Written by: Stefan "PengWin" Mott

Riccardo Romiti, AKA Reynor, the 14 year old Italian Zerg player for True eSport made a splash recently with a breakout top 8 finish at DreamHack Valencia. While he’s a somewhat new name to many in the scene, Reynor has been around for several years, competing in multiple DreamHacks.

Reynor initially began playing Starcraft 2 back in Wings of Liberty at 8 years old, and he took a keen interest to it. At 11, Reynor was Masters. The top Italian Zerg at the time, mYinsanity’s Evaner, was impressed by him and took him under his wing. Soon after in November of 2013, Reynor was recruited to join mYinsanity’s academy roster. On August 9th 2014 at just 12 years old he reached Grandmaster league for the first time.

“Riccardo started to play Starcraft at 8 years old. I advised him not to buy this game, too difficult I told him. I said he should buy Ratchet & Clank or Lego Batman, but he really wanted the game. Despite the difficulty he always fought to improve.” - Massimo Romiti

In the meantime, Reynor made his first steps towards real relevance in the Italian scene participating in numerous national LAN tournaments with the support of his family. At The Championship 2013 he was able to take maps off of Exehn and Evaner (3rd and 4th place respectively) and even knocked out grandmaster Terran Diord by a 2-1 score. Just a month later he reached the top 8 in the 1st Next SC Tournament falling 2-3 to Evaner, but showing noticable improvement. In November and December, reputable Terran veteran StarEagle suffered two losses (1-2 and 0-2) against the young upstart. It was becoming clear that this kid was going places, and he soon had the support of the Italian scene behind him. More recently, Reynor has undisputably become the best player in Italy, acting as their ace player for the national team in Nationwars III and dominating the scene. Most recently he won the Torino Comics 2016 LAN dropping only a single map in his road to the championship.

“The support of the Italian scene means so much to me, especially when I play an important match. It helps so much to know they are cheering for me” - Reynor

Many parents are slow to accept their children wanting to throw themselves into an eSports career, especially in countries like Italy where there isn’t much of an eSports culture. Reynor’s family is a clear exception to this rule. His parents have been unbelievably supportive of his career from the get go, even driving him up from Italy during school vacations to stay and practice in the mYinsanity team house with the likes of Sacsri, with whom Reynor has developed a close friendship. His father has travelled with him to numerous events. His mother and brother attend occasionally as well, making some tournaments a family affair.

Reynor has been a regular attendee of DreamHack tournaments for years, his breakout performance coming at the 8th DreamHack of his career. First attending DreamHack Bucharest 2013, he was unable to advance from the first group stage. In 2014, he fell in the first group stage in Valencia in a veritable group of death against Optimus and Jona. He managed to advance in both Bucharest and Stockholm, but was defeated 0-4 in extremely difficult groups in both tournaments. DreamHack Valencia 2016 was the first glimpse into his true potential, as Reynor dispatched top master Zerg SouLeer in group stage 1, and even eliminated the recently qualified WCS EU Challenger player DnS before being knocked out by GuMiho.

The release of Legacy of the Void would be the real turning point in his career as Reynor qualified for the DreamHack Roccat LoTV Championship. Despite being viewed as a massive underdog, the young Italian played like anything but. Rallying after a bad 0-2 start, Reynor dispatched Lambo, Avokado and Semper, and looked poised to advance to the playoffs. Unfortunately Lambo’s final match win against Elazer sent Reynor out in 4th place due to map score. A bitter pill to swallow.

“DreamHack Winter was a great experience, but I think I could have done much better. When I qualified for the event I was so happy; it was the first time I won a qualifier” - Reynor

Unfortunately, the DreamHack circuit has not been kind to Reynor in 2016. With stops like Austin being too far to travel to, and Leipzig having German laws forbidding players under 16, there really haven’t been many opportunities for Reynor to show how far he’s come. With DreamHack Valencia 2016 however, he seized his chance and made the run of a lifetime. Spacemarine and Dayshi were the first notable names to fall to Reynor in the group stages. In the playoffs, Reynor found himself down on match point against both MaNa and VortiX, but in situations where many players would have cracked under the pressure, he fought from the brink of defeat and made two incredible comebacks to advance to the quarterfinals, where he eventually fell to Snute.

“Dreamhack Valencia was great, I had an amazing experience. I never did too well in European tournaments and it was a surprise even for me because I didn’t know my level since I didn’t have a chance to test it at the highest level. I feel like I could have won vs Snute but he did well and I didn’t play as I should have. Overall I’m happy with how it went.” - Reynor

“Reynor’s achievement at Dreamhack was a great surprise for me. He hadn’t played for a while because of school and I didn’t think he was ready, but he showed great determination. I’m very happy. Starcraft is a great adventure and has given us big emotions, and there’s a long way to go.” - Massimo Romiti

I sat down briefly with Reynor to gain some insight into his life and impressions of Reynor’s career thus far.

P: You’ve come a long way since you started your career, but would you say this is just the beginning for you?

R: Yes of course. I think I still have to improve a lot, but I would like to reach higher levels.

P: Obviously you’re still in school. How hard is it for you to balance that with Starcraft?

R: It’s not easy to balance school, sport and Starcraft. as you can see my best performances are in Summer because I don’t have to study as much.

P: That makes a lot of sense. Which players would you say you look up to the most right now?

R: I like the playstyle of Nerchio but I don’t follow the Korean leagues as much so I don’t really know how it’s going over there.

P: Not including Dreamhack Valencia, what’s the most memorable moment of your time in Starcraft?

R: Hmm this is hard. Probably when I won vs MarineKing.

P: And finally, what are your goals for 2016 and 2017?

R: Hmm. Winning a Dreamhack would be really good!

After years of hard work, dedication and dreaming, Reynor has finally broken out in a big way. While many players who strive for victory are lucky to ever taste the success of a top 8 result at a premier tournament, its clear that this is not a peak for Reynor. It is, however, just the beginning of his ascent on the StarCraft 2 mountain. With the support of his family, True eSport and the scene behind him, it’s only a matter of time until he reaches new heights.

If you enjoyed this piece, please follow the author for more at @psiPengWin . Images courtesy of their respective owners