English interview - For Is Here #17 - Kane

First steps on a RTS

[M]TinkeR : To begin with, I saw that you've been introduced to StarCraft II by one of your friends, was it the first game you've ever played competitively ? And if yes, what made you « fall in love » with StarCraft II ?

[mYi]Kane : The first time I was ever introduced to « competitive gaming » was actually with Guild Wars. I really, really liked that game and was in one of the better teams at the time but we never played in tournaments or anything, we just played other teams in ranking matches.

When I was introduced to StarCraft II, I immediately fell in love with the fact that it was a solo game and if you lost there was only yourself to blame. I also loved the fact that everyone started out on an equal playing field, there were no advantages such as levels or equipment going into the start of each game. It felt like a game truly based on skill and I saw the potential of how high that skill ceiling could be after watching my first pro matches.

I understood that you've switched from Protoss to Zerg at some point because of laptop issues you were experiencing, is that a choice that you ever happen to regret, even today ? Do you think you could have been as good with Protoss as you are today with Zerg ? Or this never really crossed your mind.

I think I could've been as good with Protoss as I am with Zerg, but I enjoyed Zerg a lot more. Overall, the general mechanics (expanding, spreading creep, overwhelming your opponent with units) seemed way more fun.

I definitely don't regret my decision to switch. I think that Protoss has been really strong in Heart of the Swarm, and I think I could've abused that quite well if I had chosen to stay with Protoss, but there are no regrets overall.

To end with this « first things first » part, what was the league you were placed in the first time you've started ranked games, and how long did it take you to reach Master, then Grandmaster once these leagues have been released ?

I started fresh in Bronze league (I had never played an RTS before), and I think Diamond was the highest when I started playing at release. I really can't recall the specifics of when I reached master or Grandmaster, but I would guess it took me about a year and a half or so to reach Grandmaster. Maybe two years ?

Kane and the WCS

OK! Let's talk about something much less fun especially for you: WCS season 1 finals have been announced to take place during the Gamers Assembly in France, from 3rd to 6th of April, and it turns out that you had a schedule issue as you were supposed to join your family (if I'm correct) at this date.

Did the things changed since then? Do you heard anything from Blizzard and do you know if you'll be replaced, if that's still an issue today (even if this specific thing is not really your problem if I should say) ?

Yeah, I'm taking a family vacation to Cuba until April 3rd, but the plan is to leave a day early on April 2nd and travel to France and arrive the day that I play. Unfortunately, as of today it's not looking good that I'll be able to travel from Cuba to Paris, so I'm not even sure if I'll be able to play yet.

I leave for my vacations in two days and ESL has still not booked a flight that will work for me, so it's still up in the air whether I can play or not.

Oh okay, I hope a solution will be found though.
This is the first time you've qualified for Premier League, what were your expectations before the Challenger League, and then the Ro32 ? How confident were you ?

I hadn't been practicing very much at all to qualify for WCS because I thought I'd be able to qualify pretty comfortably no matter what. When I reached Challenger League and I saw I had qxc as my opponent, I practiced a lot for that match, probably like 60 customs ZvTs or something like that with opponents like Bunny, MajOr, Polt, Xenocider, MaSa.

I was feeling very confident about that and things went as expected as I was able to take a clean 3-0. When I reached the RO32 for some reason I saw that I had two Zergs and Happy in my group, and since I feel that ZvZ is a very coin-flippy matchup I didn't practice that much and just relied on learning a few different all-ins that I had prepared.

Against Happy I was pretty sure I was going to lose, but as it turned out I won my first match vs TargA and then somehow I was able to win versus Happy due to his own mistakes, which worked out quite nicely for me.

And let's say you'll be able to play your Ro16 group (with Welmu, Has and Bunny), how would you evaluate your chances ?

Maybe around 10%, I think if my opponents are somewhat capable as progamers I should have no chance to advance since I'll be EXTREMELY jet lagged, hungover, and exhausted from my vacation. I really don't care how I perform in the round of 16 to be honest, I'll just try my best and whatever happens, happens.

General

OK, let's switch to another topic. According to Twitter, you seemed to be excited about the Archon mode on LotV. As the beta should be released in few days now, and the game itself during the year, what are your expectations ? Like what do you think about the changes Blizzard made to the Zergs, and globally to the game ?

I really love the changes that Blizzard is making to the economy. I think it'll introduce a much faster playstyle and be a lot more entertaining as a player and spectator. I really don't know what else to expect to be honest, I really hope they introduce some sort of automated tournament system but I think we'll have to wait and see.

Yes, they should actually introduce the automated tournaments, not sure if it will be available in the beta at first though.

Do you happen to watch Korean tournaments whenever you can ? And if yes, do you have a player that you are looking up to the most or not really, just watching any Korean Zerg ?

I used to watch Proleague and GSL every time it was on, but recently I've acquired more of a normal sleeping schedule and have become a bit opposed to going to sleep at 6 AM. I still watch VODs from time to time but not as much as I used to, I don't really have any Korean Zergs I look up to that much at the moment.

The reason I like watching players like Stephano and Snute are because they are very smart and, while they may not be the best mechanically, they make really good decisions during the game, and I feel like right now there are not many Korean Zergs that I feel the same way about.

Ok interesting. So who would « not many » means here for example?

I feel like someone like Losira is a good example of a player I don't like to watch. Mechanically he is really good, but when it comes to his decision making and stuff it just seems off sometimes. On the contrary, someone like Rogue seems to also be very good mechanically, but it just seems like he has something MORE; it seems like he knows when to take engages, what units to make, when to defend as opposed to when to be offensive... just everything about his play seems smarter.

Many people are saying that the NA scene overall is not going well at the moment. But what about the Canadian's StarCraft II scene only? Do you feel like it's following the same path as the US ?

Hmm, there's a scene in Ontario that has a decent following from what I've seen. They hold some tournaments from time to time and there's quite a few people involved, but yeah I think the only semi-pro or pro that plays in those is MaSa. So he kind of dominates that from what I've seen.

What do your friends and family think about your progaming career globally ? Do they support you every time they can, or they're more like « as long as you're happy with what you do »-style ?

They love that I get to travel and they're really supportive. As long as I'm not hurting anybody and I'm enjoying life, they'd be supportive of what I do. Additionally, since I don't have a family or pets and no obligations at home really, they're very supportive.

If you didn't manage to become a progamer, do you have any idea of what would you do today ? What kind of studies where you in before, for example ?

I was a major in mathematics and I really didn't know what I wanted to do with that degree. I'd probably doing a graduate degree somewhere by now to be honest but I'm really not sure.

To conclude ...

Ok then! To finish this interview, I'll give you few names from players of your team, and you'll need to answer with ONE word for each. Ready?

Ready!

Jjakji

Chicken

PengWin

Theatrical. LOL

Sacsri

Calm

Serral

Quiet

Arium

Funny

Excellent! Well that concludes this interview thank you very much for accepting it, it was really nice to have you. If you feel like adding some words or shoutouts, please feel free!

Thanks to my team and their sponsors for supporting me, and thanks to everyone who cheers for me and follows my career, I really appreciate it. Thanks for the interview :)

Bye !