The first “Doorbell” interview was about Skyhigh, which I also translated, and can be found here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=201258
The second interview was with Hyuk, which was translated thanks to inifinitestory. You can read Hyuk’s interview here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=200737
Midas’ interview is translated below, and the original article can be found here:
http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=115887&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd=
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Midas, “I want to become a player with an exemplary match record rather than an exemplary lifestyle”
"Door Buzzer's" third character, Midas.
“Ding-dong”
Interested in a player’s well-being, Fomos’ “Door-bell Buzzer” series’ third main character is “High-quality engine” Midas, captain of WeMade Fox. To be honest, Midas is a player who regularly appears in broadcasted games so how did he come to our “Door buzzer” corner?
That’s because our last interviewee Hyuk, captain of SKT1, had nominated Midas to be interviewed next. These two recently played a match with each other in the 2011 MSL Survivor Tournament, where they were placed in the same group. The result…as you might already know, ended in Hyuk’s victory.
2 weeks ago, Hyuk said “Please answer my question without any connection to the Survivor Tournament’s result”. The question was “Hyung, why don’t you get older?” and so Fomos asked to meet Midas regardless of what had happened in the game.
With that, we will now publish the interview with Midas, who, despite his 26 years of age (T/N: Western age 24), hasn’t changed in appearance and continues to receive the love of his fans because of his odd “spiritual world” (?).
Hello, I am from Fomos and have come to visit you at your team house. Please give a short introduction of yourself.
- Hello, I am Midas of WeMade Fox.
I will deliver Hyuk’s question to you. “Why haven’t you gotten older?” Please give a nice answer to his question.
- Huh, it seems like that because we don’t live together (laughs). Well…I think I’m still young. I’m only 26 and that isn’t an age where someone asks you “why don’t you get older”. Maybe if I was 36, but getting asked that question now is kind of going over the line. I think I’ll be happy to be asked that question when I’m 46 (laughs).
Have you read the “Door-bell Buzzer” series before? Both Skyhigh and Hyuk are appearing in televised games after these interviews.
- They don’t really seem to be playing a lot according to my expectations (laughs). I’m just kidding. It might seem like a coincidence but they really are playing more after getting these interviews. I think in these kind of interviews, you recollect your determinations and that unconsciously helps you play your games.
And it happens to be that Hyuk started building a record in this season’s Survivor Tournament. You were in the same group as he.
- He wouldn’t have advanced if he had played someone else (laughs). I don’t want to talk about the prelims. It’s too sad.
I know it’s already happened but when you saw the group matchups, how did you rate your probability of advancing?
- “This is a fight with Hyuk” is what I thought (laughs). It seemed like I would face him at the very last game. I figured that only one of us would advance.
Did your games not go well that day? (T/N: hey lady why do you keep asking about something he didn't want to talk about?) There isn’t a “Loser’s interview” after the games so we couldn’t find out your thoughts after the matches.
- It’s bitter so I don’t want to think about. I mean about the Survivor Tournament (laughs). Why don’t we talk about something else, I’m only going to get more people swearing at me if I talk about a lost game.
Then let’s talk about something else. What specific roles do you play as captain of Fox?
- Hmm…something different is that I get a pay bonus (laughs). Very thankfully, right when I became captain, I started getting a bonus. I often buy food for the younger members when the bonus comes out.
Ah, I mean not those kind of things, more like roles that you play in your life as a progamer.
- I guess when we are at the match location and I yell “Fox” and our teammates respond with “fighting!”? (laughs). I get a bonus for doing that and then buy dinner for our teammates. That is my role. My coach also wants me to become a model player as a captain. He wants me to become someone that the younger players can look up to. So I’ve gotten slightly less freedom after becoming captain. I’m usually pretty irresponsible but now I’m the one who is given money and then told to go buy beef [at the market] (laughs). But I’ve been told that the team atmosphere has changed after I came into the team and I feel good because of that.
People often say “Fox has no ace player” but as a captain do you think there is anyone in your team who is playing the role of an ace?
- BaBy, Mind, RorO, and Shine all play that role. They are currently the ones who are playing the best and I want to be an ace too rather than a captain. I don’t have any attachments to being a captain and I feel like I only became captain because I am the oldest. I have a relatively proper lifestyle and self-management but if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have been able to play games as long as I have been. I think the coach put that to high regard.
You have had the opportunity to be sent out fairly often but your recent Proleague record is a mediocre 4-6. But last fall you had a 6 game winning streak at one point. What do you think is the difference between then and now?
