UC Davis Spring 2012 Open Tournament Interviews

How did you get started with playing StarCraft II?
Initially I thought to myself, “Why not? I’m Korean, so technically I should get it.” Some of the first few video games that I played were computer games. I like Red Alert, Command and Conquer and stuff. So when the game came out, I thought might as well just get it, no harm.

Did you play a BroodWar back in the day?
A little but not very well. Those cheat codes were too good. Power overwhelming was all I needed to finish the campaign.

Why did you pick Terran as your race in StarCraft II?
I picked Terran because it was the most familiar after playing games such as Red Alert and stuff. It was the most mechanical so it felt easier. But the balance wasn’t there, I mean those Super Weapons were just so good.

When you started playing StarCraft II, where did you start off?
I pretty much started off in bronze that first season, but towards the end of the season, it was ridiculous how many more points I had relative to the second place guy in my division. My first game was on Scrap Station and losing to some clocked banshee rush. From there, I went for a fast turret in order to not die, but then zergling rushes kept killing me. That season I managed to get over 400 games in before the ladder restart went through. God, that was a stupid amount of games at the time.

That’s a crazy number of games. Do you have any memorable games from that first season? Some battle-cruiser rush perhaps?
Well no actually. I’ve had some games that were really stupidly close, where it just comes down to first losing everything but you somehow have a massive comeback. It’s just incredible to somehow win those games. You probably should have lost, and you know it too.

I know what you mean by those type of games. Those comebacks make me feel so good.
Yeah, especially when you were on two base the whole time against a Zerg that is taking the entire map. But then you manage to get that one push that manages to get across the map and kills everything. To then get to their tech, kill everything there and when your army engages his, yours is just so much better for some reason.

Must be those marines.
No… I’ve had games where I’ve floated the last building I have with my army, just taking it with me. There’s just one building left, and I’m going to defend this building with my life. Going to go around with this building and try and kill all the bases of my opponent.

So how did you hear about the Davis team, and how did you get more involved?
I don’t actually remember, I think it was completely by luck. I happened to come across it. There wasn’t really that much advertisement at the time, it depended if you had already known someone who was in the club to really find the club. It depended on just playing a lot of StarCraft and then either someone would mention the club to you or you would just accidentally find it by randomly typing in UC Davis StarCraft into Facebook.

What’s your goal of playing right now? Is it just to get better at the game?
It’s just to have fun with it. If I get masters that would be cool, but if you don’t whatever. It’s a fun game, and for me its stress relieving.

Stress relieving!?
Funnily enough yeah. You can take a break and watch TV show or you can play a ladder game for 30 minutes and then go back to studying. Compared to many of the other games, it’s actually strategy based. I imagine it like chess on steroids with all the pieces moving at the same time.

Do you have a favorite unit?
That’s hard. I’m going to go with the Raven. Raven’s are just cool.

Do you wish they were more viable?
They are actually really viable, but they’re just really fragile. And they’re worth a lot of gas, but funnily when I go bio that doesn’t really matter since you end up with a lot of gas.

What do you think about this season? Did it go the way that you expected or do you look forward to the next one?
I have managed to get better, but I’ve been hitting a lot of long losing streaks. Really drawn out losing streaks. I don’t really mind at this point.

How do you deal with those losing streaks?
I just keep playing now. I don’t care anymore. At a certain point I just stop caring and continue playing. I’m getting BM’ed by silver players but I just ignore it and just keep going. I just going to practice my mechanics. Get all those supply depots and macro there.

Do you have any advice for new players that might hit a similar streak?
I think the best phrase is “More GG, More Skill”. There are two different ways to lose a game. You can lose because of the skill difference, or you can lose because you made a critical mistake. Sometimes I forget to research stim and other times my opponent is just that much better than me.

Would you consider yourself more of a strategist or mechanical player?
I’m going to go with strategy. Initially when I started this game, I depended on what I was seeing to create some kind of response. I actually kind of understood what I was seeing and then for the most part I was able to predict what they were doing, and that helped a lot when I was playing against Silvers or Golds. Mechanically, my macro was terrible. So garbage. So it all came down to micro and unit compositions I made from my scouting.

