[Interview] ASL Champion Text by TL.net ESPORTS Graphics by v1 Q: Congratulations on the victory! How did you prepare for the finals, and the ASL in general? A: First of all, thank you. In all my time as a gamer, I have never prepared as hard for an individual league as I did this time. That's probably why I always used to get eliminated at the speed of light. I prefer to play standard games, so I practiced mostly the basics and standard builds. However, for the finals, I put some more thought into the series' meta-game.



Q: You've had the opportunity to play your ASL opponents often online, including Sharp, have you been relying on those previous experiences/VODs for preparation? A: I did not watch any VODs to prepare until I reached the finals. I only watched Sharp's VODs. I also spied on Sharp by secretly watching his live stream without logging on. I think that once I reached the finals and the possibility of becoming the champion became real, my level of desire to win shot through the roof.



Q: Do you generally practice specific builds for each race match-up? Or more so based on feel? A: While I practiced mostly standard builds during my preparation, I chose my builds during the actual games based on feel. For example, I used the a "goon-range dark templar" build against free. It was a really difficult decision to make in the moment because I would have been eliminated from the tournament if I had lost that game.



Q: Do you prefer your English nickname of Shuttle, or Eyewater? Where did your nickname originate? A: "Shuttle" is the ID that the guild master gave me when I joined the West Server's "by" clan. At that time, Battle.net IDs that were also Starcraft unit names (e.g., "probe") were highly prized and even traded for money. It really does not have any special meaning for me because it was chosen for me by someone else.



"Eyewater" is the literal translation of the Korean word for tears. I became known as "the tear toss" in Korea after shedding tears of joy when I made it past the preliminaries of the Batoo Starleague. When I first came to Afreeca, I chose the ID Eyewater for myself because I did not know the English word for tears. Since it has a personal meaning, I would prefer to be known as "Eyewater" to fans overseas, even if it is a bad translation.



(T/N: Shuttle...I mean Eyewater...has many nicknames, all of which are well known on Afreeca. "Elsa Toss" is the nickname he got for his excellent use of the stasis field spell, which was on display in game one. "Mole Toss" is the nickname he got for the prominent "lucky" mole on his face. He is also the "Star Dragon", which references his power to get donations in the form of "star balloons" on Afreeca. You might say that he is one of the "New Dragons of Afreeca". For your information, Guemchi is the "Webcam Dragon". Perhaps the nickname that Eyewater is best known by is "The Monstrous Progeny of Capitalism", which is pronounced Ja-naht-goo-eh. Since the original Korean version is an acronym, perhaps we should abbreviate this as MPC, too. He earned this nickname because he would always play much better in sponsored matches where prize money was on the line. As they say on Afreeca, don't bet against the MPC when at least 1000 balloons are at stake.)



Q: Can you tell us about how you started playing Starcraft? Did you consider other games? A: I started playing Starcraft because I wanted to beat the friend who sat next to me in class. Eventually, I became the best in my class, the best in my middle school, and the best in my city. Then I won a tournament for middle schoolers that was held in Seoul. I did not consider other games.



Q: You mention your father supporting you and watching your games, did your family support your decision to be a progamer since the beginning? A: My father was against my decision in the beginning. My family was not well-off and he was not happy about his son putting all of his time into Starcraft. I had to change buses twice to get to school and I would play Starcraft all night, sleep two hours, go to school, and sleep through all my classes. It was only after I won the aforementioned tournament in Seoul and won $300 that he okayed my career plans. I gave him $200 from my prize money at that time.



Q: You've had some very strong PvT wins over Last and Sharp, is Terran your favorite/preferred opponent? Would you have liked to played some more Zerg players? A: Ever since my KeSPA days, my favorite matchup was PvP. PvT was a difficult matchup for me, but I feel like I have improved my ability to see and draw the big picture in PvT (e.g., timing my expansions) during the past few months while preparing for the ASL. I most certainly did NOT want to play any Zerg players in the league. Other than Bisu, there is no Protoss player who wants to play against Zerg. I wish all Zergs would just go away and never come back.