- Compared to a while back, I have less luck in my games now. I think in exchange of that I need to focus harder on my games. At the time I had a much more specific goal than now, which helped me concentrate, and I think that is why my record at that time was that good.
But still, people know Midas as someone who is “consistent”. It seems like your serious and composed attitude is reflected in your lifestyle. How do you go about in your daily life?
- When I don’t play games, I read books, go on walks, or go to the fitness club and exercise. I think in some ways our team’s environment is the most ideal to practice games. There are a lot of gamers who want to join our team. Because I brag a lot (laughs). I’ve talked about our lifestyle with several people but I’ll keep it a secret as to who.
From the players who know who you are, every single one attests to you as a player who you can learn a lot from. I’m interested in how you started to manage yourself so well and specific ways that you do so.
- But I want to become a player with an model record, not a player with a model lifestyle. My lifestyle ranks at 2nd in importance and 1st is my game record. If your record becomes good, then your self-management falls in quality a little but you can still look after it. I feel like the coach thinks that I am playing my role of acting as a role model but I feel like my record is absolutely important. I carry this kind of a lifestyle to get a better record, as well as reading and working out, which are all ways that can help me getting more wins.
When I think about it, I kind of have a frustrating personality. One of my best friends, Casy, likes to take an easier approach to things. When he practices he focuses on just playing games. Or if he’s not practicing then he knows how to have a lot of fun. But I think about only games all the time and I end up being different than him. When I first started as a progamer for the team Greatest Ones (T/N: now Hite Entus) and met Coach Cho, G.O was a team that had a practicing environment of focusing on just games and I think that had an effect on me. I always wanted to win and when I lost an official match, I couldn’t sleep and it was pretty bad like that. So I think I started to manage myself more so that I could win more. And then I thought that it would help me more so I started to read more books to advance myself. These days I get a lot of stress so I eat a lot but I’ve become too lazy so I feel like I need to retighten my lifestyle.
All progamers are probably very competitive but it seems like you are on the extreme end.
- I need to win a game in order to relieve my stress. After being a progamer for so long, I’ve become addicted to winning. If I don’t win I don’t think I can live (laughs). Recently, if I don’t work out then I can’t sleep. Since I’m not winning a lot, I end up trying to relive that nice feeling of winning by forcing myself to exercise. Recently, Coach Han came into our team and he likes to work out so I work out with him. Whether or not it’s because he was recently discharged from the military, he is very consistent with his workouts and I think that is something that I can learn from. And a past practice partner Noh Jin-wook told me that he respects me but rather there are qualities that he has that I can learn from. From gaming to workouts, he really did all that with a lot of hard work.
"Lucky", the dog who recieves the love from all WeMade Fox players!"
There is belief that the more methodical and neat a person is, the more easily he gets stressed out. How do you get rid of stress?
- Winning a game is the best way but when I can’t win I often make pranks or joke with my teammates to relieve my stress. And recently I’ve begun something very bad, which is overeating. Aside from that, I try to laugh a lot. Even if it isn’t something big, I still laugh. I laugh when I’m just sitting alone and I laugh when I stare at the wall (laughs). When I think about myself laughing in front of a mirror, I sometimes laugh from that. After I lost to Hyuk, the next day I was practicing for Winner’s League when I started feeling heart pain after I had practiced for four hours straight in a stressed state of mind. I really thought I was getting a heart attack. I thought that “Isn’t this how it’s going to end up as?” but because of my stress I just continued practicing. A while back, my father passed away because of heart disease and I wondered if it was genetic but I haven’t gotten a medical checkup so I don’t know (T/N: wtf Midas hurry up and get a checkup!!!).
People recognize your strict schedule and your consistent exercising and you are also known for being a bookworm. What kind of books do you often read? Please also recommend some books for your fans who may read this interview.
- I read any books that will help me. I’ve realized a while back that books are very important to developing yourself. Even really crappy novels sometimes help me. Occasionally, there are novels that are of no help but almost all of them can be helpful in some way so I don’t really pay attention to genres, I just see books as something that “develops myself”. Whether it’s novels or autobiographies, they all help with educating yourself. These days I’ve been really interested in books about the brain or books on psychology. I like books that are scientific. A book that is good enough for me to recommend would be “Seratonin Hara”. The substance is difficult to understand so I am reading it pretty slowly but anyone could read this book in one day if they wanted to. It’s a book by Professor Lee Shi-hyung, and he is specializes in the study of brains. I hear that he leads a very cheerful life so it’s nice to read about him.
