Published on Friday, 11 May 2012 00:06 | Written by BabyToss

As promised, that I'd be writing spotlights of interesting personalities - I'm bringing you another one. This time, we have yet another role-model personality here. I believe, that if you actually follow StarCraft 2 scene, you'll know him. I'm talking about Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen, a Dutch Protoss player. , a Dutch Protoss player. First, when you go and watch Grubby's stream, you'll notice one thing. He is entertainer. He enjoys making his show fun for the viewers. He talks, comments his games, does occassional giveaways and generaly is a friendly person to follow, when it comes to his streaming. Not only that, he is not afraid to go and interact with his fans outside of his stream. That actually makes him quite unique - a lot of known personalities seem to be distanced from their fanbase and they'd not talk to you unless you were known or you paid them. Often laughing and being generally positive, that is Grubby for you. If you haven't watched his stream or his games at least once, you are truly missing out. Grubby, similary to White-Ra, is a solo player with personal sponsorship. During 2011, he was sponsored by SteelSeries, but the sponsorship was dropped 'due to lack of enough results', according to Liquidpedia. Currently, he is under wings of Twitch.tv. Browsing into Grubby's past, he used to be a WarCraft 3 player, playing under Evil Geniuses. Looking into his past, this young lass managed to win a total of 38 LAN tournaments, from which, hold your breath, 6 were World Championships. Furthermore; Grubby is already married and yet, he still devotes time to his passion. Not many people do that. It is the issue of today's world, when people forget their passions and love for things they enjoyed to do, because of some unwritten 'standard', how one should live their lives. Grubby's wife also fully supports his husband in his endeavours, so he can fully comit to his work, while doing something he clearly enjoys. Additionally, Grubby tries to set an example by showing always positive manners. He is what I call, a leader by example, being a personality people naturally aim to follow, due to his warm and positive character. It just emanates from him, even when you see the guy for the first time, and that is a trait somewhat rare in the community. If you haven't watched Grubby, I suggest you do fix that mistake, I promise that you will not be disappointed, and at the top of all, you may learn a thing or two about StarCraft 2, playeing Protoss and perhaps, even becoming a better gamer - his stream can be found here - http://www.twitch.tv/followgrubby Don't go yet. I managed to catch Grubby for a short interview!

INTERVIEW WITH GRUBBY

Hihi, Grubby. Glad to have you. How are you today?

"Hihi, I'm doing great."

Thanks. Now, before we move onto different stuff, could you briefly introduce yourself? There are people, who do not know you, would you believe that..

"I'm a StarCraft 2 professional gamer with a love for eSports. I've begun gaming when I was 4 years old. For the last 9 years I've been competing in WarCraft 3 and then StarCraft 2. I've won 6 world championships from over 40 total victories. I'll be 26 years old in May and I'll still be Dutch."

Let's look into your past - You are a WarCraft 3 veteran. Admittedly, because of StarCraft 2 being my first RTS, I do not know much about its scene or the game itself. Could you tell me and my audience, how did you even get into competitive gaming and what it was like for you, when you started off?

"Since I started gaming at such a young age, and have loved playing games on the PC ever since, it was only normal that I'd end up falling in love with competitive gaming. I used to compete (and co-op) in games with my brothers mainly."

Can you tell me about your very first success in WarCraft 3 and how did you feel after it? First victory usually is something you never forget, so, tell me about it.

"The first really big success was winning World Cyber Games 2004 San Francisco. I had traveled to Korea 2 weeks prior to the WCG, and wasted not a minute in training. Before that, I'd been training 12 hours a day at home. I still did not believe I would win, but I did think I would make it to the finals. When I came to the grand finals, I was ecstatic, because the semi finals (against Shortround) was harder than I thought. My final match was against the Korean Zacard.

