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1 Post
TL.net interviewed IEM Katowice 2020 champion  Rogue shortly after his 4-1 grand finals victory against Zest.
Wax: How does it feel to win IEM Katowice twice?
Rogue: It feels good to win it twice, but I'm more happy just to win the championship at all.
It seems like it will be quite hard for any other player to win it three times, so I want to aim at becoming the first three-time champion as well.
The finals were very one-sided. Did it feel that way to you, or was there something more tense going on beneath the surface?
I was able to play it out a bit easily because I knew a lot about Zest's style. I thought that if I played it safe, I might have a hard time like Serral. So I really thought I would have to go for some all-ins.
How did you break down Zest's style? Was it because of the many PvZ games he played this tournament, or because you're familiar with him through ladder play?
I haven't run into him much on the ladder, but he played a lot of vs Zerg matches this tournament and only used a limited range of builds, so it was a bit easy to break down his style.
You said you had originally planned to take it easy this year in your on-stage interview. Could you elaborate on that?
The game wasn't that fun for me so I was thinking I'd take it a bit easy, but I got a bit lucky and won the tournament, and I think that puts some fun back in the game.
How did you get lucky?
I made a lot of plays that aim at luck, and most of them ended up hitting. I cut out safe play completely, playing a lot of all-ins or baejae strategies [Baejae: doing risky builds assuming an opponent will NOT go for certain counter-options, thus gaining an advantage if one guesses right.], and they just worked out so well.
Do you play more macro-oriented when you're confident in your skills, and go for more risky strategies when you're not confident?
No, I just thought if I played safe, it would make things too comfortable for my opponents. They're all good players, and if I felt it would be too tough to play against them if I started off by giving them an advantage. So I just picked all-ins and baejae strategies.
I think the other players also thought that I had a safe style, so they only prepared for me playing safe.
In the foreign community, you became famous as the only-honest-Zerg after your interview last year admitting that Zerg was OP. How is Zerg now?
Honestly, I admit what needs to be admitted. But now, honestly, even though I won the championship, I think Protoss is really good right now.
So you beat Zest because he revealed all his strategies, not because Protoss is weak.
I think if Zest went for some different things, if he went for more mind-games, I would have lost.
In your quarterfinal interview, you wanted to see Maru vs Serral in the finals. Maru then said that wasn't how you really felt. Who's right?
Me, I just felt if I had that mind set, it would put me at ease even if I lost, so I said it because I wanted to go into the game with a calm mind. I do want to see Maru-Serral, but when I saw Zest advancing to the finals, I really wanted to advance as well.
What did you think when Jin Air teammate sOs typed "you will be a champ" to Maru as he GG'd out of their game, considering you were also in the bracket?
I didn't understand what that word meant, so I didn't think anything of it.
Any last comments to the foreign community?
I'm honestly really sorry to the foreign fans because I couldn't show them that many fun games.
The thing is, the way balance is now, it's tough if you play safe. I think the game needs to be patched in a way that players want to play macro games.
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Interesting read, thank you.
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I didn't understand what that word meant, so I didn't think anything of it.
Rogue sometimes can sound a terrible lot like Innovation.
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Interesting read! Rogue is much more honest and likeable than both his playstyle and his fans.
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Thanks a bunch! Always nice to hear from Rogue!
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I'm honestly really sorry to the foreign fans because I couldn't show them that many fun games.
This part made me sad. Anyway, impressive run by Rogue, good to hear some of his thoughts.
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The more and more that I hear from Rogue, the more I like him. Knock his playstyle all you want but he's a professional, and is going to play to win before he plays to entertain, and the best part about that is he doesn't hide from that. Hell, he even apologized to fans for it. That shows some incredible self awareness, and he comes across as incredibly thoughtful.
I agree with his assessment as well, that the game needs to be more oriented around equal standard play, instead of a game of build orders. I think that's the reason Serral has been so good the past couple of years. I'd argue he isn't the best player in the world, but is the best at scouting/map awareness and has almost unparalleled knowledge of the game. When he knows what you're doing, he's unstoppable, but when he doesn't he looks very, very shaky. I don't think he "feels" the game as well as others do. More volatile players have success against him (Hurricane, Reynor, Zest this tourney). Serral can see exactly what you're doing, react, and use Zerg's strengths such as scouting and reactionary mechanics (whatever you think about balance), and counter/overwhelm the build.
I hope when ByuN comes back (God-willing his micro is still top1), he will be able to abuse all-in mechanics to the point it gets the entire game looked at balance-wise. I think LotV was most enjoyable to watch in 2018 when Maru beat Dark at WESG. Lots of late game, but balanced maps with varied builds and styles.
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On March 02 2020 06:27 GoldenPaladin14 wrote:
The more and more that I hear from Rogue, the more I like him. Knock his playstyle all you want but he's a professional, and is going to play to win before he plays to entertain, and the best part about that is he doesn't hide from that. Hell, he even apologized to fans for it. That shows some incredible self awareness, and he comes across as incredibly thoughtful.
