EPT
Clan Revolution wishes to contribute to building the community and its future. As such, it's natural to want to lift up those who do a tremendous job in organizing events for us all to gather around. Be it events we participate in, or simply watch on stream. One such man, is the chief organizer of the Bombastic Starleague (henceforth called BSL), Dawid "ZZZero" Paździor.
This is the first in a series of interviews where ReV tries to get to know the foreign organizers of various events.
Q. Greetings ZZZero, and thank you for taking the time for this interview! Most in the community will recognize you as the man behind BSL, with season 5 starting recently. But before that, I'd like to learn more about your history. As I understand it, you started playing around 2004-2005. What brought you to Starcraft? And what kept you?
A: Greetings Mr Incomplete, and welcome everyone. Thank you for the invitation. It's a hard question, but I guess I can say that my uncle ZZZak brought me to Starcraft. He showed this incredibly hard and demanding game to me, and he created ZZZ team, which played in Polish Ladder ClanWars, BWCL, WGTCL and many other leagues.
I remember once ZZZak told me "You should create your ZZZ account" - and since I didn't know how to play this game, I decided that 0 is the best number to describe my skill level. At that time, only in Poland, we had over 150 active teams - 30-50 people in each team. Every week we had at least 4 Clan Wars, so I think this competition between teams kept me playing the game, and gave me a reason to practice.
Later, in years 2006-2009, when I became better, I think the competition at the highest level kept me with SC:BW. I wanted to perform better to qualify for WCG offline finals, Polish Championships and any other meaningful tournament. And finally, meeting all these amazing people during offline tournaments... I wanted to practice more, to qualify for tournament and be able to meet them again :D So I guess I can say that ZZZak brought me to Starcraft, and competition between players/teams, amazing people and perfectly balanced game kept me with it.
Q: No wonder the level of play was so high. It must have been difficult to excel in a nation such as Poland, which was arguably the strongest BW nation outside of South Korea? But you managed it regardless! Did you get a lot of help from the ZZZ members when practicing and learning the game to reach your skill?
A: During my 5 years on POL-A, we won Nation Wars 3 times and 1 time ended up in second spot. Before my time, Poland was also very powerful with players like Blackman, sYs, ThomsOn etc.. I think there was a time, when on a Gosugamers ranking of countries, POL-A was 1st, and POL-B was 3rd. But there were many great and solid countries such as Russia, Germany, Sweden, France, Peru, Chile, Canada and USA.
However, I think it was easier to excel overall, because I had better opponents to learn from, train with, talk to, but it was harder to win big tournaments, get to POL-A etc.. On the other hand, thanks to big Polish scene, we had more tournaments than other countries, and our scene is still alive until now. Of course, ZZZ team helped me a lot. It's invaluable, and I think I practiced the most with MiStrZZZ which is probably why ZvP is my strongest matchup.
And my "coach" was WhiZZZkid. He was watching replays with me, and tried to show me a different point of view. He created a habit in me to watch my lost games. That was very helpful.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/dRMaP9l.jpg)
Heyah Logitech Cybersport 2008 Finals
Q: Were there any clan wars or nation wars you remember in particular? Any rivalries - whether between you and other players, or between your team and other teams?
A: I remember the finals of some Nation Wars, Poland vs Chile. The result after the first four matches was 2-2 and I had to play the ACE match. The nerves were big, because it depended on me whether we would win the championship or not. I was winning 2-0, then Killer equalized to 2-2, and after a 20 minute ZvZ on Andromeda, I won the decisive game. The stress was quite high, and it's probably why I still remember him. Individually, I had many rivals, but now it's very hard for me to point to one, because during all these years I competed with a lot of gosu players.