I basically accepted 2nd place and was satisfied with that placement. I woke up early that morning and came to the venue earlier than almost anybody. I started warming up. As the time of the finals drew nearer, an orange legion showed up in the audience. Our country's delegation was comprised of 30+ players and staff; golden times for Netherlands & eSports. All of them were there cheering for me. Despite myself, I started believing in the possibility of winning. They were chanting my name.

Still, I lost the first map and it just ascertained my fears; a quick 0-2 defeat would seem imminent. However, I quickly won the second map, and I played better than I ever had in the 3rd.

An alien feeling followed me around as I seemingly got pulled in this direction and that, a handshake here and a picture there, a sequence of interviews and ceremonies. It was one big blur, to me, I could barely understand what was going on. I remember calling my mom, and I remember receiving the giant check, and my victory contributed to making Netherlands as the best WCG country of 2004. We laughed and cheered on stage, proud. It's great memories."

Moving forward a bit, you were part of renown teams (such as 4Kings & Evil Geniuses) during your WarCraft 3 career. Could you tell me and my audience about that? How did your life change when you were first offered a spot on a professional team? What did it mean for you, personally, as well as a gamer?

"When I was first offered a spot on 4Kings being one part of a 2v2 team, I had to make a difficult decision. Where do I want to go in WarCraft 3 and eSports? I was in a friends' team with a good but relatively casual atmosphere. I had to pick between team mates / friends and 'professional' advancement. I figured friends will stay friends but this opportunity could change everything. I accepted. For the first play day of the team league, I had a fever and could not play. I was torn by guilt and fear of leaving my team in such a pickle. The team manager was just like "Don't worry about it ". I was very surprised he was so cool about it, but I still felt guilty.

Of the first matches, I lost most of them. They kept saying "it's ok" and their tolerant attitude mixed with the motivation of wanting to do better allowed me to grow up and become a better player. Fast forward time, and our 4K team was able to win 4 WC3L's and have the inimitable record of being undefeated for over a year, in more than 40 straight clan wars. 4Kings, though not being very professionally run, had a profound importance in how it shaped my career. Thanks to 4Kings' and Intel's budget, we were able to spend those 3 months in Korea which invested so very well into all of our training and team bonding."

Can't hold onto it any longer. StarCraft 2 and you. How did you get into it & why Protoss?

"In a sea of quick sequels and buggy games, Blizzard's games are precious pearls. I've played every Blizzard game (except WC1) and loved them all. Going into SC2 was a good choice. The challenge, excitement and pleasure of competing in WC3 and SC2 has been a complete thrill. I feel like Protoss picked me more than that I picked Protoss. I've always liked close combat units (like the Grunt, Raider, Tauren and Zealot) and quick units (Raider, Batrider, Phoenix)."

Transition from one game into another can be difficult. How was your transition from WarCraft 3 to StarCraft 2? Was it easy? What did you struggle with the most during the transition? Tell me about it.

"In WarCraft 3, the main challenges were: decisions, weighing pro's & con's, micromanagement, battle tactics, when to fight and when to avoid combat, upkeep management, item management, game sense. In StarCraft 2, the main challenges are: speed, economy management, positioning, map awareness, scouting, decisions and unit composition choices.

The first thing I struggled with was the management of the economy. Just to name an example, in WarCraft 3, when you created an expansion, it was very usual to immediately attack the opponent without truly engaging in a all-out combat. This would buy time for your expansion to kick in and start working to your advantage; or maybe it would even keep your opponent blind to it (scouting was way more costly in WC3 than in SC2). In StarCraft 2, WC3 players were initially trying to play the same; expand and immediately attack and they'd lose. So it was for me, as well. These kind of hard-wired rules of the mind have to be rewired and this takes time, conscious effort and conversation. Sometimes I feel like, because I played WC3 for 9 years and was Top 3 world at it, it was very difficult for me to change my way of thinking. I've already made the final steps of this mental switch, however, and I consider myself a full SC2 player now."

What you you think about current state of the game? Anything you'd change if you could? What about Protoss? What do you think about state of Protoss?

