IEM Katowice Coverage Hub
We’re here with you on the first day of Katowice just before you start your group stage matches. Who are you playing first and who’s looking like the biggest competition for you in the group and in the tournament?
I was told I am playing First but I am not really sure.
Tournament-wise, the biggest threat is obviously PartinG, he’s probably the strongest player here but there are a lot of players that are also good like the rest of the Koreans, Lucifron and Nerchio. As for my group, First will be really tough but I am think I can beat him and I am confident overall despite all the other players being pretty good, too.
You already have two top 4’s at IEM events, is there a third one coming, maybe even higher?
I hope higher! Katowice is probably at the same level as Cologne so it’ll be very hard to repeat that but if I play well I can do a repeat performance.
You first broke out at Cologne, walking a long path from the qualifiers and through many a strong opponent and it was quite the story overall. Would you’ve had it any other way?
I would’ve liked to break out at some earlier tournament because after Cologne everyone was attributing my success to race, the patch and so on. I think I was at the same level months before but I just couldn’t attend tournament before that. Still, I had to play through all three stages of the tournament and then through very hard group, so I am satisfied in the end.
Your words kind of directly bring out the question about “patch zergs”. We’ve been talking to players and most of them, even non-zerg ones, really hate the term, where do you stand on this personally?
It helps zergs, true, but overall I think it’s stupid. There are a lot of zergs that haven’t gotten better after the patch and there even some that have gone worse. Those of us who are here deserve it. Personally, I am not offended when I get labeled patch zerg, I don’t really care and there aren’t a lot of “patch zergs” on the scene for the community to make a big deal out of it.
Nerchio told us that this can be attributed to the stagnation of the meta, with people not trying nearly enough new things and nobody is trying to come out with strats against these Brood Lord/Infestor compositions. Do you also identify this as a problem or the issue lies elsewhere?
I think there was some change in the metagame around IEM Cologne. Before, people were playing more defensively against zerg but recently, Korean terrans have been switching over to more aggressive banshee/hellion style which European players started to copy and get good results in TvZ because of that. The match-ups are constantly evolving and there is no stagnation in my eyes.
You’re part of the newer wave of players. Do you think there’s a switch in generation incoming in 2013? It used to be the same faces winning the tournaments but now there’s a big inflow of talent coming from everywhere. Will the overall picture be different by the end of the year?
Most of the players that were good last year were coming out from BroodWar background and this helped them perform well. Now, however, there are new players coming out that weren’t good in other games and are rapidly improving. In addition, the KeSPA players are switching over and by the end of the year, although the top one or two positions will be held by the same players, there should be a lot of upsets and new faces coming out.
Your brother is also here and if history has taught us something it’s that you’ll likely play each other if both of you advance. Are you getting tired of facing him in every tournament or are you glad that this story is recurring since the fans absolutely adore it?
I think we’ve already played each other like 20 times! It started by facing each other at every Spanish tournament (of course, the scene is a bit small so it’s natural) but then we got better, traveled to international events and the same thing kept repeating itself. It’s really tiring and many of the times I play Lucifron I don’t even care who wins. I should try getting first in the group so I don’t play him in the first round at least…
Is this sort of brotherly competition motivating for any of you?
No, not really, we’re not competing with each other to see who does better.
How much do you talk to each other at events and give each other scouting reports, because this is something Koreans are known to do whenever they visit international event?
It’s not so much between us but rather between all the European players here, talking about the game and pondering on what we can do better. Me and my brother usually talk when we get back to the hotel where we sit for two hours and see how we can improve ourselves.
Does he give you any insight on how to play zerg?
Yes, of all the players I know he’s probably the one with most knowledge of the game. He might have some macro problems himself but overall he’s been very helpful. Even if he’s not zerg he’s been giving me helpful tips on how to play the race, in ZvT at least.
Although being 19 is not really “young” when it comes to eSports, it still is a relatively young age. Does StarCraft 2 ever interfere with your personal life?
Before when I wasn’t attending so many tournaments it didn’t affect me as much as I’d just play for an hour or two and that’d be it. Now I am taking it more seriously and although it’s still not interfering as much, I do have to take things more slowly. Overall, it’s not that hurtful.
Do your parents approve of the whole progaming thing?
