English interview - For Is Here #19 - Beastyqt

Jack of all trades

[M] TinkeR : It seems that you’ve started with Counter-Strike as your first competitive game, switching to DotA and briefly to Brood War before ending up on StarCraft II. So you’ve tried FPS, MOBA and RTS, what made you want to change from one to another, and why did you eventually stick to StarCraft II ?

[TES]Beastyqt : I've always loved playing games no matter what the genre was and even more important I loved competing. This is what lead me going from one game to another, once I reached high rating in those games I would get bored and switch to the next one.

But StarCraft II is different, because it's a lot harder than other games and for me a lot more fun to play. I used to play few more competitive games before I finally settled down on StarCraft II.

And did you pick Terran from the very beginning (even Brood War) ? Why choosing this race more than another ?

I actually played Zerg in Brood War. I started off as a Zerg at StarCraft II release, but I was quickly bored of playing Zerg which is why I switched to Terran. Zerg in Brood War and StarCraft II are played very differently and I think Terran suits me a lot better and it's a lot more fun to play :)

Back to a more recent past, you took a break from September 2013 to the beginning of 2014, trying to switch to League of Legends. What made you stop back then ? Was it a positive experience for you  ?

I took a break because I lost motivation to practice completely. Game wasn't really balanced at the time and I guess I just needed a break. I went to play League of Legends just to have fun and see how high rating I can reach, I was few games from reaching Challenger but I mostly played 1v1 tournaments which had thousands of dollars in prize pool and placed top 1-2 in few of them.

After playing League of Legends for few months I realized team games weren't really for me and I stopped playing it completely. I didn't actually plan to come back to StarCraft II at all, one day I felt like streaming StarCraft to see how bad I am since I didn't play in a long time and I just had fun playing it once again. There were some balance patches, meta game shifted and it felt like it was a new game to learn for me and here I am now competing once again :)

Overall it was really positive experience for me to take a break from StarCraft and regain my passion! :D

 A great comeback

Talking about passion, it looks like it had a positive effect on you recently! You made impressive runs since the start of this new WCS format this year, managing to qualify for both season 1 and 2, each time at your very first attempt AND barely losing to Welmu at season 1 (2-3) in Challenger League.

What were your expectations before, and how do you feel about that ?

I was pretty confident I would qualify for Challenger league, I didn't really think I would do it both times on the first try, but I knew I had a good shot at making it into Challenger. As far as my match against Welmu, I thought I would win as long as I didn't get nervous, but I did which kind of resulted in me making a lot of mistakes and losing in the end.

But instead of getting demotivated I pushed myself even harder this time and I practiced even more for this season of WCS. I learned from my mistakes and I'll try to win my Challenger match this time !

Did you change the way you practice recently ? Trying to focus on something else or do you feel it's just a « natural evolution » of the things ?

I try to focus a lot on my mistakes and why I lost each game. When I practice I'm more glad when I lose games because those are the games you learn from, if you keep winning your games you are just maintaining your skill level, not improving.

If I keep losing certain matchup I try to gain some motivation and maybe some new ideas by watching GSL/SSL matches and try to compare my games to theirs and see what I was doing wrong and try to fix it in the future.

My builds keep changing pretty much every two or three days, not completely but there's always some adjustment to make depending on the meta in the EU scene.

And more globally what are your expectations/main goals for this year ?

I'll just go one step at a time, I don't wan't to put pressure of myself thinking « I really want top 8 in WCS and that's my goal ». For now my only goal is practicing and winning my Challenger match.

Metagame, and LotV

Let's talk a bit more about StarCraft in general. The game is currently at a turning point, with these balance changes on the Swarm host, and the Legacy of the Void beta. How do you feel about the current metagame ?

I think the game balance has been good for the past 6 months and the tournament results show it as well. I like the swarm host change, one thing people have to realize is that Swarm hosts are no longer « I'll hold your whole army with my Swarm hosts » type of unit, it changed into a harass unit and people should start using it as it's supposed to be used right now. A lot of people call them useless right now and awful against both races, but I think in time Zerg's will learn how to use them properly, it's only been a week since the patch.

As far as Legacy of the Void, I played maybe 30 games and I didn't really like some of the changes, mainly I think mineral change is really bad for Terran and just bad in general. They should keep the 1500 minerals per patch like in Heart of the Swarm, but just create a way to mine more effectively the more bases you have, like Brood War. As far as the units, most of them are imbalanced and will be changed quite a lot before the actual Legacy of the Void release.

OK so I was going to ask you if you tried Legacy of the Void already. So you talked about the fact that you were trying to get inspired by GSL/SSL matches. Is there any player that you used to look up to at the beginning of your career, and still today ?

I always loved Mvp, he was the king of Wings of Liberty and easily the best player. His execution was always flawless and his builds were innovative and always something we've never seen before. He understood the game on another level compared to the other players and I'm really sad he isn't playing tournaments anymore :( 

Right now I like watching Maru and Dream play, those are the two best Terrans in my opinion. I prefer aggressive play style rather than 3 CC into macro play. Oh I also enjoy watching Bbyong.

You are one step ahead of me, you have all the questions :D What about Terran foreigners ? Who would you consider the best right now ?

I think Bunny and MarineLorD are probably the two best right now.

Besides gaming

What do your friends and family think about your progaming career ?

Pretty much all of them think it's interesting and cool what I'm doing. My dad watches every match that I play in tournaments or clan wars, no matter how important the match is, while friends and some other family members just watch the really important games like WCS or LAN events.

And do you have any other hobbies besides StarCraft II ?

I'm pretty simple as far as spending my time. I like watching TV shows, playing games, spending time with my dogs and just hanging out with my friends. Right now I don't have much time to do anything else, I've got a big match soon! :)

If you didn't manage to be a progamer, do you have any idea of what you would do today ?

Hmm....probably programming I guess or something along those lines.

Quick Q&A

OK ! Well time for the last part, I'll give you a word, and you'll have to answer me...with a word, no explanations needed :) ready ?

Haha alright let's go.

Protoss

Whiny

David Kim

No comment. :D

Map

Deadwing

Cyclone

Removed

Swarmhost

YUMMY

LotV

Imbalanced

Ok nice! Well thank you very much for your time, it was really interesting :) I wish you good luck for this year, it started quite well and I hope you'll confirm! If you have any last words/shoutouts to make, please feel free to do so.

I want to give shoutout to my family for supporting me all these years and big thanks to my team TES for their support as well :) Big thanks to all the people cheering for me and I'll try my best to win my Challenger match that's coming up soon. Thank you for the interview as well and I might see you guys at the Dreamhack in France soon!

Thanks, bye !

See you and gl ! :D