HerO, Revival Interviews - WCS AM Ro16 Winners

Proleague is a tournament where a lot of Protosses appear, so we see a lot of your PvP. On the other hand, we didn't get to see much of your PvZ, are you confident in it normally?

Honestly, of all three match-ups, vs. Zerg seems to be the most difficult one right now. I haven't been able to get a clear idea of it yet, so I'm just in a situation where I'm learning it little by little.

You had a very close game with RorO in the Proleague. After you won that match, did you gain a lot of confidence?

Just because I won that match, it's not like I gained a lot of confidence in PvZ or anything. Just, I felt like I was on an upswing because I got the 3-kill.

Still, isn't PvZ a lot easier than in Wings of Liberty?

I don't know, I dunno if it's easier. I can avoid the brood lord infestor combination.

If we look at your style, in the beginning you used a lot of stuff like warp-prism harass, things that required a lot of micro or multi-tasking. As time passed, it seemed you've adopted a more standard style. Do you feel so as well?

Because I was too stubborn about using my own style, my win rate was good at first. But as I started to get read by my opponents, it seemed like my win rate became worse. I felt the need to play more solid, so these days I play mixing up this and that.

If you look at other players, they use a lot of skytoss, but you didn't show it today. Can you use it well? Or are you still a bit uncomfortable with it?

I use it on ladder occasionally, and I do know how to use it. I just... I don't know, I don't have a clear feel for it yet, I'm still researching it.

If we look at your recent games, well your old games too, you cannon rush a lot. Strangely you don't seem to get stopped that much, is there some secret to using it well?

I don't know if there's a secret. You have to get lucky too, part the strat definitely is left up to luck. It's not an all-in, not a complete all-in, It's just something I do to try and start off with a little advantage.

It's called WCS America, but you beat the two remaining North American players. What do you think about that, and this tournament?

Well, there's still Snute from Liquid, and mOOnGLaDe who advanced.

Still it's a bit... Korean players coming to a North American tournament and sweeping it all up. Don't you feel a bit bad for them?

Yes, even thinking about it myself, it does seem to be that way. If I could have it my way, it would be just me as the lone Korean, and the rest are all foreigners, Americans. That would be nice. But realistically, that's difficult, I just hope as many of them can advance as possible.

Honestly, from the perspective of a Korean player, doing it this way is great. But from the perspective of a viewer, or other people involved in the industry, do you think WCS would be better if it had more regional restrictions?

Honestly, thinking about it from a viewing perspective... It's an American WCS, and if there's a lot of Koreans, all Koreans like this, it does seem like it would be pretty boring. But this was decided by Blizzard at the start, so personally, I don't really know.

viOLet forfeited his participation from this tournament, meaning another championship candidate has dropped out. So looking on from here, what do you think your chance of winning is?

I can't give a certain answer. Regardless of what happened to viOlet, I have a kind of good feeling, that I could win the championship if I work hard here. It's that kind of situation for me.

Then is there is a particular player, particular race you want to face in the quarter-finals?

Nothing specific like that. It will be fine as long as I don't face the players I'm living with in the house, EG-TL players.

Even if you don't win, if you just reach the final four, top five, you get the right to play in the season finals. The six WCS Korea representatives have been determined – looking at those players, are you confident that you could do well even in the season finals?

Those players are definitely good players, but they're still players who I'm always facing in Proleague. So I don't think that I can't beat them. I just feel it's all the same. If I work hard, then even the season finals, I don't feel there's any more reason I would lose.

A lot of people are wondering this... Snute, and NaNiwa? – are at the team house. You've played with those guys, how's their skill, those two?

In Naniwa's case we haven't played against each other much. We just played ladder on our own, so I don't really know.

I think Snute is very good, really. It seems like he's similar to Korean Zerg style, but he also has a clear style of his own. Just overall, the Korean players on EG-TL, we all think he's good and think well of him.

So that game against Free [debut match in Proleague], he wasn't able to play up to his ability there?

