Most of us at TeamLiquid are not familiar with iBUYPOWER, could you introduce the company?

iBUYPOWER is one of the largest independent gaming computer makers in the United States. We’ve been in business since 1999 (almost 12 years now!). Our company philosophy is based around three pillars: Freedom of choice, quality of build, and value of products. We have more component choices than most system builders in the market, build a quality system (backed by our 3 year limited warranty), and are able to do it at a price point much lower than many of the “boutique” builders out there today.


When did iBUYPOWER decide to delve into E-sports? Is this iBUYPOWER's first foray into the scene? It must been a difficult sell to your superiors!

We've had our eye on the community for a long time, but the NASL is iBUYPOWER’s first major venture into e-sports. Ultimately, the NASL made the sponsorship decision easy for us.


So how did the NASL partnership come about? Which party approached the other? Why NASL over any other tournament?

The NASL approached us before there even was a NASL and we’ve been building the relationship for a long time. The management of NASL are extremely passionate about expanding e-sports in North America, and they’ve taken huge risks to get to the type of success that they have today.


From a fan's perspective, this sponsorship seemed to come out of nowhere. Was it intentional? Why so late into the season?

We’ve been talking with the NASL since before the season started, and for various reasons, we couldn’t jump in at the start of the season. Obviously, we followed their progress closely throughout the season. They came back to us about 2 weeks before the event and wanted to see a system builder in their finals, and we jumped at the opportunity.


What does iBUYPOWER hope to gain from this venture?

From a business side, we’re hoping to expand our outreach into the ESPORTS. From a people side, we’d like to see the e-sports scene grow. A lot of us are gamers ourselves and follow the scene closely, in our free time.

We’re hoping that one day, we’ll see gaming superstars in the states with the kind of prominence of our sports superstars. What we see in the ESPORTS community is that it’s a very tightly knit community that are extremely passionate about the games they play. Sometimes, this community is overlooked by the mainstream media, partly because they've pigeonholed all of us into a “nerd” stereotype, and partly because the community is weaker here in the United States, compared to other mainstream events and compared to the community overseas. We don’t think there’s any reason why gamers eventually can’t reach the type of recognition of a Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan in the states, but first that community needs to grow into mainstream acceptance.


What can we expect from iBUYPOWER going forth? For example, can we expect iBUYPOWER to come out with product lines catering specifically towards to our needs?

If there’s interest in an ESPORTS-oriented gaming desktop, we’d love to hear about it. Feel free to spam our inboxes or our facebook group with suggestions on what you think the “perfect” e-sports gaming desktop should be able to do. If there’s enough interest and it’s different enough from a “standard” gaming desktop, we’ll make one. Throw it in the comments if you want, we’ll read them… I’m assuming people will be able to leave comments on this interview.


Let's talk ROI, has the sponsorship with NASL make the returns you expected? Do you see further involvement with ESPORTS in the future?

The NASL has been a good partner for us. We are exploring options to expand our presence in the E-sports space.


Thank you for your time. Any last shout outs?

Thanks to the Starcraft community for making events like this possible! Thanks to the NASL for an awesome three days of Starcraft playoffs and a nail biting 7-game final series! Congrats to PuMa for winning. The NASL has taken huge risks to expand the North American E-sports community, and they deserve a lot of credit for getting to where they are today. Make sure you check them out for Season 2!

Let's start off with something interesting: Sunday night, you were crying in my arms after the show in the player area. What happened? What were you feeling?

I was just overcome with emotion, man. It was the first time I ever broken down in tears, from what happened. I think it was just, NASL was always near-and-dear to my heart. It was actually a very risky investment, coming from an actuary background, it was a very risky investment.

To have all my passion investmented in this, and to really come out on top. It made me, so overcome, so overcome with that emotion, I couldn't contain it anymore. It was a great feeling. It was great.


This was the first time I ever let a grown man cry on me, but I felt the same way, something special happened that night.

I think there's a lot of implications for E-sports as a whole. There's a lot to come out of this. I think NASL was very daring. We made a bold move. You know, when it comes down to it, it was a step in the right direction. With all the adversity to overcome, it was definitely a step in the right direction.


Overall you think the NASL ended on a high note?

High note, yes.


At the same time, you're fully aware there were a lot of disappointment from the community in the beginning of the season. With a full season under your belt, how do you evaluate yourself and NASL in general, as its anchor?

Oh those are very, very deep questions.

I'll first go with NASL. I'll first go with the NASL. Of course, we didn't start as well as we wanted to, unfortunately. NASL did, as I said, overcome allot of it. There are still some issues, but they're more cosmetic though, than anything else. The best part about it is that we have very loyal fans and a community that are willing to point it out.

