StarCraft II: IdrA: "[SC2] is much easier to play than SC:BW "

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By Duncan 'Thorin' Shields

Feb 11, 2011 00:30

Top foreigner Zerg player and infamous BM all-star IdrA spoke to polarfluke about transitioning to SC2 and the secret to success in South Korea.

EG's star Zerg

Gregory 'IdrA' Fields has been interviewed by polarfluke and as usual the man affectionally nicknamed "The Gracken" answers in his infamously honest style.

Transitioning from Brood War to SC2:

"I never faced much of a specific problem transitioning; the game is much easier to play than SC:BW so it was just a matter of getting a feel for it strategically. That's just a matter of experience, seeing a situation and figuring out how to counter it."

Whether there's a moment or specific thing in his life which made him the player he is:

"There isn't one. There's no magic to being a good player, it's all just hard work and tons of practice that has to happen over a long period of time."

Advice for foreigners wanting to try their luck in South Korea playing SC2:

"Just to focus completely on the game. Koreans are generally better RTS players than foreigners because they work a lot harder at it. There's not much point in coming here if you're not willing to imitate that lifestyle. It can be really frustrating if you give up your life to come out here and then don't have immediate success, but no one really has immediate success. You have to be prepared to stick it out and practice a ton for a long time."

On his rivalry with

Jinro:

"It's not a rivalry. We played; people hyped the foreigner vs. foreigner aspect of it too much. I hope that at some point down the road it'll be meaningless that two foreigners are playing each other on the biggest SC2 stages."

IdrA was one of the few modern day BW players to move to South Korea and achieve any level of success. After winning a tournament and being invited to move there and play for eSTRO he eventually moved over to CJ Entus, then home of sAviOr and EffOrt, and got his progaming license, allowing him to become a professional StarCraft player. Despite much toil in the CJ B team IdrA was never able to get into the A team and appear in a televised Proleague match and also never managed to qualify for an OSL/MSL from the preliminaries.

In SC2 IdrA has emerged as one of the strongest non-Korean players with a Ro16 finish in GSL S2 and a Ro8 finish in S4 (a.k.a. GSL Jan 2011) as well as his 2nd place at IEM V Gamescom. IdrA is also well known for being willing to speak his mind and be BM, in contrast to the typically reserved and well mannered South Korean mentality.

IdrA has been drawn in Group B for the GSL March 2011 tournament.

Source: polarfluke