Twitter Q&A - CJ's Horang2

http://esports.dailygame.co.kr/news/read.php?id=47195
Thanks again to Reporter Nam Yun-sung and Daily e-Sports.

Horang2 - "I need a nickname that I can understand"

Question by @IntoTheWow
You have been on a roll lately, does it have to do with the merge between Hite and CJ? Do you have new practice partners? Or a different training method now? (T/N: There are a lot of questions posted by English speakers, which I have just left as originals from the DES article, save grammatical fixes)

CJ Entus’ team atmosphere is different than Hite Sparkyz. CJ has a very systematic practice format. And the practice atmosphere is very good too. It’s set up so that there is nothing else to do but increase your practice amount. I think I became better because the CJ players are more skilled compared to the players I faced while I was in Sparkyz.

Question by @DJ_LORD
What is the secret to your macro? Also, what is your opinion about “Chibomi” (T/N: The Japanese AV actress that fans think Horang2 looks similar to)?

I’ll explain the method of macroing first. You first need a lot of resources. It really is a fight over how much minerals your probes extract. It is important that they are sent to mine the moment they are produced at the Nexus. And then you have to produce units and increase the number of gateways but I cannot really explain that. My body feels the timing of production. If you follow the timing then the units come out well but it really is difficult to explain it in words. I apologize that I cannot give a more specific answer.

I think you’re talking about me looking like the Japanese AV actress. I have heard about “Chibomi” so many times that I have now reached a state of nirvana. I am trying to take it in modestly. I’m trying to think that it is better to have a nickname rather than not have one but I think this thought process itself is just nonsense. At least about thanking Chibomi.

Question by @hjhee17
What is your favorite unit among the Protoss units? Please also give a reason.

I love the archon. It sparkles. I like the fact that two things combine to evolve into something else. I think that showing growth and evolution is something that humans need to see. The archon comes from combining two high templars, you know. I like the feeling of the evolution. I read all kinds of manga and I like the stories that have to do with growth or advancement.

Question by @tetrissc
If you could go on a vacation anywhere, where would you go, with who, and why?

My older sister went to study abroad in Australia and she has said so many nice things about it so I want to visit there. I’d like to visit her and see how she’s doing since she doesn’t come to Korea very often. Even though I seem very bright and cheerful, I like to be by myself so I would go to Australia by myself.

Question by @YEAHWhiplash
How did your PVP get so good? When will we be able to see you run higher in the Starleague?

I always thought to myself that I don’t lose in PvP ever since my debut. I used to think it was just a thought I had for myself but then after I gained a lot of confidence several times, my confidence in it became very firm. My games come from the drive that this confidence gives me. People look at mirror matches as a fight over build orders but I look at it much more simply and try to remove any factors that may be present. I often win when the games are very normal. So thinking about playing PvP in a very typical manner seems to work well for me rather than thinking about it in a complicated way.

You ask me about the Starleague but I’ll look at it as just an individual league and include the MSL too. That is a question that I also want to ask myself. I was quite disappointed in myself after failing to advance this time but I’ll show my true talent the next time it comes around. The MSL Survivor Tournament starts tomorrow so please watch me. I am preparing very hard for it. I will make sure to pay back my fans’ interests.

Question by @kiante871
Why do you never use a 12 nexus build order in PvP?

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by a 12 nexus. I’ll just give a general answer about PvP. You don’t need as much resources in mirror matches compared to other matchups. So a lot of games are determined at about the time you take your natural expansion. I’ve shown several games where I just made a bunch of gateways and finished the game but I was able to do that because I knew how to both control saturated probes at mineral deposits and macro the right way.

Question by @daramgly
Who among your teammates is the hardest worker? Who is the laziest?

All the practice partners in our team work very hard. If I had to pick the hardest workers in the A-team, they would be Skyhigh, Hydra, and Effort. They are all very talented but that is because they practice more than anyone else.

I think the laziest one is Movie hyung. I wouldn’t exactly call him lazy but I should say that rather than practicing with his hands, he is someone who brainstorms a lot about strategies, macro, and countering. You should see him as someone who paints a picture in his head and then produces it through his hands during practice.

