I'll always remember his game versus Stephano at IPL3, and all of the other craziness he brought to the game as a whole. A truly great player who will be missed.
Awwww, damn thats a shame, his games were always kooky, and sometimes badass. It'd been said that he retired before, but confirmation now.... GL with Poker.
On May 08 2012 06:09 Schmoooopy wrote: I'll always remember his game versus Stephano at IPL3, and all of the other craziness he brought to the game as a whole. A truly great player who will be missed.
I just realized that I wrote this like an obituary. Sheesh.
He was an incredibly skilled poker player before even breaking into SC2. He went where the money is. Juggling both isn't an easy task and he did it for long enough.
I'm sure with HotS we'll see a bit more of him again. o;
On May 08 2012 06:19 ampson wrote: Kiwi entered IPL4, got killed by some koreans. Something tells me that he will be around a few tournaments (albeit without practice).
I'm sure he'll still play SC2 for fun, and still be at a high level. Maybe he'll compete in smaller tournaments (like online cups) until (if it happens) his skill falls too low, which should be no problem as long as he plays a few hours a week.
Well, this was not unexpected, but hits hard nonetheless. One of the greatest NA protosses back in 2010 and early 2011, and certainly one with flair and creativity. Thanks for everything Kiwikaki
Oh no! I got to meet him at Providence and he did really well there. And I thought he had a decent run at IPL4? I didn't realize he felt that it was time to retire. That's too bad.
That would explain not seeing much of him lately. He was definitely one of the most fun protosses to watch, I'll miss the uncertain element he would infuse into games.
On May 08 2012 06:09 Schmoooopy wrote: I'll always remember his game versus Stephano at IPL3, and all of the other craziness he brought to the game as a whole. A truly great player who will be missed.
Loved watching him play even if he was never an outright favorite to win against some of the higher level talent. He always played some damn entertaining games.
I don't blame him following poker if he is making money.
I do suspect we'll see him with HOTS, maybe not playing at a pro level.. but hopefully streaming some games.
Sad to see him go super nice guy when I met him at MLG Anaheim, but hope he keeps doing well in professional poker! If he streams D3 that'd also be pretty freakin sweet :3
I thought this was more known, but never heard it from a credible source. A couple months back I remember of bunch of people mentioning it in various stream chats, so I kind of took it for granted, regardless it's nice to see a confirmation. Really sad new still, wish him the best of luck, gave us some great fucking games!
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
I remember this being rumored a few weeks ago, but still sad to see it even more legitimized. He was really fun to watch. His mothership game vs stephano is one of the best SC2 games I have ever seen to date.
eh he's really good, but I guess the motivation isn't there when you just don't win enough. it was cool seeing him at ipl4 even though he only made it half way into the open bracket.
Such as shame, one of my favorite toss :/ Kind of strange also how low profile his retirement was :/ suppose due to reign disbanding at the same time and him going to IPL4 while retired
Aww so sad. The guy was a genius in my opinion, he's good at everything lol. He can definitely make a lot more money in poker so it seems like the most logical choice.
On May 08 2012 06:13 chriZqq wrote: The only NA Player ever taking a Map of Stephano is retired, sad day for the american guys
Sheth is 2-0 against Stephano. Also Axslax and chance both took a map from Stephano since he lost that famous IPL game by not remembering the hotkey of Vortex
I knew no one was picking him up after reign disbanded but i wasn't sure if he was still playing or not. Well, best of luck to him in all his other endeavors
This has been rumored for a while now. It's really sad in my opinion. I remember watching and learning a lot from Kiwikaki replays and VOD's. The crazy mothership tactics will always be remembered. I guess it makes sense to retire before HotS. Kiwi goes together with the mothership.
Kiwi, yo mommaship so fat and yo mommaship play so good, it'll leave a huge empty space in my Protoss heart.
On May 08 2012 06:13 StarStruck wrote: He was an incredibly skilled poker player before even breaking into SC2. He went where the money is. Juggling both isn't an easy task and he did it for long enough.
