EPT
Carmac on the ESL/DH/MLG partnership, SC2's future in tournaments and fostering talent.
+ Show Spoiler [Transcript] +
Hey guys! The following is a transcript from this interview with Carmac. The bolded text are his responses while the italicized text are mine. Sorry if there are any errors or redundancies - I took some liberties while transcribing and removed a lot of pauses or "uhms, y'know" and other things, hopefully I didn't take away anything from the actual answer. Enjoy!
This is Joe Wong, and I'm here with Carmac, how are you doing Carmac?
I'm good, I haven't had anything to eat for the last 8 hours or so, but I'm high on adrenaline, everything's good, people are enjoying themselves and we just had an epic FFA that was really, really fun. The whole event is a really, really entertaining thing.
Let's get right into it, IEM Singapore, a replacement for IEM Guangzhou--
No, it was not a replacement, we wanted to go to Singapore all along.
OK, so the next stop in the IEM circuit then. You had no Terrans going into the group stages, and unfortunately a few people had dropped out, but there was four Terrans in the open bracket, and there wasn't much hype going into this tournament. Y'know there was Dreamhack going on, of course at a different time, but now we see - grand finals, a huge crowd here and a huge surge of popularity from social media, how do you think the event went?
As you said, there was not much hype, partly because this isn't really and never was intended as an epic, epic mind blowing experience, because this is not what we do when we go into new territory. This was more of a 'Let's bring eSports to Singapore' type event, to have fun, enjoy ourselves - I mean you saw the FFA probably... That's the idea, to have a family spirit and allow maybe a couple of Singapore players to compete against someone like MC, someone like Grubby and maybe get noticed and get a chance, get sponsored, go somewhere. From that perspective, it's been amazing.
There's a lot of people from Singapore that came to me and said, "Hey thank you for bringing this to Singapore, we really appreciate it", whereas, y'know, if you do another event somewhere in Europe where there are already, several events, they will be like, "Yeah great, maybe I will go to the next one because I have a birthday party to go to", or something like that. So, there is certainly a really, really big degree of appreciation here and from that perspective and the enjoyment that the players have had here, that the fans have had, it's really, really been a phenomenal event.
Yeah, I have to echo your point about the Singapore players and how you foster local talent. I know, I was talking to Blysk, and of course Itadakimasu - when they, y'know, when they made it through the groups stages into the semifinals and there was that huge cheer that everyone got and they realized that there would be a Singaporean representative in the next day was amazing. You made a post about, mid-tier kind of players, and how teams should help foster that talent because it's very important to the scene, is this your way, as a tournament organizer, to try and do that?
Well for us, look, if I wanted to have the most epic event in history, the top ten players in the world or the top most famous players in the world: Nestea, Mvp, Stephano, WhiteRa - all these guys that win events all the time. But, then it would be - we would have great stream numbers, and y'know, great commentators like Artosis, I would do that and make an event like that, but that's pretty much feeding those who are already rich, and making the rich richer, and everyone else that's outside the limelight, it makes it that much harder to break through. And when somebody like Stephano decides, "Hmm, gaming is not for me, I'm going to go to school", for example, there's nobody to replace him, the guys below are so much worse because they don't get these chances.
So for us, it is really critical, really important for us to give chances to as many players as possible, so that they can grow and become pro gamers as well, and replace these stars. For example, we have all been repeating, "Feast, Feast, Feast". He did so marvelously, at Intel Extreme Masters and we can say it's the Intel Extreme Masters that gave him that limelight. He has enough talent to probably go to the top sooner or later, so I can't take all the credit, that we gave him a chance. But, we made it happen that he came out there sooner, rather than later. Same with M5, Moscow 5 in League of Legends, dominating team - probably top 3, top 2 team in the world. But, if it wasn't for our open qualifier system, they wouldn't have gotten to Kiev, in 2012, wouldn't have played in the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship, and they wouldn't have been so famous. Maybe it would have taken them another 6-12 months to become so good, and y'know in gaming, it's a really long time to sustain yourself as a gamer, if you're not sponsored, if you have a dream and y'know you're trying to get out there and you have to wait so long to go somewhere.
So it's really, really critical for us that we both have pro gamers and the open bracket is for pro gamers, like if somebody like Sting, who's in the final now, has a sponsorship and can go to Singapore and - he's in the final now, so the open bracket is for people like that. Same with Mvp, in Cologne. He came through the open bracket, and took the tournament, in Cologne. That's for pro gamers, but we need to foster the talent and allow the players who are local, to have a chance and become a pro gamer.
Now, let's talk about Asia and Singapore a bit. Going into this tournament, people were saying, "The tournaments are at a bad time, I'm in America" and a lot of people were saying that stream numbers are going to be low, is this going to be hampering further IEMs or other events in Asia or maybe Australia?
No. Simple answer: no. To ask streaming numbers, if we wanted to do good streaming numbers, we wouldn't go to Singapore, because we would then do another German event. Germany is always record breaking for us, or another event somewhere in Europe where we are really strong. This was never a consideration - we are not stupid, we know that if we go to South East Asia, for example, it's weird hours for Europe, North America, South America. But at the same time, what is Australia supposed to say, what's South East Asia supposed to say, aren't the European or North American hours strange to them? Communities are global, that want to enjoy eSports and we are, we are global. We are trying to run a global league with a global appeal and make sure that all communities benefit as much as possible.
Let's talk about, you were talking about the global community - the news broke recently that ESL, MLG and Dreamhack and all banding together to form this unifying tournament structure. One calendar, with all the dates laid out and map pool - the first real public step in unifying eSports globally. I was watching an interview with Richard Lewis and Semmler, and they were saying how there weren't too many details yet, and they were wondering if whether or not this was - I mean, it's a public step, but is this real or is this a maneuver? Of course there were a few talk shows where the players, of course the community reacted very positively, but the players were a bit apathetic. Can you give us any details in what exactly will change in 2013?
First of all, you mentioned three companies: Dreamhack, ESL and MLG. But there is, from the outset, there was the intention to have everyone included. We've always had this intention, so whoever is watching the interview, shouldn't be worried. This isn't going to be an elite club, only for the cool kids, and for the cool kids only, so that's one thing. Another thing is, the statement was relatively vague, but what we need to do in general - I mean if you look, if you're a random starcraft fan and you want to check who the best player in the world is, there's no way to do that, right?
GSL has several championships during the year, and then there are several MLGs, there are 6 Intel Extreme Masters tournaments, several IPL tournaments, several NASL seasons, Dreamhack has many of these - and you can tell who is the best in the Intel Extreme Masters ' ranking, and you can tell who is the best player in MLG's ranking, but you can't really tell who is the best player overall, in any way. When you look at it from the broader perspective, it's confusing. MLG has a system that has: open bracket, pool play, double elimination and this, this -
Extended Series.
Extended series, yes and they changed it but until recently, MLG had a different system from Intel Extreme Masters. Dreamhack had a different system, now Dreamhack actually is running the same system as we do, it's a really good system and other tournaments have, the systems are all over the place - you don't know what to expect, you don't know how to read a schedule of all these tournaments. You can't follow all of them very easily, and that's a problem, because not everyone is as hardcore as the guys that read reddit all day and teamliquid all day. Some people are, 'medium-engaged', and it's difficult for them to get the big picture, so what needs to be done - and it's not just our idea, Tennis had it figured out years ago with the ATP, but there needs to be a ranking where people can go and check out, "Oh, this is the top 10 players in the world right now, and next week, after the next Intel Extreme Masters event, Grubby might be in the top 10 - if he wins the event. But MC, if he gets top 3, he will retain number 1.
This is a very important thing to tell to the audience and to the mainstream media. So that's very important. Also, making sure the structure of every tournament is similar, is also very important, because I mean: Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open and the French Open, they've got the same tournament structure and it's really, really easy to follow. The guys that not necessarily follow Asus ROG, because they might not have heard of it or it isn't in their timezone or whatever it is. They find out, "OK, MC, Stephano and Grubby are going to this tournament." The rest of the players, might be some unknown Europeans, unknown to the American viewer for example, and so they might go, "Hmm, why would I watch it?" So there's this global ranking and, "Oh! If Grubby wins the tournament, he becomes no. 1. But if MC gets top 3, he retains no.1." Stephano could break into the top 5 if he got X many points. So that becomes a good reason to watch that event, an additional story, next to the individual story of each tournament. Which is going to benefit everyone. It's going to benefit us, it's going to benefit MLG, IPL, everyone. Because it gives an additional story to follow, even if you originally weren't a fan of one of these tournaments.
