The 17 year old from Barcelona made people sit up and take notice when he took second place and a $10,000 cash prize at BlizzCon 2008 after defeating the likes of Nikolaus 'SonKiE' Cassidy, Dmitriy 'Happy' Kostin and June 'Lyn' Park.

In December LucifroN won Fnatic's King of Kings Championship, which despite only offering $300 for first place still involved beating the ESWC 2008 champion Du Seop 'WhO' Chang and Night Elf veteran Hyeong Ju 'Check' Lee.

More recently LucifroN became one of the first four players to qualify for the new NGL ONE 1 on 1 league, he also scored an all-kill against Korean team All for One for his team to secure nGize's place in the upcoming NGL ONE 3 on 3 league.

You've defeated some pretty impressive opponents so far in your career (WhO, Check, ReMinD, SocceR, Lyn), but is there anyone you are scared of?

Lucifron: Hmm no, I'm not scared of any one player in particular... although I always prefer not playing against elf players as I feel it is my worst match up.

There are some players you have yet to play against, such as Moon or TeD, are there any players you would look forward to playing against, and why?

Lucifron: Yes, I'm looking forward to playing against the top Chinese players on LAN, especially against Sky or Infi as they seem to be really strong vs. orc, and I really enjoy playing the ORC vs HU matchup.

Which game or match are you most proud of? Which game when you think back to it makes you go, "damn I played good."? What makes it so special?

Lucifron: I think my games against Happy at BlizzCon where I won 2-1. In the European Qualifier I lost 0-2 and I wanted to try against him again. I thought he'd be one of the hardest opponents in the tournament so I prepared for that match quite a lot... winning the bo3 after losing the EI game in the way I lost it was also a great motivation for the upper bracket final against SK.Lyn.

According to our records you've only lost 11 of your last 44 matches, a 75% win average. Of those 11 losses, 8 were to Europeans, is this a coincidence or do you find it harder to play against European opposition?

Lucifron: Yes, I think so far I've had more trouble facing European players than players from Asia, I guess the main reason is that I have not played many Korean players on LAN (just FoCuS and Lyn), and I feel that, at least online, it is easier to "trick" Korean players than Europeans.

Strategies such as the Burrowrush, or a tower rush work a lot more against Koreans, perhaps due to the online ping. I also think European players know these strategies better.

Recently, you almost single-handedly revived the burrow rush strategy. Does it only work with the element of surprise, what's the secret?

Lucifron: The element of surprise helps a lot, but in my opinion it's not really necessary for burrow rush to succeed. It depends on if either the elf knows how to counter it or not, and on which map are you playing. I think it works best on TS & TM, if the elf goes either aow-creep or huntress, there are high chances for it to work, but it's not unstoppable.

BlizzCon 2008 was your first major international success story, do you think nerves got the better of you in the rematch versus Lyn during the grand final? Second place is quite an achivement, but were you angry at missing out on 1st?

Lucifron: Looking back at the replays, I think I played much worse than in the rest of the tournament... yes I still regret how I played those games and, of course, was a bit angry at losing, but second place is not that bad. I think I'll have a chance to win my first tournament this year.

You've risen as a player during the golden age of the orc, the same as mTw.WhO. How much of your success is down to the race you chose?

Lucifron: I do not think it has much to do with the race, I started playing just over 2 years ago and I guess I just needed time to improve. Anyway, we have not seen so many new orcs performing well on LAN, have we?

Just as when Moon began enjoying unparalled success, new night elf players started to appear, now we see the same following the success of orc players like Lyn. Some argue that you are simply copying the top orc players' and not creating anything of your own. What do you have to say about that? Do you think it is a fair comment?

Lucifron: Haha, I don't think it's that easy to "simply copy the orc players". Actually, I do not even think they believe that themselves, but I've never cared about those kinds of comments. I'll keep playing as long as I feel I have the greatest chance to win.