I'm sure with HotS we'll see a bit more of him again. o;
You completely forgot to mention he was amazing at WarCraft 3 before he was any good at poker.
On May 08 2012 06:13 StarStruck wrote: He was an incredibly skilled poker player before even breaking into SC2. He went where the money is. Juggling both isn't an easy task and he did it for long enough.
I'm sure with HotS we'll see a bit more of him again. o;
This is the type of comment that comes up all the time and that I find baffling. I don't understand why people make these assumptions. "He went where the money is." I'd almost find this insulting if I was him. If he is so money-driven, why did he ever take SC2 so seriously at all? You think he had the stupid belief that he would make more money in a video game than in poker after he just had a $200,000 year? Are you for real? How about choosing to do what you enjoy the most?
He's more than comfortable, he doesn't need to make money. I think the truth is his passion for the game diminished. I haven't asked him myself, but I know this is what happened to a lot of StarCraft players/poker players (myself included). A passion simply exhausts itself. There's no reason to stop doing something you enjoy tremendously, unless you absolutely need to, and Kiwi doesn't absolutely need to play poker, so this assumption is very silly to say the least.
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
i`m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong here. Blizzard itself has stated that there is no interest in turning diablo 3 in a "e sport"kinda game.
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
i`m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong here. Blizzard itself has stated that there is no interest in turning diablo 3 in a "e sport"kinda game.
You say something but have no links to prove otherwise. Either cite your source of information or don't bother to post.
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
i`m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong here. Blizzard itself has stated that there is no interest in turning diablo 3 in a "e sport"kinda game.
You say something but have no links to prove otherwise. Either cite your source of information or don't bother to post.
kinda funny you did exactly the same. Except the fact that you are wrong and i`m not. i`ll come back later with the link but for now refrain from posting things you don`t know.
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
i`m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong here. Blizzard itself has stated that there is no interest in turning diablo 3 in a "e sport"kinda game.
You say something but have no links to prove otherwise. Either cite your source of information or don't bother to post.
kinda funny you did exactly the same. Except the fact that you are wrong and i`m not. i`ll come back later with the link but for now refrain from posting things you don`t know.
You don't bother to post it because you have no link that's why and you are turning this into a flamebait attempt at getting me banned. Have a good day sir.
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
i`m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong here. Blizzard itself has stated that there is no interest in turning diablo 3 in a "e sport"kinda game.
You say something but have no links to prove otherwise. Either cite your source of information or don't bother to post.
kinda funny you did exactly the same. Except the fact that you are wrong and i`m not. i`ll come back later with the link but for now refrain from posting things you don`t know.
You don't bother to post it because you have no link that's why and you are turning this into a flamebait attempt at getting me banned. Have a good day sir.
it was actually easier than i thought. Now shut the blab
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
i`m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong here. Blizzard itself has stated that there is no interest in turning diablo 3 in a "e sport"kinda game.
You say something but have no links to prove otherwise. Either cite your source of information or don't bother to post.
kinda funny you did exactly the same. Except the fact that you are wrong and i`m not. i`ll come back later with the link but for now refrain from posting things you don`t know.
You don't bother to post it because you have no link that's why and you are turning this into a flamebait attempt at getting me banned. Have a good day sir.
it was actually easier than i thought. Now shut the blab
I really loved his playstyle, and he was such a funny guy too. I'll still hold out hope though, I can't imagine after putting that much time into Starcraft that he wouldn't at least give HotS a shot!
On May 08 2012 06:37 An2quamaraN wrote: He didn't even care to announce it himself. That's some display of respect for his fans.
He had a tiny fanbase even look at his thread on TL here which is barely 30 pages long while others have far more then that. If he had a large fanbase maybe he would have bothered to post but he doesn't so he didn't bother to announce his retirement. He's moving on to the next Esports game which will be Diablo 3 which might be more popular then SC2 just because it will feature an Arena style combat and that alone will attract far more players. I'm even thinking of starting up in it once D3 PVP is released. I would bother with SC2 if I wasn't competing with people that dump 70-80 hours a week into SC2 which I don't have anywhere near that kind of time to put into it per week.
i`m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong here. Blizzard itself has stated that there is no interest in turning diablo 3 in a "e sport"kinda game.
