Transcription (english) - Interview de VortiX, juillet 2014

[M] Corto : VortiX joined Millenium on June 8th, just before dominating his WCS Ro16 group, winning against Harstem and his team mate ForGG, without putting too much of an effort.

Since his demonstration, VortiX attended the Game Fever tournament, at the end of June, without really shining, falling against his team mate Dayshi, and the Korean Protoss Patience. The following week, he reached the LVP Gamergy finals, a Spanish offline tournament, where he lost against the Protoss Majestic, who had just been recruited by mousesports.

Eventually, last week-end, he faced Golden on the WCS Season 2 final bracket. Even though he was leading 2-1, he couldn't score the last point in order to advance. Next week-end, he will be in Valencia for the DreamHack.

To talk about his recent results and know in which state of mind he will approach his next tournaments, I have the opportunity to have him with me today.

So, VortiX, hello !

[M] VortiX : Hello, what’s up ?

I’m good, I hope you’re good too.

[M] VortiX : I’m good, yes.

Great. So, first of all, I wanted to talk a little bit with you about your run in WCS Europe. For your last match, you had to face Golden. You were winning the series 2-1 and in the end you lost, and you seemed quite disappointed after the games.

You tweeted afterwards that you shouldn’t have tried to finish the game too quickly, I guess you were speaking about the fourth map where you tried to do an all-in. Can you comment a little bit on that ?

[M] VortiX : Well, the thing is that sometimes, when I’m winning a series, I have this bad habit of trying to take advantage of that, thinking that my opponent will not play aggressive, and he will play defensive and so on, and I tried to make some kind of cheese to get him off guard after some macro games. And apparently it’s a really bad option, in macro games I was doing really good versus Golden, but then, I don’t know why, I decided to all-in and we were 2-2.

And then on the last game I was a little bit nervous, I had some miscontrols and my micro wasn’t that good overall. I think that the main problem wasn’t really about trying to finish the games fast, but saying "OK I have some advantage so let’s try not to turtle and get my opponent off guard, and try something he won’t expect.". But apparently it never worked, and I kept doing this with cheese really bad. But I guess, this time I’ve learned a lesson. 

It’s actually something you already pointed out in an interview that you gave to Clarity Gaming at the end of last year, I don’t know if you remember.

You were already talking about these problems that you had that sometimes you want to finish games too quickly. How do you think you can improve this aspect of your play ?

[M] VortiX : I don’t know, first you have to realize that you have that problem, and then it’s just about to say to yourself not to do it again. It’s not like there’s some specific training you can do for that. I try to remember myself, every game I play now, to not do the same, and that’s it.

Because when you’re in a series like that, you don’t have a real plan in the beginning of the series, to know exactly how you will react ? You take one game after another or you have a plan ?

[M] VortiX : Yes, I take one game after another. I play the second game depending on the result of the first one. If I’m 1-0 ahead, then I know I can take risks and do something different.

That’s a problem also, normally you should have a plan before starting your match, and you should stick with it, but it’s something I’m really bad at. I don’t know why I just try to play reactive to how the series is going, and it doesn’t work really well lately.

In the end, it’s not so bad, if we look at the overall results, you managed to qualify four times out of five to the Ro8 in WCS, so it’s already a quite impressive result.

And you also made it once to the Ro4, I can imagine that one of your goal would be to be able to reach the final and maybe win it, what would you need for that, you think ? What’s the specific thing you would have to correct to be able to go through the whole thing ?

[M] VortiX : Well I think one of the main thing is getting a good bracket. Normally it’s not that I get the hardest opponent, but I don’t know why, almost every times I’ve been in the Ro8, I’ve gotten the race I was playing the worst versus.

So I think it was only the season I won versus Stardust in quarterfinals that I was doing really good versus Protoss so I was really happy getting him. But then, on the other season it’s been…maybe two weeks before my match –I don’t know why, maybe it’s something mental– I started being worse and worse at that matchup, and when I reached the match, I was totally unconfident. It happened to me versus…I think it was jjakji, and versus MMA.

It’s something I have to work on, trying to be constant in the three matchups so that I never get a matchup I hate and I don’t get nervous in that matchup.

And also, I wanted to ask you about one problem that sometimes people raise in discussions, it’s about the region lock system that has been implemented.

It seems that you can beat any Korean that are in the WCS Europe, but do you think, in any way, that the region lock system is working ? Because in the end, there are still many Koreans who reached the finals, and there’s only a few Europeans that are able to beat them. Do you think one would need to change something about that ?

