SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

So, the team I play for (in League of Legends) just qualified for regionals and Riot Oceania did a writeup. They put up a blurb and whatnot and a bunch of stuff. Yada yada, here's the link:

CLICK ME

However, they omitted and rephrased a hell of a lot of my stuff, after asking me to heavily elaborate, especially about WCS 2012 (which is a touchy issue for me). Just for the hell of it, here's the unedited version for you guys to compare. So, without further ado:

Unedited Version

Summoner name: EV tgun

Age: 23

ROLE (ADC/MID ETC): Support


• When did you first start playing League of Legends?

I started playing League of Legends casually around late 2012 (quarter 4) when a bunch of old friends hassled me enough. However, when I started playing, I rarely played. I only played when they were on (leading to me, at level 5, playing against a lot of level 20+'s.. the learning curve was definitely there) and when I didn't have SC2 commitments to fulfill. I had to quit in mid-2013 completely as I was spending increasingly more time on it -- at this stage I was among the top-rated Australian players (that I knew of) and it was starting to hurt my Starcraft results.

• What teams have you played for?

In Starcraft 2, I played for many teams. I started on FXO, playing multiple tournaments -- both local and international under their brand, before following through to itsGoSu and ending my career on Team Immunity. For League of Legends, I've only played for Team Eviscerate (so far).

• How did you get noticed and picked up by your first team?

I'd chalk this up to connections I made through Starcraft II. Honestly, if I didn't have them, I would probably be in a different team -- if any team at all. I met both DoMo (who has now since left the team) and Mennace through Benji. They then spoke to me with the idea of forming a team and thus Eviscerate was born. At the time I was recruited, there were definitely better support players who were looking for a team. Now? I doubt it.

• What type of training do you do?

I practice a lot. Probably too much. I've given up a lot of things in my personal life to get to the level I have in a short amount of time. I attempt to hit at least 8 hours of practice every day, including the days that I'm working. On top of this, when I'm eating, I'm theoryzing (sp?) possible improvements to my play. If I'm not playing, I'm actively thinking about my play, or watching others play and working out how I can combine positive parts of their playstyle with mine.

• What has been the proudest moment of your eSports career?'

Living in Korea to play Starcraft II for 3 months, without any other commitments or distractions was definitely the proudest moment for me. It's a surreal experience, even thinking about it now. I've won tournaments before, but it just doesn't match up. The ability to do nothing but eat, sleep and live the game made me improve an incredible amount -- there's no wonder Korean players have always been ahead. It's because they take it seriously.

• Do you ever get nervous before a big tournament? What do you do to prepare?

I absolutely get nervous before tournaments. Everyone does. I had the opportunity to talk to an e-sports legend, Lim-Yo Hwan, better known as SlayerS_`Boxer`. He said that he still gets nervous before games, but he does what I now do to prepare. He practices a whole hell of a lot, until his winrates are high enough and he feels confident enough that basically everything is muscle memory. It's the same with me now. I simply practice the champions I'm going to play in tournaments and try and use them in as many sitautions as possible -- both good and bad, so that when things happen, they're no longer suprising.

• What do your parents think about you becoming an eSports professional?

My parents are supportive, but what can you expect your parents to say when you're going into something with a large amount of volatility that is in its infancy? They're supportive, but they still think I should "get a real job".

• What team do you think will be the toughest challenge to face? Why?

The easy answer -- and honestly, the cop-out answer is to say Immunity will be the toughest challenge. However, I don't believe that. I think all the teams are improving at a phenomenal rate, building themselves up to be a challenge for them. Every team will be as tough as one another -- to expect anything else, to believe anything else, is setting yourself up to under-rate a team and lose.

- Tell us about your international experiences in SC2

I'm not sure where to start. I joined team FXOpen and went to Korea early in my career. This helped me improve leaps and bounds -- I went from being a barely competetive nobody to being able to challenge the top players, both locally and internationally, being respected as a legitimate threat. From there, I competed in multiple qualifiers for the GSL (think Starcrafts equivelant of OGN Champions) and MLG events. It was unreal -- the atmosphere at an MLG is something that can't be described. It's the same for a GSL qualifier. You see the absolute best broadcast - what you don't see is how much is put in to just receiving an effort to qualify. You may barely -- just barely miss out. Heck, you might play next seasons champion in a qualifier and miss out, yet no-one will ever know.

- What happened at WCS 2012 Oceanic Finals?

I choked.

That's the short answer. I choked. I've went over the game hundreds of times since it happened. I played my best, I believed in all of my plans until the end. I lost to MaFia in the winners bracket and fought my way through the Losers bracket until I had to play MaFia again, and I cracked under pressure. Instead of going with what I had planned, I tried to wing it. Every other game I had followed my plans -- against JazBas, I defended a 10pool with a 15hatch when it was thought to be impossible. Against Light, I beat him on equal bases multiple times when the whole plan was to beat a Protoss with economy. Yet against MaFia, I faltered and tried to make up a plan on the fly, and I paid the price for it. It's something that I can't go a week without thinking about and dwelling on. It was possibly the best tournament, yet the most disappointed I've ever been in my e-sports career, and I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

- What prompted your swap to League of Legends?

After WCS 2012, my motivation dropped off for a bit. I was regaining motivation when Heart of the Swarm came out, but the changes to all the races completely nullified my playstyle. Doing that made the game much less fun for me -- I had always said that when the game was no longer fun, I would stop playing. Thus, I stopped playing and was drawn in to League of Legends.