[Interview] Root Theognis by Niteshade

Niteshade:
Hey there everybody how's it going? Niteshade here! (And just making sure ive got the right button, hey there we go!)We are live here on twitch! (http://www.twitch.tv/niteshadesc2 ).
It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a very interesting individual, special to beyond the bunker is Root Gaming's Theognis, so TheOHgnis or TheOGGgnis what is it?

RootTheognis:
Uh theOGGgnis.

Niteshade:
Where do you get the name from if you don't mind my asking?

RootTheognis:
This goes way back well maybe 2003 when I first started gaming I was a little kid so I didn't have an identity so I just basically stole it from my brother, and then a few years later I googled it; like what the hell does it mean, and it just happened to be a Greek poet so it just kind of stuck from there.

Niteshade:
That's awesome - Today has been a pretty busy day for you actually, you just finished up doing your stream here but before that you had a really big show match with Liquid'Snute and I would just like to recap a little bit for the those viewers or people who didn't watch that game; Basically what it boiled down to is that Snute took advantage of your early expos and early Command centres and did some really nice roach timing. But then you came back by way of a straight up slugfest with some marines and tanks, shutting down his expos, and basically forcing his GG. And then in the other win you pulled off you did some really really kickass banshee play limiting his expansions and his economy and basically shut him down onto two bases. How do you feel about today's matches?

RootTheognis:
I felt pretty good going into it. I was a little scared obviously because Snute, he just won a major tournament and then when people look at the matchup and were like "wow, why is he up against Theognis this guy can't even get out of the championship bracket at MLG, he hasn't won a major tournament, so I was a little bit nervous and you know about the early game thing: Everyone was like "you are so greedy, so greedy, he punished you". I actually knew this was a slight risk i was taking because I know Snute is better than me, so I was trying to play a little bit economically greedy just so I could get an edge earlier on. That was kind of my game plan going in but people just thought I was being retardededly greedy, there was some thought to it.

Niteshade:
The payoff is if you hit those expos out early enough you can get that economy going it's going to give you this huge macro advantage especially against zerg where they are always going to try and be a base ahead of you.

RootTheognis:
Yeah - pretty much.

Niteshade:
Let's talk about 2012 - like you said, it's been a bit of a hiccup for the year, you placed 2nd in your Home story Cup north American qualifiers, you did MLG winter championship in the open bracket all the way to round 4 to be knocked out by rain, and you went to the losers bracket all the way to round 6 to be knocked out by Axslav in round 7. You had one HECK of a bracket in the Gigabyte E-sports LAN with Demuslim, Tails and Alicia, like that's such a huge lineup to go against. What did you learn from these tournaments?

RootTheognis:
I wasn't really happy with those results it was kind of lackluster results to be honest, I was expecting a lot but I did happen to learn a lot from them. For instance, playing versus really good players like that it exposes a lot of holes in your game. For instance, at the gigabyte LAN I played Alicia, and I'm really good if it gets to the mid game and late game where I am on even footing. That's actually my forte, But the early game I usually, as you can see with Snute I kind of fell behind just from the early game. It's a little bit weak and I am still working on that but that's kind of what I've been working on recently. Just trying to work on my builds and early game and scouting and stuff like that.

Niteshade:
So doing these tournament while they were losses, you pulled a lot of constructive work out of it because you can see where you are making small mistakes and where you can fix your game?

RootTheognis:
Yeah for sure, I get so much experience from playing all these tournaments, show matches, ladder so I am just trying to get experience in all the facets of Starcraft 2 competitiveness.

Niteshade:
With the things you've learned out of, for example like working on your early game,. how are you going to better prepare, just besides laddering, or are you going to work on coaching with other players within Root?

RootTheognis:
I haven't specifically talked to players in Root about strategy yet, a little bit for HotS but not for WoL I still just got back up from how I was so I've been playing again. I've been watching a lot of Proleague and a lot of streams just practicing and working on builds and refine my play. Just make sure I don't get caught off guard by anything specific.

Niteshade:
Recently you had a lot of hiccups with regards to training, changed teams from Quantic over to root, getting your internet up and running - can you tell me about that?

RootTheognis:
I kind of wrote about it in my blogs a little bit. When i went to the Quantic house I went all-in. I do have a degree in college but I basically said I'm going to take a year or two off and see how I do. So I went all-in with Quantic, so basically that was my job, and I lost it and it was pretty sudden so I was without a house. It wasn't an option to move back with my parents so I had to find my own place for a while and it was kind of hard because I stayed with my girlfriend for a few weeks and she just had graduated from grad school. So the internet was out so I couldn't play Starcraft at all. that was when I started writing my blogs because I was out of the loop for a few weeks. I just finally got my own place and started streaming and stuff now.

Niteshade:
So its good to be back online and get the fix going on again.

