MaNia, BabyKnight & PusHeR
One month ago, BabyKnight, former member of Browned Potatoes, left DotA to pursue a Starcraft 2 career with team Na'Vi. GosuGamers decided to follow his progress and catch up with him.
Hi BabyKnight, it's good to hear from you again. Well, how have you been doing? What are the Starcraft 2 tournaments or leagues that you've participated or are currently in so far?
-“Hi, I have been playing a lot of Starcraft 2; currently playing about 6-10 hours each day and watching a lot of Starcraft games also. I haven't participated in too many tournaments so far, since I have some issues with my computer, which sometimes lag randomly on bigger maps or if I've had SC2 opened for too long a period of time. But I have participated in some of the weekly tournaments, and I've been getting pretty far each time I participated: Silver being my best placement in one of the Zotac cups and also been getting into the semis for the Gosucup qualifiers. Sadly however, I did not qualify for the main event.”
I wanted to ask you: how was the transition from DotA to Starcraft 2? As a former pro DotA player, what are your views on the different playing styles required and how hard is it to transition from DotA to SC2?
-“The two games are very different from one another, but the transition has been pretty easy for me. I always felt that if I could become as good as I was, playing DotA, I could also get good at another game like StarCraft II. Being a pro in another game has definitely helped me progress a lot faster in SC2 than most players, but in order to become really good, you just got to practice a ton.”
What would you say are your strengths at the moment, your macro or your micro game?
-“I am very strong in both my macro and micro game, but my ‘force field’ micro is probably what I'm strongest as of right now. It is very important to have impeccable force field control and general army movement with Protoss.”
The transition for Warcraft 3 players to Starcraft 2 has not been so easy, to name Dutch player Grubby for example who is not at his best right now as he was during his WC3 days, while for others such as Swedish players Naniwa and Thorzain who won MLG Dallas and TSL3 respectively, their performances have been great. How would you rate your performance so far? Are you satisfied or would you say there is more to improve?
-“About Grubby, no he is not that strong at the moment but he changed to StarCraft 2 in like January or something? It's pretty impressive that he's already doing as well as he is. I feel like the fact that he was so dominant in Warcraft3 has helped him a lot. I don't think I need to comment on Naniwa or Thorzain, their results speak for themselves. As for myself, I only recently retired from playing DotA and I still attend school so it's hard for me to dominate in the same fashion this soon. Still, I definitely expect myself to start taking down some tournaments or at least get some good placement in a somewhat near future.
Yes, definitely. Now you said you practice 6-10hrs everyday; that’s a lot of practice time compared to what you could achieve in DotA. It must have been a big change.
-“Sure, in DotA you almost don't need to practice to maintain a high level of play once you're already good individually. Of course the team/drafter has to keep up with the recent strategies but that's a different story, and also doesn't take too much time.”
Are you following the Starcraft 2 professional scene? Who do you think will win MLG Columbus?
-“I watch a ridiculous amount of Starcraft 2 content in general, so yes, I follow the StarCraft 2 professional scene. As for who will win MLG Columbus, I think it will be between Naniwa, Bomber, Idra and Losira. But I'll be rooting for LiquidTyler. I love his style and personality, and I hoped for him to perform well in SC2 ever since he won TSL2 in BroodWar pretty much.
I know several Starcraft 2 progammers are starting to stream their games whether ladder or other games, is there a stream that we can follow you?
-“I have like 10 different streams set up, but I can't stream since I have a lot of troubles with my PC. But I do coach! So if you're either a Protoss player of any level, or a Zerg/Terran below Masters you can buy lessons for €15/hour and €30 for 3 hours through a Paypal account. My BNet ID is NaViBabyK and my Character Code is 974. (*smile*)"
Thank you for the interview. It was great catching up with you and maybe we shall see you again for DotA 2. Any shoutouts?
-“Thank you sir for coming up with the questions! Shoutout to my team NaVi, all my fans and a special shoutout to Issi (<3)!”