[M] VortiX : It’s OK for me to see some Korean players like ForGG or StarDust, they have been living in Europe for years now, and you can’t really deny them from playing in our region. Because after all, they have the right to play here.

But I think it’s really bad that they allow some Koreans to even play the online phases from Korea, train in Korea, and then come here only for two days, play the tournament, and then go away to Korea again.

Like San for example ?

[M] VortiX : Yes, for example. I think that’s really bad not only for the players, but also for the people that are watching the tournament. I don’t think that it’s good to see 100% Korean players playing in the Europe region.

It’s good to see some Koreans that are really involved in the foreign community, but I think for the people watching, it must be really boring to watch people that are full Koreans playing in the region. They can’t really relate to those players, or cheer for someone or another. They don’t even care.

I think that’s obviously killing StarCraft II a bit, making WCS loses interest for some people. But overall I think they are doing OK. They should really check that for the next seasons if possible. But I guess they know what they are doing.

At least, it seems that they are aware that something maybe has to be done. But there’s also another aspect of the fact that there are so many Koreans playing in Europe for example, some people are saying that it improves the overall level in Europe, do you agree with this opinion ? The fact that Koreans help the Europeans to be better ?

[M] VortiX : If you are talking about Koreans like ForGG or StarDust …

Exactly, the ones that are playing on the European ladder, for example.

[M] VortiX : Yes, that definitely improves [the level]. I think it’s really good if they come here, they stay here and they practice, they help us getting better. That’s completely true. In ladder, for example, nowadays, it’s really hard to get a lot of Terrans when you’re playing, but then maybe you’ll get ForGG, jjakji, some Terrans like that, and it helps you improve a bit.

So yes, I really like that some Koreans want to come here and train with us but I don’t think it’s that good when they come only for tournaments and then they go away.

In your recent events, you also participated at the end of June to an offline tournament in Spain. You’ve reached the finals of the LVP Gamergy tournament, and there you lost against Majestic. Could you tell us a bit more about this tournament ? Who is the organizer ?

[M] VortiX : It’s the second biggest tournament in Spain right now, there’s the EPS and there’s the LVP. This tournament started in 2011 – maybe September 2011 was the first season – and it’s been going on till now.

They kicked StarCraft II out of the games some seasons ago, but now it’s back, so it’s kind of cool. As you said, I lost in the final to Majestic who is a very good Protoss player. I wasn’t at the best conditions for these games so I guess it’s not too big of an upset.

Were there a lot of audience for StarCraft II, how is this popular in Spain at the moment ?

[M] VortiX : The bad thing is that the area where StarCraft II was being held was really small. So it was full because it was so small ! There were some moments where there wasn’t any more room for any other people.

I don’t know what to think because on one hand, as I said, it was a really small area, so you never know, but on the other one it was really full. I think it was two seasons ago or three seasons ago, we hit 2,000 viewers on stream, and the area was so big, and it was so full.

It seems like StarCraft II in Spain is not that big but it’s growing a bit. Not right now, but two years ago it grew up so much.

And if we talk now about your overall results since the beginning of the year, you had pretty good results: you won the Vasacast Invitational tournament, you’ve reached the second place of the Fragbite Masters, you made it 2nd to the Gamergy tournament. And also, twice Ro8 at WCS Europe. Are you happy with your results so far this year ?

[M] VortiX : I’m happy with the overall results, if you look at them separately, they are really good performances in every tournament. But I’m still sad because I think most of the games I’m losing are not because I’m necessarily worse than my opponent, but because of my bad choices for strategy, my nerves you could say sometimes, even though I’m getting better at that.

But I think most of the games I’m losing – maybe not most of them, but some of the games I’m losing in tournaments, in decisive rounds – [it’s] mainly because of me playing stupidly. I think I can get better if I try to focus and really spend some time thinking what I should do every game and not just play random things, or things that can work or cannot. I like to play safe, I really have confidence in myself being able to take games in a normal way.

I’ve listen to a few interviews that you gave to other people, for example Hot_Bid, after your WCS Season 2 Ro16 run, and it seems that you never sound overconfident when you are talking about yourself.

It always feels as if you’re not happy about what you’re able to do, you would like to do better, and in a sense, I wanted to ask you what actually would make you happy of yourself, what achievements you would like to be able to reach and which you would be happy of ?

[M] VortiX : I think it’s obviously winning a Premier tournament. My problem is that sometimes I try to make myself realize that I can win big tournament if I play good, but then, when the tournament is there, I got some really hard opponent, and I’m like "Oh my god, maybe I can't win him, I should try special stuff or something".

