English interview - De HotS à LotV #2 : uThermal

[M]TinkeR : Legacy of the Void has been released for two weeks now. Was the step from HotS to LotV hard to take for you? What were the biggest difficulties you've faced at first, and maybe still today?

[AT]uThermal : I'm usually someone who is very slow at adapting, even when I transitioned from WoL to HotS I lost most of my skill. I went from being about top 10 GM to being more mid-level GM, rank 30-70. When I first started playing [LotV] I was only about mid-Master level,

I was pretty good at holding all-ins but I really couldn't grasp how to play macro games, I think I struggled a bit with the new economy and macro mechanics. Luckily the new Terran units are pretty strong so I was able to climb the ladder quite fast! I think I adjusted quite quickly after all :P.

What are your thoughts so far on the game itself, in terms of balance and also from a potential point of view ?

I think from a general perspective all races are equal in strength, with maybe Zerg having a bit of an edge. With the current meta on the EU server, Terran is probably the strongest and Protoss the weakest. I think especially in PvT, the Europeans are a bit weak so far, I've only encountered one Protoss who played the matchup properly for now.

In TvZ I think at the highest level (within Europe) it is quite balanced, but the mid-level Terrans seem to be stronger than the mid-level Zergs so I would give Terran a slight edge in that regard. I don't play PvZ but it seems to be pretty imbalanced in favor of Zerg currently.

Yep that's what PtitDrogo told us last week, also adding that the Adept is saving him on his PvT. So, does the Adept give you nightmares on ladder? What are your thoughts on each of the new Terran units: Liberator and Cyclone ?

My winrate in TvP is really good and I don't struggle with Adepts in particular so not really :P. I like the new Terran units, I think the Cyclone has some hidden potential that will be shown later on in LotV.

The Liberator is already really good but I think after build orders and strategies get more refined it won't be as useful in its current state, but we will have to wait and see!

What are the main areas for improvement in which Blizzard should especially focus on? Wether it's balance-wise or other stuffs like social interface, display settings, anything, ...?

Actually I think the interface is really good, I said it when I started playing LotV after release, I'm really happy with how the game looks, its very good looking :P. Though I do think Blizzard should work more on fixing bugs, there is still bugs around like the bug where you lose sound due to Alt-Tabbing, or many people losing ladder games because of the 'Game ready' bug. Some of these bugs are over 4 years old, that's pretty ridiculous.

Oh yeah I got that one with the Alt-Tabbing, I thought it was only me. There's also this one, which is not a bug, but I find that pretty annoying too.

Ah yeah, I noticed that lol

Did you try some Archon modes and Co-op? Do you think there's room for Archon mode to become a competitive game by itself and independant from the classic 1v1 ?

I played quite a bit of Archon modes and I think it's really cool, I don't know if it's something I would play competitively since I would get so stressed out relying on a teammate. I do think it's a really fun mode and hope it becomes something bigger. I tried Co-op missions as well but it was too hard for me so I quit haha.

What about the solo campaign? Are you playing it? (in Brutal?)

Ah no :P I've never been a campaign/singleplayer guy, I haven't played any of the campaigns ... actually I played the first 3 missions of, I think, the HotS campaign but didn't really enjoy it. I haven't tried the LotV campaign and I don't think I will either.

You've just qualified to the HomeStory Cup this week, so congratulations first because if I'm correct you never went before! Do you have few words on it and on your run during your qualification?

Thanks! Yeah I could've gone to the last edition but unfortunately I wasn't able to because of IEM in China, so I'm excited to get to go this time! For 2015 I managed to qualify for lots of events but this is my first time qualification for HSC so I believe I will have participated in every different tournament circuit in Europe now, which is pretty cool as well. Kind of achievement I guess you could say.

The qualifier was pretty easy, I was a bit afraid playing Miszu since my TvT is so weak, but it ended up alright for me. Honestly I don't think I've ever lost in qualifying matches so I was really confident for my match against SortOf, overall I don't think I had any real competition for this qualifier.

We are approaching 2016, how would you review your 2015 year?

Definitely my best year so far, not really satisfied with my results (like almost any progamer) but I've learned a lot. I had upped my practice hours quite a lot from 2014 and improved in skill. Though at the end of 2015 I realised I wasn't in the best physical and mental health so I had to take some time off.

For 2016 my main goal is to improve my overall health. I will probably practice less than in 2015 since it was too much. I expect my results to drop slightly, but only time can tell. I'm aiming specifically to do better in WCS since my results in WCS were lackluster for 2015, for tournaments outside of WCS I was one of the top foreigners but never managed to breach the Ro32 for the main tournament.

I'm currently doing my best to help my team and teammates improve as well and hopefully we will be able to show an even stronger roster for 2016! :)

OK! Well I wish you good luck for your objectives and for 2016. I'll let you with the last words/shoutouts if you wanna make some, and thank you again for your time!

Thanks! As I mentioned before I'm doing my best to help my team and teammates grow, I'm organising bootcamps every 2-3 months and everyone in the team is very motivated, you can expect multiple players from AT Gaming to qualify for next years WCS system! :). Of course shoutout to my team AT Gaming and the sponsors HyperX, NEEDforSEAT®, CoolerMaster, Eizo and Spam Energydrink for always supporting me!