You were tweeting about, single elimination brackets and how much you were a fan of them, and how that Vortix/Lucifron rivalry. How that wouldn't be as exciting, in the BWC, if it was double elimination. Of course it wouldn't have been because the loser would simply get knocked down to the loser's bracket rather than being eliminated from the tournament. I think the question on everyone's minds is: Is extended series coming to Dreamhack and IEM or are you guys going to try and tweak MLG a bit to the way that you prefer?
I would rather not speak about what MLG would do or would not rather do. We'll sit down, we'll have a skype call or have a regular conversation at a table and we'll figure out what's best. All of us. What makes sense, we will figure it out, it's supposed to be a partnership. It will certainly be a friendly conversation, we'll put arguments on the table, everyone. If there are any differences in opinion, which there might not be at all. We just haven't had that conversation yet, because we've announced it and I've flown to Singapore. So I don't want to talk about that because it's up to the MLG, actually.
OK, so like you said it won't be an elite club, but the initial reactions were, "Oh, IPL and NASL aren't in there" and in particular, David Ting, has been quite vocal about how, especially in the NA region, it isn't about fostering eSports and having a friendly 'buddy-buddy' thing, he recently tweeted that they're creating these special desks, for IPL5 and that they will be rather exclusive to IPL. What are your thoughts on this rather 'aggressive' move by David?
I really don't have any comments. I haven't read anything, as far as I know - and this is just from my experience, we talk to David fairly regularly, my boss, my CEO sent and e-mail giving a polite heads up saying this news is coming up, we would like to include you and as far as I know the response wasn't angry or anything. We do have every intention to actually include, everyone that wants to be a part of it, it's just that if you want to start something, if you have too many people at the table, it is hard to reach a consensus. So from that point of view, it's better to start out smaller, and figure out what could be a good direction and if anyone would start causing problems in the beginning, and I'm not implying anybody would, but if someone has a difference in opinion, they have the opportunity to say "We're not going to like it, or we like it." I believe in starting out like this and then expanding. [He performed a gesture whereby he balled his hands up and expanded it] Setting a direction and if somebody doesn't like it, they can easily choose not to be involved, and that's pretty much all I have to say about it.
Let's get back to IEM and the roster of games. Of course we had that slight Starcraft 2 drama where everyone was freaking out where people were saying LoL was taking over the world. Now, it's sort of died down and we have the Heart of the Swarm release date, lots of great tournaments. Is Starcraft 2 going to be a mainstay in the Intel Extreme Masters circuit?
By all means, by all means. People call me a League of Legends fanboy, or whatever. Starcraft 2 is my favorite game to watch, League of Legends is my favorite game to play. Both games, have a place in the Intel Extreme Masters. Both games. We have a dedicated stream for Starcraft, with Artosis, Kaelaris and Jorosar and these specialists. We put the best possible production behind it, we've got the best production value we can afford in League of Legends, we had two stages at Gamescom, so by all means - First of all, I find the conversation ridiculous. I don't find that Starcraft 2 fans are really, really being short changed, because there is League of Legends present. if they hate League of Legends or any game for that matter, they can ignore it. What's the problem? I don't like baseball, I don't watch it. It doesn't interest me, I don't have to go out there and crusade against baseball.
But that's it, pretty much. Starcraft 2 is a fantastic game and we all love Starcraft. We seriously all love Starcraft, and it, to be honest, quite painful because I want to go watch Grubby and I'm giving you this interview. But yeah, Starcraft is here to stay, and it's going nowhere. We are actually improving Starcraft as much as we can. Back there we've got Artosis, last event we had Artosis, Tasteless and Day[9]. We're bringing in whoever is best for our audience, whoever the audience wants to see. So it's actually a signal that we're serious about Starcraft, rather than that we're ditching it.
We better wrap things up before the finals are over, moving forward, where is IEM headed next? I think I heard Poland is the next stop, there's a few more stops before the big finish, do you have any hints or secrets that you want to share?
So, we are going to go to Germany, with League of Legends with a studio event. Then we are going to Poland, to Katowice for both Starcraft 2 and League of Legends. Right after Poland, we will go to an event, not in Asia, not in Europe. We will announce it shortly after Singapore.
OK, very interesting! Do you have any last words, your Twitter or Facebook?
I'm not going to advertise, I'd just like to thank everyone from Singapore that came to the event, and several people from the area that flew in. It's really fantastic that there are people who come and enjoy it, I hope it's been a fantastic experience for them. Just keep on enjoying eSports, that's all I can say.
Well, great, this has been Joe Wong, signing off.
This is Joe Wong, and I'm here with Carmac, how are you doing Carmac?
I'm good, I haven't had anything to eat for the last 8 hours or so, but I'm high on adrenaline, everything's good, people are enjoying themselves and we just had an epic FFA that was really, really fun. The whole event is a really, really entertaining thing.
Let's get right into it, IEM Singapore, a replacement for IEM Guangzhou--
No, it was not a replacement, we wanted to go to Singapore all along.
OK, so the next stop in the IEM circuit then. You had no Terrans going into the group stages, and unfortunately a few people had dropped out, but there was four Terrans in the open bracket, and there wasn't much hype going into this tournament. Y'know there was Dreamhack going on, of course at a different time, but now we see - grand finals, a huge crowd here and a huge surge of popularity from social media, how do you think the event went?
As you said, there was not much hype, partly because this isn't really and never was intended as an epic, epic mind blowing experience, because this is not what we do when we go into new territory. This was more of a 'Let's bring eSports to Singapore' type event, to have fun, enjoy ourselves - I mean you saw the FFA probably... That's the idea, to have a family spirit and allow maybe a couple of Singapore players to compete against someone like MC, someone like Grubby and maybe get noticed and get a chance, get sponsored, go somewhere. From that perspective, it's been amazing.
There's a lot of people from Singapore that came to me and said, "Hey thank you for bringing this to Singapore, we really appreciate it", whereas, y'know, if you do another event somewhere in Europe where there are already, several events, they will be like, "Yeah great, maybe I will go to the next one because I have a birthday party to go to", or something like that. So, there is certainly a really, really big degree of appreciation here and from that perspective and the enjoyment that the players have had here, that the fans have had, it's really, really been a phenomenal event.
Yeah, I have to echo your point about the Singapore players and how you foster local talent. I know, I was talking to Blysk, and of course Itadakimasu - when they, y'know, when they made it through the groups stages into the semifinals and there was that huge cheer that everyone got and they realized that there would be a Singaporean representative in the next day was amazing. You made a post about, mid-tier kind of players, and how teams should help foster that talent because it's very important to the scene, is this your way, as a tournament organizer, to try and do that?
Well for us, look, if I wanted to have the most epic event in history, the top ten players in the world or the top most famous players in the world: Nestea, Mvp, Stephano, WhiteRa - all these guys that win events all the time. But, then it would be - we would have great stream numbers, and y'know, great commentators like Artosis, I would do that and make an event like that, but that's pretty much feeding those who are already rich, and making the rich richer, and everyone else that's outside the limelight, it makes it that much harder to break through. And when somebody like Stephano decides, "Hmm, gaming is not for me, I'm going to go to school", for example, there's nobody to replace him, the guys below are so much worse because they don't get these chances.
So for us, it is really critical, really important for us to give chances to as many players as possible, so that they can grow and become pro gamers as well, and replace these stars. For example, we have all been repeating, "Feast, Feast, Feast". He did so marvelously, at Intel Extreme Masters and we can say it's the Intel Extreme Masters that gave him that limelight. He has enough talent to probably go to the top sooner or later, so I can't take all the credit, that we gave him a chance. But, we made it happen that he came out there sooner, rather than later. Same with M5, Moscow 5 in League of Legends, dominating team - probably top 3, top 2 team in the world. But, if it wasn't for our open qualifier system, they wouldn't have gotten to Kiev, in 2012, wouldn't have played in the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship, and they wouldn't have been so famous. Maybe it would have taken them another 6-12 months to become so good, and y'know in gaming, it's a really long time to sustain yourself as a gamer, if you're not sponsored, if you have a dream and y'know you're trying to get out there and you have to wait so long to go somewhere.
So it's really, really critical for us that we both have pro gamers and the open bracket is for pro gamers, like if somebody like Sting, who's in the final now, has a sponsorship and can go to Singapore and - he's in the final now, so the open bracket is for people like that. Same with Mvp, in Cologne. He came through the open bracket, and took the tournament, in Cologne. That's for pro gamers, but we need to foster the talent and allow the players who are local, to have a chance and become a pro gamer.
