ToD Interview [Archive] - WCReplays.com Community Forums

RedMeansDead

05-13-2007, 03:03 PM

I did a little cleaning up to make it more readable but you'll still have to figure out what is the interviewer and what is ToD. Not to hard though even for people too lazy to sign up for a free account at the website. :P

We're back again with the second edition of Inside The Gamer. This time it will feature the French Warcraft 3 hero, Yoan Merlo, or more commonly known as 4K^ToD in the gaming circuit.

ToD, who simply requires no introduction in the community has been playing Warcraft III since the days of RoC. Since then, he has played for top professional teams like ArmaTeam as well as SK-Gaming.

Today he plays for 4Kings, UK's leading professional gaming organization and has been regonized among the top tier of WarCraft III players since the beginning of the professional competitive scene.

He has revolutionized the Human race with his unorthodox strategies, along his exceptional micromanagement skills and quick-thinking. The 22 year-old has also enjoyed countless number of successes, some of it includes the winner of CPL Dallas 2005 and WEG Masters in 2006.

Just a few months ago, he decided to move to Beijing, China together with Kim "SaSe" Hammar to fufill his dream as a professional player.

Mini-Profile
Name: Merlo Yoan
Date Of Birth: 20/03/1985
Height: 1.90m
Weight: 83kg
Living in: Beijing
Keyboard: Steelkeys 6G
Mouse: Razer Krait
Mousepad: Steelpad S&S
Headphones: Icemat Siberia
Monitor brand: Samsung
CPU: INTEL (the best)
Connection: Wang Tong
Sensitivity: 7&half in Razer drivers, middle in windows sensi control.
Resolution: 1024 x 768
Custom Keys: French default keys (which are alot different from the US ones)

Favourites

Favourite drink: Coke
Favourite food: Sam gyup sal (Korean BBQ)
Favourite animal: Dog
Favourite movie: The Butterfly Effect
Favourite actor: Brad pitt
Favourite TV series: Heroes/24/Lost/PrisonBreak
Favourite music genre: Hiphop/Trance
Favourite person: ReMinD
Favourite CS Player: Goodfella
Favourite map: Used to be Terenas Stand but probably Turtle Rock these days
Favourite Sport: Tennis/Soccer

Living the Dream in China

You have moved in to China afew months ago, how do you like the lifestyle there?
I like it quite much, I feel very independant here. France and China are completely 2 different countries, but I guess the major differences that affect me are the culture and the food.

You have also lived in Korea for a short while before, what are the differences between Korea and China in your opinion?
First thing that comes to my mind is the population in China which is much bigger than in Korea. Pretty much everything is different, the food, culture, community, language.

You are also living together with SaSe in the same apartment. What are your thoughts on him?
In fact I'm not living with SaSe anymore, he moved out a while ago. I'm living alone now

And how is it like to live with someone from another gaming organization?
It's alright, doesn't really matter what team is he from, as long as he is a friend. I've had to share rooms with people who weren't on my team in many tournaments.

Do you have any interesting story to share about your time in China?
Well earlier at the WSVG event, after the tournament ended, we went out to a club with Grubby, SaSe & xiaOt, and at the end of the night we changed to another club which played some tunes I didn't know much of. And everyone in Wuhan in general and in particular in this club were pretty friendly, many people came up to us and talked, just to make friends.

There was this guy who kept coming by and telling me "Hey how are you ?" Then he would always have a big smile and whisper me "I HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE NIGHT!". Later on, I asked him "Are you working here or something?", he said "YES!" then proceeded to go to the table next to ours and hugged a girl he probably didn't even know. Later on he came again raised his hand for a "high 5". Hahaha he was just hilarious

After that, we left the club to eat something and he came by to say goodbye, Grubby who had been playing along the whole time gave him a very rough hug like 2 very old friends leaving each other, smacking each other's back with their hands

How does a usual day in China look like for you? Do you have any time for yourself? Or is it basically practicing 24/7 all the time?
Haha in fact I nearly never practice when im at home due to my internet connection which is rather disappointing, but right now I'm in Xi'An bootcamping with WE team for the 2nd time, and practicing quite a lot for a week

Have u been practicing with Sky?
No, I'm having a really hard time practicing Human vs Human , I get bored and sick of it so easily and start playing really badly, but I'm practicing alot vs other races though

How do you look for opponents in China? Do you have regular custom training partners?
Like I said my connection at home aint good, especially to play with Chinese, so I don't play much when I'm at home. But yeah, I do have some practice partners. The internet here in Xi'an pretty much allow me to play with any Chinese player, so I just play with every one of the top players in China, except for Sky maybe

Do you like the location?
The internet cafe where WE team practice is really good except that it has no air conditioner in the part where we play at, as Xi'an is so warm these days. The computers are good, internet good, and good service as well. The name is of this place is called Ekoo. I'd recommend it to anyone who travels by Xi'an to check it out.

