Harstem interviewed at community summit: “I make more mone…

I hadn’t originally planned to do any interviews at the SC2 Community Summit. But after a dinner where Harstem responded to casual questions with very insightful answers, I thought it would be great to share his thoughts with the rest of the community. We met again the next day on the Blizzard campus to talk about region locking, the best WCS system, and the dilemmas of being a "foreigner" in professional StarCraft 2.

*Interview has been edited for clarity.


Waxangel: You recently won HomeStory Cup. How do you feel about that?

Harstem: Hmm, pretty good. I’ve never done well at a HomeStory Cup, so winning it was a pretty big surprise for me—I didn’t expect it at all. Normally I always go out in the first group stage, so I was pretty happy. I think I beat some decent players, and I think my StarCraft there was pretty high level. I think it was the best that I played this year so far.

You previously mentioned that you weren’t confident before the tournament started.

I think everytime that I do well at a tournament—I won twice now—both times I felt pretty bad at the start, but only in one match-up. Like, for the GPL that I won, my PvT was really, really bad—my worst match-up by far. And I just didn’t hit any Terrans.

At HomeStory my PvP was really, really bad, and I should have lost on the first day to GungFuBanda. But, once I got past him, I didn’t get any more PvPs and I won. So I guess the secret to winning tournaments is just having two good match-ups and praying that your bracket is lucky.

Do you think you perform better because the pressure isn’t on you? Like, when you think you’re good, you start feeling like “I gotta show this on stage” and so forth.

I feel like… ...If you win everything in practice, you feel really dumb for even losing a game. Because you feel like you’re not playing well, and it’s kind of like a circle that keeps going down. At the tournament you’re like “Oh my god I’m getting worse,” and then it’s “why is my build not working anymore.” It can really mess with you, at least it can with me. Maybe my mindset isn’t the best, then. I feel like whenever there’s no real pressure on me, whenever I don’t feel good, when I don’t feel that I really need to perform, yeah—it kinda flows well.

So, a big part of why you won—well I guess Koreans declined HSC—but a big part of why foreigners like you are winning this year is because it’s the first season of the region lock. How do you feel about it? It’s been treating you well, right?

I think… ...money wise, yes. Skill wise, I guess it’s very similar to 2015, where we basically have the same players. The only difference is that I never really get to test my skills against the top Koreans that play in Korea, which is a bit frustrating sometimes.

You told me yesterday that you like the system from WCS 2014 the best, why’s that?

I felt like we were actually improving when the players lived in Europe, because of ladder and practice and even custom games. Like, throughout the year they started playing more custom games with us. But even the ladder was already a lot stronger when people like MMA, MC, HyuN, YoDa were playing...

You had an example yesterday, where MMA played you how many times?

I played him like 200, 300 times maybe? Like maybe more at times? YoDa I played a LOT with, especially for the last season. I played with ForGG a lot as well during 2014, but he already was here since before, so he doesn’t count as a part of that particular system.

I felt like the skill in Europe definitely increased. The problem was with America, I felt. The Koreans could play from their initial Challenger match from Korea because the ping wasn’t too bad, and the Americans weren’t strong enough to beat them even with a little bit of ping advantage. So they just basically… ...it felt like they were robbing the NA scene. So the system wasn’t perfect for NA, but I think for EU, it was the best we’ve ever been, skill wise.

Money wise… ...I guess we weren’t making a lot of money, so I’m not sure how good it would have been for the foreigner economy in a way. But if you didn’t have new players coming in every year, I think that problem would have gone away.

And what I mean with that is, MMA, HyuN, MC, First, YoDa, and like four more were in Europe almost permanently, and only went back at the end of the year to practice in Korea to up their skill level, and then brought it back to Europe. I think, if this happened for like two, three years straight, we would have been fine. But, if the first year it’s MC, HyuN, First, YoDa and the boys, and the next year Zest and Maru come over, and then next year new Koreans come over… ...I think it would have been very difficult. But if we had the same players that only gain a lot of skill in Korea in the three months during their holiday or whatever, I think it would have been the best system for me.

So personally, your peak as a player isn’t this year, even though you’re winning tournaments.

2014, I think I was the best as a player. Even though my performance wasn’t that good, I felt in practice—skill wise—I think I was the best I’ve ever been back then.

But you’re richer now.

I am a lot richer now. A LOT.

I need to you to say that exact quote. What did you say yesterday?

“I make more money, but I’m worse.”

That’s the dilemma, right?

It is, it is. I also mentioned yesterday that right now, I don’t mind. I don’t really care much what system they use. I think I would actually prefer playing against Koreans, but I think in ten years I’ll be glad it was like this. When I look at my bank account, maybe. StarCraft is quite a big investment of time. Like I’m not studying right now, and if I don’t make any money or don’t save any money, it won’t be a waste because it’s a lot of life experience, but it didn’t really prepare me for the rest of my life like money could.

Maybe it’s an age thing? Maybe when you’re younger you’re free to pursue becoming good for it’s own sake, this ideal thing. But now, you’ve gotta worry about money—you know it’s okay if you’re not being the best you can be, that it’s okay to be kinda good and make money.

Yeah, I think that’s a realization that’s come over me the past few years. I think otherwise I would have… ...I was really debating going to Korea next year. But it’s just such a big financial loss. The opportunity cost is sooooo huge. It could be the difference of 30, 40k in a year, maybe even more depending on how well you do. And in Korea, the only thing you really gain is respect from fans, community, maybe from your fellow players.

And skill.

You gain skill, but… ...it’s very difficult to justify it for yourself if you’re not really making any money with it. And I think it’s difficult to stay motivated, especially in an environment where there’s very little English speaking, and you don’t have as many friends as I have at home. I think it would be very, very tough on me,

You could say that this current system, it’s not about making foreigners better, it’s about keeping the foreigners alive.

Hmmmm… Yeah? I think that’s fair. I’m not sure… Like I think the 2014 system would work for Europe, but it would never work for NA.

It’s very difficult for me to think about exactly what would be the best system. I think a mistake that Blizzard has made over the years is that they’ve been very inconsistent, they’ve changed like what, every year? And they never really gave a system a chance. So 2017… Well I guess we can’t talk about that yet.

I think we do get a little better, but I think… ...that might just be LotV though, where we closed the gap a little. But it’s so difficult to judge where our skill is compared to Koreans because we haven’t played against Koreans in 6 months. The only time we did was in China, and those were not ideal conditions because two of our players got in through a Chinese fan vote, both of whom were Chinese; we had Toodming and iasonu. I won the day before, so I wasn’t in optimal shape—we had a little party the day before. I probably should have taken it a bit more seriously, but how many times had I won before?

So it’s very difficult behind those games, we weren't like the best lineup. And everything else has been online, so there’s a ping advantage for any player, so it’s difficult for me to say. So 2014 would have been the best for skill.

We can’t talk about the summit in detail, but what are your general feelings? Positive? Negative?

I think I’m positive. The thing that probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but that surprised me anyway, was with how in touch Blizzard is with concerns that are in the community on certain topics.

Yeah, the issue isn’t that they don’t know what the problems are, it’s more about “will they have the manpower and money to solve them?”

Okay, do you want to wrap up with a good, Korean-style outro?

Thank you to the fans, please cheer for me. I appreciate your support. Follow me on Twitter (@InvasionHarstem). Shoutout to the ROOT house! And thanks to Waxangel.

Textbook execution.