EPTCan you please introduce yourself to the audience?
My name is Kevin de Koning, also known as Harstem. I am a 20 year old Protoss player from the Netherlands. Playing for team Invasion.
Congratz on premier. You got picked by Serral, who had 6th seed. Did you expect this and would you have preferred to play someone else instead?
I did not expect him to pick me that quickly. But I guess after beating me 3-0 in the first challenger league season he was rather confident against me. I was fine with anyone really as long as it wasn't a terran.
Last season you played Serral as well in challenger league. You lost 0-3 that time. Were you worried going into this match?
No not really. After the swarmhost nerf my trouble against zerg hasn't been as big as before. And I've been in quite decent shape lately so I felt pretty comfortable.
Last season you went for a macro game all 3 games, but this season you went for an allin build. Was this because of the maps, or did you want to switch your style up?
I just figured playing macro every game was a bit too predictable. I also felt like Serral was taking certain kinds of freedom in the game acting like I wouldn't allin him. Always taking 6 gas very quickly and having a rather late overseer scout, too late to scout certain allins at least. So I felt like throwing in a few allins would make him A: [play] a bit more safe, or at least that's what I hoped for that he would try to play a bit more safe, cutting less corners and B: I had a pretty good idea if my allins would work or not and especially with the 8 gate that I did on the second map, I felt my chances of winning were like 90-95%. I just studied a few of his replays and those felt like the best builds against him.
Game 1 and 3 were quite similair as far as playstyles and compositions from you both. Yet the result was different How did you adjust to beat this playstyle?
When I was preparing for Serral, I had a few replays and in one of the replays he did the roach hydra infestor style and in most of the other replays he did the ultralisk kind of style. So I mainly prepared for the ultra style and did not really expect him to play the roach hydra infestor into viper style because it has a very obvious weakness like colossus. And in the first game I did not open colossus and I wasn't really too practiced against it with stalker immortal, I didn't feel very comfortable. But then on the 3rd map I figured, well lets build colossus and see how that goes and I think it was kind of a walkover from that point on cause his viper were so extremely late. My storm was already out before he even had vipers, so there was really very little chance for him to win that game.
You are in the ro32 group of NXZ, iAsonu and Xenocider. Unfortunately you have to play in the US. How do you feel about your group and what are your expectations for this season?
It's very difficult to have expectations. If I would have been in a group with Snute, Hydra and Lilbow I would be like 'well I guess I would be pretty happy if I made it out of this group'. But I can get that kind of group in the ro16 or have a very difficult opponent in the ro8. But my goal for this season was to get ro8, at least. And I think ro16 right now is a doable one with this group. NXZ is a guy that has never really played on a big stage before. He's a zerg so I'm happy with that. And he's going to be my first opponent. iAsonu is a zerg as well so I'm happy with that. However he seems to be better and also more experienced. A few of my friends told me that he was normally floating around rank 80 - 70 in GM on korea, so he's pretty good. And against Xenocider, I'm not a big fan of terran but my past results against Xenocider have been rather good. So all in all my group is, not to be arrogant but I think it's one of the easier ones. Especially if you compare it with group E (Lilbow, Hydra, Snute and Kelazhur) or group F (Elazer, Polt, TLO and MajOr) I think, those are rather difficult. Even group D is very hard. (seems like Harstem meant another group since he himself is in group D) So I'm quite happy with this group. The only downside is that I have to go to America. Because I don't adjust to jetlag very well.
The last time you had to travel very far for an event was IEM Taipei. Did the jetlag affect your play then and do you think it will this time?
Taipei, it didn't do it too much. I only feel when I'm flying west it's worse. When I went to America for the first time, for MLG, I was very tired for quite a few days. But for the event that I did in Taiwan, or when I flew to Taiwan the first TSL. I was adjusted pretty quick actually. After 1 day I was in a decent sleep schedule. So i'm not sure what that's about, but yeah flying west for me doesn't really seem to help. I'm a bit scared for that really, but I hope it will be alright.
You've played in both challenger matches this year. Which system do you think is better for competition and which system do you prefer as a player?
I think the second one is more fun in a way. It's not fair I guess for all premier players because some premier players don't get to pick at all. Like Targa for example just kinda got handed a guy. I guess that's his punishment for getting last in premier. I'm not too sure about fairness or if one is easier for challenger or the other one is easier for premier players but I feel like the second system is a lot more fun. It's exciting to see who picked you, you get a better story-line going as well. I prefer the second one.
What do you think were the biggest upsets this challenger series and which European player (or players) will make it far in premier league?
The biggest upsets, It's showtime obviously against Elazer. Was quite a big upset I would say. I think Welmu against Ret, I think not a lot of people would expect Ret to win. Maybe Marinelord [against] Happy, but I think a lot people that were familair with MarineLorD kinda saw that one coming. And I guess my own match because Serral rather beat me hard last time we played. I think biggest upset defenitely Showtime against Elazer. And the player I think will get the furthest, Bunny. Bunny has a good shot, MaNa always makes it very far and MarineLorD. Those are the main 3 European guys.
In season 1 only violet got knocked out by non-koreans. Polt and hydra made the finals while ForGG got knocked out by Polt. Do you think non-koreans will knock out more koreans this season, if so, which players do you think have a good chance?
To be honest I feel like the best non-koreans are Europeans. So if there would be anyone knocking them out I guess it would be an European. I don't really see a lot of top NA players or chinese players that would be able to compete with koreans. However there's more koreans, so there's also a bigger chance of people knocking one out early on. Actually the first one who may have a difficult time is hydra in group E. Lilbow is known for his strong PvZ and Snute is known for his good ZvZ. So if they prepare very well for that Hydra may have a tough time. On the other hand Hydra is so good that it might not matter. I think in group C viOLet will go through and group F I think polt will go through and group H I think Jaedong will make it as well. I don't think we're going to see any upsets in the ro32 with the koreans.
Do you think a non-korean will win a WCS season this year?
I have my doubts. I think with Jaedong and StarDust joining the korean side of things as well I think it's going to be rather difficult. Before they were here it was possible to beat either Hydra or Polt. Even though Hydra looked pretty much untouchable. And I feel like Polt is the one that's a bit more beatable. But now with even more of them, I think it's going to be difficult. Of course I hope it will happen, it will be nice. But I have my doubts.
Were there any players from the european region that you think stood out in season 1 of WCS?
I don't think there were any people that overperformed. I think it was pretty much how I expected it to go. Maybe ShoWTimE got a bit higher than I thought he would, but on the other hand he's extremely good.
Who do you think is the best player in Europe right now?
Bunny, best foreigner overall. I don't think it's very close. I think he's by far the best, he has a rather good winrate versus koreans and shown to be dominant against other European players.
You recently signed with invasion esports. What are your goals with this new team for the rest of the year?
Well, staying in WCS would be nice and getting some good runs or getting top 8 finishes on dreamhacks. Would like to qualify for 1 or 2 IEM's. I Guess my goals havent changed much. They're pretty much the same as they were in Fnatic. Just a different team. They treat me very well so far and there's no reason to believe that would change. So I'm happy with the signing.
Do you want to give any shoutouts?
Big thanks to team Invasion for picking me up and big thanks for all the fan who always support me and tweet me nice things and tell me nice things in person. So yeah thank you all.
Harstem's twitter: https://twitter.com/InvasionHarstem
The interview was conducted on the 5th of May.
Interview done by JayPower https://twitter.com/JayPowerSC2
