EPTManifesto7: [If you're so good] Why don't you post on our site?
Me: I don't post on Team Liquid because you sponsor maps like Luna. There are plenty of good Starcraft maps out there, maps like Jungle Story, and Neo Forbidden Zone. Those maps don't see much action except for Testie abusing them on ladder.
Manifesto7: It's generally agreed you're the best player in the world, although your stats don't reflect that.
Me: Yeah, my father is a rich business executive, and he saw me getting too good. I was beating USA national finalists within four months of serious practice, and most European players too. Anyway, father pulled the plug on my personal relationships, financially speaking, and I turned to the bottle after losing my first love. Drinking and poor form led to repetitive stress disorders and after a while I was physically paralyzed for a few days after my WCG run. I kept up with the game of course, but frankly I wasn't real happy with the way things were run, officially or in other capacities.
Manifesto7: Around this same time you were arguing Starcraft represents a solution for any number of global problems, from climate change to economic unrest. What led you to give such a cavalier appraisal of Starcraft's potential.
Me: Well, it's the same story with Starcraft as with anything. You're trying to interface with the world in a way that makes sense. Imagine if the President played Starcraft instead of politics. Things would run much more efficiently and we wouldn't have to put up with all the red tape. Frankly when it comes down to it there aren't many moments that make an impression on you. For me the one that sums up the real world situation and how it relates to Starcraft is FrinkX on LiquidPoker screaming, "BITCH ON A PENSION SUCK MY DONG".
Manifesto7: That's true. A few of your old rivals turned to Poker, and you seem to get more mileage out of our sister site. What does LP offer that TL doesn't.
Me: It's a matter of intimidation honestly. There's almost nothing to be gained by talking Starcraft strategy because people don't learn. I've had a number of students in the RTS genre, and they'll pick one facet of your game they don't like and just hound you like there's no tomorrow. Starcraft is like anything else, you play for the love of the game, and you try to look past opponents who don't feel the same way you do, play a different race, etc. Yeah, there will always be "mind games", but no serious competitor believes anything other than pure hatred will get you anywhere. NooKS taught me that and it's something I haven't forgotten.
Manifesto7: Some say you refuse to Liquibet or participate in non-essential functions.
Me: If you have to bet on a game to show your passion then you don't really give a fuck. Like I said I don't visit TL often and it's not because of Liquibet or anything else, I just don't enjoy it there, and I think Starcraft is what takes place on Starcraft not in and around the scene at large. There have been some useful contributions from people who are capable programmers, channel bots are a lot of fun, and so is map making. Plus there's the APM craze, and that's been great for the game. People are really starting to figure things out. I still haven't been able to bring myself to map hack but that's more a matter of honor than anything else, plus do you really want something to dull your game sense? Anyway, I don't Liquibet because I'm not featured in any of those games and it doesn't make the slightest difference to me how they turn out. The last player I cared about was Zyneck.
[6 Years Later]
I set up a meeting with (a doppleganger of) Manifesto7 who runs a McDonald's drive-thru in Atlanta, Georgia.
Manifesto7: It's good to see you again. What do you think of Starcraft 2?
Me: It's a great game with tons of potential. Dustin Browder has done an outstanding job where a lot of people doubted him. I have high hopes for Heart, and I've been creating a bunch of custom abilities that are absolutely outstanding. I don't feel like my technical ability has excelled all of Blizzard's top design staff but I've found a lot of errors in their work and that gives me hope. I created this excellent simulator the other day where I demonstrated how using data arrays to create fields of points on a custom map could create awesome unit formations. I've never done any programming outside the Blizzard map editor so this has been a lot of fun for me, and I think I've shown some really valuable results about Starcraft 2.
Manifesto7: Do you still enjoy playing Starcraft?
Me: Yeah, occasionally. I mean, it's fun, but I think I've done all I can in terms of contributing to the game. BW was my game, and I wrote up a few documents and some custom maps and sent them in to Blizzard a while ago. In response they sent a Pandaren Dev who wanted to practice roleplaying. I'm a big Star Wars D20 fan so of course I tried to play a long and ended up buying in hook, line and sinker. Ultimately I think I had a lot more fun roleplaying than I would have had working on Starcraft, so I put most of my projects on the proverbial back burner and just committed myself completely to chatcraft. Since I'm an aspiring novelist the roleplay experience was probably more valuable than the Starcraft project.
Manifesto7: Is there anything you don't like about Starcraft 2?
Me: It wasn't run well at first. I never paid any attention to all that shit with KeSPA and the Korean e-Sports regulations. I guess I'm glad Blizzard took over and is running things now. Things are definitely run better now that the Korean government isn't running Starcraft 2. There was a lot of rage about how things were being handled, and I guess that tainted the game, but things will straighten themselves out.
Manifesto7: You once complained about game balance. Do you still think there are balance issues?
Me: It's impossible to know.
Manifesto7: A lot of people think your past glories are behind you. Do you plan on sticking with the Starcraft scene?
Me: They're not. I was #1 in the world according to the SC2 ladder as of 2011, and that was after a debilitating stint with drugs. I'll keep playing, but I've honestly become a lot more interested in StarJeweled than in the ladder scene. One of my apprentices and I formed a 2v2 team a couple years ago, and we did really well through the beta. There were some great games, wins and losses. We never won a tournament or anything but there was no need to. Starcraft isn't about being casual or competitive. It's about having fun and doing things no one has done before.
Manifesto7: Do you think Starcraft 2 as a good a game as Starcraft: Brood War?
Me: Of course. If anything it's a better game. Sure there have been a few hiccups along the way, but Blizzard is super attentive. Starcraft 2 is the best RTS we could hope for, and it's even better than that. The graphics are clean and sharp, and it looks really good on a big monitor. I remember observing a beta game on a 40" screen and how the Battlecruisers looked with the Yamato upgrade. If there's a weak point it's not in multiplayer. It is too bad there are so many glitches with the campaign editor. I guess Blizzard doesn't watch that stuff.
Manifesto7: Thanks for the interviews. It's too bad you weren't hired for the Producer position, but from what I hear that's a story all in itself. Good luck in the future.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cOUOxHC.jpg)
