Interview with Fire

First of all, could you please give me your name, age, race, and location?
- Hello, my name is Andrew Regendantz, I am 19 years old and live in the german city Leinach, which is near Würzburg. In WC3 I play the Human race.

I remember seeing that you had an Australian and German flag on your profile on WC3L. What's the reason for this?
- I was born in Australia, but live in germany at the moment, so I have both nationalities, but live in germany for 13 years now.

Why did you move to Germany?
- Well, I was six years old and couldnt really decide on my own what to do and my dad had to come to germany, because of his work, so the whole family moved to germany.

When did you start playing WarCraft III? It seems like most of the best WarCraft III gamers came from StarCraft. Were you one of them?
- I have never been playing StarCraft. I played it about five times and never enjoyed playing it, so I wasnt interested at all. I started my online career with AoEII and played all expansionpacks up to Age of Mythology. Unfortunatly, when the xpack of AoM was released there were hardly any tournaments anymore, so I looked for a new game. I then started WC3 TFT about January 2004, without ever playing RoC.

Fire

Name: Andrew RegendantzAge: 19Country:

GermanyRace:

Human

Did what you learn about RTS games in AoEII help you out any in WarCraft III?
- I think I learned quite a lot, because like all in strategy games you need macro and micro, allthough AoEII has a lot more focus on Macro. Otherwise there isnt really anything which I learned, because WCIII is a complete different game with different units and different playing style.

If WCG were to choose an AoE game in a future WCG like they did in 2001. Would you like to compete in this? Maybe even quit WarCraft III to do so?
- I am not sure yet what I am going to do in the future. AoEIII will be released around October/November this year and it may become a WCG game next year. I probably would change back to AoEIII, just because thats where I come from and I still have so many fans in that scene.

Fire preparing to play

Have you always been a Human player? Why did you choose to play them instead of the other races?
- I have always been a human player, yes. My first experience I had with TFT/RoC was at the WCG 2003. I saw

Insomnia raping all other players with human, so I thought Ill just take human, because it is the best race. At the moment it doesnt really look like Human is the best race, but I will stick with them, because I think it is way too late to change race.

Do you believe Human is a balanced race? If not, could you explain what you think would make them more balanced?
- There are some situations where Human becomes a little weak. For example there is no sort of base defense (besides towers) as of tier2. Any race can run any time in the base and just kill all workers. Even worse is it against Air-Units like Wyvern or Destroyer. There is no chance without towers to defend against harasses with those units. You need to decide between waiting in ur base, and letting the opponent creep, or attacking him in his own base forcing.

Human vs Orc is quite balanced I think. Both races have their advantages, like human can tower up and go mass air and orc can play with their strong AoE Heros and Raiders/Grunts. Human vs NightElf sometimes is very gay, mostly when the NightElf gets out some Bears and that staff to save all the bears, but otherwise this matchup is fairly ok too.

Any favorite hero or unit you enjoy using the most in any certain match up?
- Uhh, I like playing with a high-level MK, because he can kill the other heros quite well :D

In your match against mTw-Tak3r in Playday 2 you had to play on Turtle Rock for your first game and won. However, in Playday 4 you had to play Turtle Rock as the first map and ended up losing in the three game series. Did you feel confident on that map?
- Turtle Rock is one of my favorite maps against all races, so I was quite confident that I could win on that map against any 4Kings player, if I really play my best. I didnt really play as well as I could have on that map against Fury, so I lost quite clearly on that map against him. The problem was that what I mentioned before, that he could harrass my workers quite easy with his destroyers and heros and then just run/tp out. I am more annoyed about my loss on Gnoll Wood though. I could have won that game with about two to three towers more to stop his destroyer push.

Check Six went into the match against 4Kings with a great record. Did you feel confident that you would win? Or were you nervous going up against 4K.Fury?
- Personally I thought I am able of winning against

FuRy. Of course he is a great player and has had been successful over a long time, but he had been playing some Diablo II and mostly Human can win their games on LT vs Undead, so I was expecting a 2-1 win or a 1-2 loss. I didnt really expect x6 to win 4K. 4K is just too strong.

Do you think that 4K will win WCG3L this season?
- Yeah, I am quite sure 4K will once again win the WC3L.

Fire in South Africa

With great players like Hunter, Etched, and Suboshi who all played about every match in WC3L for Check Six (formerly rS). Did you feel that you deserved more playtime?
- I got all the playtime I deserved. I joined right before PlayDay 1, so I wasnt expecting to play against mousepsorts. I then played PlayDay 2 against mTw and PlayDay 4 against 4K. Normally, I should have been playing against GG on PlayDay 3 too, but I had to work on that day at that time so I was replaced by another player. So actually I would have been playing 3 of 4 clanwars.

Recently, you have decided to part ways with your former team Check Six. Rumors have been going around that you were kicked. Could you explain to us why you decided to leave the team?
- I really was not kicked. I could have had the possibility to stay in the team, but I wouldnt have recieved the same support as the american players, because x6 wants to build up an all american team. I also would have not been allowed to play in many clanwars either :)

Were you upset about leaving the team?
- Not really, thats how life goes :D

Have any teams made you offers to join? Many think that you will join mTw.ATI because they are a German based team and could possibly use you to help them in WC3L.
- I have no serious offers yet. :)

If mTw.ATI were you make you an offer would you take it?
- I dont know. I'll think about it, if it happens, but thinking about something which just may happen, is wasting ur time :D

In GIGA GrandSlam V you lost 1:2 to mTw-DaviN in the Quarterfinals who later went on to get 1st place. If you could have gone back and changed the way you played what would you have done?
- I would have been more careful with creeping the big creep spots like the golems on TM. He stole xp of creep, xp tome and the Vampire Aura Item, while I was creeping it. Also, I would have bought a TP in game 1 and save my two heros after killing a lot of his army :D

Fire's WCG Gold Medal

Do you have any plans to compete at WCG Germany this year?
- I am out of the WCG Qualfication, because I fucked up against players I normally shouldn’t have against. These were

Fs.Mailman and

n!CraftY. So no WCG for me this year :|

Who do you think has the best chance in winning from Germany?
-

Spell,

Miou and

Davin are the best players in germany at the moment, so they have the best chances to win the spots to singapur.

Do you think Germany is one of the best countries that play WarCraft III? If not, what other countries would you list?
- Well, I think Korea is the best country by far. After that come Sweden and France and then germany can be listed. Unfornunatly no german has won an international tournament in a long time :(

Now to talk about your life. Do you have any hobbies?
- I have started playing poker recently, but its a thing I still do infront of the computer. Besides that I play football in a team, so I stay fit and have time where I dont think about gaming at all.

Many have players have quit gaming to play poker actively? Do you think this is a possibility?
- Err, I have become any good I think it is a possibility to make good money. If you invest the same amount of time I think you can win more with poker.

Do you like music? If so, what are some of your favorite bands?
- I always listen to music while I am at my pc, but I dont listen to any special bands or singers, I just listen to online radios and their music :D I like all styles of music, so I enjoy hearing most of the stuff.

Do you have a favorite online radio station?
- I actually always listen to different radio stations. I just click through them

That's the end of the questions. Anything more you would like to add?
- nah, I think all has been said :D