In a year from now, if I were to interview you again, where do you think you’ll be?
It would be kind of cool to be Grandmaster, since our team is missing that Korean Grandmaster. But I hope to just get good enough to be able to play for the team.

In the current ladder pool, what maps do you veto and why?
I veto Korhal Compound because your third is so far away and feels impossible to hold. Every single game that I play on that map I’ve been either nydus wormed or baneling busted. I also have Tal’darim Alter vetoed simply because it is such a huge map. Even as a Terran player, I enjoy playing on that map, but too many times I end up playing an hour long intense macro game on that map that I just want to play smaller maps now. I kept thinking I was going to go crazy after every game on that map. Finally, I veto Metalopolis because it’s really hard to attack later on in the game, since with only two attack paths, it’s really hard to do anything.

What’s your favorite matchup?
Currently, based off of how I’m playing, I’m going to have to say TvT. The way that the matchup works out is really chess like with a huge emphasis on positioning. I don’t really get that many tanks at all anymore. For me it, it comes down a lot to macroing and hitting the perfect timing when all my opponent’s tanks siege. TvT just seems easy to me right now.

What’s your worst matchup then?
Right now, with the current metagame, I would have to say TvZ. Zergs have figured out a really strong unit combination with a huge number of infestors, zerglings, banelings, and ultralisks. What’s the hardest for me is how aggressive a lot of Zergs are expanding with this unit composition, so it’s really hard for me to do anything.

If you could buff one Terran unit what would it be and why?
This is a pretty hard questions. The overall Terran units synergize together pretty well. I would like for the Vikings to have a bit more armor, since you need to survive the corruptors or stalkers.

If you could nerf one unit from either of the two races, what would it be and why?
It’s hard. The Protoss army is hard to deal with until you get a lot of ghosts to land a lot of EMPs. Maybe the infestor so I can win more games! But overall, I feel that it depends more on the player to just become better to overcome these shortcomings. In TvZ I want to start getting more ghosts in order to deal with the infestor.

Do you watch a lot of the professional scene?
Lately, I don’t watch a lot of the GSL lately since it’s getting harder for me to stay up. I watch a lot of the DreamHack and MLG though when they are available.

Do you have a favorite player?
There are two players that I really enjoy watching. DRG is just really good and MKP has a really unique style of playing the game. It’s hard to pick one since I as a Terran I want to say MKP but if I were Zerg I would end up picking DRG.

As both a student and a gamer, how do you balance the two?
If I have a midterm, I won’t be playing that much or at all when I’m preparing for it. Otherwise, if I have the time, I try to fit in a few games there and there.

What other things do you do?
I participate in the community service clubs such as Circle K and the K-pop club. Pretty much any club where I can meet people I’ll try to go at least once. Also, I try to go to the ARC as often as possible, or at least should. And, being out there and trying to meet more people.

You mention Kpop, what’s your favorite band?
I’m going to go with, as a group, Big Bang because of how unique they are. But it’s hard, because of how long I’ve been listening to them, I have to consider Shinwa who just started to have their comeback. Also, IU is awesome. She just graduated from high school is already so talented and successful.

Can you sing the songs?
Not particularly, I can’t really sing on command.

If there was one song that you had to listen to on repeat for a whole day, what would it be?
Hmm, that’s hard. I would have to go with a song called “Get Ready” by Supreme King because it gets you really pumped up. But there are so many good songs that it’s hard to say anything specifically.

So if I took you out to karaoke, you wouldn’t back out?
Maybe!

What other music do you listen to?
Mostly I just go to my music folder and hit play all and listen to what comes up, Lately, I’ve been mostly listening to the kpop songs and the instrumental stuff. There really aren’t that many songs that I dislike. Anything that sounds good!

If you had to eat one food, and it can’t be rice, for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I would have to go with Korean BBQ! There isn’t anything better than it and I wish there was somewhere in Davis that would offer this.