I agree with his assessment as well, that the game needs to be more oriented around equal standard play, instead of a game of build orders. I think that's the reason Serral has been so good the past couple of years. I'd argue he isn't the best player in the world, but is the best at scouting/map awareness and has almost unparalleled knowledge of the game. When he knows what you're doing, he's unstoppable, but when he doesn't he looks very, very shaky. I don't think he "feels" the game as well as others do. More volatile players have success against him (Hurricane, Reynor, Zest this tourney). Serral can see exactly what you're doing, react, and use Zerg's strengths such as scouting and reactionary mechanics (whatever you think about balance), and counter/overwhelm the build.
I hope when ByuN comes back (God-willing his micro is still top1), he will be able to abuse all-in mechanics to the point it gets the entire game looked at balance-wise. I think LotV was most enjoyable to watch in 2018 when Maru beat Dark at WESG. Lots of late game, but balanced maps with varied builds and styles.
Inno, stats, and soo all eliminated serral from premier tournaments last year and they aren’t volatile players at all. You know what to expect from them.
Byuns micro was never top 1 either lol.
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Great interview like always!
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On March 02 2020 05:25 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
What did you think when Jin Air teammate sOs typed "you will be a champ" to Maru as he GG'd out of their game, considering you were also in the bracket?
I didn't understand what that word meant, so I didn't think anything of it.
Good to know we can keep ruthlessly make fun of Rogue without feeling bad about him finding out about it 
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Northern Ireland14270 Posts
On March 02 2020 06:27 GoldenPaladin14 wrote:
The more and more that I hear from Rogue, the more I like him. Knock his playstyle all you want but he's a professional, and is going to play to win before he plays to entertain, and the best part about that is he doesn't hide from that. Hell, he even apologized to fans for it. That shows some incredible self awareness, and he comes across as incredibly thoughtful.
I agree with his assessment as well, that the game needs to be more oriented around equal standard play, instead of a game of build orders. I think that's the reason Serral has been so good the past couple of years. I'd argue he isn't the best player in the world, but is the best at scouting/map awareness and has almost unparalleled knowledge of the game. When he knows what you're doing, he's unstoppable, but when he doesn't he looks very, very shaky. I don't think he "feels" the game as well as others do. More volatile players have success against him (Hurricane, Reynor, Zest this tourney). Serral can see exactly what you're doing, react, and use Zerg's strengths such as scouting and reactionary mechanics (whatever you think about balance), and counter/overwhelm the build.
I hope when ByuN comes back (God-willing his micro is still top1), he will be able to abuse all-in mechanics to the point it gets the entire game looked at balance-wise. I think LotV was most enjoyable to watch in 2018 when Maru beat Dark at WESG. Lots of late game, but balanced maps with varied builds and styles.
Those games are pretty notable because Serral generally is so so solid in those aspects of the game.
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The game wasn't that fun for me so I was thinking I'd take it a bit easy, but I got a bit lucky and won the tournament, and I think that puts some fun back in the game.
Imagine. "Yes, I was lacking some form and motivation but I ended up winning the only non-invitational global tournament."
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sOs took quite a long time to figure out how yo spell champ and rogue doesn't know what does champ mean, guess that's how much starcraft they practice.
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On March 02 2020 06:27 GoldenPaladin14 wrote: I think that's the reason Serral has been so good the past couple of years. I'd argue he isn't the best player in the world, but is the best at scouting/map awareness and has almost unparalleled knowledge of the game. When he knows what you're doing, he's unstoppable, but when he doesn't he looks very, very shaky. I don't think he "feels" the game as well as others do. More volatile players have success against him (Hurricane, Reynor, Zest this tourney). Serral can see exactly what you're doing, react, and use Zerg's strengths such as scouting and reactionary mechanics (whatever you think about balance), and counter/overwhelm the build.
You say that as if scouting effectively is so easy to do and doesn't really require skill or knowledge. Serral can play in the dark. But playing in the dark, plus playing with an economic deficit is a very painful double wammy. It was totally on Serral to let his hatch get blocked 3 times, though. Zero excuse for that.
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On March 02 2020 07:56 Howard_Kao wrote:
sOs took quite a long time to figure out how yo spell champ and rogue doesn't know what does champ mean, guess that's how much starcraft they practice.
Good point, I wonder if he was trying to spell champion but couldn't figure it out, and remembered there is a shorter version. I'm sure most of them learn "champion" before "champ" right? Idk, total speculation, but kinda fun to do
Great interview, we need more Rogue interviews!!
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On March 02 2020 05:59 Xain0n wrote:
Interesting read! Rogue is much more honest and likeable than both his playstyle and his fans.
Not just Rogue.
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Rogue is a really humble guy.
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On March 02 2020 08:35 pvsnp wrote:Show nested quote +On March 02 2020 05:59 Xain0n wrote:
Interesting read! Rogue is much more honest and likeable than both his playstyle and his fans. Not just Rogue.
Players are pretty much always more honest and likeable than their fans on the internet 
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On March 02 2020 08:43 Nakajin wrote:Show nested quote +On March 02 2020 08:35 pvsnp wrote:On March 02 2020 05:59 Xain0n wrote:
Interesting read! Rogue is much more honest and likeable than both his playstyle and his fans. Not just Rogue. Players are pretty much always more honest and likeable than their fans on the internet
I'll agree on honest, not sure about likeable.
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