NoName is a 22 year old Mass Media graduate from India, currently on a year out of his Masters in English literature, however is more well-known in the eSports scene for his role as a WC3 manager.

In April of 2007 he joined fnatic where has now become their WC3 manager and Head of Warcraft3 content. A few days ago his WC3 squad defeated Serious Gaming in the WPL Grand Final to crown themselves champions of the WPL Season VIII.


Malystryx: Hardest match of the WPL Season and why?

fnatic.NoName: Hmm I think it would have to be in the game against Serious (season one) where we decided as usual to use our younger players for the game. There were so many 1-2's which yange and kei lost that it wasn't so nice for us. I would have favoured our chances in it as well. But looking back I'd have to say that one yes.

As for why, I'd say because we were already up 2-0 with our 2's and Shy winning but then to see the games swing by and watch Space lose (we eventually lost 2-3) as well wasn't so good especially in mirror.

Malystryx: Does the WPL constitute a serious league or just good practise?

fnatic.NoName: Just good practice mostly, it's really nice to see that MinHyuk has refined his skills a lot over this season and last WC3L season where he did pretty okay. Also well, I must admit we wanted to take the title (since it would be fnatic's maiden team league title in wc3) so we decided to step up the pace a little when we played the playoffs and finals by using FoCuS and Shy. But I guess from next

from next season we will see a slightly changed lineup for WPL since I want the guys (Shy and FoCuS) to concentrate more on solo leagues and WC3L.

Bonus round

Malystryx: If you became a millionaire, and you could buy anything, what are the first 3 things you would buy?

fnatic.NoName:

1) Go to some random village in India and live there for a few years.
2) Set up an esport company with my esport friends from India
3) Set up a production house with friends

Malystryx: Do you think the WPL is going in the right direction? What could it do to improve?

fnatic.NoName: Well there's a few things I encountered that were quite appaling, for instance some of the admins' unbiased behaviour or the rather lazy approach from other teams towards the league was a little annoying but most of the problems were not so much towards the other teams. I do not know if they can get so much money for WC3 anymore (for a league) since WC3 is not so feasible outside China.

They could do well to improve the prize money a little some suggest offline finals but am not so sure it would be possible. The WPL is already in its 8th season as of now and I think it is a good place for experienced teams to give their younger players play time since there are many competitive teams in here. But well, for all it's worth WPL in my eyes may not become anything bigger than it already is.

For sure WPL is the best of the rest (WCReplays.com forums has all the rest listed in there!) but I mean when I compare the WPL to the WC3L or the NGL ONE I guess am also not being fair since these leagues have a better backing and a solid company in place to support them.

My only real issue with WPL was that the rules are a lot more relaxed and maybe it was a new test for me since I am normally not used to competing in leagues outside of WC3L or NGL ONE.

Malystryx: Is that necessarily a problem? New leagues seem to have a problem, they need money in order to attract large teams and thus a large fanbase, but if they do so small teams have nowhere to practise and grow. What is your take on this issue?

fnatic.NoName: I don't think the WPL should realistically think of competing with the WC3L and NGL ONE and neither should they because their an excellent place for established teams with new players to test them out or for teams with no access to WC3L or NGL ONE to have a fair bit of chance competing for some prize money rather than no prize money as is the case of the other leagues (non-WC3L/NGL ONE)

Bonus round

Malystryx:Desert island, 3 things, what would they be?

fnatic.NoName:

1) Alcohol
2) Gisele Bundchen
3) an Air conditioned tent

Malystryx: Will fnatic ever add more European players in the near future?

fnatic.NoName: I do not think so, we'd like to keep the team-spirit in natonality since so far we're the only all Korean team. I can't comment what the future holds but we've resisted looking at players outside Korea to boost our lineup.

Besides it is not so easy to integrate new players into the lineup since our lineup is really close from real life and adding anybody new would cause some problems to our team-spirit.

Malystryx:I heard you recently celebrated your birthday, tell us a bit about celebrating fnatic style?

fnatic.NoName: Haha, well it was pretty crazy... I think we first picked if I should be getting drunk on the 16th or the 17th but it turned out to be the 16th since I thought I had some work to do on the 18th. Suffice to say Joe, Sam, James, Mac really know how to get someone drunk beyond their senses. We went to a really gay club I think (literally) where they were playing Baywatch music and what not

Most of the times it ended up like we were just standing at the bar and having more and more drinks but the number of guys and girls who were into each other (...) kept increasing. But well it was a Wednesday night can't blame anyone.

It was fine though, next day we got some cake in the evening and that was about it, I guess I miss home on days like this...They are just office mates around, and I am not really that close to them in real life, so I missed my family.

Bonus round

Malystryx: Stuck in a lift with three progamers or progamer's girlfriends, who would you pick and why?

