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| Interview with [pG]Kentaro
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[pG]Kentaro may not be the most well known member of pro-Gaming, but he certainly is a very important one. Being an organisator at pG and the leader of the Starcraft squad he sat down with us, talking about his background and personal life, as well as his job at pG, TLT2 and the foreign Starcraft scene.
Hey, Kentaro! Let us start with probably the most overused interview question, in order to slowly introduce you: age, sex, location?
Ken Nagayama, 20 years old, male, living in Hamburg/Germany.
Ken Nagayama is Japanese, but you live in hamburg, what is the background on this?
Well, after having been born in Tokyo my parents moved to Germany, since my father was to work here. After four years of living in Germany we moved to Milan/Italy because of my father's business and after those four years we moved back to Hamburg. Now it has been round about 12-13 years that I am living here.
So you never really lived in Japan? I guess you grew up speaking German and Japanese perfectly though? You must be good at languages and intercultural stuff in general.
Nope. I have lived in Japan for nine months, but I grew up speaking German/English (matter of school) and Italian, even though I cannot remember everything I have learned in Italian. But I never really spoke Japanese.
What a pity :(
Yes! You always get to know some basics, even when you never speak a language. Thanks to those basics I have learned Japanese now in the past two years.
Any reasons why your parents did not talk to you in Japanese? I mean, my mother is French and my father German, so I was raised speaking both of the languages from the beginning. Kind of similar to your situation basically.
Often it is easier raising a child monolingual, even though I could have learned both simultaneously. I learned German in the first place, but now I can speak Japanese as well.
 I was confronted with German, English and Italian already. All at the age of five, which makes it really hard also learning the Japanese language. |
I think this really depends on the child. Personally I think it served me well, it would probably have been the same for you.
Sure. It would have been nice, but I was confronted with German, English and Italian already. All at the age of five, which makes it really hard also learning the Japanese language.
Yeah, it would probably have been too much with four languages so early.
Maybe ;P But some day you may find it really desastrous. For now round about two years I often meet people from a Japanese community and after that I started learning the language. It is really, really hard and nice to be confronted with ones roots.
By meeting you mean offline I guess? Gaming related meetings in any way, or something totally different?
Yeah, it is offline. In gaming I hardly find any Japanese people.
Kentaro doing some karaoke.
As I thought :) Besides the obvious affinity to languages, what would you say is a special talent of yours?
Well, languages are somehow a very central theme of my life, but apart from languages I think diplomacy is one of my characteristics. Maybe also hard work. Japanese mentality :)
Definitely! Diplomacy does not astound me at all, considering you are the Starcraft teamleader and organisator at ProGaming, but let us get to this a bit later. How and when did you first come in contact with gaming in general and Starcraft in particular?
I think it started off with Command&Conquer making me really an addict of pc-games in general, then C&C2 followed. I had never heard of Starcraft when it was published. A friend of mine I went to school with bought the game and we spent night over night playing Starcraft v1.0 on battle.net, until the phone bill was about to get two meters long :)
And since then SC never let you go I guess.
Exactly. Well, every now and then I needed a break though...
What did and now maybe still do your parents think of this? Spending a lot of time playing games and being online. Seeing as they are Japanese I am not sure what approach they might have on this.
Oh sorry, only my father is Japanese! My mother is German. She is more liberal than my father, but still... on both sides, mother's and father's, they were not really happy about it, since at a certain point marks in school get worse and you start making up your mind how the future should be. Until 11th grade everything is fine, school sucks and nothing is really important. From 12th grade on I have slightly changed my mind. School does not suck that much and it is important enough to learn for a little bit. I do not know whether you remember the time when the Deutsche Telekom [main German telecommunications provider] canceled all ISDN flatrates, offering DSL instead, which was not available everywhere at that time.
No, I do not. I was at a boarding school which had its own dedicated line via the university there, so I did not have to rely on any ISP.
Well, I think it was not all bad that they canceled it, since I had more time for 'offline-life' and school. And now I am happy about that.
In retrospect you are always "smarter" :) Okay, you said there is a point at which you start making up your mind how the future should be. Direct question: how did you see your future back then? How do you see it now (if there is any difference)?
Future changes in every moment you live. At that time I thought I would become a lawyer, or something similar having studied law.
And now?
Now..., after having finished my volunteer [alternative to the mandatory military service in Germany] at a hospital I was quite certain of wanting to become a doctor. But whatever..., Germany is really the worst place for studying. You cannot get sponsorships or scholarships. Even though it is almost for free here the quality is really...
