not a player on the team.”
INTERNETHULK is using his time in Korea to evaluate his options for the future, taking his time to make sure he chooses the correct team. But he couldn’t have chosen a better team to coach in the interim: Rogue is playing very well as of late, and has a good chance of going far in the prestigious Korean tournament. And that’s all to INTERNETHULK’s benefit: Being in Korea is important to him in being the best coach possible. Coaching a team competing in the highest-level Korean tournament is even better training. It’s something he started while playing in the tournament’s second season with EnVyUs.
“After we lost OGN season two, most of us took a vacation during the rest of our stay in Korea,” INTERNETHULK said. “I still went to every OGN match at the stadium. I was the only foreigner that, already, while being a player, worked hard to learn how to be a good coach.”
It’s all part of his plan for the future—to lead an Overwatch team to the grand finals of the Overwatch League.