The location is in the very center of Xi'an, near the Bell tower for those who know. So yeah there are alot of places to eat at, but many fastfoods though, I have been having a really hard time eating good food as I dont know the area much and the guys here often eat fastfood which I dislike. There are some clubs around also, but I came here to practice, not to party so I try to restrain myself from going there :)

4K^ToD after WEG Masters

Now that you have been living in China for so long, are you able to introduce yourself in Chinese?
I can say 'Ni hao' (Hello) and 'Wo shi fa guo ren' (I'm French), that's it haha. I tried to study some Chinese earlier but it looks pretty complicated, and I have been playing alot of tournaments and traveling alot so when I have some spare time I just use it to party and haven't been studying more even though I would like to.

What about the food in China? They're known for their spiciness
I can't eat spicy food at all so that's real big handicap for myself here, I eat alot of sweet food like Gu lao rou (Sweet and Sour Pork), Yang jo chao fan (Yangzhou Fried Rice) or just the regular dumplings, when I eat Chinese food.

How do you move around in China? It seems that most people can't speak English that well over there.
I try to always know the address of where I'm going in advance to be able to say it and if its too hard I get it written down on a paper by a friend. And in case it's not enough I have a mobile phone i can just call anyone and have them talk to the taxi driver for me :)

Were you ever regonized while walking in the streets?
Yeah, it happened way often to my big surprise ...Most of the time people just say like "Hi ToD" while walking by but sometimes they want a picture or simply to ask something

Have you ever thought of taking a short break from WC3 and going on a tour around China?
Well I've already traveled through China quite a bit so i dont think it's necessary right now. A country I would like to visit is Japan, but I don't wanna go there alone so if I find someone to go with me I probably will have a trip here. I like the country very much as I live here, I wouldn't live in a country that I dislike!

E-Royalty?

Everyone knows that you have been playing for 4K less often now that you moved to China. Is there a bigger reason besides the poor internet connection?
I was very disappointed at the organisation/staff of some teamleagues and the way they handled things so I thought it's better for me not to play in those.

Rumours are rife that you will be playing for a China-based team soon. Any comments?
No comments :)

4Kings had a bad start in the regular season of WC3L. Furthermore, the you guys were also rather inconsistent throughout. What are your thoughts on the team's performance as a whole?
After playing for such a long time the same game, the same league, against the same people I think it's normal to start to perform worse than before and have a slump. I think we were bored and lacked motivation, the teamleagues are far from as fun as they used to be, if it wasn't for the sponsors caring so much about it and all the medias around them I probably wouldn't even play those leagues anymore.

How do you deal with losses from a clan war?
I turn on my webcam and have my whole team watch me doing 50 pushups (5x10) then I apologize on ventrilo and go to sleep. Nah, there is no dealing with loses, depends how much I trained and how bad I lost ... If I really wanted to win and I lose an important game then it'll give me alot of motivation to practice alot right away

What do you have to say about manu's departure from the team?
It's a really hard loss, he was a very useful member of the team and a good friend, and will still be. He's not really gone from my point of view I still see him as a 4K member, he really contributed to our victory in the WC3L Season 11 earlier and I think too many people are not aware of that.

And now that you have triMble as your team's manager, will things be any better?
We had HoTLiPs helping us out earlier during the period where we had no manager and I think he was doing a pretty good job, so I dont know how things are gona get but I dont think they will get worse or at least i hope so =) I put some trust in triMble and i hope i won't be disappointed

4K will be playing against Team NoA for the offlines spot this weekend, what do you think are your chances to win as team?
I think we got pretty good chances, our shape seems to be quite good for must of us, if our internet connections are okay and we play good we should be able to win this, but NoA is a strong team who should never be underestimated so i hope things will go our way.

And if 4K qualifies for the offline finals, what are the chances that you will be able to defend the title successfully?
The chances are good too, if we bootcamp like we did last time none can stop us I think.

It is also clear that Grubby has not been performing very well, compared to the times back then where he won WCG and ESWC. Do you think that he is a weaker player now?
He had a slump for sometime like I said it's really hard to dominate all the time, but he's doing much better these days as we've seen, I think he's back on track and already has shown some really good things lately and I think he will keep it up.

Could his girlfriend be the problem?
Could be... But doesn't really matter as long as he's happy. When you're with a girl I think it's pretty hard to practice as much as when you're not, and if you like/love her you start caring much less about the game and winning/losing as well.

