Dario 'TLO' Wünsch © Carl Oscar Aaro

Dario "TLO" Wünsch considered himself a bit of an underdog in recent competitive StarCraft II play, but that all changed when the 23 year old German placed third at the HomeStory Cup earlier this summer. Now the popular member of Team Liquid will face raised expectations at Red Bull Training Grounds in Orlando later this month. TLO talked with Red Bull eSports about his choice of faction, his video game playing history and more.

You recently placed 3rd at the HomeStory Cup. How has that performance helped your confidence and competitive play since?

I’m very happy with the 3rd place at HSC, and in general my performance has been much better. While that definitely gives me more confidence for the future, it also makes it a little bit harder, as I’m not an underdog with no expectations these days.

In the past you switched between races in the game a few times. What has made you stick with Zerg for the last few years?

Zerg to me is by far the most satisfying and least frustrating faction in SC2. There aren’t really any build order losses (only in ZvZ to some extent), so whenever I lose a game I know it’s not because of some probability but because I made mechanical mistakes or wrong decisions.

We hear from a lot of players that they got into gaming by playing at home with a sibling; was that the case for you?

Haha, yes it was considering I have three older brothers who all played video games. I don’t remember a life without gaming, I think I played my first PC game when I was three years old.

You’ve been playing StarCraft competitively since the Brood War days. How has eSports changed over the years and how do you see it evolving?

When I had my first contact with eSports it was still a tiny niche, pretty much no one of my family or friends knew that it even existed. Nowadays, it’s hard to find someone of a similar age that hasn’t at least heard about it. We’re becoming more and more mainstream and I don’t think that’ll ever change again.

eSports and gaming will keep growing and the young people of today will become older and still watch while the new generations will grow up with it.

More and more women get into game as well, so in the end we’ll end up covering the entire demographic I believe.

With some of the physical challenges you’ve faced, due to carpal tunnel, are there special exercises or stretches you do when approaching a training session or tournament? Should all players incorporate this sort of warm-up to their training routine?

Nowadays I don’t need to stretch a lot anymore, it’s mostly about having a good relaxed posture, going jogging and doing some meditational exercises these days for me. I think every player should definitely find his own routine, it’s hard to generalize though, cause there are many different forms of RSI. It took me a long time to exactly figure out how I can handle it best and required a lot of research and self-reflecting. It’s vital to find out which habits hurt you and what you can do to avoid that. It’s not rocket science, one just needs to be a bit proactive about it.

In past interviews, speaking about your career, you’ve expressed a lot of satisfaction with being part of Team Liquid – what’s so special about this team?

I can’t imagine ever joining another team in my SC2 career. It doesn’t feel like I’m just part of a business but that I’m connected to something bigger than that. I feel like everyone in Team Liquid, not just the players but also the staff and people who make everything possible for us, are awesome open-minded, tolerant and progressive people.

We’re a really mixed team with people from all over the world. Everyone is always honest with us and while there are some ground rules, it doesn’t feel like we’re forced into some hierarchy. Our management always listens to and is eager to find a solution that makes everyone happy. It just feels like I’m among friends and at home in Team Liquid. That matters the most to me.