Recently we were informed that Corinthos will be stopping his streaming service on January 19th. He intends to spend more time on his studies and his health. We wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.
If you have ever plugged his link into VLC, or installed TV Ants to watch a game on his site, take a moment to post here and say thank you. He richly deserves it.
Mani - When was the first time you started streaming BW, and what got you into it? The current site is your third "project" right?
Corinthos - I don't really have "projects". I take each stream as a task on its own. However, on my time line - yes the site would be one of the bigger tasks I've done. It came up late, and is unfortunately still incomplete, but it was something I wanted to try.
BW was the first thing I have ever streamed. The earliest I remember was converting VODs to flash format, and uploading it to my site as if it was youtube. During that time, I also wrote a script to bypass the login system of ogn, taking you directly to their live stream page. MBC's live stream web page didn't even require a login,so people could just type in the address in their browser and watch.
The first live mbc/ogn stream I relayed would be after sc2.org closed down. I also took liberty of relaying pgl, and a few blizzard streams (blizzcon, wcg, invite).
Mani - How many people tuned into those first efforts compared to the number you have today?
Corinthos - This is one of the main reasons why I feel satisfied and happy when looking back at history. Back then, there was not as many viewers who tuned into actual live events. Most people waited until afterward, and downloaded VODs (the torrent tracker was a big hit- and still is). So for record sakes, there was not more than a hundred for regular matches during the season. The finals peaked around 120-130, but it is much different today.
Today there are over 300 viewers watching regular season matches (osl, msl, pl). During the last OSL finals, I peaked at over 500+ viewers on the vlc stream, a milestone in my books. It makes you feel better knowing there are others staying up all night watching StarCraft with you.
Mani - I am also really impressed with it, considering it gets only word-of-mouth advertising.
How about on a personal level. I know you are a big fan of progaming obviously. Tell me some of your likes / dislikes / favorite memories of progaming?
Corinthos - I joined TeamLiquid "officially" back in 06. My first post was ironically in the Blizzard Invitational thread, where I asked how I could watch the event. (btw thanks Saro for the post search feature!) My StarCraft doesn't date back to the days were Grrr, Legionaire, Elky, etc played in starleagues. I came in the Boxer and iloveoov era. Both of these players are my favorites. I am a terran fan and player.
I liked skt1-telecom in general because of their great metal lineup. I loved the starleague intros back then, and I could feel the excitement from fans in Korea all the way to my monitor back at home. I do have some "dislike" for certain players. I never told anyone this, and I'm sure rocks will be thrown at me for mentioning this, but I don't feel the love for Ma Jae-Yoon.
When I think of him, the memories of the past always come back to me. The days were he sat in the msl - losing numerous games. I just didn't feel it in him. However, I have more respect for him now, he went through a lot in his career and proved he is a more than competent zerg player. I wish him all the best in 2009.
Mani - Did you make a proleague fantasy team this season?
Corinthos - Yes, I did make a fantasy proleague team this season. The players I chose were iloveoov, Bisu (captain), Tazza, Hwasin, Sea and Thezerg. Team - SK Telecom T1
Mani - I guess you were pretty happy yesterday then
Corinthos - Yeah, I was ecstatic over iloveoov's wins. I think I jinxed it though, because after I made a reply in the live report thread oov lost to + Show Spoiler +
Anytime
Mani - So you are busy at school these days. What do you study?
Corinthos - Indeed, I am a busy bee this term - need to cut the slack from the past. I studied computer science at University of Waterloo, but I'm in the process of changing majors. Most likely I will take accounting financial management or computing financial management.
Mani - And are you still going to follow progaming even though you aren't streaming?
Corinthos - I will definitely continue to follow progaming, hopefully guilt-free because I don't have much to contribute at the moment. I will probably take a more relaxed approach though, doing things on my own time.
Mani - That sounds like a good plan. Anything you want to say to the community in general?
Corinthos - I want to thank the community for their support and comments towards me. Also, thank you for tuning into my streams, it made all the effort worth it. There are many great people on TL and many awesome contributors. I hope each one will be recognized. I also want to say thanks to the TL IRC, it's really a great place to hangout - please check it out! I also noticed more users trying to provide streams, and I want to encourage them to continue to do so. I believe streams are an important aspect to the community, because just like any other sport, watching the event live is different as opposed to watching the re-run. I hope everyone continues to spread the word about sc, and make it big. Let's bring e-sports outside of Korea!
Lastly, I want to give shoutouts to people like talent/ilovecats, r1ch and zatic. These guys also were part of my influence, and they helped build some of the foundations. Also the people who upload on the tracker (too many to name) do a great job. I remember when I had a period with the tracker, it's also a lot of work if you don't have automated scripts (zatic!)
Mani - Thanks a lot.
Corinthos - Thank you.
I think it is obvious that when Corinthos and a TL member meet, Corinthos drinks for free! If you don't gave a chance to buy him a beer, at least give hime thanks in this thread.
- Mani