Today I had the chance to sit down with our very own Payam "TT1" Toghyan. For those of you who don't know, TT1 is undoubtedly the #1 Iranian Starcraft player in the world (I'm #2!). He has been one of Canada's very competitive players for quite awhile.
As many people know already, TT1 has been notorious for being caught maphacking in the past, and his name had been tarnished for quite some time. Over the past year and a half, he has grown as a person and now has been re-accepted back into the community, proving he is a very strong and capable player in his own right, and has contributed greatly by releasing replays and serving as a model citizen... showing that even former cheaters can be reformed!
Here is the interview with him:
Interview With TT1
Xeris: Alrighty TT1, introduce yourself to people who may/may not know you
TT1: Hi my name is Payam Toghyan, I'm 21 years old and I live in Montreal Canada
Xeris: How long have you been playing bw and what made you decide on protoss ?
TT1: Hmm, I've been playing for around like 7 years, I used to be a Z user but I changed to p a while back because I had alot of friends to learn p from and zvt was too hard
Xeris: Your most known aka is TT1, have you used any other nicks before and what is the significance of TT1 ?
TT1: When i was a newb I started off using TheYellow, then I joined a korean clan and used Pop.SenSe. I started using TT1 when I joined Shield on west and just kept it since then
Xeris: What made you deicde on that name in particular ? Just something that you thought koreans would approve of ?
TT1: Honestly I was pretty young when I made my nick; the reason was stupid.. I just wanted a nick that looked korean lol. I took TT because alot of kors used it and added a 1 to make it look original
Xeris: Haha, alright
Xeris: (I think) Your first major foreign team was MgZ, what made you decide to join up with them ?
TT1: My first major team was uT) and rS., I don't remember how I got to join MgZ. I think when deto joined MgZ I joined with him too, he was in uT) with me and I knew him for some time
Xeris: Alright so have you participated in any major tournaments or anything? And what would you call your most memorable achievement?
TT1: Online just the random tourneys and stuff, offline just wcg
TT1: I don't have any major achievements.. I'm a pretty unproven player still
Xeris: I met you last summer at the Canada LAN... most people didn't think you would actually go to it, but you did and played pretty well
Xeris: But you had said you were quitting BW forever after that LAN and yet, here you are... what made you start again?
TT1: Well my first lan was the year before that for the wcg regionals and then the following year we both setup the canada lan, I played decent.. still didn't get the results I wanted and that was the same year I got banned from tsl and stuff so I was telling myself after the lan I would stop playing. Which I did for like 4-5 months, and then I came back and started playing for fun on iccup like 2 seasons ago
TT1: I started 1v1ing again since last season and I recently joined LighT in order to get a bit competetive again since I missed that aspect from bw... bw is pretty addiciting.. I tried to quit, but its too fun ^-^
Xeris: I know
TT1: I decided to join LighT because I was with them previously too, I knew the members and stuff, it was a perfect fit. Plus all my bans came to an end, it was a good time ^^, and I was motivated to start practicing again
Xeris: If you were to list maybe 3 goals for BW that you have right now, what would they be ?
TT1: Obviously the first one would be to win wcg canada, 2nd would be to just keep having fun with bw, not take it too seriously and just enjoy myself. Thats what motivates me the most to practice and improve. The third goal isnt a personal goal but I just hope my fellow comrades/gamers or w/e start to respect each other more.. we've all spent alot of time together and we might be reaching the end of the road soon, honestly its been so long that weve all been interacting with each other that alot of us know each others personalities and understands one another even if we havnt been that close to each other. Hopefully one day all the useless drama can stop and people can just start enjoying the game more.. Once upon a time I was also a douche but we can all grow out of it, just be yourself
(DEEP!)
Xeris: Last question - if you had to give 2 tips to newer players trying to get better what would you say
TT1: Lol that whole 3rd goal sounded so corny
Xeris: Haha =D
TT1: w/e just keep it, rofl
Xeris: Ok
TT1: My tips would be to 1) just practice and watch progamer replays on x2, learn their builds and look at how fast they play and try to mimic them. By practicing u gain game sense.. timing etc, if you put the effort you'll get better. And 2nd is to just have fun and dont take the game too seriously... if you look at the practice time as somehting negative then you won't get better because you won't have any motivation, just enjoy yourself when you're playing
Xeris: Alrighty cool thanks
TT1: That was long, rofl
Xeris: Any last words or anything that's it?
TT1: Hmmm no, just hi to everyone ^_^
Xeris: Thanks yo
TT1: Np
Source: Go-eX.com