EPTThanks to rezoacken fo corrections.
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I'm not a native French speaker, just taking French in school so the translation won't be super good but I believe all the main points are there. If you noticed any mistakes, let me know and I'll edit my translation.
My name is Bertrand Grospellier, I'm 29 years old and I'm probably better known by my nickname, Elky. From 2001 to 2006, I had a career as a professional gamer of Starcraft in South Korea and I was the runner-up at WCG 2001. Since 2006, I've been signed with Poker Stars to represent them as a poker player. These days I play in a few tournaments all over the world and so far, I've made 6 million dollars of winnings.
I find Starcraft 2 to be very well made and I really like the interface in particular. It allows the gamers to concentrate better and those with lower APM to be more competitive. There is less of a need to be fast to issue a lot of commands. The design is intelligent and the units are full of varied possibilities. Viable strategies are also very diverse with hard counters available. (T/N Not sure about the last sentence.)
It quite a shame that Battle.net servers are not linked together. It's impossible to play against Koreans or Americans if you're in Europe. Personally, it's extremely annoying because I travel a lot, and if I log on using my European account while I'm in Korea, it lags a lot. I'm forced to use my buddy's account instead. It's a little frustrating but I really do like the game itself.
What I really like about the gameplay, just like the first masterpiece, is that the races are very different. There is one thing I really like about Starcraft, there is room for progress in every level of play. (T/N Not sure about this last sentence). It's full of elements where one can do better each time. The timing is also very important. All those things make the game very versatile/varied.
In addition, there are lots of units at your disposal that are all quite usable. Whereas in Starcraft 1, there were units that we very rarely see. There is a now an enormous number of different possiblities and this is important in a strategy game. The races are quite well balanced but I believe Terrans are are little strong for now. Well, it's my best race and so I don't really know.
I'm very happy that video games are becoming more and more recognized because it's true when I was a pro-gamer about 10 years ago, it was difficult to be recognized in France or Europe. At that time, I moved to Korea, something I do not regret at all, I'm so glad I did it, it's an awesome experience but I have to say I was very impatient for it to be more accessible back home. I've plenty of friends who is back playing the game who told me it's getting better in Europe and now with the release of Starcraft 2, that's very important for pro-gaming. With a bit of luck, I hope to be able to play in a some tournaments since I'm really busy with my work.
Some advice for gamers? To learn you need to keep trying to get better : while playing with different strategies. There are so many possibilities, that's one of the beauty of the game. But I do see a lot of players practice the same strategy all the time in the same way and even if it works well for you, it's important to vary your technique to see what works best. And enjoy yourself, that's the goal of the game!!
