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Banner thanks to Brad
After his success at IEM, I got a moment to sit down and talk with mouz.MorroW. Undoubtedly, he is one of the greatest Terran players around at the moment and is a member of the prestigious mousesports team. This isn't the first time I've had the privilege of collaborating with mouz.MorroW, he shared a number of his views on the direction of SC2 which we turned into "Filling the Void". Unlike many players, mouz.MorroW is not one to shy away from an issue, he gives some of the most direct answers of any gamer and I hope you can respect him for that.
TeamLiquid:
Hi MorroW, thanks for stopping by for an interview! Can you introduce yourself for anyone who doesn't know who you are.
mouz.MorroW
My name is Stefan Andersson. I'm 18 years old been playing sc1 and switched to sc2. I play Terran, and I like to build reapers. My goals and expectations have been very high in this game, right since the start of the Beta. If you want to know more go to Liquipedia on teamliquid.net search for "morrow".
TeamLiquid:
how did you find the tournament environment at IEM?
mouz.MorroW
Absolutely amazing, everyone was nice. Players were talking to each other a lot, watching each other practice. There were lots of fans were there who wanted autographs. Lots of admins who were interested in the game and doing their best to give the players best experience. So yea it was an absolutely amazing week there in Cologne.
TeamLiquid:
How did you feel about playing in group C compared to other groups?
mouz.MorroW:
My group was actually really easy compared to the other groups. Huk is an amazing player but it was his first lan. Tarson, I pretty much know his playstyle and know usually beat in TvT. And Artosis is too heavily crippled by the imbalance, so my group was not too difficult. Streloks group (Group D) was the hardest one in my opinion.
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TeamLiquid:
You tried more economical games against Tarson, and in the first few matches in your series against TLO. Any thoughts on why that just wasn't clicking at IEM?
mouz.MorroW:
They just play abusive and do these blind counters. I did my more economical style in all online tournaments and utterly destroyed everyone, it had to stop sometime. Obviously I'm not going to stop the build cause its really good. But it's just like most builds, it has it's hard counters. After I realized on this is not going to work, I switched to one base play. I wasn't too sad about playing one base because I know my TvT is more solid than others anyway, but so much practice goes down into my fast expand builds that I want to see if they work in tournaments. I did it twice vs Tarson just to make sure. Arguably really stupid of me to do that, but I was qualified anyway so I ir was worth it since I felt it gave me a lot of information about the matchup.
TeamLiquid:
Do you think that FE builds will become standard over time, or that these more aggressive builds will stay the norm?
mouz.MorroW:
I think these blind counters will exist just like in sc1; bbs in the middle countered a fast hatch by zerg but still fast hatch is the standard. You will always have this concept in RTS games. But in sc2 there is more room for these early aggressive plays compared to sc1 where there were many builds that were based on two base timings rather than one base. But yes I think its going to stay similar to how it is now, at least as far as the Terran matchup goes. Although, I'm fast expanding in most of my games with great success, even during the beta.
TeamLiquid:
I suppose that makes you a more well rounded player, since you're playing many more midgame situations than the one base play
mouz.MorroW
Yes I've definitely had tons and tons of more experience than most in the later stages of the game. Bio mech, bc, you name it. Many see me for this one base player now after IEM but most of my games are really just economical games.
TeamLiquid:
Do you think that your experience contributed much to defeating TLO in the quarter finals?
mouz.MorroW:
Well the key to beating TLO was pretty much same to most Terrans: dont die or lose tons of scvs early game, and I will win because of my better mechanics and greater experience.
TeamLiquid:
So essentially, the IdrA philosophy?
mouz.MorroW
Yes exactly: play safe even if they might be able to abuse it a little. But its no problem if your slightly behind in TvT. Not bashing on TLO though; its his worst mu and we all know he's hasn't been Terran forever, so he played really well given the circumstances.
TeamLiquid:
Arguably, the series against Dimaga was the closest of the whole tournament. Any particular game in that series that you remember the most?
mouz.MorroW:
Well I think Blistering Sands was probably the best game, but he got really lucky twice with his hatch - I should have won that. After that I went crippled into the midgame and still
its arguable that I could have won. After that game I felt I'm either better player or the matchup is imbalanced - or both. It gave me an extra boost to keep fighting. But I remember the last game, perfect example of the strength of the reaper on Metalopolis.
The delta game was just one sided because my banshees didn't really do damage. I didnt play so well that game, compared to the others. But yeah, that's what I remember the most from the Dimaga series. It was very close and it could have gone either way. He's an amazing player but I don't think we should blame imbalance for my win against him.
TeamLiquid:
What makes Dimaga such a dangerous player?
mouz.MorroW:
Well its mostly just his decisions of when to strike. Many zerg players attack into sieged tanks or into a bad tunnel of terrain. But Dimaga is one of the few Zergs who wait for the right moment to attack with right flank. The micro itself isn't that important in sc2, but the timing on the attack and the positioning before the battle is.
