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4 Posts
Photo credit: MSI DarkLordOlli sat down with Solar after his 3-1 win over Rogue in the semifinals of the MSI Beat IT tournament. This interview was done without a translator because Solar's English is amazing and he doesn't need one. OLLI: You just beat Rogue in the Ro4 and have not lost a series yet. Do you feel like you're in particularly good shape at the moment? SOLAR: Yeah, I'm in good shape. I practiced hard for this tournament, so I was really confident. And I think it shows. How do you think zerg is doing overall at the moment? Because it seems like it's only you and soO doing very well. SOLAR: I think zerg is really bad, honestly. You watched Blizzcon before my Ro4 match, right? All the zergs lost, except for Life, so there is only one zerg at Blizzcon. What great balance! (laughs) Why do you think zerg is doing poorly? SOLAR: I think the Thor buff was big... and the Widow Mine buff too. Maybe it was too many buffs at once. And the maps don't really help either I think. We're going to have crazy maps next season. What do you think about that idea, do you like it? SOLAR: (laughs.) Ohana and Daybreak are well balanced but some strange old maps made it in. I think it will confuse a lot of players. So you think it's bad for everyone then? SOLAR: I think mostly for protoss and zerg. The maps are good for terran. (laughs.) Ah, but do you think a ladder season with crazy old maps is bad for all pro-gamers? SOLAR: Oh... yeah, it's really bad for practice because there will be a lot of crazy weird builds that probably won't be viable the season after that. Blizzard has announced big changes to the WCS system for 2015. What do you think about those? SOLAR: Hmm, I think they're really good for KR players overall. I think Blizzard has done a good job analyzing what Korea needs. With two tournaments, there's a lot more opportunities for us to earn WCS points. It's very motivating! It really strengthened my passion! There will be one combined WCS Premier League for the foreign regions. Do you think that's good as well? SOLAR: Hmm, I think it's good. Maybe it hurts EU and NA players, because they don't get as many spots anymore? But I think overall it's not bad. It's definitely much better for Koreans now. Blizzard is also hinting that they will release some information about Legacy of the Void at Blizzcon, and maybe announce a beta. Do you think transitioning from HotS to a new expansion will be hard for you (and other players)? SOLAR: Hmmm, hard to say. Most good Wings of Liberty players are still really good at HotS. I think good players in HotS will still be good in LotV. Especially because it won't be a completely new game, the mechanics will still be the same. It will probably just take some time to incorporate new units and strategies. I see! So since you've made it to the MSI Beat IT Finals now, who would you rather play there? PartinG or YoDa? SOLAR: Definitely PartinG, because I beat him 2-0 two weeks ago and my ZvP is really good. I think I will win if he advances. I talked to PartinG earlier and he said he will definitely do a ceremony if he wins. He said he hates it when players show no emotions. Are you thinking of doing a ceremony too? SOLAR: Ah, no... I have no idea how to do a good ceremony and I don't want to do something half-prepared, so I'll just make sure I beat him. Maybe next time I can have one prepared (laughs). You've had a string of really impressive results recently and it seems like you're only improving. Did you change anything about your practice? SOLAR: Oh, I'm glad you noticed! I did change my practice schedule. In the past I practiced maybe 20-30 games a day, but I improved my practice a lot. Now I play like 40-50 games a day. That's around 12 hours. I think it's showing in my games and results. You've also been attending a lot of international tournaments. A lot of KeSPA teams focus purely on Proleague and Korean tournaments. Why is it that you can go to foreign tournaments this frequently, while a lot of other players can't? SOLAR: It's because Samsung is a big international company, so they actually want us to go and compete abroad. But when Proleague starts I probably can't go this frequently anymore. When you went to those events, a lot of viewers were surprised that your English is really good. It's very impressive that I can have a full interview in English with you. Why is your English this good, are you putting extra effort into learning the language? SOLAR: Ah, that's just because I studied it a lot when I was younger. But I also still take some time to keep improving my english. I have to think about my future too, and English is a really important part of it for me. My dream is to be a diplomat one day. Oh wow! Where do you want to go? SOLAR: I'd like to live in the US and some other NA countries one day. And maybe France! That's a really cool plan, good luck with that! I have one last question for you, and it's not a serious one. Imagine this: the president's daughter is abducted and he only trusts you to save her. You can pick three pro-gamers to help you. Who do you pick? SOLAR: (laughs.) The first one would be Shine, because he's really big and strong. I think we need him for fights. The second would be PartinG, because he talks really fast and that would confuse the kidnappers. The third one I choose is Stork, because he's got a really scary aura. His authority would scare everybody. Thank you for the interview and good luck in the tournament!
