After kicking-off the new ‚Gone but not Forgotten‘ series with the world famous Swedish Human player Alborz ‚HeMaN‘ Haiadrian, the series now returns with another Swedish star. Björn ‚ElakeDuck‘ Ödmann took the time to talk about his poker career, his duties as a becoming father and a possible comeback in Starcraft 2.
readmore.de: We haven’t heard a lot of you since you waved good-bye to eSports. Could you give us a short overview of what you have been doing since then?
Björn ‚ElakeDuck‘ Ödmann: Small disclaimer first, unlike HeMaN, I will not be posting any barechested pictures of myself. People reading the interview only for this purpose will be dissapointed.
That said, living life I guess. Moved out of and back to my hometown, traveled some, studied some. Right now, I play poker and study. Living in an apartment with my girlfriend, we are expecting our first child any day now.
readmore.de: So a lot of stuff is going on in your life nowadays. We will discuss one thing after another: What are you studying at the moment? And do you enjoy it?
ElakeDuck: Programming. I hate it.
readmore.de: So is it more a thing you do to have something „real“ in the backhand while you focus on playing poker?
ElakeDuck: It is nice to do something „normal“ as well, to be fair it was fairly interesting in the beginning, but it’s not something I want to work with in the future.
readmore.de: Is playing poker something you rather wanna do in the future? You recently played the EPT stop in Copenhagen – how well is poker actually going for you?
ElakeDuck: Right now, it’s not something I want to be doing fulltime when im 40. That said, I will always be playing poker to some extent, for fun, for money and to kill the actionjunkie in me. It’s going well, but I guess I’m going to be boring and not mention any numbers, sorry.
readmore.de: But it is enough to currently make a living out of it?ElakeDuck: I could probably train a monkey to make a living out of poker, so yes. Even though the games are getting progressively harder, the numbers are so sick anyone very dedicated with at least normal intelligence should be able to make a great living out of it for the rest of their lives.
readmore.de: Coming to the most important thing: you will be a father any day now! Congratulations! First of all, will it be a boy or a girl? And second, do you feel ready for the responsibility a child brings with it?
ElakeDuck: Thanks! We decided to not find out the gender, but we both have a strong feeling it will be a boy. I definitely do. Although the thought of being a father is, of course, strange and sometimes a bit frightening.
readmore.de: I’m sure you will do fine. Coming to eSports: Do you still follow it? When was the last time you checked an eSports related website?
ElakeDuck: I havent been for long no. I did watch some replays about a year ago, after watching for about 2 hours and finding myself wanting to click that Battle.Net icon, I decided it was the best to uninstall Warcraft 3.
readmore.de: Why didn’t you press the icon then?ElakeDuck: Same reason as why recovering alcoholics never even take a glass of wine.
readmore.de: Fair enough. Looking back at your career, what were the highlights for you?
ElakeDuck: All the travelling, seeing different cultures and meeting different people. The trips to korea to play WEG if I had to say a specific event.
readmore.de: You were one of the most successful players when you still were active. Do you have any idea how much money you made by playing Warcraft 3? Salary included.
ElakeDuck: Hard to say. It would add up to a very small hourly wage anyway.
readmore.de: Do you feel like you today benefit from the experiences you made living as a progamer?
ElakeDuck: Indirectly. I guess you can argue that being a progamer brought me to the point in my life were I am now, and so the benefit from my experiences as a progamer would be living my life the way I am now, which i am very happy with. But to answer your question directly: no.
readmore.de: With Starcraft 2 coming closer and closer, will you give it a shot? Or is there no chance at all that we will see you back in eSports, as a becoming dad?
ElakeDuck: I will try it for sure, but no, I wont play eSports competitive again.
readmore.de: Thank you for the interview.