Yes, I thought it was a given that he would win then, but from what I heard he made some hotkey mistakes, and because it was his first Proleague match I think he made a lot of mistakes in general.

By the way, are you eligible for Proleague rookie of the year?

Yes I've heard so. I didn't have expectations at first, but people around me keep mentioning it to me. Of the candidates, they say I'm the most likely to win it.

The prize is like 3 million won? [around $2,700]

Yeah, I heard it's around 3 million. So that's an unexpected bit of motivation for me as well.

Reaching the playoffs isn't technically impossible, but very difficult for EG-TL. What's your mindset going forward?

Well, just... Of course, if we reach the post-season that would be great. But to make it, we have to win all of our remaining games. Honestly,it does seem very hard, but still I plan to grab onto even just a little bit of hope and do my best. Even if we don't make it, doing my best till the last, that's my goal.

Okay, then, any final comments?

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The spore crawlers were buffed, so there's not much muta vs. muta. What do you think now that it's moved back to a ground based match-up?

I think for me it's better. Even in WoL, I didn't use mutalisks that much. Mutas being weak to spores is better for me. A lot of builds are possible, so I think it's more fun and better.

You personally eliminated the remaining two North American players. What do you think about that?

Ah... well... I don't know what the fans will think about that. I guess it's possible they may not like me for it.

It seemed that the tournament side is pretty depressed about it. [It's a joke, I didn't actually ask anyone at MLG]

Yah, I guess they could think about me that way. I'll be better in the future and become a better player, so I hope people will cheer for me.

I talked to coach Park for a bit, he says you are very good when playing in practice or online. On the other hand, when you play in a broadcast game, things just don't go well for you. Do you think so too?

Playing SC2 till now, I think that right now my skill is at the highest point it's been at. Like, not that I'm at 100% of my potential level.... but I think right now I'm in the best position yet to get a good result.

I do tend to get nervous a lot, I think I have a lot to fix and adapt to.

You moved to Evil Geniuses after being on TSL. Is the atmosphere very different?

At TSL it was a kind of free atmosphere, there was a lot of free time. Now, at EG, we play Proleague, so there's a kind of pressure, in the schedule. So we play much more systematically, and I think maybe that helps us get better.

If you look at twitter or match interviews, the ex-TSL players seem to still be very close. Do you agree?

Ah, honestly, I'm not that good at keeping in touch. I have a kind of introverted personality, so... But if I meet them, it's like family. I think so! We're all close.

What do you think about Polt? He gets a lot of compliments on his career choices.

Career choices?

That going to the USA was a masterstroke, his ex-teammates seem to say that a lot.

Yes, since he's able to play WCS North America, I think he's made a nice decision, the best.

The Ro8 picture has become much clearer, is there anyone or any race you want to face?

First off I don't want to play against Zerg. I want to play ZvT. I'm most confident in that, so I want to meet a Terran.

Do you think you could win it all?

Yes, I think it's fully possible. If I get lucky.

You could reach the season finals by reaching the semis in WCS America. The WCS Korea players there are really skilled, do you think you could do well against them?

The player that I think is the best is Innovation. If it's not him, then I'm confident against anyone.

In Proleague, there IS a possibility of reaching the playoffs, if you win every single game from here... Do you take some confidence back to Korea, since you're doing well in foreign tournaments?

Yes, due to WCS I'm finding some confidence. If I could go on with this momentum in Proleague, find my pace, and my teammates do well... There still is hope, so we should keep trying hard.

Any final comments? Anything you want to say?

I really want to try harder in the future, and continue to play games for the fans. I want to earn the fans' respect. My image right now isn't that good – I will work harder to fix that in the future.

Evil Geniuses Sponsor Line-up conveniently included as Revival didn't remember due to not having done a live interview for EG: Thanks to RaidCall, Monster, Kingston HyperX, Razer, Astro, Intel, In Win, and Beyond Gaming. Also ZAM and Split Reason which were not on his shirt, but happened to be on EG's website.