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deL · Fri, 6th-May-2011, 5:01 PM

Episode 3: Julian 'Timber' Ho

Julian "pRoTimber" Ho

DOWNLOAD TIMBER'S REPLAY PACK HERE

Name: Julian Ho
ID: pRoTimber
Race:

Terran
Nationality:

Malaysian
Team: iprodigy Prodigy

This episode of SC2SEA's Up and Coming player feature, which introduces the fans to future stars or even just underappreciated talent, we get to know Malaysian personality and competitive player Julian "pRoTimber" Ho!

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Timber has been known from early on in the SEA scene not as a particularly notable player but as the organiser for the Malaysian national team for tournaments and nation wars. Overshadowed by the Malaysian stars such as Renson and Cobo, Timber was never really recognised as a talented player until he recently started producing some strong results on ladder. With the Malaysian scene ripe for improvement we will have to wait to see what Timber can produce in tournaments both locally and internationally!

Interview with pRoTimber

1. Let’s get the introduction out of the way, so Timber if you could please briefly introduce yourself and your history with StarCraft 2
Hello, My name is Julian Ho from Malaysia. My in-game-name is pRoTimber and I’m a Terran player in the grandmaster league of the SEA server. For those who still don’t know yet, pRo is the tag for clan prodigy.

I used to play a lot of online games in the past, and a little bit of DotA. I was introduced to Brood War 1v1 by my friend Cobo. He invited me to join him to grab some free prize money in a Brood War state tournament outside of KL (Kuala Lumpur), back then I was so bad at RTS that I couldn’t even beat 2 computer AIs, so I was trained and taught by him, Renson and my girlfriend for a week and eventually won 2nd placement losing to Cobo in the final. From there I learnt some basic mechanics and understanding of the game which I could still utilise in Starcraft 2.

2. You have recently been improving dramatically as a player where previously you were simply the manager for the Malaysian national team. What sparked this increase in activity and did you ever intend to be a competitive player?
Malaysia’s national team manager position was either self-proclaimed or only recognised by sc2sea.com, so I guess it’s unofficial. I’m pretty much playing like normal as after I’ve taken over the job from iRangel, there hasn’t been much if any activity at all involving the national team. My intentions have always been playing competitively as a player.

3. How did you go about improving? Has it just been ladder games, or do you study replays and talk to friends, or something else entirely?
I used to practice against Computer AI. After getting used to beating Insane AI I started laddering right away. I got promoted to gold after 5 placement matches, and skipped platinum to diamond league soon afterwards. Then I started losing all of my game all day long for days. I decided to take a break and started joining Cobo and Renson’s custom game as an observer along with other observers. There, I asked all sorts of questions and if I can add them as friends, then I started joining more customs of the people I’ve added, observed and played with them.

I used to watch and learn from top terrans like OxygeN, KJH, GOSU/Parkson now. I learned and understand tvz from my friend Fooddealer, protoss from Cobo, Renson, Aaron (my WoW guildmate), and learned tvt together with my partner, Silkworm. Forming Clan Prodigy has also helped bring in more practice partners. In my opinion it is important to have a friend who you could practice with and totally open up all your weaknesses and fears to them so that they could exploit it, helping themselves and you to improve.

4. You haven’t had many major tournament wins yet, but do you expect you will be entering more tournaments now and continue improving as a player or are there other things taking your focus right now?
At my level now, I keep getting knocked out in top16 of SEA tournaments, I certainly hope that I could progress further in the upcoming tournaments. As of today, I have joined all of the Malaysia’s SC2 tournament available, and I still can’t get rid of my nerves, I got very frustrated once when I had a hard time beating a diamond because of my nervousness. I left my lanshop job recently and joined SMM, as I am new and still learning the ropes in event management, I hope that I can get enough time, the mood and focus needed to practice, also at the same time find ways to improve the Starcraft 2 scene of Malaysia.

5. If you had to describe your style of play or a favourite build you do, what would it be?
I usually don’t have a game-plan until I’m in the game. Then I would find ways that can enable me to play aggressively as I can’t handle harassment well.

