English interview - For Is Here #18 - MajOr

From Brood War to WCS

[M] TinkeR : You've started competitive gaming with StarCraft 1/Brood War, if I'm correct. Why did you eventually pick Terran more than any other race ? What has seduced you in this race and were you hesitating with Protoss or Zerg at the beginning ?

MajOr : Hm, I used to play in a cybercafe, and to be honest it was the first race I saw and first race I played. So I just stick to Terran, there's no real big reason why I didn't play the other two races.

Is there anything (gameplay items, maybe units) you regret from Brood War compared to StarCraft II ? And on the contrary, anything you find better in StarCraft II? Or it never really crossed your mind to think about that and for you that's just two different games.

Well, they are different games of course. I just wish the game wasn't so deathbally, so in that sense I miss Vultures a lot, as well as the old Siege Tanks. Hopefully, Legacy of the Void will make the game less deathbally. Heart of the Swarm did a decent job regarding that, but it ended up being kind of the same as Wings of Liberty, deathbally.

Recently you didn't manage to reach WCS Ro16, barely losing to Bunny then viOLet 1-2 on Ro32. What were your expectations before the first group stage and what do you think went wrong for you ?

I was hoping I would advance. But I was very tired. It didn't help that my flight was so long (20 hours) and that I only had one day to rest. I couldn't adjust  to the timezone  and I played kind of poorly too, but it happens. If I have to fly to Germany again during season 2, I will ask to arrive few more days before my match.

About the WCS, now the the first season with the new format has ended last week-end, do you think that's a better format than previous year(s) ?

No. I hate the fact that from the Ro16 to the finals, everything was played in one week-end. WCS is supposed to be the league of preparation. And now, all the Ro16 is played in three days. I hope it will not be like that in season 2, but who knows.

General

I'd like to know how is the Mexican scene going overall ? Your team and you did pretty well in Nation Wars II for example last year, finishing at the second place, do you think that it reflects Mexico's level on StarCraft II ?

Hmm,  there's only two players in Mexico : JimRising and me. And no it doesn't reflect Mexico's level on StarCraft II. It was mostly all-kill, so we did good.

You're also known for being the first foreigner to join a KeSPA team (Team 8). Is that something you'd like to do again in the future, or even this year ?

I would like to, but it's not realistic. I was very lucky to join them at first. I loved it but it's a hard way of life. However, if I had the chance I would do it again.

Talking about joining a team, you're currently teamless, do you have any plan to join one soon or you're good with being on your own for now ?

For now I'm good solo, I don't really mind being solo.

If I understood correctly, you didn't play Heart of the Swarm that much when it was still on beta phase. Did that change with Legacy of the Void ? Do you have an access to the beta and did you try it a bit ?

I do have beta access. And I played some games (six or seven) but I'm not going to keep playing because I need to focus on WCS for next season. I didn't play/watch enough Legacy of the Void games to really give a solid opinion but it doesn't look so bad.

Do you happen to watch Proleague/GSL/SSL whenever you can ? Is there any player/team you're looking up to or not at all ?

Yes, I watch all of the Terran players, just to learn.

Anyone in particular ? Who would you consider the best terran players at the moment ?

Maru, but I really like to learn from Cure.

We generally consider that Bunny and you are currently the two best terran foreigners. Is there some kind of competition going on between you and what's your opinion on this ?

No, I never cared about that, I just play the game and try to win my matches. I don't really care if people think that I'm better or worse than X player.

Game put aside

Do you have any other hobby besides StarCraft II ?

I do have other hobbies, I like to play two other games. One is called Tibia, it's an old RPG game, it's very fun; and the other one is Pokémon of course. I don't play Pokémon that much nowadays, but I enjoy a lot watching good Pokémon players YouTube videos when I'm resting or before going to bed. I enjoy those games a lot, especially Pokémon as a spectator even though I'm pretty decent at playing it as well.

If you haven’t been able to be a progamer, do you have an idea of what you would do today ?

If I haven't manage to be a progamer, I probably would have study something along the lines of criminalistic. I always wanted to be a detective, haha !

We know you already changed your nickname quite a few times already, where does your current nickname, MajOr, comes from ?

There was a StarCraft 1 player called Major. I just stole his nickname. But I guess it fits me well since everyone calls me like that now.

What's the story behind you having a MarineLorD picture as your Twitter avatar ?

There's no story behind it, I just really like MarineLorD, he's really funny. I see him like my little brother, BAGUETTE HYPE haha !

A quick Q&A

To conclude, I'm going to ask you a quick Q&A, Bio or Meca ?

Bio

Flash or Bbyong ?

Bbyong

DreamHack or IEM ?

IEM

Favorite Pokémon ?

Landorus, Incarnate form

Great! Thanks a lot for your time :) do you have any last words or shoutout to make?

thanks for interviewing me