I've published an interview with Guillaume "Grrrr..." Patry, the only non-Korean to ever win a BW OSL.
Some of the topics we discussed: -The BW scene before Grrrr...'s move to Korea. -His transition to life in South Korea. -The excessive partying and drinking which inhibited his professional career and results. -The rise of players like YellOw, Kingdom, BoxeR and NaDa during Grrrr...'s era. -Thoughts on Korean culture and BW/esports' peak over there. -Thoughts on MOBA and SC2.
On whether Grrrr... was the best foreigner before going to Korea:
I can't say that I was the best foreigner, but back then some of the best players in practice did poorly in tournaments. It was the opposite for me, I played better under pressure. In 1999, the best players were not Korean. Around mid-2000, that's when Koreans started dominating Starcraft.
Grrrr...'s advantage over other players:
Being able to play a difference race certainly helped. Since two out of the five maps favored Protoss over Zerg, I had a significant advantage going into the finals. I am not a perfectionist, nor do I practice enough, but I have the ability to learn a new game faster than anybody I know. Eventually the other guys caught up and surpassed me, but I was given more opportunities than any other professional. I would often get seeded where other players had to qualify online.
His drinking and partying problem:
When I arrived in Korea, I had a six-pack from casually working out with my high school buddies. I ate healthily and I didn't drink. But you wouldn't believe how fast alcohol can turn a six-pack into fat. I was living an unhealthy lifestyle. I gained a lot of weight, but then I decided to sign-up at a gym (and actually go). Sometimes I fell asleep on the bench, tired from a night of drinking, but I was still going, and consequently I ended up drinking a lot less and started practicing a lot more. I didn't do interviews anymore, and there were no more tournaments other than the televised ones. I had a lot more time.
Describing esports in Korea:
Esports would have been mainstream in Korea if it wasn't a completly new thing. By that I mean that, despite its popularity, it took corporate sponsors several years to start investing in it. Tournament organizers had no experience, managers didn't have a clue what they were doing. It takes years to build an infrastructure that established sports have had for decades. I believe that when a new game comes out, a game as popular as BW was, the true potential of esport will be reached. Then eSports will be mainstream,and maybe not just in korea but internationally.
On November 10 2012 05:27 bgx wrote: Anyone have link to TL blog from French player who was with Grrrr in Korea? That was amazing story, but i can't remember the name...
On November 10 2012 05:27 bgx wrote: Anyone have link to TL blog from French player who was with Grrrr in Korea? That was amazing story, but i can't remember the name...
Wow, Thorin you are writing really good articles. It's sad that your article about Stork got so few feedback. SC2 people are too busy with drama I guess haha. Thank you !
edit : does anyone else think that Grrr looks like a white Reach on the first picture of the article ?
On November 10 2012 05:27 bgx wrote: Anyone have link to TL blog from French player who was with Grrrr in Korea? That was amazing story, but i can't remember the name...
On November 10 2012 05:43 endy wrote: Wow, Thorin you are writing really good articles. It's sad that your article about Stork got so few feedback. SC2 people are too busy with drama I guess haha. Thank you !
On November 10 2012 05:43 endy wrote: Wow, Thorin you are writing really good articles. It's sad that your article about Stork got so few feedback. SC2 people are too busy with drama I guess haha. Thank you !
Great interview, I find it interesting that he was able to pick the game up so fast and master it quicker compared to everyone else. I wonder what the reason for that is.
Although I was never a competitive player I take some pride in having played at a high enough level back then to have lost many games to Grrrr & Elky on the ladder back when 1600 - 1800 was considered an amazing rating and ladder cheating was limited to a few clearly obvious accounts. This was a really exciting time in SC and RTS in general when everyone was learning not just how to play SC but how to play RTS. Innovation made the game exciting and I think that is one of the things that people hold against SC2 when comparing it to SC/BW. By the time SC2 came out almost all of the core elements of top level RTS gaming had been figured out so innovation comes at a micro level or is specific to meta-game which isn't as exciting as the ground breaking new discoveries that occurred all the time back then. Things as simple as maynarding or even mineral harassing were major discoveries that changed the face of RTS strategy. People will always lament about BW being a better game but what they are forgetting is that BW also had the advantage of being a leader competitive RTS. HOTS is going to make for some really exceptional moments in RTS but it's always going to be compared to that first one. BW is everyone's first love that they always wish they had back. What we all have to learn is that our memories of the first one is always somewhat based in fantasy and that everything that we've learned since then has helped to improve things not hurt them. HOTS will be an amazing game too but it will take a game that is able to redefine RTS in some major way for people to be as enthralled as they were in the days of BW.
Esports would have been mainstream in Korea if it wasn't a completly new thing. By that I mean that, despite its popularity, it took corporate sponsors several years to start investing in it. Tournament organizers had no experience, managers didn't have a clue what they were doing. It takes years to build an infrastructure that established sports have had for decades. I believe that when a new game comes out, a game as popular as BW was, the true potential of esport will be reached. Then eSports will be mainstream,and maybe not just in korea but internationally.
