CG Player of the Month (January): Mill.Goswser

Goswser did great in Iron Squid. He qualified in the North American Qualifier, and fought bravely his way to the Ro16, beating MMA and Genius in the pool play. He was very fun to cast, Goswser has a very unique style, sneaky style, some may say, but still very entertaining. He did take the first two games versus Life, the new Iron Squid during the Ro8. Close enough for a first Iron Squid!

Michael, congratulations on being Clarity Gaming’s first Breakout Player of the Month! How do you feel about this momentous occasion?

I'm very happy

You somewhat recently made the transfer from Complexity to Millenium. Can you talk a little bit about the difference in the two teams perhaps?

Both of them are very prestigious organizations in eSports. I really enjoyed my time in Complexity and am friends with many of the players. My move was mostly because I felt that training in Europe in the Millenium team house would be beneficial to me as a player.

You're also one of the first (if not THE first) player to make a transfer from one foreign team with a training facility to another. Is there a notable difference in the two environments?

In both training houses you have a lot of freedom in how you choose to train, some players prefer more custom games and some train more on ladder. The millenium house serves as a lot more than just a gaming house, there is a lot of content produced for the french scene here as well, and many people come through it. I would really like to train in Korea when HOTS comes out, in either a KeSPA or eSF house.

How about the move to France, how has it been moving to a country with a language barrier like that? Does it affect your training environment at all?

Everyone associated with Millenium has pretty good English, so this isn't a problem. I mostly train through ladder and customs with the other Millenium players, and I don't think the language barrier is harming my training. Whenever we go out in the city, usually the locals don't speak very good English though.

With regard to recent developments, how do you feel about being the last American eliminated in the recent Iron Squid tournament?

I'm proud of my performance. After I saw the French crowd at the live event, I was so disappointed that I hadn't beaten Life, because playing in front of that audience would have been amazing. In the eSports scene, you need to constantly keep winning, or be a major personality to continually grow your audience though, so I am practicing harder than ever and playing in as many online events as I can.

You beat MVP in convincing 3-0 fashion, followed by a close 2-3 defeat against arguably the best player in the world[Life]. How did you prepare for such important matches, despite it being an online setting?

I studied 20-30 games of MVP, and wrote down every build and notes about where he placed his tech buildings on each map. Then I choose my vetos based on what I saw from this, and prepared specifically for every map. I scouted for every strategy he had played on those maps before, and had counter builds prepared for what I expected him to do. Against Life, I had no preparation at all. Because I was traveling to Vegas for Hyperx, I played Life only 1 hour after I beat MVP. So I just used builds I thought I would have success with, and it went well for the first two games, but my mindset crumbled after I started losing to him.

Western players have continually been having difficulty defeating Korean players. Do you think that the gap between Westerners and Koreans is growing or shrinking?

There is only a gap because of how many foreigners practice. If you practice enough you can eliminate the gap. I think a lot of foreigners are close to Korean skill level, but there are also a lot who are far behind.

What is it that inspires you to continually improve your play? Will this award help serve as additional inspiration?

Every defeat and every victory inspires me. I can't stand losing, and I love winning. This award is great, but nothing is as important to me as competition.

What are you seeing as your greatest hurdle? How can you go about fixing that?

My greatest hurdle is developing my professional image and gaining fans. Winning games is much easier. Any wrong comment can alienate so many people. I am just trying my best to become a better person and show people that I am improving myself. It is so hard right now for up and comers to gain fans. For instance last week I played in the MLG KOTH, and won 4 games in a row in front of 4000-5000 viewers before they ended the stream for the night. I only got one new twitter follower in the next few days. Gaining fans and followers is so difficult these days.

2013 is already shaping up to be a good year for you. What are your goals for this year? What is your biggest focus going into the 2013 season?

I don't set goals in terms of my performance, although I would love high placings in premier events. My goal at the start of every single game is to win this game. My biggest focus is to improve myself and gain fans and followers.

Who would you like to thank for helping you get to where you are? Has any one person had a particularly significant impact upon your career?

Thank you to Complexity for sending me to tournaments and signing me to the main team. It is so hard for up and comers these days. Thank you so much to Millenium for signing me and bringing me to the Millenium house. When my contract was ending for complexity, it was so hard to find a new team. I talked to all the major teams, but even when I told them I would sign for no salary and no travel, none of them were interested in me. The market is very difficult right now, and my only two offers were with Complexity and Millenium. I'm so thankful to these two teams for believing in me. The players who I am most grateful to are EGHuK and LiquidRet. When I was a no-name player on the North American server, LiquidRet was very nice to me, adding me on real id, and telling me I could spectate some of his custom practice games sometimes. I'm also really grateful to EGHuk, for being an awesome person. Also thank you to the Millenium sponsors, Numericable, Winamax, and Cdiscount.

He was almost always doing something Starcraft related...often it was watching VoDs...