Teil 3 der Interview-Reihe mit Jos 'Ret' de Kroon

Ret über seinen Status quo

Ret on the status quo

This is the last part of our interview series with Jos 'ret' de Kroon. After having talked about esports now and then as well as his take on the state of StarCraft II, todays focus lies on his very own situation.

Team Liquid

readmore.de: Being a player of the Team Liquid StarCraft II roster you are probably quite proud of your team advancing to the finals of the Acer TeamStory Cup. However, with Yun 'TaeJa' Young Seo and Song 'HerO' Hyeon Deok not being able to participate your team lost its two matched 4:5 and 3:5. What can be taken from that?

Jos 'ret' de Kroon: First of, that Acer is a very strong team, if anyone needs any more confirmation on that. However the close scoreline shows that Jens 'Snute' Aasgaard, Patrick 'Bunny' Brix, Dario 'TLO' Wünsch and Grzegorz 'MaNa' Komincz are all very capable of competing with these worldclass players, if anyone needs any more confirmation on that as well. I quite enjoy this Acer versus Liquid rivalry. Unfortunately they have beaten us a lot of times in teamleagues but we manage to knock their players out of tournaments often as well. (smiles) Good battles are fought.

On the road to the playoffs, TL managed to achieve an overall score of nine wins to two losses. However, you did not play a single game within the group stage or the playoffs. What is the reasoning behind this?

I felt that during that whole time four players were better than me. I was asked to play in a few of the matches, but I don’t really want to play if I think there are players playing better than me available, since I wanted the team to have highest chance possible to win the league. I will only play if I consider myself the best option available at the time.

This year Liquid also went on to acquire a Smash squad featuring KoreanDJ as well as Ken. Did you deal with them yet? How do you like your organizations expansion to that scene?

I have seen a few of their matches and occasionally read or watch smash stuff if they are involved and I catch wind of it! Overall I really respect the smash scene, and I’m happy that Liquid became involved in it. I can recommend the documentary ‚The Smash Brothers‘ to anyone out there! It’s a great watch.

Plans

If your management offered you to pack your things, fly to Korea and live in a team house there. Would you go? Would you plan on staying?

No, at this point I have no interest in going to Korea. I like my life in The Netherlands. During my long hiatus from home before in my life I had to give up quite a lot back home everytime. Sometimes I stayed away from home for a year or more. I quite like having my family and friends around!

Korea is a great country though and if I get a chance to visit I will certainly take it! But not to live, for me.

In cooperation with the ESL you spent some time casting tournaments this year. The feedback by the community was largely very positive. Do you plan on going the iNcontrol route?

I’m thankfull to ESL for giving me the oppurtunity to cast! I liked doing it a lot and if there’s a chance I’ll do more of it in the future. I think my route will be quite different from iNcontrols – I think he’s great in the spotlight and has already done so much in esports apart from being a player.

Looking at todays top casters it feels like they are representing the shifting of player generations. Would you agree with that statement? Who do you see as most promising upcoming talents from the Netherlands?

It’s good to see more and more players commentating. I always feel like it adds something to the cast, especially since I’m always watching from a pro standpoint as well! However the role of the play by play commentator can’t be underestimated. It takes a special kind of talent to carry a show, engage your audience, make the viewer feel immersed into your words and of course bringing the hype! After doing commentary myself I’ve also learned to appreciate this side of things so I’m happy with all the talent we have in the StarCraft II scene in that regard.

As for dutch players, there are indeed quite a few up and comers at the moment! uThermal has recently started doing super well and Sjaak is probably one of the biggest StarCraft II talents in Europe at the moment! It’s nice to see a new generation of dutch gamers doing well. I think right now our country is the strongest it’s ever been in any RTS game. We even have a dutch league – The Dutch StarCraft league – it’s quite cool.

We thank you for your time. We would like to offer you the last words of this interview (That’s when you mention your Twitter).

Devil terran is comin‘ for ya, watch out.