1) TossGirl [Starcraft]
2) josku (From PMS.CS)
3) Cang [Ironlady champion / Commentator)
To get to know them better, they are all so talented and attractive...

Malystryx: What sparked the move to Europe? What do you hope to achieve here and how long are you staying?

fnatic.NoName: Well, I didn't know I'd get an offer like this from fnatic, I have been working from India for a while now (3 years or so) and I thought I should try and give eSports this one last good shot before I go and pursue my other interests.

I will be here for a year, going to be working in upper management now mostly to look into the day to day runnings of the team and try to integrate the teams a lot better to increase our team-spirit.

I hope to do better coverage for events with interviews and other things for the fnatic viewers. But most of all am doing this because it's something I wanted to do for a long time and didn't get a chance due to conditions in India.

Malystryx:Space has become quite a celebrity in fnatic and the fact that he suffers from a disability has become common knowledge. Do you ever feel the need to defend him from the eSports public, or do you think the eSports public have shown a level of maturity towards his condition?

fnatic.NoName: I don't think he ever wanted information on his condition to spread but it did and I think for the most part that the entire community has always shown him respect (perhaps in most cases more so because of his disability) and love that he or any good player deserves.

There has been a somewhat over exposure of Space's disability mostly because he chose to attend LAN's in Korea and one time in China.When he did go to a LAN in China he felt really good about meeting people and seeing another country that was like a dream for him.

But at the same time it meant he came face to face with his shortcomings (LAN conditions) and I think that really shook him up. So to answer your question, I'd say they have a level of understanding but perhaps it stems from sympathy.

Malystryx: How is the players house in China going? Will Space be moving in with the players in the future? and why did you not decide to go live with the players in China instead of move to the UK to manage them?

fnatic.NoName: Hmm, interesting question well the players have moved back to Korea for sometime now since due to the Olympics most of the tournaments are scheduled to be held in September or later than that. We (players and management) didn't see sense in keeping them there for a while especially since the players wanted to go back and attend regional qualifiers like the WCG, ESWC and IEF. They will be back when the Chinese tournaments resume.

Space will not move to China with the others since he has needs which none of his 20 year old friends in fnati.wc3 can take care of, he normally can attend but only with his brothers help

Hmm, well I don't think there would be much scope for me to go there and work since we don't have an office there unlike hotlips for who World Elite was based in China. I would definitely like to visit them and attend a few tournaments with them but aside from that fnatic thought my presence was more important to have in the office and as I mentioned above in the looking after of the day to day running of the team and players.

Bonus round

Malystryx:If you were gay which three Warcraft3 stars would you want to date?

fnatic.NoName:

1) RotterdaM (e-lover)
2) PaTo..
3) p1nke
I hope these friends of mine dont block me on msn for this ...hi guys.

Malystryx:I personally have the issue that I'm growing older and life is catching up to me, I enjoy eSports but am finding it difficult to really see a future doing it for a living, but at the same time I don't want to give it up then miss out. Are you in the same situation?

fnatic.NoName:Could be, it is easy for me to say sitting now that in one year I will quit eSports to pursue other interests but whoever has had a close tie with friends online knows that no matter what, in the end you will miss it. So for me personally I would think that it's better if in a year I can take a smaller role in fnatic but not completely leave it since I know I will miss it if I do.

When I pursue my other interests who knows maybe I won't find so much happiness as much as eSports gives me and I could head back to it. But in either case I'd at least like to try something else since I'd never know if I just continued with eSports.

Malystryx: What else do you see yourself doing? (non eSports related)

fnatic.NoName: Well I have a keen interest in watching international cinema and in college I was very interested in curating films, I also felt the need to work with a friend of mine and when I go back to India I will make a film with him for sure (short).

So far in the last 4 years nothing else has gripped me so much as films have done and I would like to pursue a course in film theory sometime and then work as a researcher, or perhaps go ahead and try to form a production house with friends.

If there's anything else that grabs my attention as much as these 2 fields have (esports and film) I am very sure I would puruse it, I also had some offers to teach some film related papers back in India but I chose not to stay because this year is for eSports and travelling, (I plan to do that early next year!) but first gotta make some money.

Bonus round

Malystryx: If you knew Kung Fu and you could kick the ass of three people in eSports, who would they be and why?

fnatic.NoName:

1) zr0 (yes my boss the slave driver)
2) Joe (co-worker !)
3) Patrick (Spittie) (Asshole)

I'd ninja their ass anytime!

Malystryx: Thanks for the interview, any last words before your reputation is destroyed?

fnatic.NoName:That was intense, just like to thank everyone I have known from eSports and whom I will visit next year, everyone in fnatic I have even spoken to once online or offline. Also like to say big shoutout to SteelSeries and CoolerMaster and UGame.net. And finally to you Lawrence! Peace!