mensrea Interview with WarCraft3 Champion HeMan

I've pretty much lived my whole life in Sweden.

mensrea: Cool. An interesting background. Now tell us a little about your background as a gamer…

HeMan: I've been into games in one way or another as long as I can remember.

I'll sum up for you some of the more serious tournaments I've been in where the competitive quality of the players was high:

- 3rd at Replayers Invitational Tournament
- 3rd at ESL Swedish League
- 1st at Lan Europa qualifications tournament
- 3rd at WGTour ESWC online qualifications tournament
- 1st at WC3L Clan League as Clan SK season 1
- 1st at WC3L Clan League as Clan SK season 2
- 3rd at Swedish Gaming Open Lan
- 2nd at Swedish ESWC Qualifications Lan
- 1st at ESWC Lan Tournament - France

I've also won numerous small/less important online tournaments and I've also held the #1 War3 ladder position twice using different nicknames.

My first major international tournament was CPL Cannes, but I wasn't prepared well enough and I ended up choking. I figured out what a big difference it is to play from home compared to a big event with a lot of pressure against good experienced players in front of an audience. Nerves and being able to play with different configurations than you're used to is a big element when playing major LAN events.

mensrea: An impressive list of accolades. And yes, I agree that LIVE events are fundamentally different from playing online from home. By the way, why "HeMan?" Is this your usual ID?

Alborz: It started off as a smurf/fake account, but I got too lazy to change it--; Anyway, it's not so bad since HeMan is my favorite cartoon...

mensrea: So, a lazy HeMan. By the way, I recommend you stick to one ID throughout your playing career - it makes you more recognizable to fans.

Alborz: haha Yeah, I know.

mensrea: So, how did you get started with War3 specifically?

Alborz: I started off with SC/BW like most of the WC3 players. But, I didn't really play seriously at the competitive level until much later. The problem was, by that time, it was simply too difficult to break through as a new player since there were already so many gosus out there. Fortunately tho, talk had already started circulating about the new WC3 BETA, so I figured I could give that game and try. I started playing War3 competitively right from the beginning, and I managed to distinguish myself on the ladders. Doing well on the ladders back then actually meant something - it wasn't just a way of practicing.

Anyway, I did well on a Swedish LAN, and after that it
was a lot of jumping from clans/sponsors and Europe's top "pro teams." And I finally ended up signing with SK (Schroet Kommando - www.schroet.com -_-;; ).

mensrea: haha, was that a plug? Your corporate sponsors must LOVE you.

So, what race do you play? Or rather which is your favorite race? (By the way, this question is for the benefit of my readers. I know the answer already...)

Alborz: Terra - uhm, I mean, HUMAN. -_-;

mensrea: haha, why did you choose Terr - uh, HUMAN.

Alborz: I picked Human from the beginning because I felt they were the weakest. When WC3 was new, the game wasn't balanced at all, and people agreed Human was the weakest race. You got instant respect if you had a top ladder Human account back then. Just like it's respect playing and doing well with Protoss these days ^_^. The funny thing is tho, Human isn't an aggressive race, which doesn't really fit my play style, but, on the other hand, it pays off playing a style your opponent isn't expecting --. Anyway, I've been playing Human ever since.

mensrea: I think that's also the reason why Medusa (the winner of the 1st OGN War3 league and the runner-up in the 2nd one) got so much repsect in the beginning because he won everything under the Korean sun using Human. Quite unexpected.

Ok, let's talk a bit about your fantastic win at the ESWC.

Alborz: ^^ ESWC is the best event I've ever attended. It was just perfect in so many ways. They paid for everything - food, hotel, travel and so on. It was also excellently organized and everything just flowed so smoothly. The whole event was a big show, with a super mega big screen and a huge stage, almost comparable to the BW StarLeague finals in Korea. They also had cute things like a pulse monitor showing the players' pulse when playing on the stage - funny as hell. The quality of the players was also outstanding. Pretty much everyone that managed to qualify for the ESWC had serious reputations already and I gotta admit I feared a lot of the players.

mensrea: Feared? Who, for example...?,

Alborz: SK.MaDFroG especially. I didn't have a very good record against him going into the tournament ^^. Also, SK.Insomnia/Mr.x because he's a top-level player even when he'a having a bad day. FatC also. And, of course, ALL of the top seeded Koreans. I was sure a Korean would win :O.

mensrea: Speaking of winning, did you expect to do so well at the ESWC? BE HONEST!