What are you studying right now?
I’m currently a Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior major, and think… hoping premed! Got a little GPA boosting to do though.

So that’s pretty much all I have. Any last thoughts?
I would like to thank the UCD StarCraft Team because we are that awesome. Our 19-1 was really impressive, but not enough to make it to the CSL review. Next year, we’ll be beating everyone for sure. I look forward to the upcoming LAN. I haven’t been playing that well recently and have been having a massive losing streak. But if I can get out of this slump, I have a decent chance to make it a few rounds in with a little luck.

How did you get into StarCraft II?
I started playing BroodWar when I was 10, when it first came out I got it. I didn’t play it competitively I just played fastest map possible, EDH. I played a lot of WarCraft III when it came out as well. I didn’t play it at a competitive level, but I started to play a lot more 1v1s. Then when StarCraft II started to get announced, I didn’t manage to get in the first waves of beta, but when it was announced that if you preordered the game you would get into the beta, that’s when I managed to start playing StarCraft II. So that’s what I did.

What race did you play back then?
Protoss, I’ve been playing Protoss for two years.

Why did you pick Protoss at first was it because of BroodWar?
It was actually because of chrono boost. It was l8ike “I could build myself faster” which is way cooler than larva. I just though t it was so much cooler than WarCraft and BW mechanics.

Was it hard to transition over from WarCraft III or BW?
Not really. You have to understand that it’s a different game, so it transfers over in that you’re controlling units, but the game itself is much different. I just played more StarCraft II and it wasn’t a problem really.
When you started off where would you say you were?
I placed into platinum and then made it into masters pretty much when it came out. I’ve been there since the beta. I would really like to make it into grandmaster some day, but that’s a lot of work. The closest I’ve been would be around 2 seasons ago when I was going 50/50 against them. I stopped practicing after that because of school, and haven’t been able to get closer.

Was there a season where you went from an alright player to top masters? Or was it pretty steady?
I wouldn’t say that I’m that good now, but it was actually last year. I took two quarters off of school and that’s when I started to play a lot of StarCraft and became really good. That’s when I started to get better and play against grand masters.

So now that you’re back in school, how do you balance the two?
To me, school comes first. StarCraft to me is just a game. I mean its really fun, but if you want to get really good it takes so much time, and tis really hard to find the time sometimes. School first and then StarCraft, and then working out.

Would you consider yourself a mechanical or strategy player?
Oh definitely mechanical, that’s why I lose so much to grand masters because my understand of the game isn’t really that high. I have one or two solid builds for every matchup and that’s what I do for practice on the ladder. But yeah, my understanding is really low, it’s kind of weird. My “understanding” comes from playing it so much and not wanting to die.

Would you say you have a favorite unit?
Definitely chrono-boost! But if it has to be a unit, I would have to pick the Stalker. There’s just so much that you can do with that unit. I mean, when Parting was playing MKP the toerh day, he showed us that you can micro to their death, and its kind of ridiculous.

What’ s your favorite matchup?
Has to be PvP.

PvP!? Isn’t that just a lot of coin flips?
I don’t think so, it depends on the map. As long as there is a ramp that you can force field, I feel like I can guarantee a win. With maps like Tal’darim I would rather play a PvT, but PvP in general a lot better. I’m able to open with phoenix and it allows you to get such a nice control of the game.

So would that make PvZ your least favorite matchup then?
I wouldn’t say I have a least favorite, but I have a really hard time in PvZ. Zergs have figured out a lot of good timings for both offense and defense, and I’ve been having trouble getting around those timings. It’s like that in every matchup, but it’s much more pronounced in my PvZ. I should just cannon rush every game, just become a nicer combat-ex.

How’d you hear about the UCD team?
Actually my buddy from back home, the guy that I started playing StarCraft with, told me that I should check the CSL since it looked really cool. So I went on the website and it looked really awesome. So I signed up and then later I found on Facebook the club. Afterwards, the Davis coordinate got in contact with me and I went to the meetings and from there it just started.