Do you get into any mental blocks when you practice? How do you overcome those moments and how do you give advice to your teammates on things like this?
- That is something I will only tell my teammates. If you want to know, come into our team (laughs). And even then, I only give advice to those who come to me first. To be honest, I haven’t told anyone anything very specific except to BaBy. Whether it was because I have been a progamer for such a long time, I feel like I’m in a position where I can offer serious discussion. BaBy is a younger teammate who I really want to be successful in the future so I wanted to tell him. I guess I want to tell all younger players, including players from other teams, that “If you don’t want to regret anything in the future, save money, don’t waste it, and above all other things, being good at games is the best”.
In Fomos’ new corner “Poiter Correspondence”, I received several questions for Midas. A user named “SKySPARKYZ” wondered what you feel when you see your teammate BaBy, who is 8 years younger than you.
- BaBy is now a junior in high school and I remember that I started playing Brood War right when I was a junior too. Whenever I see him I think “It must be nice”. Now that I got older, I have to go the army and I get anxious about saving enough for myself for the future. Being able to eat and live is the biggest problem and because it is the reality. But BaBy doesn’t have to worry about that right now so I envy him. Even though I am already thinking about those kinds of things (laughs). I think at his age, playing games comes pretty easily to him. It’s an age where you can worry about nothing but gaming. Of course I can focus on nothing but games too but it’s harder relative to BaBy. Ah, just cross out everything I just said above and just write that I envy his multitasking skills (laughs). When I help him with build orders or new strategies, his ability to understand them is the best in my opinion.
Can I refer just one more question to you? A user named “Hulpungnodo” wondered about your thoughts on joining ACE. You’re on the older side of being a gamer and you probably worry about going to the army, so if you have any thoughts about it.
- The pressure of going to the army has to be big for me. I received a letter that summoned me to enter the army starting this May but I was able to push it back to next year. I was able to do so because one of my younger relatives is currently in the army right now. I’ve thought about joining Air Force ACE but I really don’t know. ACE is not a place where you can have an easier time serving compared to the regular army. So there is the pressure to go to the army but my focus is on improving my individual record as well as our team’s record in Proleague. Personally, I don’t have any thoughts that going to the air force could be easier (T/N: because of the chance to join ACE) than entering the regular army as infantry.
I’ve thought of something now that we’ve talked about the air force. A lot of fans wanted to see you and Casy as the “Wook brothers” in ACE (T/N: “Wook” refers to both Midas and Casy having Korean names that end in “Wook”, Jun Sang-wook and Han Dong-wook). That hasn’t happened but you still have contact with Casy, right?
- Casy had a tough time being a gamer at the same time he was serving. So I knew that he would retire from gaming after he was discharged. I already knew that we weren’t going to play games together while in ACE. He might feel uncomfortable being mentioned in an interview like this so I’ll just say that we continue to keep contact with each other.
When do you think we’ll be able to see you win again? It seems like it’s time to raise your wins relative to the number of times you’ve been sent out.
- I want to win so I am going to work hard no matter what. I really want to practice in a strict manner so that I can advance through the starleague preliminaries and also be able to win in Proleague. Also, I want to have an exemplary record as a player rather than have an exemplary lifestyle. I can just continue my lifestyle the way I have been going (laughs). I don’t know how to do bad things so if I can just practice tighter than I am now and sharper than now, I think I can do it. I think I am in a time where I need to practice hard while fantasizing about winning.
Please leave a comment for the fans who do not stop cheering for you.
- I will always live with a cheerful mind so please watch me with a cheerful mind. I’ve gotten a cold recently so I hope you all manage your health, exercise a bit, watch what you eat, and live with a positive mind without any stress. I am doing my best to win so please do not give me stress (laughs). Our managers and coaches are all good people. That is another reason for me to want to get a better record. I am very sorry to the coaching staff for losing a lot recently and I will work harder to meet your expectations.
lol it's Best
Please nominate the next player for “Door Buzzer”. Also, please give a reason.
- I pick Best of SKT1. When I heard that I was picked for this interview, I wondered about who I should pick in turn. While thinking about that, I met Best on battle.net where I said “I will pick you” and then he responded “I’m not at that level of obscurity yet to be chosen”.
Do you have any particular questions for him? We will present to him your question as the first question of his interview.
- His “King of Losing” force is very strong, and I wonder when he will break out of that force. Also, please tell him that he seems like the perfect person for “Door Buzzer” (laughs).
rynnn@fomos.co.kr