[Interview] MrBitter about past, present and future

Nimelrian: First, I want to thank you for having the time to do this interview. I wanted to do it at Gamescom, but both of us didn't really find the time to do so, as you had to cast games and so on. For anyone out there who doesn't know about you until now, can you give a brief history of you and what you have done so far in StarCraft, StarCraft 2 and the community?

MrBitter: Sure thing... I guess now I'm a full time caster for ESL. I cover ESL's weekly content like Go4SC2, and their larger events like the Intel Extreme Masters.

Prior to that I played on the pro-team VT. I wouldn't call myself a legitimate progamer, but I was at least a practice partner for some very strong North American players.

The thing that really got my name out there, though, was my "12 Weeks with the Pros" series, where I brought on different high level Zerg players from around the world and interviewed them, played games with them, and mostly, tried to pull as much knowledge from them as possible.

Talking about that, a lot of people heard of you because of "12 Weeks with the Pros" for the first time.

As far as I know, you did all of that, like paying the coaching lessons, on your own.
What was the reason to do something like that, as coachings are quite expensive, and when did you come up with the idea to share it with the community?

Honestly, when you look at what you're getting, StarCraft coaching isn't all that expensive. It would cost a hell of a lot more to get private instruction from Brett Farve on how to throw a football than it does to get someone like Ret to drill you on the importance of maintaining your macro mechanics.

That said, I understand that a lot of the StarCraft community consists of younger people who don't have jobs, or might not make enough money to justify spending a few hundred bucks on some StarCraft lessons.

That's why I decided to stream my own lessons. There was a huge demand in the community for that knowledge. I was just lucky enough to be the first guy to make it really accessible.

"12 Weeks with the Pros" was not purely about Zerg, you invited some Protoss and Terran players as well, qxc and White-Ra as an example. Are we going to see some more of the "12 Weeks" in the future?

Yes! Honestly, my inability to consistently crank out quality strategy related content has been a real disappointment for me.

In the past two months I've literally been all around the world. China. New York. London. Germany. I haven't had much time to just sit down and create content.

Luckily, that's going to change very soon. We will be producing a lot of Terran focused content very soon, and it will be featuring some of the best Terran players in the world.

Tentatively, I'm hoping to kick that series off next week.

As you brought Germany up, you moved to Germany about 3 months ago. Was it a big change, especially in culture and social life?

Yes, of course. Any time you move half way around the world, there's going to be some adjustments to make.

I'm from a slow, easy-going town in the Southeastern United States. Our days are a little bit longer, and so is our drawl.

Cologne is definitely a change, but it's been a very pleasant one. I've been to a lot of big cities in my life but Cologne is easily one of the best I've ever visited. The people are incredibly friendly, the night life is incredibly fun, and life here, in general, is just a blast.

It's been an incredibly positive experience. The German people have been so welcoming, and every day I'm excited to get up and go to work... Just being able to say that makes me smile.

Are you happy to be working at ESL and did you ever imagine working at one of the largest eSport-companies of the world?

I'm very happy to be with the ESL, and no... I definitely never foresaw this.

Honestly, I never intended to work in e-sports. I just love StarCraft and I love e-sports. Through that passion I got involved in the community, and through that involvement, some companies noticed me.

It's been an amazing experience. I couldn't dream of a better life.

Your last stops were the IEM Guangzhou in China, as well as the IEM New York in the USA. How was your experience of the event and the people watching it live at the venue?

The Guangzhou and New York events were within two weeks of one another, and those countries are literally on opposite sides of the globe.

Jet lag and exhaustion are the first two things that I think about when I look back on the events.

But aside from that, the experiences were generally very rewarding. Travelling is awesome by itself. Travelling to talk about and play StarCraft, amongst other StarCraft fans and players is just icing on the cake.

In regard to the events directly:

I think IEM China was a fantastic event. The games were great, the results were surprising, and the stories coming out of the event were amazing. IdrA making an amazing resurgence, beating his teammate Puma, and ultimately winning in the final was just awesome.

I would be lying if I said I was as satisfied with New York as I was with Guangzhou. It was great to be back in the states, and some of the games were absolutely awesome. Seeing Gatored beat Top, for example, was very special.

But, unfortunately, MLG was happening that same weekend, and try as I might, there's nothing I can do or say to make IEM bigger than MLG. At the end of the day, our event was overshadowed by a bigger show in Orlando.

There's nothing wrong with that - it's inevitable that these events will overlap on occasion, and it's ultimately good for e-sports as a whole, but on a personal level, it's always a bit disappointing when you put your heart into something, and it gets overlooked.

IEM, NASL, IPL, MLG. We see more and more big events establishing themselves in the western scene (Europe and North America). Do you think that this shows the growing of eSports in the western culture?

Obviously it does. There's really an amazing demand for e-sports related content in the West right now, and I think it's becoming more and more obvious that we're witnessing the birth of an entirely new industry.