So the 2012 year wasn’t the best year?
Yeah… I really wish that I had won my games. The UCB match on Tal’darim I put so much work into it but I missed a pylon. It’s the highlight of my career in the CSL, but yea… I honestly didn’t put that much effort in my other matches, just a couple hours were spent preparing. But yea. That UCB match.

Will you continue to play for team?
Sure if they want me to play. I mean, the CSL is a team of skill, and other factors. I’m totally down to play, and I’m down to practice, but since that I’m not an ace or solid team player, and I’m not always playing or practicing, it’s a really weird on and off kind of thing.

What’s your goal? Hitting GM?
It’s not actually my goal, it’s something in the back of my mind and it would be nice, but you kind of have to wait. I’m not huge in being a GM, but I would like to keep playing GMs, I guess my MMR.

What’s your motivation for playing these days?
To get better? I never really thought of that. I enjoy the game so much. I can just play the game in my spare time and have fun. Or I can try to master the game and that’s quite stressful, but also really fun.

What’s a standard practice session look like for you?
Mostly ladder for me. I don’t really have enough contacts to have a group of practice partners and I don’t really enjoy working on a specific matchup. It’s something that I would like to workon in the future, but right now, its pretty much just a lot of laddering. It’s hard to schedule practice time since everyone that I know aren’t pros and they have school and other things which makes it hard to figure out timings. Err time for practice. It is something though I would enjoy working on.

So what are you laddering experiences like?
I’m really streaky on ladder, and right now, it has been bad. I’d win 10 games in a row and then lose 10 games in a row. After around 3 losses I go on tilt but I actually start to mess up a lot more. Like I’ll cancel a nexus or warpgate at some point randomly. When I hit a loss streak I just want to keep laddering, as stupid as that sounds. I know that probably the best thing to do would be to look at the replays and analyze the games, but after a frustrating loss to a cheese or dumb mistake, I just want to get back in quickly. Lately I’ve been trying to stream more, and actually that gives me a lot of motivation. Even if there is no one else watching, I feel like I’m playing for more than just myself.

Are there any memorable game?
No not really. Most recently I managed to play Idra on ladder. I tried to do a 2 base allin with blink and it was on Entombed Valley. I started moving out, but there were already creep tumors up my natural and I panicked. I tried to back out, but it was bad news bears from then on. And against someone as good as Idra you can’t really win when you try to “transition” out of such a harsh allin.

Do you keep up with the Pro scene?
I do! I like to keep up with the GSL and other tournaments. You can learn a lot from watching people play or stream, like hero. MC just messes around. When hero is streaming, you are watching the best

So would your favorite player be?
Hero is my favorite player no doubt. People would say Parting now, but Hero is just so interesting and intense.

Have you gone to any live events?
No not really. But I did recently go to IPL 4 and it was so fun and crazy. Obvious I mean it was in Vegas. I went to one LAN back in the bay, the Hardwire Gaming LAN. That was really cool. That was my first LAN competition, and I didn’t do as well. The next one that I went to that they hosted I did a lot better. In the fall LAN, I got cheesed out and I want to get my revenge in this upcoming tournament.

What’s your mindset as you approach a series game?
I approach the games the same way, since I don’t really know any of them, and I don’t know what they will do. So instead, I just want to practice a lot of ladder and get used to reacting.

Ever thought about joining a clan?
It would be awesome to join a clan that could sponsor me to go to places, but I can’t really join. The scene is developing, and lot of money in the top players, but there isn’t that much money in helping players get better. You have to first win and get better and then get picked up. I’ve been playing a lot of playhem and I know that I just can’t keep up with the macro of all those players.

What are you studying right now?
Exercise Biology. It’s pretty amazing. I’m only taking one right now, but all the ones I’ve taken are really interesting, and it’s what I want to do in the future, as a nurse. It just that all the information is so interesting, with all the improvements your life health and the people around you. It is completely worth it just to have that longer term advantage.

One piece of life advice for all those out there?
Exercise more! People just don’t exercise enough here in America. Hit the gym, walk your dog, just do something. It’s really fun and it’s a nice way to relax.