Talking about off-form players, what happened to FuRy and Zeus?
Multiple explanations are possible, they had some real life issues which could have affected them, and also people put alot of pressure on them all the time and I hope it doesnt play a too big role on their performance. What matters the most is that i think they are playing pretty impressive these days, both of them and I'm really happy about that and truly wish they will keep it up

Would it be safe to say that 4K will use Creolophus more often in clan wars now? Or will we be seeing a new player in 4K?
He has been playing nearly every clanwar since he joined. Anyway someone on the team might stop gaming soon, if it happens then the team will probably need a replacement just like for FoV.

Just a few hours ago 4Kings released a news, stating that they signed DeMusliM. Technically speaking, he isn't such a great player compared to the others on an international scale. Your comments on him?
Haha well, nothing special, I think he's an average player. To be honest, I wasn't even told this was gonna happen at all and to my big surprise when I came online this morning I saw a news saying he was joining 4K. I think it's more of a sponsor request from our English sponsor who wants to see more British blood on our team, than something else.

I was told he won't be part of the Warcraft squad in the teamleagues we play, but just play his own tournaments and those in UK for 4K as an individual. But anyway i don't particulary mind, he's a nice guy and I hope he will do good when wearing the same tag as me.

Can you tell us more about the team spirit in 4K? What is it like to be part of the royal Warcraft team?
It's nice to have only good friends on your team, apart from this it's pretty normal i think we dont talk to each other differently than with other people!! I guess the difference with other teams is that we talk to each other more about our real life stuff

You guys have also been shuffling the 2v2 squads around, is there a particular reason behind this?
Because since me and Grubby can't really play together since i'm staying in China we haven't had a "real" team practicing and *wanting* to play so we had to do this. But now our fixed team is Grubby(Random) & Creolophus(NightElf) ^^

Random? Isn't that too risky?
Risky means fun, fun means good performance

The Romantic Human

Let's first talk abit about WSVG which just concluded last weekend. First you lost 1-2 to SoJu in the Upper brackets, but you beat him back with the same score when you met him in the Lower bracket. What was going through your mind when you played him in the Lower brackets?
I was quite unconfident, but I won somehow to my surprise...I tried to think about how to play better than the previous time and just gave my best

How did you feel, being the underdog after beating MYM]Lucifer in WSVG?
ha, well i think Human players have found alot of good things vs UD lately, 1 of them being Paladin the other one, massing more towers to survive those destros, so i was able to win 2/0 vs a Lucifer who's shape is questionnable, nothing extraordinary here i believe.

You lost to Sky again last weekend at WSVG, but this time you were not as disappointed when you lost to him at WCG2006 Grand Finals. Why?
I've got a little story to answer that. Ever since I started to play WC3 at high level I always underperformed in tournaments against the top Orcs, constantly losing to Zacard or Grubby when I would meet them in tournaments, which was often in semi or finals. So i decided to fix my Orc matchup once and for all.

I bought myself a ticket to Xi'an some weeks ago to bootcamp for the first time with WE team and worked nearly only against Orc. In the start it was really hard I lost all my games vs Fly/xiaOt/LikE, then I would watch Sky's screen and see him beating them all constantly. There even was this one time when I got back from club and was still a bit dizzy from the drinks but not tired enough to go sleep so I went to play vs Fly at like 8am, and I lost few games and told to myself "I will win a game then go to sleep!" and I ended up losing at least 20 games in a row playing vs him for like 2 hours straight. But when I finally won a game I went to sleep with a feeling of relief

So i asked Sky for help as well, he gave me replays and some advice, after I went home I gave what he said alot of thoughts, and when i met Fly in WSVG I knew it was gona be a very though game because I lost maybe 95% of my practice games vs him earlier and I was already pretty exhausted from my games vs SoJu. I ended up winning to my surprise again and I think it's a good sign that proves I'm improving vs Orc.

After that I had to play Sky, the guy I always lose to, I never practice Human vs Human; I just hate this matchup these days. Before starting the game I took a look around me and all those people were massed around the gaming area creating a huge heat, my face was covered with sweat, I complain in all tournaments that it's always too hot where we play but this time, I gave up mentally before the games even started, that's pretty much why I wasnt disappointed nor surprised

You also used very special strategies against Lucifer and Sky. Were you inspired by wNv.TH000? What do you think of such strategies?
vs Lucifer yeah the Paladin was inspired from TH000, the MK first on GW was just from myself. I think it's a good change and make the game more interesting than Archmage-every-game. Against Sky the MK first thing wasnt really serious I knew the chances it would work were really small but it was fun to play at and at least more intersting than this freakin AM/Panda mass breaker thing :D

Do you think the "Paladin" strategy can be countered easily?
Not easily, but everything has a counter. Human has been struggling for so long vs Undead, and finally these days we have been doing "okay". Sorry, I can't give tips on how to counter it but I hope this will last as long as possible^^

Were you happy with your performance in WSVG?
I wasn't happy but I wasn't unhappy either. I couldn't practice much the days prior to the event due to my internet so I wasn't really expecting to win the tournament but I think I could have gone further with maybe an easier bracket and a little luck ?

