The end of the year looked very promising for Millenium with the arrival of Lilbow in the team and the victory of ForGG at DreamHack Winter, but it will instead end on a sadder note with the departure of Juan « VortiX » Moreno Durán. After six months in the structure, VortiX has decided to take a break from StarCraft II since the game doesn't interest him as much anymore. He is however leaving the door open to a comeback in a few months if the passion comes back.
VortiX stepping down from StarCraft is a hard blow for both the Spanish and the European scene. In Spain, Juan has been the number one player after LucifroN announced his retirement. His status was not uncontested since he lost to Majestic in the finals of Gamergy season 1 for instance. But season 2 has been the occasion for the Millenium zerg to balance things back to where they always should have been. After two victories in the qualifiers and a clear domination during the offline finals, VortiX showed once and for all that he is the true Spanish king.
On the international scene, VortiX has proven his value time and time again. Although he participated in a relatively small number of competitions, he was always there when we expected him, rarely disappointing his fans. In WCS, he achieved a top 8 in season 2, and top 16 in season 3, which proves how regular he is, having spent six consecutive seasons in Premier League of WCS Europe with as most notable performance a top 4 in season 3 2013. VortiX has also shown his amazing talent in non-WCS events. At DreamHack, he managed to reach top 8 in Valencia before being defeated by MC. More recently, the Spanish prodigy impressed everyone by qualifying to IEM San José without dropping a single map against Happy, Snute, Sacsri and First. He was however unable to attend the event due to his exams.
[M]Nazca : Hi VortiX ! Today you announce that you let aside your StarCraft II career for an indefinite period of time in order to focus on your Heroes of the Storm career. When/how did you start to feel tired of the game and how did you come to "prefer" Heroes in a sense ?
[M]VortiX : At the beginning of 2013 I had my first moments of unmotivation towards the game, the last months of 2012 were really exhausting tournament-wise and I felt a bit saturated. With Heart of the Swarm I regained motivation and joined Mouz which made it like a part-time job for me. For a while I was doing good, but as soon as all the strategies were figured out and there started to be small room for improvisation I started to feel really tired again. Then I got the chance to join Millenium and I decided to give my best.
Some people might not believe it, but I did actually practise decent amount of time of sc2 even if I played some Heroes of the Storm. I just couldn't focus at all since it was extremely boring for me to play practice games and I got into the mentality that I couldn't win the tournaments I attended.
However I want to clarify that I don't see this as a switch from Starcraft II to Heroes. I would've taken this break from Starcraft no matter what. I feel with my feelings towards the game right now I cannot improve at all and I don't feel satisfied with my play, so this break is 100 % necessary, and it's the first break I'm taking for almost 5 years playing SC2. I don't think it's possible to talk about a Heroes of the Storm career right now, since the game is still in Alpha, but I enjoy a lot the game and competing in a team game is something very new for me which makes it quite exciting at the moment.
Had you played team games prior to Heroes ? Can you explain the main differences you feel playing both games ?
I played a bit of League of Legends and DotA 2 at some point, but it was just soloq/duoq casually and never really played in a well-comunicated team. The main thing I like about it is that sharing gameplay and wins with other 4 players is much funnier, and loss are much easier to analyse, plus every member of the team suggests calls, ideas etc, which makes it much easier to take decisions and improve our team play. Overall I think it's just much more entertaining to share games with other people rather than just practising on your own which at least for me ended up being so monotone and tedious.
You have been a member of Millenium for over six months now. You seem happy enough with us to have wanted to wear Millenium colours with your Heroes team, El Nexo. How is this adventure going so far and would you like to pursue it in the next months ?
I've felt so good in Millenium throughout these 6 months, it feels everything they do is in a very professional way and people is quite friendly. I would like of course to play for Millenium in Heroes too but it's their decision. We are currently just playing HCL for them as a "trial" since I'm a member of Millenium team, but we're not a definitive Millenium squad. So far we are doing quite good and we think we are capable of winning any team.
Most players in the team are previous StarCraft II players. Has this common background been of some help in your training and bounding together the team, or have you guys started playing Heroes from scratch, regardless of your respective previous games ?
Four of us have been top grandmaster in the past and the other member has been high master in SC2 and diamond 1 in League of Legends so I think individually we are quite good. Then in teamplay it helps a lot that we've known each other for some years now so it feels quite confortable to play together. I don't think there's much you can take from SC2 to this game other than fast reaction though.
Coincidentally, El Nexo is believed to be the best team in the world right now. Is it related to your StarCraft II background in your opinion ?
I think it's kinda hard to say who is the best team in the world since we don't compete with American or Asian teams, but I guess our high level has to do with the fact that we had a high level in Starcraft II and thus mecanically speaking Heroes is an "easy" game to play for us. But I guess it also helps that we've played other mobas casually, we're all Spanish which makes it easier for communication and we've known each other for quite some time now.
Aren't you afraid to lose your position as a world-widely renowned progamer since you are somehow restarting a career ?
Not at all, what I care most about is having fun and enjoying what I do, thus I think this is gonna be a good decision even if Heroes of the Storm fails or I fail to become good at it when there's a lot more people playing. Besides, I've already had my "golden" era in SC2, I think it's time to look for other ambitions at least for the time being. Anyways, as mentioned previously, this is just a break, if I feel motivated again in some months I'll start playing Starcraft II again and I'm sure I can go back to my level of play when that happens.
What are you ambitions in the next months regarding Heroes of the Storm ?
We want to win any little tournament there is in Europe of course, and we think we have the level to do it. But right now we just try to focus on learning as much as we can about the game, not falling in the same mistakes, playing as much Heroes as we can, and overall just trying to get the best level we have for when big tournaments start to happen.
Is there anything you would like to say to your StarCraft II, Millenium, and Heroes fans ?
About Starcraft II and Millenium fans I just want to thank them so much for the support through all this time, one of the things that always kept me motivated when I played was the cheers I had from all of them when I lost and their reactions when I won, I really appreciate it so much. And again, I don't want people to see this as a retirement, I'm pretty sure sooner or later SC2 will catch my attention again and I'll be there to show the best level I've ever had.
For the new Heroes ones and the people interested in the game, I've made some changes to my computer and I think I can finally stream without my stream dropping every 15 minutes, so once I finish my exams and coinciding with the beta opening I'm gonna start streaming regularly probably. I know I always say the same, but this time it's for good so stay tuned!
You can keep following VortiX activies through his Twitter account of course. On behalf of all the Millenium staff, merci Juan for all the great moments spent together !
Nazca and Nepou
