This will make me look bad, but let me start off asking how similar you are to the invincible South Park player?

We're both fat, we both have facial hair, and we've both got garbage around our computers.

Is that where the similarities end?

Yeah I suppose, I don't remember many specifics. I like watching movies. I like watching insects fight to the death. And I like watching girls eat shit out of cups.

Does the no-life WoW geek stereotype, used by fellow esports players as well as the general public, bother you at all? Like you're second category esports players?

I suppose it does bother me to a certain extent. Our game requires a lot of teamwork and coordination just like those other games.

What's kind of lacking in WoW is the balance that those other games can claim to have. There's also a certain amount of RNG (random number generator) factor involved with MMOs. They're right in that sense I suppose.

Do you think those players have the right to feel any superior to you?

For now I would say so. Those games have all been around for a lot longer than WoW has. Blizzard has stated that they're interested in making their game more e-sport friendly. The criticism the other gamers have for our game will hopefully eventually be taken care of.

How far or how close is WoW to being the perfect competitive game?

WoW has a long, long way to go. A lot of the problems that many players complain about can be taken care of in an isolated setting. There's also many, many more problems that would have to be taken care of over a long period of time. There's so many elements involved in the game that are out of the player's hands.

Just to name a couple issues currently at hand: RNG. It's pretty freaking brutal to see yourself lose thousands of dollars on a frostbolt resist. That was us in Sweden. Balance; Blizzard is working on it, but their glacial pace has a lot of people frustrated. Too many different problems to mention here.

We could talk forever about balancing WoW. What about other esports aspects: spectator friendliness and the player skill curve?

The smaller skill curve can be a blessing. In truth there's not a whole lot that one individual player can do better than another. Of course there's always a few individuals that are clearly better than most, but even then it's not game breaking.

The lower skill curve means that in order to be better than your opponents, your coordination has to be better than theirs. Which just makes it a different type of game. Personally, I've always enjoyed games that required great teamwork in order to be successful.

So basically, it's just a different way of showing superiority. I sat behind SK's CS team in Sweden. I couldn't understand what they were saying to one another, but their coordination was top notch. Despite all this, the games to me really came down to who landed the shots, and who didn't. It just ends up being a different competitive platform.

Spectator friendliness will always be somewhat difficult. I know it's difficult for people to understand everything that's happening in a match. Something I would like to see change are the models.

The difference in teams shouldn't just be some flag sticking out of a model's back. Make it really obvious. Make the character shaded a completely different color from yours. I really like that about watching Quake.

The spectator mode can have one team colored blue, the other red. You can keep the shoulders/helmet on a character, and everything becomes easy to identify.

As far as understanding the game goes; It's tough. It may even be a hurdle that Blizzard can't jump. I can sit next to another very good WoW player and explain to them what happened in a match that they didn't see. It's that fast-paced/in depth. I just don't have a solution.

There also really needs to be someone who is VERY good at casting these games. Some have done okay, and others have been just awful. As a shout caster you can make or break the thrill of watching a game. It just needs to be someone a little sports savvy who can keep the pace of the match going the entire time. Personally I think I would be amazing at it, but I'm a bit busy usually :). A good example is Tasteless from StarCraft. He kept me right in the game the entire time. At slow points he was explaining intricate details that kept me focused the entire match. Really amazing at his craft.

If an individual player can't do much himself, why did I hear that you were the best Druid in the world?

A lot of credit can go to my teammates. In particular though Druid has a very high skill cap. They've got so many tools to dominate the field. A Druid can really separate himself from the rest of the pack by always being on top of everything that's going on. A lot of classes just don't have that strength. And I suppose in some people's opinions I do it a little better than most.


People in Warcraft 3 look at today's gameplay and that people have reached a level of play no one imagined they would. Do you think WoW has the potential for the same kind of progression of players? Do you think you will cringe when looking at replays of today's matches?

WoW's competitive level is always reaching higher and higher. You can absolutely look back to season one and just wonder wtf people were doing. The strategies evolve, the game evolves, it's constantly changing in WoW.