Q: What do you think of the two new ASL maps, Overwatch and Taebaek? Do you and other pro gamers sense they favor Protoss? A: Both maps are not good for Protoss. When I beat Last/AlphaGo on Taebaek in the semi-finals, I thought that Taebaek was good for Protoss. However, I changed my mind after practicing for the finals with Last/AlphaGo on the map. Before reaching the finals, I did not have too many chances to evaluate Taebaek because I could only ask players who had already been eliminated to help me with practice. This meant that I did not have a good grasp of whether the map was balanced or not. After practicing many times against Last/AlphaGo, I concluded that the map was bad for Protoss. Even if I make carriers, which people claim are good on Taebaek, it is difficult to avoid the scenario in which Terran wins after reaching 200 pop with 2-1 mech upgrades. The ASL map pool was not very good for Protoss, especially since Fighting Spirit was included. I feel very lucky to have become the champion. It was huge for me that Circuit Breaker was the first and fifth map for finals.



Q: You have a large fan following on Afreeca, how important has the fan support been in motivating you to keep playing? A: Members of my fan club gave me a lot of strength before games with their balloon power. I am not sure that words alone would have had the same effect. (He flashes a faint knowing smile here)



Q: It seems the other progamers tease and joke around with you quite a bit, like at the ASL group selection. Do you think that's because of your easy-going personality? A: Sometimes, I cross the line because I love joking so much. I have liked goofing around ever since I was a kid. I do think that my easy-going personality helps. Someone like my good friend Movie could not pull this off because of his personality.



Q: What's it been like having Flash streaming on Afreeca? Do you feel BW being reinvigorated? A: Oh! All Terrans have become so much stronger since Flash started streaming. They just think differently when playing PvT now. Last/AlphaGo was strong before Flash came to Afreeca, but he's even stronger now. I don't know about other people, but I personally feel that BW has been reinvigorated by Flash's arrival. My own monthly income has nearly doubled since Flash began streaming. Perhaps some of that is due to the improvements that I have made myself, but it definitely feels like Flash has helped increase the size of the Starcraft scene.



Q: Have you had the opportunity to played the famous jiko/424? Do you feel he's Jaedong? A: I have played jiko/424 many times. I think that it's 50-50. There are many other scary Zerg players such as Soulkey, Shine, and Hydra who do not stream on Afreeca. It could be any one of them.



Q: How do you feel about Jaedong joining Afreeca? Did you have the opportunity to interact with him much in the KeSPA days? A: I did not interact much with Jaedong during my KeSPA years. My only interaction with Jaedong was losing 3:0 to him in the semi-finals of the GOMTV Classic. Ha-ha! I hope that Jaedong joins Afreeca soon. Bisu's arrival improved my situation when I was in a bit of a rut. Flash's arrival was good for me, too. I think that Jaedong's arrival will do the same.



Q: As a very successful streamer, which is more important? The prize money or the glory of standing on the stage as the champion? A: (Looks seriously at the screen, see below) Ha! You cannot even compare the two. Of course it is the glory of winning an offline championship. No one can ever take this away from me. (The chat fills up with humorous accusations that he is lying)







Q: Kim Carry privately praised your professional mindset and hardworking attitude. Do you think that the success of your stream is due to a special mindset or secret insight that no one else knows? A: My secret is just industriousness. Crazy hard work. I literally eat, shit, sleep, and stream. Before we got married, my girlfriend (now my wife) would tell me that I must be obsessed with money to stream so much. Why? I thought carefully about what my earning ability might look like in 2-3 years when I am 30 years old. Based on my calculations, I would have to work 2 weeks to make what I make in 1 day now. I cannot rest even one day now because 1 year of work now can bring me income that would take 15-20 years to make in the future. I have to make the most of it. Sleep is less important. I am thinking about this realistically. I do make a lot of money now. Even on a really bad day, I now make $400-500. What could I do if I was not streaming? I could not even get any high-paying construction work because my body is so weak. I am sorry that I do not get to spend much time with my wife, but I keep telling her that I need to work hard now so that our family can have an easier time in the future.