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Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (:
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'' I talked to PartinG earlier and he said he will definitely do a ceremony if he wins. He said he hates it when players show no emotions. ''
parting undestands us u.u
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Nice interview ! And come to France really fast, I want to buy you some food !
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holy shit, dat practice dedication. #passion
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51330 Posts
Better interview! I like how the 2 new tournaments have given him more passion, that is pretty big for Korean sc2 if they all feel like that. Also props for Samsung for actually trying to get their name out there in terms of a pro gaming team by sending their players to foreign tournaments!
His English is very good by the looks don't know how much grammar you had to change or anything. The diplomat thing was cool, however why learn English to want to move to France...hmmm xD
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Austria24413 Posts
I had to edit very little. His english is really that good.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22271 Posts
did someone punch you in the nuts why is your face like that
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Austria24413 Posts
We were gonna put our hands up but the picture was taken too early D:
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France7248 Posts
too bad you spoiled the last question
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Holy sheet when he said "In the past I praticed 20-30 games per day but I improved my practice a lot." I thought he switched to focus more on strategies with replays and stuff.
But no: moar games. 40-50 (._.) Insane.
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Olli so esports famous, hypeeee for HSC. Two free tournaments for you recently eh? Got a job yet?
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Dayum, Solar even understands Austrenglish!
Nice work, Olli! And that's an insane schedule for Solar.
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Commander Stork
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On November 06 2014 22:11 OtherWorld wrote: Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (: ofcourse the jokepool is bad, it was never intended for competitive play but rather for ladder casuals.
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On November 06 2014 22:51 Meavis wrote:Show nested quote +On November 06 2014 22:11 OtherWorld wrote: Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (: ofcourse the jokepool is bad, it was never intended for competitive play but rather for ladder casuals. Yeah but there were people arguing that the Dreampool wouldn't affect progamers because they would practice Custom Games anyway. Harstem and Solar invalidated that
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Wow, really good interview. I couldn't read interview without his voice in my head, haha.
Awesome interview, really like the questions and answers, keep it up. Oh and you can tell Solar to visit us here on TL from time to time.
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Solar such a good guy, really hope he keeps showing good results!
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opterown
Australia54649 Posts
wow, great english from solar
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
On November 06 2014 22:59 OtherWorld wrote:Show nested quote +On November 06 2014 22:51 Meavis wrote:On November 06 2014 22:11 OtherWorld wrote: Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (: ofcourse the jokepool is bad, it was never intended for competitive play but rather for ladder casuals. Yeah but there were people arguing that the Dreampool wouldn't affect progamers because they would practice Custom Games anyway. Harstem and Solar invalidated that
The fact that two progamers disagree doesn't necessarily make it false. Remember when Rain said Terran was more overpowered than BL/Infestor?
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On November 06 2014 23:07 Zealously wrote:Show nested quote +On November 06 2014 22:59 OtherWorld wrote:On November 06 2014 22:51 Meavis wrote:On November 06 2014 22:11 OtherWorld wrote: Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (: ofcourse the jokepool is bad, it was never intended for competitive play but rather for ladder casuals. Yeah but there were people arguing that the Dreampool wouldn't affect progamers because they would practice Custom Games anyway. Harstem and Solar invalidated that The fact that two progamers disagree doesn't necessarily make it false. Remember when Rain said Terran was more overpowered than BL/Infestor? Hmm, I see this as something different. Harstem and Solar are talking about the way they practice, which is something that cannot be discussed since they do practice that way (it's a "solid", "real" fact). On the other hand, any talk about balance can be discussed because you never have facts when you're talking about it, you most often refer to what you feel while playing (like Rain) or to statistics/figures, which aren't facts. Although yes, two progamers aren't enough to make something a factual truth, but you understand the spirit.
