Fomos.co.kr did a nice and long live interview with none other than SKT T1 Midas the chef. I enjoyed reading it so I thought you guys might like it too
Q: Any feelings before the interview? Midas:Oh I am so happy about it. I know many other progamers have done it already, but I am excited I finally get to do one myself. Although Bungky(the SKT T1 Mascot)got to do one before me, I am one of the first on my team!
Q: What have you been up to since the end of regular season? Midas: After the regular season ended we all went swimming and stuff as a team. You know, to celebrate the second place finish. We are now gonna start preparing for the playoffs.
Q: How much do you exercise? Midas: I exercise about 20 minutes a day, which is the bare minimum. The practice room is pretty far away from my dorm room, so I get a bit of exercise by walking as well. I usually walk unless it's extremely hot or raining hard.
Q: Wasn't it really difficult with all the changes pre-season? Midas: It wasn't too bad. I honestly think only thing a player has to do is play well. The atmosphere went down a bit with all the adjustments in the coaching staff, but it got better quickly. It was easy to unify as a team once again because we all strive for the same goal.
Q: The powerhouse SKT T1 went on a terrible slump. Midas: Everything was going so well at one point. There are probably many factors of the slump, but I think one of them is that I played awful during those times. Wait..no. The biggest reason was that we all got complacent as a team. To be honest, we all knew we would eventually win the 2006 Proleague title even if things didn't go so well in the regular season. And we won it as expected. Back then all of us, including myself, were playing very well in both Proleague and individual leagues. But we went on a sharp decline towards the end of 2006. We were hoping to win the title once again despite the bad regular season performance, but it didn't happen this time. I for one was hovering around only a 50% winning percentage.
Q: Things got much better this season. Midas: It feels like we are back in the old times. I have a lot of confidence now, and I think I could beat any player if I got equal amount of practice as him. That's why I have been practicing even harder. Maybe I could have practiced even more but I tried my best. I think it's the confidence that helped me perform much better this season.
Q: Satisfied with your 2008 regular season performance? Midas: Well individual wise I am not very satisfied. I thought I could get about 15 wins. But towards the end I started making more mistakes and the pace dropped down a bit. I am a little disappointed. As for the team going to the playoffs as second place, I am about 80% satisfied. What makes me really happy is that all the other players improved a ton. Last year I went 12 wins-4 losses but we were only 3rd place...from the bottom. I was 12 wins-7 losses this year but we are 2nd place from the top. I am not under as much pressure anymore, because our team can do well even with me playing just decently well.
Q: What's the biggest difference between now and the slump? Midas: As you know, we can't win as a team just because I win my games. The team as a whole is on a good pace and other players got much better. The coaching staff also fits in well with us so it's gotten a lot easier to practice.
Q: You will be playing a playoff match to go to the finals. Midas: I obviously wanna go to the finals. I wanna eat some sushi when I am there. (The final is in a port city. Somewhere near Pusan, I believe.) If we go to the finals I think it will be heck of a match. Both Samsung and we have won the title. Ah, that reminds me of the KTF matches during the regular season. We lost to them both times, it was like a jinx. They somehow managed to beat us...We could be going to the finals without a playoff if we had beaten them just once..
Q: Reasons why you decided to become StarCraft progamer? Midas: I first became a progamer back when I played Kingdom Under Fire. But I found out there won't be any leagues for that game anymore. So during my freshman year in high school, I was debating if I should play StarCraft or Warcraft III. Most of Kingdom Under Fire progamers transitioned to WC III and performed well. Although StarCraft league was already very tough I decided to play it anyway.
Q: Why StarCraft then? Midas: StarCraft simply looked more fun, and I thought the game/leagues would last longer. Boxer, Yellow, Reach, Garimto and other players made it that much better. I wanted to start from those amateur leagues but I couldn't because I already had a progamer license. (I guess there's only one license for all games) I wasn't that good but I could go play in the qualification rounds for MSL/OSL with my license.
Q: You started your SC career with G.O. Midas: On my first Starcraft match ever, I lost to some unknown player 1-2 in the qualification round. Then that guy lost to TheMarine 0-2 in the next round. That's when I realized I sucked a lot. I started practicing incredibly hard after that..I was so disappointed. The very next MSL qualification round I took down ForU 2-0, and Coach Cho recruited me to his G.O. team right afterwards.
Q: So you joined G.O. because you beat ForU? Midas: Well that was right when TheMarine moved from G.O. to KTF. G.O. needed a Terran practice partner so I was able to join. I guess you could basically say I joined the team by beating ForU, who was known to be strong against Terrans...
Q: You probably improved a lot after joining G.O. Midas: Right after I joined the team Xellos picked me as his practice partner for the Olympus OSL SemiFinals match. While helping Xellos I could see myself improve drastically, and Xellos went on to beat Boxer 3:0 before taking the title. I don't know much of a help I actually was but I was happy that I could be a part of Xellos' victory. That's when I told myself I am going to qualify for the Starleagues and play.
