ESFI World

ESFI recently had the oppurtunity to grab Andrew "mOOnGLaDe" Pender for an exclusive interview about his upcoming trip to South Korea.  The interview runs at just under 20 minutes and covers the following topics:

• WarCraft 3 career
• The switch to StarCraft 2
• Living arrangements in Korea
• Goals and expectations
• Showmatch with Ret on January 23rd
• FXOpen
• Australian e-sports scene

Here is a brief recap of some of his thoughts:

ESFI World:  Can you tell us a little bit about your Warcraft 3 career?

I was probably the top Warcraft 3 player in Australia for 5 years.  I went to WCG 4 times.  I didn't do too well,but I managed to take a game off of grubby once!

ESFI World:  What made you decide to switch to Starcraft 2?

The competitive scene for Warcraft 3 was starting to die out.  I think a lot of people had high hopes for Starcraft 2 when it came out, so I was definitely ready to jump on board and try to compete.

ESFI World:  How was the transition, and how confident do you feel compared to Warcraft 3?

I guess the hardest thing would be mastering the macro.  Warcraft 3 wasn't a macro-based RTS, micro was more important.  But I got used to it pretty quickly.  I played a lot in the beta.  Things like the queen mechanic were pretty tricky at first, but I got pretty good at it, and I feel I'm a lot better at Starcraft 2 then I was at Warcraft 3.

ESFI World:  How did your trip to Korea come to be, and how excited are you?

Competing in Korea has always been a dream of mine.  I think I can definitely compete in Code A from what I've seen so far, so I just asked FXOpen if they'd be keen to send me, and they said yes!  I'm pretty excited, and pretty damn nervous about it, but I should do well.

ESFI World:  What are your living arrangements going to be like over there?

I'm definitely staying at the GOMtv foreigner house.  The plan is to do well in Code A and stay there as long as it takes.

ESFI World:  You play on both the NA and Korean ladder, what are some of the differences?

There's a lot of cheese on Korea.  Obviously the top players won't just do that, but they're all very good at their cheeses.  That's the biggest difference.  It's scary and really good for practice.

ESFI World:  Do you have any practice partners in Korea, or do you plan on laddering a lot?

I don't really have any contacts over there.  It would be cool to practice with Idra, Ret, and all them, but my plan for now is to go to a net café and ladder a lot since the GOMtv house doesn't have any computers.

ESFI World:  Are you nervous about the language barrier?

No, I've been in countries that speak no english before and I've managed.  I'll just focus on Starcraft, and I'm sure there will be people to look after me in the GOMtv house.

ESFI World:  How do your parents look at this?  Are they supportive or do they "not quite get it"?

They're very supportive.  They've always respected it.  They know I've done well in the past, so they trust me when I spend a lot of time with a game.

Download the mp3, or check our youtube channel where it will be uploaded promptly.  Special thanks to Mathew Kleppin for helping get rid of some of the audio glitches during recording!  Please leave feedback in comments as I very much enjoyed doing this, and want to improve and continue to do it in the future.