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Team Areola - Smuft Interview
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Smuft
on StarCraft
Introduction
by o]SK[o:
Back from his recent sojourn to Korea, Smuft
was a nice enough guy to sit down and answer
numerous questions about his personal life,
relationship with Elky, and the zen of all that
is SC. "You have to be the reaver--focus
your mind and body and scarabs will accede to
your will." Well, maybe he didn't really
say that, but you can see it in action in his
PvP replays. ;) Keeping the hackneyed platitudes
to a minimum, here is Smuft.
teamareola.com:
What's your real name?
Smuft: My name
is Steven King, I am from Vancouver, Canada
and 17 years old.
teamareola.com:
How long have you known Elky? How did you guys
become good friends?
Smuft: I've
known of Bertrand since the Tao Of Gaming Ladder.
Our good friendship is a consequence of our
mutual interest - Professional Gaming. ElkY
is also one of the most naturally entertaining
people I've ever had the privledge of being
with in my life.
teamareola.com:
In PvP, almost everyone goes
goon/reaver. Are there any goon/reaver strategies
that are particularly more effective than others
when comparing risk level and what not?
Smuft: It is
depending what happens early in the game and
of course positional dependant but I like a
fast 1 zealot/1 reaver drop while expanding
off 1 gate with range. The idea of this is to
keep him in his base by the threat of a reaver
drop while expanding and then halting probes
and putting up 3 more gates. Your probes transfer
into 4 gate dragoon production and eventually
you bring your shuttle/reaver back to defend
against the attack that is sure to come. If
you actually used your reaver to drop you better
have done A LOT of damage because it's going
to be hard to defend against his counter attack.
This can be seen in game 3 of myself against
Guillaume - AMD Rival Match. The only reason
Grrrr's counter attack remotely succeeded was
that 1) I lost my shuttle with reaver that was
returning to my base to defend 2) I had 1200
minerals.
teamareola.com:
Have you ever played extensively
with any race other than toss? Would you ever
consider changing?
Smuft: I was
exclusively random until 1.5 years ago when
I realized it was impossible to learn every
matchup well enough to compete with the best
there is. I will not be changing races.
teamareola.com:
Where does "Smuft" come from?
Smuft: When
Slayer, Sven, NTT, myself and a few others joined
[iDEF], my ID was [iDEF]Smurf. Some of the koreans
I was playing with at the time called me 'smuft'
because they could not find 'r' on their keyboard.
So I made it easier for them and changed. I
also discovered...
S M U F T - Super Mannered User For Toss
teamareola.com:
If you had to name a few of the top 5 or so
SC players in the world right now, who would
you include?
Smuft: There
is a couple hundred players that are all able
to beat eachother in Korea. There is not much
seperating the 'top 5' from the rest. These
players do stick out in my mind: Yellow, Oddysay,
Nal_Ra, Nada and ElkY for killing every single
pro gamer zerg at least once with 10/10 rax.
teamareola.com:
What other top SC players do you see/play with
most frequently?
Smuft: Every
couple weeks, there is a tournament where we'd
see basically everyone you can think of. I never
had anyone I practiced with very consistently.
Once you get to know your opponent well enough,
you will make moves based on your opponent's
style, this doesnt help you practice for a tournament
where you could be playing a completely different
style - if you know it at all.
teamareola.com:
If you had to pick 1 super gosu micro move you've
made in SC, what would it be?
Smuft: Having
3 DTs hidden in all of Kyung_Ho's bases constantly
harassing while 2 speed shuttles full of templars
storm all of his drones and dropping probes
on all of his cliffs to cannon them. The game
ended with most of my templar units having 20+
kills and a very angry Kyung Ho swearing at
me in korean for 30 minutes.
teamareola.com:
Who would you say the best US/Canadian player
is?
Smuft: I haven't
had much oppurtunity to play US/Canadian players
as of late. Whear's Protoss vs Terran is impressive,
SuperCondomUser gets the most improvement award,
oem)Assem definitely sticks out with possibly
the best Terran vs Zerg control I've seen in
a foreigner, Yosh 'the machine' who should have
done a lot better in WCG and CompUSA and of
course myself who I would give a lot more credit
to had I not gotten raped in the WGTour preliminaries.
teamareola.com:
Are you still living in Korea?
Smuft: No.
teamareola.com:
How long did you stay?
