EPT
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A few weeks ago, WCG Europe/Germany published an Interview with the German ex-BW player Fredrik
/ 
FiSheYe Keitel, but I just stumbled upon it today. Part of it is about SC2, but since Fishy is best known for his BW career, I figured the BW forum would be the best place to post it.Do you still remember Fishy?
In 2002, he made it into the Ro8 of the WCG where he lost to some weirdo named Liquid'Nazgul.
He is the WCG runner-up of 2003 and therefore one of only 4 non-Koreans who made it into the Grand Finals of a WCG. Losing 1-2 to
Ogogo, he is the only foreigner ever who was able to take a map from a Korean in a WCG Grand Final.FiSheYe made another strong appearance in the WCG 2005, in which he 2-0ed
Testie, dropped a map to OSL- and WCG-champion Xellos, and only in the ro8 penultimately lost to forU, who went on to win the whole damn thing.Here's my translation:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5cFEN.png)
Fredrik Keitel (photo: eSport-Wiki)
WCG: Hello Fredrik! What do you do for a living and what are your current hobbies?
FiSheYe: Mostly I play poker 'professionally', since about early 2006. Additionally I am involved in www.clans.de, which will go online in a few weeks. The founders of this project are working on this since 2 years and I am very confident for it to be a success. Every few feeks I get new business ideas, and at the end of summer I will try to realize some of them.
WCG: Compared to your active time as StarCraft player: What does your day look like today? Do you still follow the scene, especially StarCraft 2?
FiSheYe: It didn't change much, really, I still have much spare time because there is no more school and I never really started my college. This free time I am not using for SC1, but for poker and the aforementioned projects. The rest of the time I devote to friends, family and sport.
It is maybe 10 minutes a week that I follow SC1, reading up news on Team Liquid. I played SC2 quite actively in the beta, and for some time after that, too. The game is getting more balanced and professional. Which is especially why the skill level rises quicker than in SC1, but also because the scene as a whole has become more competitive and mature.
I try to play SC2 only a little bit, as a hobby, and accepting to be 'only average' is quite hard as former professional. Everywhere I can see strategies, timings and mistakes which I could optimize, it's almost close to perfectionism. That's why I try to play less, else I would feel pressured to play more often again, and that would be contraproductive for my personal private goals at this point.
But I still regularly read the news on Team Liquid, I watch the GSL and I read up on strategy articles.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nLE9P.png)
FiSheYe also plays a bit of SC2.
WCG: What do you think about StarCraft 2? Did you try it?
FiSheYe: SC was clearly the best game back then, but compared to the long time of development SC2 is less innovative than I hoped for. Nonetheless, I still think it is better than SC1 and it will get even better with the 2 expansion packs.
I still don't like some units and balancing issues, i.e. I feel that the macromechanics are not completely refined, and without further patches I think Terran might be too strong. I think SC1 provided proof over the last 12 years that, at almost perfect level of play, Terran is the stronger race (Boxer, Nada, Ilovoov, Flash, etc.). But you have to admit that the balance still is almost ideal. To me, in SC2, Terran looks to be even stronger than in SC1 and many weaknesses have been resolved. Waiting almost until forever for the game, there are too many things which could have been done better. Still, the result is an A+.
I don't know how to translate this better. It sounds like he is a bit torn about the game.
WCG: Your thoughts on the development of SC2? Do you think that it will become mainstream?
What's meant is the development of the SC2 scene since SC2's release. Sorry, my bad translation.
FiSheYe: Definitely! I think it already is mainstream! I still wonder why so many still hold onto SC1. No doubt, it's a fantastic game, but since SC2 was released I no longer have interest in it. It feels as if you get confronted with toys from your childhood from 15 years ago. It's still cool things, but your interests shifted.
I hope that the support for SC2 will grow even more and maybe there will be a coexistence of both games for a longer time. If Blizzard gets the next 2 expansions right, SC2 will become even more successful, much like SC1 became through Broodwar.
WCG: If there would have been a boom for SC1 much like there is now for SC2, would you have stayed longer in the scene?
FiSheYe: Yes and no. If I would be younger again, I would play less, but use the time in which I actively play in a more efficient way. I still wouldn't stay much longer, simply because after 7-8 years the interest in StarCraft leveled out, and I like new challenges more. But maybe I would have had more success and trained harder if SC1 would have offered as many progaming-possibilities like SC2 does today.
WCG: Is a comeback for you in SC2 possible?
FiSheYe: No, too many factors from outside would have to change, and I would have to be a few years younger
It's still itching in my fingers a bit, but that's just my nature. By now, I realized that, back then, along with many others, I was a kind of pioneer for professional gaming. The results of this work are showing off today with professional websites, sponsor contracts, media, prize money, etc... It's a bit sentimentally how I look at the new generation of 15-20 year olds who vigorously try to master SC2 like I did with SC1 back in the day.WCG: You are the only German who made it into the Grand Finals of the World Cyber Games. How do you remember that day in 2003?
FiSheYe: That was a really special time in my SC-career. The German team was about to win the goldmedal for the first and only time as a team, and almost all topplayers were at [pG] at that time, so this whole event felt like a family trip. Also, in 2003 I trained really hard as Protoss, after playing as Terran in 2002.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/87ppg.png)
FiSheYe wins a silver medal at the WCG 2003.
The road to the finals was not easy, especially the 2-0 against
ElkY sticks to my mind. At that time he was the non-Korean superstar and he was really confident, since there was only one Korean left in the tournament.Ogogo played Zerg and I felt superior to ElkY on the maps. In the round of 16, I believe, we played each other and I wished him good luck, but he treated me in a condescending way, as if it was only a formality to kick me out of the tournament and march towards the finals.