I know... :( But you did start studying something here? Or were you thinking of going elsewhere?
Studying 'dual' seems to be quite fine and that is what I am heading for now.
Elaborate dual to our fellow readers, please!
It is study and work combined. You go to university for 20 weeks and work in an company for 32 weeks in a year. The company pays the education and get a fully educated student in the end.
Sounds interesting on the one hand, but also like a lot of work on the other hand :) Probably just fits your Japanese/Asian approach to work and success.
I hope it does. For my part - I need the pressure, otherwise I start becoming sloppy.
I know the feeling, I do not do much at all otherwise^^, but for now you have not started it?
Nope, it starts in october. Although I finished school three years ago, I have not been wasting my time. I am working in a Japanese restaurant (that is why I learned japanese) and have been earning money. This year I have been to Japan for two weeks. Great feeling to be back again.
Kentaro in a restaurant in Japan. Doesn't it look delicious?
I have never left europe so far :( I envy you. best luck on your upcoming studies/work then ;) Until October you still have some time for Starcraft besides working at a restaurant I guess. Are you still playing actively? How did you get involved with pG in the first place?
No, I do not play actively anymore. I somehow retired, although I still play some matches for fun smurfing :P But either you try to improve the team or you try to improve yourself. There is not enough time for both of it :)
So you try to improve the team ;) what exactly does the teamleader/organisator position consist of, what do you do for the team?
The reason why I got involved was a friend of mine who recommended me. Kambiz, who was the leader at that time, called me on the phone, took a look at the work I did and that was all.
So you already had some sort of reputation?!
Kambiz seemed to be quite convinced, yes. After having been introduced to Kambiz things went very fast. I started posting news on pro-gaming.de and was very soon appointed to have an eye on all squads and teams. Somehow the position of an esports-manager (how you call it today)...
Unfortunately Warcraft 3 was released, Bengali switched to Warcraft 3 and I became head of the Starcraft team. And here I still am =)
I look out for potential members, try to establish new ideas etc, but I think the most important part is to keep the team together. |
So what exactly do you do? Look out for potential members? Remind your players of important things?
I look out for potential members, keep the team together, try to establish new ideas etc. I have to be flexible. When signup deadlines are getting closer I usually start calling people and try to get money from pG, but I think the most important part is to keep the team together.
So pG paid for TLT for example?
Yes and no.
Meaning? Not for all of the players?
There is a budget and when that money is spent you have to find other solutions. In this case I paid the players on my own and will get the money back from pG later.
It really is a pity Starcraft gets so little attention outside of Korea, relatively spoken. :( TLT though is getting a whole lot of attention in the foreign scene. What do you personally think of it? Is it just the price money attracting the players? The competition?
Yes, it is very sad that Starcraft does not get more attention. TLT is pretty cool. I think Nazgul did a good job and all the other teamliquid members and organisators. Maybe TLT starts off like this and gets bigger. Of course the price money also plays an important role. Players like Fisheye and others want to be motivated. Imagine you have played almost every tourney, you have been so successful that only five other non-korean players can say the same of themselves. Then you need motivation.
I think many people do not see all the work behind it, Naz simply opened a thread on teamliquid, in which all the details were explained and it just started off, but it is not as easy as it may seem to get all these things organized. Speaking of Nazgul... he, Froz and Daaman (am I forgetting anyone?) left pG some time ago. How much of a loss was it for the team?
Naz and Daaman were more or less inactive, but nevertheless still members in Liquid. Some day the spirit and the motivation might leave a player and it happens very quickly.
And being the teamleader you try to prevent this? ;)
If I can :) Froz left for the same reasons, but I am not mad at any of them. I have known Naz for almost three years and it was a pleasure for me to work with him and also win together with him.
He is quite impressive, not only Starcraft-wise.
Yeah, he has done a lot for the European Starcraft scene and you still see his work growing and carrying fruits.
| The problem is always to control a crowd or horde of players. You can never achieve total harmony, but I am very close to it. |
Players join and players leave. Any (maybe not yet so well known) players you have an eye on, who might join pG in the near future? I am not asking for names here ;)
There are definitely players around who are skilled and I would like to see playing for pG. The problem is always to control a crowd or horde of players. You can never achieve total harmony, but I am very close to it ^_^
Yeah, the bigger a team becomes, the higher the probability of it to become a bit too unpersonal, which might cause people to leave. I will be looking out for your picks ^^
Not only that. Also there are always rivalries within the team. I would choose me!