Smuft: I stayed
in Korea a total of 4 months and 7 days.
teamareola.com:
What effect did living in Korea have on your
SC playing/career?
Smuft: Playing
wise, well... in Korea, Starcraft is not a game,
Starcraft is a sport and everything that comes
with a sport. The average player can benefit
from the best player by watching him on Ongamenet
with a commentator explaining what the best
player is doing and why he is doing it. You
can verbally communicate about the game on a
regular basis, you can see exactly how the best
does what he does by standing 1 foot behind
him. This is just a small representation of
the Starcraft community in Korea and how much
there is to be learned. As a foreigner I could
not fully benefit from many of these things
but that which I could benefit from on top of
playing the best players on a regular basis
made a huge impact on my game.
Career wise, creation, I did not have a StarCraft
career before going to Korea.
teamareola.com:
On an average day what did you and Elky do during
the day/night?
Smuft: We are
Pro Gamers, on the average day we play 8 hours
of Starcraft in a smoke filled PC room. That
is how it was for the first 2 months, after
that I became ridiculously bored with Starcraft
and spent a lot of time doing other things in
Korea. Often we would go to clan parties, DaK
Clan party, Nal clan party and z-zone clan party.
Basically it's a lot of drinking, drinking is
much more cultured in Korea than any other nation
I have been to. When we first came to Korea,
we were going to a lot of night clubs which
costed anywhere from 300-1500$/night.
teamareola.com:
What made you decide to leave Korea?
Smuft: I can't
play games forever.
teamareola.com:
Did you get a lot out of living there (SC and
otherwise)?
Smuft: I'm
a changed man.
teamareola.com:
When looking at just pro players, what unit
would you say is the most underrated?
Smuft: Defilers,
plague on zealots is ridiculously powerful.
teamareola.com:
Are there any major upcoming SC events you'll
be playing in?
Smuft: I have
nothing planned, for now I do not wish to pursue
gaming professionaly.
teamareola.com:
Which maps do you play somewhat regularly that
are the most balanced against toss?
Smuft: I used
to play whatever was in the next tournament.
Lost Temple, Rivalry and Snowbound were the
most common maps played in tournaments. For
about 1 month, all the pro gamers played almost
exclusively ongamenet maps for the Starleague
and Challenge League.
teamareola.com:
What would you say is the biggest mistake average
players make?
Smuft: Many
of them do not have a balanced life style, your
mind works much better when it is excersised
in many ways through a balanced life style.
Going to school and/or working, excersising,
eating correctly, sleeping correctly and pursuing
other hobbies. I have seen all to many people
burn themselves out on 12 hours a day of Starcraft
and it isn't doing their game any good. I am
quite the hypocrite ^_^
teamareola.com:
What are your thoughts on WC3 right now and
on the likelyhood of it becoming another pro
game?
Smuft: WarCraft
3 has blizzard's label on it. No matter what
the game will be bought and there will be tournaments.
WarCraft 3 is the all anticipated successor
of StarCraft, of course it's going to be big.
The actual quality of the game is irrelevant
for all of this to happen. As it is, I personally
dislike the game as when I switch from Warcraft
3 to Starcraft, I am suddenly in heaven as my
units move when I tell them to and going to
get a coffee during the game will consequence
in my defeat, unlike Warcraft 3.
teamareola.com:
What do you do when you're not playing SC?
Smuft: In Korea,
we'd go to Soju Bang's, try to learn some korean
or see a movie that was released 3 weeks prior
in the US at a local cinema. I also spent a
lot of time with my Korean Girlfriend which
wasn't a very smart move as it took out of my
practice time and effected my game a lot.
I've only been in Canada for a week, so I'm
just adapting to reality again. Seeing friends,
relatives and deciding what I'm going to take
in school.
teamareola.com:
Do you think that pro gaming will catch on in
Canada or the US like it has in the far east?
Smuft: Well,
they are 2 completely different cultures. 'Pro
gaming' will catch on in Canada, US and the
rest of the world but in a different way, consistent
with it's respective culture. It is going to
take the acceptance of society to become big
in other parts of the world, it must be viewed
as 'cool' to succeed. This is gradually happening,
I've seen a big change in Vancouver since I
was here 4 months ago. I can go into a PC room
downtown at 3am and play a CS Lan with 15-20
people.
teamareola.com:
We'd like to thank Smuft for his time and insight.
Good job Smuft, and good luck with any upcoming
endeavors!
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