Now, let's talk about Asia and Singapore a bit. Going into this tournament, people were saying, "The tournaments are at a bad time, I'm in America" and a lot of people were saying that stream numbers are going to be low, is this going to be hampering further IEMs or other events in Asia or maybe Australia?
No. Simple answer: no. To ask streaming numbers, if we wanted to do good streaming numbers, we wouldn't go to Singapore, because we would then do another German event. Germany is always record breaking for us, or another event somewhere in Europe where we are really strong. This was never a consideration - we are not stupid, we know that if we go to South East Asia, for example, it's weird hours for Europe, North America, South America. But at the same time, what is Australia supposed to say, what's South East Asia supposed to say, aren't the European or North American hours strange to them? Communities are global, that want to enjoy eSports and we are, we are global. We are trying to run a global league with a global appeal and make sure that all communities benefit as much as possible.
Let's talk about, you were talking about the global community - the news broke recently that ESL, MLG and Dreamhack and all banding together to form this unifying tournament structure. One calendar, with all the dates laid out and map pool - the first real public step in unifying eSports globally. I was watching an interview with Richard Lewis and Semmler, and they were saying how there weren't too many details yet, and they were wondering if whether or not this was - I mean, it's a public step, but is this real or is this a maneuver? Of course there were a few talk shows where the players, of course the community reacted very positively, but the players were a bit apathetic. Can you give us any details in what exactly will change in 2013?
First of all, you mentioned three companies: Dreamhack, ESL and MLG. But there is, from the outset, there was the intention to have everyone included. We've always had this intention, so whoever is watching the interview, shouldn't be worried. This isn't going to be an elite club, only for the cool kids, and for the cool kids only, so that's one thing. Another thing is, the statement was relatively vague, but what we need to do in general - I mean if you look, if you're a random starcraft fan and you want to check who the best player in the world is, there's no way to do that, right?
GSL has several championships during the year, and then there are several MLGs, there are 6 Intel Extreme Masters tournaments, several IPL tournaments, several NASL seasons, Dreamhack has many of these - and you can tell who is the best in the Intel Extreme Masters ' ranking, and you can tell who is the best player in MLG's ranking, but you can't really tell who is the best player overall, in any way. When you look at it from the broader perspective, it's confusing. MLG has a system that has: open bracket, pool play, double elimination and this, this -
Extended Series.
Extended series, yes and they changed it but until recently, MLG had a different system from Intel Extreme Masters. Dreamhack had a different system, now Dreamhack actually is running the same system as we do, it's a really good system and other tournaments have, the systems are all over the place - you don't know what to expect, you don't know how to read a schedule of all these tournaments. You can't follow all of them very easily, and that's a problem, because not everyone is as hardcore as the guys that read reddit all day and teamliquid all day. Some people are, 'medium-engaged', and it's difficult for them to get the big picture, so what needs to be done - and it's not just our idea, Tennis had it figured out years ago with the ATP, but there needs to be a ranking where people can go and check out, "Oh, this is the top 10 players in the world right now, and next week, after the next Intel Extreme Masters event, Grubby might be in the top 10 - if he wins the event. But MC, if he gets top 3, he will retain number 1.
This is a very important thing to tell to the audience and to the mainstream media. So that's very important. Also, making sure the structure of every tournament is similar, is also very important, because I mean: Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open and the French Open, they've got the same tournament structure and it's really, really easy to follow. The guys that not necessarily follow Asus ROG, because they might not have heard of it or it isn't in their timezone or whatever it is. They find out, "OK, MC, Stephano and Grubby are going to this tournament." The rest of the players, might be some unknown Europeans, unknown to the American viewer for example, and so they might go, "Hmm, why would I watch it?" So there's this global ranking and, "Oh! If Grubby wins the tournament, he becomes no. 1. But if MC gets top 3, he retains no.1." Stephano could break into the top 5 if he got X many points. So that becomes a good reason to watch that event, an additional story, next to the individual story of each tournament. Which is going to benefit everyone. It's going to benefit us, it's going to benefit MLG, IPL, everyone. Because it gives an additional story to follow, even if you originally weren't a fan of one of these tournaments.
You were tweeting about, single elimination brackets and how much you were a fan of them, and how that Vortix/Lucifron rivalry. How that wouldn't be as exciting, in the BWC, if it was double elimination. Of course it wouldn't have been because the loser would simply get knocked down to the loser's bracket rather than being eliminated from the tournament. I think the question on everyone's minds is: Is extended series coming to Dreamhack and IEM or are you guys going to try and tweak MLG a bit to the way that you prefer?
I would rather not speak about what MLG would do or would not rather do. We'll sit down, we'll have a skype call or have a regular conversation at a table and we'll figure out what's best. All of us. What makes sense, we will figure it out, it's supposed to be a partnership. It will certainly be a friendly conversation, we'll put arguments on the table, everyone. If there are any differences in opinion, which there might not be at all. We just haven't had that conversation yet, because we've announced it and I've flown to Singapore. So I don't want to talk about that because it's up to the MLG, actually.
OK, so like you said it won't be an elite club, but the initial reactions were, "Oh, IPL and NASL aren't in there" and in particular, David Ting, has been quite vocal about how, especially in the NA region, it isn't about fostering eSports and having a friendly 'buddy-buddy' thing, he recently tweeted that they're creating these special desks, for IPL5 and that they will be rather exclusive to IPL. What are your thoughts on this rather 'aggressive' move by David?
I really don't have any comments. I haven't read anything, as far as I know - and this is just from my experience, we talk to David fairly regularly, my boss, my CEO sent and e-mail giving a polite heads up saying this news is coming up, we would like to include you and as far as I know the response wasn't angry or anything. We do have every intention to actually include, everyone that wants to be a part of it, it's just that if you want to start something, if you have too many people at the table, it is hard to reach a consensus. So from that point of view, it's better to start out smaller, and figure out what could be a good direction and if anyone would start causing problems in the beginning, and I'm not implying anybody would, but if someone has a difference in opinion, they have the opportunity to say "We're not going to like it, or we like it." I believe in starting out like this and then expanding. [He performed a gesture whereby he balled his hands up and expanded it] Setting a direction and if somebody doesn't like it, they can easily choose not to be involved, and that's pretty much all I have to say about it.
Let's get back to IEM and the roster of games. Of course we had that slight Starcraft 2 drama where everyone was freaking out where people were saying LoL was taking over the world. Now, it's sort of died down and we have the Heart of the Swarm release date, lots of great tournaments. Is Starcraft 2 going to be a mainstay in the Intel Extreme Masters circuit?
By all means, by all means. People call me a League of Legends fanboy, or whatever. Starcraft 2 is my favorite game to watch, League of Legends is my favorite game to play. Both games, have a place in the Intel Extreme Masters. Both games. We have a dedicated stream for Starcraft, with Artosis, Kaelaris and Jorosar and these specialists. We put the best possible production behind it, we've got the best production value we can afford in League of Legends, we had two stages at Gamescom, so by all means - First of all, I find the conversation ridiculous. I don't find that Starcraft 2 fans are really, really being short changed, because there is League of Legends present. if they hate League of Legends or any game for that matter, they can ignore it. What's the problem? I don't like baseball, I don't watch it. It doesn't interest me, I don't have to go out there and crusade against baseball.
But that's it, pretty much. Starcraft 2 is a fantastic game and we all love Starcraft. We seriously all love Starcraft, and it, to be honest, quite painful because I want to go watch Grubby and I'm giving you this interview. But yeah, Starcraft is here to stay, and it's going nowhere. We are actually improving Starcraft as much as we can. Back there we've got Artosis, last event we had Artosis, Tasteless and Day[9]. We're bringing in whoever is best for our audience, whoever the audience wants to see. So it's actually a signal that we're serious about Starcraft, rather than that we're ditching it.
We better wrap things up before the finals are over, moving forward, where is IEM headed next? I think I heard Poland is the next stop, there's a few more stops before the big finish, do you have any hints or secrets that you want to share?
So, we are going to go to Germany, with League of Legends with a studio event. Then we are going to Poland, to Katowice for both Starcraft 2 and League of Legends. Right after Poland, we will go to an event, not in Asia, not in Europe. We will announce it shortly after Singapore.
OK, very interesting! Do you have any last words, your Twitter or Facebook?
I'm not going to advertise, I'd just like to thank everyone from Singapore that came to the event, and several people from the area that flew in. It's really fantastic that there are people who come and enjoy it, I hope it's been a fantastic experience for them. Just keep on enjoying eSports, that's all I can say.
Well, great, this has been Joe Wong, signing off.
Jarett Cale on hosting, Pure Pwnage: teh Movie and the future.