I know that, people are going to be, "Well, of course we're going to point it out," but if you look into it. I read every single NASL thread possible, people are very meticulous at what we need to do, and how to do things. Now what that ends up doing is what the community brings to us, we can put all these together, and we can focus on these specific things.

You know, it's one thing to complain about something, and it's another to complain and give constructive criticism. That's what the community has been so good about. If you have seen the first day of production and the last day of production, it is night and day. Now we're just starting to curtail ourselves a little bit there, and a bit there. Fixing the cosmetic things to make it look like the star production quality we really want, the best casting possible, the best games possible, and have a good process flow and everything, as we give information flow of everything related I think NASL has done an excellent job of taking in information and change very dynamically based on that information.

Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. I don't want to take away from the fact that NASL has made big, big accomplishments in improvement, and just in overall production. I am very, very happy with... when I said production, I don't meant just our actual production, but also everything as it is. Producing the content, producing the actual material, everything.

As for me, oh God!

How do i think I developed? I think have developed more than anyone caster have developed in that amount of time. I can say, without a doubt, that I have casted more games than anyone else in the world in that amount of time. In the course of three weeks three months, I casted over four/five hundred games.


I believe, if my count is correct, 499 games in the regular season alone.

That is an astounding number. Not only that, I need to mention that I did the SGL tournament, I did the GosuCoaching Premier League, things like that. Other things that we don't count for NASL, I still did it. Recently, we have a White-Ra vs Sen Showmatch, we did that. I definitely put in the most time.

In terms of analyzing myself, I probably analyzed more of myself than anyone ever had. It is good improvement, I know where I need to work on. I know what I lacked, but one thing that is kind of tough, I'm going to go on a tangent here - one thing that is tough about the scene - is that I don't think people understand the role of the caster yet. In particular, the types of casters.

We always say there's two types of casters, there's the play-by-play, and there's the color commentator. I'll say I am more of a color commentator than anything else. However, there's different kind of color commentators and how we analyze. I have a very specific brand of how I do color commentator that no one else has.

It is kind of interesting that everyone's input in my casting. I obviously have changed. The Law of Large Numbers, if I continue this on, is this going to be the best casting method? I put in a lot, a lot of time into it.

This is the first time second time, since I have been here, that I am actually going outside of Rancho Cucamonga. Which is insane. The first time it was for two hours, to a sushi place at Venice Beach, and we came back because we have NASL the next day. This is the first time I ever get to relax, chill out, get outside of NASL.

I hope that shows my commitment to not only casting, but to the industry in general. I want it to succeed, and I want E-sports to succeed.

[T/N note: Gretorp attempts to kiss sleeping princess Sen while he's asleep and vulnerable]


NASL will lose iNcontroL, the face of NASL for the first season. Do you think he is replaceable?

No.

iNcontrol is a specific brand that no other person on the face of the planet can replace. He is a valueable asset, and losing him, it stinks. It really does.

I am very biased because he's my close friend in the E-sports community. We've done a lot together, we went shopping together, we went to the casino together. We went on man-dates. Anna was getting jealous, so what can i say? It really sucks, losing a friend that I have grown so close to, over the entire half year, it is unfortunate.

That being said, I felt like our casting styles, not similar, but overlap to an extend. Looking at it, purely objectively, it was the reason why it was a bit slow to gain that chemistry. I talked slow, like a week, it was slow was the fact that we have no pre-determined roles, so we just went with it.

When we overlapped each other, the things that we prepared for, the things you prepared to say has already been said. Then, you need a level of improv to go over that, then you need to fill space. What casting should be is not to fill space. You're looking for room to talk. The big things about casting, for example, these units are going from Point A to Point B. There are many different ways to say that, you want to say is,

"The Marauders are attacking the Nexus."

You don't want to say,

"The Marauders are traversing the entire map, yadda yadda yadda."

Because what you want to do is create more time to talk, the ability to say more things, and potentially give more time to the color commentator to talk. Analyzing the map during downtime is what takes up more time than the play-by-play commentary.

That being said, because we both filled the color commentary, not only the overlap. A lot of the time, it became Gretorp for an extend amount of time, then iNcontroL for an extended amount of time, and sometimes we'll bounce questions at each other. That dynamic doesn't flow as well for the first week. I will even say the first couple of weeks. What iNcontroL and I started doing was realizing we have strengths in individual fields, so we start to pass off to each other quite frequently. We will go into play-by-play game situationally, because we both have very different styles of play.

