EPTUPDATE
This is the video interview we conducted with Mondragon at the MST6. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as the written one.
I also would like to point out that Mondi is a total kick ass guy! Meeting him and talking to him in person was awesome and he really is the laid back guy who comes across in his interview answers. Once again a big thanks to Mondragon for participating in our event!
Written interview conducted prior to the event:
Hey TL,
I want to share something with you guys which is kind of special to me. As an avid Broodwar & StarCraft II fan I organize BarCrafts and LAN tournaments in Munich, Germany. In the last two years our events have grown quite big and can be considered to be the biggest BarCrafts as well as Germany’s biggest grassroots StarCraft tournaments. Our next event will be Munich StarCraft Tournament (MST6) for which a very special player has signed up.
Christoph "
Mondragon" Semke is a German Zerg player and the leader & founder of ToT) - Templars of Twilight. His most notable achievement is placing third in the WCG Grand Finals 2007, where he beat sAviOr in the group stage. It’s no overstatement to call him Germany’s most successful Brodwar player of all time and a Broodwar foreigner legend. When I saw his name pop up on the signups list for MST6 I couldn’t help grinning like a cheshire cat.I asked Mondragon if he would be okay with an interview prior to the event and being a total baller he agreed. So with no further ado this is the interview with Mondragon on his past, present and future, his thoughts on gaming, ESPORTS and career opportunities, Broodwar and StarCraft II as well as local LANs. Have fun with the interview!
The original interview was conducted in German and can be found on our website: http://munich-starcraft.de/mondragon-interview
Thanks to TigerKarl for translating!
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Hey Mondragon, please tell us and the people who might not have heard of you who you are!
My Name is Christoph Semke and I used to be quite decent in BroodWar. I consider myself as a friendly person and I'm not satisfied with getting 2nd - no matter when or where. So for me it's pretty easy to find motivation and to strive after success, while remaining a down to earth guy.
Where are you from and what brought you to Munich?
I've lived near Nuremberg for 20 years, but after finishing my master studies there, i went to Munich for work.
It's certainly no exaggeration to label you as the most successful German BroodWar player and even in Starcraft II you made a great stir with your Roach play in TSL3. But after that you completely disappeared from the scene, so what happened and what have you done since your TSL3 performance?
There are various reasons, when a new game is published you've got to put a lot of time into training the basics and that just wasn't possible for me. Now that has become impossible for me because of my job. After TSL3 I put a lot of focus on my studies and private things. During that time I was "only" able to be active as a manager for Team Acer.
What did you study and what are you planning for the future?
I got my bachelor degree in business administration and my master degree in finance, auditing, controlling and taxation. With that graduation you can actually apply for a lot of different jobs, but I'd like to focus on controlling.
Why did you decide to focus on your studies, even though a lot of players and community figures saw you as an exceptionally talented player?
Gaming was a great hobby, but when there's no opportunity to turn it into a job and to make a good living of it, then you shouldn't stick to it for too long. E-Sports hasn't reached a status yet, where you can compare it to a decent job and since my studies went pretty well for me and allowed me to get well-paid jobs, I preferred to walk that road and to see gaming as a pure hobby, that I can enjoy when I've got time for it.
![[image loading]](http://munich-starcraft.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ToTRo32.png)
Were there situations in your studies or working life, where you benefited from your gaming career, or the other way around?
I think that every activity that you perform on a high or professional level will help you in your daily life and especially in your job. You learn to train and fight for success, to deal with pressure and to adapt to new situations quickly. And the most important realization is: You can ONLY achieve your goals when enjoying the process.
What would you describe as your most important lesson from your gaming career for your life?
Every loss is valuable experience. You can draw positive conclusions from defeats that have a positive effect for future efforts. As I said before, you have to fight for success and adapt.
What were your individual qualities which allowed you to become one of the best foreigners in Starcraft BroodWar? Your special talent so to say?