+ Show Spoiler [Transcript] +
Hey guys! The following is a transcript from this interview with Jarett Cale. The bolded text are his responses while the italicized text are mine. Sorry if there are any errors or redundancies – I took some liberties while transcribing and removed a lot of pauses or “uhms, y’know” and other things, hopefully I didn’t take away anything from the actual answer. Enjoy!
This is Joe Wong and I’m here with the one, the only, ‘teh_pwnerer’, how are you doing Jarett?
I’m doing really good, I’m very excited.
Alright, so let’s get into your new role in eSports, you’ve done some hosting gigs for IEM and a lot of the Frag for Charity stuff, what’s the plan for the future? Are you looking to host larger scale events, like MLG or Dreamhack or just remain with IEM?
I think I’m leaning more and more in that direction, when I took the first IEM job, it was really for the life experience. I knew Carmac for a long time and he said, “Hey, what do you think about coming to Germany and hosting my event”, and I’d never been to Germany, never hosted an event, it sounded like a lot of fun and really exciting, nerve-wracking at the same time, so I took it. And I had a lot more fun than I expected, it was kind of a rocky start but it was still fun for me – maybe not for everyone at home. But, by the end I really enjoyed it, a lot more than I expected to, it didn’t really feel like work.
Being a big eSports fan, the biggest paycheck for me, was getting to hang out and eat dinner with MC and Nestea and meet all these guys that I’ve been watching for all these years. So, now they invited me out to Singapore and I came out here and I’m just having so much fun and meeting so many interesting people and having these great experiences. So if I could expand on that I think that’s cool, I couldn’t say no to those sorts of opportunities and honestly I never thought I would do that and become an eSports host, and it just sort of happened and now that it’s happening and I’m really enjoying it, I think, “Yeah, I think I’ll keep going with it” and see how many more I could do.
Right, so let’s talk about Singapore and the event. How are you liking the event and is this your first time in Singapore?
This is my first time in Singapore, first time anywhere in Asia. So that was, aside from the 30 hour trip here, it’s been amazing. The event, it’s been a lot more relaxed than Germany, we knew coming in we didn’t have the strongest line up – a lot of the LoL teams dropped out and we had to replace them with local teams. So we had a big group meeting and we just said, “Let’s just enjoy ourselves, we’ll have a lot of fun on camera, and people at home will have fun.” We’re not trying to make it out as the biggest, greatest eSports event ever because we know, there are a lot of great players that aren’t here. So I think that made it a lot more relaxing for everyone working the event. So I think it’s been a lot of fun and although people might not have been expecting it they’ve probably enjoyed it a lot more – I know at home too, I’ve been reading the teamliquid and reddit threads and people seem to be enjoying it.
We’ve had amazing games, I don’t know if you saw the MC vs Grubby Bo5, but that could be one of the best PvP series, of all time. That I’ve ever seen. So, I’m shocked, even in League of Legends, we’ve had some incredible games, even though there’s some relatively new teams. That’s what’s great about Carmac and the IEM too, they’ve always had the open qualifiers and they give a chance for locals, for anyone to come in and represent, and that’s how you find new blood too – I’m meeting so many new people.
Yeah, especially on the League of Legends side you saw teams like Itadakimasu and the KL team who really take games off these international teams, that they probably wouldn’t even the chance to face. So let’s talk a bit about, hosting in general. We’ve seen you do stuff like RPS and giving stuff away, and in contrast to some other hosts in the other tournaments, how do you try and make the interactions on stage not as awkward and dampen it so that it’s quite casual?
Well, I have a comedy background, before I wrote and acted I started stand-up so a lot of the time I’m sort of on auto-pilot. I actually get really nervous, so I do have a lot of stage fright – so when I get up there I go into auto-pilot and trust in my instincts and I’m hoping I bring a little more comedy and a little more animation, to the hosting than other eSports hosts because I have that unique background. A lot of the gamers, they’re not the most comfortable on camera, comfortable on stage, so before our interviews I always like to talk with them and get them comfortable – I let them know what I’m going to ask them and encourage them to come out of their shell a bit because it’s important for them, for building fans. To be themselves, and show their personality, because off camera these guys are so friendly and they’re funny – but they get on camera and they’re very nervous and they give these awkward answers. So I’m trying to help them, off camera, to develop their on camera personalities. This guy [points to MC], does not need any help. But yeah, I think I got your question.
Let’s talk about your past, Pure Pwnage recently started an indiegogo kickstarter, and as a huge fan, I rushed to back it. You’ve had your ups and downs, you started the web series and then moved into the TV series, what’s the goal here; with the kickstarter. You exceeded your goal, you hit 211k, your original target was 75k. What’s the goal here, what are you trying to shoot for?
I really want to make a movie that makes gamers proud. Like the way Pure Pwnage, I think, made people proud. I mean obviously we’re taking the piss a lot of the time out of gamer culture, but not in the same way Hollywood tries to. We’re not mocking gamers and calling them all losers, that sleep in race car beds. Hollywood has attempted and failed, in my opinion, many times to make that sort of comment. What I really want to do, is make something that’s really funny, with a really high production value – like a Hollywood level production value, but that’s authentic, that’s really gamers and real gamers in it. I’m already talking to so many pros of getting them into the movie, as cameos or maybe characters. The humor making it authentic. More than anything else, I want to make a movie that when gamers watch, they’re proud of it, and it inspires them. The way that the web series inspired them, to be proud of who they are and hopefully they’ll laugh their ass off the whole way through.
Talking about the web series, you invented the FPS memes before memes were really a thing, with Boom! Headshot and a lot of lingo we still use today. Going into the movie, are you still going to take the same attitude, or are you going to be taking a fresh, new look, with eSports the way it is now.
Well, a lot has changed, in eSports, now it’s a big thing, right? So I think the universe is going to shift a bit in that way, a lot of time has passed. We’re still going to, not only try to reuse Boom! Headshot and previous memes, but absolutely it’s important for us to create those certain scenes, you always want those certain few sayings that can really resonate within the community and become new memes. So we definitely want to do something very, very fresh. I’m obviously very conscious of how much the community, the culture has changed since we started Pure Pwnage. I hope people think I still nailed it, I hope. Yeah, I mean I hope it’s great.
So I really gotta ask, people have been wondering who’s going to be coming back, obviously Doug’s been in the behind the scenes shoots a lot and obviously Geoff has also been – is going to be the camera man, I assume. Will Dave be coming back? I loved Cooking with Dave, it was an awesome spin-off, will we see him back?
Well, I can’t say 100% for sure, because we haven’t shot it yet. But I mean, it’s our biggest priority. So I’d say 99% for sure, unless something horrible were to happen, Dave is going to be in there.
Alright, let’s talk about your eSports likes and dislikes. What’s the biggest game for you right now, Starcraft 2 and League of Legends are here but is there anything else you’re looking forward to? Has Red Alert ever caught your eye again, if that’s ever going to get made?
I suppose, Generals 2 is coming out – it’s supposed to be free to play, so I’ll give that a shot. But I’m really not that excited for it I guess, EA has broken my heart many times, but now I’ve learned. I was that battered wife, but now I’ve left him. I’m out on my own, man.
You have your new, swanky husband.
I got a rich husband now man, but honestly, I’m playing a lot of League of Legends, I’m kind of addicted. It’s the first time I’ve been addicted to a game in a long time. I play a little bit of the Heart of the Swarm beta, but generally I get really anxious, I have a lot of ladder anxiety when I play and winning means a lot to me. I don’t like being bad and a decade ago, in university when I could play 8-12 hours a day and I used to be a competitive CnC player, it meant a lot to me to be good, so I don’t like losing. So I don’t like going and placing in “Platinum”, I don’t like getting my ass kicked by guys that – I know I should kick their ass if I could just put in the energy I had before. So often, my Starcraft experiences leave me a bit bummed out and I end up playing League, and so these days it’s almost entirely League of Legends with a little bit of Nintendo 3DS mixed in there.
Getting away from hosting, we see a lot of other personalities taking an outside role in eSports where they host weekly shows, is that something you’re interested in?
I’ve thought about it. I’m in a cool position where, I get to meet and get to know all these pro gamers, and they know me – a lot of them used to watch Pure Pwnage back in the day, so it’s just a great ‘in’, right? So as an eSports fan I’m really, really lucky because I have these opportunities, so I’ve tossed around these ideas, because there’s a vacuum. There’s a lot of eSports shows but they’re all very similar, and I’ve had a lot of neat ideas for more casual shows, more ‘sit down’, “Inside the Actor’s Studio” type stuff. Getting into their lives, something more personal, rather than the sort of interviews you typically see. Also streaming, for the movie we’re going to be doing some streaming and personally I’m going to be doing some streaming as well. So you can expect to see a little bit more eSports content from me, outside of hosting as well, although the exact format is still up in the air.
