When did you first try StarCraft? What were your first thoughts when playing the game? Were you like "Yeah, I'm gonna play this a lot and try to become the best", or where you "Nice game, I think I'll play it some more"?
- My first attempt to play StarCraft was when I was 12 (or 13?!:)) and I did not really think to become the best player or so. I just wanted to play it for fun and kept investing more and more time to get better but in the beginning I did not have any aim to become "pro gamer" or something like that. I actually thought that pro-gaming like it is nowadays is total crap and utopia.
| Profile | ||||
| Name: Christoph Semke | Clan: Templars of Twilight | Country: Germany | Race: Zerg | |
| GG Database statistics | ||||
| Ranking: #5 | Rating: 1279 | Winning percent: 77% | Statistics: 30-9 | |
When did you realize that you were getting better and better and that you might actually have some sort of career within it?
- I think I first realized that I'm getting better as I was playing like a mad man with Kalaschni as I were in the same clan like him. First thought of 'having a career' (if you want to call it like this) I might have had after my first win of the Giga GrandSlam.
Do you have any idea why you have turned in to such a good player with the accomplishments you've had? Talent (and where do you think that comes from) or training, training, training?
- I think it is both talent and much training a long time ago. Besides being talented I really really played much some years ago but nowadays I just play from time to time and mostly tournaments and occasionally fun games with ToTs or other friends and I really keep my skill by playing that little amount.
What did your parents think when you told them that you actually made money out of the game, and that you were one of the best players in Europe?
- My parents supported me every time and did not prevent me from getting good or playing any tournaments. They did everything to back me up in any way and as money was involved later on they gladly enjoyed me going to tournaments ;P
When you played in the offline events in the GIGA tournaments, were they there to watch you play?- Nono, they did not go there to watch me, though they watched it some times at home when it was broadcasted.
What about your friends who are not into StarCraft? How do they react when you come home saying you won the Samsung Euro Championship and a whole lot of cash?
- My friends are kinda interested in such things when I have big tournaments or so, some of them were even watching the stream of ECG and so on and they kept asking if I won another tournament or asked if I won this and that final and so on, but lately they don't even ask anymore if I won the final (e.g. GGL) since they assume that I would win anyway :D
Do you ever think like they do? DO you consider yourself one of the top favourites when entering tournaments? Do you think like "Okay, I'm probably going to win this", or is that a forbidden thought?
- I never had a thought like that. I never thought that I would win a tournament easily. I rather see me as an underdog and all the opponents are superior to me anyway and if I win it's luck.
You've won events like SEC, GIGA Grandslam, the GGL and numerous others. Which one do you rate as your biggest win? Which one are you most proud of?
- It's definitely the ECG since it was the biggest tournament I played (except of WCG) in front of 'thousand of people' watching live at the cebit and another hundred watching it by live stream. Besides it was a final against Androide who kept telling me all the time that he'll win ECG and that I'm a newbie anyway.
With that win, you are considered the best player in Europe. Many would have loved to see you play in the World Cyber Games, but you did not participate due to studies. What chances do you think you would've had in WCG 2005 in Singapore?
- Yeah, I decided to skip WCG 2005 to be more focused on my studies but it did not help that much I think, but errr.... :D if I had played it, it would have been hard to predict what I could have achieved there. I think it could have went either way: If I got an 'easy' bracket without the Korean Terrans I COULD have made it to the final and by facing the Korean Terrans early I would probably have lost right away.
I bet everybody's thinking about it - are you going to take part in the World Cyber Games 2006?
- That's another tough question. I'll finish school in June and I don't have any clue what exactly will happen afterwards, but I'm intending to try to qualify at least.
Your biggest rival in Germany of the past couple of years - FiSheYe - has focused more and more on poker and says that he has no time for StarCraft. What is your view on that? Were you and FiSheYe good friends?
- I myself play poker regularly but not with that much money involved, I only play it for fun like freeroll tournamentswithout any ambitions. If Fisheye thinks that he might live better by playing poker he just should go ahead. Saying that we were good friends is exaggerated I think. We had a friendly relationship but we were not that good friends like Testie / me / other ToTs.
Do you think that your chances of reaching WCG'06 is bigger now when FiSheYe has his mind set for poker?
- To be honest I did not consider Fisheye as any threat in BroodWar in the past year(s) because I won all of my last bo3/bo5s against him (Like 10-15?!). Therefore his focusing on poker does not really change anything for my chances ;P
Looking at the players in Germany now, which do you think have the biggest chance of qualifying?
- The top 5 to qualify are probably Schniblor, Breakdown, Fisheye, Selector and myself.
Let's talk some more about gaming in Germany. StarCraft has always been big in Germany, but lately it seems you've taken another step, especially with ESL, and GIGA-TV broadcasting more and more matches. Why Germany?