Well, we’ve been playing for many years, five or six now if we count WarCraft 3 so they’re used to it.
Other players like Stephano that are also your age took a year off school to focus and progaming and for him in particular it turned out well. Do you plan to follow suit?
I will wait till the expansion is out. If I am still playing good and doing well in tournaments I will consider taking a year off.
You come from a WarCraft 3 brackground where you played undead. What skills transfer from UD/WarCraft 3 to Zerg/SC2, respectively?
I think none. The only thing that helps is that War3 was a really hard game and if you were good at WC3 it was because you had talent that makes you good in StarCraft 2 as well. It’s nothing about strategy and I haven’t transferred anything from War3 to SC2.
The games obviously have few things in common, were you thinking differently after the first months you switched over in terms of how you look at and analyze SC2?
Yes, because I hadn’t played any games in StarCraft 1 it was a weird game to me but as Lucifron had previous experience he helped me getting to know the game.
Hypothetically, if there was still an active War3 stage would you’ve continued with it or would’ve still switched over to StarCraft 2?
I would say I would still switch to StarCraft 2. In the beginning I liked War3 better but after two years of playing SC2, whenever I try WarCraft 3 it feels a little bit slow.
You’re known for switching between styles, one game you would go for low base mutalisk aggression and the other would have those slow, methodical brood lord pushes that you’re known to execute really well. How much effort does it take to maintain such inner-style diversity?
To be honest, I try to play as aggressive as possible, always. I try to stay away from going infestor/brood lord as it’s boring and I don’t like but there are some match-ups in which you are obliged to as there aren’t any other options if you haven’t killed your opponent up to certain point.
You’re in Karont3, which is kind of a small team. Where do you get practice, is it mostly ladder games or do you resort to a clique of practice partners?
Most of my practice is ladder but I also have some practice partners like ViPro who is also in Karont3 right now, also Giantt who’s a good European zerg.
We talked to Moonglade earlier and he told us that he feels like he’s representing Australia at tournaments more than himself due to the scene being so small. With Spain very similar in Australia that way, is it the same with you?
Yes, the Spain scene is very small and although there are some LoL players that are well known it’s pretty much me and my brother for StarCraft2 so whenever I play I do say to myself “OK, it’s not just you that you’re being represented, it’s your country as well.” And it’s a motivation for me.
You mentioned Heart of the Swarm and this is coming out in two months. Have you played it, do you like where it is going, although in the mayhem caused by new patches every week it might be hard to say, I guess?
I played it in the beginning for about two hours and it didn’t look good to me at all. I don’t like the situations that the new units are creating and as you said, they’re changing the game every week. I don’t like how things are going but it’s still early to say, there are two more months before release after all.
Do you think it’ll be on WoL level of quality when it launches?
I think it’d be lower and I’d prefer if tournaments stuck to Wings of Liberty even after HotS comes out.
I think everybody will switch out of WoL pretty much right away, at least GSL confirmed recently that this is their last WoL season ever.
Yeah, and that’s sad. I don’t think HotS is ready to be put in tournament setting yet.
Do you think we’ll have to wait till the end of the year for that?
I can’t estimate but as soon as progamers start playing it seriously Blizzard should immediately identify what is wrong with the game and react.
The new zerg units underwent the least amount of change in HotS compared to terran and protoss, I think, and they pretty much retained their original idea. Which of those do you think will fit your style the best?
I haven’t played much to say but when I did I really liked the Swarm Host. They’re good for both attacking and defending, they’ll add a new flair to the game and I’ll try to use them as much as possible.
One of the recent changes that made quite a lot of people mad was how siege tanks no longer require a research to go into siege mode. Blizzard said this was a TvP change but obviously it will affect ZvT as well. Do you see this as something too detrimental, preventing zergs to be able to do anything at the earlier stages of the game?
If this was a change to WoL I’m sure this would be very imba, but I don’t know how HotS works to have a deeper opinion. Still, zergs didn’t get any new early game units so I am trying to figure out how zergs will stop 2-base timing attacks. It looks like a very stupid change to me but then again it’s HotS beta, next week we might have tanks out of the game. *laughs*
Interviewer: Radoslav "Nydra" Kolev Photos by: GosuGamers, at7addak
