Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - Page 119

content of the interview is taken from War3.kr, a Korean Warcraft Community website run by Trueshot. Reproduced and republished with permission from Trueshot. All rights reserved by the owner.

A1. Sok, “The Cancer King”

- When did you first began playing Warcraft III?
▲ I started playing team games, either 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3, alone around 2007 and I started watching Wolmae [Comment: a Korean UD streamer who is famous for his unorthodox stream and playstyle], joined Crew clan and officially started playing 1vs 1.

- What does “Sok” mean?
▲ When I first started playing Warcraft III, I lived in Sokcho. [Comment: a city in Korea] Now I live in Uijeongbu, Seoul.
At the time, I didn’t know how to create a cool sounding ID, so I just used “Sok” from Sokcho.

- We want to know why you chose Human as your main race.
▲ I first started playing 1 vs 1 as a NE. When I first started playing 1 vs 1, it was so freaking difficult.
So I had many concerns about changing the race, but I had a guy “upturn” in the same clan. He is more known as eMal.
I was so amazed at him playing Human, so that was when I started playing Human seriously.
Later, when I played in other foreign leagues, I participated using the “emalfan” ID.
(p.s., these days eMaL has a kid so he doesn’t have time to play games anymore.)

- Your way of speaking is very particular. Is this a dialect or something you just do?
▲ Both my parents are from Gyeongsang Province. Normally when I speak I can use the normal standard language fine but when I speak to my parents or stream Warcraft III, my awkward dialect comes out. LOL

- Is there a reason why you prefer a wine glass?
▲ I think it makes me a classy person.
(It was just sitting there at my house for couple of years, and I found it. I used it on stream to be more classy and up-scale. If sorceress was actually alive, she would have fell for it.)

- Does it taste better if you drink coke out of a wine glass?
▲ It’s pretty awesome.

- During your stream, why did you start doing handstands?
▲ Because it is my favorite move.

- When do you think you look the best?
▲ When I go to the bathroom and look into the mirror

- How long are you planning on dating “Sorceress” [Comment: whenever viewers ask about whether Sok is seeing someone he tells them his gf is sorceress]?
▲ Well.. I don’t know LOL maybe until I get a real girlfriend?^^ 2D is love.

- Is there a reason why you wear military-like clothing? And we want to know what role you had in military

▲ When I was discharged, I brought a digital camo T-shirt from military. I wash them and wear them often.
The quality is good so it’s really cool during the summer. I highly recommend them.
I was a driver during military years. I had the easiest time of my life^.^

- What other hobbies do you have besides gaming?
▲ Currently, my entire life is around gaming so my hobbies are gaming.
Last year, I used to run around the sports area near my home and ran 3km per day. But this year, I am lazy so I don’t do it anymore.
Instead, I just do simple handstand exercises.

- Many people say you’ve improved tremendously this year, what do you think has improved?
▲ I do think I’ve improved tremendously compared to before I joined the military. My macro skills have improved greatly.
My micro still sucks tho.

- Compared to other players, you seem to number your buildings separately, how do you assign numbers to your units and buildings?
▲ As far as I am concerned, other players tend to group all buildings into one number but I do them all separately.
For example, when I play against Orc or NE, I assign 5 to Barracks and if I build Sanctum, it goes 5 and 6 Sanctum and 7 to Workshop.
Against UD, I assign 5 for Barracks and Sanctum and 6 to Workshop.
And when I have to use Barracks, Sanctum and Gryphon Aviary I change around every time so I sometimes get confused LOL
It’s difficult to change habits
I’d love to assign everything into one place, but it doesn’t quite feel right so I just do it as I used it.

- Is there a reason why you often went tower rush with Fire Lord against Orc?
▲ There was a time when I played versus Orc a lot.
I was bit bored and I’ve used Fire lord tower rush to end the game fast.
And when we all played Battle.net, I’ve used Fire lord tower rush to level up quicker but I lost more games than won LOL.

- Why do you prefer Spellbreakers and Mountain king as a second hero? What are the benefits?
▲ I think this is the most common hero against Orc.
I think it’s because it provides strong and quick firepower and because it is immune to magic.
Mountain king thunder bolt and feedback damage from Spell breaker allows you to insta kill heroes like coil and nova for UD or Hex windwalk and crits for Orc.

- On the finals of PGL2016 Summer, Moon vs TH000 match, TH000 used magical+ mortar + Tinker as a second hero, what do you think about the combo?
▲ I’ve used it couple of times on ladder but there are pros and cons.
The pros include fighting big battles with 80 food if everything went according to plan.
Because bears attacking goblins from pocket factory made Spellbreakers safer and it was easier to have units form a battle position.
On the flipside if you get Tinker and are left without towers, dryad rush can just eat your base alive.

- What are the pros and cons of Human race?
▲ Pros: Tower, Farm hack (building farms at locations for vision), Easier to macro, TANKS, and three heroes (Archmage, MK, Paladin)
Cons: lot of matches end while you try to expo

- What are the things you must focus when you play Human?
▲ Let’s say when you play after getting expo, you have to multitask while you use your units to engage and build towers at the same time.
I have difficulties doing this as well. My Archmage dies too frequently, while I control the main units.
Romantic used to this all the time and I felt brotherly love when he did this LOL.