- That's a good question why it is Germany. It could be due to Kambiz (former leader of pro-gaming.de) who worked for giga the last past years. He was the one who found the GIGA League and who made all the esport coverage on giga possible by founding the league. After giga many more tournaments and league followed so giga might actually be the milestone concering the development of esports in Brood War.
I think that StarCraft's development in Germany may very well increase StarCraft in the rest of Europe, which is really needed for us to catch up with Korea. Do you ever think that StarCraft will be as big as in Korea?
- StarCraft in the non-Asian area or especially in Europe will never be as big as it is in Korea. We are just not crazy enough like all the Koreans over there :P
We often hear that there should be more foreigners in South Korea trying to make it, and many of them mention you and your friend Testie. when you're done with your studies, would you have said yes if you got an invitation from a Korean pro team?
- I might have thought about it 4 months ago that I could try to play in Korea for a little while, but nowadays I don't think about that anymore since I can't and won't leave my girlfriend due to BroodWar.
Moving back to the thing you said about Korean Terrans. Why would you have lost right away versus them? What is in their play style that other players from Europe don't?
- It's both because of their skill, which is by far higher than any of the non-Korean Terrans and because of my weakness in zvt at the moment WCG took part. At this moment I did not feel confident in zvt at all but lately I practiced a bit and I feel more than confident against Terran again and I would not consider it worse than my zvp now. Regarding their play style I must say that both the macro and micro as well as the multitasking of Korean is just pure art. You seldom see non-Korean Terrans pushing severely over the map battling it out against the zerg masses and dropping 2 expansions at the same time. Dropping + Attack is the dead for every zerg player :] ooooops hopefully I did not mention my weak point!
Achievements:1st place, DSC 2on2 Tournament 1st place, VIP I-II 1st place, ScT Invite Tournament 3rd place, WGTour Season 3 (1v1) 1st place, WGTour Season 3 (2v2) with  ToT)LaZer(1st place, WGTour Season 7 (2v2) with  ToT)Testie(rS1st place, GosuGamers Power League #1 1st place, World Class Tournament 1st place, bw4ever Invited Cash Tournament 2nd place, TLT-Ladder 1st place, WCG Germany 2004 1st place, WGTour Season 9 (1v1) 1st place, Teamliquid.net Tournament (2v2) with ToT)Testie(rS1st place, ToT Invite Tournament 2004 1st place, Giga Liga Grandslam 2 1st place, Giga Liga Grandslam 4 1st place, Giga Liga Grandslam 5 1st place, Samsung European Championships 2005 1st place, GG22BB (2on2) with ToT)Testie(rSWon with Team Europe in Blizzard's Mystery Map Invitational 1st place GGL Americup |
- I do not always play random, but usually I just play random because you get an advantage with it on island maps and my other two races are not bad at all. Though I play zerg vs terran on Estrella because it is very funny and balanced as well
Do you have a lot of contact with Korean players, like playing with them a lot and having conversations?
- Nah not anymore. I don't play on west at all lately though I used to play much with Ogogo / Bisu / Arang and so on. Conversations actually never took part because their english is just not good enough to have a proper conversation about anything. I actually played very very much with Ogogo before ECG who helped me a lot with zvt there. He got an art TvZ and told me how to play it properly on WCG maps, he just a fucking monster on WCG maps :D
Do you any StarCraft player you really look up to? Any Zerg player you find amazing?
- I do not have any player I look up to, sorry :D .... oh wait! I got one: SEN !!!!!!!!!! <3
Do you two play a lot together? Which player in ToT is the one you play most with?
- I think I play the most with Olli, Nick and Sen, but only off races for me ;P And now you may guess why Ovvi is rocking again except in ZvZ! My TvZ and PvZ must be good and that's why he made it to the final of DoA Tour and lost the final against sen since we did not practice zvz :D
Yeah, nice to see him back in action. Let's talk some about Templars of Twilight. After the whole deal with pG.bw/ToT issue, do you feel any change in the team now compared to before it happened? Or are you the same old same old gang?
- Nah we did not have any arguments or changes within the team. Everything is the same except of the sponsors we've got so far. And of course our Dawn Of War squad who's the best squad of DoW as well. Left just won the ECG ;P
ToT is in the grand finals of the StarCraft Clan League hosted by the ESL against MeetYourMakers. How do you think this match will end up?
- It can of course go either way because both mYm and ToT has got an amazing lineup. So I guess it will be 3-2 for anyone of us.
Overall, how would you rate the SCCL as a league? Has it been a good run?
- Except of some problems at the beginning of the SCCL season it was definitely a good league I would join with ToT any time again
The winners of SCCL Season 1 gets 250€, 5 Sennheiser P 160 Headset and 5 Cherry CyMotion Pro wireless - how are you going to divide that in your clan, considering you are quite a bunch of players?
- That's as well a good question. The money will just go into the pot of ToT and will be spend e.g. for Shirts / new Design / whatever;P The hardware is kind of hard to divide but somehow we will find a solution how to manage that IF we win the Grandfinal vs mYm
Will there be any new recruits in Templars of Twilight soon, or are you satisfied with the number of players you have?
