You know his name. You know that tag. You've seen him leading the foreign charge at the front lines of aggressive Terran play. We got a chance to sit down with qxc to learn why Terrans have to put on more pressure than they'd like to in order to just stay in the game.
Tell me first a little about yourself. I remember hearing something from a YouTube caster that you needed a laptop to take with you when you study abroad in Spain. Are you really headed over there?
Yea I'm going next semester.
Does this rule out any possibility of a GSL?
No, actually. I'd love to do a GSL. When there's time. I'm still in college, so.
Tell me about your practice. How much time goes into Starcraft on a day to day basis?
Usually between 4 and 6 hours. But it depends on how much work I have to do and things like that.
When you're learning or training up, do a lot of the games of those training sessions come from playing against your teammates specifically? Straight from the ladder quick match?
Most of the refining and training that I do comes from my teammates but I play a lot of weird hours because of my schedule and school, so there are times where I'll hop on ladder. But usually if my teammates are on I'll play with them.
By teammates is that exclusive to the guys from ROOT? Or some other friends outside the team as well?
Yea the guys from ROOT usually.
I've seen a few of your videos and viewed what little else I could find on you specifically through various casters and sources on Team Liquid and GosuGamers. I'm sure there are many in the community who would like to hear more from you given the presence you've established in the foreign scene since beta. Since you've already shown us you have the potential to take this long-term, I really need to ask you: what are you looking to get out of Starcraft 2? Is this a “just for now” kind of thing, perhaps to pass the time until you've finished school, or something more? We've heard Morrow talk about planning to make an actual full-time living out of Starcraft 2. Are you looking to go in that direction as well?
Yea. Pretty much. Long term goals. Or as long term as they can be. Play this game at around this level that I’m at now. If everything works out I will be playing this game fulltime. Once I finish school. Everything's out of the way. Then I'll be supporting myself with the money I make from tournaments and invitationals as well as the other stuff I contribute to the community. I'm working for this website nerdstomper right now.
Is that what you've been going to school for? Web design? Computer science?
Computer science.
You are most known for being “that really aggressive Terran guy” in the foreign scene, you coupled with Fenix. Now I know I'm going to get my balls flamed off for this next part because there are still many Terran OP t-shirts going around these days. But when we look at the best of the best tournaments, the ones that aren't played on the net, we see a lot of Terran going in in what many could say are imbalanced ratios to their race counterparts. But when we take a look at the winners of the biggest of them, GSL 1 and 2 in particular—the tournaments in themselves showing us what could be the results of the biggest collection of the best of the best—Terran is going in in large numbers but not necessarily coming out on top. What do you think, at this moment, is the biggest flaw in Terran play right now when compared to the other races? What do you find yourself struggling with as Terran that you don't feel other races really have to put up with?
I don’t think that Terran struggles with anything in particular. I feel like the large number of Terran players is because Terran has always had a large numbers of heroes at the front lines. Like a lot of players look at him and go “wow hes good. I really want to look like him.” Like look at slayers_boxer. People see him and go oh Terran is amazing, I want to be just like him. A lot of people want to follow him. More of our heroes are talked about than the others so it's not necessarily that we're the best race which is why we have the most players, but because we're the most popular because of our heroes. That I feel sweeped off of Broodwar into Starcraft 2. A couple buffs helped us out. More people switched to Terran or whatever. And when they were nerfed a lot of people were happy but there were still some complaints.
I myself struggle with the problems that the players of other races who think we're OP seem to not remember we have. Like our lack of mobility... how much more struggle we have into securing our third, or other bases into the late game. Especially against Zerg, if they have mutalisks out you're not going to be able to get your third or beyond that by just sending an SCV in there to build it, you need guys to be watching it or threaten a counter or else the higher mobility of the other races will sweep it. If you put your guys out to watch your third being built you're going to be vulnerable to direct attacks and harassment which will really put you behind. So really I've found that because of this Terrans have to put more pressure than we want to just to be able to take other bases. I mean, I know everyone says we're known as being the best at being defensive, but that's really not the reality of it.
Now I did mention you are known mostly as that really aggressive Terran guy. I heard a quote somewhere that was either yours or Fenix's which I'd really like to clarify up. The quote went something like “If you're not attacking, you're losing.” Was that you who said that or Fenix?