Do you see yourself still gaming in the future?
On the side, of course. I should start a nursing clan! I’ll always be an advocate for gaming, I grew up gaming. I used to play HoN a lot, and would like to get back into DotA2 now that its getting popular.

Did you play –wtf mode in DotA?
Yeah! I used to play that. Who did I play… actually does it even matter, you just get Dagons! The whole game just became a race to level 6, but it was really fun to play still.

So I have to ask you, where did your handle come from?
It’s actually the name of my teddy bear that I’ve had for 20 years. When if first got StarCraft II, I but my name Kai on both, and I thought that was really lame. You can’t just use your first name for something like that. Usually its something I have laying around, but BoBotheBear managed to fit and I just used it. On ladder, a lot of people would think it’s from Yogi Bear and then Bobo, but that’s not where it’s from.

Alright, that’s it for this interview. Any final words?
I want to thank the UCD Team for putting me in the CSL. Great guys. To Bach, my good friend. And the people who just play online. There’s no need to bm, just play the game for fun. I’ll also planning to start streaming daily from 8-9 PM daily at http://www.twitch.tv/bobothebear. I’ll have some good music playing all the time as well, so I hope you check it out!

How did you get into StarCraft 2? Did you have a BroodWar background or was it just a game that you found?
BroodWar was the first computer game that I ever played. I just played customs but it was really fun. Dragon Ball Z All Saga and Cannon Defense. Then I swapped to WarCraft III. I didn’t really start playing the game until Frozen Throne came out, but once I did start, I got more into 1v1s and learning the game. I played a bit of DoTA, but mostly focused on learning and getting better through the 1v1 games I played. Then StarCraft 2 came out, and I just bought it. It was an impulsive buy, but I enjoyed it and I started playing.

From WarCraft what race did you play?
Night Elf.

And did that influence why you picked Zerg for StarCraft 2?
Not at all. I thought that the Kerrigan Icon looked the coolest and I figured that if I was going to get 1000 wins I might as well get the best looking icon. I thought that the Nova icon looked alright too and started with Terran, but eventually switched to Zerg. I like the play style as Zerg, and with a little bias, I feel that it’s the race that requires the most amount of skill. It’s just really fun to play.
I gave up tournament wins and Code S just for an icon!

When you started off, was it hard to transition from WarCraft 3 to StarCraft 2?
Not really. I played mostly through the campaign on brutal at first. I’m a campaign nerd, and I liked watching the movies and missions. You need okay mechanics to do that and that improved me a bit. I started with playing Terran and got placed into Platinum and quickly moved into Diamond. I then switched to Zerg because I thought it looked more fun. So I just changed and queued up a lot of 1v1 games and would watch IdrA’s stream as often as I could and copy what he did. FruitDealer was probably one of the biggest inspirations for continuing playing Zerg back in the beta.

What was some of the most annoying things that you had to face early on when you were playing Zerg?
The most annoying things at the time were the 5rax reaper. And 4gate. Before the warp gate nerfs, the 4gate would hit at a very hard to defend timing. It was really tough at the time, and no one really figured out how to hold it effectively. It just came at some of the hardest timings for any Zerg.

What would you say was your style back then?
I goal every game was to just make units and survive. I didn’t really have a style at the time, and I didn’t really allin that much back then either. Just focus on playing standard and going muta/ling/baneling or roach/hydra. Pretty much just whatever IdrA was doing. And then when the infestor buff came out, I tried to change my style. I went to infestors for a while and that was pretty successful, and then changed back to muta/ling in order to improve my mechanics, and that ended up working really well for me.

What would you say was one of your most important games?
Hm, that’s a tough one. I wouldn’t say that I’ve played an important game yet, but I have played against a lot of good players. I’ve taken quite a few games off of players like Select or oGsVines, which is pretty fun, but those are mostly ladder games. I haven’t had as much success in tournament games, making it to the semifinals a few times but then losing and stuff like that. Hopefully one soon. Possibly the one this weekend. That’s what I’m training for.

