Calm: "I will become a player that never gives up!" "I will continue with my spirited play in the next season."
-How do you feel about capturing your first title in an individual league? ▲It has always been my dream to ascend onto the stage for the finals. I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality and to actually win this tournament. Although there were many hardships along the way, since I never thought of giving up and since I had an enjoyable time, I was able to obtain the title. I am really happy!
-What were your first thoughts after you won? ▲The first thing I thought of was myself, holding that trophy. After that, I thought of my family.
-You debuted as a gamer with your older brother, ToSky. ▲At first,I had no thoughts of becoming a gamer, but my brother took me to a tournament. I guess he thought he would be lonely if he went alone. But I found that Starcraft was fun, so I started practicing and I was able to get my progamer's license. So my career as a progamer is mostly due to my older brother's influence.
-It seems that you had an even stronger sense of responsibility, since your brother retired. ▲I really would have liked it if my brother (hyung) had been successful as a gamer as well. Since he wasn't, I feel that I have to play twice as well, for both his sake and for mine.
-This can be seen as the first time that a 2v2 player has won a starleague. ▲At the time, I was the only player on my team that could play 2v2, so I had to make a sacrifice. But after 2v2 was removed from the proleague, there was a condition that I would be able to concentrate on the individual leagues. Even when I was playing 2v2, my manager and my coach helped me a lot and I never gave up my individual goals. Although I was playing for my team, since I kept being ambitious, I was able to win a tournament like this.
-It seems that your victory over Jaedong in the round of 4 also contributed greatly to preparing you for the finals. ▲Most people thought that I would lose and even I thought that I would have to practice very hard just to make the probability for victory a 50/50 chance. But after I beat Jaedong, I became very confident and was able to change my mindset.
-In this FA, your salary went up drastically, did that help you win? ▲My team raised my pay like that because that's how much they think I'm worth. So for each game I play, I think about my salary and that I have to play at the level that they deserve. With this in mind, I have to practice even harder whenever I am scheduled to play a game.
-Jaedong had an interview where he said that he wanted you to win as well. ▲Well, I am the player that knocked him out of the tournament and he used to be the only one dragging the Zerg race behind him. He probably said he wanted me to win so that he could share the heavy burden that he's been carrying all this time (laughs).
-Now you have some time to relax before proleague starts up again. How will you spend your extra time? ▲Although they call it vacation, they only give us a little time before we have to start practicing for the new maps again. Although we were only able to reach 3rd place in the last season, both my teammates and I will practice hard so that we can win in the finals.
-How will you spend your prize money? ▲There have been many people that have helped me, so I will treat them to a nice meal and save the rest of it.
-How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
-Do you have any last words that you would like to share? ▲I would like to thank both by.hero and Modesty from my team, as well as ZerO from woongjin and 815 from KT who helped me practice like it was their job. My presence at the finals can also be attributed to my coaching staff, whose faith in me was a huge help. I also want to thank the fans that have always supported me and I would like to tell my family that I love them.
Thanks for the translation ghostWriter. This answer confirms PL's utter dominance right now:
On August 30 2009 22:16 Calm wrote: -How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
The OSL and MSL just don't mean what they used to.
On August 30 2009 22:16 Calm wrote: -How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
The OSL and MSL just don't mean what they used to.
Only when the camera is watching JWD!
It has always been my dream to ascend onto the stage for the finals. I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality and to actually win this tournament.
On August 30 2009 22:32 JWD wrote: Thanks for the translation ghostWriter. This answer confirms PL's utter dominance right now:
On August 30 2009 22:16 Calm wrote: -How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
The OSL and MSL just don't mean what they used to.
It has always been my dream to ascend onto the stage for the finals. I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality and to actually win this tournament.
You can easily say the same for that second quote...of course Calm is going to say it was his dream to win the tournament he just won. But a statement like "The Proleague is always number one in priority," especially because it wasn't in response to a leading question, is hard to interpret as pandering to "the camera" rather than fact.
Calm was involved in a large percentage of this year's most entertaining matches. He was always one of my favorite sleeper players and no one deserves a starleague more than him... no one... not even phantasy.
Good for Calm. It was an impressive MSL run although playing Kwanro was pretty dissapointing. I look forward to seeing him play next season. I hope he continues to dominate and not go into a slump like luxury.
On August 30 2009 22:32 JWD wrote: Thanks for the translation ghostWriter. This answer confirms PL's utter dominance right now:
On August 30 2009 22:16 Calm wrote: -How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
The OSL and MSL just don't mean what they used to.
Only when the camera is watching JWD!