Q: That's a lot of pressure - must've been a hell of a feeling winning that! Moving over to something different, when did you meet Karolcia, in all of this? She seems very engaged in your BW life. Does she play as well, or is she just very supportive of you?(edited)
A: Yes, it was an amazing feeling to win that. I met Karolcia for the first time during a school ski trip to Czech Republic in 2008, but there we exchanged only a few sentences. After a few months, we started talking on GG (polish communicator back then). We talked for hours everyday. We've been together since August 8, 2008. Yes, it's been 10 years already! Karolcia has always shown interest in my hobby and supports me in it to this day.
When I played Starcraft, she went with me to the offline finals - WCG 2008 and WCG 2009. Haha, I remember that I had to go to Karolcia's house so that her parents could get to know me before the first trip at WCG. Now she is also interested in BSL, and she supports me very much. She has never played Starcraft, but she watches my streams, and reads about BSL - haha. Sometimes when I come home from work, she tells me that I did not answer some comments on netwars or teamliquid. In addition, not being angry at me for streaming BSL5 every weekend from November 10 to December 23. This makes her even more amazing
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/YZJf1xq.jpg)
Karolcia and ZZZero at the WCG 2009.
Q: A remarkable woman! But she also seems to be paired up with a remarkable man, based on how you are as a person. Despite all your success and competence, you always seem to meet people in a very nice and humble way. Have you always been so nice? How do you view people in general? And when did you start addressing people as Mr.? Many have taken notice of your usage of Mr., and found it quite endearing.
A: Are you hitting on me?? Haha seriously, that's a difficult question. I am happy that BSL is growing, but this is not a level of success that can get mixed up in the head. Generally, I like all people. I try to be polite and show a minimum level of culture for everyone I meet. I adhere to the principle of treating people as you would like to be treated. Regarding Mr., I met various people at work. I have been in contact with some of them for several years, and yet we are using the Mr. and Mrs. form with most of them. It is a polite form of showing respect for a person.
Q: Well, I guess we could say that if we met backstage, you'd get a very, very happy ending! Speaking of BSL's growth, there seems to have been a lot of development in that regard! The tournament has its own site, the format was shortened down (I understand some players gave feedback that it was too long?), Blizzard reached out to you and have sponsored with 1000$ and a spot in the Launcher news. Several admins working on the tournament, people casting with you. There must have been a lot of preparation going into this? Any changes in particular you are happy about? Feel free to be as elaborate as you'd like!
A: I think that you could have been banned from BSL by Karolcia... :D! As I said before, I'm happy that BSL is growing. You can watch the cast from the BSL3 finals, and then from the BSL4 finals. Without the glasses, you can see the difference in production quality. We would like to make the same step between BSL4 and BSL5. Now we have a new page that allows players to sign up for BSL5 and check their current ranking outside Korea.
At this point, I would like to show my gratitude for HaN and Hatchet for their commitment to BSL. Both supported the whole project since BSL3, and are its inseparable parts. Hatchet created sites on liquipedia for BSL 3, 4 and 5. He administered BSL4 Choboleague which was terribly difficult. He also created our bombastic website! HaN- created all graphics for news, important posts, overlays for streams on various occasions, profiles of players in BSL4, and created all the amazing graphics on our website! I probably did not mention many things, but these people should get huge hype!! Thank you, gentlemen!
I am happy with Blizzard support. We have a contract for sponsoring BSL5 and BSL6, with each having a $1000 prizepool. There was quite a lot of preparation and the requirements we had to meet before the start of the tournament. Fortunately, with the help of various people, we managed to meet all expectations and move on to the long-awaited BSL5. Some players were very impatient. I hope it was worth the wait
The format of the tournament was slightly changed. The competitors taking part in BSL4 complained that 7 rounds of swiss group, then the normal group stage, and finally the bracket Bo7, was too long. That's why we decided to change this format. Thanks to this change, we will be able to show all matches in BSL5 and BSL6. During the BSL4 swiss stage, we were forced to skip several games. In addition, players in the TOP4 ChoboLeague in BSL5 will have a place in RO24 BSL6 which should be an additional motivation for playing Choboleague, and another way to join Proleague.