Question by @jordantoine
Do you still talk a lot with the former Hite Sparkyz members?

I talk a lot with the retired players. I talk enough with them to get sick of talking. I especially talk a lot with my same-age friends Kim Bong-joon and Joh Jae-kyul. I also have contact with the older players. I don’t think I have any other older friends who have personalities as good as the older friends from Sparkyz.

Question by @Daumpotplayer
If you were to judge yourself before your emergence and after it? I’m also interested in how long you played My Starleague and Pokemon. Also, have you given up on using strategic-heavy builds anymore?

I think my rise happened in Round 4 of the 10-11 season. When I think of the Horang2 that first came to CJ Entus, he just seemed a mediocre Protoss player. I didn’t play that well in Rounds 1, 2, and 3 nor was I sent out that often either. I practiced very diligently during that time and I think I was able to improve the parts of the play that I was bad in. I lacked a lot in keeping calm, situational decision-making, build orders, etc that I carefully polished through practice. And then I found my personal timings for each matchup, raised my win count, and became a lot more confident.

I haven’t played Pokemon in a long time. I did play it through a Nintendo that I bought (T/N: I assume he means a Game Boy). I felt like I was cheated after I beat all the missions. So I sold my Nintendo to somebody who liked Pokemon. Pokemon remains as a reminiscence. I felt like playing again every time a new version came out but now that I got older I had to give up that feeling too. I had a really fun time with My Starleague but they hardly updated it. It wasn’t interesting anymore so I stopped.

You asked me if I stopped using strategic-heavy builds. I still play some games where I specifically prepare a strategic build. A player who occasionally uses clever builds while normally being more macro-oriented can easily win games and since it also throws the opponent into confusion, I sometimes use strategy in my games. But very strangely, when I use such builds, the game goes in a weird direction and I end up having to macro more. When that happens I just switch to macroing. There have been several times when I was disappointed that I couldn’t use the build that I had prepared.

Question by @Jack__U
Have you seen this picture? (T/N: The picture above) Please tell me what you feel when you see it.

When I have time, I often go to the “Community” section. I saw that same picture there. I think the girl on the left looks really similar to me. I can see my characteristic expression on her face. She also has a little fat on her face, which is like me. I also feel embarrassed.

Question by @Love_Tiger2
I’m trying to imitate your sim city and when I try it out, I find myself counting how many buildings I have. If there is a knowhow about sim city, please let me know. Have you become interested in fashion lately? Like how Jaedong once said “Fashion is fit”, have you stopped your binge eating?

Paying a lot of attention to the sim city has its pros and cons. One good thing about it is, once you have it set up, it’s a lot easier to produce units. But to do this, you have to go through a ton of practice so that you become skilled enough that your hands move on their own.

A bad thing about sim city is that if you pay too much attention to it you are going to notice all the minute details of it that you happen to miss. Then you might make a mistake when controlling your units. And if the building placement doesn’t work out as well as you want it to, you feel as if the game isn’t going to go well.

There are times when I warp the buildings roughly. That happens when I’m not feeling very good. For example, when others are going on vacation while I’m stuck practicing for the post-season and the individual league, I just build my buildings wherever without paying attention.

And I don’t think you necessarily have to build your buildings nicely when you do PvZ. I think that the time spent on sim city is better spent on corsair and zealot micro. But I think it’s good to warp buildings prettily in PvP or PvT since you really need the strength of your macro in order to win.

I really don’t have anything to say about fashion. I don’t have that many opportunities to go out somewhere. I don’t really have anyone in particular to meet so I don’t pay a lot of attention to clothing. I guess I would pay a lot of attention to what I wear if I had a job where I had to meet a lot of people or do business outside. I think that I have a good sense of fashion but because of the nature of my job, I keep my interest in clothing off.

Binge eating…my hobby is eating. It’s hard to control myself since I love binge eating. But it’s more accurate to say that I eat very often rather than I go “binge eating”. I ate chicken with my teammates yesterday and because my stomach didn’t feel so full I ate a cup of ramen. They said to me “didn’t we just eat chicken? Horang2 is eating again” to which I replied “I ate it because I wasn’t full” and they were really surprised. I think my stomach is a little bigger than other people’s. I don’t feel satisfied very often.