I don’t know, it’s kind of hard. For me the most important thing is winning a tournament. If I win Ro16 or even Ro8 it’s good but it’s not what I’m looking for, I try to win any tournament I go to.

I’d really love to win DreamHack Valencia because it’s the only big international tournament in Spain, so the biggest thing I could achieve this year is probably winning that, from all the things that could make me happy.

DreamHack Valencia will be next week-end, did you have time to prepare specifically for it ?

[M] VortiX : I had some time off after WCS Ro8 to clear ideas. I was out of form, in vacations with my family. And right now I’ve been practicing for DreamHack Valencia, I think I’m in good shape.

I wouldn’t be able to say if it’s the best shape I’ve been in in the last months but it’s definitely a decent shape. I’ve been preparing for it and we’ll see how it goes, it’s a format that I like better than WCS where your opponent has two weeks to prepare for their opponents.

This tournament [DreamHack], you don’t know who you will meet. You know you go there and you have ten opponents in the first three group stages and then the bracket. So I think maybe it will be better for me.

Which player would you fear the most in this tournament ?

[M] VortiX : I don’t know, I think there are many good Europeans, it’s hard to say. There are some really good Zerg players like Leenock or HyuN, there’s also some Protosses, there’s MC, Stardust. So any of those players, even some of the best Europeans are there and they are really good too. It’s hard to say. Any player is good but you have to be ready for anyone.

Nowadays, it seems that there are still many StarCraft II tournaments. How do you choose personally which one to focus on ?

[M] VortiX : I’m a student right now, so I don’t have as much time as other progamers to attend all the tournaments I want, so when I have to study I just try to focus on WCS because there are three phases that take place in maybe 2 months or so.

So I really try to focus myself on doing well on WCS because it’s the tournament where even if you don’t reach the Ro8, you already have some prize money secured. So I try to focus on that and other than that, in Spanish tournaments.

I sometimes go to IEM, DreamHacks. But overall it’s WCS right now for me.

Is there any tournament that you would like to participate to that you didn’t have the chance so far ?

[M] VortiX : IEM and DreamHack I don’t have much time for them lately. I have gone to some of them and they are really cool so I really hope I can go to some soon in the future. It’s a bit hard, timewise, but it’s ok, I should do some other soon.

So it means that if it’s OK with your schedule as a student, you can go to any tournament ?

[M] VortiX : Yes, because right now I’m on vacations also, so I should have more time if some tournament occurs.

And do you have any particular goal for the rest of the year ?

[M] VortiX : Reaching the final in the next WCS season would be really good, since I’ve been on Ro8 three times, Ro4 once. That would be really good. And other than that, making a good performance in DreamHack Valencia is something I also want to achieve, those are the two biggest goals, and of course if I go to any other tournament then I really want to go for it and try to win it.

But overall it’s DreamHack Valencia and WCS Season 3, these are going to be the main tournaments for me.

Now I wanted to talk a little bit about teams. Before joining Millenium, you’ve stayed one year with mousesports. I just wanted to know –maybe it’s a dumb question- you seemed to be quite happy in this team, but in the end you changed: did anything special happen or you just wanted to change and to have an experience elsewhere ?

[M] VortiX : I was really comfortable with them, but the contract had just finished and we had to sign a new one. And sometimes it’s really hard to find an agreement for both sides because players always want more for them, and [sponsor/team] always wants more for them too.

I felt comfortable there, but I think if I wanted to keep spending so much time in playing I needed other conditions and I found them in Millenium.

Did you know the Millenium players before joining the team ? I mean, did you know them personally ?

[M] VortiX : Not so much, I have talked sometimes with some of them, because I met them in some tournaments, I played them in ladder and maybe we’ve talked a couple of times here and there. But no, overall I didn’t have a really close relationship with them. I didn’t know them that well.

So actually, DreamHack Valencia will be also an opportunity to meet them all ?

[M] VortiX : Yes, definitely, I think there will be four Millenium players there, counting me. It’s Millenium tournament! *laughs*

Yes, hopefully! MarineLorD was saying earlier this year that maybe Millenium would organize a bootcamp during the summer. Did you hear about this idea and will you participate ?

[M] VortiX : I haven’t got many news on that so I don’t know, but it’s summer so I guess it should be OK for me to go to any event of that kind if needed. And if I think it would be helpful for me, then yes of course, I would go. But I can’t say now, because I don’t have any info about it.

This year, you have been also very active in clanwars, especially when you were still with Mousesports. You played in Acer Teamstory Cup, and also in Winamax Expresso Invitational. Are clanwars something you like in particular ?