Alright sweet, so before we wrap it up, do you have any last shoutouts or your Twitter?
You can follow me at @JarettCale, good luck spelling it. And I always like to thank Carmac, because he’s the reason I’m here, and he gave me the chance, to not just host this event but to get to meet all of these people, which has already opened up so many more doors, and opened more doors from there and it just keeps expanding. He was ground zero for that so always give a shoutout to Carmac and my son Taryn, so “Hi Monkey”.
This is Joe Wong and I’m here with the one, the only, ‘teh_pwnerer’, how are you doing Jarett?
I’m doing really good, I’m very excited.
Alright, so let’s get into your new role in eSports, you’ve done some hosting gigs for IEM and a lot of the Frag for Charity stuff, what’s the plan for the future? Are you looking to host larger scale events, like MLG or Dreamhack or just remain with IEM?
I think I’m leaning more and more in that direction, when I took the first IEM job, it was really for the life experience. I knew Carmac for a long time and he said, “Hey, what do you think about coming to Germany and hosting my event”, and I’d never been to Germany, never hosted an event, it sounded like a lot of fun and really exciting, nerve-wracking at the same time, so I took it. And I had a lot more fun than I expected, it was kind of a rocky start but it was still fun for me – maybe not for everyone at home. But, by the end I really enjoyed it, a lot more than I expected to, it didn’t really feel like work.
Being a big eSports fan, the biggest paycheck for me, was getting to hang out and eat dinner with MC and Nestea and meet all these guys that I’ve been watching for all these years. So, now they invited me out to Singapore and I came out here and I’m just having so much fun and meeting so many interesting people and having these great experiences. So if I could expand on that I think that’s cool, I couldn’t say no to those sorts of opportunities and honestly I never thought I would do that and become an eSports host, and it just sort of happened and now that it’s happening and I’m really enjoying it, I think, “Yeah, I think I’ll keep going with it” and see how many more I could do.
Right, so let’s talk about Singapore and the event. How are you liking the event and is this your first time in Singapore?
This is my first time in Singapore, first time anywhere in Asia. So that was, aside from the 30 hour trip here, it’s been amazing. The event, it’s been a lot more relaxed than Germany, we knew coming in we didn’t have the strongest line up – a lot of the LoL teams dropped out and we had to replace them with local teams. So we had a big group meeting and we just said, “Let’s just enjoy ourselves, we’ll have a lot of fun on camera, and people at home will have fun.” We’re not trying to make it out as the biggest, greatest eSports event ever because we know, there are a lot of great players that aren’t here. So I think that made it a lot more relaxing for everyone working the event. So I think it’s been a lot of fun and although people might not have been expecting it they’ve probably enjoyed it a lot more – I know at home too, I’ve been reading the teamliquid and reddit threads and people seem to be enjoying it.
We’ve had amazing games, I don’t know if you saw the MC vs Grubby Bo5, but that could be one of the best PvP series, of all time. That I’ve ever seen. So, I’m shocked, even in League of Legends, we’ve had some incredible games, even though there’s some relatively new teams. That’s what’s great about Carmac and the IEM too, they’ve always had the open qualifiers and they give a chance for locals, for anyone to come in and represent, and that’s how you find new blood too – I’m meeting so many new people.
Yeah, especially on the League of Legends side you saw teams like Itadakimasu and the KL team who really take games off these international teams, that they probably wouldn’t even the chance to face. So let’s talk a bit about, hosting in general. We’ve seen you do stuff like RPS and giving stuff away, and in contrast to some other hosts in the other tournaments, how do you try and make the interactions on stage not as awkward and dampen it so that it’s quite casual?
Well, I have a comedy background, before I wrote and acted I started stand-up so a lot of the time I’m sort of on auto-pilot. I actually get really nervous, so I do have a lot of stage fright – so when I get up there I go into auto-pilot and trust in my instincts and I’m hoping I bring a little more comedy and a little more animation, to the hosting than other eSports hosts because I have that unique background. A lot of the gamers, they’re not the most comfortable on camera, comfortable on stage, so before our interviews I always like to talk with them and get them comfortable – I let them know what I’m going to ask them and encourage them to come out of their shell a bit because it’s important for them, for building fans. To be themselves, and show their personality, because off camera these guys are so friendly and they’re funny – but they get on camera and they’re very nervous and they give these awkward answers. So I’m trying to help them, off camera, to develop their on camera personalities. This guy [points to MC], does not need any help. But yeah, I think I got your question.
Let’s talk about your past, Pure Pwnage recently started an indiegogo kickstarter, and as a huge fan, I rushed to back it. You’ve had your ups and downs, you started the web series and then moved into the TV series, what’s the goal here; with the kickstarter. You exceeded your goal, you hit 211k, your original target was 75k. What’s the goal here, what are you trying to shoot for?
I really want to make a movie that makes gamers proud. Like the way Pure Pwnage, I think, made people proud. I mean obviously we’re taking the piss a lot of the time out of gamer culture, but not in the same way Hollywood tries to. We’re not mocking gamers and calling them all losers, that sleep in race car beds. Hollywood has attempted and failed, in my opinion, many times to make that sort of comment. What I really want to do, is make something that’s really funny, with a really high production value – like a Hollywood level production value, but that’s authentic, that’s really gamers and real gamers in it. I’m already talking to so many pros of getting them into the movie, as cameos or maybe characters. The humor making it authentic. More than anything else, I want to make a movie that when gamers watch, they’re proud of it, and it inspires them. The way that the web series inspired them, to be proud of who they are and hopefully they’ll laugh their ass off the whole way through.
Talking about the web series, you invented the FPS memes before memes were really a thing, with Boom! Headshot and a lot of lingo we still use today. Going into the movie, are you still going to take the same attitude, or are you going to be taking a fresh, new look, with eSports the way it is now.
Well, a lot has changed, in eSports, now it’s a big thing, right? So I think the universe is going to shift a bit in that way, a lot of time has passed. We’re still going to, not only try to reuse Boom! Headshot and previous memes, but absolutely it’s important for us to create those certain scenes, you always want those certain few sayings that can really resonate within the community and become new memes. So we definitely want to do something very, very fresh. I’m obviously very conscious of how much the community, the culture has changed since we started Pure Pwnage. I hope people think I still nailed it, I hope. Yeah, I mean I hope it’s great.
So I really gotta ask, people have been wondering who’s going to be coming back, obviously Doug’s been in the behind the scenes shoots a lot and obviously Geoff has also been – is going to be the camera man, I assume. Will Dave be coming back? I loved Cooking with Dave, it was an awesome spin-off, will we see him back?
Well, I can’t say 100% for sure, because we haven’t shot it yet. But I mean, it’s our biggest priority. So I’d say 99% for sure, unless something horrible were to happen, Dave is going to be in there.
Alright, let’s talk about your eSports likes and dislikes. What’s the biggest game for you right now, Starcraft 2 and League of Legends are here but is there anything else you’re looking forward to? Has Red Alert ever caught your eye again, if that’s ever going to get made?
I suppose, Generals 2 is coming out – it’s supposed to be free to play, so I’ll give that a shot. But I’m really not that excited for it I guess, EA has broken my heart many times, but now I’ve learned. I was that battered wife, but now I’ve left him. I’m out on my own, man.
You have your new, swanky husband.
I got a rich husband now man, but honestly, I’m playing a lot of League of Legends, I’m kind of addicted. It’s the first time I’ve been addicted to a game in a long time. I play a little bit of the Heart of the Swarm beta, but generally I get really anxious, I have a lot of ladder anxiety when I play and winning means a lot to me. I don’t like being bad and a decade ago, in university when I could play 8-12 hours a day and I used to be a competitive CnC player, it meant a lot to me to be good, so I don’t like losing. So I don’t like going and placing in “Platinum”, I don’t like getting my ass kicked by guys that – I know I should kick their ass if I could just put in the energy I had before. So often, my Starcraft experiences leave me a bit bummed out and I end up playing League, and so these days it’s almost entirely League of Legends with a little bit of Nintendo 3DS mixed in there.
Getting away from hosting, we see a lot of other personalities taking an outside role in eSports where they host weekly shows, is that something you’re interested in?