Question by @Love_Tiger2
I think your eye-smile is one of your attractive points. What do you think your attractive points are? You occasionally make mistakes (like losing reavers) that are as cute as your face; I’m curious if you are as confident in your micro as your macro.

To be honest, I can’t find any parts about my face that I find attractive. I think that my smile is kind of weird looking but I’m happy that you think it looks good. When I look at myself, one thing that I find attractive is my good-natured appearance.

I don’t have confidence in my micro. If even my micro was really good, I wouldn’t be sitting here like this (laughs).

Question by @gil_OAO
Whether it be Best, who has made a love-call to you several times, or others, I’m interested in your friendships with players outside of your team.

Aside from STX’s Hyvaa and Samsung KHAN’s Byul, I don’t have any other friends from other teams. But there are a lot of players that I want to become friendly with. About 4 or 5 players. I think Best is a very good player and after he said that he wanted to become more friendly with me, he seems to be a very sociable person so I want to become friends with him too.

I also want to become friendlier with Zero. I once practiced several times with Light and he was very good at letting me know my strengths and weaknesses. Our practice houses are in the same building and although I met him several times in the elevator, he was the first to start a conversation so it was easy for me to become friendly with him. I’d be happy to be a shuttle for him so I want to fall under his dictatorship (T/N: Korean netizens joke about Light being a dictator because he often takes the leadership in his team).

Hoejja once made a wink at his teammates in MBC Game’s program “Behind Story”. Flash ran away from him in that scene and it seems like Hoejja is the center of his team’s atmosphere. I’d like to become friends with him.

It’s hard for me to become friends by talking with someone on a one-to-one basis given my personality. I want to become friendly with the players I mentioned above but it seems hard if I had to meet them one-on-one. If there are several people together it’s a lot more fun but it’s hard for me to even talk if there is only one person next to me. I seem very outgoing but I am quite shy. I get restless and even nervous. I recently realized that I have this kind of a personality.

Question by @niemandin
What kind of son are you at home? I heard that the age gap between you and your sisters is big and that you are the youngest sibling so I’m wondering if attention was paid to you the most. I’m also interested in what your family was like when you told them that you would become a progamer.

I currently fill the role of the perfect son. I was pretty immature until grade school but since that I have been growing as a son who gives his parents a lot of satisfaction. I wasn’t really spoiled while growing up but I got a lot of love. My father especially gave me a lot of interest. Whenever something good happened to our family, he showed us his love by buying us chicken. The chicken that my father bought for us is one reason why my appetite has gotten very good.

When I said that I was going to be a progamer, my father opposed it a lot. My sisters got worried about me. My father didn’t think well of me doing something on the computer. I think if I was in his shoes, I would have opposed it too because of uncertain nature of being a progamer. Because I am doing well now, my family is supportive of me and cheering for me.

I am thankful that my family opposed me becoming a progamer. They opposed it because they cared about me. I became anxious and worried at the time.

Question by @niemandin
How did you change as a progamer after you entered CJ Entus? I’m interested if there was a change in your playstyle and your attitude. Also, what will you do after you retire from progaming?

My attitude changed. When I was in Sparkyz, I often relied upon Leta. I didn’t think I was one of the main players and I wasn’t very responsible. I hadn’t come very far as a progamer. But now I play as one of the main players on our team and I know what kind of effect I have on our teammates if I happen to lose. So these days I get kind of nervous when I sit in the player box.

A lot of people around me worry that I will get scammed once I stop being a progamer. They say that I have an easily deceivable personality. I want to just live an ordinary life as an office employee. I want to start a family early and live comfortably. I’d like to have a wife and child who I can eat chicken with (laughs). If I have a daughter though, I wouldn’t have her eat chicken.

Question by @mungO_O
It seems like you are getting a lot more fans. Are there fans that happen to look similar to any CJ players? Or even players from other teams.