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Solar sounds like a proper Bro.
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On November 06 2014 22:11 OtherWorld wrote: Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (:
maybe 1 out of 100 would like the dream pool, because pros forced the tournaments into using the ladder maps so they can train really easily for tournaments. I wish it would be intentional to enforce a more diverse map pool. But then the two Korean tournaments would have to use their own map pool. If they do and if the international WCS uses the Ladder maps, foreigners might even stand a chance at 2015 Blizzcon. Unless they have become to bad to do anything by then.
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I <3 Solar ^_^
and yeah the dreampool is fine for ladder but I wish they didn't enforce it for tournaments...
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afaik, dreampool is not enforced in tournaments, it's just a shame that ladder is taking pretty much all 1v1 activity, including practice for pro's, and the dreampool is bad for that.
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40-50 games 12hrs/day, holy moly
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On November 07 2014 00:02 Silvana wrote: I <3 Solar ^_^
and yeah the dreampool is fine for ladder but I wish they didn't enforce it for tournaments... WCS is in its off season until 2015 so the tournaments don't need to have the ladder maps for their map pools.
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On November 07 2014 01:31 Boucot wrote:Show nested quote +On November 07 2014 00:02 Silvana wrote: I <3 Solar ^_^
and yeah the dreampool is fine for ladder but I wish they didn't enforce it for tournaments... WCS is in its off season until 2015 so the tournaments don't need to have the ladder maps for their map pools.
Oh well, now then it turned into an interesting thing, because tournament organizers can pick whatever maps they like... again not cool for the pros but fun for us viewers ^^ yay chaos everywhere! it honestly gets boring to have the same 7 maps in every tournament
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Solar is awesome. Thanks for the interview!
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solar is hands down my favorite player.
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You gotta do what you gotta do to achieve excellence.
great interview olii!
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Not surprised he won. Solar seems like he's been working incredibly hard this year. He's in nearly every qualifier and tournament I view.
imo Solar is battling Life for the #2 Zerg of the year.
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United States15275 Posts
On November 06 2014 23:07 Zealously wrote:Show nested quote +On November 06 2014 22:59 OtherWorld wrote:On November 06 2014 22:51 Meavis wrote:On November 06 2014 22:11 OtherWorld wrote: Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (: ofcourse the jokepool is bad, it was never intended for competitive play but rather for ladder casuals. Yeah but there were people arguing that the Dreampool wouldn't affect progamers because they would practice Custom Games anyway. Harstem and Solar invalidated that The fact that two progamers disagree doesn't necessarily make it false. Remember when Rain said Terran was more overpowered than BL/Infestor?
And Rain was eventually proven right! He is the Jeremiah of our time.
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On November 06 2014 23:07 Zealously wrote:Show nested quote +On November 06 2014 22:59 OtherWorld wrote:On November 06 2014 22:51 Meavis wrote:On November 06 2014 22:11 OtherWorld wrote: Two interviews, two progamers saying the Dreampool is bad. Heh. Also 12 hours of training a day, omg Oo I guess the KeSPA training regime is real Nice interview though, thanks for these (: ofcourse the jokepool is bad, it was never intended for competitive play but rather for ladder casuals. Yeah but there were people arguing that the Dreampool wouldn't affect progamers because they would practice Custom Games anyway. Harstem and Solar invalidated that The fact that two progamers disagree doesn't necessarily make it false. Remember when Rain said Terran was more overpowered than BL/Infestor?
the fact that a lot of pro use ladder as their main tool of practice is enough to say that dreampool is awful...
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Austria24413 Posts
On November 07 2014 04:17 FrostedMiniWheats wrote: Not surprised he won. Solar seems like he's been working incredibly hard this year. He's in nearly every qualifier and tournament I view.
imo Solar is battling Life for the #2 Zerg of the year.
As far as overall play goes, he's impressed me a lot more this year. Solar is already the second best zerg behind soO atm, in my opinion. He even beat him at Dreamhack, and now beat Parting at MSI. Also did really well in GSL throughout the year. I'd say he's been much more impressive than Life.
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Thank you for the lovely interview. The last question was a lot of fun!
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Solar is awesome!
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