EPTSavi: Hello Telecom, so how is life? Streaming, gaming in general and work? Please tell us a little about yourself.
Telecom: Hello
I am very surprised to get an interview, Thank you for giving me this time. Life is great, Streaming is very fun, I really enjoy interacting with my viewers on the stream. I always answer questions and check stream chat after each game normally, to answer any questions. I also really enjoy hearing other peoples views on my gameplay. My gaming was always only BW, but since SC2 I have played both.
I enjoy BW more because of the sense of achievement after each win, and the difficulty of the game has always had my mind racing a lot more when playing, I guess
you could say it is more thrilling. I work at two different resteraunts, a thai and italian place, so I am busy but I love working in the resteraunts.
Savi: So you've played so much and laddered a whole deal in the past, are you a gamer in general? Your also in the master league in SC2, could you tell us a little bit about that as well?
Telecom: I really enjoy massing ladder games, it isn't uncommon for me to play 30 games a day and sometimes more, I've been a gamer since I was 2 years old I guess. I started playing regular nintendo then super nintendo, N64, then PC. Yeah I've been a gamer my whole life, I love it.
Master league on NA server is really easy to get to be honest, it's nothing to brag about. On the Taiwan / Korean server it is a lot more difficult. I just wish BW was as active as Starcraft 2's foreign scene, that's probably the only reason I keep going back. But it is good to keep fighting for what you believe in and make a lot of effort to show SC2 players BW, because a lot of them have never played it and some have never seen it! I've shown a lot of SC2 viewers from my stream BW for the first time, and they all said it looked amazing, very hard but amazing still. And since it is so easy to get on iCCup, that is where they start.
Savi: If anyone is going to know about you, it would have to be from your stream. I'm a regular viewer on your stream actually, and you do it on a regular basis, are you looking to get freatured in the future? What are your plans for the future?
Telecom: Well...I think of myself just like every single non-featured streamer here on TL, they all want or dream of becoming featured one day, I took a step back for a long time and haven't really commentated on my stream in a while but I am about to start again. I have been getting ready to do this, the problem is that I had not played BW in tryhard mode in a very long time, only randomly from time to time would I boot up iCCup to play some games.
Only recently had I started playing atleast 15-20 or more games a day to get ready for YSL. Now that I have been practicing a lot I feel like I am ready to commmentate my games, and I think that is what it takes for a streamer to get featured nowadays. I really want to get featured one day, but do I think it will happen?
Absolutely not! Not untill I change the persona of my stream I imagine, which I'll have to do :D
Savi: So the YSL is the latest tournament your attending so far, are you going to win the whole entire event? How have you been training? I bet your going to use a secret build from one of your Korean clanmates, to try to surprise us all.
Telecom: YSL is the latest major BW tournament i've played in yeah, not including the smaller ones like the defiler tours. I don't think I'll win the entire event, because I'm just coming back to BW after not playing very seriously because of SC2. I am more sure that I will win the next one due to being able to practice every matchup with more time.
The way I practice / train is by mass gaming on iCCup, or Fish. When I play on iCCup I play a very aggressive / cheesy style in a lot of games, because I like to end the game early, and well I guess I always felt like I was pretty good at doing it. I also don't mind playing a crazy style that might put me behind in the game so I have to try harder to try to win the game in the long run. I enjoy the high pressure situations in BW that requires a lot of micro in the early game. I like to be creative and do unorthodox builds to try to catch people off gaurd. I can play more standard, but I like to play my own game. I also like to do a lot of different styles, and play with different races so people cannot gauge what is going to come next.
The thing that helps me the most is the koreans from [Name] on Fish, they are very friendly and give me they're points of view on the game, and they are extremely good practice, I normally always lose but regardless, I learn the most from playing with the really good korean players on Fish server, but I like to hang on iCCup since I can't speak korean at all really, only a few a few statements or questions :-P
Savi: Alright so you know a lot of people look at you as the villan character in the broodwar scene. Could you tell us about that? How did you earn this infamous title?
Telecom: Umm...Well I guess back in clan X17 on USeast is where it started. I was young and had an even more inflated ego than I do now. Most of the time it was just me joking with myself and just saying stupid stuff for fun, the typical X17 stuff that i'm sure anyone could remember if they ever visited lol.
After a year or two, I don't remember how long exactly but I stopped playing on USeast and went to USWest because of the desire to be on a really good korean clan and to play with korean pro gamers, since my dream was to become a pro. I figured that would be the best way to start.
I guess I am a very opinionated person, I don't really mind saying what I think to someone and I think that most foreign ' players have a flawed sense of what good manner is, and that is probably the main reason I will go and badmanner them because of my beliefs. It is really backwards I know and I try to work on not doing it anymore. I have a bad temper.
