Now that our Korean Starcraft II player Kyeong Hyun 'SeleCT' Ryoo has settled back down in his old and new team following six-months in the Dota2 scene, our Starcraft II Manager Marek 'MepH' Walkowiak sat down and talked to him about all things Dota, Starcraft II and Poker aswell as his upcoming trip to Korea!

Welcome back home in dignitas, son. First of all, what made you decide to switch to competitive Dota2 nine months ago? Retiring you stated that you felt too old to keep up with younger players who have a better practice regiment in Korea. Was that all or was there something else bothering you at the time?

SeleCT: I lost my motivation for SC2 before so I moved to Dota which I played competitively a few years before SC2 came out.

Exactly, I know you were successful in the original DotA but how much experience did you have with Dota2 before you decided to go for it?

SeleCT: I had no experience in Dota2 at all, so after my vacation to Korea I started playing some pub games with old DotA friends. However, the game was very different to DotA 1. I'd say the game got harder as the players got better when it became the competitive game it is now.



SeleCT in the GSL Code A

Your DotA1 friends, any names some people might recognize?

SeleCT: Mrach, Zhaoyun, Mystyle, Ezzy who were on my DotA team called AzN.

What were your expectations or your goal for your Dota2 career?

SeleCT: Winning TI3. That is the goal for all Dota2 players. If I was given more practice time I think I could have done well.

How did you experience the competitive Dota2 scene, even compared to the Starcraft 2 one?

SeleCT: As long as you find teammates that you really like, it will go well. In SC2 you just play on your own, so you can't blame anyone but yourself.



SeleCT at MLG

We recently announced that you were going to Korea soon but you returned to SC2 before you knew this would happen. How was now different to when you quit Starcraft II?

SeleCT: To be honest, the biggest reason I came back to SC2 was because my previous team failed to qualify for TI3. At the same time, HotS seemed very fun and I tried to reach GM while streaming and so many fans welcomed me back. That gave me so much motivation to return - I still feel that I am getting old, and upcoming young players can be better but I think I can overcome that fact thanks to my long experience in gaming.

You retired from Starcraft II six months before Heart of the Swarm came out. You said HotS seems fun to you, give us your review of the changes to the game and how you like them.

SeleCT: Back in WoL, in my opinion terran was the worst race in LATE LATE game. However, now it seems like that was fixed with that one medivac patch. In WoL, terran could never retreat from a battle as they didn't have any mobility to do so. In TvP, the protoss could always drop a storm or forcefield to retreat so their wrong decisions don't give them a huge disadvantage, they only lose a couple of zealots. In TvZ they could drop a fungal and run away. However, if the terran took one wrong decision in TvZ, you had to fight until your whole army died because we couldn't run away from their army. Now we don't need tanks anymore and also the medivac boost helps running away. Also because of that we can save more medivacs in late game just as the opponennts can save heavy gas units such as templars, archons, infestors, mutas and colossi.



SeleCT with BlinG and former team mate KiLLeR

So you would say that Blizzard is going in the right direction to keep the game fresh and exciting? What problems do you see with the current patch/state of the game?

SeleCT: I like the way the game plays right now but perhaps I'm only saying this because I haven't played on the Korean server yet :). I will be able to answer this once I go to Korea.

Do you feel your gamestyle has changed compared to WoL? Your high speed multitasking drop style used to be very popular, can we expect to see more of that in upcoming events?

SeleCT: My game style is the same but my macro got so much better compared to WoL. As it is my playstyle, you can expect to see it :).

Recently quite a few Starcraft II players have announced their retirement, most notably Stephano, theognis and GanZi. What is your opinion on those? Do you feel that more and more players retiring indicates the start of the downfall of SC2 or are they just making room for new talents?

SeleCT: Everyone has their own reason but it is pretty normal. If u start something, there is always an end, especially if you are an athlete. I think the biggest reason to retire as a progamer is the loss of motivation. You can become more and more depressed, especially when you used to win a lot before and you stop winning because you expect yourself to be the best. It makes you think you are losing to a player who is worse than you, so having composure and not becoming arrogant is very important in my opinion.



SeleCT signing autographs with BlinG, Apollo and Crumbz

What about yourself then? Do you see yourself getting into that situation?

SeleCT: I have learnt my lesson already. I am not going to make the mistake again to put myself into that position. I will try to always be positive and not become arrogant even when I win something in the future. So I can always keep myself motivated.

Have you thought about what you want to do after you eventually stop playing competitively?

SeleCT: I am always thinking about what I should do when I retire as a gamer completely. It is very hard for me to answer because I haven't found an answer. Whenever I meet people who are involved in eSports I ask their opinion about what I should do and why they decided to do what they do. One day, I will find my answer :).

What suggestions have you gotten from them?

SeleCT: Honestly, no one gives you any good tips unless they are your family. I haven't gotten any good suggestion from anyone, they can only tell you what they are going to do when they are done gaming. Some are going to continue their school, some have no idea, and hearing what they are going to do gives you a wider perspective. So I guess that's the tips I got from them.

What about Poker? Is that an option? Or are you still losing money like a massive noob?

SeleCT: LOL, Poker is the last option I would choose but I didn't lose money playing poker overall in my life, so I don't get what you are saying :D.

I remember you losing a lot of money to sjow in providence, that's all.

SeleCT: LOL, I've got my revenge on him in online heads-up poker :).

Haha, alright. How are your relations with other NA players? You were recently seen trolling someone on your stream saying you're CatZ and Nony did a live victory dance after beating you drunk on ladder. Are you close with most of the known players or do you not get involved too much?

SeleCT: I am close to almost every NA player I met in MLGs back in WoL. However, there are lots of new players that I don't know as well.

There wasn't many pro players attending Red Bull Training Grounds last month, do you maybe still have a short funny story you can tell?

SeleCT: Nothing happened, son. Wait, I was taking a picture of myself on the tv and Rob, who is in charge of the redbull tournament, took a picture of me taking a picture of myself on the tv on the tv on the other room, ROFL.



SeleCT, ODEE and ThorZaIN

OK, thank you very much for the interview and all the best in Korea. I know for a fact that you still have a lot of fans cheering you on, so here's your chance to make plugs and shoutouts.

SeleCT: Thank you, son :). And much love to my fans and Ownaj for sponsoring me﻿! Also a big thank you to the Team Dignitas sponsors Intel, Alienware, be quiet!, Kingston HyperX, Creative, WD, twitch, QPAD, SCAN, iiyama and Mad Catz!