While Blizzard may not be making Diablo 3 with the intention of making it into an e-sport, it is us, the players and fans that created the e-sports genre because of our love for the game and how great they are/were (Quake, CS, SC:BW, etc have all come because of the players and fanbases for each game wanting to make something competitive).
So we as a whole can make Diablo 3 into an e-sport.
Back on topic: I had read this somewhere before but I had forgotten. Maybe he will be around for IPL 5 (which I believe has already been confirmed to be in vegas again).
As much as I hate to say, he was a very innovative and creative player, but had little prospective for the apex progaming (as in leading a decent and supportive career). Good luck to you though!
He made the right choice. Poker is a much more lucrative professional choice for him. He was creative but was never going to win any of the big tournies.
On May 08 2012 08:53 KiWiKaKi wrote: I shall be back to make sick builds with new units
I'll be counting the days till your return, in my eyes your play is the most entertaining to watch out of any foreigner, its unique, stylish and with a touch of no way, did he?! no way.... I sometimes felt genuine childlike glee watching your games.
Why are people surprised by this? O_o havent seen much out of him since the scene has become much larger globally in sense of players. There is basically no reason for him to stay in the sc2 scene at a pro level when he makes more playing poker. Being he isn't from the US either he can legally play online poker without any worries
he drifted away from the wc3 scene from time to time, and always came back and was still really sick good. i bet he'll work his way back eventually. at least i HOPE so he's one of my favorite players
Sad because Kiwikaki had the potential to be one of the best, he has always been one of the top NA players. He never fully commited though, since poker was his actual job and SC2 was more of a hobby.
after he won so much with poker im pretty sure he's been "retired" for a long while, i mean he hasnt been in any tournies and the only games he plays are for fun
This should really just be called "Kiwikaki takes a Break until HOTS" or something, especially since he said he will be back. It had me really sad for a second until I saw his post.
one of the main reasons i switched to protoss was his creative play... hopefully he will come back or start playing hardcore, his stalker micro and pretty much his micro overall was by far the best for the longest time.
Interview I did with Kiwikaki after IPL4. Apparently he told me he retired in the interview, but I didn't edit the footage until just a few days ago. Very nice guy, always one of my favorites. Sorry for rambling interview...... new at this
On May 09 2012 05:27 Leetley wrote: I still remember the 2 Immortal warp prism rush with Zealot warpins against Idra on Blistering Sands. It made Idra sad.
i am surprise that he still play starcraft, he make way more money in poker. Maybe money is not all the thing in life, but sure is a very important thing.
It's a shame but not surprising since he's good at poker, and hadn't had massive monetary success in sc2 even though he's not been terrible by any means.
I definantly think poker is a viable choice if you are not a sc2 pro or high level pro. Elky and lex veld made the transition and I would dare say made more money than maybe all the top pros individually.
On May 10 2012 03:22 mute20 wrote: I definantly think poker is a viable choice if you are not a sc2 pro or high level pro. Elky and lex veld made the transition and I would dare say made more money than maybe all the top pros individually.
i was looking at the ROOT team list after seeing ToD and Theognis leaving/joining. and i wondered if kiwi was still on ROOT or what he was doing, if anyone knew THX!
On December 16 2012 08:17 TearsOfTheSun wrote: i was looking at the ROOT team list after seeing ToD and Theognis leaving/joining. and i wondered if kiwi was still on ROOT or what he was doing, if anyone knew THX!
On December 16 2012 08:17 TearsOfTheSun wrote: i was looking at the ROOT team list after seeing ToD and Theognis leaving/joining. and i wondered if kiwi was still on ROOT or what he was doing, if anyone knew THX!
KiwiKaki fanclub would probably be a better place for asking :p
I'm not sure but I think he's still in the Poker buisness.
Kiwikaki retired, the op says it he's obviously not part of ROOT as for now. Maybe when he plays HOTS they will pick him up once again, not much to add lol...