What would you consider your standard practice regime to look like?
A lot of it is practice games. Trial and error. Whenever I play ladder, I’m not playing to win, but rather just playing to figure out a build. I’ll go watch a VOD of a game, write down the build, try to figure out why the player is doing it instead of just blindly doing it, what they are looking for when they scout and try to execute that build properly. Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of Stephano and Violet replays, and think to myself “Why does Violet put this down here? What’s the cause of this?” I try to start thinking more like a Korean Progamer or French Progamer, however you want to look at that. And I copy their builds, their basic openers, because they know their timings really well and everything works out pretty beautifully. I then take these builds to ladder and try to make them work no matter what. I lose quite a bit of games trying to make these builds work, but that’s part of the learning process. You lose a lot of games and you try to find the holes in it. Sometimes the build that you use is just not good against what they did, so you have to learn a new one or tweak it. But a lot of it is just trial and error.

Do you have any primary inspiration, like you mention Stephano and IdrA?
In the past it was IdrA’s and Nestea’s builds. I would watch them in the GSL. I really like Slush’s builds. I think he is the most underrated Zerg in the world. He’s taken games off of NesTea at MLG and he always does really well at tournaments. Really really good all around player and always at the top of GM. Crazy good win/loss. Probably one of the most innovative Zerg’s that I’ve had the pleasure of watching.

If you could give zerg one buff what would it be?
I would buff the hydralisk. The hydraslisk needs more health flat out and it has definite speed problems. I don’t want to make it too overpowered, but it gets countered too easily but too many things. They can be a decent counter against very heavy forcefield allins, maybe by giving them one extra range. Maybe just a little more health, so it wouldn’t be overkill, It’s pretty useless in most matchups, even in ZvZ. If someone makes hydralisks, they generally just die because Roaches are so much more cost efficient and you max out so much quicker that the hydralisks won’t be able to show their DPS before they get killed.

If you could give one nerf to the other races, what would it be?
I would nerf the Protoss’s force fields. I honestly would just remove it from the game. Well, maybe not. Now that I’m thinking about it, this would probably really hurt the balance in the early game TvP. Either that or the colossus. I think that the colossus is just a dumb downed unit. All the splash units in the game require some kind of micro, banelings you have aim them and make them hit the right things. Siege tanks you have to position them right. And colossus you just have to a-move them and they’re really powerful. And forcefields you just can’t micro against them. It is actually entirely on the Protoss. If they mess up, then they’re dead but if they place them right, there isn’t much you can do. If they hit the perfect forcefields, they win. I don’t think it should be that way, where it all depends on one player. Both people should have an equal chance to micro against it.

When you hit a losing streak, how do you get off it?
I’m pretty notorious for tilting on ladder. Not the nicest person on ladder when I tilt. I’m trying to fix that. The best advice that I can give is to take five minutes and do something else. Sometimes I’ll play the guitar. The best advice really is to just take a break, no matter how much you don’t want to end on a losing streak. I’m not the best person for this though, since I don’t even follow my own advice all the time.

So many people who play StarCraft will never have a chance to play a best of series. How do you approach them differently?
I look at everything logically and statistically. I take the players into account, what sort of builds he does. If the map is good for an allin, for example ZvP on Metalopolis. It has a really wide open natural and an allin has a really good chance of working against a FFE. So, what I’ll normally do is just always open 14/14 on that map, which denies scouting, which forces at least a few cannons regardless of if I’m going allin or not. On the other hand, Tal’darim is a really large map and you want to use mobile units on that map, it’s a good macro map but the rocks at the third make it really hard for ZvP. Some maps are better for mutas and some better for infestors. The more open wide spaces trend towards mutas. Smaller maps would lead towards some type of 2 base all in.

If you had to play a monobattle, what unit would you hope to get?
Roach. The almighty roach. Every Zerg player loves the roach. Probably one of the staple units of the zerg.

What kind of advice would you give to a new player?
In order to improve, you should just get a build, learn it, and work on pure mechanics before you try to figure out the subtle things. It does sound a little bit bad but you don’t want to get into the habit of scouting other bad players at the lower levels and see odd things. Instead, you just want to get a little higher than you should be, and let your builds and mechanics carry you. From there, you expand your play. Physical mechanics at first, and then you start to learn all the options in the game, and in order to do that your physical mechanics have to be really top level.