I think that I'm a pretty fast learner. That wasn't just the case in BrooddWar, but in general. I can adapt quickly and as soon as my passion has been raised, I can't stop until I'm one of the best.
Where do you see the biggest differences between BroodWar and SCII? What game do you personally enjoy more?
The way I see it, BroodWar requires more multitasking and skill. SC2 takes a lot of tasks away from the player, for example by multiple building selection, auto mining etc. Because of my much bigger success in BroodWar, I prefer that game.
When you hear the word "Starcraft", what picture comes to your mind?
ECG 2005 at CEBIT in front of hundreds of spectators where I won clearly. WCG Seattle 2007 where I won against sAviOr and managed to stand on the podium with the German flag.
![[image loading]](http://munich-starcraft.de/img/mondi.jpg)
What happened to Templers of Twilight, the legendary BroodWar Clan you founded?
ToT was completely shut down. I think you have to find the right moment to stop with such a thing and I guess the release of SCII was the perfect moment for the most famous and prestigious team to retire. We had such a great time together, I think we contributed a lot to the development of E-Sports in SC:BW and everyone who was involved in or supported ToT can be proud of that.
How did you find out about Munich Starcraft Tournament?
I knew MST a long time, but this is the first opportunity to attend since I moved to Munich in September. I'm not really playing SC2 anymore because of my limited time, but still such a tournament is a great thing. I still consider myself as a gamer and I'd love to play, even though I won't have enough time to practice a lot.
What have you heard about us and what are your expectations?
I hope to meet a lot of people and to have fun together. I'm positive that it's going to be a cool day for everyone involved. I really appreciate it when people organize something like this. Thanks to Mike and everyone else on the MST team.
What's your opinion about the players attending MST6? Where do you see yourself in the ranking and what are your goals? First place ez pz?
Honestly I don't know who is attending and if there might even be pro players. No matter what, I will enjoy this tournament and I don't think that first place is realistic for me, due to my lack of training, but we're going to have fun nevertheless!
Thanks for the Interview Mondragon. Any last comments?
Thanks to you and your team for organizing MST6. I'm looking forward to meeting you and playing some exciting games!
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Thanks for reading TL! I hope you enjoyed the interview and got something interesting out of it. I and the whole Munich StarCraft Team want to thank Mondragon for taking the time to answer our questions.
![[image loading]](http://munich-starcraft.de/img/events/mst6/munich-starcraft-logo.png){kind=logo}
Further information on the Munich StarCraft Tournament:
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://munich-starcraft.de/img/forums/mst6_forums.jpg)
The MST#06 is already the sixth installment of Munich’s Starcraft 2 LAN tournament. In a time and age of area-wide broadband internet LAN parties have become more or less obsolete. In order to combat the trend of anonymous online cups we host big local LAN tournaments since June 2011. Up to 80 players meet on Saturday morning in order to determine Munich’s StarCraft 2 champion in a 10 hour tournament. Our goal is to give the participants the exciting feeling of an offline tournament while still being a friendly, laid-back event. Just like our slogan puts it: Starcraft with friends!
MST#06 takes place on Saturday December 8th and 7 tournament spots are still up for the grabs!
FACTS
• 4000$ in cash and hardware prizes
• Up to 80 players
• Big 1v1 Tourney
• 2v2 Mini Tourney
• Minimum age 12
• Free for spectators
• Only 10 Euro entry fee for players
• Live stream by inStarCraft TV
• For Bronze up until Grandmaster players
• Use your own mouse and keyboard
• Bring your own laptop/pc
• Big chill out and spectator area
• Live broadcast on big screen
• Pizza, drinks and food will be sold directly at the venue
IMPRESSIONS
![[image loading]](http://munich-starcraft.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DSC1261.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://munich-starcraft.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DSC1306.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://munich-starcraft.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DSC1409.jpg)
TL TOURNAMENT THREAD: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=380867
TOURNEY INFO: http://munich-starcraft.de/turnier
SIGN UP: http://munich-starcraft.de/anmeldung
