Interview with fnatic.ToD: "I want to represent my team as well as possible."

Yoan 'ToD' Merlo is a name that has been in e-sports since 2002. Seen as one of the most successful Warcraft 3 players outside of Korea and China, ToD switched to Starcraft 2 in the beta. He joined forces with Team Fnatic on September 10, 2011, and since then has been showing large amounts of growth in his game, most notably in the French Starcraft 2 Master Series where he is ranked 8th overall. Today when I talked with ToD, we discusssed Korea, the GSTL, his goals for 2012, and the Starcraft 2 map pool.

Photo courtesy of Fnatic

You are the Team Captain for Fnatic. As team captain, is there anything that you do that the average player on a team doesn’t?

ToD: Actually when I agreed to be the Team Captain I thought there would be, but there really isn't. ^^

 

You’ve been in the Fnatic Team House located in South Korea for a few months now. Have you and all the other players settled in nicely?

ToD: Yeah it's a really nice house and the location is great aswell. [There are] lots of food places around, supermarkets and everything.

 

What does an average day of practice look like for you?

ToD: I wake up and sometimes I try to play straight away, sometimes I just check out some VODS ( usually games in which good Protosses won ) from various leagues, I get some food, shower and just play a lot throughout the day with some breaks sometimes unless I'm streaming.

 

Have you personally noticed improvement since moving into the house?

ToD: Yeah, I do feel i'm playing better than before.

 

Is the Korean environment for everybody, or is it only for a certain type of Starcraft 2 player?

ToD: It definitely isn't for everybody, I think it is especially hard to live here for me since sometimes French culture feels as it is the exact opposite of Korean one. However I have been to Korea many times and I'm starting to get used of it , even though some of the things I will never be able to get used to, I manage.

 

Speaking of getting used to it, there is obviously a language barrier for you in Korea. How much has this effected your day-to-day?

ToD: Actually I know enough Korean basics to get by very easily, having lived in China previously I know the importance of learning the key words and phrases.

 

Photo Courtesy of Fnatic

Around the same time that Fnatic announced their new house; they also announced they would be participating in the 2012 GSTL Season 2. With the first set of matches (to be played against Team SCV Life) coming up soon, does the team’s practice regiment change?

ToD: No, we are still practicing as we used to, for myself that means mostly ladder.

 

As it is your first season in the GSTL, what are your expectations?

ToD: I have no idea really, I haven't played on a stage in Korea in like forever so hopefully nervousness won't be an issue, I just hope I can score some points for my team, that's all that matters.

 

Is there one team in particular that you are wary of facing, or is that not something you think about?

ToD: TSL should be a difficult match, and if we win we face IM which is even more difficult. I dont think [that] there particulary is any easier team to play against in the league so we will have to be on our A-game at all times.

 

Moving away from team oriented things; I’d like to know what events you are planning on attending in 2012.

ToD: Apart from the GSTL, I'd really like to participate in the upcoming TaKe's Homestory Cup, aswell as Dreamhack, and possibly a few tournaments in the US. That would be ideal for me [and] this is what I'm practicing for. I feel like I haven't played enough tournaments in Starcraft II. I practice a lot but play [in] only a few [tournaments] giving me few chances to show my potential, so I want to change that and hopefully attend more events.

 

And will you also compete in the Code A qualifiers?

ToD: Yes

 

What are your main goals in 2012 in regards to your Starcraft 2 career?

ToD: I pretty much answered that with my last answer, just to play more tournaments and show my potential, I want to represent my team as well as possible.

 

My last question is regarding the map pool in Starcraft 2 tournaments. As the game grows, more and more maps are released and more and more tournaments add these maps to their pools. This has led to something like the GSTL season 2 having 9 different maps. Some pro players have been vocal about this topic, saying the number should be narrowed down so the maps can be fully explored and played to their highest potential. What is your view on this?

ToD: I completely agree with them, too many maps is not good, however we shouldn't play on the same maps all the time. Maps must be renewed often in tournaments.

 

Do you think we will ever see a map pool that is shared by every tournament, or at least every major tournament?

ToD: Isn't that kind of already the case? There usually always is the same core maps and then a few more, but I hope tournaments will consult players to figure out what maps they think are best in a map pool. For example I attended IPL in Las Vegas earlier and the tournament was probably one of the best i've been to, except for 1 thing, Antiga Shipyard still had the gold base on it which is sort of unacceptable for a tournament of this caliber. So I'm curious as to how this could have happened and hope it won't again.

 

Closing everything off, do you have any shout outs or anything you’d like to plug?

ToD: Thank you for your time, and thanks to all my fans and to fnatic for supporting me and to our sponsors Raidcall, Steelseries, Eizo, and MSI. If you wish to follow me you can at facebook.com/YoanMerlo and Twitter @YoanMerlo.

Thanks to ToD for doing this interview. Best of luck to him and team Fnatic. If you want to stay posted on the latest blogs, interviews, and more, check out @TeamDignitas over on twitter.