I’ve thought about it. I’m in a cool position where, I get to meet and get to know all these pro gamers, and they know me – a lot of them used to watch Pure Pwnage back in the day, so it’s just a great ‘in’, right? So as an eSports fan I’m really, really lucky because I have these opportunities, so I’ve tossed around these ideas, because there’s a vacuum. There’s a lot of eSports shows but they’re all very similar, and I’ve had a lot of neat ideas for more casual shows, more ‘sit down’, “Inside the Actor’s Studio” type stuff. Getting into their lives, something more personal, rather than the sort of interviews you typically see. Also streaming, for the movie we’re going to be doing some streaming and personally I’m going to be doing some streaming as well. So you can expect to see a little bit more eSports content from me, outside of hosting as well, although the exact format is still up in the air.
Alright sweet, so before we wrap it up, do you have any last shoutouts or your Twitter?
You can follow me at @JarettCale, good luck spelling it. And I always like to thank Carmac, because he’s the reason I’m here, and he gave me the chance, to not just host this event but to get to meet all of these people, which has already opened up so many more doors, and opened more doors from there and it just keeps expanding. He was ground zero for that so always give a shoutout to Carmac and my son Taryn, so “Hi Monkey”.
Karont3Lucifron on the brothers Duran, Terran in tournaments and his Ro8 match vs WW.Sting.
+ Show Spoiler [Transcript] +
Hey guys, this is the Lucifron interview I shot at IEM Singapore. The italicized text are my questions and the bolded text are Lucifron’s responses. Thanks to my friend, Rohan, for helping to transcribe this interview.
This is Joe Wong and I’m here with Karont3 eSports club’s Lucifron. How are you doing?
Well I lost yesterday in the tournament but I don’t mind too much about it at the moment so, yeah, I’m fine.
Right so you lost in the Ro12 to sting 2-3 could you just recap those games for me?
Yeah. The first game, it was on Ohana. It was a really back and forth game, marine tank vs marine tank, and in the end I just managed to win the game because basically he didn’t keep expanding as I did. So there was a point where he had to economy left and I just won the game. The next game was on Antiga Shipyard. I opened marine hellion medivac expand with fast gas. He went for a strategy that I had never seen before. He basically marine hellion banshee. So when I scouted hellions, I scouted like three hellions so I thought that he wasn’t playing banshee so I decide to move in the map while taking an expansion, but then one banshee was in my main base and he took like 15 SCVs and the game was over at that point.
But then the third game was very similar to Ohana. Marine tank vs marine tank kind of standard game, half an hour. I think I was doing good, I felt I was ahead in the game but I overextended myself a couple of times and in the end I lost it but after the series, watching the replay, I really thought that that was the game that made me lose the series because I think I should have won that one, but that happens. Then, Whirlwind, I went triple command and he went 1 base all in but since it was crossed I managed to hold and then the game was over. And then on Daybreak again it was marine medivac vs marine medivac. I took my third earlier than he took his and he pushed me. I should have held that push but I forgot my medivacs for the start of the fight so there were like 10 marines that shouldn’t have died that fast and then I lost my orbital and the game was over. So yeah that was pretty much it.
So, going into IEM, the group stages, the seeded players, there were no Terrans. So how prepared were you for the Sting match? Is TvT a good matchup for you?
I don’t really like the early game, uh, I don’t know I just don’t feel comfortable with it yet, I think I have to work on that a lot, but then when the game gets longer and its marine tank vs. marine tank, or bio vs. mech, or whatever, I kind of like the matchup and I’m not as bad on it as I am against protoss late game, so yeah I think I have to work on my early game, but overall I like the matchup. About the specific practice for it, the week before this tournament I was in BWC where there weren’t too many Terrans, so it’s not that I didn’t play a single TvT but I didn’t focus on the matchup as much as the other two. I don’t think I lost because of that but I didn’t practice that match a lot.
So lets talk about the practice and this trend of the brothers Duran. So obviously in a lot of major tournaments, WCS Europe, and the BWC, you faced your brother Vortix and he’s beat you and I think he has a winning record against you. Can you just explain your relationship with your brother and your practice schedule with him?
Well, the relationship is good of course, we aren’t mad at each other when we lose or something like that. We don’t practice much together to be honest, it’s more talking about the matchup and the game and so on. About the head-to-head record, yeah he’s ahead. Some months ago it was really worse for me, maybe I won like 30% of the time, 20-30%. Now its even, its 50-50 in practice and well I lost 2-3 at the BWC so it was kind of close. It has gotten better lately, but his ZvT is, I think, his best matchup, and probably I would say one of the three best ZvTs in Europe, if not the best. So having an even win record against him is okay.
So, going into IEM Singapore, and before the BWC, like you said that there weren’t that many terrans. Do you see that as kind of a trend going forward? I mean, why are Terrans doing so badly?
Im not really sure, like its true that there weren’t too many Terrans there but in Korea I think most of them forfeit the qualifiers to play another tournament, then for this tournament I’m not really sure why. In the Korean qualifier, no Terran qualified, neither in Europe, but most of the top players did play them so I guess they just lost. As for it it’s a growing trend, im not really sure, like I think in GSL there are 2 Terrans I think in top 4. That’s not too bad and I don’t know, it’s true that there are few Terrans in top tournaments compared to other races, but at the same time, there are Terrans who are winning and beating top players so I cant really blame it on the race when there’s people winning. Maybe it’s just at this moment, it’s harder to play, but I don’t thing it’s necessarily weaker.
Alright, lets talk about the balance of Wings Of Liberty. Dustin Browder recently said that there's gonna be a balance patch and they released an Antiga Shipyard 1.5.3 balance map. Have you read the notes?
I think that seeker missile is no longer an upgrade and –
Fungal cant hit Psionic units.
Yeah, well I haven’t tested. I would like to play it, but the changes are in the right way for me, like if anyone asks me if there’s anything imbalanced in the game I would say that when Zerg has a lot of infestors it’s really hard because it feels like a big infestor army counters everything, or that’s the impresson I get when I play against Zerg. So now that fungal doesn’t affect ghost, it will be much easier to EMP them and snipe them in the late game. So I think we will definitely see a lot more ghost play in the late game. So, I wanna test it but I kind of like the changes.
Alright, lets talk about Heart of the Swarm, so recently they removed the warhound and Terran doesn’t really have too much new stuff. They have the hellbat, they have the cool reaper change, they have the widow mine. But Protoss has all this cool stuff, mothership core, oracle and Zerg obviously has the viper and the swarm host. Do you think Terran needs more tools coming in to Heart of the Swarm?
Well, to be honest, I haven’t played a single game yet on HotS because I’ve been having a lot of Wings Of Liberty tournaments, but yeah I think it will be good to have a lot of options and so on, I think that adds fun to the game but I’m not really sure, until I play the game I cant really know how the new things for Terran play and so on, I just..cant know.
Okay, so last words, closing statements, do you have any shoutouts to your sponsors?
I would like to thank my team, Karont3 eSports club, for bringing here to play in the Open Bracket. My sponsors, Versus Gamers and Ozone. Shoutouts to everyone who watched the tournament and I hope I can do better next week, in IPL5.
This is Joe Wong and I’m here with Karont3 eSports club’s Lucifron. How are you doing?
Well I lost yesterday in the tournament but I don’t mind too much about it at the moment so, yeah, I’m fine.
Right so you lost in the Ro12 to sting 2-3 could you just recap those games for me?
Yeah. The first game, it was on Ohana. It was a really back and forth game, marine tank vs marine tank, and in the end I just managed to win the game because basically he didn’t keep expanding as I did. So there was a point where he had to economy left and I just won the game. The next game was on Antiga Shipyard. I opened marine hellion medivac expand with fast gas. He went for a strategy that I had never seen before. He basically marine hellion banshee. So when I scouted hellions, I scouted like three hellions so I thought that he wasn’t playing banshee so I decide to move in the map while taking an expansion, but then one banshee was in my main base and he took like 15 SCVs and the game was over at that point.
But then the third game was very similar to Ohana. Marine tank vs marine tank kind of standard game, half an hour. I think I was doing good, I felt I was ahead in the game but I overextended myself a couple of times and in the end I lost it but after the series, watching the replay, I really thought that that was the game that made me lose the series because I think I should have won that one, but that happens. Then, Whirlwind, I went triple command and he went 1 base all in but since it was crossed I managed to hold and then the game was over. And then on Daybreak again it was marine medivac vs marine medivac. I took my third earlier than he took his and he pushed me. I should have held that push but I forgot my medivacs for the start of the fight so there were like 10 marines that shouldn’t have died that fast and then I lost my orbital and the game was over. So yeah that was pretty much it.
So, going into IEM, the group stages, the seeded players, there were no Terrans. So how prepared were you for the Sting match? Is TvT a good matchup for you?
