In a hurry to get out some content for DreamHack Eizo Open, I logged online to look for some relevant Swedish players to interview. Luckily enough, Marcus "ThorZaIN" Eklöf was online and agreeable. However, it was rather late at night, and the TSL3 champion may not have been feeling altogether there, leading to a slightly... odd interview.


TeamLiquid: Hi ThorZaIN, how have you been doin'?

ThorZaIN: Doin' good, homie.

How do you feel going into DreamHack Open? Confident? Games going well for you lately?

Yeah games have been going pretty well. I will do well if I can keep my nerves at bay.

Nerves are still a problem for you? You're a pretty experienced, well traveled international player.

I mostly win when I'm the underdog, because I'm not nervous then. The thing is that for a long time in my progaming career, I felt that nerves were helping me so I didn't fight them. But for a while now I've had bad results because of nerves.

So if you did manage to play up to your potential, how far do you see yourself going?

I do very very well in practice. Of course these players I'm practicing with aren't Koreans but they are top foreigners. In some tournaments I've been doing well. Mostly because I've been the underdog in most of the matches. However, some tournaments I've dropped out pretty early because of too much nerves/pressure. I think that those tournaments would have gone better.

So diplomatic! Anyway, Europe managed to dodge the Koreans last week because they all went to IPL4, but now they've come to invade Scandinavia yet again. How do you feel going up against this particular pool of players?

There's no one here that I feel that I can't win against. However there are a group of players that I rate higher than myself. I feel good about this tournament tho, so I think it's time to kick some ass.

At DreamHack Winter 2011, the Europeans were killed by just a small handful of Koreans. You think that's just the natural way of the SC2 world now, or do you think you guys should be doing better?

What do you mean, 'should be doing better?' We aren't doing better so we obviously shouldn't be doing better, if you mean skill-wise.

Well, do you think you guys are underperforming compared to how good you potentially are?

No, not for 1½ years.

So, if I asked you to make a safe prediction, you'd say, KR #1, #2 again?

Not necessarily. There aren't that many Koreans coming afaik, and players like NaNiWa, SaSe, me, ret, plus some other guys (these just were the first to come to me) can definitely beat those Koreans that are here, especially NaNiWa who's been doing very well in GSL lately.

Speaking of NaNiwa, you played him at a pretty important juncture in both your careers, the TSL3 finals. You ever get the feeling then that he'd make it this far?

NaNiwa has always been a very good player, and he was better than me even during the TSL. I didn't speculate about where he would be nowadays however.

How insane does one have to be to drop everything and go to Korea for pro-gaming? You should have a more accurate idea, having been in the SlayerS house for a short period.

How insane would I have to be? Ummmm, if the stars align, maybe it will happen, maybe not.

Is that why the Koreans are so good? We've only got like a few guys HuK, NaNiwa, and Jinro etc. that are that crazy, but the Koreans have 80+ guys who are like that.

Might be the case. Korean's are just an insane people, is that what you're saying?

The progamers, at least. Boxer's biography did happen to be called "crazy as me."

So we have like what, 15 foreigners doing that in Korea, out of seven billion people on earth. But Korea has like 100 pros doing that, from a population of like 50 million people.

Wow, we suck.

So, Koreans are 933 times more insane than the rest of the world, mathematically speaking. Is there a way to quantify insanity? What's 1 unit of insanity?

Maybe the solution is to drive all of the foreigners insane, so you're on the Koreans' level?

You can't just up the skill of all foreigners in some way, like surgically. We're not there yet with modern science.

What if we collect blood from NaNiwa and transfuse a little bit into all of the Swedish players' systems. Maybe it will infect you with the same insanity to go to Korea and be pro-gamers.

Wouldn't work, he uses his left hand on the mouse. I'd want to use both hands using the mouse. Are you suggesting that I play without keyboard?

If we add Sheth's blood, then you could play even without the keyboard on the table.

I don't think blood transfusions work that way... Jesus.

Maybe that's why Stephano wants to be a doctor? So he knows how they work?

Probably.

So, if we could totally switch gears, would you like to complain about TvP? I hear it's trendy to do that.

No. If you asked me 3 weeks ago, maybe. But now, no. I've been winning against most Protoss I play against.

Have you seen Parting play?

Yes.

He always barely loses the big fight, then the opponent runs into his templars and storms all over the map and loses eventually. My playstyle would actually be good against his. He's better than me so he would probably win in the end, but people seem to be too aggressive against him imo.

Two of the most successful TvPers in Polt and MKP really like to play that medivac heavy, super aggressive style, though. You think that's the best way? Or just the way that works for them?

You can be both defensive and aggressive in TvP, both work fine. I like the defensive kind of play, and I've been having a lot of TvP success with it. So even though the majority of the top Koreans use a very aggressive style, that doesn't mean that I'm playing TvP in a "wrong" way.

So, did you study anyone in particular for this tournament? Doesn't MMA owe you like, some guide to the Koreans you're facing after he stole all your builds?

Yes. He definitely does. We've agreed on him repaying me with some of his blood.

What if he sends you Ryung's blood instead. Would you know the difference?

I can feel the difference. If I feel like drawing funny MMA-pictures I've gotten Ryung's blood. If I feel like drawing Ryung-pictures, I've got MMA's blood.

So, here's a topic that might be painful: What do you think about TvT against Korean players?

Pretty well actually. I have some new things up my sleeves that I think might work very well.

I'm not gonna lie, the numbers at least, aren’t that pretty.

Numbers speak about the past, not the present.

Truth. By the way, Polt is tweeting about food being expensive in Sweden. Anything to tell him?

He should visit Norway.

Oh yeah, how was The Gathering?

Pretty good. I'm not happy with the outcome though, I really choked.

Because you were the favorite against Brat_OK?

Not really, not this time. I got overconfident and cocky, and 2 of the games I lost I should have actually won instead, IMO.

Also, Lucifron, what the f***? Was he always that good?

He has very good mechanics. So if he just happens to hit the right strats he can be very deadly. I don't think that he's the best when it comes to strats, just because he's been inactive for such long periods. But yeah if he would play fulltime he would be very scary.

I keep hearing concern about the scene growing stagnant outside of Korea. Same top guys all the time, for a too long a time. Lucifron's coming back into the scene, that could be cool. Feast seems to be pretty good as well. But you think that it's really a problem? Or just an exaggeration?

There are a couple of guys, Titan comes to mind. He's very very good, just waiting to make a big splash. In the tournament scene it might be true, but in the overall talent pool, I don't think so.

How about something completely irrelevant? Who has the best ferret?

Well, that's pretty obvious. Afaik there are 3 people with ferrets, in the esports industry. Me, Tyler, Artosis. And I would beat them in SC2, and in wrestling.

Do you think you could beat Artosis at casting? People liked you at HSC4.

He's American, being American makes casters 2x better, unfortunately.

Anyways im going to bed now!

I have no idea how I can turn this into a real interview.

Just ctrl + a, ctrl +c, and voila.