If they talk about someone looking like someone, they would mention me. They always say that I look similar to Chibomi. I don’t know about other players that look similar to famous people. But I often see characters from Disney movies that look similar to Movie. Doesn’t he look like Winnie the Pooh (laughs)?

Question by @kaisy0211
Who is the player in your team that talks the most or jokes around the most? I’m also interested in the player that pokes fun at you the most.

The practice partners joke around the most, like Bbyong or Where. Bbyong and I insult each other for fun. Bbyong made his debut game against me. When Bbyong makes fun of me, I just say back that “Bbyong is a player who got owned by Horang2”. And when I say that he brings up the ridiculous game that I lost against Hwaseung OZ’s Alone.

Where asks me “how do you win?” for fun. He said that he would pick me in group ceremony if he made it to the MSL but he didn’t. I need to get to the MSL so that he can shut up. I think we are going to have a war if I don’t make it.

Question by @Jack__U
Please tell me which anime the character “Haruko-chan” appears in.

That is something from “Behind Story”. It’s a Japanese female name that Kim Bong-joon (T/N: Is this person (P)

Britney?) picked during “Behind Story” and fans often mention the name. They also say that he sleeps with a “Haruko-chan” pillow but the chance of that is totally zero. It is 100% rumor. He’s not wild about Japanese animation.

Question by @mungO_O
Is there a fan that remains in your mind? Do you have a particular knowhow on warping your buildings so prettily?

The manager of the fan café comes to mind, rather than one particular fan. I see her as someone who watched my games the longest. She still helps me.

Like I said before, sim city is about habits and practice. Everyone has different viewpoints on what they think is a pretty setup of gateways so you should build in the way you like it. My idea of sim city is to build buildings side by side while making room for units to easily move around then. I also like putting them in even numbers.

Question by @zoxn9
At what supply count should you stop producing probes?

This is a question I hear often but because it is different depending on what situation you are in, it is hard to explain. Putting them to work immediately after producing them is the most important in my eyes.

Question by @etoilerush
When will we be able to see you win an individual league? I don’t think it is too far away.

I am really thankful that you think like that. I love you. You seem like a nice person (laughs). If I could predict when I could win a starleague than I wouldn’t be a progamer. I’d become a fortune-teller. I am working hard at it knowing that there are a lot of people hoping for it. I think it is something I will be able to do once I gain enough endurance.

Question by @CusomeJD
Your units pour out like water pouring from a dam. Are you aware of people pushing for your nickname to be “Dam-water-toss”?

When I look at the community, I see several nicknames. “Innocent toss” was pretty funny and “Dam-water-toss” seems pretty funny too. I think my nickname has already gone to Andromeda (T/N: someone enlighten me on this). I can accept any kind of nickname after I developed the ability to make introspections and reflections of myself.

Question by CusomeJD
What are your thoughts of the current Protoss-Terran game balance?

I think Protoss is better these days. The SKT1 Protoss players have introduced several new builds that have shifted the metagame a little bit. Terrans built their second command center after making a barracks in order to gain an advantage and Protoss players suffered but the Protoss players have created a counter to somewhat overcome this. The game continues to be dynamic and so I think Terran players will soon counter this in turn. But I am definitely sure that Protoss players are currently ahead of Terran players.

Question by @CusomeJD
I’m wondering if there ever were guys who looked at you strangely because of your feminine appearance.

I’ve been told often that I have a feminine face but I don’t think other guys have ever looked at me like I was weird. Isn’t it rather dangerous if those kinds of people exist (laughs)?

Question by @kana4725
It seems like you don’t really like all your previous nicknames; please make one for yourself. In your team, who wins most often playing “broodling”?

I don’t desire too much when it comes to nicknames. I am really grateful for whatever kind of nickname I get. “4th Dimension toss” wasn’t bad but then it got pushed out by “Chibomi”. I can put up with any kind of nickname. But it’d be nice if I could get a nickname that could be used on broadcast.

I think you are confusing “broodling” with what I said before when I said that I accidentally pronounced “Blue Marble” as “broodling” (T/N: Blue Marble is a Korean board game). Effort often wins when we play Blue Marble.

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