Yea, many interesting personalities and great players were casting BSL games. There were more than 20 of them in total, who casted BSL Pro and BSL Chobo matches. I hope they will be interested in doing that still! I have always put a lot of emphasis on the fact that the substantive part of the cast was of a high standard. I really wanted every caster of BSL to have very good knowledge and understanding of Starcraft and I think it worked. I hope that people who are watching BSL are not only watching some gosu games and high level of Starcraft, but also learning something about current Starcraft strategies or metagame.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/ShCDq8D.png)
ZZZero streaming and casting the BSL Continents Battles between NA and SA. This stream was co-cast by Nyoken. This is just one of the sub-events of BSL.
Q: What do you enjoy the most about organizing BSL?
A: In organizing BSL, the most enjoyable part is the fact that we create something significant for players, viewers and the entire StarCraft scene. We unite players from around the world, giving them the opportunity to compete with each other, and compare themselves in the ranking. For viewers, we are able to show the highest level of Starcraft outside Korea. We are pleased with the large amount of feedback received. Most of it is very positive, but we are also serious about constructive criticism and we draw a lot from it.
We also enjoy the fact that more and more people are playing in the BSL, and that more and more people are watching streams, chatting, commenting on news and supporting tournaments. I like to look at the development, progress, new players and growing number of viewers and follow-ups. I am a man to whom graphs and numbers speak best. Over the summer, when we were preparing BSL5, a lot of people were asking when the next season is starting. After a while, disposing of people became troublesome, but we could not reveal anything. In the future, apart from the main tournament, we would like to organize regular open tournaments, and my dream is to organize the finals offline. It would be nice to reach a wider audience, and encourage people to come to Starcraft. Maybe you have an idea how and where?
But I think I am happiest with the fact that my vision is fulfilling. The goal of BSL from the beginning was to attract as many people as possible to Starcraft:Broodwar and give them a reason to play. That is why in BSL2, we already had two leagues of "amateurs" and "professionals". We are still continuing this vision by creating BSL Pro and BSL Chobo. Now we have 84 players advancing to the main phase of the tournament. However, with over 200 people regularly playing in the ladder, even this number of seats seems to be too small. I know perfectly well that to "make someone fall in love with Starcraft", you need to show him how much fun he can have when playing against other players in tournaments. Therefore, in the sixth season of BSL, we want to start the third league, amateurs/beginners, to attract new players and encourage new faces.
Overall, working on the BSL project is a pleasure, and working with HaN and Hatchet is a great part of the whole process, because we can exchange different opinions on various topics. I often noticed that my original ideas were worse than those taken after a long discussion with the guys. I just want to add that every positive comment motivates us to continue working, so do not hesitate :D
Q: Thank you so much for all the time you've set aside for this interview. As we wrap it up, is there anything you'd want to say to the community in general?
A: Thank you, Mr. Incomplete, it was a pleasure. The questions were demanding and interesting. What could I say to our community? First of all, I would like to thank everyone of you for the endless support, warm words and offers to help. Without you, the continuation of BSL would not be possible, and thanks to you, it is a real pleasure to create new seasons. I would like to ask you for one thing:
Whenever you see any news about Starcraft:Remastered tournaments/events, please like it, share it, comment on it and send it to your friends. No matter if it's BSL, STPL, BWCL or HAY, because by supporting SC:BW creators, you are adding another brick to keep Starcraft scene alive. It costs nothing, but can actually help. If everyone of you encouraged one of your friends to try Starcraft, our community would be twice as big and twice as powerful as it is. Then we could find sponsors who would help us with sending the best BSL players to Korea, or help us with making a great offline tournament. Starcraft is good for children, and it's good for adults. Don't block anyone from that happiness :D
Epilogue: ZZZero was really helpful and set aside time from his very busy schedule to have the interview done. It really strikes me how wonderful of a man he is. A really strong player, does well in his love life, is a big deal with the BSL, and seems to do well at his job. Overall, he has so much going for him, but there's still not a shred of arrogance. The way he meets people is honestly remarkable. Always helpful, always open, and always friendly. The BW community is really lucky to have a man like him!