Would have, could have. I'd say it did pretty darn good with the success it did have. The next few lines are hilarious because to this day lots of guys and gals are still trying to figure it out. The difference now is our tech. You think experience would be on our side but shit. We still have a long way to go and some people are learning very slow, but that ties into the new technology and social media we have.
It's not just our scene either. Lots of professional athletes are learning things like Facebook and Twitter the hard way.
On November 10 2012 05:03 Thorin wrote: Esports would have been mainstream in Korea if it wasn't a completly new thing. By that I mean that, despite its popularity, it took corporate sponsors several years to start investing in it. Tournament organizers had no experience, managers didn't have a clue what they were doing. It takes years to build an infrastructure that established sports have had for decades. I believe that when a new game comes out, a game as popular as BW was, the true potential of esport will be reached. Then eSports will be mainstream,and maybe not just in korea but internationally.
Hhahahahahaahah, that's good.
Well we need a game as good as BW to make it happen!
Great Interview. I gotta admit though I dont really remember watching his finals against H.O.T... I distinctively remember the finals of the King of Kings Tournament against [B&G]TheBoy though... Aww the memories... Why Blizz, why did you have to replace bw with mediocracy for some lousy dollars???? Such a shame.
i was really excited to hear giyom and chrh tried to qualify for gsl, i wish they made it and made a come back. it would have left me with sweet sc2 memory on par with boxer and nada
Very nice read as always! I think it's kind of cool to hear that early a lot of champions kind of rised quickly and then did poorly and it wasn't until later on the best players started getting really consistent. Kind of the same story with SC2.
On November 10 2012 05:03 Thorin wrote: Esports would have been mainstream in Korea if it wasn't a completly new thing. By that I mean that, despite its popularity, it took corporate sponsors several years to start investing in it. Tournament organizers had no experience, managers didn't have a clue what they were doing. It takes years to build an infrastructure that established sports have had for decades. I believe that when a new game comes out, a game as popular as BW was, the true potential of esport will be reached. Then eSports will be mainstream,and maybe not just in korea but internationally.
is this a jab at SC2 or is it a jab at SC2? hahahahaha
The OSL final was the second most viewed program on a cable TV channel after the football World Cup. Starcraft was not only super popular, it was super cool. I had people of all ages come up to me in public because I was a progamer.
"Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run… but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.…
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.…
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
That was quite an interesting read, thanks for going through all the effort Thorin! Your interviews are very detailed and your BW knowledge seems to have a lot of depth so you can ask very relevant questions. I hope to read more of them in the future!
On November 10 2012 05:23 Glurkenspurk wrote: Grrrr... was the Stephano of bw.
Never practiced, got drunk a lot, somehow still dominated the first few years.
Ya, cause Stephano moved to Korea and won the GSL, right? ....... It's not similar at all.
Really interesting interview. Grrrr... was really a hero for me when I first started playing StarCraft 1v1. But when I heard figures like "practice 4 hours a day" and him saying things like he was just getting too old to play the game, I knew they were excuses even then. Maybe it's because it was his first time out on his own, and he didn't have the discipline yet, was just coping with the new challenges by getting drunk (no wonder he never felt homesick lol).
Grrrr... is forever a legend in my mind. If he had known how big SC was going to get with or without him, I'm sure he would have played a lot harder.
Wow, I can't believe I just got to read that. Thank's a bunch for posting it over here, really great work. I've wanted to hear the answers to these questions for ever. I've always been and still am a big fan of Grrrr.... and watch his old VODs a few times a year. Thanks Thorin, you are awesome.
On November 10 2012 06:05 slappy wrote: Very good read. Thank you!
On November 10 2012 05:43 endy wrote: Wow, Thorin you are writing really good articles. It's sad that your article about Stork got so few feedback. SC2 people are too busy with drama I guess haha. Thank you !
Nice interview, not all that much unique content yet that is hard to get with somebody that was big. Upside for me is that I clicked the stork link, thanks for the content.
On November 10 2012 05:27 bgx wrote: Anyone have link to TL blog from French player who was with Grrrr in Korea? That was amazing story, but i can't remember the name...
On November 11 2012 06:35 sorrowptoss wrote: Grrr... seems like a really nice guy. And he looked pretty awesome with that silly korean progamer costume on back in the day.
Fantastic content. I remember when there were no replays or even vods to watch and learn from so I would read theoretical build orders by Grrrr and try copy his play style..
"There's quite a bit of variance in Starcraft (i.e. a good pro almost never wins over 66% of his games against an other pro)." What does he mean by that? I don't quite understand. My interpetation is that he's implying that anyone could've won some tournaments those days, but he might mean the exact opposite.
EPT
Grrrr..." Patry, the only non-Korean to ever win a BW OSL.
YellOw, 
BoxeR and 
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oCQsN.png)
