Für die des Englischen mächtigen Leser haben wir heute ein echtes Schmankerl ausgepackt: ein Interview mit Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski. Der geborene Amerikaner lebt seit einiger Zeit im eSport-Mutterland Korea. Dort ist er für die International Esport Group tätig und wurde kürzlich von Meet Your Makers als Starcraft 2-Spieler unter Vertrag genommen. Artosis hat sich die Zeit genommen, mit uns über sein neues Team, sein Leben in Korea und natürlich Starcraft 2 zu sprechen.
readmore.de: First, please introduce yourself. Our audience mainly consists of people who grew up only knowing WC3 and CS as eSport titles, so you are probably only known to them since your MYM join.
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Hi, I’m Dan Stemkoski, better known as Artosis. I’ve played SC competitively for about 11 years now. I currently live in South Korea, and even if you are from WC3 or CS you probably have seen me in the videos that I make for the SC community, and sometimes WC3 or CS as well.
readmore.de: You have always mentioned that you will try to play SC2 professionally. How did you come to MYM?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Yes, I plan to play SC2 professionally. Being a SC1 player outside of Korea, I, along with other top SC1 „foreigners“ have been neglected professionally (laughs). MYM is a team I have long considered amongst the top in eSports. When I found out the great support and team I could play with, it was a no-brainer to join this organization. I am very, very happy with my choice, and am looking forward to working with MYM to promote the team, and also playing with DeMuSliM, RaVeN, and of course, GARIMTO!
readmore.de: Out of the four players, the biggest surprise (atleast to people who know SC1) was GARIMTO. Since koreans are usually pretty closed off from the rest of the playing world, many suspect you to have pulled some strings. How did it happen that GARIMTO signed to MYM?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: (laughs) Well I do know GARIMTO in real life, and I guess it might look like that, especially since I interviewed him about a month before the announcement and grilled him on questions about possibly joining a team to play professionally… (grins) But, no, I didn’t pull any strings really. MYM worked hard to contact him and he was quite interested. Like myself, GARIMTO may be a bit older than many other pros, but he still has the fire in his belly to compete. MYM is giving him this opportunity, and I think he will make the best of it.
readmore.de: Now that you are somewhat of a „pro“, will it be the end or your SCForAll.com career? Will we no longer see any coffeehouse interviews or teamhouse visits with Hwanni?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: (laughs) Of course I will continue to make content for SCForALL.com. I have no plans on ever stopping making content for the community throughout my career. I have a lot of passion for eSports, and I love to make videos for people to enjoy.
readmore.de: Awesome! Since you play on the asian server and therefore play with far better players than available on the US/EU servers, what do you think are the players on those servers doing „wrong“ in their game?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Well, the way that players are approaching a lot of things on the US/EU servers I see as wrong. Lots of people just have some set strategy to kill their opponent with on these servers. Sure, you can win a lot of ladder games with that, but it makes you gimmicky and takes away from your long-term skill. A lot of people are also playing very aggressive 1-base strategies. Even though this is successful now, in the long term it will be detrimental to these players. SC2 is an economy based game, and knowing how to manage that economy is the most important skill to work on in the beginning in my opinion. It is much harder to learn how to properly defend aggressive builds with economy builds than it is to learn how to kill economy builds with aggressive builds. Eventually the economical players will pull far ahead. In addition to these things, the Asian server just has a lot of people who understand RTS basics pretty well due to SC1 being so popular in Korea. Also, they play more (grins).
readmore.de: Are there any players on the US/EU servers that you like, based on their approach and play style?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Sure, there are great players on each server. I’m not sure of the exact current levels of each player, but a few I like are iNkA, qxc, nadagast, CauthonLuck, and DeMuSliM.