It will continue to change for a long time. There's a lot of changes that have to go down to continue to increase popularity and balanced competition. WoW will absolutely follow WC3's path of evolution.

How many teams out there have got the potential to reach top 5 in the world but haven't got the backing to do so? What kind of a talent pool are we looking at?

Difficult to say. Without a doubt some of the best teams in the world have not been in the live tournaments. There's individuals and teams that are entirely capable of shaking up the live tourney scene. I can't really put a number on how many though, that's a bit broad of a question.

Does this mean that esports teams like Fnatic and SK Gaming are picking up all the wrong people?

Absolutely not. Fnatic may have missed their mark the first time around, but who knew? Everything was new and no one really knew what to expect from the tournaments. The current Fnatic team is capable of beating anyone, guaranteed. SK Gaming got one of the best players in the world when they recently picked up Neilyo's team. Their future is very bright.

Why are Pandemic better than you?

They've just got an amazing team backing them. They're the perfect example of being great players, but being even better teammates. Their coordination is what always wins out. They've also consistently made all the right moves. When you look to counter them, you've found yourself countercomped. In the CGS LA tournament, we got beaten about as badly as we ever have, trying to play their game. They're always one step ahead.

What makes a team a consistent winner in WoW?

To win consistently in WoW means that you're not only very good at playing your class, but your coordination is at a level higher than everyone else's. Truly, if you're looking for a team to emulate, look no further than Pandemic.

Which of the brackets do you find the most suitable for competition?

I'm probably a bit biased, but my vote goes to 3v3. It's the bracket that allows for the most innovation and variety in team makeups. 5v5 is very much centered around your coordination just like 3v3 is, but often times it feels like a bit of a zerg bracket. People are just getting annihilated with no hope of recovery. Perhaps with a few obvious changes, 5v5 would become far more interesting in the competitive sense. 5v5 just plain and simply will never touch the variety in teams that 3's can.

Care to give us your opinion on 2v2 WoW?

The bracket probably shouldn't exist.

You have been playing a Druid for a very long time, but lately you seem to be playing most on your Priest, any particular reason?

First of all I actually haven't been playing a Druid for long. I started around patch 2.0, prior to TBC. I've been playing a lot of priest lately to try to get up to speed on multiple classes. Hey, I'm being paid to play WoW, I should probably be on top of everything, right? I'm also kind of waiting for the incoming nerfs that are going to shit on the class.

I just feel that Priests are as strong if not stronger in certain setups. And really, how do you counter a Priest? Druids on the other hand... 2v2 is a joke, btw, don't mention it.

ESL will be doing WoW tournaments in 2008 and most likely many European teams will spring up. Do you think this will give an advantage to the Europeans and they will kick ass the way Americans did last year?

I'm somewhat skeptical. Europeans are just now getting their shit together. Americans have been slamming their faces together in a competitive environment for close to a year now. There's no special sauce in an American diet, to be sure. The Europeans will continue to work at it and eventually catch up. They're just behind the times at this point.

What do you think of the future of MMOs as esports platforms? Is this genre the future?

The reality of the situation is Blizzard made a gigantic robo mega monster. This game is freaking enormous, and any success it has probably has a lot to do with 23049203490293 people playing the game. It's a difficult genre to put into a competitive focus. You make a game like Fury that's just completely abysmal, and it's just not going to work. Which might have nothing to do with how great it may or may not have been as an esport.

I personally can't see anyone but Blizzard pulling this off. Their name is just too big and I don't see anyone taking the reins. As an e-sport, that is.

Do you think Warhammer Online can take any PvP'ers away from WoW?

Of course it can, and it will. If Blizzard doesn't continue to improve upon their game, they can definitely look forward to losing a few subscriptions. Mine probably won't be one of them, simply because there's no way WAR will ever be a competitive game. That's just not the idea behind that game. There's plenty of people playing this game that are entirely nostalgic about Dark Age of Camelot, and are looking for a game that is PvP focused, which WoW is not.

Why is 2GD, being the most awesome player on earth, not in the starting lineup?

He's a funny talking, smelly, Euro.

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Image by Team Pandemic.