Q: For a lot of fans, watching an offline Brood War tournament again is amazing. How do you personally feel about the ASL and the opportunities it has provided for Brood War players? A: I do not think that the ASL has given us any new opportunities. However, I really enjoy participating in tournaments. It is just so fun. It was fun even when I was being eliminated at the speed of light. I would not be doing this if it was not fun. To be honest, if it was not fun, then I would not be playing in offline tournaments no matter how much the fans wanted it.



(T/N: Eyewater lives in Daejeon, a major city that is located near the center of South Korea. He drove to Seoul to participate in the ASL matches. At times Movie drove him to Seoul so that Eyewater would not get tired by driving. Offline tournaments are tough on players like Eyewater, Last, Movie, and ZerO. ZerO lives in Gwangju, which is even further away from Seoul, and takes the high-speed rail to Seoul and then the subway to the game studio. The round-trip ticket costs about $100. For comparison, note that Sea lives in the heart of Seoul and can get to the games in a few minutes by subway. The players dare not come a day early because of hotel cost and also because they want to practice the day before)



Q: You mentioned your wife and daughter during your post-game interview. What is it like playing professionally to support a family versus your younger days when you were just playing for yourself? A: It is very different! I am constantly calculating how much money I need to have in the bank so that our family can live comfortably in the future.



Q: In your first game against Sharp in the finals, you found yourself in exactly the same situation as your game against Last (Terran expands to the low ground and pushes into your 3rd to threaten the main, same positions). Were you confident that you'd win again since you had already won before? A: I think that I reacted better against Last/AlphaGo. I think that my nerves got the better of me against Sharp and this led to my 3rd being busted. I blindly flailed around a bit during the battle against Sharp. However, against Last/AlphaGo, I was able to defend my 3rd by picking off tanks with psy storm. I honestly did not feel confident in that situation against Sharp. I was seriously worried about losing. It was only after the first game that I was filled with confidence.



Q: You seem to gain momentum and play better with every successive win during a series. Is that just you warming up, or is it a confidence thing? A: I did warm up a little after the first game. I was also filled with confidence after the first game. I could sense from his play that Sharp was feeling nervous.



Q: During the post-game interview, caster Park Sang-hyun insinuated that you had spent your entire KeSPA career as a practice player. As someone who even served as the captain of STX Soul, did you feel a little insulted by his comments? A: No. I never feel insulted by comments like this. My view is that anyone who was not a pillar of this team is pretty much on the same level career-wise. On our team, Kal and Calm were those pillars.



Q: Can we expect Shuttle in the finals of next season? A: No. (Flashes a smile) Definitely not. I will tell you why. In the next ASL, I will spread the strongest players out evenly across the various groups using my right as the top seed. (He is indirectly referencing Effort trolling the league by putting Flash, ZerO, Mind, and Sea in the same group) I will try to do my best, but no guarantees! That's the end? That was a lot shorter than I thought it would be.



Bonus Q: Someone from the chat mentioned the Adidas slippers he wore to the finals. A: I had to buy long-legged pants because the league organizers told me that I could not wear shorts to the finals.





