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Team Areola - ToT)tomsOn( Interview
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Interview
with ToT)Tomson on past and current WCGs,
life, and StarCraft.
Introduction by o]O2[o:
Tomson is a fantastic Zerg player from Poland.
He attended his first WCG in Korea when he
was only fifteen. He beat FroZ from the USA
2-0 in the 32 of the single elimination tournament
at WCG'04 in San Francisco. Let's give a big
hand to Tomson!
teamareola.com: So,
the standards. Name, age, location, and how
do you like it there?
tomsOn: Tomek
Krzesiński, 18, Warsaw. The weather could be
better. =]
teamareola.com: What
race do you play?
tomsOn: Zerg
:p
teamareola.com: How
long have you been playing BW?
tomsOn: Since
it came out. And I always have trouble determining
when that was precisely.
teamareola.com: I
personally remember you switching back and
forth between Terran and Zerg. Are you still
doing it? Why did you do it before?
tomsOn: Well,
if you do something for 6 years you should
try to know as much as you can about it. It's
funny you ask, because today I was considering
switching back to Terran. I actually told sYs
about it and he was like "don't do it". Then
I lost 6 games straight with Terran and I'm
not considering it in the near future.
teamareola.com: How
come no Protoss, then?
tomsOn: I
wasn't attracted to Protoss until recently.
I think Protoss became more entertaining with
the new age players like Nal_rA. I've always
thought it was a bit weak comparing to the
other races: I can't imagine myself playing
PvZ. Or winning on a regular basis, for that
matter. But I do find playing toss sometimes
amusing, especially if you don't play exactly
by-the-book.
teamareola.com: Was
there a particular game or move that made you
want to try toss out?
tomsOn: No
_particular_ games or moves.
teamareola.com: Ra
vs GoodFriend on Parallel Lines?
tomsOn: That
game was nice, but heavily overrated. I mean,
it was a pretty entertaining move, but it gets
way more recognition than it should. Just
because it was done in a televised game, I
suppose.
teamareola.com: Heh.
How many hours a day do you play?
tomsOn: The
number of course varies. I prepared for WCG
by playing about 4 hours a day in the summer.
Right now, I'm playing maybe 2-3 games a week.
I'm trying to get myself a little less addicted.
It's hard.
teamareola.com: Do
you want to quit BW?
tomsOn: No,
but I find that I will eventually have to.
And this year I'm having my exams to college,
so it's not the best time to get focused on
any tournaments. But I suppose if anything
big happens to be organised in Poland I will
probably participate, but definetly without
that much practice as I did before. WCG is
way too tempting to be ignored.
teamareola.com: What
do your parents say about BW? What did they
say when you went to WCG 2001, when you were
still, what-- 15 years-old? What did they say
this time around?
tomsOn: My
parents were never too keen about my ways of
spending time. Now that I have achieved a lot
in their eyes in this game they feel that spending
more time is a waste of time. But I did get
a lot of tolerance up to this point. Especially
from my father who personally took me to many,
many tournaments by car and picked me up late
at night. I remember when I phoned him right
after I qualified for the Korean WCG. He was
a bit shocked, but happy I guess. He didn't
know I was one of the favourites at that time,
because I didn't tell him I had any high hopes.
It was then that my parents started saying
it was a good time to finish my "career".
Yeah, I was 15. They were a bit scared about
me going by myself to a country located so
far way. I was one of the youngest participants
in the finals I suppose.
teamareola.com: If
you could sum up your trip to WCG 2004 this
year, how would you put it?
tomsOn: I've
wanted to go to the States for a long time
and finally I got the opportunity. I feel that
I could play a bit better there, but, lets
say I reached my minimal goal.
teamareola.com: Well,
you beat FroZ 2-0 on Gorky and Martian. Personally,
I was really impressed with that. Especially
the ending of the Gorky game. Were you surprised?
Was this an achievement of sorts, or were you
expecting to take FroZ/Hero down?
tomsOn: I'm
happy about those games, though I know I could
macro a lot better.
It's pretty ironic, because FroZ and Androide
were my favourites to do well. My "black horses".
And I got to play them consequently.
I was a bit afraid about my games vs FroZ,
since I had a lot of respect for him. He won
most of our practice games before the finals.
I felt really well prepared though. However
I knew it could go both ways and I'm satisfied
it ended up being as it is.
Before the game I got to choose Gorky. Elky
was sitting beside me and when the game was
hosted he yelled to FroZ that he's bad manner
for picking Gorky. FroZ told him it was my
pick as well. ElkY gave a cynical smirk.
That showed him =[
He lost a TvZ on Gorky as well later on. =]
teamareola.com: Who
were the people that you met / hung out with,
other than the rest of the Polish WCG team?
tomsOn: I
didn't hang out as much as I wanted to.
Obviously I talked a bit with my fellow ToT
members, but I generally tried meeting as much
people as I could. I met a lot of TL forum
members including Manifesto, FakeSteve, CollegeBored,
mnm, Trance. I didn't know Wicked from Slovakia
before the event, but he turned out to be really
cool. I knew a lot of people from 2001, so
that helped me a bit. And of course Entropy
and d4d, very funny guys who conducted an interview
with me and Draco which is yet to be posted
on SG.com
teamareola.com: Perhaps
I'm just being stupid, but you being in ToT,
and Draco in pG, was there any tension between
you two? Was the clan difference even mentioned?
tomsOn: I
don't know what's up with people insunating
that there's rivalry between ToT and pG. There's
no such thing.