Alborz: Not at all. I didn't prepare well enough. I was busy planning the trip just days before the event. Actually, it wasn't even for certain that I was going untill about one week before the start of the ESWC (this had to do with the cheating incident involving DiDi/Inso/Kur). So, anyway, I just took the attitude that it would be a cool trip for free and I didn't have any expectations in terms of how well I'd do. I just went to have fun. But, with a good day here and there, some luck and some practice (I did play a lot before the qualifications), I managed to get on a roll and keep winning. I think I should also mention that my practice sessions with MadFrog really ended out paying off big time.

mensrea: Well the two of you met in the final, so yeah, I bet they did! You're both from Sweden, correct?

Alborz: Ya, we live like one hour from each other. We met with the help of wc3. -_-V

mensrea: Hey, unfair advantage, man. Like Boxer and Garimto living together and comparing strats all the time...

Alborz: hahahaha ^^ --v I'm pretty fortunate in some ways because most of the players that qualified for the OGN TFT tournament are Undead players, so frog will be a great practice partner for that, as well...! ^_^

mensrea: Poor Frog - he's like your practice boytoy. Suggest you take him out to dinner if you end up winning the OGN event also.

Ok, we talked about some of the players you were looking out for prior to the ESWC. So, who impressed you the most in the actual tournament?

Alborz: Frog, tod and myself.

mensrea: Goddamn Swedish conspiracy!

Alborz: ^^;

mensrea: Oh, wait, tod's from Sweden isn't he? Or France..?

Alborz: France. He just left armateam along with fatc.

mensrea: Ok, fine. A goddamn EURO conspiracy then.

Alborz: hehe ye--v

mensrea: Tell us your impressions of the Koreans at the ESWC. Who did you play against and what did you think...?

Alborz: I played against Showtime.werra and rex.jojo. Jojo was in the same group as me in the first stage, and I was really nervous before playing him (we both went 2-0 vs the rest of the group). We played on the big stage, and I was pretty much agressive from the begining and won both games 2-0. Next was against ShowTime (seed #1) in the second stage group play. I showed up one hour late or something and everyone was wondering where I was-_-; Anyway, I played like I did against jojo - rushing, pushing and pouring on the aggression non-stop. I managed to go 2-0 against him, also.

mensrea: Yes, I caught one of the reps. You did seem very aggressive. One thing I remember thinking was how the Koreans seemed vulnerable to rushes to their main when no one was home and also how ill-prepared they seemed to deal with opponents who use tower rushes. Any thoughts...?

Alborz: Yea, the Koreans played well, as expected, but I think they were too used to playing against Korean-style Human users - almost always going for the fast expo. That's why my aggressive strats worked. They weren't as prepared for it. The fact that a patch had come out just prior to the ESWC with a lot of anti-Nightelf (ShowTime.Werra's and Rex.Jojo's race) changes also may have been a factor working against the Koreans. But, anyway, it was clear they were only used to playing against a fast expanding Human. It's a Human style that seems to be popular among Korean players. Almost all Korean Human players opt for the fast expansion whenever they can. And I used this trait to my advantage when playing against ShowTime and Jojo. They played me like they would another Korean Human user and opened with a lot of risky strats, prolly expecting me to go for the fast expo like Korean Humans do, and leaving themselves vulnerable to early rushes. I just kept up the pressure from the beginning and if I didn't win the game right away, I would manage to cripple them or at least damage them enough to take control of the rest of the game.

mensrea: I see. So, would it be fair to say that the Koreans may be "in-bred" in terms of the kinds of strategies they are exposed to, leaving them vulnerable to non-Korean style strats?

Alborz: Exactly. I also thought that their openings were very risky, altho it worked VERY well in mid/late game which you could see in the ShowTime vs SK.Zeerax match.

mensrea: Right... Zeerax was one of the pre-tournament favorites, but the Koreans seemed to be able to handle him pretty welll.

