The Golden Door

Let's start. Please introduce yourself - name, age and so on.

I'm Zolotoi. Or Idegel.


Since when do you play Brood War? What were your first clans?

I started to play online in 2006 on the Russian server „Podolks“. My first cla was [ScWc], I think about 30% of the Russian community was in this clan

Then I started to play on PGT (around season 4 or maybe 5) and changed to pAq and later to my third clan – the Belarussian Team [uTm]

I played very actively in between 2006 and 2007 and finished in Febrary 2008.


You're a very active user of defiler.ru. Obviously, you did pick up Brood War after the StarCraft II beta again. When did you return and why?

After 2011. I have seen some „Yoda“ actions and Defiler.ru Tours. Also, my real life friend Gargoyle won some of them. This was all interesting, so I started to play again

I also played a game of StarCraft 2. Then I was finished with this game.


Can you tell us a little more about Dima/Gargoyle? Many of us don't know him, even though he showed great performances in the Defiler Tournaments.

I think I can only list some known facts. He's oldschool. When he studied in Russia (Novosibirsk), he played Brood War at LANs and online. In Novosibirsk he took on members from teams like [S2], [3D] and [A2]. He never played in famous teams, I remember him being in qG., in which he never lost any clan war game (WGTCL and maybe others?).

I can't really recall where I met him first, but it was for some LAN – be it a WCG preliminary or some other LAN, doesn't matter. He was a really good player, used aggressive strategies and won a lot of online tournaments as well. He always scored points for his teams – qG., bst, FR. Today he's living Kazakhstan.


You're also a solid player. You even won a Defiler Tournament, which not many players could do. What were your best results in Brood War? How good do you think you are?

Hmmm. I'm not solid. When I won the Defiler Tour, it was quite possibly a happenstance of planets alligning perfectly, which then supported me with cosmic energy. Or something. I played vs. Sneazel, dsaqwe, Project and some A- Protoss who defeated Scan and others earlier – also no Zerg, a dream come true for me.




Sure, I won the DT, but I also won some LAN tournaments. One LAN I won in my city in August 2007. On two other occasions I went with Dima and Specter (2v2 player) to Siberian cities. First I won vs. Dima in Novokuznetsk in the finals, in the second LAN in Kemerovo, Dima defeated me.



I attented a last LAN in July 2008, the WCG Preliminary in my city. I didn't play for six months straight and only prepared by training with Dima for two weeks. My Opponents were all B+ and A- ranked Terrans. Thanks to the preparation with Dima I won the Prelims. However, I did lose in the Moscow finals due to the lack of practice. That's all about my tournaments.

I probably forgot to add: I won ICCupCL with FR


You also did stream quite some games on Defiler. Some of these games were rather interesting - especially some games against Yume come to mind. What kind of strategies do you prefer?

It depends on the opponents. With low skill opponents I can play all strategies (I was a replay uploader at reps.ru and watched a ton of replays); usually I'd be very aggressive. With good opponents I usually play standard builds. And when I played in clan wars, I used to analyze builds from Korean VODs beforehand.


You also posted some nice stuff to hype the SOSPA Events. Who's your favourite Afreeca player and why?

I love watch all gosu Protoss streams. Frst time I was in shock, when I saw Bisu stream, he was very fast
I dont know who my favourite player of the Afreeca scene is, but I love Sky and Movie. The first man is a very aggressive player, Movie = good skill and unreal harassment in late pvz


Well, back to Defiler. Somebody once told me you and Tama aren't really good friends. Why is that? Is that some fun rivalry or is there some deeper story?

Hmm Now we are ok.
We had some problems, because I considered Tama as the strongest Protoss from Russia, and communicated that opinion to everyone. And then I won against Tama in some online tour (maybe it was the Plantroniks tour only for Russians), where I used a smurf acc. Maybe after this tour Tama said some bad words about me, but I think it's ok, I dont like playing vs smurf too

Or it was another tour, dont remember


Aw nice. Who is your favourite Defiler user? Who's your favourite foreigner of all time? Also please explain your picks.

Defiler user... hmm I love talking with all users (not bm). Favourite user, I think it's the Bonjwa [lancerx] He has a great sense of humor, and he is the most active streamer now. And sure, we both are Auir's soldiers

Foreigner of all time... it's a hard question for me. One side: America, good players: Nony, Assem, Testie and others, second side: Euro: Mondragon Elky Draco White-Ra Androide A2. Third side: China PJ LX... very hard to choose. I was born in the USSR -> I choose White-Ra


Alright. Any last words or shout outs?

Thx to you Gecko, I know you made a lot of good articles, and other things for BW.
Thx for interview, gl to all, hi to Yoda and Defiler.ru, Bonjwa FTW !