I was b.net buddies with Draco long before
WCG2004 and nothing has changed.
We did tease each other a lot at the event
though =]. I can't count the times we used
the word "lame".
teamareola.com: I'm
glad I am mistaken. What do you think was the
most surprising game, or the best game (at
WCG) ?
tomsOn: Hm...
FisheYe vs TreK was a beatiful series. Right
after my games vs FroZ I watched the last one
on Martian Cross live and it was incredibly
back and forth.
I'm disappointed there weren't any surprises
concerning Koreans. I thought there would be,
but a lot of players that could give a fight
were eliminated early on. Mondragon losing
to Advokate was a surprise. A pretty fast 3rd
game. Mondi was a bit pissed. But these things
happen. I think Testie played really bad in
terms of control in game 3 and that's why he
lost. That and no Lurkers (or any other unit
that could accompany Zerglings nicely).
The semi-finals were awful. Horribly one-sided
AND all Terran. It's no fun watching two Koreans
compete in the final. I watched them with indifference.
I used to think there weren't THAT much of
a difference between Koreans and foreigners,
but this years WCG made me doubt. There was
a huge contrast. It was so easy for them it
actually made me a tad angry, because people like
them totally neglect the non-Korean scene and
it seems this years WCG didn't change anything
in that matter. I found it funny that a person
that calls himself professional can't name
more than 2 foreigners participating in the
tournament.
That's highly unprofessional of XellOs.
teamareola.com: Look
at it this way: Xellos lost to Reach in the
EVER OSL 2-1.
tomsOn: Reach
is probably comparable in arrogance and ignorance
to the non-Korean scene though. So, not much
consolation there! =]
teamareola.com: :[
I think ForU was pretty nice at WCG, though,
from what I read. Did you meet him?
tomsOn: No,
they didn't hang out much with the rest of
the scene. Language barriers. He seems a pretty
nice guy though.
I feel sorry that his games vs Mondragon got
posted. But hey, I saw him playing Strafe today,
so he's probably not begrudged. It's hilarious
that friendly games is news-worthy material
according to WGTour and SG.com.
teamareola.com: Did
you really spread that rumor about Blackman
writing starcraft AI? ;o
tomsOn: I
don't know whether it's a rumor or a fact.
I've never seen it. He was supposed to make
a UMS for me, but a couple of my friends started
asking him for it. So he became angry and basically
never forgave me since. I respect him as a
player, but his principals on liking and disliking
people are really f***ed up. One of the reasons
he dislikes me so much to the point that he
calls me a "dumb-f***" publicly on a page as
a big as TL.net is that I based my Zerg on
his. I mean, come on, how dumb of a reason
to hate a person is that? I shook hands with
him at WCG2003 Poland and a couple of months
later he calls me names. I don't like to go
personal, but he was first and that created
a lot of nasty speculations.
teamareola.com: Where
do you practise/train most now? i.e. where
can people annoy you?
tomsOn: You
can annoy me on op) tot on Europe. I don't
play West. I don't like licking some Koreans
ass for 2 hours to get a game (Editor's note:
big hearty lol!). That's essentially what some
people are doing. Greeting strangers, spamming
smilies, initiating stupid conversations. Not
worth the effort.
teamareola.com Okay, I'll finish up by asking
some quick and simple questions. micro vs macro. It's a stupid question, so
sue me ;o
tomsOn: Way
too general to be answered =]
teamareola.com: What
do you prefer, then? micro or macro? :]
tomsOn: Obviously
macro.
teamareola.com: Family.
Important/unimportant?
tomsOn: Important.
teamareola.com: Education:
How important, on a scale of 1-10.
tomsOn: 8-9.
teamareola.com: Eriador
1-10
tomsOn: What
kind of a question is that? :D
teamareola.com: It's
just a question!
tomsOn: I
prefer females :(
teamareola.com: :[
tomsOn: Ok, ok. *11* *Eriador sex machine!*
teamareola.com: Top
5 players in Europe, any race.
tomsOn: Currently,
or ever?
teamareola.com: Currently.
tomsOn: Mondragon,
Trek, Fisheye, Blackman (if he is playing).
I'm not sure about the 5th one. That's as standard
as an answer can get though. :]
teamareola.com: I'll
leave you off the hook on the 5th one unless
you want to come back to it, then.
Top 5 North America.
tomsOn: That's
even harder T_T
Testie, VeG, FroZ, Rekrul, I haven't seen Assem lately
teamareola.com: Can
I make a replay pack of you, BTW?
tomsOn: No,
you need my full authorization.
teamareola.com: That's
what I'm asking for. But if you say no, I'll
just make it anyway.
tomsOn: That's
what I'm being ironic about. OH! YOU'RE IRONIC TOO!
teamareola.com: YES
QUITE.
tomsOn: I
SEE.
teamareola.com: We
thank tomsOn for this interview, wish him luck,
and hope he makes it to WCG 2005 without killing
himself! Oooooooooooooookay. This is over.
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