TeamLiquid:
You and Dimaga played quite a bit during the beta as well correct?
mouz.MorroW:
Yes we did. We played a lot of Desert Oasis together. Because of that, it kinda gives me a nightmare whenever I see his name just because of the past. Seriously I've lost some brutal games to him, with him utterly destroying me. Because of that, I felt so afraid of him in this tournament. He was the player I least wanted to go up against. According to the odds, I might have had better chance against him in IEM than Idra, but I honestly don't know if that was true.
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MorroW hard at work - picture credit: gosugamers.net
TeamLiquid:
So you practised after the semifinals against Dimaga for IdrA, is that when the 5rax reaper was perfected?
mouz.MorroW:
I had the solid ground for the play style, just like any other top Terran, but me and Dimaga sort of formed a pact without talking about it. It kind of became like that because he was up for 3rd place against a Terran, and me against a Zerg in finals. So he told me a bit more in detail and we discussed the build just so he could have the best possible practice to face Tarson while I simply got better preparation for IdrA. I also played with other zergs as well before the games, of course.
TeamLiquid:
There's been an incredible amount of whining about the build on TL, what are your thoughts on it?
mouz.MorroW:
It gives u map control, map presence, pressure, harass, game control, economy lead
and even a decent chance of winning most games solely based on reapers or 1base timings. Its the best tvz build I've seen and it works on most maps. I don't think the Zergs have reached their potential to stop it though, so it might not be AS bad as people think after seeing some beat downs with it. But at the end of the day even if Terran doesn’t win with it they usually end up ahead anyway.
I think its fair to say its imbalanced but I don't think its fair to blame a tournament loss on it because imbalance might only be revealed over thousands of games, not a bo5 finals. Both me and IdrA played nowhere near perfect - nobody can on a stage like that. But since IdrA goes high on money and energy on queen because of some pressure, I wouldn't say that because IdrA died to it, it its imba, because he didn't play any more impressive than any other Zergs. At the same time, my reaper micro was not any more impressive than lets say TLO or demuslims.
So just because you have 2 very skilled players with good reputation in a finals doesn't mean "if idra cant defend it then nobody can". A wise man once said, lans are more about who makes least mistakes rather than who plays better.
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TeamLiquid:
What was it like going up against IdrA?
mouz.MorroW:
I felt very confident after beating dimaga. The confidence I got from that made me sure of beating idra. And even if I couldn't beat him, it wouldn’t create a huge upset so I could play a more free game since I didn't have anything to lose. So my mind state was probably a lot more healthy than his, especially after dropping so many games to, from IdrA's perspective, lesser Terrans.
TeamLiquid:
Did you have anything special planned for game 5?
mouz.MorroW:
I didnt even expect a 4th game, to be honest with you. The Metalopolis game was a lot closer than it looked and i should have won that one. Metalopolis is an insanely good map for 5rax. But overall my gameplan for the series was to "abuse my race to the max", which people seem to perceive as a bad thing.
But my macro is not any lesser than IdrA's, so I wasn't afraid of a macro game vs him. I think I showed this well on Blistering Sands. But with that said, I would never just straight up fast expo with banshee or something because Zerg just gets roo far ahead if both players just expand. "Abusing" your race isn't a bad thing, it's a compliment! That's how anything works in life, you get given the materials and its up to you to use it to the best you can.
TeamLiquid:
Who was the toughest opponent for you at IEM?
mouz.MorroW:
For me, it would be Dimaga. In general though, I think people would fear IdrA or me.
TeamLiquid:
Any last comments on IEM?
mouz.MorroW:
Protoss players didn't get far because they played worse, they told me themselves. Dimaga and IdrA are better than most Terrans here. I won because I was the best player at the event, but at same time Terran is a bit too good. I put my heart and soul into practising and preparing well while the other players were out late at night. I'm sick of hearing Terran imbalance talk and I wish I would get more respect of a player. I hope Terran gets nerfed, so the better Terrans are more apparent and so more Protoss and Zerg get the wins they deserve.
TeamLiquid:
We know you've been involved in the mapping scene, do you have any plans to continue?
mouz.MorroW:
It was going great and I had a lot of fun, but I have too little time now since school started.
As stands at the moment, I wont put any more effort into it except maybe during school breaks.
TeamLiquid:
What about the use of custom maps in tournaments, how do you feel about that?
mouz.MorroW:
I think custom maps will definitely take over because of Blizzards lack of skill in map making. But I think the way they are designing sc2 will make maps less significant compared to lets say sc1. If you make a bad map in sc2 it can actually have good gameplay anyway, but in sc1 this was not the case.
TeamLiquid:
So you expect maps to play out more or less the same, in general?
mouz.MorroW:
It comes down to map sizes, they will probably get larger in the future. But I think maps like Steppes will fade out just because of the lack of builds and gameplay they offer.
TeamLiquid:
Do you think its too early to begin rotating maps in/out?
mouz.MorroW:
It would be really cool to bring in new maps to tournament, but at the same time I think they are needed in the ladder pool first. I think we should milk the maps in the current map pool so Blizzard can balance the game. If we change maps too quickly then its going to be hard to say if its because of maps or the matchup. The current maps have a good mixture of styles to properly assess balance, except the map pool maybe lacks a "python" map at the moment.