I guess I earned this "Infamous" title because of the way I acted over the years and the outlandish things I said I assume, but all in all I am not trying to hurt anyone :p
Savi: You've also been part of many Korean clans of the past, why are you so intrested in gaming with the Koreans specifically? Is it their skill level or the enviornment?
Telecom: Yes I have been in many korean clans, the complete list would be when I first came to USWest I knew nothing about it and I joined this team posing as n.Die_, it was called ' a.Die_ ' (lol) , that died shortly after I joined. And then I joined [TOp] , that was a really fun clan and we actually formed a foreigner side to the team and it was really active and very fun while it lasted.
After [TOp], I joined Neo.G_ , then [aLive] , [Gamei] , [GsP] , EveR) , and finally [Name] clan, which
is where I have always wanted to be, grantid some of the clans I was in for years. Some of them very short, but I am happiest with [Name] clan. It is the best clan I have ever been in and they are extremely friendly and helping.
It started out as the skill level because of my aspirations to want to become pro back in
the day, but then it also became the enviromental aspects of the USwest server that used to be. There was a lot to do, and a lot of opportunity to play players that were a lot better than you and you knew it. A lot of pro / semi pro players, and a lot of practice partners from pro teams, it was really fun playing vs people of such high caliber. There are Clans, Teams, Fams, and other community programs that used to go on, on USWest that are all now bassically on Fish. The general skill level is so high though that, that is where you want to practice to improve the most drastically in a short period of time.
Savi: Regardless of anything of the past, you really seem to be trying your best to keep this game alive and keeping it fresh. So tell us what starcraft really means to you, why is it so special?
Telecom: StarCraft is the best game that was ever made and ever be made, it is an anomoly, it is a game where anything is possible and there is no such thing as impossible. Through the skills of the game, anything can be done with enough effort, practice, and precision.
StarCraft is a really important part of my life, I don't know what I would do without it to be honest. I think what makes StarCraft so special is that it is so difficult to play, sometimes people who are even C- through C+ take for grantid the skills they have, and think they are not good because they are only yellow rank, but the truth of the matter is that BW is a very difficult game for most people to play.
It takes years of practice for most people to become good, and it is very special when you can watch someone play on stream or in person, that is very talented. You can see through their play the years of experience, struggle, hardwork and perseverance through each click. You can see how hard BW pro gamers are trying, how much effort they are putting in, when you see them during live games.
It is an amazing feeling to watch and an amazing feeling to feel as well in a really tense game while you are playing, even if it is only D, D+ , or any level for that matter. That's the beauty of BW, even two D- players going at it, has the potential to be epic, because they are both putting forth so much effort!
Savi: You may not know it, but you do have some fan's who want to see you go pro someday or get featured, do you have any special words to say to them?
Telecom: I don't really think I have any fans, but for anyone who has ever supported me on my stream or in tournaments, through my gameplay, ect. Thank you and I really
appreciate it so much when I get support from people. It makes me really want to try a lot harder. I will do my best to come up with creative strategies to entertain and bring excitement to any "fan" or supporter I have, thanks
God bless!
Savi: What is the best way to get good at starcraft? Practice a whole ton on the ladder? Watch replays and VOD's?
Telecom: I feel very strongly that the best way to improve is just that, for example to watch a few VOD's of each matchup on a few maps you are going to play for that day,
then play 30-50 games a day, and that is the way you will see the most drastic improvements in you're play, at least that is what the Korean players would tell me.
Back when I was in [aLive] I had to play 30-50 games a day for about 5-6 months before they let me in lol, and in that 5-6 month period I improved
more than any time in my life I would have to say.
Savi: Thank you Telecom for this interview, did you want to say anything to the public before this interview ends?
Telecom: You're so very welcome, thank you for interviewing me, it really surprised me and made my night. What I want to say to the public is that I love TL, and the community here. I love being able to stream and I love being able to play in the tournaments, and I love helping people who want to learn in the bw foreign scene. I'd like to say that I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about me and i'm not as bad as they think. And also I want to say to people to check out my stream more frequently now because like I said before I will be commentating soon, and I think I can commentate / cast games pretty well(shameless plug) (www.twitch.tv/telecomgaming)
I have a very deep understanding of the game that far surpasses my skill, and I think it will make my stream a lot more interesting for the viewers, and also thanks again to all and any loyal viewers I have out there for my stream, and to people who have supported me, and thanks to YSL Staff / Nina, you are all the best. Thanks for interview and thanks to the BW foreign scene for being so awesome. :D
Goodnight ~ god bless