Brackets? Anything to say about the no-flipping system?
Haha. No, but imagine everything you consider your biggest disappointments in a tournament happens in that same tournament, well it did for me and that tournament was WSVG Wuhan. Map pool/bracket system/heat/organisation/schedule/communication nearly nothing was done right, but I got to see all my friends and had a good time with them so i can only hope the upcoming tournaments will not be like this

And do you think Moon deserves to win the event? Or was it pure elf imbalance? :P
Ofc he deserve to win it, he beat so many good players ... And about Elf balance as I have always said, an Elf who plays flawlessy is unbeatable, no matter if his name is ReMinD/Deadman/HoT or Moon

Hmm.. talking about imbalance! What are your thoughts on it with respect to the maps (TR/TM/EI/LT/SV)?
This map pool is the ideal one I think... Gnoll Wood one of the most imbalanced map has been used way too much in tournaments these days, and WCG added it to their map pool just because Sir Ownitsch decided it was a good map. People who decides map pool in tournaments have no clue of what balance in this game is like and I think they dont realise how much a map pool can affect the final result of a tournament.

Anyway I have pretty much given up all this whining shit these days and I just play on what i'm told to play on. I practice some on TM while before my practice on this map was non-existant and I would always lose on it in tournaments. I try to take example on Sky who just plays and try to give his best. I realised that complaining doesnt change anything

This kind of thing will never change, tournament orgas dont listen to players and I have always been the only who says what's on his mind, so if I'm the only one complaining publicly nothing will ever change so better just give it up, I just hope wc3 won't become like Incup which could also be called Elfcup these days.

Most top professional players have worked with hardware companies to produce stuff like mouse, mousepads, etc. Will we be seeing you working on such things in the future?
Haven't been proposed anything, but I of course would consider it if somebody ever ask me to work with them.

What is your private ranking of the top Chinese players? (1st - 5th)
Hmm that'll be hard, they are all so good and they have more than 5 top players ... I guess IF I have to give one it would be..

1. Sky
2. xiaOt
3. Fly100%
4. SuhO
5. Panxiang/TH000/TED/Infi

But the thing is China has alot of rising stars, unknown players who are geting really good but are not famous yet, I wrote a blog on replays.net forum a while before TH000 joined wNv, and in it I talked about my practice partners, to thank them and give a shoutout about them to the community, I wrote about what a great player TH000 was and sometime later he joined wNv and now he became quite famous and appreciated by the community.

I also talked about Azrael and Panxiang in it. Azrael, who might soon join Mouz and Panxiang who beats SaSe in WSVG... And there alot more players like this, unknown but really good, so i think the Chinese scene is the most interesting right now.

What do you think about the level of Chinese players? Do you think that their playstyles differ alot from the Europeans?
Hmm not particulary but I think in China right now the most "up to date" strategies are used, people here are ahead of Europe in my opinion. And some players in China are, I think also particularly creative.

Any examples?
TED, who created some popular build orders for Undead going fast tech and spiders vs most of races and also popularizing the use of Frost armor worldwide vs Orc&Hum. TH000 who plays alot with MK or Pala first when he uses Human. Sky who revolutioned (more than 1 time) nearly every matchup with his very own style.

In a few days time you will be going to Korea for the Ladder Season 5 finals tournament. Your chances?
I'm practicing alot for it right now, but I dont know the map pool yet, and I'm still pretty weak in HvH and there 2 more Human players so it's hard to tell... But I will try hard to do good there

And for the final question.. do you miss your mentor, HeMaN?
HeMaN wasnt my mentor, but yeah I do miss him

Any shoutouts?
Well shoutout to my team, and WE team with whom I'm bootcamping with atm in Xi'an! Thanks all my practice partners in China, Fly/xiaOt/Azrael/panxiang/ForDream/TH000/Sai ! Hi to Christine ^^! BIG UP TO SaSe/Zacard/Romeo and ofcourse a big thx to my sponsor, the best processor concepter, the almighty INTEL! (sorry that was long)