Questions by: ReV Clan
Editors: Bigfan
Graphics: BullDog[ReV]
This is the first in a series of interviews where ReV tries to get to know the foreign organizers of various events.
Q. Greetings ZZZero, and thank you for taking the time for this interview! Most in the community will recognize you as the man behind BSL, with season 5 starting recently. But before that, I'd like to learn more about your history. As I understand it, you started playing around 2004-2005. What brought you to Starcraft? And what kept you?
A: Greetings Mr Incomplete, and welcome everyone. Thank you for the invitation. It's a hard question, but I guess I can say that my uncle ZZZak brought me to Starcraft. He showed this incredibly hard and demanding game to me, and he created ZZZ team, which played in Polish Ladder ClanWars, BWCL, WGTCL and many other leagues.
I remember once ZZZak told me "You should create your ZZZ account" - and since I didn't know how to play this game, I decided that 0 is the best number to describe my skill level. At that time, only in Poland, we had over 150 active teams - 30-50 people in each team. Every week we had at least 4 Clan Wars, so I think this competition between teams kept me playing the game, and gave me a reason to practice.
Later, in years 2006-2009, when I became better, I think the competition at the highest level kept me with SC:BW. I wanted to perform better to qualify for WCG offline finals, Polish Championships and any other meaningful tournament. And finally, meeting all these amazing people during offline tournaments... I wanted to practice more, to qualify for tournament and be able to meet them again :D So I guess I can say that ZZZak brought me to Starcraft, and competition between players/teams, amazing people and perfectly balanced game kept me with it.
Q: No wonder the level of play was so high. It must have been difficult to excel in a nation such as Poland, which was arguably the strongest BW nation outside of South Korea? But you managed it regardless! Did you get a lot of help from the ZZZ members when practicing and learning the game to reach your skill?
A: During my 5 years on POL-A, we won Nation Wars 3 times and 1 time ended up in second spot. Before my time, Poland was also very powerful with players like Blackman, sYs, ThomsOn etc.. I think there was a time, when on a Gosugamers ranking of countries, POL-A was 1st, and POL-B was 3rd. But there were many great and solid countries such as Russia, Germany, Sweden, France, Peru, Chile, Canada and USA.
However, I think it was easier to excel overall, because I had better opponents to learn from, train with, talk to, but it was harder to win big tournaments, get to POL-A etc.. On the other hand, thanks to big Polish scene, we had more tournaments than other countries, and our scene is still alive until now. Of course, ZZZ team helped me a lot. It's invaluable, and I think I practiced the most with MiStrZZZ which is probably why ZvP is my strongest matchup.
And my "coach" was WhiZZZkid. He was watching replays with me, and tried to show me a different point of view. He created a habit in me to watch my lost games. That was very helpful.
Heyah Logitech Cybersport 2008 Finals
Q: Were there any clan wars or nation wars you remember in particular? Any rivalries - whether between you and other players, or between your team and other teams?
A: I remember the finals of some Nation Wars, Poland vs Chile. The result after the first four matches was 2-2 and I had to play the ACE match. The nerves were big, because it depended on me whether we would win the championship or not. I was winning 2-0, then Killer equalized to 2-2, and after a 20 minute ZvZ on Andromeda, I won the decisive game. The stress was quite high, and it's probably why I still remember him. Individually, I had many rivals, but now it's very hard for me to point to one, because during all these years I competed with a lot of gosu players.
Q: That's a lot of pressure - must've been a hell of a feeling winning that! Moving over to something different, when did you meet Karolcia, in all of this? She seems very engaged in your BW life. Does she play as well, or is she just very supportive of you?(edited)
A: Yes, it was an amazing feeling to win that. I met Karolcia for the first time during a school ski trip to Czech Republic in 2008, but there we exchanged only a few sentences. After a few months, we started talking on GG (polish communicator back then). We talked for hours everyday. We've been together since August 8, 2008. Yes, it's been 10 years already! Karolcia has always shown interest in my hobby and supports me in it to this day.