But on some maps, like Steppes of War, there are some really broken builds. In about a half year I'd probably feel unsatisfied to sit and play 2rax marauder reactor hellion against every Zerg because its unstoppable even if you scout it, well... almost unstoppable. Some maps just favor some stuff so heavily, mostly just because of the short distances.
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TeamLiquid:
Who do you feel are the best players per race, excluding yourself!
mouz.MorroW:
Well lets start off by excluding the entire asia server - I have no idea how good they are. So IdrA and Dimaga for zergs, HuK and White-ra for Protoss. Terran I don't know. I hope I don't sound too arrogant saying this, but it feels like they are all a step beneath me, although the Korean Terrans should be better than me. They probably are since I'm copying their reaper builds lol! But demuslim and lucifron were really good, but they went inactive and their skills deteriorated. Brat_ok and Strelok as well. The only one who I feel is consistently at the top is myself, at the moment.
So top players for the other races are a lot easier than for Terran, which is a lot less apparent. Wait for a Terran nerf, wait 1 month and then ask me again.
TeamLiquid:
Any balance tweaks you would make for the next patch?
mouz.MorroW:
Well the issues are mostly in TvZ early game. If I were balancing the game I would devote all my efforts into balancing that. I don't know how to fix this, I'm not from Blizzard - they will probably nerf reaper some what though. Its my job as a player to point out the issues, its Blizzard's job to fix it ^^.
TeamLiquid:
Good philosophy!
mouz.MorroW says:
If they add 1 damage or remove 1 damage to a unit, as a player I need 500 games before I can say something about that - unless its extreme or everyone agrees like when Roach was super imba. But right now we don’t have any obvious things like that, its mostly just the early game structure for TvZ that’s kinda broken. But the last thing I want is the zergs to be blaming the matchups when they lose. Even IdrA and Dimaga played less than optimal at the most important lan so far. I'm not perfect either, so IEM mostly came down to skill. But it does seem like lesser Terrans can win vs better Zergs since it’s hard to play safe with Zerg. But as Terran, I could make all my buildings at my choke and not even 15 banelings can kill me - Zerg don't have that kind of flexibility.
TeamLiquid:
You already said that Protoss underperformed at IEM, but overall Protoss seem to be really struggling - any thoughts behind this?
mouz.MorroW:
I don't know much about PvZ, it seems to come down to skill. PvT seems to be a
pretty unexplored matcuhp, because I find success in every build I play but I also find good things about every Protoss build that I see. If you watch the playstyle between tosses they play so differently, while for zergs they have more of "figured out" their matchups so I'd say Protoss needs more practice, and games, so the players so the can unite and say "this is how you play Protoss". Before Protoss figure that out I don't think they should touch the balance too much, we just don't know enough yet. But overall the Protoss are less skilled than the Terrans, that's the truth.
TeamLiquid:
Speaking of style, How important do you think style is to sc2?
mouz.MorroW:
Well in sc2, you will have to learn all playstyles to be a top level player. Right now you can have one style just because people are terrible at the game. Later on you will need different styles to counter different possible styles of your opponent. This is unlike sc1, everyone had pretty much about the same "style" or in wc3 where I heard everyone plays the same there as well. Sc2 feels more designed to be more accommodating for players to choose what they wanna build and so it comes down to execution and scouting rather than everyone being forced to play in a particular style.
Although, I'd definitely tell any gamer wanting to learn the game seriously right now to choose 1 style in every matchup and stick with it, if you do it practice hard enough, you're going to beat the people with many styles more often than not. Once you get to the higher levels, you can start worrying about playing many styles.
For example, take any progamer in sc1. They know all the stuff and choose different styles vs different players. It’s not like you see Flash camp every game since then he’s too prone to being abused by 12nex into 3base on 1gate, which, by the way, was the official "beat MorroW build" in the foreigner scene. However, by that time I learned that if I start to mix up my play then they will be forced to play more safe. That’s the key thing about styles, that's the exact reason you want to have more than 1 at the highest level.
TeamLiquid:
Any closing remarks/words to fans/antifans?
mouz.MorroW:
My best matchup is TvT, thats the truth. Too many of my TvT's go unnoticed so people can't see that I do have strong solid foundations. I win tournaments because I practice hard. Thanks alot for all the extreme support I've gotten lately and shame on all the diamond 50% win ratio Zergs who complain after each game they lose.
Thanks a lot to mousesports and its sponsors; razer, intel, giel, hoh and medion. Ill try to keep up the good results in the future, and with that im done, thanks ^^
TeamLiquid:
Thanks for taking the time to give this interview!
Feel like you are apart of the camp who have overlooked MorroW until right now? Well TeamLiquid has thought of people like you, and prepared a MorroW replay pack consisting of 77 games from all matchups (and there is a A LOT of TvT). These replays were collected from the various tournaments that MorroW has played in, so there are a lot of good games in there.
MorroW fighting! And shame on me ... because I did not ask him for an autograph at the TL Meetup 
Well, I hope there will be a chance in the future^^
