English interview - For Is Here #23 - TargA

Challenge accepted

[M] TinkeR : To begin with, could you tell us more about how you've been hooked up by video games? What are the ones that have influenced you the most and how did you end up in WarCraft III, then StarCraft II?

[imG]TargA : When I was younger I mostly played Championship/Football Manager and FIFA. I had a friend who bought WarCraft III, so we played it a bit at his house, mostly custom games like Footmen Wars and Tower Defenses.

Eventually I bought it myself and my friends and I started playing team games, 2v2/3v3/4v4. After playing it for a long time I tried a few 1v1 games and it was a ton of fun, so I played WarCraft III a few hours a week and gradually got better to the point where I found out there were progamers and what eSports was.

 

What made you play Zerg at first, did you find similarities with playing Night Elf or was it just a matter of feeling?

No, it was kind of random, I didn't intend to play StarCraft II, but I have a friend who was playing a lot in the beta and was talking shit, saying how good he was. So I told him that I would only need 40-50 games to figure out the game and then beat him (he had like 500 games at that point). He was Terran, so I couldn't pick Terran, so I ended up with Zerg because Zerg sounds cooler than Protoss.

 

So did you need 40/50 games to beat him or?

Yeah I won 2-0, but it was during the Roach patch of the beta, so I just had to mass Roaches.

 

 

 

TargA today

So back to most recent days, you've been to DreamHack Tours two weeks ago and started pretty well by taking the first place of your group, even ahead of Leenock, before falling to Harstem.

Could you tell us more how that went for you during the tournament and how did you feel globally?

I practiced a lot before the tournament, and when I saw that I was in the same group as Leenock I knew that I could get first place since my ZvZ is usually really good, especially against the Koreans who might not know my playstyle.

So I was quite happy with that, the problem however is that I've always been struggling with Protoss for some weird reason. If you look at pretty much every DreamHack I have attended, I always lose to Protoss, sometimes against players that shouldn't stand a chance against me. So my goal was just to dodge Protoss, which didn't work out.

I've always liked watching the big tournaments in France, with Iron Squid and stuff, and this was my second time attending a big tournament, and the French StarCraft II crowd is probably the best crowd in the world. So it was a lot of fun meeting people and watching the games on the final day at least.

 

Even though you're recognized as one of the best Zerg players around among the foreigners, it feels like you're struggling a bit more with WCS than with DreamHacks or online tournaments.

Do you think the format could be an issue here or is something else involved? How would you analyze it?

Yeah maybe, the format for Challenger League is silly I think, it would be better with groups so there would be a higher chance that the two best players advance instead of someone losing because they are struggling versus one match-up or if they're unlucky or mess things up in one game.

For the [Premier League] I think the format is fine, I was pretty arrogant for Season 1 and didn't take Kane or PiG seriously because I think my ZvZ is a lot better than theirs. So I was mostly focusing on figuring out how to beat Happy as quick as possible.

I also think the fact that every regions have their own Challenger League is stupid, there are so many players in WCS now that are way worse than some Europeans that didn't even qualify for Challenger.

 

It's been recently « announced » that you're the first player invited to the next HomeStory Cup XI. What does that event means to you?

HomeStory Cup is my favorite event of all time, it's the only event where I don't care if I get eliminated early :D I love going to Krefeld for HomeStory Cup, we always have a ton of fun and I encourage all StarCraft II fans to come and watch the games at the pub and show up at the after party!!

 

 

TargA, TaKe's first fan

It looks like you all got some good times their and atmosphere seems fun indeed :P Let's stay with TaKe a bit then: you're currently on course with the Legacy ot the Ultras tournament, organized by TaKe which is played on Legacy of the Void beta.

What are your thoughts on the game so far and where do you think there's still some room for improvement?

To be honest, I have barely played Legacy of the Void, so I don't really have a good opinion, but I think starting with more workers is boring, since there's less room for mind games and gambling. Once there's a ladder and the Koreans come, I'll probably start playing a bit, but for now it's useless as I get players who aren't very good, so it's just extremely boring to play.

 

The imG StarCraft II roster reopened one year ago with you as the first player. Some others like Miniraser or Welmu joined later.

How do you get along with your teammates today, and how is the structure seems to go now if you look back and compare to a year ago?

It's fun to get a few teammates, I met Welmu a long time ago and Miniraser and I met at Copenhagen Games, so it's all good.

The structure of imG is constantly improving, they are always looking out for us, trying to help us with whatever and now Cr4sH (the StarCraft II manager) recently got more responsibility in the team as well, which is good for all of us.

 

 

More globally what are your expectations in terms of results for this year?

I really want to get to top 4 at WCS, I know I'm good enough to do it, so I'm going to work hard for that. I'd also like to do well at DreamHack Valencia this Summer. Besides those two tournaments, I don't think there's much happening during the Fall and Winter, at least nothing has been announced besides Gfinity. So I guess I'll have time to play a few Legacy of the Void games.

 

Where does your nickname come from?

I had a Targa monitor when I was younger ...

 

 

OK that's a brand? I didn't even know that …

Yep.

 

 

But wait, there's more !

Well, before concluding the interview, I have extra ones for you: if tomorrow you'd be asked to play another race, which one would you pick and why?

Protoss, the race is retardedly easy and there's way too many good Koreans you can steal builds from, and it requires almost nothing to copy those builds :)

 

One upgrade/technology (actually used) that you would remove from the game, what would it be?

Locust upgrade.

 

Name one player you'd rather want to party with than play against.

PartinG.

 

Now the way around: one player you'd rather want to play against than party with?

NightEnD

 

Ok! That ends it, I'd like to thank you a lot for your time :) If you have anyhting to add to the readers, or any shoutouts to make please feel free to do so.

Thank you for doing the interview and thanks to everyone who bothered to finish reading the interview :D You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Twitch :)