It has always been my dream to ascend onto the stage for the finals. I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality and to actually win this tournament.
You can easily say the same for that second quote...of course Calm is going to say it was his dream to win the tournament he just won. But a statement like "The Proleague is always number one in priority," especially because it wasn't in response to a leading question, is hard to interpret as pandering to "the camera" rather than fact.
Haha are you serious JWD?
You compare a statement like "it has always been my dream ... I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality" to a workmanlike company-line statement of "The Proleague is always number one in priority" and you find it hard to interpret that as pandering to the camera?
Given that players are on teams, are paid by teams, and team success gives glory even to their lesser teammates, players have VERY LITTLE incentive to make public statements that waver from the company line.
Ever heard a pro athlete say something like "I don't care about my stats, I just care about winning?" Let's just say they don't always mean it....
You are correct that PL has increased in significance by A TON though, of course.
So glad Calm won, he had by far the hardest route to the finals and he absolutely decimated the best competition in this tournament. Of course the quality of the finals suffered somewhat, since Calm had already crushed the people that mattered in the quarter- and semi-finals.
Calm really is a cerebral player, which is very evident all the way from his builds down to his mid-game decisions. It is not uncommon to see him deviate suddenly from a pre-planned build to capitalize off an incredibly minor shift in momentum, where most players would just continue on the route they were taking previously. You see this all the time in his ZvZ decision making. Watch him repel an attack - he will never, EVER just resume his previous build, even if he has a slight advantage from winning the fight; instead, he will shift his production, flip tech slightly, add a hatchery in a weird location, SOMETHING to change the dynamic of the fight. He always keeps the opponent anxious and never lets them exploit old information, since his gameplan is so fluid.
I've only started to follow Calm fairly recently but his in-game decision-making is virtually unmatched.
On August 30 2009 22:32 JWD wrote: Thanks for the translation ghostWriter. This answer confirms PL's utter dominance right now:
On August 30 2009 22:16 Calm wrote: -How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
The OSL and MSL just don't mean what they used to.
Only when the camera is watching JWD!
It has always been my dream to ascend onto the stage for the finals. I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality and to actually win this tournament.
You can easily say the same for that second quote...of course Calm is going to say it was his dream to win the tournament he just won. But a statement like "The Proleague is always number one in priority," especially because it wasn't in response to a leading question, is hard to interpret as pandering to "the camera" rather than fact.
Haha are you serious JWD?
You compare a statement like "it has always been my dream ... I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality" to a workmanlike company-line statement of "The Proleague is always number one in priority" and you find it hard to interpret that as pandering to the camera?
Given that players are on teams, are paid by teams, and team success gives glory even to their lesser teammates, players have VERY LITTLE incentive to make public statements that waver from the company line.
Ever heard a pro athlete say something like "I don't care about my stats, I just care about winning?" Let's just say they don't always mean it....
You are correct that PL has increased in significance by A TON though, of course.
Maybe their care about individual leagues more, and I do think so as well. But, if it's an important proleague game vs an important individual game, which one will they practice for? Coaches oversee the players, right? So they will probably practice mostly for the proleague game.
On August 30 2009 22:32 JWD wrote: Thanks for the translation ghostWriter. This answer confirms PL's utter dominance right now:
On August 30 2009 22:16 Calm wrote: -How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
The OSL and MSL just don't mean what they used to.
Only when the camera is watching JWD!
It has always been my dream to ascend onto the stage for the finals. I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality and to actually win this tournament.
You can easily say the same for that second quote...of course Calm is going to say it was his dream to win the tournament he just won. But a statement like "The Proleague is always number one in priority," especially because it wasn't in response to a leading question, is hard to interpret as pandering to "the camera" rather than fact.
Haha are you serious JWD?
You compare a statement like "it has always been my dream ... I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality" to a workmanlike company-line statement of "The Proleague is always number one in priority" and you find it hard to interpret that as pandering to the camera?
Given that players are on teams, are paid by teams, and team success gives glory even to their lesser teammates, players have VERY LITTLE incentive to make public statements that waver from the company line.
Ever heard a pro athlete say something like "I don't care about my stats, I just care about winning?" Let's just say they don't always mean it....
You are correct that PL has increased in significance by A TON though, of course.
Maybe their care about individual leagues more, and I do think so as well. But, if it's an important proleague game vs an important individual game, which one will they practice for? Coaches oversee the players, right? So they will probably practice mostly for the proleague game.
I'm not saying the newfound importance of proleague has no effect on how much players can prepare for individual leagues. It's definitely going to have a negative impact (which may be what JWD was getting at, in which case he is right).