I don’t really like the early game, uh, I don’t know I just don’t feel comfortable with it yet, I think I have to work on that a lot, but then when the game gets longer and its marine tank vs. marine tank, or bio vs. mech, or whatever, I kind of like the matchup and I’m not as bad on it as I am against protoss late game, so yeah I think I have to work on my early game, but overall I like the matchup. About the specific practice for it, the week before this tournament I was in BWC where there weren’t too many Terrans, so it’s not that I didn’t play a single TvT but I didn’t focus on the matchup as much as the other two. I don’t think I lost because of that but I didn’t practice that match a lot.
So lets talk about the practice and this trend of the brothers Duran. So obviously in a lot of major tournaments, WCS Europe, and the BWC, you faced your brother Vortix and he’s beat you and I think he has a winning record against you. Can you just explain your relationship with your brother and your practice schedule with him?
Well, the relationship is good of course, we aren’t mad at each other when we lose or something like that. We don’t practice much together to be honest, it’s more talking about the matchup and the game and so on. About the head-to-head record, yeah he’s ahead. Some months ago it was really worse for me, maybe I won like 30% of the time, 20-30%. Now its even, its 50-50 in practice and well I lost 2-3 at the BWC so it was kind of close. It has gotten better lately, but his ZvT is, I think, his best matchup, and probably I would say one of the three best ZvTs in Europe, if not the best. So having an even win record against him is okay.
So, going into IEM Singapore, and before the BWC, like you said that there weren’t that many terrans. Do you see that as kind of a trend going forward? I mean, why are Terrans doing so badly?
Im not really sure, like its true that there weren’t too many Terrans there but in Korea I think most of them forfeit the qualifiers to play another tournament, then for this tournament I’m not really sure why. In the Korean qualifier, no Terran qualified, neither in Europe, but most of the top players did play them so I guess they just lost. As for it it’s a growing trend, im not really sure, like I think in GSL there are 2 Terrans I think in top 4. That’s not too bad and I don’t know, it’s true that there are few Terrans in top tournaments compared to other races, but at the same time, there are Terrans who are winning and beating top players so I cant really blame it on the race when there’s people winning. Maybe it’s just at this moment, it’s harder to play, but I don’t thing it’s necessarily weaker.
Alright, lets talk about the balance of Wings Of Liberty. Dustin Browder recently said that there's gonna be a balance patch and they released an Antiga Shipyard 1.5.3 balance map. Have you read the notes?
I think that seeker missile is no longer an upgrade and –
Fungal cant hit Psionic units.
Yeah, well I haven’t tested. I would like to play it, but the changes are in the right way for me, like if anyone asks me if there’s anything imbalanced in the game I would say that when Zerg has a lot of infestors it’s really hard because it feels like a big infestor army counters everything, or that’s the impresson I get when I play against Zerg. So now that fungal doesn’t affect ghost, it will be much easier to EMP them and snipe them in the late game. So I think we will definitely see a lot more ghost play in the late game. So, I wanna test it but I kind of like the changes.
Alright, lets talk about Heart of the Swarm, so recently they removed the warhound and Terran doesn’t really have too much new stuff. They have the hellbat, they have the cool reaper change, they have the widow mine. But Protoss has all this cool stuff, mothership core, oracle and Zerg obviously has the viper and the swarm host. Do you think Terran needs more tools coming in to Heart of the Swarm?
Well, to be honest, I haven’t played a single game yet on HotS because I’ve been having a lot of Wings Of Liberty tournaments, but yeah I think it will be good to have a lot of options and so on, I think that adds fun to the game but I’m not really sure, until I play the game I cant really know how the new things for Terran play and so on, I just..cant know.
Okay, so last words, closing statements, do you have any shoutouts to your sponsors?
I would like to thank my team, Karont3 eSports club, for bringing here to play in the Open Bracket. My sponsors, Versus Gamers and Ozone. Shoutouts to everyone who watched the tournament and I hope I can do better next week, in IPL5.
Tt.Pig talks about the SEA scene, his time in Korea and the future of HOTS.
MouzHasuObs talks about HOTS, ZvP and 1.5.3.
+ Show Spoiler [Transcript] +
Hi this is Joe Wong and this is IEM Day 3, and I'm here with mouzHasuObs. HasuObs, how are you doing?
Not too well today, as I lost to Zenio 0-3, and I think I played really, really bad. Zenio played really good though, so he deserved the win. So, I'm not feeling too well.
You came into this tournament prepared to cast, you were announced as a caster. Due to some last minute cancellations you came in as a replacement for another player, and you didn't have your gear. I heard on Twitter though, that Razer managed to hook you up, how did that situation go?
As you said, I was planing to be a caster here, I didn't qualify for the IEM, I tried to but I lost in the third stage in the European qualification. When I came here, on the second day, Carmac told me that there is a possibility that I replace one of the players in the group stages. I said I didn't have my equipment with me so he helped me to contact Razer, Razer was one of our sponsors and he was asking for the gear and they brought it, one day before I had to play. So yeah, that worked out pretty good and that's the story.
So how prepared were you going into this tournament, were you confident in your groups and with your match ups?
I think the group itself: MC, Vortix, PiG and me, was pretty tough - and there were two more players from the open bracket. I think we got a little bit lucky that we only got Mafia and Yekke, instead of one of the Koreans or Lucifron. Overall I think my group was doable, and I managed to get out as third place. so that was OK. I think I played good in the group stages.
So recently in a lot of the major tournaments and a lot of people have been talking about it, ZvP has been a huge topic of discussion, with Immortal/Sentry allins and late game Broodlord/Infestor. Where do you think ZvP is right now?
Not in the best stage of the game, I think. Those two things you mentioned are something definitely Blizzard has to work on. The late game is not fun to play, and not fun to watch. It's pretty silly to play, sometimes, if it's one vortex or about the Zerg spreading his army. The Immortal allin is also not too beautiful to watch, it really comes down to forcefields and if the Zerg flanks properly or not, so there is at least a bit more stuff the players can do I think. But I hope Blizzard will try to address some of those problems and I think while they just announced some of the new patch notes, so we'll see if that helps.
Yeah, let's talk about the call to action, the balance map that they just put out - are you familiar with the changes?
Yeah, is it the fungal growth --
Fungal can't hit psionic and there's a Terran change, Seeker Missile doesn't require research, what are your thoughts mainly on the fungal change?
I was reading the reasons of Blizzard and they made the change to make High Templars and Ghosts better against Infestors. Which it's going to be correct, because if fungal can't hit Templars or Ghosts then you can easily feedback or snipe or even EMP them. The problem is, Protoss has a lot of psionic units like Sentry, Archon, DT even Warp Prism. So I'm not sure if Blizzard was aware of Protoss having so many psionic units, so maybe they will tweak a bit about the status of the psionic units, but overall I guess it's a good change and I really hope it will help in the late game. That it is more dynamic and the players don't have to wait that long anymore.
A lot of players have been talking about Speed Warp Prism, being something that has potential for good harass if the patch goes through. Do you have any thoughts on that about late game PvZ, maybe that could change, in terms of harassing the Zerg. The Zerg can't really catch a speed Warp Prism if they can't fungal it.
I agree, Warp Prism with speed is a really good tool to harass your opponent. It has already been working kind of OK against Zerg, sometimes it works really well, sometimes it doesn't - it depends if he already has spines or spores in his main. I think if you cannot catch it with fungal anymore, it might be a bit too strong, but I'm not really sure about it yet. I think they could set up, they can up root their spines and spores so they could somehow defend it if they position their spores correctly. We have to find out - the change hasn't really been tested, so we will see.
Let's move on to Heart of the Swarm, the release date was announced: March 12th [I said March 28th in the video.] We have about 3 or 4 months left of the beta, but before that the pros have been saying there hasn't been a lot of point to play the Beta. "There are a lot of tournaments going on, I still have to prepare." Of course there is still a lot changing, do you think Blizzard is maybe having trouble balancing the beta as it is because they just aren't getting enough pro feedback?
That might be a problem, but I think they get a lot of feedback from the community itself, not just from pro players. So I think there is a lot of feedback about the balance but I think the bigger problem was that Blizzard, in my opinion, wasn't too sure where to go for some of the units. Like the oracle, has been changed two or three times and the mothership core was changed often too. So the units are very different now from where they were at the start of the beta, but I think now we're in a pretty good stage. The mothership core feels to be a very useful unit in the Protoss army, the widow mine seems useful for the Terran. I'm not really sure if it's too strong or not, because I didn't really play it so far. But I think Blizzard is heading in the right direction and they still have a few more weeks to go.