As long as people continue to love video games, e-sports won't go anywhere.

Taking a look on StarCraft 2 and its players. We do see a lot of old Brood War faces, like Boxer, IdrA or White-Ra, but also a lot of new faces, "migrating" from Warcraft 3 to StarCraft, like Stephano or HasuObs. A lot of people in the community say that especially the Warcraft 3 players lack the macro-abilities of the former Brood War players. Do you think so, too?

No, not at all. I think if you restrict your scope to the foreign community, that the most successful players have been Warcraft 3 players.

There was a bit of a gap when the game was first released where War3 players showed too much reliance on things like unit control, and not enough on macro, but, quite frankly, macro in StarCraft 2 isn't that hard, so it didn't take long for them to catch up.

Now the game is at a point where everyone macros at around the same level, and it’s the players with better positioning, control, and tactics are the ones winning tournaments.

Who are the powerhouse foreigners? White-Ra, IdrA, Ret - yes, these guys are seasoned BW pros.

But we can't forget about Naniwa, Thorzain, Stephano, and KiWiKaKi - players who have arguably shown better results.

Obviously I'm leaving a lot of players out, and I want to be very clear - I do not think that BW players are worse at StarCraft 2.

What I do think is that it's absolutely wrong to say that War3 players aren't as good.

StarCraft, now older than one year, has seen a lot of changes regarding balance in the last year.

There was a discussion if Blizzard should wait a longer period of time before changing something, to give the players more time to adapt.
One example is the change of Neural Parasite this September. Players learned to deal with and developed tactics to avoid getting their Colossi or Siege Tanks parasited, until the change arrived.

Does Blizzard change balance/abilities/units too fast?

I think Blizzard has done a really good job of balancing SC2. I don't think they move too quickly or too slowly... It all seems very calculated and correct.

Something I think people need to remember is that while Wings of Liberty is an amazing game, it's still only 1/3 of what StarCraft 2 will ultimately be. This game has changed a lot since beta. It's going to change a hell of a lot more before it's finally "finished". Take each change in stride and be happy that the developer is staying so close to it. It really speaks volumes for the future of the game as an e-sport.

Blizzcon took place last weekend and we had the chance to take a look at Heart of the Swarm, the first StarCraft 2 expansion. Will there be any problems regarding tournaments and players, as they all have to adapt to a whole new game, once HotS is released?

Nah, it'll be fine. When HotS is released (assuming it's not released like the day before a big tournament) everyone will switch over immediately.

It's exciting and awesome, and everyone that's connected to e-sports knows it. It will bring back all the Wings of Liberty players who quit playing, and it will garner tons of new interest from people who never played at all.

The only problems I can foresee are the moments of rage we will all experience at the hands of the Terran Shredder.

Last question: Do you have any advice for new casters and those who want to become one? How do they get into the scene and how do you get as spot as caster at one of the big companies/tournaments?

I get asked this a lot. Yes, I have tons of advice:

1.) Play the game. Nothing annoys me more than someone who advertises himself as a caster, only to later reveal that he plays the game at a gold level. I'm sorry guys, but you have to understand the game if you're going to talk about it. As a caster, it is your responsibility to sell StarCraft 2 to your audience. A gold league player selling SC2 to an audience is asking to buy a Rolex on the streets in Chinatown.

2.) Get out there and network yourself. Go to events. If you are serious about getting involved in the community, you're not going to do it from your couch. At tournaments, everyone is accessible at some point. Shake hands, meet people, develop contacts and be social. I know it's hard for nerds to put themselves out there, but at the end of the day, we're all nerds who are all passionate about StarCraft and about e-sports. We don't bite. Come say hi.

3.) Invest in yourself and invest in the community. This is another thing that gets me a bit steamed. There are too many people out there that just want recognition or to be popular, or for someone to recognize them somewhere so they can have their 5 minutes. This isn't the way e-sports works. This isn't the way the world works. You get out of e-sports what you put into it. Day[9] is where he is because he has always broken his back to give back to the community. Before iNcontroL was the superstar he is now, he was promoting StarCraft, and promoting e-sports by being involved in the community and giving back to it. I am as good of an example as any. Nobody knew who I was a year ago. I didn't do my show to make myself famous. I started "12 Weeks with the Pros" because I love StarCraft, and I wanted to share that with people. When you have that kind of passion, and when you share it, important people notice.

4.) And the most important one of all: Just go fucking do it. There are a million reasons not to do something. I talked myself out of moving to Germany to work for ESL at least 20,000 times. But nobody ever got anywhere by doing nothing. Take that road trip to an MLG. Buy that coaching lesson for $100 from your favorite pro. Walk up to Sundance and tell him who you are and why you're awesome. All that awaits anyone who doesn't do those things is regret.

Thanks once again for having the time to do this interview, I wish you and your upcoming projects the best of luck!

Have a good evening!

[Interview] MrBitter about past, present and future

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