I recently sat down with one of the four South East Asian invites for the upcoming WCS America qualifiers to learn a bit about what it's like competing and Singapore and his thoughts on WCS in 2014. Want to find out more about WCS in Oceania/South East Asia in 2014? For full details including registrations go to wcs2014.aclpro.com.au.
For those out there who perhaps aren't as familiar with you as others, can you say a little bit about yourself?
Heya guys, I'm Revenant from Singapore. I'm currently 21 and serving my mandatory national service. For now, I'm temporarily playing in FlashWolves's academy division for practice, but I'm pretty much a free agent for now! *wink wink*
2013 has been quite a silent year for me due to a lack of time, but with 2014 coming, I'm rather motivated to perform to the fullest of my abilities!
You mention motivation. Living in Singapore it's probably safe to say there are less major competitive opportunities for you than say somebody who lives in Sydney. What are some of the challenges you face and how hard is it to stay motivated?
In Singapore, it is indeed tough to stay motivated or simply interested in the game. That being said, many talented players like Yekke, Drake, Kyzer have all been wiped off. Year by year, there has been lesser major tournaments. As such, even though I've been playing since the start of Wings of Liberty, I've been off and on in terms of activeness.
On a personal level, once you enter the working society, sometimes you stop to think; Will all these time I invest into my passion be worth it? It seems all that all these time will have minimal ROI. :/
In 2012 you had direct qualifiers which fed into WCS Asia, 2013 Blizzard tried the vengeance cup and with the reworked WCS System for 2014 you now merge with Australia and New Zealand to have a direct feed in qualifier for WCS America.
With a good shot at making it into the WCS America system, does this ease your ROI concerns?
It's true that WCS has changed for the better in 2014 as compared to 2013, but I felt that 2012 was the best WCS system for SEA players because it gave all players an equal shot at representing their own country.
As for what I meant by ROI, I don't really mean something tangible to be gotten outta competitive gaming, but rather, some sense of fulfillment/satisfaction for the amount of hours you put in. As you know, Starcraft2 is one of the more competitive games out there, and you'd need to put in more hours to accomplish anything. Of course, at the end of the day, it's not all that cycnical as I'm still happy about the time spent as I did something for my passion.
Do you think it's enough to promote new players to enter the competitive scene and old players to keep playing in 2014?
I feel that there will be lesser new players coming up in 2014 for Singapore, at least much less than compared to 2012.
Let's focus now on these upcoming WCS Qualifiers. Firstly, being seeded straight into the Round of 16, what do you think of your chances of clinching one of the three spots for WCS America?
I'm still unsure of where I stand compared to the other SEA players right now since I haven't been that active in the SEA scene. That being said, I'd say the favourite to qualify from the qualifiers are probably KingKong, PiG and iaguz.
However, I'll try my best to cause an upset.
Is there anybody you would like to battle against or somebody you consider a rival?
Enderr. I'm coming for my revenge. ;D
Finally with WCS America Qualifiers opening the gates to the remainder of South East Asia outside of Australia and New Zealand, do you think there's merit in the Australian Cyber League opening up their competitions to people such as yourself in 2014?
It'd definitely be great news for SEA players that are outside Oceania to be able to participate in Oceania competitions such as ACL as it gives us more motivation to play. It's gonna be great to be able to have some form of major competitions around SEA again.
Would you be willing to make the journey to Australia if you qualified for a regional event?
I'd definitely travel to Australia if I had the chance to! I've always wanted to go Australia in 2013, and it's one of my #NewYearResolutions to travel to Australia in 2014 if I'm able to!!
Thank you for your time! I look forward to seeing you compete in a few weeks. If you have any shoutouts or plugs now's the time to do it!
Thank you for the interview! It's been awhile, and I'll try my hardest!
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