On March 22 2014 10:03 zev318 wrote:
look what thorin said is not untrue, just the way he said it is stupid. not sure why he said what he said at all.

What he said was pretty stupid and uneducated as well (it's pretty easy to argue by historical/economical facts).
I guess he could have put it in a polite way and it would have been just some critical point of view. But that would also greatly alter what he said. It's not like he "just wanted to point out that Poland isn't quite at the economical level of Germany yet". Then he would have chosen such words instead of drawing some pretty nasty pictures.

Nevertheless, I liked the interview. In those moments when Naniwa steps down from his egocentric views it becomes quite informative. And this interview had many of those moments.

JimmyJRaynor

Canada16935 Posts

March 22 2014 02:07 GMT

#67

really nice interview

CruelZeratul

Germany4588 Posts

March 22 2014 02:35 GMT

#68

One important point was missing imo. He didn't ask him about his immediate future. He was kicked off, doesn't have a job, so what's gonna pay the bills? Winnings/salery from the past till he goes bankrupt? Streaming his solo jungling adventures in LoL? I think this would have been an interesting topic.

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

March 22 2014 03:12 GMT

#69

On March 22 2014 07:42 looknohands119 wrote:

Show nested quote +

Thorin made remarks about Poland as a country and about the Polish people that much of the community thinks/thought were both racist and offensive during a recent episode of ChanmanV's show, "Unfiltered," shortly before the start of IEM Katowice (in Poland) where he was set to cast CS:GO for ESL. The offense was considered to be in particularly poor taste since Carmac, ESL's Managing Director of Progaming, is also Polish. Subsequently, ESL announced that he would not be allowed to cast the event and issued a statement condemning his remarks and his attitude.

Cool, I see. Thanks for the info.

oneofthem

Cayman Islands24199 Posts

March 22 2014 03:22 GMT

#70

thorins remarks were dumb as fk don't try to defend that.

SoleSteeler

Canada5449 Posts

March 22 2014 03:23 GMT

#71

On March 22 2014 08:52 Sabu113 wrote:

Show nested quote +

Different culture, different values and a bit of a chip on the shoulder relative to China and Japan.

Remarkable how they've developed in the past 50 years.

Interesting Interview. Only 1/3 through need to take a break heh. If he had a little more charisma or social sense could have made a good focus for a documentary.

The key point about nani talking about Korea was that even he admitted if he tried to assimilate a bit of the culture it would have been a lot more comfortable for him. As a white guy who's been living in Korea for over 4 years, Korea is much more accepting of foreigners these days, and really take kindly to people who try to learn the language and culture, rather than just going into culture shock over everything little different thing. Especially being able to speak some Korean (which isn't as hard as you might think - immersion in the environment helps a ton) will make you look a lot better in Korean's eyes.

Gotta remember Korea has mostly problems with "foreign" people coming into their country (Japan) so they are naturally very nationalistic and also untrustworthy of foreigners, at first. Maybe it's not "fair" that you have to try "harder" than them to be able to make a connection, but whatever.

I have to admit I had a similar problem as nani before working here, where he told the story of everyone going away on vacation and no one telling him... I worked at a school and no one communicated with me at all, and I would always find out about schedule changes, class changes, etc. as they happened without prior warning...

Holdenintherye

Canada1441 Posts

March 22 2014 03:25 GMT

#72

Nice interview.
Really interesting to see a not-so-PR version of progaming house life in Korea for foreigners.

Brett

Australia3821 Posts

March 22 2014 04:18 GMT

#73

Wtf? Thorin's comments weren't racist...

Insensitive? Perhaps... but god damn stop twisting definitions of words for the sake of drama. What a joke.

Boa.

United Kingdom61 Posts

March 22 2014 04:28 GMT

#74

Racist, uhm just no. Stupid yes, especially taking in to account that you're being hired by a Polish guy to do a job in Poland. Pretty much everything said is either true or has been true at some point in the recent past, all be it some what exaggerated.

Spaylz

Japan1743 Posts

March 22 2014 04:35 GMT

#75

Thorin's comments weren't racist in my opinion, though they were still incredibly asinine and definitely called for a firing. Racist or not, you can't really say such things and not expect people to be offended.

I'm sure there is some truth in what he said, however his choice of words is beyond poor. Also, Poland is hardly the only European country suffering from a severe racism problem: Italy is also pretty bad in that regard, as I'm pretty sure I recall reading stories about Mario Balotelli (Italian black soccer player) being booed and having bananas thrown his way while on the soccer field. France is also pretty bad when it comes to racism, I know it first hand.

Suichoy

Canada397 Posts

March 22 2014 04:45 GMT

#76

I watched the whole interview, very interesting and insightful. Thank you Thorin and Naniwa!

Demand2k

Norway875 Posts

March 22 2014 04:50 GMT

#77

Really sweet interview, you enabled us to understand Naniwa's perspective on things better than any other interviewers has done so far.

Kitai

United States876 Posts

March 22 2014 05:06 GMT

#78

I think this interview was fantastic. I felt like Thorin asked a lot of questions that many other interviewers would have diplomatically shied away from, and NaNiwa's answers to them were very forthright and interesting. Although it was an hour long, I felt engaged the whole way through and it went by very quickly. Thanks!

Malphite

United States186 Posts

March 22 2014 07:18 GMT

#79

I don't understand what all the hate is on thorin. IT'S CALLED AN OPINION.

I think the USA is a crap place... same with india/haiti and other countries. It's his opinion.

You guys want him to be PC and say "oh Poland is one of the best places to go" just like every other personality?

This is why i don't watch CNN or any local news. People are brainwashed to like certain things and hate certain things. Trust me when i say this, Poland is crap compared to the UK. I would never go there. UK is one of the top tourist places in Europe, Poland is not. I'm not hating on poland, but it's just all opinions.

robson1

3632 Posts

March 22 2014 07:27 GMT

#80

On March 22 2014 16:18 Malphite wrote:
I don't understand what all the hate is on thorin. IT'S CALLED AN OPINION.

I think the USA is a crap place... same with india/haiti and other countries. It's his opinion.

You guys want him to be PC and say "oh Poland is one of the best places to go" just like every other personality?

This is why i don't watch CNN or any local news. People are brainwashed to like certain things and hate certain things. Trust me when i say this, Poland is crap compared to the UK. I would never go there. UK is one of the top tourist places in Europe, Poland is not. I'm not hating on poland, but it's just all opinions.

It's offensive and incredibly stupid to act like Thorin did. He called the whole country "one of the worst places in the World" and talked about how they were grateful to be part of the "civilized world" for once, he did that 1 day before working with a mostly polish staff. Making gross generalizations about a whole country and hurting a lot of the polish people is not just HAVING AN OPINION. Like it or not, you cannot hide every comment behind: "Well guys I'm just being honest".

Obviously it wasn't racist, everyone who calls him a racist, needs to get slapped right across the face with a dictionary. Also the interview was surprisingly good, not that Thorins interviews are usually bad, but I expected more drama mongering and dirty laundry on this one.