Entretien avec KraV

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• Version française
• English version

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FrenchCraft :
Hi KraV and thank you for your time! First, congratulations on qualifying to this DreamHack Winter, winning EnTe then Dise. How did you prepare for your group?

Hi TinkeR.

Logically, my first match should have been against SyDe. So I didn’t prepare anything specific. DreamHack timing coincided well with the end of the W3Champions season. I had the opportunity to play against the best Undead in the world : Happy, eer0, LabyRinth, Michael, Insup. So I wasn’t too worried for this first match.

However, the day before the match, I’ve learned about SyDe withdrawing and being replaced by EnTe. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to EnTe, but I had the same confidence, because I’m comfortable with mirror, and I’ve recently won against EnTe twice during the previous DreamHack, during difficult times for me.

For the second match, I was expecting to play against Blade, but eventually Dise took advantage of his no show. Even though Dise won against me during the W3Champions Season 6 finals, I was still confident. During the last DreamHacks, I had to meet Neytpoh a couple of times. I’ve noticed weaknesses in his game, and Dise being Neytpoh’s protégé, I’ve noticed the same weaknesses with him.

Among the players that you could potentially face, are there any you’re afraid of?

As I ended up in the first place of my group, it’s true that I’m lucky not having to face the tops from the European scene. Usually, I have the misfortune of being drawn in the same group as Happy, managing to tickle him without being able to beat him, and having to fight afterwards for the second place.

Being at the first place of my group this season, I therefore avoid Happy, Foggy and XlorD for the Ro8. Honestly I don’t fear anyone. My objective is to enjoy myself and win obviously. However I’d be ashamed to win an important tournament by having an easy ride. I’d rather lose with panache than win without challenges, maybe my French side.

You seem to be very close to StarBuck, you’re pairing together in a frightening 2v2 team. Would you say this is an advantage or a disadvantage for you if you have to meet him?

It’s true that I’m very close to StarBuck, I wasn’t following much of the StarCraft 2 scene, but I’ve heard of a little prodigy from Slovenia. Thereafter, I had the opportunity to attend a 2v2 showmatch against Grubby and KnOfF. My manager (Antoine) advised me to ask StarBuck, and that’s when our friendship started. Matic is an exceptional guy. Now, there’s not a day that goes by without sending a message to each other. And it was only the first showmatch of many I hope. We won another showmatch against Ark & Hitman recently. Then we won a W3Champions 2v2 Tournament together.

Now if we have to face each other, we’ll both do the job. It’s neither an advantage, nor a disadvantage. Obviously I’d be happy to win, but if he does I’d also be very proud of him. This reminds me my qualification match for my very first DreamHack against KnOfF (a steroid-boosted Swede who looks like a Grunt !). I remember I’ve told him « You or me, I’ll be really happy ». It’d be the same with StarBuck.

A word about Blade’s no-show? How do you think organizers should deal with such cases?

I always struggle understanding these situations. I know this isn’t the first time it happens. And by the way, the previous times, these situations were often unfavorable for SyDe: Blade usually won against SyDe and then didn’t show up.

I don’t want to pour oil on the fire, or even draw a veil over the tournament management, but it’s true that by seriously punishing these behaviors, there wouldn’t be recidivism.

With that said, it’s also true that this matter affects me. Even myself I hesitated to attend the previous DreamHack. My dad passed away the day before the competition and his funeral was the day I had to face XlorD. I had absolutely neither the will, nor could I have my head around it then, but I wanted to play with the support of all the community. I think it’s important to be present, and not give up the community. As Freddie Mercury used to say : « The Show Must Go On ».

I guess you’ve been contacted by a bunch of teams already, we doubt you’ll be teamless for a long time, some scoop for us? 😄

Well I’ve left FrenchCraft a bit more than a month ago now. I want to be clear on the fact that I didn’t leave in bad terms, but more by mutual agreement. FrenchCraft wanted to refocus on the fun aspect, and I personally wanted to look elsewhere. But I obviously am very grateful for FrenchCraft. I still have chills when I think about the casts from ListeriaM or blaST during the previous DreamHack Regional Championship, or the supporting messages from the team members.

As for me, it’s true that I received proposals from several teams, but I’m not in a hurry. I’m still looking for a team who has the same values as I do : sharing, honor and friendship. Now, I won’t hide there’s some players I get along with, and I would obviously want to play with them during clan wars.

We know you’ve experienced a very difficult moment recently (you’ve talked about it earlier), has this event been a strength for you?