When I played Starcraft, she went with me to the offline finals - WCG 2008 and WCG 2009. Haha, I remember that I had to go to Karolcia's house so that her parents could get to know me before the first trip at WCG. Now she is also interested in BSL, and she supports me very much. She has never played Starcraft, but she watches my streams, and reads about BSL - haha. Sometimes when I come home from work, she tells me that I did not answer some comments on netwars or teamliquid. In addition, not being angry at me for streaming BSL5 every weekend from November 10 to December 23. This makes her even more amazing
Karolcia and ZZZero at the WCG 2009.
Q: A remarkable woman! But she also seems to be paired up with a remarkable man, based on how you are as a person. Despite all your success and competence, you always seem to meet people in a very nice and humble way. Have you always been so nice? How do you view people in general? And when did you start addressing people as Mr.? Many have taken notice of your usage of Mr., and found it quite endearing.
A: Are you hitting on me?? Haha seriously, that's a difficult question. I am happy that BSL is growing, but this is not a level of success that can get mixed up in the head. Generally, I like all people. I try to be polite and show a minimum level of culture for everyone I meet. I adhere to the principle of treating people as you would like to be treated. Regarding Mr., I met various people at work. I have been in contact with some of them for several years, and yet we are using the Mr. and Mrs. form with most of them. It is a polite form of showing respect for a person.
Q: Well, I guess we could say that if we met backstage, you'd get a very, very happy ending! Speaking of BSL's growth, there seems to have been a lot of development in that regard! The tournament has its own site, the format was shortened down (I understand some players gave feedback that it was too long?), Blizzard reached out to you and have sponsored with 1000$ and a spot in the Launcher news. Several admins working on the tournament, people casting with you. There must have been a lot of preparation going into this? Any changes in particular you are happy about? Feel free to be as elaborate as you'd like!
A: I think that you could have been banned from BSL by Karolcia... :D! As I said before, I'm happy that BSL is growing. You can watch the cast from the BSL3 finals, and then from the BSL4 finals. Without the glasses, you can see the difference in production quality. We would like to make the same step between BSL4 and BSL5. Now we have a new page that allows players to sign up for BSL5 and check their current ranking outside Korea.
At this point, I would like to show my gratitude for HaN and Hatchet for their commitment to BSL. Both supported the whole project since BSL3, and are its inseparable parts. Hatchet created sites on liquipedia for BSL 3, 4 and 5. He administered BSL4 Choboleague which was terribly difficult. He also created our bombastic website! HaN- created all graphics for news, important posts, overlays for streams on various occasions, profiles of players in BSL4, and created all the amazing graphics on our website! I probably did not mention many things, but these people should get huge hype!! Thank you, gentlemen!
I am happy with Blizzard support. We have a contract for sponsoring BSL5 and BSL6, with each having a $1000 prizepool. There was quite a lot of preparation and the requirements we had to meet before the start of the tournament. Fortunately, with the help of various people, we managed to meet all expectations and move on to the long-awaited BSL5. Some players were very impatient. I hope it was worth the wait
The format of the tournament was slightly changed. The competitors taking part in BSL4 complained that 7 rounds of swiss group, then the normal group stage, and finally the bracket Bo7, was too long. That's why we decided to change this format. Thanks to this change, we will be able to show all matches in BSL5 and BSL6. During the BSL4 swiss stage, we were forced to skip several games. In addition, players in the TOP4 ChoboLeague in BSL5 will have a place in RO24 BSL6 which should be an additional motivation for playing Choboleague, and another way to join Proleague.