I am more of a theoretical player, this is what you should always do in this position, that type of deal. iNcontroL is more based on the type of player, you can cut corners, this way.


Certain amount of intuition and experience?

Yes, he [iNcontroL] has a more intuitive, experienced style. We'll both pass it off, based on the players. I felt that added a very deep level of understanding, with the StarCraft community. I think that's a big reason why, you can say there's much insight into this, because you can get into the mind of a player. What the pro is doing, something that not many other casters can do.

Day9, Artosis, and Tasteless, they can do it. Other than that, you don't have allot of people that can do that. I felt that's a very interesting dynamic that we brought to the table, and we have very different styles, even more so than Artosis, Tasteless, and Day9.

Back to the question, it's going to be tough to replace someone like iNcontroL. Do I think there's room for a better combination? Of course. Is it going to be hard to find one? It'll be hard to find someone to fill the spot left behind by iNcontroL. Whether we can fill that analysis role and do the pass-off, or analysis and play-by-play. Time will tell.

What is my preference? I think I do like the play-by-play [plus color combination]. Total_Biscuit and I, we had a wonderful time. Diggity and I, we had a good time as well. We'll see. Time will tell, all I can say is I am looking forward to the time to come.


You have gained many anti-fans, haters if you will, but you also gained many fans. Many more people know about Gretorp than before. Do you have something you want to say to your haters as well as your fans?

I don't think it's haters so much. I don't want to label them as haters, because I don't think they actually hate me. I don't think they actually hate me, since it takes so much to hate someone. I do think they're more disappointed with their expectations. Whether their expectations were [too] high or low, I am not sure yet. I think they are disappointed with some of my results.

I think something really, really magical has happened over the course of NASL. I think have I have turned a lot of the disappointed people around. Maybe not completely around, instead of 180, maybe 70, 90 degrees. It's the fact that the people who were disappointed are still very open-minded, and they still want E-SPORTS to succeed. They see how hard I am trying, and how much I am working, and they're getting behind me, even though I am not fulfilling all their expectations.

That's very... that's a good feeling. It's a great feeling.

I have built a fanbase, overtime the time. To them, I am extremely happy that you guys have been supporting me the whole time. What will E-SPORTS be without the spectators and fans, you know? They're the backbone.

I am humbled by it. I don't consider myself fan-worthy yet. I have much work left to go, and I have to put more time into this. Obviously I sacrificed, the fact that people already seeing that I had done all that, that I have worked so hard, they're willing to come behind me and support me, and be my fans.

It's more than I can ask for. I am very, very grateful and thankful for everyone out there.


Thoughts on KiWiKaKi's run in the WSOP?

He's the boss man.

KiWiKaKi, for all the ones that don't know already, is in the main event for the World Series of Poker [at the time of the interview]. He was a poker player before, he was a professional poker player, that's how he makes his living. And he's still a professional StarCraft player, it's very inspiring to see him succeed in both these areas of expertise.

Of course, he ran good, he had to run good. He beat out Ace-Ten against Pocket-Kings. You have to be very lucky, but I am sure there were many other times when he was at risk. He does fantastic, a mind-game player, mind-game reader. I expected nothing less of KiWiKaKi.

KiWiKaKi FIGHTING!!!


As a player, with so much casting, you had much less time to practice, and because of that, you have dropped out as a seeded player from MLG. Did it hurt, personally?

No. I don't think so.

You know, the big reason I got into the Top-16 is because of I attended all the MLGs, so a big reason why I was seeded is because I got all those points. To an extent, i deserved it, and to an extend I didn't. I finished top 17th place every single time, so I am very consistent with how far I go in every MLG, so i deserved to be in that spot at that time. However, more players are coming into it, and it is exactly what I expected.

These MLG runs, they have been pretty tough for me and my psyche. I know where I have my problems. It is definitely my style. I just don't have the mechanics to deal with my style, so I do have to change it up.

Maybe I have to go into Special Tactics. White-Ra is teaching me allot of special tactics. He's an invaluable asset in the NASL house. I was asking him, "White-Ra, how do i beat Protoss."

He answers, "Just Push!" [T/N note: actually White-Ra]

Since then, I have been going 30-0 in my TvP.


So you recommend White-Ra as a teacher, a coach?

Oh yes, I endorse White-Ra as a coach and a teacher.

I expected for me to bust out of MLG Top-16. It was a great time, great experience. Will I competing in more MLGs? Absolutely!

I am forever going to be a competitor. Artosis, he's always going to be a competitor. It kills us not to be playing. At the same time, we are still casting. We are seeing all these high level games, so we understand the system so well. We can still grow as players, and keep up to an extent, if we keep up with our casting.

