Honma Himawari Drills Tank Play on Day 4 of Overwatch Practice With Nijisanji Teammates

NIJISANJI — Nijisanji’s Honma Himawari streamed a session of team Overwatch practice on Tuesday, the fourth day of a run of preparation sessions that stretched to nearly six and a half hours. The focus was how the tank role fits together with the rest of the team.

Honma opened by saying the team’s coach would not be present for the first part of the night, and that she had a stuffy nose and a sore throat, though not a cold. She had already received individual coaching off stream, so she began by sharing replay footage on screen and walking the group through it: who should hold which position around the payload, how to retake ground after losing it, and how to deal with Reaper, a flanker that kept pressuring the back line. Koyanagi Rou, Igarashi Rika, Morinaka Kazaki, Itsuki Sakyo and Ratna Petit joined the discussion.

“Honestly, it’s all thanks to everyone that I can keep going.” — Honma Himawari, in her sign-off

After a short break for a chat about lunch, which settled on udon over soba, the group set up a custom lobby and started scrimmages about an hour in. For the opposing side the team invited viewers of around Gold rank, and the games turned into repeated trials of how to hold a point, when to spend ultimates and which heroes to swap to. A connection problem kept Honma out of the lobby for a stretch at around the two-hour mark. She returned after about ten minutes, and chat welcomed her back.

The coach joined a little after the four-hour mark and went over replays with the team, saying the group’s movement had improved and that Reaper and Pharah should not be left unchecked. The players agreed that everyone would be together the next day for a long session, and that only those who wanted extra practice would stay on that night.

The stream closed shortly after 6 1/2 hours with Honma thanking viewers for staying late, saying the tank role is hard to follow and often unglamorous, and noting that the coach is due to attend from the start of the next session. Two Super Chats came in during the stream.