How about me? ^^
Nah, just kidding! I could not handle a guy like me. I seem to be kind of difficult in real life.
pG and ToT are practically out of reach for any other clan, how much rivalry is there between the two? How much rivalry is in it for you personally?
It is sad Mondragon is not playing TLT, due to moving out of his house.
Yeah, I heard so. He does not have internet at the moment, because of this.
For me it is more or less ridiculous regarding pG and ToT as the two big rivals of the present. Both teams consist of the best players Europe and America can show up with and still players of both team appear to be friends.
I saw Fisheye playing almost Zerg only in TLT? Is he just "fooling" around? Do you think he will make a switch back to protoss when it really counts in the final round?
That is it. When it starts getting serious he will be playing protoss. But we should not forget that he is capable of playing all three races.
He certainly is. There is a really nice replay around from TLT, where he plays Zerg vs Protoss against Clawson/Arcneon. I do not know if you have seen it. It is really, really Fisheyeish. If pG & ToT had a clanwar, who would win?^^
Hard to say. Let us assume both teams are playing with their best players I think we would win.
Would be nice to see this, but it is not easy to get, especially not with the best lineup on both sides I guess.
Yep. We also should not forget about teams like iD. or SoL, they have got really good players too and could win against ToT or pG as well :)
True! Often it just comes down to how good of a day the players have.
Exactly. I am a big fan of SoL.Shaman's Terran vs Zerg. I love it :)
I think he won 2:0 versus ToT)Twisted( at the Samsung Euro Championships?
I just remember the Terran vs Zerg games against Mondragon. Really great matches.
| I think Starcraft will get much more attention. TLT and other tourneys will be held more often and more players will sign in for them. PGT will keep growing as well. |
If you had to briefly sketch the evolution of the foreign Starcraft scene during the next -say 3- years, especially pG of course, what would come to your mind? I know it is extremely hard to predict, but maybe what you wish or hope for?
I think Starcraft will get much more attention. TLT and other tourneys will be held more often and more players will sign in for them. PGT will keep growing as well.
Do you see Starcraft growing through stuff like Giga in Germany? What about other non-korean scenes?
Sure, television makes it possible. Do not forget it is NBC behind Giga and not something like Arte or Hamburg1 [Arte is a relatively small German-French TV channel for culture and stuff, Hamburg1 is just a small regional TV channel for Hamburg].
In China Starcraft is probably booming almost as much as it once boomed in Korea...
That is right. China is one of the fastest growing countries and economies at the moment. Somehow a natural consequence of the internet that seems to grow into the households like the roots of a tree.
It sometimes really seems surreal how a game as old as Starcraft can still be the best and most entertaining game, with only one more game being nearly as old and popular: Counterstrike.
Yeah, you are right, but the evolution of CS is a lot different than Starcraft's. CS was updated even more. In Starcraft it seems as if Blizzard does not really care about it anymore.
Altough they held the Mystery Map Invitational, which was quite a surprise if you ask me.
Yep, but I still do not know for what purpose they really did it.
Neither do I. What is the best moment you have had with Starcraft? Any anecdote on it? Can be pG related, but does not have to :)
I think the best moment was in 2003, when I was at the offline finals of WCG Germany. Watching Socke versus Fisheye, three really cool games. Or Nash against Infinity. Nash 1-0 ahead, wins the next match 2-0 and Infinity wins 2-3 in the end. Socke killing his robo trying to kill two dark templars in his base. Really, really funny things. But I think the best idea ever was by Kambiz.
Founding pG?^^
Yeah, maybe ^^. But I was referring to something else: in 2003 [pG]Bastard and I both wanted to fly over to Korea for the World Cyber Games, but there was only one spot. Kambiz told us to play rock, paper, scissors via email. We sent him an email with ten choices. I won beating Bastard 6-3.
Nice! Lucky you ;)
Unfortunately I could not fly, because I did not get that week off. I had to go to my volunteer job anyway and Bastard had his birthday party in Korea.
Maybe you will make it to WCG 2005 in Singapore somehow!
Yes, maybe..., but I think I will not, because I want to start studying :)
Right! Just came to my mind as well that you intend on starting your studies in October. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with it and thanks for taking your time with me! Any shoutouts? ;)
Thanks very much. All the best to gosugamers.net! Thanks to Kambiz Hashemian [Kambiz, obviously], Fredrik Keitel [Fisheye], Victor Goossens [Nazgul] and Petra Weber [Ilvy], who always supported me. It was a pleasure for me!
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