[M] VortiX : Yes definitely, I think clanwars are really interesting because it’s one of the few moments all the team gathers together and they discuss the games, they try to cheer themselves up, the other members of the team, and so on, and it’s really a good experience. Clanwars is something I really like since I started playing.

It’s one of these moments where you are not just training or playing alone, but you have to be with your team and talk about strategies and how the clanwar is going, etc. It’s really cool I guess.

If we look at your results in Acer Teamstory Cup, it’s quite impressive. You had a few all-kills and it really worked well.

[M] VortiX : Yes, I think I started a bit shabby but then it got better on the next season.

Do you think that with you on board, Millenium has a chance to reach the playoffs of the next ATC season ?

[M] VortiX : Yes I think so. Even without me, I think Millenium was one of the top contender teams for making it to the Ro4. All of the players in the team are really good, that’s obvious. Dayshi and ForGG are one the Europe best players, ForGG is Korean of course but if you put together the Koreans playing in Europe, I think Dayshi and ForGG are really good.

And the other players are also really good, I’ve always considered Millenium one of the best teams in ATC. I guess next season, with me trying to help as [much as] I can, it can be finally the season that they will make it to the playoffs, we will make it to the playoffs.

It seems that one of the main issue was that they had only Terrans in the team, and in the end, if they have you as a Zerg, it will probably be much easier to find a good strategy against opponents.

But don’t you think that the team would also need a Protoss ?

[M] VortiX : There was BabyKnight before, playing for Millenium, I think he quitted in the middle of the season. Of course, Protoss is so imba *laughs* so you need some Protosses in your team.

It’s better to have a team that has players of all the races, it’s always harder for the opponent to predict who is going to be playing, and needs a more complete roster. But I think it’s overall OK to have Terrans and Zergs. I think it’s players’ skills that matter after all, not so much races, so I guess it’s OK.

I also wanted to ask few questions about you, throughout your career, you always had to make pauses in your StarCraft II training because you had to focus sometimes more on your studies.

Most of the time, you told people that focusing on other things than StarCraft II was actually a good thing for you, because it was helping you to regain motivation and also to get stronger for next events. Is it something you still feel ?

[M] VortiX : I think, for me, playing full time wouldn’t work at all, I think it’s good to have something else to do day to day. Not just waking up, playing StarCraft II, eating, playing StarCraft II, and sleeping. I think it’s good to do something else to keep your mind off of it a bit, and get some relax.

And then, if you play not so much, I think it’s harder to get bored of StarCraft II, or at least to keep motivation up it’s good to have little breaks. It’s something my studies are helping with, something else other than StarCraft II to do is really good.

Because motivation seems to be one of the main issues that progamers have to face, to stay competitive in StarCraft II for long time.

There are many examples of people who have retired because of lack of motivation. I guess this is something that professional sportsmen have to deal with too. I wanted to ask you whether you think that there is something that you could learn from them for your StarCraft II career ? Would you like to talk to Rafael Nadal about it for example ? *laughs*

[M] VortiX : Of course, eSport is one of the sectors that is less developped. So I think we should have a lot to learn from “real” professional –I mean of course progamers are real professional too- but I think there’s much to learn from other sections of the industry.

I think it would be really helpful because as you said, it’s not only keeping the motivation for playing StarCraft II, but also keep the motivation for travelling, and travelling to tournaments. I think it’s really exhausting and sometimes you don’t know how to deal with it. In my case, I think I went to four tournaments in a row in 2012, and after that I didn’t want to travel anymore in my whole life *laughs*

We got a lot of stuff to learn to keep that motivation up.

I wanted to ask you also about your training habits, how do you train usually ? Do you do a lot of ladder games ? Or you try to focus on certain matchups in custom games ? How do you work ?

[M] VortiX : Overall I try to play about four hours a day of ladder, that tends to be my normal schedule. Then there are some days that I watch some games from Korean progamers if there’s any.

Which competition in particular ?

[M] VortiX : Proleague and GSL are basically the two ones I try to catch games from. It’s where I can learn the most from. So normally it’s like four hours a day of ladder and then if I have to play on WCS for example and I know I will get a Protoss, then I try to play some custom games but overall it’s just ladder and watching games from Korean progamers.

And when you play custom games, who are your regular opponents ?

[M] VortiX : There’s no particular opponent. There’s a place where almost all progamers gather and we ask each other for the custom games we need. If I need a Protoss, I ask for any Protoss to play. I haven’t got any one in particular.

About your studies, you’re studying computer science, could you tell us a little bit what are the next steps in your studies that you will have to do in the next months and next years ?