"Hard question. I hope to see more developments which encourage micromanagement instead of discourage it. To me, Vortex, Forcefields, Fungal Growth and Broodlord's Broodlings are examples of abilities that deny micromanagement and make fights less interesting. However, Vortex will be removed in Heart of the Swarm (alongside the Mamaship), and at least Forcefields can be broken through by massive units and don't actually deal damage themselves. There is nothing that Protoss or Terran has that directly counters either Broodlings or Fungal Growth. Keep in mind that I do not speak about win rate %'s or relative strength or general balance.

In WC3, strong spells like Fungal or summoned creatures like Broodlings would be "dispelled" by disenchant/dispell/abolish magic/devour magic. In SC2, once you get fungaled once, you get fungaled twice, and thrice, and 4x, and then your army just evaporates. No matter how many times you press Blink or try to fly your Phoenix away, that's it I have high hopes for Heart of the Swarm in terms of balancing and unit variety (particularly for Protoss because our Air tech becomes obsolete very soon after you start it) because Blizzard rarely disappoints, but I am worried about the Swarm Host, which is basically just a Broodlord under the ground, another micro-denying unit. Changelings + Infested Terrans + Broodlings + Swarmhost Broodlings + Fungal = one big unstoppable wall.

(p.s.: having Fungal Growth be like Broodwar Queen's "Ensnare" ability, or having it do much less damage, seem appropriate measures to me to deal with this problem a bit. Once again: if that happens, of course other Z things must be buffed or P nerfed and T adjusted accordingly, as is understood of course)."

Without me actually looking up your results or anything - What do you see as your biggest personal success in StarCraft 2? It doesn't have to be high ranking in a tournament. Simply something, which made you feel proud about yourself.

"I think the 4th place in ESWC 2011 meant the most, because I performed above people's expectations, and finished above MC. They still haven't paid out the prize money to me yet, though O_O."

Where there's a positive side, there also is this nastier, negative one creeping in. What do you see as your biggest failure, let down and generally negative thing in your StarCraft 2 career? Anything you'd do, to make it differently and better?

"As you may know, my record against Stephano is not the best. In Multiplay i44 / IPL Qualifier, I was 1-1 against stephano and had 2 bases against his 1, with nearly double his workers. Two lings inside my base became banelings and blew up more than half my Probes. It was the closest I've yet come to beating Stephano and I think, if I had, I'd have less mental problems about facing him. I should've won that game, really disappointed myself there.

Actually, I felt even worse when I lost the WCG 2011 Qualifiers to a relatively unknown Belgian protoss "Spoon". It's the first time I had not qualified to WCG since 8 consecutive attendances, and I felt like wanting to sink through the ground and forget about everything."

Tell me Grubby, why do you remain a lone wolf? I am sure you had plenty offers when it comes to the team. Also, many players would love to team up with you, so, what is it, that you remain on your own?

"Being independent gives me a chance to work more closely with sponsors, tackle new challenges constantly, and explore all the possibilities that eSports has to offer. I'm happy just the way it's going!"

StarCraft 2 and it's Mekka - Korea. You've already been there, even though for just a brief stint. Do you wish to return there? Any plans regarding Korea for this year?

"Hehe, I've been to Korea more than once, probably about 20 times, and it wasn't always brief. I love spending time in Korea. The people are generally quiet and humble, and tolerant and helpful towards me as a foreigner. I try to speak their language and I eat their food, and this gets appreciated. Koreans are a hard working people, maybe sometimes too hard. This is inspiring and motivating to behold. Practice in Korea has always helped me, and the work ethics of Koreans has always impressed me. I would love to return to Korea again some time soon."

Arguably, most players believe, that Korea is the place to be, if you wish to compete at the top level. Do you personally believe that to be the truth or do you believe that you can become a top player no matter where you practice?