Do you believe Sweden has the strongest War3 players right now?

Alborz: It's hard to say, but we're top 3 for sure

mensrea: Name YOUR top 3 in Europe (countries I mean...)

Alborz: Sweden, France, Bulgaria/Germany. Bulgaria has fewer players, but the ones they have are really good.

mensrea: Ok, let's talk about the invitation to Korea. How did that happen...?

Alborz: After I finished #1 and MaDFroG #2 at the ESWC, we got an invitation from OnGameNet to come to Seoul for one month and play in their first War3 TFT (The Frozen Throne) league. But even before we knew about this, SKELTON contacted us about a sponsorship deal that would let us stay in Korea for 6-7 months to play. We would also join up with a team of Koreans to play in a new team league that is being planned [NOTE: The Shuma OGN War3 Team League]. I'm leaving for the ONG TFT tour soon, but nothing is sure about the sponsorship deal yet. Still a lot of talk going on (latest news was that they wanted to invite even more foreign WC3 players to form a non-korean pro team, but this is still being talked about - nothing is sure) [NOTE: Since the interview, HeMan, MadFrog, Insomnia and others representing the best non-Korean War3 players in the world have joined Team Intel.] But, both I and Frog agreed to accept any sponsorship deal which would allow us to stay in Korea for a longer time.

mensrea: How do you feel about going to Korea? I mean not just you, but also MadFrog. It must be great going with a person from your own country - crap, practically your own TOWN!

Alborz: Well, not exactly the same town, but close enough -_-; It feels great, I would probably not go alone, and I doubt he would go alone either. So, it feels good like hell and I bet we will have a great time even if we don't do well in the Korean leagues.

mensrea: Yeah, great experience no matter what happens. Ok, so how do you feel about the upcoming OGN league? Any thoughts?

Alborz: I think its gonna be hard as hell. Many newcomers managed to qualify and they're really good. Even ShowTime's losing to these guys. The quality of the gamers is very high. --v

mensrea: Do you have anyone in mind in terms of someone you're watching out for? Maybe even Madfrog, perhaps...? Put another way: who do you worry about the most in the OGN tournament?

Alborz: No one in particular. I fear the NightElf players right now. I feel Human is weak against NightElf. Final and Check are good NightElf players.

mensrea: They're both members of the [Pooh] Clan, aren't they?

Alborz: Yes, even tho I just heard Final left Pooh to join a new pro team or something like that ;o

mensrea: How about the UnDead players? They seem to be all over the place these days since The Frozen Throne expansion pack...

Alborz: Yes, but I feel I can prepare alot better against undeads because of my practice exeprience with frog. Also, I've played tons of games against frog and I honestly feel that the matchup is pretty balanced. It's more the map balance that will either help or hinder me.

mensrea: I see. I recommend you watch out for Lucifer (No Jae-wook). I hear he's a kickass UD player...

Alborz: He's out from the league already =P

mensrea: He's out already?! Geezus...

Alborz: But, ya, these new UDs are really good.

mensrea: How do you practice? I mean, what are your practice routines like? You know the Koreans practice like mad...

Alborz: Humm, nothing special, I take a couple of ladder games each day, then I recently started playing best-of-11s vs frog which is a lot when I think about it^^

mensrea: What's your most memorable game ever?

Alborz: My most memorable game is for sure the one against aT-FaTC, Human v Human, ESWC semifinals, played on stage with commentators. Winning this set was more important then the finals for me. This guy was the one who beat me at the CPL Cannes, so this was about a lot more then just a spot in the finals.

I got owned very badly in the first game, best of three. The second game was much closer. He had superior heroes, but I battled until I won. My aggressive play style paid off in that one. I kept harrassing him and refused to leave him alone and I got the "gg" from him in the end.

The third and final game was played on Gnoll Wood, and we spawned really close. Those who play War3 will know what I mean when I say that when you spawn "close" on Gnoll Wood, it REALLY means you spawn CLOSE -_-;. That game was the most micro intensive game I've ever played. Just crazy. It went back and forth forever, I felt like it would never end. I finally managed to pull off some cute micro moves with my heroes and he typed GG, and the place went crazy with screams and applause from people. Fantasic game. And it felt GREAT =]

mensrea: Wow. Must've been exciting.