Now, I recall MorroW made a post on the battle.net forums about forcefields, did you read it at all?
It was a very, very long post, I think, so I didn't read all of it. But I understand what he means.
I can't recall exactly, but he threw out a few suggestions and reasons why forcefield is such a negative spell to the game. It prevents Zerg from microing and it all depends on the Protoss - not really between both players. So what do you think can be done to change the forcefield? Because I know the Oracle has the time warp ability, which a lot of people were suggesting that the forcefield be changed to that.
I have to agree, spells that completely disable the movement of units - they always feel too strong. Like in Warcraft 3 where you had Ensnare [Orc Raiders had the ability Ensnare, which rooted a unit.] Now we have fungal and forcefield, to some extent. I agree, in some cases forcefield is too strong and the problem I see is that Protoss can't survive without it. Forcefield is also pretty hard to use, unless you're MC and all your forcefields are perfect, but I definitely see the problem and I'm not really sure what Blizzard can do to fix it. It is just the design of the Protoss race, at least the early to midgame design. I guess the new spell of the oracle, is a good solution, where it slows down. I think fungal should be exactly like this, it shouldn't root units it should slow down. Maybe Blizzard has some good ideas about changing it, but right now they didn't say anything about forcefields so maybe it will just stay like this.
Let's move on to the future and further tournaments, is this the last major LAN for you?
This year, you mean?
Yeah, 2012.
No, there is going to be the EPS finals in two weeks, the biggest German league - I'm in the semifinal and I will play against monchi. I think after that, there's the Homestory Cup coming up, I'm not too sure yet if I will attend because it's right before Christmas, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be at my family's place or yeah, I have to figure it out. So those two events, the EPS for sure and then maybe the Homestory Cup.
So do you have any last shoutouts or thank yous?
Yup, thanks for the interview. Thanks to my team mousesports, all the partners and sponsors and obviously a big shoutout to the fans and all the supporters, so, thank you.
Not too well today, as I lost to Zenio 0-3, and I think I played really, really bad. Zenio played really good though, so he deserved the win. So, I'm not feeling too well.
You came into this tournament prepared to cast, you were announced as a caster. Due to some last minute cancellations you came in as a replacement for another player, and you didn't have your gear. I heard on Twitter though, that Razer managed to hook you up, how did that situation go?
As you said, I was planing to be a caster here, I didn't qualify for the IEM, I tried to but I lost in the third stage in the European qualification. When I came here, on the second day, Carmac told me that there is a possibility that I replace one of the players in the group stages. I said I didn't have my equipment with me so he helped me to contact Razer, Razer was one of our sponsors and he was asking for the gear and they brought it, one day before I had to play. So yeah, that worked out pretty good and that's the story.
So how prepared were you going into this tournament, were you confident in your groups and with your match ups?
I think the group itself: MC, Vortix, PiG and me, was pretty tough - and there were two more players from the open bracket. I think we got a little bit lucky that we only got Mafia and Yekke, instead of one of the Koreans or Lucifron. Overall I think my group was doable, and I managed to get out as third place. so that was OK. I think I played good in the group stages.
So recently in a lot of the major tournaments and a lot of people have been talking about it, ZvP has been a huge topic of discussion, with Immortal/Sentry allins and late game Broodlord/Infestor. Where do you think ZvP is right now?
Not in the best stage of the game, I think. Those two things you mentioned are something definitely Blizzard has to work on. The late game is not fun to play, and not fun to watch. It's pretty silly to play, sometimes, if it's one vortex or about the Zerg spreading his army. The Immortal allin is also not too beautiful to watch, it really comes down to forcefields and if the Zerg flanks properly or not, so there is at least a bit more stuff the players can do I think. But I hope Blizzard will try to address some of those problems and I think while they just announced some of the new patch notes, so we'll see if that helps.
Yeah, let's talk about the call to action, the balance map that they just put out - are you familiar with the changes?
Yeah, is it the fungal growth --
Fungal can't hit psionic and there's a Terran change, Seeker Missile doesn't require research, what are your thoughts mainly on the fungal change?
I was reading the reasons of Blizzard and they made the change to make High Templars and Ghosts better against Infestors. Which it's going to be correct, because if fungal can't hit Templars or Ghosts then you can easily feedback or snipe or even EMP them. The problem is, Protoss has a lot of psionic units like Sentry, Archon, DT even Warp Prism. So I'm not sure if Blizzard was aware of Protoss having so many psionic units, so maybe they will tweak a bit about the status of the psionic units, but overall I guess it's a good change and I really hope it will help in the late game. That it is more dynamic and the players don't have to wait that long anymore.
A lot of players have been talking about Speed Warp Prism, being something that has potential for good harass if the patch goes through. Do you have any thoughts on that about late game PvZ, maybe that could change, in terms of harassing the Zerg. The Zerg can't really catch a speed Warp Prism if they can't fungal it.
I agree, Warp Prism with speed is a really good tool to harass your opponent. It has already been working kind of OK against Zerg, sometimes it works really well, sometimes it doesn't - it depends if he already has spines or spores in his main. I think if you cannot catch it with fungal anymore, it might be a bit too strong, but I'm not really sure about it yet. I think they could set up, they can up root their spines and spores so they could somehow defend it if they position their spores correctly. We have to find out - the change hasn't really been tested, so we will see.
Let's move on to Heart of the Swarm, the release date was announced: March 12th [I said March 28th in the video.] We have about 3 or 4 months left of the beta, but before that the pros have been saying there hasn't been a lot of point to play the Beta. "There are a lot of tournaments going on, I still have to prepare." Of course there is still a lot changing, do you think Blizzard is maybe having trouble balancing the beta as it is because they just aren't getting enough pro feedback?
That might be a problem, but I think they get a lot of feedback from the community itself, not just from pro players. So I think there is a lot of feedback about the balance but I think the bigger problem was that Blizzard, in my opinion, wasn't too sure where to go for some of the units. Like the oracle, has been changed two or three times and the mothership core was changed often too. So the units are very different now from where they were at the start of the beta, but I think now we're in a pretty good stage. The mothership core feels to be a very useful unit in the Protoss army, the widow mine seems useful for the Terran. I'm not really sure if it's too strong or not, because I didn't really play it so far. But I think Blizzard is heading in the right direction and they still have a few more weeks to go.
Now, I recall MorroW made a post on the battle.net forums about forcefields, did you read it at all?
It was a very, very long post, I think, so I didn't read all of it. But I understand what he means.
I can't recall exactly, but he threw out a few suggestions and reasons why forcefield is such a negative spell to the game. It prevents Zerg from microing and it all depends on the Protoss - not really between both players. So what do you think can be done to change the forcefield? Because I know the Oracle has the time warp ability, which a lot of people were suggesting that the forcefield be changed to that.
I have to agree, spells that completely disable the movement of units - they always feel too strong. Like in Warcraft 3 where you had Ensnare [Orc Raiders had the ability Ensnare, which rooted a unit.] Now we have fungal and forcefield, to some extent. I agree, in some cases forcefield is too strong and the problem I see is that Protoss can't survive without it. Forcefield is also pretty hard to use, unless you're MC and all your forcefields are perfect, but I definitely see the problem and I'm not really sure what Blizzard can do to fix it. It is just the design of the Protoss race, at least the early to midgame design. I guess the new spell of the oracle, is a good solution, where it slows down. I think fungal should be exactly like this, it shouldn't root units it should slow down. Maybe Blizzard has some good ideas about changing it, but right now they didn't say anything about forcefields so maybe it will just stay like this.
Let's move on to the future and further tournaments, is this the last major LAN for you?
This year, you mean?
Yeah, 2012.
No, there is going to be the EPS finals in two weeks, the biggest German league - I'm in the semifinal and I will play against monchi. I think after that, there's the Homestory Cup coming up, I'm not too sure yet if I will attend because it's right before Christmas, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be at my family's place or yeah, I have to figure it out. So those two events, the EPS for sure and then maybe the Homestory Cup.
So do you have any last shoutouts or thank yous?
Yup, thanks for the interview. Thanks to my team mousesports, all the partners and sponsors and obviously a big shoutout to the fans and all the supporters, so, thank you.
FlashBlysk talks about the Singaporean scene, what it was like talking to the pros and what his future holds.
Thanks for watching and reading guys. If you have any constructive criticism please pass it on to me, I would love to hear it. I hope you enjoy these interviews as much as I did doing them. If a mod or admin needs to move this thread please go ahead, I'm not 100% confident in posting threads yet. Thanks again!