"Both statements are correct. Korea is the place to be for top level competition and training, but it's also possible to become a top player somewhere else. It's always about the questions: how do you practice? where? with whom? Each player has to answer this for him or herself personally and find the fruits of his or own labor paying off."

Talent vs Hard work, a topic discussed many, many times. What do you think makes a good StarCraft 2 player? Do you believe there is a thing called 'talent' or do you believe that if someone tries hard enough, they can still become one of the best? What would you recommend to someone, who wishes to devote their time to the passion of StarCraft 2?

"Not everyone can be the best, talent plays a role. After that, it's all hard work. Without it, you won't become the best either. I think this is obvious. Of course, 'talent' as a phenomenom doesn't actually exist. Talent is just an all-encompassing word to describe the correct parameters of a person's character, intelligence, perseverance, motivation, choices, potential, etc. Not some inherent one-off gene or specific ability to play computer games. 'Talented' gamers would have been 'talented' at something else were they to have lived 100 years ago, before the first PC's. Not like the evolutionary process knew that the world would 'need' progamers in 2012

To anyone wishing to go pro, I can only speak from personal experience. The fun factor has to remain #1. Is it fun for you to improve any way you can? Then the time invested is never 'wasted', because you had fun, even if you don't make it. If you do, it was fun along the way and not just at the end."

What keeps you going? Surely there are times when you just wanted to call it quits; so, what ticks you to just keep trying and go harder?

"I wanted to call it quits about two times. The first time was when I lost a Night Elf mirror 0-2 in the WCG Winner Bracket Qualis in 2003. My brother Arthur kept me going and suggested I change race from Elf to Human because he had seen that I was quite good with Human when playing around with them for fun. I did, and 2-0'd everyone else in the LB including the guy who sent me to Loserbracket initially, winning the rest of the Qualifier without dropping a map.

The second time was when I was having a particularly hard time at the end of 2007. 4Kings my team was not paying me for the last 10 months of my contract with them, and this was making me extremely stressed. I was going without some major victories and people though I would never win a tournament again. This spell was of course broken when I disproved the nonbelievers, winning WCG 2008 against the best competition in the world, but not before going through blood, sweat and tears. Along the way, my then-girlfriend now-wife Cassandra stood by me and helped me grow up both as a person and a player, and we persevered.

All throughout, there have been fans who never abandoned me, win or lose. Their continued belief in me and desire for me to do well and be happy has done a lot for me."

A must question - What are your short term goals?

"Short-term goals are to do increasingly well in tournaments, to invest more into my training and to do many entertaining things for eSports and Grubby fans (streaming, commentating, playing, microing, and organizing a new tournament series). Personally? To be a good person to people I love."

Grubby, we've been at this for quite some time now, huh.. alright, soon, I promise this will be over (laughs). Where do you see yourself as a player and person in a course of one year from now?

"I don't answer that question anymore because I'm always wrong. eSports is an exciting adventure of opportunities - I'll go with it!"

Any other games you enjoy playing in your leisure time? Any things you enjoy doing besides gaming and StarCraft 2?

"Since I started on WC3, I haven't played any other games besides WC3 & SC2 except for Guild Wars 1 (for 2 weeks on & off) and Oblivion (1 week on & off). Diablo 3 could be the next one. As you can see, I love RTS' and a select few RPG's. Besides gaming, I enjoy reading fantasy & science fiction books, going on holidays with my wife Cassandra, and doing active stuff together like Scuba Diving or Snowboarding."

Last one! Anything you'd like to say to your fans? To the fans here in Czech? Just, anything, really, go go, spit it out!

"I've been to Czech Republic for skiing more than 10 years ago, and it was a great holiday. I want to come back some time for wintersports, maybe we will! Thanks everyone for reading this interview If you liked it, let BabyToss know and me as well on @followgrubby at twitter or facebook Thanks!"

--

Original, Czech article can be found over at PLAYzone - here

Like me on Facebook - here

Follow me on Twitter - @vVv_BabyToss