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| Daaman about TLT, WCG and more
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Daaman was the one half of the Swedish players in Team Liquid Tour, and at the same time as the playoffs he was at a Swedish LAN winning a prize sum of ~960 € so he tells GG.net he was very tired when playing it. This, the TLT playoffs, Team SWE, WCG and much more in another interview with the living legend Tomas "Daaman" Bengtsson!
Congratulations for winning the official RixHack StarCraft tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden! You did not lose any single game. Were the players that much worse than you, or did you play unusually well?
- Thank you kindly! At a LAN, it's hard to play to your ability. The longer the tournament run, the worse the games become, from my side and from pretty much anybody else's. I had some even games that I managed to win which I'm happy for, always cool to go through a tournament without losing ;)
As I understand there were some trouble regarding the prize money. It was announced that the winner were to get 9 000 SEK, but you are only going to receive half of it?
- It's not such a big deal. Taxes of all sorts are (un)popular in Sweden. All the fuzz was about the fact that the prizemoney have to be taxed twice, first by the company sponsoring the event, then by the player. Players feel fooled out of their money because even before they even see their money one third will be gone. Rix Telecom, the sponsor, paid out 9000 SEK (in my case), of which 6000 SEK went to the prize and 3000 SEK went to the swedish government!
Do you remember any other tournament like this were you went undefeated, or was this the first time?
- I remember a neat 2on2 tournament in Copenhagen were RapidLoad and I went undefeated the whole tournament, including groupstage and 5 rounds of playoffs I believe. There were some good teams in that tournament so it was really nice.
World Cyber Games Challenge
World Cyber Games 2000 - more known as World Cyber Games Challenge - was a preperation event for the real deal - World Cyber Games. It was held in Seoul, Korea. The number of participants were a bit lower, and the media coverage was not at all the same it was now. GoRush was crowned the winner, and Daaman reached 5th place. This is the best 1on1 result for any Swede to be placed in any World Cyber Games event. The only better Swedish result is in the World Cyber Games 2001 2on2 tournament, where JessE and MaDFroG reached 3rd place. However, there are some rumours regarding the Swedish qualifications for World Cyber Games Challenge, which we decided to ask Daaman about, now five years later.
“ WCGC 2000 [...] was just a great experience in general, for me as a kid, going to korea for the first time. Also, I haven't forgotten the fact that I placed one spot out of the big money spots...” |
You have been to a lot of offline tournaments, which one do you remember the most and which one did you favour the most?
- Of course WCGC 2000 comes to mind first. It was just a great experience in general, for me as a kid, going to korea for the first time. Also, I haven't forgotten the fact that I placed one spot out of the big money spots (I was 5th, 4th place finisher got $4000). I'm also glad for meeting Nazgul and other players in Prague in 2003. Nazgul's a great friend.
There are rumours regarding World Cyber Games 2000 in Sweden about you going there without a qualficiation at all and just went there anyway because you knew the organizer. Is that true?
- Not at all... Xsgamers founder Sujoy Roy (from great britain) was hired to look into the swedish bw-scene (as it had a good reputation and wasn't going to be left out), and choose 2 gamers to represent the nation in WCGC, this because there was noone to run a qualifier. There had just been a poll at the leading swedish starcraft site ("Starcraft inside" at the time), where 15 profiles had named their top5 players in Sweden. luckily for me, I was first in about 9 of them and top3 in all but 1 so Sujoy thought it was an easy choice. What people were more upset was Multifaith going as the 2nd man. He was the best earlier, but had quit playing and there were others up and running who at the time were better players.
“ TreK deserved the spot and I have no call to be angry at him. I'm just a person who like it when things are run smoothly and professionally and unfortunately I don't think this event was” |
You took part in the Nordic World Cyber Games last year, where you got beaten by TreK in the finals. Are you still upset because of that, as I recall there were some arguments about how it was run?
- I have to say I am. The tournament was running very slow due to some factors that should've been forseen. I spent some weeks preparing for the event and I think the games in the finals weren't fair. Obviously Trek might've been just as tired as I was but it still became something of a lottery rather than a real showdown of skill... I think the problems that arised could've easily been avoided, that's what's bugging me so much.
Do you mean that the ticket to World Cyber Games should have been yours intead of TreK?
- No, TreK deserved the spot and I have no call to be angry at him. I'm just a person who like it when things are run smoothly and professionally and unfortunately I don't think this event was, something that sadly can be said about alot of tournaments, but this one was more important. I need to point out that I'm still, at the same time, thankful that people take their time to arrange events because there are other times that it's just alot of fun to meet other players and to have good events I guess we need some less good ones too...
 At the RixHack LAN, only 22 players took part in the StarCraft tournament. Is the Swedish offline StarCraft scene going down the drain or was it just a slump?
- I guess everything has to come to an end eventually, however most of the people who turned up I believe might play this game for some time still. I hope there will be a few more events in Sweden before it stops completely. Otherwise we're gonna have to run to korea!