Let's go back to before you broke into the big time, you started in September 2006, so it took you just over two years. How did you reach this level in that time? What kind of obstacles did you overcome? Talk us through your evolution as a player.

Lucifron: The first 4 months I just played ladder for fun, watched a lot of replays and simply enjoyed the game. One day I got an offer to join redCode (back then the best Warcraft III Spanish team) and started to play in leagues.

From then on I started to play a lot more, both ladder and leagues, until I got my chance to play ESWC Spain 07 (which I won). After that I kept training and when it was public that the BlizzCon qualifiers were going to be held in Spain, I thought it was my chance to play a top level LAN, so I trained hard to be able to get the chance to play there.

When was it that everything suddenly clicked and you realised that you had the ability to be quite good at Warcraft3?

Lucifron: Hard to say, I never doubted that I could be a decent player in Warcraft, but I was not really sure if I would be able to play against the top players. I guess when you start winning your first matches and playing your first LAN games you get more confident.

Any matches in particular that helped you realise your potential?

Lucifron:Yes, in BlizzCon Qualifier I wasn't sure if I would be able to win any matches, but playing on LAN is so different than online, I'd say my games against LiiLD.C taught me that online and offline are very different(As they were my first games vs a top player on LAN). I usually play with a ping around 120 online, so the difference between offline and online was huge, really huge...

Both your brothers are in nGize, from what I read your younger brother, you believe, could be better than you if he practiced, while your older brother is at university so he has no time to play. Is their place in nGize simply for fun or do you hope they will perhaps enjoy the same level of sucess as you have?

Lucifron: Hmm I don't know, time will tell... VortiX has started to practice lately, so I guess he'll start improving a lot, Ryo_ is still at university so there's no reason to believe his shape will improve.

VortiX performed great in some leagues and Ryo_ and myself in the 2 on 2 scored something like 6 and 2 in the WPL 2 league, we have a huge roster and we are playing in a lot of leagues, all our players are helpful in some way.

Parents normally grow tired of a child who plays Warcraft III for a long period of time, but three brothers must be a totally different story. How does your family view Warcraft III?

Lucifron: They like Warcraft III, our parents never told us anything bad about video games, nor playing them a lot, actually they watch some games from time to time, so that's fine. My brothers and I are players and enjoy the game, so the whole family enjoys the game I guess.

You've won ZOTAC Cup three times (#54, #57 and #68), is it really better practice than organising some custom matches yourself? Do players take it seriously?

Lucifron: Yes, sometimes it's hard to find players to practice with and I think that everyone who plays ZOTAC takes it seriously, not only for the 100€ but also for the "satisfaction" of winning a tournament.

In custom games it doesn't matter if you lose, there aren't any observers and there's no prize if you win, you may take them serious as no one likes to lose, but it's still not the same than in any tournament.

MYM recently dropped their Warcraft3 squad, how did you react to the news? With teams currently dropping players left, right and center, do you worry about your own career as a professional gamer?

Lucifron: It was sad news as MYM had some of the best players in the world, but wasn't such a big surprise I guess...

I'm still studying and not sure if next year I'll start university or "a professional gamer career", something I still have to think about.

What do you hope to achieve in 2009? What would you be happy with?

Lucifron: Winning any big tournament, or atleast placing top 3 in one of them... I think the first tournament I'll be attending will be ESWC 09 (if there's a WCIII Qualifier in Spain), so I'm looking forward to that.

What about getting a chance to attend an invite tournament in China for example? Or do you think that is unlikely in 2009, perhaps 2010?

Lucifron:That'd be great, I'd like to visit China at least once and play a tournament there, but I'm not sure if I'll get invited to any tournament anytime soon.

Previous eSKlusives

eSKlusive: Jimmy "allen" Allen (SK Gaming CS 1.6 player)
eSKlusive: Tommy "toMpa" Andersson (SK Gaming DotA player)
eSKlusive: June "Lyn" Park (SK Gaming Warcraft3 player)