Ok, I wanna ask some questions about the game itself. I know it's a Coke v Pepsi kinda debate (i.e. it's really a matter of tastes), but, in your honest opinion, how is War3 better than SC? You can be honest - I'll ban any reader who threatens your life.

Alborz: haha Well War3 is new, and no matter how much you love BW you can't deny it's getting old...

mensrea: Ouch. That's harsh...

Alborz: There are a lot of new things just waiting to get discoverd in WC3. In my opinion, we're only just finding out about the potential of this game.

mensrea: So, basically 1) it's new; and 2) it's like SC, but it's new?

Alborz: haha Yeah, that's a slight oversimplification, but that's pretty much it. Even if you don't think the game looks like BW on the outside, you will notice a lot of similarities when you start playing hardcore. I feel they have taken a lot of the things that made BW so good (also left out some things, unfortunately...) and "improved" on it.

mensrea: Many complain that 1) the pace is too slow; and 2) the unit limit is too low. Do you agree?

Alborz: Yes and no. It's a hard subject, both games are good in different ways. The pace is slow if you compare it to BW, but many people don't realize that you make the battles in WC3 as fast as you wan't them to be. Believe me, you have tons of stuff to do in a big battle with a nice unit mix.

I also think that the lower unit limit (btw it got raised by 10 with TFT^^v) isn't necessarily a "bad" thing because that gets balanced by the fact that most units have various special abilities that take time and attention to use. The time/attention it takes for you to control 12 upgraded zerglings is comperable to having one hero and using it to the max. In the end, it's really a question of tastes, what you prefer.

mensrea: Speaking of TFT: any thoughts on the expansion? Better? Worse? Same?

Alborz: TFT is a lot better than the classic version. It's definitely a step in the right direction (closer to BW). A lot of elements that made classic boring is gone/toned down. For example, creeping isn't as important as before altho it still makes up a part of the game. Macro/base building isn't as important in WC3 as it is in BW, and TFT makes players creep when there's time over instead of, for example, building three extra SCVs like you would in BW. In other words, TFT is centered around player vs player battles and creeping is something you do in the middle of the battles.

Also everything in TFT is a lot cheaper. This change, in combination with the slowed down tech trees (its risky to do super techs, not like classic), makes economic management a bigger part of the game. You gain a lot more having expansions in TFT than classic. This also means there are generally more units on the battleground in TFT compared to classic.

I could go one forever about how much better TFT is, things you only notice when playing hardcore -_-;;.

On the other hand, the current balance is not perfect (even tho it's way better compared to the previous patch versions...). But, I know Blizzard is working non-stop to improve things, and with Zileas on the balance team, it just can't go wrong --+.

mensrea: Do you feel the Koreans will dominate War3 eventually like in SC/BW?

Alborz: Probably, they are doing better and better with time, and the conditions in Korea are so much better for producing top-level players than in other countries. But, I feel the Europeans will give them a good fight for a long time still...

mensrea: You mentioned top 3 Euro - which countries are top 3 world? Is Korea up there...?

Alborz: Of course. I would even place them 2nd! - after Sweden--v

mensrea: haha So, you might stay in Korea a while and play professionally...?

Alborz: If I get an offer, I will probably take it.

mensrea: Any thoughts on becoming the next Guillaume Patry?

Alborz: ^^ We'll see. It's still very early!

mensrea: Name some of the Elite players in the world right now in your opinion - and pick the one player you would ask if your life depended on a series and you couldn't play yourself.

Alborz: Ouch ;o Your questions are unfair!

mensrea: Always save the best for last... -_-V

Alborz: SK.Insomnia, mtw-thepig, Showbu (aka Swain, aka DolGuk[pooh]), and Final[pooh] are all at the very top of the War3 pyramid right now. I learned a lot from Showbu (he's also a Human player).

...and the one player I'd pick to play for me if my life depended on it would have to be, uhm, I guess frog -_-;,

mensrea: Boo! Cop out! Ok, that's it. You can go to sleep now.

Alborz: Wow. That was LONG. Had fun tho. Thx! Bye!