You live very close to Gothenburg, was that why you decided to show, or were there any other factors?
- I suppose it made my choice alot easier. I probably wouldn't have travelled to Stockholm for this event, hehe. I've not been to alot of LANs at all. This one was a success though!
How was the event as a whole? Did you have many friends there that you enjoyed meeting? Any player that impressed and/or disappointed you?
- After alot of oldschool players quit I didn't really know alot of new players but I'm starting to get to know them youngsters now and they're cool people =P Naming them all might not be so useful, or would it? There were alot of them indeed. Mireille whom I met in both the winnerbracket finals and the "grand final" played well, I had never seen him play before.
He became runner-up during the DreamHack finals as well, where he lost against JessE. You are said to not find the Swedish community that nice anymore. Are there any special reasons, and have you changed your mind now that you get to know the youngsters a bit more?
- Hm, I guess that hasn't come out right. It's more about me getting older... Yep, it's an aging thing. Plus I played for so long, the new guys are going through a stage that I might already have passed but erh, I dun really know what I'm saying, it's no obstacle. None of these things really matter, my opinion right now is that there are some cool folks in the community so it can't suck.
 Are there any upcoming and rising players you see that could represent the Swedish flag just as good as the Swedes did before?
- Not really, but it doesn't matter so much. I'm glad to see people play a healthy amount of games and just have some fun. It was cool when Sweden was a strong nation but it's not worth too much of an effort to reach that goal again...
Which nation do you see as the top today?
- Germany, Poland I guess. I haven't bothered to inform myself so much recently :)
Before TLTour, you have been pretty anonymous in the scene for a while. Is there any reason in particular, or were you just smurfing around and playing as usual?
- Since last summer I didn't play until christmas break. I lost motivation after Nordic WCG and I joined Chalmers (University) which has been alot of fun and taken up alot of time. I started playing a little in the beginning of the year and the last weeks I've been playing alot, too much as far as my studies (and working out) are concerned.
Do you intend to keep on playing like you do know, or was it just because of Team Liquid Tour?
It was partially because of TLT, but it's also fun to play. I should really focus on school now the last couple of weeks before summer. Hopefully it can be my top priority, but then I'll probably end up with too much spare time and play again. There'll probably (always!) be a new TLT awaiting =P
Don't you look forward to World Cyber Games, if it turns out that it will be one for Sweden? Will you take part in that?
- I'm not so hopeful frankly speaking. I like to compete internationally and to do so I have to do good in the swedish qualifier, something that has been hard for me the last years. When I play swedes I feel alot of pressure on myself. I just play better vs others.
I have heard that you have a couple of opinions about the Swedish National Team and how it's run, would you mind elaborate on that? Is that why are out of the team now?
- That's just about me and Mazor not always getting along, hehe. I was never so interested after the team was rebuilt so many times and he tried to get me to play anyway and that just doesn't work out well. When I played in the nationwars I was relieved when I won, that's it, not much to play for.
Do you think the scene need more National Team Cups and so on, similar to ClanBase?
- No I don't think there's enough interest. Team leagues always do better, too bad so many of the good players gather up in ToT tho, for that sake. I understand why they'd do it tho and if it wasn't cause someone wanted to run a league it would be nothing wrong with it really :)
You are a member of Team Liquid, and you have been so for a long while. Why did you decide to leave pro-Gaming? What are your views on that clan today?
- I wasn't so active and I felt pG wasn't so active so it was just right to leave. pG still have some great players indeed, like Fisheye for instance. (Team Liquid powwah!!)
“ Fisheye is good enough to beat anybody [...] but Assem will probably win this TLT” |
Do you think FiSheYe[pG] has a chance in winning the TLTour playoffs? Who do you think will win it all?
- Fisheye is good enough to beat anybody, but he's in the loser brackets right now and there are alot of tough players so it won't be easy. Assem will probably win this TLT. Staying in korea playing koreans daily makes you so much better. Huge advantage practicing with koreans like he does, but how you become good isn't really that important. If he's the best, he's the best.
What do you think of your own accomplishments in the TLT playoffs?
- I played completely crappy. But that's to be expected 3rd day at a LAN. I would've played so much better had I been home instead. It doesn't bother me much tho since the LAN was fun.
Will you come to DreamHack this summer?
- Probably not. I'm really not much of a LAN person. It would sure be fun to meet the new guys again but if it was possible I'd prefer to see them elsewhere, some smaller get-together, too! would be great fun.
Now finally, something about our two new features at GosuGamers. What do you think of our new player database?
- It's a cool idea! Where the huk is Gorush tho (idol idol)? =(
More players are added every day, so don't worry. And last but not least, the GosuBet, which kind of works as a LiquiBet but only for the non-korean scene. Opinions? Have you tried it out?
- I haven't. Liquibet is popular so I guess it's a good idea to try it out.
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