Questions by: TL Staff

Translated by: lemmata

Graphics: v1

Photo Credits: Liquipedia and DailyEsports

A: First of all, thank you. In all my time as a gamer, I have never prepared as hard for an individual league as I did this time. That's probably why I always used to get eliminated at the speed of light. I prefer to play standard games, so I practiced mostly the basics and standard builds. However, for the finals, I put some more thought into the series' meta-game.A: I did not watch any VODs to prepare until I reached the finals. I only watched Sharp's VODs. I also spied on Sharp by secretly watching his live stream without logging on. I think that once I reached the finals and the possibility of becoming the champion became real, my level of desire to win shot through the roof.A: While I practiced mostly standard builds during my preparation, I chose my builds during the actual games based on feel. For example, I used the a "goon-range dark templar" build against free. It was a really difficult decision to make in the moment because I would have been eliminated from the tournament if I had lost that game.A: "Shuttle" is the ID that the guild master gave me when I joined the West Server's "by" clan. At that time, Battle.net IDs that were also Starcraft unit names (e.g., "probe") were highly prized and even traded for money. It really does not have any special meaning for me because it was chosen for me by someone else."Eyewater" is the literal translation of the Korean word for tears. I became known as "the tear toss" in Korea after shedding tears of joy when I made it past the preliminaries of the Batoo Starleague. When I first came to Afreeca, I chose the ID Eyewater for myself because I did not know the English word for tears. Since it has a personal meaning, I would prefer to be known as "Eyewater" to fans overseas, even if it is a bad translation.(T/N: Shuttle...I mean Eyewater...has many nicknames, all of which are well known on Afreeca. "Elsa Toss" is the nickname he got for his excellent use of the stasis field spell, which was on display in game one. "Mole Toss" is the nickname he got for the prominent "lucky" mole on his face. He is also the "Star Dragon", which references his power to get donations in the form of "star balloons" on Afreeca. You might say that he is one of the "New Dragons of Afreeca". For your information, Guemchi is the "Webcam Dragon". Perhaps the nickname that Eyewater is best known by is "The Monstrous Progeny of Capitalism", which is pronounced Ja-naht-goo-eh. Since the original Korean version is an acronym, perhaps we should abbreviate this as MPC, too. He earned this nickname because he would always play much better in sponsored matches where prize money was on the line. As they say on Afreeca, don't bet against the MPC when at least 1000 balloons are at stake.)A: I started playing Starcraft because I wanted to beat the friend who sat next to me in class. Eventually, I became the best in my class, the best in my middle school, and the best in my city. Then I won a tournament for middle schoolers that was held in Seoul. I did not consider other games.A: My father was against my decision in the beginning. My family was not well-off and he was not happy about his son putting all of his time into Starcraft. I had to change buses twice to get to school and I would play Starcraft all night, sleep two hours, go to school, and sleep through all my classes. It was only after I won the aforementioned tournament in Seoul and won $300 that he okayed my career plans. I gave him $200 from my prize money at that time.A: Ever since my KeSPA days, my favorite matchup was PvP. PvT was a difficult matchup for me, but I feel like I have improved my ability to see and draw the big picture in PvT (e.g., timing my expansions) during the past few months while preparing for the ASL. I most certainly did NOT want to play any Zerg players in the league. Other than Bisu, there is no Protoss player who wants to play against Zerg. I wish all Zergs would just go away and never come back.A: Both maps are not good for Protoss. When I beat Last/AlphaGo on Taebaek in the semi-finals, I thought that Taebaek was good for Protoss. However, I changed my mind after practicing for the finals with Last/AlphaGo on the map. Before reaching the finals, I did not have too many chances to evaluate Taebaek because I could only ask players who had already been eliminated to help me with practice. This meant that I did not have a good grasp of whether the map was balanced or not. After practicing many times against Last/AlphaGo, I concluded that the map was bad for Protoss. Even if I make carriers, which people claim are good on Taebaek, it is difficult to avoid the scenario in which Terran wins after reaching 200 pop with 2-1 mech upgrades. The ASL map pool was not very good for Protoss, especially since Fighting Spirit was included. I feel very lucky to have become the champion. It was huge for me that Circuit Breaker was the first and fifth map for finals.A: Members of my fan club gave me a lot of strength before games with their balloon power. I am not sure that words alone would have had the same effect. (He flashes a faint knowing smile here)A: Sometimes, I