Q:You were also known for your short and abrupt answers in interviews. Was this done on purpose? Midas: No, of course I didn't do it on purpose! I had no experience back then and I got so nervous I couldn't even talk. I had no idea it was so hard to talk when I was watching other players do it. When I am playing a match I am not nervous because I am concentrated solely on the game, but in group selections I couldn't even look straight into the camera. But after about two or three seasons it started getting more comfortable. I got to know other progamers and officials more personally, and that certainly helped.
Part II:
Q: If you had to self-evaluate your playstlye. Midas: It's boring at times. I CAN end games quickly in the early game when I really want to. A lot of people have been telling me I don't scout enough but I do it as much as I feel the need to. I have my own style. Sometimes, FlaSh doesn't even scout AT ALL. He has his own style, just like I do.
Q: You have been doing more early game tactics lately. Midas: It really depends on the opponent and the map. I have been doing 2 factory build vs Protoss more often, and I think it has been working well because they just don't expect that from me. But I still gotta use the one fact double command build too. Builds always change.
Q: You are in the qualification rounds for both MSL/OSL. Midas: Of course I gotta qualify again. I really do believe that I am in the top tier class of progamers in terms of skill. Although the difference maybe as little as a piece of paper, I think I have a high chance of qualifying in both leagues. I just gotta watch out for strategic/cheesy builds.
Q: When will you win a individual league title? Midas: I will win it in the upcoming one. The reason I went to go watch BeSt's match was to get a feel for it. I thought it was the stage I would be on in about 3-4 months. If I go to the finals, who would be the guest singer? I hope Girls Generation or WonderGirls come.
Q: Do you think as a player gets older he loses game sense compared to the younger ones? Midas: I think it's partially true, but it doesn't relate to me in anyway. I consider myself as one of the younger players. I am only about 21 since I was born in early 1987. I am still good to go and I also take care of my health by staying away from cigs/alcohol. The reason why I started playing badly was that my pace dropped, not because I got older. But not now. My passion has been revived. If I play against a younger player with equal amount of practice I am confident I would win. I am more talented. I don't know what it will be like once I am 27-28 years old, but I guess I will have to start using strategic builds to win if my reaction time takes a hit. Gotta do what I gotta do to win.
On July 23 2008 03:56 SayaSP wrote: So he played qualifiers without a team, because he already had a license? Interesting
Playing qualifiers without a team really wasn't that unusual back then. He was just making the point that he wasn't as skilled at the other players because it wasn't his skill that got him there, it was his license.
On July 23 2008 03:55 Xiberia wrote: At first i read the thread name as Midas[gm] retiring! ~~
There have been too many retirements lately xD
But seriously, if Midas retired I'd cry.
Edit: I like Midas, but he sure does seem like a bit of a douche. Going to the OSL final not to root for BeSt, but so that he could get a feel for what it's like when he's there next season? I dunno...
Nice interview, a lot more interesting questions/answers than the usual winner interviews. Thanks a lot for translating. Oh, small typo I noticed "I am only about 21 since I was born in early 1887."
Thanks for the translation. I noticed a quick typo --
Do you think as a player gets older he loses game sense compared to the younger ones? Midas: I think it's partially true, but it doesn't relate to me in anyway. I consider myself as one of the younger players. I am only about 21 since I was born in early 1887
i see it as a good thing to think highly of yourself
Lets see what Midas can do in late '08~
Thinking too highly of yourself combined can definately be a bad/coky thing, however Midas just seem to be confident, realize his own potential and combined with willingness to practice hard it can hardly be viewed as being cocky. A bit refreshing to see someone willing to say "fuck yeah I'm good" actually.
If Midas can translate this confidence in his abilities to not-choking-in-the-semis then we may have to be on the lookout for awkward ceremonies in the next MSL/OSL.
Q:You were also known for your short and abrupt answers in interviews. Was this done on purpose? Midas: No, of course I didn't do it on purpose! I had no experience back then and I got so nervous I couldn't even talk. I had no idea it was so hard to talk when I was watching other players do it. When I am playing a match I am not nervous because I am concentrated solely on the game, but in group selections I couldn't even look straight into the camera. But after about two or three seasons it started getting more comfortable. I got to know other progamers and officials more personally, and that certainly helped.
I am quite intruiged by his statement that he feels he has plenty more to give to the SKT season. Both him and Bisu fell off a little bit near the end - if the two of them redouble their efforts I think SKT will walk away with the crown. Good news, I think. Midas is becoming more and more of a baller.
move of 2008: Slapping the mascot. I seriously was anti-midas before that, he was so awkward that it pissed me off. But after pwning the mascot with an impressive win, I am actually getting nostalgic for midas a bit a supporting him more now. I'm kind of getting that way with all of the old school players. Midas forgot to include that SKT semi-sucks for making the idiot move of ousting July...
EPT
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