The 17-year old Jonathan 'Hunter' Newsham from Citrus Heights, California is the star of the Amercian WarCraft III-squad of verGe Gaming. After being nominated for last year's MVP by WC3L he has gotten his team nine out of overall 17 points and thereby is the top performer of verGe.

>> German version



readmore.de: With 17 points, verGe is positioned ninth at the moment. Are you satisfied with the results of your team so far?

Jonathan 'Hunter' Newsham: Well, as far as my performance goes, I am pretty satisfied, although there are some games/series' I should have won, and I would rather have a more solid 2v2 partner, in terms of practice, to play with (smiles). With our points so far, I am rather pleased. To be honest, I was not expecting verGe to go and take top6 this season with teams like 4K, mYm, SK, etc., and most of verGe's members are still up and coming players. With more league experience I think we will do better in the future.


readmore.de: You managed to pull off some surprising victorys against mousesports and especially play.it. Were you surprised to be able to beat the – until then – most surprising team of the season? How did the team react to this victory?

Hunter: Well, of course we were happy with a win, as I think we always should be. We really went into that clanwar just hoping to take as many points as possible, especially after play upset on 4K (minus Grubby). But I think, that win really woke us up, that anything can happen. Really, we just need to keep practicing and work on our weak spots.


readmore.de: Since your final three matches against NiP, fnatic and SK will not be that easy to win, what do you think will be your final position at the end of the season?

Hunter: Well, we were hoping to make a steal at the sixth place, but in our current position that's not looking like it is going to happen. I think we are just trying to scrape together as many points as we can, to get a respectable placing and make playdowns. But you never know what could happen.


readmore.de: Would you, in your opinion, overcome that playdown-game?

Hunter: Yes, I'm confident that we can beat any team, that we would match in the playdowns.


readmore.de: Lets talk about yourself. After being nominated for MVP last year and nine out of 17 points in this season, it should not be an exaggeration to call you the top performer of verGe. Do you see yourself as the star of the team?

Hunter: Well, to be honest, and not to be cocky, but yes, I do see myself as the top performer of verGe, not to take away anything from anyone else on the squad. In my opinion all of verGe's members really need more league experience, and this season is helping with that. Also playing AHL/WPL on the side will help them improve. I'm just here to lead the way (smile). I see verGe as a team, that has potential to be great in the future, and I am very content with our performances so far (especially Phreak/Rainman).


readmore.de: Did you ever consider changing the team? Would you do that, if verGe drops out of WC3L?

Hunter: To be honest, I have thought about changing teams, although it would be hard seeing as I've gotten to know the verGe guys really well, and a good real-life friend of mine is on the team. If I was offered a great deal with a prestigious team, I would take a lot of consideration towards it. Also the only thing keeping me in WC3 is playing in the WC3L and if verGe drops out of WC3L, I wouldn't have any motivation to play at all, and I would definitely search for a WC3L team.


readmore.de: Did you recieve any offers yet?

Hunter: Yes, I have been offered deals with other teams, but nothing as of yet, that would make me willing to leave verGe.


readmore.de: You are famous for being able to handle not only one race, but almost all of them. How come?

Hunter: When I played RoC and early TFT, I always race-changed constantly. I hate how each race has certain bad matchups and so I did the only thing I could to avoid that, and I practiced all races. So what race I play depends entirely on my opponent's race and the map.


readmore.de: Nontheless you rather seldomly play Elf. Are you not familiar enough with this race or do you just not "need" them?

Hunter: I'm honestly not 100% confident with my elf, although I can play it against human and orc pretty well. I just don't think that my elf is WC3L-ready to be honest. I'm very confident in my human/orc and my undead is rather decent – because of hero nuke imbalance – but my elf is still questionable.


readmore.de: As a member of one of the two American teams in WC3L "lag" should be a well known problem to you. What is your opinion in the connection problems in WC3L with American, Asian and European players?

Hunter: Well, WC3L is pretty fair on hosting and being able to use GG-Client this season has been a lot of help in certain matches for me, like while playing against a korean/chinese players, alternating US-West/korean hosts is simple and lag free for me. Playing against europeans is not so bad either nowadays with the great hosts that are around. Like my matches this week against ToD: Host was from europe, but I had 1 second lag at most – very playable in my opinion.


readmore.de: So do you think GG-Client is actually necessary? And whats your view on this program?

Hunter: GG-Client is a nice program to have (WHEN IT WORKS), but it is way too unstable in my opinion. Perhaps after they get it working 100% of the time, and fix bugs like the game crashing when an observer disconnects, it will be much better. For example my third game against ReMinD (Details): I had an early game tower rush started, that was going very well, until an observer disconncted, forcing a regame and completely changing the course of the game.


readmore.de: Would you think that those crashes are created on purpose by certain observers or do you trust all your opponents, not to cheat in any way?

Hunter: Although I'm sure it is quite possible for vent hacking/ intentional game crashing to be happening, I trust all the WC3L-players.


readmore.de: Finally let's talk about the incident in the match between mTw and verGe: The german community was pretty furious after the Match against mTw, when that incident between Virus and Protois happened. Since we heard mTws side of the story, what happend in your opinion?

Hunter: Okay, here's my take on the situation, seeing as the lag started right as the final fight started. We can pretty much scratch out anything that happened in that fight. How I saw this: Virus had four spirit towers and a decent fiend-army. He easily could have held his base and rebuilt/made a comeback, since he in fact had 1400 gold at the time of the disconnect. Also, Protois fought in Virus's base, with, as I said, four spirit towers, the 'death star' (black citardell) and one nerubian tower in range. Ghouls/Gargolyes versus Fiends with web and spirit towers is not a very pretty fight for those ghoul/garg army. Although Protois had indeed the larger army, you have to realize that he did have many units queued, contributing to his food count, as well as workers, etc. Also, he was almost empty on gold, whereas Virus had a stockpile and easily could have rebuilt, for example an army of Fiends and Destroyers. So he could have webbed the Gargoyles while the Destroyers killed Protois' Ghouls. The game, in my humble opinion, was definitely not decided and the admins felt the same way, calling a regame. I know that Virus is very against taking default-wins, and wanted a regame the whole time, and in my opinion it was stupid of Protois to switch to humans versus undead for that regame – Why switch to human against undead, when that is human's worst matchup without a doubt. And that is my take of the subject, after watching the replay a good 5 or 6 times.


readmore.de: But being a player yourself, can't you understand mTw's anger and their point of view?

Hunter: I understand mTw's anger, but let's be reasonable. The game was not decided to where it was 100% FOR SURE over, which is what is needed for a forfeit win. And all of the German fans saying "bad manner of verGe to not give Protois the win" is just absurd. If Virus tells me, that he believes he had a chance in the game, I will back him up, because I have seen him come back from some ridiculous disadvantages.


readmore.de: How did this incident influence your relationship to mTw?

Hunter: To be honest I don't even talk to most teams, unless I'm currently playing them in a match, etc. or see them online during match times. Personally I lost a little respect for Tak3r, after how he acted over the incident, but I completely understand where he's coming from, with his frustration.

readmore.de: Thank you for the interview

Hunter: I also thank you, and want to give some shoutouts to JP, Amanda, Robby, Chris, Kyle and Troy, as well as all of verGe