RootTheognis:
For sure I was in withdrawal for a little bit.

Niteshade:
I imagine you would be. 3 weeks without internet is pretty bad especially for a person who likes the internet as much as you do I am sure.

RootTheognis:
Yeah. I am an addict.

Niteshade:
I love it. Hey. Acceptance is the first step to a better you. MLG Dallas is coming up on the 15-17 of March - at least it's been quasi-announced by Sundance. What are your thoughts on that?

RootTheognis:
I'm excited! Its actually really interesting as it will be the first offline (not offline) technically offline tournament for HotS. So it's going to be interesting. there's going to be a lot of crazy strategies no one has ever seen so it's going to be pretty chaotic. It looks pretty interesting, hopefully I will be able to go to that.

Niteshade:
New years Is upon us, I know we are two weeks into it already. What was your New Years resolution (aside from Starcraft)?

RootTheognis:
That's kind of hard, since my whole life is Starcraft.

Niteshade:
Fair enough, then what was your resolution for starcraft?

RootTheognis:
I guess my resolution, I guess a short term resolution. but mine was I really wanted to make it, into E-Sports before Heart of the swarm came out. I really wanted to be known as a WoL player. Because, when players get really good early on in a game - they are like this guy is famous just because no one knows what the hell they are doing. So it's not like a legitimate, legitimately good. I didn't just want to be a king of the beta. I really wanted to be good at WOL and this end where the game is pretty much been figured out and be just really good. So I guess s my resolution is just until Heart of the swarm comes out I really want to make it big.

Niteshade:
With heart of the swarm coming down the pipe, how do you feel the community is going to transition - is it going to be a sudden jump over to Heart of the Swarm or do you think people will stay back on Wings?

RootTheognis:
I think that right when MLG comes out that, I'm pretty sure it's going to be 90% heart of the Swarm. Of course there are going to be people who will be Wings of liberty elitists. Its still like that for BroodWar. There are people still playing ICCup, still playing Starcraft 1 there just really elitists. for the most part I think its going to be completely a transition over.

Niteshade:
With HotS coming up, like you mention the ttournament coming up, and MLG in Dallas, which will probably be the first tournament coming out there. Have you been preparing for heart of the swarm?

RootTheognis:
I guess before Quantic Died, maybe before Christmas. I was playing 80% heart of the swarm. since I got back, I've been playing 100% Wings of Liberty. I don't have Heart of the Swarm installed on my computer yet. Probably in t he next week or two I will start playing exclusively HotS.

Niteshade:
There have been a lot of new units that have come out with heart of the swarm - how do you integrate the following units in to your play - Hellbats, Banshees (your obviously very good at) and then widow mines and they are a very new unit especially for Terran. How are you integrating these into your play? How are you dealing with Oracle Pressure? Also with tempests as well?

RootTheognis:
To be honest, I think one of my weakness is that I am not a creative player. I am more of a mechanical methodical player. I try to just practice a lot and do the same thing over and over. You can see it in my play, I pretty much like the same builds. Heart of the Swarm I've not been doing any ridiculously crazy builds. I've pretty much imported SC2 Wings of liberty builds and then put a little HotS flavor to it. I try not to stray too much and do some crazy stuff. I'm not doing Hellbat rushes or anything like that. I kind of open relatively standard, and instead of hellions, like hellion/banshee. You know where you usually get 6 hellions, I'd go 4 hellions and 2 widow mines. something like that.

Niteshade:
So you your adding units progressively into your game. You're not just completely jumping on board and saying okay, instead of hellions, were going all widow mine all day long.

RootTheognis:
Yeah for sure. It's been pretty successful too. A lot of people are doing crazy stuff, so against oracles I just try to pick a build that is pretty good against that, that isn't to crazy.

Niteshade:
Let's talk personal coaching. There's not a lot of guys out on the internet that are as qualified as you (if you don't mind my saying so) - Do you offer personal coaching? What is your current rate, and how do they get a hold of you?

RootTheognis:
I just started doing coaching recently. $20./hour, and if your interested you can email me at theognis1002@gmail.com . I've been trying to do it a lot recently. Before I never really was into it. I was just more into 8 hours of practice only. I have just been progressively been adding that to my repertoire.

Niteshade:
Favorite food and drink for the stalkers?

RootTheognis:
Favorite food - Well I would probably say my favorite cuisine would definitely be Korean. As for favorite food, it would probably be Spicy Pork or Samgyeopsal. It's really good. Really good. If you haven't had it you should really try it its really good.

Niteshade:
Favorite beverage?

RootTheognis:
Alcoholic or non-alcoholic?

Niteshade:
Pick one - well go with a "PG" answer. That being said we don't support alcoholism in E-sports.

RootTheognis:
Unless your 21.

