Juan Tena… we remember this guy vaguely. An original ROOTer, Juan never really got the chance to show his skills under the ROOT banner. Juan is most famous in the SC2 scene for shedding teams and tags like fur coats in the summer. What most people don’t remember is that Juan was an exceptional BroodWar pro, considered to be almost unbeatable in the Americas and an online practice partner for Hite Sparkyz. He very nearly was shipped to Korea to play Brood War full time. When he transferred to SC2, well behind the curve and after the beta, he managed to achieve a top ten ladder ranking in under two weeks. Since then he’s posted big tournament wins and places in most events that he enters, and he’s made the trip to Korea to hone his skills against the world’s best.
Now the reigning WCS Mexico champion — winning it all without dropping a game — we’re proud to welcome Juan back to his old home. He’ll be ROOT’s fifth representative in the Blizzard NA WCS, joining NA Champion ViBE, NA qualifier Fitzy and Canadian qualifiers Drewbie and TT1 at this prestigious tournament. You can also enjoy him in TSL4, now playing under our banner and slated to take on johnnyrecco in the next round.
“We were warned before Juan joined for the first time that, that it might end up being a mistake to let him in. We were told Loyalty wasn’t his thing. Inviting Juan back was hard. He is the only ROOT member to have ever left the team without hesitation with the first offer he got; we were very unhappy at the time. Though I thought Juan was immature and disloyal, we remained friends, had ups and downs here and there but I know for a fact that he is a good kind hearted person, and everyone deserves a second chance.
As soon as we remade ROOT, Juan started asking to join, I told him no about in about 5 different ocassions. He insisted, I consulted with the team, didn’t go in his favor. Not because we didn’t like him, but because of our past experience. He asked again, and again, and again. I realized he was serious, he came clean and told me beforehand “I really want to join, but to be completely clear I would like the opportunity to leave if I had the chance to join a KeSPA team, and for no other reason” I was thinking, that if anything he had matured and he was transparent with his intentions, but that wasn’t enough to join ROOT as we want our members to be as commited as possible to the team and its members. A few weeks passed and Juan asked again, this time he said “the KeSPA team.. its not gonna happen, I want to join ROOT and I want to join to stay” Juan was ready to sign with us.
I went back to the skype team chat and we discussed, with no one having objections this time after expressing I strongly wanted to give him a second chance, we unanimously decided to let Juan be a part of our family again. One of my best teachers once told me ‘History is there so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past’ Today, I would like to tell my teacher to shut up. Circumstances and people can change. I believe Juan is a very mature person and I consider him a friend. We at ROOT are very proud and happy to welcome him back into our house and hope that he, like the rest of us, will find a home in it to stay. Welcome, Juanito.” - Paulo "CatZ" Vizcarra
for my interview with MajOr on joining ROOT and a bit more on the subject, please visit us at www.root-gaming.com.
edit: sorry about spelling mistakes, I write in spanish a bit better.