Indeed, I’ve lost my dad just before the last DreamHack, as I said earlier. Obviously this has been a very complicated moment. I didn’t have the heart to play Warcraft 3. But I received so much support from the community. Everybody was so considerate, compassionate. I was sad, but also moved by this support. I must say I wasn’t aware so much people cared for me. I was surprised to see some people cry or with tears in the eyes by evoking ma situation. I’m so grateful again for the community.

After having so good results, what are you still expecting from Warcraft 3?

My objective is to carry on enjoying the game, have fun with my friends and the community. I think I’ll continue to stream even though I know I’m not consistent enough.

From January onwards, I think I’ll have to slow down a bit and step back because my family will grow and I’ll be a dad again.

Since two years, your skill and your results have increased a lot. To what do you attribute your progress?

I think that two years ago, there has been some concordance between different events, making me be highly motivated. First of all, renewed interest towards Warcraft 3 from all the scene, but especially the French scene (and the creation of FrenchCraft)

Then, it’s true that a patch came out bringing the Crypt Lord into another dimension, but I don’t think this patch made me better. I think this patch made me want to play more and to progress globally. So it’s true that at first a lot of people considered me as « patch-Undead », but now they see that I’m able to play Lich first or classic DK, I hear these comments less and less over time.

Finally the last thing that allowed me to progress is that since two years, I’m way more open to others. As of now there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t have a contact with someone from the Warcraft 3 community. It’s a big family and it keeps me motivated.

Since few years now you’ve had the opportunity of having multiple experiences (tournaments, encounters,…) What are your best memories so far?

It would be too difficult to pick only one memory among this journey. Several moments come to mind.

First my victory during the France vs The World tournament. I must say the atmosphere was huge during the event. And my incredible ride. I think I decided to play Random against KurCo in group stage, and I was one map away from being eliminated. Then during the playoffs, I think that with Wiz, we were the two biggest outsiders onboard (Blade – KiWiKaKi – DeMusliM – Wiz – Foggy – Hitman – Deathnote – Myself), however we had an amazing ride.

And it was the beginning of the Twitter game. Before that, guys were only posting to announce their streams. It was an idea from Antoine, and was a good way for us to contribute to the Warcraft scene while keeping it alive. We tried to hype things up to the highest so viewers feel some interest in watching us. That created some kind of buzz, after that people were contacting me before the tournaments asking me to tweet before each matches. Now we keep on doing it as we know people love that and we also know that it has some effect on the players with a small mental. 🙂

Then I have in mind the memory of my qualification during the DreamHack Regional Championship where I managed to come back from 0-2 to 3-2 against JohnnyCage. It was incredible. I remember when I was down 0-2, I’ve looked at Discord to find some support. And I see a message from my coach « Come on, the 3-2 is there ». And at 1-2 « Let’s go! He has a big pressure on him! ».

Even on ladder I’ve experienced unbelievable emotions. I remember how I felt when I won for the first time against ToD, Grubby, or Moon. I saw myself as a kid, watching their games in VOD, dreaming of the day I’ll be as good as they were. So winning maps, it was a miracle for me.

In the past (Pandaria League, ESL France), we spoke about your rivalry with SyDe for France number one spot. Can you tell us more about that ?

It’s a bit complicated to give a ranking without coming off as pretentious. I think that in terms of results, I’m the best French player since about two years. But to be honest this is not my objective. Actually I’d even rather have the French community be a hundred times better, with myself being ranked 10th or 20th.

And to this day, if I were to rank myself , it’d actually be at the European scale, in regards of my performances. After all I’ve been at every DreamHack playoffs since two years now and always qualify to W3Champions finals.

It seems that the Warcraft 3 community manages to stay alive with initiatives coming from outside of Blizzard. Can you give us your expectations towards Blizzard, but also your insights on the work from these external actors?

I was very disappointed with Blizzard when Reforged came out, because we were expecting a lot of new players… What a disappointment !

I was especially disappointed by the lack of ladder. Because we thought we were going to run streaming marathons to get this precious Top 1 on Battle.net, like during the old days. But fortunately we have an incredible community and the guys from W3Champions have made an amazing job with the ladder. I’m personnaly very grateful.

And globally, currently the situation with Warcraft 3 suits me fine. I think that the community is very lively. There never have been so many tournaments. We never were able to watch so much Warcraft 3, particularly thanks to Back2Warcraft, but also each and every little streamers.

Thanks a lot for your time again! Any last words for our readers?

Thank you for the interview and to all for the support. Feel free to follow me on my social networks, either on Twitter @Krav_wc3 for hot tweets, or on Twitch : https://www.twitch.tv/krav_wc3 for some ladder sessions.