The maps heavily favoured Terran and the first match was a PvT on Gorky Island, an island map which suited a defensive, expansion-heavy Terran style. In TvP-training I was 20-0 on that map, but my TvT was no match for ElkY's, and since I was Protoss at heart, I tried a double-robo-rush strategy to punish his early expansion. After 20 minutes, I had not only a successful reaverdrop, but I also in the 2nd game could suprise him with a well-timed zealot/cannon rush. Instead of triumphing and making it into the finals, ElkY managed to be eliminated from the whole tournament within 20 minutes (single elimination back then).
He furiously threw the chair away, on which he was sitting on, and rushed out of the player's area. Even months after this he banned me from Bnet games which I wanted to join as observer
By now, we get along well again, but at that time he wasn't very fond of me. The day after, I turned 19, so I made myself a cool present.Unfortunately, the finals were not so memorable for me; after a great start on Gorky Island against the would-be champion Ogogo I didn't manage to get my strategies to work on the two other maps. On the 2nd map I planned a TvZ strategy which worked perfectly in the training matches. All Zerg players played 9pool into 1hatch Lurker back then, and Ogogo perfected it. Dozens of times I saw him training it and he knew I would play Protoss. So he could not know know which strategy I would use against him with Terran. Anyway, I tried to stop the Lurkers with quick Vultures/Mines and then counter with Goliaths/Tanks.
Unfortunately, the player booths in which we were sitting were not properly isolated, in my opinion. You could hear the Korean commentators. Whether this really was crucial or not, you can't prove it today. Anyhow, Ogogo played the routine 9pool and made a very strange strategical decision. He expanded to the expansion below his main, which was more difficult to defend, and switched to low-defense fast Mutalisks, which are completely useless against everything but Vultures. My Spidermines were without value and he had an easy game.
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FiSheYe in the WCG 2003 against Ogogo.
In the last game, I planned an offensive PvZ strategy and played an aggressive gaterush which could deny the FE of the Zerg, and it would have been possible for me to attack his main without him having Lings. The commentators spoke in a very hectic manner and really loud when I warped in my early gateway, and miraculously, without scouting, Ogogo played an early pool, which on this map was completely untypical and made no sense. From that point on I was in a disadvantage in that game and I never really found a way back into it.
In the following years I had many more matches with Ogogo on Gamei and other SC leagues and he always was very friendly and a great training partner. But until today I still don't know what made him do his untypical strategies on that day. With better tactics and a tiny bit more luck I maybe could have been able to defeat him. Looks like the hopes are on SC2 now for Germany finally bringing home a Gold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzDCT5rDKFE
WCG: Which eSport events do you still remember?
FiSheYe: I have been to many tournaments, it's really hard to list them all... European World Cyber Games 2003 in Paris, multiple LANs in the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany..., German championships and Blizzard Invitational in Korea... an endless list
WCG: Does your eSport experience have any impact on you? What did you personally try to take with you from your time as professional gamer?
FiSheYe: It would be too much to list everything, but I would say that the intensive gaming career helped me in many aspecs. Especially in poker there are many parallels. All the tiny chess-like turns, the psychoterror and mindgames, but also having the focus and determination to just do things and to work for it in a disciplined way.
I think sitting and nerding too much in front of your computer can also have negative impacts for a person, but if you can use it efficiently and convert your RTS skills into the normal life, you can have an advantage in several occasions over a normal person.
WCG: What did your parents think about your hobby, considering eSport was much more hidden than today?
FiSheYe: It was not so easy. I had my first girl-friend at that time and my no-desire-for-school phase. Spending hours at the computer to play StarCraft. In the end I didn't even turn up at school anymore. I still managed to finish it, but I had to repeat the 9th grade. My parent's support was at a low, but my success and tenacity paid off over the years and shortly before the Abitur I moved out from home, which calmed down the situation nicely.
Abitur: Highest German final exams after 12/13 years of school.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Iei2P.png)
Fredrik 'FiSheYe' Keitel at the EPT Berlin (photo: Pokerstrategy.com)
WCG: Like many other StarCraft players, you started to play poker. How did that happen and what excites you about it?
FiSheYe: Well, I'm going to reveal a secret: For 99.9% of the players the main reason is the money. Of course there is the love for the game and there are many moments of frustration and joy... But in the end I would also play Halma or Mau-Mau, if you could earn money with it like you can with poker.
The fascination about poker is the opportunity to play with others for lots of money. In chess, StarCraft, Backgammon or Skat that's not possible. Either a player won't play for money because of his bad objective ranking (á la ELO), or the game is simply not well-known enough, thus having a too small fanbase and therefore not being lucrative enough.
In poker, the factor of luck is big enough for everyone to think he is a good player. Just like with car driver surveys, where 70% say they belong to the 50% of the better drivers.
WCG: You are a succesful player in poker. Which event means the most to you?
FiSheYe: I am primarily a cashgame player, that's just like playing 1on1 in StarCraft, where you can start and stop playing whenever you want. This big liberty to plan your time by yourself, without much heteronomy, means the most to me. Concerning tournaments and accomplishments, I would love to sit at the final table at the World Series of Poker. But that's more a bit like playing the lottery.
WCG: Any last words?
FiSheYe: I want to turn towards my countless fans at this point. Despite not being active in the community since 5 years, I am still getting a lot of positive feedback, even from SC2 players who never tried SC1. I hope the SC2 community will turn into something awesome as the SC1 community was back then.
If the phenomenon of professional gaming continues to evolve like this then maybe I will be able to tell my Great-grandchildren that I experienced the invention of the mainstream-internet, the first cellphones and the beginning of Esports, even helped shaping the latter one!
Thanks for your support, and best of luck for 2011 for the German team.
Full credit goes to WCG Europe/Germany