All I'm saying is that at the end of the day, if you put a gun to a player's head and said "you get to choose only one - starleague title or proleague title and no one will ever know you made this choice", I'm betting they'd all still pick starleague title, and the way Calm described his feelings about winning just reinforced that.
So yeah, I don't think we're really disagreeing about anything =)
Thanks for this interview, I'll take back what I said earlier about Calm in the MSL thread, he's definitely one of the top zergs, and hopefully Swarm Season sticks around for next PL. Hope he doesn't spiral like Luxury did after he won his MSL though. Grats Calm!
On August 30 2009 22:32 JWD wrote: Thanks for the translation ghostWriter. This answer confirms PL's utter dominance right now:
On August 30 2009 22:16 Calm wrote: -How will you prepare for the next season? ▲The proleague is always number one in priority. Our team has never been able to win in the proleague before so this season, we will focus completely on it. However, I think that we will be able to have a decent showing in the individual leagues, even if we have to prepare in our spare time.
The OSL and MSL just don't mean what they used to.
Only when the camera is watching JWD!
It has always been my dream to ascend onto the stage for the finals. I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality and to actually win this tournament.
You can easily say the same for that second quote...of course Calm is going to say it was his dream to win the tournament he just won. But a statement like "The Proleague is always number one in priority," especially because it wasn't in response to a leading question, is hard to interpret as pandering to "the camera" rather than fact.
Haha are you serious JWD?
You compare a statement like "it has always been my dream ... I am thrilled at having my dream turned into reality" to a workmanlike company-line statement of "The Proleague is always number one in priority" and you find it hard to interpret that as pandering to the camera?
Given that players are on teams, are paid by teams, and team success gives glory even to their lesser teammates, players have VERY LITTLE incentive to make public statements that waver from the company line.
Ever heard a pro athlete say something like "I don't care about my stats, I just care about winning?" Let's just say they don't always mean it....
You are correct that PL has increased in significance by A TON though, of course.
Maybe their care about individual leagues more, and I do think so as well. But, if it's an important proleague game vs an important individual game, which one will they practice for? Coaches oversee the players, right? So they will probably practice mostly for the proleague game.
I'm not saying the newfound importance of proleague has no effect on how much players can prepare for individual leagues. It's definitely going to have a negative impact (which may be what JWD was getting at, in which case he is right).
All I'm saying is that at the end of the day, if you put a gun to a player's head and said "you get to choose only one - starleague title or proleague title and no one will ever know you made this choice", I'm betting they'd all still pick starleague title, and the way Calm described his feelings about winning just reinforced that.
So yeah, I don't think we're really disagreeing about anything =)
In their interviews, from what I've seen, they seem to say that they have to prioritize and put proleague first and practice for individual leagues in their spare time. Of course they want to win the titles, but they're a part of a team and they can't let their own ambition take precedence over their obligations to the team.
Great interview! Calm seems like a nice kid. I think using ZerO as a practice partner was smart and probably played a pretty big part in Calm's success.
On August 31 2009 10:53 tedster wrote: Calm really is a cerebral player, which is very evident all the way from his builds down to his mid-game decisions. It is not uncommon to see him deviate suddenly from a pre-planned build to capitalize off an incredibly minor shift in momentum, where most players would just continue on the route they were taking previously. You see this all the time in his ZvZ decision making. Watch him repel an attack - he will never, EVER just resume his previous build, even if he has a slight advantage from winning the fight; instead, he will shift his production, flip tech slightly, add a hatchery in a weird location, SOMETHING to change the dynamic of the fight. He always keeps the opponent anxious and never lets them exploit old information, since his gameplan is so fluid.
I've only started to follow Calm fairly recently but his in-game decision-making is virtually unmatched.
That's a good point. What impresses me even more is that he does it the other way, too: he isn't afraid to deviate from his build when he has the disadvantage. Although that may not sound like a big deal, so many pros seem too stubborn or afraid to accept a slight disadvantage in order to stay in the game. Say it's 9-pool vs. 12-hatch; rather than cancel the hatchery and keep playing with a disadvantage, they'll let it complete and play at a much greater short-term disadvantage in the hopes that they can somehow hold off the attack and come out with the eventual edge; it rarely works. Calm just does whatever he has to in a given situation: he'll add a sunken or a spore if he needs to; he canceled hatcheries twice against Kwanro.
As you say, although his builds are clever, Calm's flexibility is probably his greatest strength right now.
EPT
Calm: "I will become a player that never gives up!"![[image loading]](http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4567/91726371.jpg)