- Hmm the one or other Protoss would be cool since we got enough Terrans and more than enough Zergs now. Maybe I should just switch to Protoss :D
Heh, yeah, that's always a way to work around it. Will you ever recruit a Korean player, or do you have as a rule (since I don't remember any Korean player ever in ToT) that you won't recruit Koreans?
. We won't invite any Korean player since we are strictly against it. Koreans never identify themselves with the clan and they are hard to motivate to show up to clanwars because most of the players are just chobos in their eyes. Though we got JeeYunee as Korean member since she's a good friend of ToTs but we won't recruit any active Korean player to improve our lineup.
Who would you say is your best friend in ToT?
- Enigma. Because he's in ToT for ages and he we keep visiting each other regularly. Besides he even flew to WCG 2004 in SF to support me (with one of his friends) and we travelled to BlizzCon together ;P
At BlizzCon you were up against Nal_rA and lost, then faced Legionnaire in the Loser Bracket and won. After that you faced yet another Protoss in the shape of Reach, a match you lost. How was the overall BlizzCon experience?
- BlizzCon was an incredible experience for me. I had the opportunity to play real progamers and check out how good my skill is against such a player. I think I played well and I'm satisfied with my performance against Nal_ra and Reach :)
You did not take part in the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. Rumours has it that you were invited but said no. Is that true, or were you not invited at all?
- Nono, I was not invited though I would probably not have taken part due to school again ;P I would have missed two tests and that would not be worth it in my opinion.
These two invite tournaments shows that the best non-Korean players are not very near the best Korean players. However in World Cyber Games Top 4 included three non-Koreans. Some say we've been catching up and referrs to WCG, but other say we still have miles away. What is your opinion?
- It depends on several factors. Some days you can compete at least a bit with them and at another day you just go down badly. Seeing those invivitational tournaments and WCG you probably have to admit that Koreans are superior to non-Koreans but you actually have to look at the single games: I think both Assem and me could have made it 2-1 as well. The invitational tournament in Korea was a big playground for the non-Koreans though, except of Fisheye who I did not expect to play that well. Considering WCG it's easy that there was just one Korean in Top 4. The other two Koreans eliminated each other and Androide got just an impressive shape in TvT. Though the dominance of the Koreans could as well be seen in fOru beating Androide clearly in the end.
Let's have a look on the gosu gamers database, where you're ranked five, above you is androide, testie, sen and pj. Do you think that our ranking kind of sums up with how it is?
- To be honest: No I don't think so. Some games get added and some does not get added, other playing more showmatches vs really bad players and gaining points by winning them. Besides I lost 70 points by losing against Satanik, seriously, that must be an error. ;P And I think players should get more points by winning a final of a tournament or so (but not lose more)
Yeah, but it's hard to add all the matches, and we've had some coding troubles with it lately, some point scores doesn't sum up as it should. If we get more GosuBet managers, I'm sure it'll get better. But that's another discussion, let's move on to you!
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- Err... Winning GGL feels of course very good. It somehow makes me proud because I did not really expect to advance from the group (sen / pj / leg / suker in it as well). But afterwards it just went smoothly throughout the whole playoffs by winning everything x-0 except of the final because I had random terran.
What are you going to do with the cash prize? What have you done with the previous prize money you've received?
- I haven't used the money I won so far for anything special. I just accumulate it on my bank account ;P
Let's talk about The Ace, GosuGamers tournament hosted together with RakeMeBack.com. You are in Round 2 facing KaaZ, another great Zerg player. What are your thoughts on this round? I know you played him in GGL and won. How is he as a player?
- Will be as well another tough opponent. KaaZ is always an opponent who can beat me any time, but I don't know if he will play TvZ against me or ZvZ, that might be an advantage for him. He plays both matchups very decent and can beat me in both of them.
Will you prepare anything special before the match, like training extra TvZ and ZvZ? I know he has practiced a lot of Zerg versus Zerg against you, so he'll probably play Zerg.
- I don't actually care if he plays Terran or Zerg and I won't prepare for it anyway since I'm too lazy ;P
You're currently in the Loser Bracket in Team Areola Nipple League #3, where you're waiting for Advokate and Pj to finish their game. Which player would you like to face?
I don't really care who I will face. I feel confident both in zvt and zvp though zvp is definitely funnier than zvt. I just wanna win the loserbracket final to battle it out with Draco once more :D
What happened in the WB finals against Draco? What were the factors that made you lose the match?
- In the first game it was pretty even, my mutas made damage and I built up a contain but he just totally outmacroed me and overran me after breaking out of the contain. In the second game I was cannon + zealot rushed ;P
Well, I think that's pretty much it. Anything else you would like to say before we end this interview?
- I thank you for taking the time to make such an interview and it was indeed funny! <3<3 Sen :D