Yea that’s me. This was right off the heels of IEM, where I just watched Fenix demolish people through constant aggression. I’ve always been aggressive in my style of play. And when I implement aggression I find that it forces my opponent to react, and then force mistakes—he makes more mistakes when I'm aggressive. If I'm constantly harassing, getting in his face, then he's bound to make more mistakes because of it. And that takes his game off and helps me worry less about myself. I know most people will say 'well in standard play you can't always be harassing,' but when you look at it, what it really comes down to is the defender has to constantly worry about where the attack is coming from next, and that's an added thing to think about that can throw his game off.
[Laughs] It's funny that you mentioned taking note from Fenix's style of play because whenever I think of foreign Terrans known largely for their aggression I always group you up there with Fenix.
Yea , most of what got me started off actually came from him. I mean I copy stuff from other people all the time, that's really how I learned. But basically what it comes down to is after you, you know, watch a replay... watch a match and analyze it, you try to copy it, but then you find what feels natural for you and try to work with it. I know a lot of the stuff I started off with I learned from watching other people play like Fenix, and then I really got comfortable with this kind of play—this kind of aggression. Then I started making builds of my own from there and working with them.
It's really interesting that I grouped you with Fenix in having a similar style of play and you've elaborated on that as well. And there's something else I noticed in the both of your TvP games when it comes to the two pronged Medivac harass. I've seen Fenix do these kinds of “half-empty, leftover Medivac drops” where he'll drop in your main, and once you've countered it, he'll pick it up but he won't fly it back to his base like most people do to reinforce his main army or even repair the medivac with 40 hp, but rather he'll let the Medivac sit outside his opponent's base even if it's only got like three of its slots filled, just so he can have something to use as a two-prong when he attacks his opponent later, whether it be with a direct attack from his main army or even with another drop. I've noticed you implementing a strikingly similar play to his where you'll leave a Medivac that was already dealt with to sit out in space instead of returning home, just so you can have something to two-prong with later.Yea I know what you're talking about. It's quite effective.
Well of course, with the Medivac speed nerf, I've been wondering whether or not these types of half-empty, leftover Medivac two-prongs have become less implemented into your style of play specifically. Recently I've even seen a match of yours against... I can't remember who, but I remember you actually typing out loud "f****** medivac nerf!"
[Laughs]
Post nerf, have you been finding yourself using these types of leftover drops less and less?
No, I haven't. Whether or not you think the Medivac speed was overpowered, what I think happened was, Protoss players at that time really didn't know how to deal with constant drops and that's what made them look really overpowered at the time. Right now I'm still using these kinds of drops and there are still lots of Protoss players who haven't learned how to deal with it even after the speed reduction. So I really think that this style of drop in general is quite effective.
I'm sure by now you've become aware of Foxer's style of TvZ in the GSL 2. The double barracks opening—or rather, the lots of marines opening as opposed to factory play which we've seen so much of pre-Foxer TvZ. Do you see this as the future of TvZ, or was that just a fad in fashion for that one season in general? Have you noticed yourself in recent times adapting your TvZ game specifically to more suit this style of play as Select has done and shown in the recent MLG?
I mean. I used that build. Its fairly effective. I don’t think its going to revolutionize TvZ. You still have to play the game after it occurs. What you’re going to have to do is, if it becomes more effective, Zerg might have to go pool first. It might be just enough to convince most Zergs to not go hatch first. I mean, just like during the times of the reaper opening. If the Foxer style picks up then the most it's going to mean is that you can't go hatch first anymore.
Again, aggression is the key word that comes to mind when we hear anything at all about you, and you seem to be reaping a lot of success out of it. But maybe that really isn't the definitive qxc reference term that you yourself would like to be known for. In your own words, what do you feel is your biggest strength in your specific style of play?
Overwhelming multitasking which I've reaped the most success. What I'm doing is I make sure I rest a lot before I have to play any big matches. Since I don't have enough time to play as other players do my mechanics are weaker. So if I played a strictly standard game I would be behind. So I rest and give myself time to stay calm and then I open up with aggression, and I stay aggressive and I try to be at every one of his bases at all times whenever I can, you know, to keep him on his toes. And hopefully, his game and his mechanics will be thrown off because of it.
Basically the plan is everytime I attack I aim to kill one of their bases and take one of my own bases. So I attack and I kill their third then I make my own. If I can't do that then I attack again, and maybe make him get out of position so I can harass with a drop or something else on the other side of the map that he isn't focusing on right now.Why Terran?
So I played Terran in Broodwar. And Terran in Starcraft2 felt natural. Why did I play Terran in Broodwar? I used to play random. And when I decided it was time to choose my race I looked at the matchups and I realized I didn’t play matchups well with other races. I didn't play other races well against Terran. So I picked Terran because it felt natural and stayed with Terran in SC2.