6. Do you have any rival players that you perhaps keep meeting on ladder or in tournaments who you always have good games against?
My rivals on ladder would be bad mannered and arrogant players, I don’t have any respect for them even if they’re good and I would treat them back in the same manner. In my opinion, do not do to others what you do not wish for yourself. I always meet Cobo in the 1st round or 2nd of LAN tournaments, and I have also got knocked out by my teammate Risen and Scrubiee before, so I got Roz, Sheepy and Aaron to help me with my TvP. I think in the next tournament I will break my protoss jinx and be able to progress further.

7. Like the last player we featured, TARossi, you are quite new to the RTS genre. What advice would you give to players looking to improve their play like you have, especially without an RTS background? What is the single hardest aspect of a competitive RTS game like SC2 that you find most difficult to practice?
I would say put in dedication and hardwork in practicing and playing a lot, at the same time having a positive attitude and keeping a good amount of humility, making friends helps a lot as they can help you with your game. I don’t watch much of GSL or other streams because of the lag and inability to see the details freely like I could from a replay, so most of my methods are from observing custom plays, replays and putting a lot of thought to refine other people’s strategies or my own. Also, sometimes if you’re on a losing streak, take a break, take your time to clear your head. When you come back you will certainly see some changes in your gameplay and break some old bad habit.

On another note, from what I have noticed when some of my lower league friends play, they tend to try multitasking but end up messing it all up, unable to cope up with it. They click and move around the screen a lot but in fact doing nothing much. I know many of the replays and VODs looks cool to copy, but to be able to do that you got to get your mechanics right 1st, juggle between micro and macro smoothly, and remembering stuff, like remember to make workers and units, your previous dropship placement, where your units are if you’re about to multitask and make diversion attacks.

I think the hardest aspect to master in RTS is psychology, or maybe not only in RTS. For example, when I meet players that I thought are good, I’ve already lost 50% before the game even starts, I fear all sorts of possibilities that they might do, and I would play passively and lose the game eventually. Also, people tend to do things like all-in when they are emotional, or afraid to take the game onto the next level. I think, when you are psychologically calm, then you can play solidly.

8. Earlier in StarCraft’s history Malaysia had quite a few strong players such as Cobo and Renson, and there were the VISTA tournaments featuring many local Malaysian players – how has the Malaysian scene changed since then and do we see similar faces at the top levels of play?
Most of the players like Cobo, or maybe all the sc2 players in general have commitments in life that are more important than the game and only play the game casually. I don’t know if it’s the lifestyle in Malaysia or something else, most of the players here find 1v1 stressful and resort to playing team games which is much more relaxing and less energy taxing. If you see the list of Malaysian SC2 player that I have made http://sc2ranks.com/c/4540/malaysia-starcraft2-players/ , there are many uprising players in the grandmaster league who are not from clan prodigy and that’s very good. If we don’t keep up we’ll be left behind in terms of skill, as you can see the amount of games played by them are what I think is important as I have only achieved my level today with the amount of games I played in the past.

9. What effect do you think the announcement of both SMM introducing StarCraft 2 to their game roster and the FXOpen e-Sports pro house and live events in Malaysia will have on the local e-Sports scene, or SC2 scene in particular?
Starcraft 2 is going global. Korea GSL, Taiwan TESL in the far east, Dreamhack in Sweden and IEM for Europe,NASL, MLG,IPL for America, , FXOpen and SMM in Malaysia for SEA.

I think that it is a step forward in the revolution of e-sports in Malaysia, FXOpen’s venture in Malaysia will certainly change the scene and make what the gamers here in the past and present have always dreamt of come true. Large scale events, huge prize pools, TV broadcasting, what more could we ask for? I’ve met Joshua (FXOboss) and can certainly sense the confidence in him to change the scene here as I think e-sports needs to be run by the right people with the right amount of passion for e-sports.
I would like to take the chance to explain about SMM’s 3v3 state tournament as we have received a lot of criticism regarding the 3v3 state tournament. The 3v3 state tournaments is only part of the programme to promote SC2 in States outside of Kuala Lumpur, the reason why we chose 3v3 is to allow more players to have the chance of winning a prize and also to cater to our Malaysia net café culture where people like playing team games in general other than StarCraft 2. I promise you, the 3v3 is not the end of it, as we will have more events coming up that are still unannounced.

Thanks for your time!

If you have a suggestion for an Up and Coming player you'd like to see featured on SC2SEA, please PM me!

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