Interview with MorroW - talking TSL, kolll & Beyond

MorroW is a player that has impressed us all a lot lately, and this last weekend he fought a mighty opponent indeed in the young Zerg-wonder kolll. If you haven't checked out those games already, go ahead and do so through the link at the bottom – they are more than worth your time and it will make the interview below a lot more interesting.

This is what Stefan 'MorroW' Andersson has to say about his latest struggles, enjoy:



PR: Hello and welcome yet again, MorroW. Since the last time we talked you have claimed even more TSL-fame and proven that you are a force to be reckoned with among the new generation of Starcraft players.
Last weekend, you faced the German Zerg wünderkid kolll in the 3rd round of the TSL. The games were all very impressive and far from ordinary – what were your thoughts when the timer was counting down for that first match on Fighting Spirit?

MorroW: Hi PolygonreVue.
I was very confident, warmed up and calm - sure to win a 3-0 or drop a game on outsider in a 3-1.
Before this series i had played many games with ex-v1o)delphi and nrt.vincent and a few games with ips.mardow, also other ppl but these are the ones that popped up in my head first ^^
Getting a 1-3 have disappointed many people cheering for me but for most of all myself. I was really thrilled to show everyone who has been calling me a dodger through the entire ladder by actually getting far into the TSL.
Personally I don't think I proved anything in this tournament, just that I'm a mediocre Terran who got a really fake #2 in the ladder. I hope I can change this view soon in upcoming events.

PR: kolll, who defeated Idra in last year's World Cyber Games in China and only met a superior force in Bisu when they battled for third place, was praised by both Tasteless and Artosis during the live cast for his impeccable Mutalisk micro. Yet, in the first game you beat him in that field with superior Marine&Medic and a well executed build order. Was that something that you had practiced for specifically, knowing kolll's style, or are you simply a really gosu M&M'er?

MorroW: both me and kolll know each other very well, including our play styles. I was pretty sure he was going to 2Hatch Muta almost every single game but of course I prepared for 3Hatch too. The build i made was basically how Flash has been playing lately and I've practiced it very much.
I checked some people's comments saying how "kolll had bad Muta micro" but the truth is that the Muta micro of the Zerg user lies in the hands of the Terran: if you go to your base to macro for even 2 seconds you will have lost enough M&M to make your push impossible causing an uphill game, Zerg obviously having the same time pressure as Terran in this situation.


PR: In the second game on Outsider SE, Tasteless and Artosis rightly foretold that you very well might launch an unorthodox rush or early push, and indeed you did – hiding your second barracks and then doing a semi-late bunker rush at kolll's natural expansion. Again – was that something you had rehearsed for this very purpose, and why did it not go exactly the way you planned?

MorroW: Well, I wanna start with when Light did this against Jaedong and made the build look very good. Outsider is a map concidered to be favored towards Zerg in ZvT, which pretty much motivated me to prepare a rush build. I didn't choose a simple 8Rax because kolll always scouts really quickly.
I went for a 10Rax or 11Rax. the build basically works in the fashion that Zerg sees that you're going to fast expad so he makes only 4 Lings or even as few as 2, after that you start you bunker and yout SCVs and Marines should strike before the Sunken. My problem in that game was the lack of execution, I sent my units too late and I didn't micro them properly.
I gotta hand it to kolll for responding perfectly. This build worked almost every single game in practice. The real actual problem in this build was that I sent out my initial SCV scout about 3 seconds late - it's ridiculous how important each second is at this level of gaming.


PR: In the third and perhaps most explosive match on Destination, you performed a very technical Bio-Mech strategy, which the two commentators identified as a build popularised by Flash. Such a build order can be very lethal if deployed in the right way at the right time, but it's also very fragile if scouted early. Did you choose that risky strategy to surprise kolll, rather than doing a more standard Destination-friendly Mech build?

MorroW: Actually before this event, I had planned to play Mech because it's so good on that map and I won with Mech against kolll in ESL too. But in the last second I decided to make the Flash Goliath-M&M build instead (I guess you can call that some sort of stupid panic attack decision).
The reason why this build looked so weak was because my turret was off timing with about 2 seconds and I had forgotten Goliath range. Once I saw that I was dying inside, to actually make a mistake like this was the most embarresing moment in the entire TSL.
Later it was just impossible to win because if you do a single little mistake with a progamer build made by Flash and playing against an opponent like kolll you're gonna look like a noob with dark swarms in your natural.


PR: The final game on Andromeda was epic, but the tone was set very early on due to the initial choice of build orders by both you and kolll. If the scores at that point had not been 2-1 to kolll, would you have opted for a more aggressive early opening strategy to push him back?

MorroW: Actually I didn't even think of the score when I chose my builds as many pEOPLE do. As Artosis said in the actual casting before the game "If MorroW has done his homework he should be going for 8Rax since that's the very best opener for this map".
Artosis is very smart and so was kolll, and I had done my homework which resulted in a 8Rax by me, an Overpool by kolll and a happy face from Artosis.
Overpool is the very best build to make against the build I chose to do and you could see in my scouting that game that I was really convinced kolll would 12Hatch (only touching the natural). I ended up with 5 Marines before the CC in the natural expansion was started and from there I was actually really far behind.
Later that game he managed to get Lurkera outside my base and I made some screwups with my M&M micro, causing me to get contained (I had actually forgotten Marine range which was just as embarresing as the Destination incident).
When Defilers came he was about to make his final blow into my natural just like on Destination but I attacked right before the swarm and managed to get out of my main base. I almost made a convincing comeback for a second there but kolll was prepared for everything.


PR: Regardless of the outcome of your series against kolll, you have shown that you got what it takes when it comes to professional foreign Starcraft. What lies next ahead for you in terms of competive SC, considering that Starcraft 2 is probably still some time way?

MorroW: My original plan was to go to Korea and become a Starcraft 1 progamer but its too late now. If I had started playing 1on1 1 year earlier than I did I would probably be in Korea at this very moment. I'm most definitely going to become a SC2 progamer, I have no doubts that I will make it and I'm sure kolll is gonna try too.


PR: What would you say to other SC players who might have become inspired by your efforts and the entire TSL, is it possible to climb to the top of iCCup before too many summers have gone by?

MorroW: It took me 7 iccup seasons (1 year and 9 months) from a complete noob who didnt know anything about 1on1 to where I am now.

PR: That sounds pretty fast to me, how much do you practice every day and how?

MorroW: Well it depends on what mood I'm in but it's usually between 5-25 games per day. I practice with friends and laddering of course. I also watch a lot of professional VODs and pro replays but lately I've just watched material of Flash.

PR: Any final words before we wrap this up?

MorroW: I guess I don't really feel that I've gotten to show my full potential yet. If I could replay this bo5 with kolll and play standard I would probably have won and maybe even gotten really far into this tournament. However, kolll made it and I wish him best of luck both as a gamer and a friend. I'm happy I lost against him instead of some other guy who doesn't deserve it.

Also I wanna say great job by TSL who run this event, even if I'm not part of the tournament I still enjoy it very much, I actually watched the broadcast live. The infernal vs Terran series was insane :d

PR: Indeed it was. Thanks, MorroW for not only taking the time to do this interview but also for performing so well in professional Starcraft. Keep it up!

MorroW: Thanks u 2 polygon :)