cross the line because I love joking so much. I have liked goofing around ever since I was a kid. I do think that my easy-going personality helps. Someone like my good friend Movie could not pull this off because of his personality.A: Oh! All Terrans have become so much stronger since Flash started streaming. They just think differently when playing PvT now. Last/AlphaGo was strong before Flash came to Afreeca, but he's even stronger now. I don't know about other people, but I personally feel that BW has been reinvigorated by Flash's arrival. My own monthly income has nearly doubled since Flash began streaming. Perhaps some of that is due to the improvements that I have made myself, but it definitely feels like Flash has helped increase the size of the Starcraft scene.A: I have played jiko/424 many times. I think that it's 50-50. There are many other scary Zerg players such as Soulkey, Shine, and Hydra who do not stream on Afreeca. It could be any one of them.A: I did not interact much with Jaedong during my KeSPA years. My only interaction with Jaedong was losing 3:0 to him in the semi-finals of the GOMTV Classic. Ha-ha! I hope that Jaedong joins Afreeca soon. Bisu's arrival improved my situation when I was in a bit of a rut. Flash's arrival was good for me, too. I think that Jaedong's arrival will do the same.A: (Looks seriously at the screen, see below) Ha! You cannot even compare the two. Of course it is the glory of winning an offline championship. No one can ever take this away from me. (The chat fills up with humorous accusations that he is lying)A: My secret is just industriousness. Crazy hard work. I literally eat, shit, sleep, and stream. Before we got married, my girlfriend (now my wife) would tell me that I must be obsessed with money to stream so much. Why? I thought carefully about what my earning ability might look like in 2-3 years when I am 30 years old. Based on my calculations, I would have to work 2 weeks to make what I make in 1 day now. I cannot rest even one day now because 1 year of work now can bring me income that would take 15-20 years to make in the future. I have to make the most of it. Sleep is less important. I am thinking about this realistically. I do make a lot of money now. Even on a really bad day, I now make $400-500. What could I do if I was not streaming? I could not even get any high-paying construction work because my body is so weak. I am sorry that I do not get to spend much time with my wife, but I keep telling her that I need to work hard now so that our family can have an easier time in the future.A: I do not think that the ASL has given us any new opportunities. However, I really enjoy participating in tournaments. It is just so fun. It was fun even when I was being eliminated at the speed of light. I would not be doing this if it was not fun. To be honest, if it was not fun, then I would not be playing in offline tournaments no matter how much the fans wanted it.(T/N: Eyewater lives in Daejeon, a major city that is located near the center of South Korea. He drove to Seoul to participate in the ASL matches. At times Movie drove him to Seoul so that Eyewater would not get tired by driving. Offline tournaments are tough on players like Eyewater, Last, Movie, and ZerO. ZerO lives in Gwangju, which is even further away from Seoul, and takes the high-speed rail to Seoul and then the subway to the game studio. The round-trip ticket costs about $100. For comparison, note that Sea lives in the heart of Seoul and can get to the games in a few minutes by subway. The players dare not come a day early because of hotel cost and also because they want to practice the day before)A: It is very different! I am constantly calculating how much money I need to have in the bank so that our family can live comfortably in the future.A: I think that I reacted better against Last/AlphaGo. I think that my nerves got the better of me against Sharp and this led to my 3rd being busted. I blindly flailed around a bit during the battle against Sharp. However, against Last/AlphaGo, I was able to defend my 3rd by picking off tanks with psy storm. I honestly did not feel confident in that situation against Sharp. I was seriously worried about losing. It was only after the first game that I was filled with confidence.A: I did warm up a little after the first game. I was also filled with confidence after the first game. I could sense from his play that Sharp was feeling nervous.A: No. I never feel insulted by comments like this. My view is that anyone who was not a pillar of this team is pretty much on the same level career-wise. On our team, Kal and Calm were those pillars.A: No. (Flashes a smile) Definitely not. I will tell you why. In the next ASL, I will spread the strongest players out evenly across the various groups using my right as the top seed. (He is indirectly referencing Effort trolling the league by putting Flash, ZerO, Mind, and Sea in the same group) I will try to do my best, but no guarantees! That's the end? That was a lot shorter than I thought it would be.A: I had to buy long-legged pants because the league organizers told me that I could not wear shorts to the finals.TL Stafflemmatav1Liquipedia and DailyEsports