- You use quite a different combination of heroes, is there a pointer as to how not to mess up?
▲ I think you have to play more games.
I used to mess up a lot when I did MK as first hero and AM as second.
I still mess up MK first and BeM and Paladin but it’s better if I do it more.
You’d have to play a lot
I think same applies to other players.

- Who do you think is the best HU player? What is his strength?
▲ I have difficulties choosing between Infi and Th000 and before I thought they played more or less the same but their play style changed entirely.
It’s amazing to see these two players win against top players with such a different playing style.
But if I must choose one, I will choose Infi.
The reason is because Th000 has this unique style which makes it difficult for other HUs to follow but Infi wins with a “wannabe” style which all Humans want to follow. I think Infi is more of a role model for other players.

- Who do you think is the best players for China and Korea?
▲ Korea : Reprisal (H), Lyn (O), Lawliet (NE), Lucifer (U)
China: Infi (H), Fly100% (O), Life (NE), 120 (U)

- Who’s your most difficult matchup against and why?
▲ Many players are hard to win against but I have most difficulties with Lawliet from Korea and Life from China.
This doesn’t mean other players are easy to play against.
The reason is because they know I don’t know much about NE so they use many different strategies and I lose too easy or often get out-microed.

- Who is the most memorable Chinese Warcraft III player?
▲ I am not really good friends with many players but I remember Romantic the most.
When I first arrived in China and went to the hotel, the first Chinese player I saw was Romantic and he said hi to me first.
Hi eMalfan, I am Romantic, Nice to meet you.

- What was your memorable loss?
▲ Hmm… I had so many disappointing loses so I don’t remember too much but I had a time when I went to quarterfinals for Zotac cup 5 times in a row but lost to Xixi all 5 times.
One of the game I had was in Echo Isle. I had level 6 for a second Alchemist and I thought I won but I lost even with many transmutes. I felt unfair/mad. With such anger, I became strong and joined the military.

- What was your most memorable match?
▲ I don’t remember top of my head the exact date, but it was a Zotac cup match versus OrcWorker before I went to military
This is the first game you see when you search 'emalfan' on YouTube and I re-watched this match in the military when I was bored LOL

- What was your most memorable “close win”?
▲ Other than the match against OrcWorker, in a HiNice cup in 2012 against Buzz.Lich in Amazonia, I lost all my heroes but won with mass tanks.
Buzz.Lich didn’t have main base and used his units and workers to create “a ring of peace” in his expo, I remember not having any heroes.
So I couldn’t kill the expo goldmine with tanks but I had one zeppelin and used it to destroy the “ring of peace” and finally was able to win.

- What is your easiest and most difficult matchup?
▲ I think it’s bit difficult to say.
If I play against people who is not as good, any match-up is fine, but if I play against someone on a same level or higher, every match up is difficult.
But if I speak in terms of win rate, my easiest matchup is versus Orc and most difficult matchup is against Lawliet.

- You show strength versus Orc match-up. Do you have a “know-how”?
▲ I have to say, the pattern and the build is easier compared to other matchups.
HU can use various movements and strategies against Orc but Orc is very restricted/limited versus HU so I think that is why.

- What is your most difficult match up and why?
▲ NE
Because I don’t know NE too well so I can’t predict their psychology, but as I said before, NE has many strats available but HU has limited strats.
I have difficulties playing UD but that’s because I have poor micro LOL

- What standard do you use in deciding whether a map is favorable or not?
▲ Because I am a HU user, my priorities are the proximity of an expo and the difficulties of creeping.
Also another concern is on how close the distance between the opponent’s main and my expo.

- What do you think are good maps for HU and bad maps for HU?
▲ IMO, I prefer Secret Valley, Amazonia, and Terenas Stand.
I want to avoid AI, AI, AI. (*Ancient Isle)

- What distinguishes a noob/mediocre/amateur/ and pro? We want to know how you were able to step up.
▲ I think experience. And a bit of talent?
When I watch Infi, Th000 or Yumiko play, I think “I have a long way to go”… LOL Can someone tell me what the difference is?

- How long do you practice per day?
▲ I am a bit lazy so I don’t have a specific time frame
I normally stream while I play so it’s 3-9 hours? It’s pretty flexible

- How much do you make while playing Warcraft III per month? [Comment: this question was asked before Sok landed a contract with Twitch]
▲ It varies per month.
When I played lot of ads, I won couple of cups so I made around $500 but these days I don’t play ads and didn’t win much so…

- Till when do you plan to play Warcraft III?
▲ Well.. 'It’s kinda like how long do you plan to go out with Sorceress ' Hmm…
I could still play even when I start a relationship with someone

I am not an organized person so I don’t have a specific date.

- What’s your goal as a Warcraft III player?
▲ Of course, my goal is to win a big tournament . But I feel limitation.
But my goal is to win a big tournament and this goal won’t change as long as I play Warcraft III.

- You could say you have relatively a lot of viewers, do you have any concerns when you stream?

▲ If I overlap with other Warcraft III players, the viewers are less but otherwise, it is a lot.
I think other players feel the same LOL
I am not computer savvy so I don’t decorate screen or such. I think that is why Lawliet is amazing… the effort he puts.

- Do you have anything you’d like to say to your fans?
▲ I used to be the youngest and used to be the “CUTE ONE” but now the youngest Chemiko came along so I will try my best not to lose my position as a “CUTE ONE”
I will stream consistently and will improve my skills and will try my best to come up with more awesome matches.