readmore.de: In SC1, in the last few years it all came down to macro. Our WC3 friends value micro much more. Have the essential skills needed shifted a bit more to appeal to the WC3 players? Was there a change in key skills for SC2?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: No, absolutely not. The micro in SC1 was just as, if not more, demanding than the micro in WC3. SC2 is an economy-based game. Yes, micro matters a lot and helps a lot. Macro is more important though. This isn’t to say all WC3 players can’t macro or aren’t good though. Many WC3 players are doing quite well!
readmore.de: Do you think the „korean way“ will be again the holy grail for skill improvement? Taking a single build, and just practicing it until you can do it while you sleep?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Eventually, things might turn out like that. But… it would take years and years of constant play and analyzing to get there, just like in SC1. It’s way too far off to even think about while we are still in the beta of a game with 2 expansion packs coming, especially when you consider that the bulk of SC1 pros in Korea are still playing SC1.
readmore.de: I see. You have been to a couple team houses and have spoken to their trainers and players. But all official statements of them aside, how do the koreans, especially the progamers, view the beta?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Most active players don’t play, even a little bit. They don’t have a real opinion on it because of this. Lots of inactive or retired pros though are playing it. Many like it quite a bit, and its rekindling the competitive spirit for many of them.
readmore.de: Will we see some of the retired/inactive players come back and even join foreigner teams like GARIMTO?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Its definitely a possibility. I know some players have thought about it a bit, but at the same time many of them are forming new proteams over here. Only time will tell how many Koreans will venture out into foreigner proteams.
readmore.de: Can you tell a bit more about that „forming new proteams“ part?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Well, right now an old SC1 pro, Aozora, is making a new proteam for SC2. It’s called NEX, and he has already picked up many of the top Korean names. In addition, some existing proteams will also pick up some players.
readmore.de: Can you give a few of the names or is it too early?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Some of the best Korean players already in NEX include Hannibal, KimDaeGi (not check, a gosu terran player), and Maka.
readmore.de: I am excited to see how they will progress. Blizzard has to approve any event/tournament held with SC2. Whats your opinion on that?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: I don’t really have any problem with it. So far, every tournament who asked for approval during the beta seems to have gotten it quite easily. I’ve had to request approval in the past from Blizzard for various tournaments I have run in Korea, and they always made it very simple.
readmore.de: I wasn’t aware that you run tournaments too. What kind of tournaments do you run?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Well, I work for International Esports Group, inc. (IEG) in South Korea, and from time to time we run events. For instance, ESWC Masters of Cheonan.
readmore.de: I see. I already knew you were a pretty good american player back in the day (laughs), but you made the first real impression on me when you were casting in the TeamLiquid Attacks and of course the TeamLiquid Star League. How did you progress from being a player to being a caster and finally being hired to work for IEG?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Well, I started commentating to give the community something exciting during a downtime after WCG (Ascension), as well as to make my team Micro Media more popular. People loved Ascension, and thus I was asked to commentate the first TSL. People loved that too. IEG was looking for someone to help out with SCForALL.com, and my name came up. Within a week of talking to them, I had a plane ticket to Korea for a trial period working with IEG.
readmore.de: And how exactly does the average day of you look like nowadays?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: Well, I get up pretty early, about 7:30 am, shower, eat, etc. Travel to work (about 45 minutes), browse the news that happened since last I checked, edit videos, make news, etc. Then I normally go for lunch and then go out to create some sort of content. Once that is all done I normally practice until about 8pm and then eat and relax.
readmore.de: One last question. In your videos the camera perspective is pretty high above the ground. How tall are you?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: (laughs) I am 6’1″ or maybe 6’1.5″. Sorry I’m American, you will have to figure out the cm yourself (grins).
readmore.de: Anyone you would like to thank or greet at the end of our little interview?
Dan ‚Artosis‘ Stemkoski: A big thanks to all fans out there, not just my fans, but fans of the game. You guys are what makes eSports run. Also, thanks to MYM and our sponsors, Razer, Puma, and Chieftec.
Check out SCForALL.com, tons of awesome video content on SC1 + SC2 ! Also, follow me on twitter, twitter.com/artosis
Thanks for the interview !