Yea, many interesting personalities and great players were casting BSL games. There were more than 20 of them in total, who casted BSL Pro and BSL Chobo matches. I hope they will be interested in doing that still! I have always put a lot of emphasis on the fact that the substantive part of the cast was of a high standard. I really wanted every caster of BSL to have very good knowledge and understanding of Starcraft and I think it worked. I hope that people who are watching BSL are not only watching some gosu games and high level of Starcraft, but also learning something about current Starcraft strategies or metagame.
ZZZero streaming and casting the BSL Continents Battles between NA and SA. This stream was co-cast by Nyoken. This is just one of the sub-events of BSL.
Q: What do you enjoy the most about organizing BSL?
A: In organizing BSL, the most enjoyable part is the fact that we create something significant for players, viewers and the entire StarCraft scene. We unite players from around the world, giving them the opportunity to compete with each other, and compare themselves in the ranking. For viewers, we are able to show the highest level of Starcraft outside Korea. We are pleased with the large amount of feedback received. Most of it is very positive, but we are also serious about constructive criticism and we draw a lot from it.
We also enjoy the fact that more and more people are playing in the BSL, and that more and more people are watching streams, chatting, commenting on news and supporting tournaments. I like to look at the development, progress, new players and growing number of viewers and follow-ups. I am a man to whom graphs and numbers speak best. Over the summer, when we were preparing BSL5, a lot of people were asking when the next season is starting. After a while, disposing of people became troublesome, but we could not reveal anything. In the future, apart from the main tournament, we would like to organize regular open tournaments, and my dream is to organize the finals offline. It would be nice to reach a wider audience, and encourage people to come to Starcraft. Maybe you have an idea how and where?
But I think I am happiest with the fact that my vision is fulfilling. The goal of BSL from the beginning was to attract as many people as possible to Starcraft:Broodwar and give them a reason to play. That is why in BSL2, we already had two leagues of "amateurs" and "professionals". We are still continuing this vision by creating BSL Pro and BSL Chobo. Now we have 84 players advancing to the main phase of the tournament. However, with over 200 people regularly playing in the ladder, even this number of seats seems to be too small. I know perfectly well that to "make someone fall in love with Starcraft", you need to show him how much fun he can have when playing against other players in tournaments. Therefore, in the sixth season of BSL, we want to start the third league, amateurs/beginners, to attract new players and encourage new faces.
Overall, working on the BSL project is a pleasure, and working with HaN and Hatchet is a great part of the whole process, because we can exchange different opinions on various topics. I often noticed that my original ideas were worse than those taken after a long discussion with the guys. I just want to add that every positive comment motivates us to continue working, so do not hesitate :D
Q: Thank you so much for all the time you've set aside for this interview. As we wrap it up, is there anything you'd want to say to the community in general?
A: Thank you, Mr. Incomplete, it was a pleasure. The questions were demanding and interesting. What could I say to our community? First of all, I would like to thank everyone of you for the endless support, warm words and offers to help. Without you, the continuation of BSL would not be possible, and thanks to you, it is a real pleasure to create new seasons. I would like to ask you for one thing:
Whenever you see any news about Starcraft:Remastered tournaments/events, please like it, share it, comment on it and send it to your friends. No matter if it's BSL, STPL, BWCL or HAY, because by supporting SC:BW creators, you are adding another brick to keep Starcraft scene alive. It costs nothing, but can actually help. If everyone of you encouraged one of your friends to try Starcraft, our community would be twice as big and twice as powerful as it is. Then we could find sponsors who would help us with sending the best BSL players to Korea, or help us with making a great offline tournament. Starcraft is good for children, and it's good for adults. Don't block anyone from that happiness :D
Epilogue: ZZZero was really helpful and set aside time from his very busy schedule to have the interview done. It really strikes me how wonderful of a man he is. A really strong player, does well in his love life, is a big deal with the BSL, and seems to do well at his job. Overall, he has so much going for him, but there's still not a shred of arrogance. The way he meets people is honestly remarkable. Always helpful, always open, and always friendly. The BW community is really lucky to have a man like him!
Questions by: ReV Clan
Editors: Bigfan
Graphics: BullDog[ReV]