You mention that you watched IdrA and NesTea in the GSL. Do you pay a lot of attention to the tournaments around the scene?
Yes, I’m pretty active about watching the tournaments, not as much recently because I haven’t had as much time because of school. But I used to always watch just about every GSL game. Sadly right now, there are no Zergs even in the Round of 8 Code S, so I’ve neglected watching that. Not going to stay up to watch TvPs and PvPs, no offense, I still love the game, but yeah. I almost 100% of the time I’ll watch IdrA if he’s in a tournament. Die hard IdrA fan. Regardless of what people say about him, he’s one of the top foreigner players and he’s really fun to watch.

Do you have any future plans?
I’d like to go to an MLG over the summer. I know I’m going to miss Anaheim because of school , but I feel that if I practice enough I might be able to make it to maybe Raleigh, not sure where it’s going to be held. Hopefully sometime around the end of summer. It would be great if I could have a great open bracket run, and hopefully make it out, but that ‘s a lot of practice still, and I’m going to have to take down Koreans.

How difficult is it to be a gamer while attending a university?
School’s the most important by far. You have to limit yourself to your play, you don’t really want to burn out, maintain a decent social life. You only go to college once really, so you want to get the most out of it as possible. Obviously if you are passionate about gaming, you’ll be able to find the time for it, you can sacrifice other things for it. But school’s still the most important, make sure you get enough sleep, attend lecture, and prepare.

What are you studying right now?
Economics. Not 100% sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’ll probably know in a year, maybe two.

How did you end up finding the UC Davis StarCraft team?
I got interested in the CSL last year, before I transferred here. I heard about the CSL and it looked really fun. After I found out Spanishiwa was coming, I thought that there was a good chance we would have the strongest team out of everyone. So I went around and found the people in charge and that’s how I ended up finding the club.

How is it like playing on a school team as compared to a sponsored team?
The variety of players you play is giant. One week you’ll be playing a diamond and the next week you’ll be playing a sponsored professional grand master. I haven’t really been on a professional team before, but the CSL seems pretty casual for the most part. You don’t have coaches, but rather a group of players who are trying to win the whole thing.

What do you do outside of StarCraft?
I haven’t been playing guitar as much as I used to. It takes a lot of time of playing it in order to be decent, and I just can’t find the time anymore. I actually go to the gym a lot. As un-relaxing as that sounds, I find it really relaxing and if I go by myself I have a lot of time to think. When I’m lifting, it allows me to release any type of physical stress that I have, and it feels really good.

How much can you lift?
That depends what I’m trying to lift. A measure for bench press is 205lbs. My goal for the end of the year is 250 lbs.

How heavy are you?
150 lbs.

Dang, I can barley life my own weight....
Are there any other games you enjoy playing?
Well yes, there is another game. Have you heard of a game called DotA 2? Which is simply amazing. But I’ve pretty much decided that StarCraft will be my main game, since its too hard to find a group of 5 people who willing to go professional in that game. Whereas I can just logon and pubstomp anytime and when you lose, you can just trick yourself into that it’s your teammates fault.

Is there any type of music you enjoy listening to?
I’ll listen to anything. I have IdrA’s playlist which is pretty much dubstep and Kayne West. Its pretty good to play to actually. I also have a bunch of metal I’ll listen to if I’m in the mood for that. I also have Stephano’s playlist which is a bunch of classic rock, and it brings back a lot of nostalgic memories of first getting into music listening to Led Zeppelin. So I really enjoy listening to that. That’s it about it for music.

Any final words?
I’d like to give a shoutout to audio builds (link). It’s my sponsor for StarCraft 2 and they flew me out to Raleigh. They’ve supported me a bit for my StarCraft 2 career and they’re just great all around people. If you’re new aspiring player check them out it’ll help you out more than you can imagine. And if you’re a high level player, it’ll help move your game to that Korean level. Guaranteed.