[M] VortiX : I’m studying half-time now, I’m not hurrying so much. So I still have like some years to finish. I don’t know exactly but it should be something like three years, maybe a bit more. I’m starting again in September. Computer science, even though I’ve been studying for three years, it’s still really new for me, because as I said I’m taking it quite slow and try to focus in progaming too.

So it means that in Spain, it’s possible to study at the rhythm you want ? You don’t have to pass a specific exam each year? You can pass them basically when you want ? Or how does it work ?

[M] VortiX : Once you’ve joined the University you have two years to finish the initial phase, we could say. Which is like 8^th Grade or something ? And once you finished them you can study at the place you want. If you want, you can even not take any single exam a year or so, and then come back to University, but you have to pass that initial phase, and then you can do whatever you want. Right now I’m like half-time progaming, half-time studying.

And what kind of jobs would you like to do afterwards ? Have you already thought about that ?

[M] VortiX : I think it’s too early, I’d love to be involved with the video game industry somehow after I finish. I don’t know how or with which company or whatever but it’s something I would like to do. But as I said it’s a bit early to think about that as I have 3 or 4 more years until I finish.

Yes, you still have a lot of time to think about this. I also wanted to ask you about your brother, LucifroN, because I was a big fan when he was still playing.

[M] VortiX : I was too. *laughs*

He was – at least for me – the best foreign Terran player, so he decided to quit StarCraft II unfortunately at the beginning of the year, so has he completely stopped playing StarCraft II ?

[M] VortiX : He hasn’t played a single 1v1 game since January. So yes, I think that’s really full stop. Progaming is something really addictive, I don’t know if there’s a way you can quit it forever so, you never know. Maybe in the future he will come back, you can’t know.

Is he playing other games for fun at the moment or is he just not playing at all ?

[M] VortiX : Yes, he is playing other video games like Heroes of the Storm, which is kind of new. It’s on Alpha I think right now. He plays some other video games too but just for fun. At the moment there’s not any game he is playing for competition.

So hopefully Legacy of the Void will make him come back ?

[M] VortiX : I hope so, but it’s kind of hard to say, the game will have to change a lot for players to gain that motivation again to come back once you have quit. It’s kind of hard to say, but I hope he will come back. But it’s not my business.

I had also one question about the new patch that has been proposed by Blizzard recently, where there should be a buff of mines and also some changes in the way the Time warp is done. What do you think about it ? Do you think it will change a lot of things for your Zerg vs Terran or Zerg vs Protoss or you think it won’t matter so much ?

[M] VortiX : I haven’t read the exact things they are going to change, but overall I think it’s Widow mine buff and Time warp nerf so I think the Widow mine buff won’t do much, maybe the mid-game for Terran will be a bit better but I think overall it’s on late-game that Terrans are struggling with.

Yes, this is exactly what Snute was telling in an article on TeamLiquid I think.

[M] VortiX : And even lately, I don’t think late-game is so hard for the Terran, I think the match is quite balanced now so I don’t think  that change with Widow mine will do much. If I had to buff one unit for Terran, the Widow mine would probably be the last one I would be buffing. That seems weird for me. Time warp change is kind of obvious, we have been asking for this since the beginning of Heart of the Swarm Beta, and finally it’s going to happen, hopefully.

The changes seem quite big but I don’t know if it will be very effective because they have just decreased the duration of the Time warp from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. But everything happens in the first seconds of the Time warp, so I don’t know if it will change a lot.

[M] VortiX : I guess there will be some situations where both armies are poking each other, baiting a bit. Then if he uses his Time warp, with a Mothership core with 200 energy, he will probably have three Time warps in a fight: two and the third one will come a bit later. So in those situations where both armies are poking a bit at each other, I think it’s going to be really helpful, because the Time warp will go out faster, so there will be less times where the Protoss can go in and take the fight.

But overall I don’t think it’s going to affect some of the pushes that Protoss are making. It’s definitely going to be a really big change, but I guess I would have to try and see how it works before I can say it’s going to be too big or too little.

But when there are these types of patches, you try to play a little bit to test them on the maps or not really ? You wait until they are effective ?

[M] VortiX : No, I’m too lazy to play the test maps *laughs*. I wait for them to come out and I try everything and I complain on Twitter and stuff *laughs*

That’s it for the questions I’ve prepared, so I will thank you very much for the time you took on this interview. Would you like to add something before we say goodbye ?

[M] VortiX : It was a pleasure to do this interview, thanks for the cheers and thanks for everyone cheering for me, merci beaucoup et au revoir!

Ok, see you next time! Au revoir !

[M] VortiX : Bye, bye !

Bye !

TinkeR