Niteshade:
Unless your 21 and older and you drink responsibly and you don't drink and drive and all that other good stuff - and if that's the case and your relaxing with your friends and your having a good day, what are you drinking?

RootTheognis:
Arizona sweet tea.

Niteshade:
Favorite color? Shiny is not a color?

RootTheognis:
Blue.

Niteshade:
Do you have any hobbies outside of Starcraft? What do you do in your off time?

RootTheognis:
It's kind of funny, because I used to be a jack of all trades. I used to do everything. I used to DJ, I used to play tennis, I used to play ping pong., Ever since Starcraft 2 I've been focused on Starcraft 2. I feel like you can't do too many things at once, or else you won't be good at one specific thing. I guess right now it's just watching movies.

Niteshade:
I guess a bit of a film critic possibly down the road.
Just to interject to the guys in chat: Start pumping question into the chat, I will pick one out to ask Theognis at the end of this interview. Back to you sir.
Do you have any suggestions to new players that are aspiring to go semipro or pro?

RootTheognis:
The number one thing that be 100% sure this is what you want to do. Because this is definitely a hard journey. For sure. People might just look at "Oh MVP winning GSL. Oh, I want to be like that". Well of course everyone wants to be like that but it's really hard to do. Once you decide that you really want to do that. For a more practical answer more towards Starcraft strategy . To better improve yourself, I think that the best is to just in your mind to have a specific, or a perfect game, where you don't miss supply depots, perfect macro, don't miss a production cycle, perfect micro, Things like Where if your opponent makes a mistake you capitalize on the mistake,. end the game as quickly as possible if they do make the game ending mistake. Just have that in your head. And just try to achieve that. I think if you just think logically about the game you can improve at a quick rate.

Niteshade:
Any messages for your fans or viewers?

RootTheognis:
I would just like to thank my fans who have supported me so far. I know I don't have many huge amazing accomplishments just for the fans I have right now; thank you for supporting me.

Niteshade:
Just a quick shout out to your sponsors as well: DAS keyboards, Rush Order Tees, Avermedia and twitch. There will be links in the comments section below. Guys check these guys out. These are the supporters who help push the team who help push the players. Ultimately without the sponsors and your support to those sponsors as well as the players nothing happens in ESports. Make a point of heading over to those guys. Das keyboards, Rush Order Tees, Avermedia and twitch. Please please check them out, and check out their products. Das keyboard really makes nice products and Avermedia cards they are really really nice stuff. There is one last question, and I apologize, but its a good one actually. It's from Vince in the chat. The war hound, do you think the unit was completely broken, or do you think they could have been patched to fix it in HotS?

RootTheognis:
I actually like the concept of the War hound. I originally liked the reason they put it in there, is the terran army had too many moving parts, too many units you had to micro. the war hound was kind of like fill the role of a 1A unit. I actually really liked the concept because I think it's true, there are too many moving parts. You have to stim, stutter step, siege tanks ,target fire banelings, etc. I think the war hound was a good thing. They definitely could have patched it. But they could have taken away the Rocket Launcher (missiles) . (note: Haywire missiles). They definitely could have nerfed it, increased build time, tech - maybe need an armory for it. I don't agree with them totally removing it. They definitely should also replace the model as it looks like something from the 1990's or something.

Niteshade:
Something reminiscent of BroodWar?

RootTheognis:
For sure.

Niteshade:
Guys, First and foremost, I would like to thank you Theognis. Thank you so so much for joining me, and jumping on board with this interview, and its been a long time in the works and you stuck around and I can't thank you enough for that. I would like to thank Root Gaming for helping out as much as they have,. Guys if you're watching on YouTube or on twitch, check them out at http://www.root-gaming.com there will be links in the comments section below. Make a point of running over to Theognis's twitch at http://www.twitch.tv/rootheognis (only 1 t - no double t) and you can also follow him at twitter @rootheognis and make sure you hit the follow buttons especially for Theognis, He can definitely use the support and have those people watching him and use some fans. We can expect to see a lot from you this year. What do you think mike?

RootTheognis:
Hopefully so. I'm definitely working towards that.

Niteshade:
I honestly think 2013 is going to be a big year for you. So, Thank so much for joining me. Guys you can also follow me, make sure hit that subscribe button here on YouTube, and on twitch hit that follow button, and most importantly follow root gaming - and actually they just picked up Minigun and what are your thoughts on that mike?

RootTheognis:
Yeah he's really good. To be honest, I would say even before I joined root, when I was on Quantic, I actually thought Minigun was probably the #1 Amercian Protoss and I'm happy to have him on. I have actually messaged him on Skype saying "hey man you've got to practice with me" so hopefully I can practice with him soon.

Niteshade:
Thanks for joining me, and guys have a great night -well see you guys next time.

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