Now I think personally, tangent again, that playing is essentially if you want to be a caster. You cannot be a good analytical caster, if you are not playing at a good level. I have a lot of chance talking to good players about this. The WeMadeFOX manager, Mr. Daniel, he gave me a lot of insight on how the [GSL] commentators train, how to play.

He said, "You have to play. You cannot give up playing. StarCraft casting is just like the schedule you do for StarCraft playing. You have to play as much as possible."

Every single time you cast, you play. That is because you get a good feel of everything: you get a good feel of the maps; you understand what's strong and what's weak; you understand the timings. You know I kept up with it.

One thing I have to start doing is getting into random play, as soon as possible. It is going to be quite challenging. Learning the mechnanics, my muscles have to learn the mechanics, but it'll be pretty awesome. I can't wait.


So for you, it's not about giving up one for the other, you see a synergy between the two roles.

It has to be a synergy. My line of casting... [T/N: equipment failure at this point]

You mentioned the NASL house, you been living there? Since when? How was it?

I have been, since February 4th. It was good. Really, really good. It's the place where the editors and I go and live, and those two - Sen and White-Ra.

It is good to work with people you been living with. I know it sounds crazy, but it gets you so focused. Everybody gets up in the morning, and with only thing on their mind, its the NASL. It's "Let's do this. Let's go!" The continual support from everyone in the house.

People have to realize, that this is a small business, and this is a passion project. We started with 4 people in the NASL , we are now double that. You think other organizations, they have a lot more than 4 or 8 people in it.


(and the volunteers!)

There are great volunteers, such as you Primadog [T/N: \o/]. I highly, highly thank you for everything. You wake up in the morning, you realize this is what you want to do, because you love it. This is the feeling that not many people can say. Not many people can go to work everyday and do whatever, and they're not doing what they love.

I can say for sure that I am doing the number one thing that I love.


It must been tough, moving away from your family like that.

Ya, it is very tough My family are very, very near and dear to my heart I take everything family related very seriously.

My brothers, they actually are able to come out and visit me for the NASL finals. My two brothers, older brother [Sean] and younger brother [Brandon], and they just came to support me.


All the way from Maryland New Jersey?

Jersy shore, fist pump, boom.


TeamLiquid user, ECHOZS, asks, "There has been a feud between you and FXOqxc. Supposely, there are rumours that you'll settle this at Anaheim, in a week. Who will win? Is there underground betting going on between all the pros?

I wouldn't call it a feud. I am not sure it's the exact word. I don't know what's it called, but you know how a bear goes into the stream and there's all these salmons in the water. The bear is just picking up the salmons and eating them. That's me and qxc.


Who's the bear?

Obviously me.


[Glasses]
qxc, I am coming for you.
[T/N: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]

I do have say, I have ligament damage on my right knees, so we may have to postpone it at Anaheim.


Shout-outs?

First and forthmost, huge shout-out to everybody to NASL. We're a family right now, we've grown together, we go out together, it's great. Everything with them is amazing.

Another huge shout-out is to the volunteers. Primadog is one of them [T/N: yours truly is a chat-mod on the NASL channel].


Bee and Alex and...

They're just trying to further ESPORTS as much as possible. It's the same motive that gets me up in the morning. A lot of times people say things, and it really gets me down, and I want this to work. Not NASL in particular, but ESPORTS to work. If NASL is the medium for ESPORTS to succeed, then of course I'll use that. I am very passionate about that and I want it to grow, and of course the volunteers help out.

All you people that are still 50-50 about it or whatever that might be, or whoever that have an open-mind about the NASL, I want to give a huge shout-out to them. At the end of the day, it's us pouring our heart into it and people appreciate it. It's like my baby, you know. Do you appreciate my baby or not? If you do, I love you. If you don't, look at how cute my baby is, you know.

On top of that, I want to give a huge shout-out to the communities.

Of course, TeamLiquid, first and forthmost. I been with you guys since god-knows-when. I have no clue when I started TeamLiquid. I been there forever. I am a TeamLiquidian, and I am proud to be there.

Of course, we have reddit. Just new to it, this year actually. They're very supportative, very awesome people in the community. Again, we been able to turn some heads in reddit as well.

Last, but not least, is WellPlayed. WellPlayed is NASL's community organization. They been doing a fantastic job as well! They've done our Top-10 videos, and they have been awesome, awesome as well. It's really amazing that all these communities converge and support the NASL.


Off to lunch, right? What we getting?

We are getting Vietnamese food!