At long last, it is finally time to knight a player of the newest generation of Zero Hour players, one who has rose to prominence rapidly. Today we are proud to announce that TumStep has become the newest recipient of the esteemed Master Badge!
The statistics have finally had their say!
On behalf of GameReplays, M00NKN1GHT^ had an interview with him.
GameReplays: Hello Tumstep, I hope you are doing well. Could you give us a quick intro to yourself; your age, what you do and where you live (roughly)?
TumStep: Hihi, I'm well yea. Sure, I'm 16 years old. Actually I turned 16 on the 17th August. I'm playing computer games and studying in lycee in France near Dijon.
GameReplays: What are your dreams in the future that you are working on or would like to work on?
TumStep: Ouh, hard question to be honest, but I'd like to work in IT company, or maybe I'd like to be psychologist, but I don't think so I will choose it, actually I still have no idea where I'd like to work.
GameReplays: Any pictures of yourself you would like to share?
Tumstep: This one where I'm in wheelchair is so cool here you go
GameReplays: Congratulations on becoming a Master! After your hard work and dedication you have been rewarded with the Master status. Would you enlighten us with your Zero Hour career from the very beginning?
TumStep: Thanks^^ Appreciate it.
Well I think I played this game when I was around 6 years old and I played it with my brother and father. Usually we played against each other or against bots, we didn't know about online. Then we have to move to another city because of some problems and we have to leave some things like the PC at home.
So we couldn't play and then after some years, my brother reminded me of this game and we started to play again. He was owning me every time, he was defeating me and of course I wanted to defeat him, so I decided to see some strategies on YouTube or see how other players are playing and I found Bl9rTV I think, I watched some replays in his channel and then I tried to copy the strategy (I won). Also I found spl's channel at that time he was streaming quite often and I really liked to watch him I even was his fan^^ and then I discovered Revora and I started to play there. I think I played every day, but it was really slow progression.
Then in Bl9r's discord channel he wrote "Who wants to play a challenge for $10" and for our country and for me it's quite good value, we can buy a lot of chips or other food or just save them. Then I said "I wanna play" and it was my first challenge for money and I won it. (Btw I played against Logica, not the real one lol) and it gave me a lot of motivation, that even in noob level of game I already can earn some money, so I decided to become much stronger to earn more money and I liked this game, so it's sort of a hobby for me. Then Sonic decided to create ladder and it really helped me in developing my skill level, I played there everyday and I was spamming a lot of games. Also There were a lot of months with prize pool and sometimes I took first place or second place there. It's still there in ladder's history and like that I became a strong player.
GameReplays: Can you tell us about the origin of your name?
TumStep: My name is Timothy, but in Russian it's something like "Timophey" and not everyone knows it, but my nickname is created by my name and surname.
Timothy = Tum (why "u" not "i" Because it looks better and in Russian there's a handwriting letter "u" and it pronounced like "ea" like in word "team") and Step by Stepkin, so my nickname reads like "TeamStep"
GameReplays: You have spammed a lot of Zero Hour, what made you decide to dedicate your time into it and not other games like Valorant, Fortnite, Call of Duty etc?
TumStep: Because I really like to play this game, much more than CS:GO and I don't get tired of playing this game everyday and for me it's the easiest way to earn some good money. So my first challenges gave me a lot of motivation to play this game.
GameReplays: Who are your favourite streamers to watch and who would you have to cast your games?
TumStep: Think my favourite streamer is StaZzz, he has good humor and he's a pro player, so usually he doesn't miss important things and he can tell some interesting facts of the game. In English community I think it's Excal and Dominator. But usually I don't watch streams in YouTube even StaZzz's streams and I don't mind anyone casting my games.
GameReplays: Who is your favourite opponent to play against?
TumStep: I don't think I have one, I like to play against all experts and masters, because they can compete against me.
GameReplays: Least favourite to play against?
TumStep: I like to play against everyone, but there was one time when I hated to play against Peacelover and Shaye.
GameReplays: What is your favourite/least favourite match up to play?
TumStep: I have two favourite matchups which are USA-Tank and GLA-USA, because you need to have good control to play them, if you don't you will lose them quite often. I have good control, so that's why I like them. I hate to play imbalanced matchups, especially on my map which I picked xD.
GameReplays: What would be your dream set to watch/play?
Tumstep: To play in final of WS against Excal and win^^
GameReplays: What do you think of the current Master promotion process and can you think of any improvements that can be made?
TumStep: Think it's already good, but if it would be a little bit faster it would be nice. Because I was waiting for the badge since I won expert round robin, but I'm sure I didn't get it because I won it with 2 loses. But then after some months I started to play much better, was winning against Boycah in a row a lot of times and other experts also I was winning masters.
I have only one theory why I didn't get it earlier, maybe because they were looking at my stability. I think if a guy can win most of experts and even some masters in challenges and if he won expert round robin he already should get the badge. Maybe around 2 month just to look at his stability and if he's stable he should get this badge. So just to make promotion a little bit faster
GameReplays: Hypothetically, if there was an expert badge for team games. How do you think would deserve it.
TumStep: Yes, of course if there would be one, it would be really good, but it's gonna be a little bit hard to understand who deserves it and who doesn't. I'm not really strong in team games and I don't really follow them, but I think Excal is one of the strongest in team games and Ammo is also very good there, so they really deserve it. I can't say about others I know the best only about them^^
GameReplays: Do you have a message for the community or anyone in particular?
TumStep: Yea, I'd like to see much more players in expert/master level to play and to have competition in the game. Tournament/challenges would become much more interesting and it would be much more interesting for viewers to watch streams. It's always good if there are a lot of players in same level of the game.
I want to say thank you for everyone for supporting me. Also big thank you for sponsors of every tournament and challenges. You make this game much more interesting not only for players, but also for viewers. I really appreciate it. Every year the game becomes more popular and this is your merit.
GameReplays: Thank you for your time and once again congratulations wishing you all the best.
And the part you actually want to see—special interviews with Marakar & Bl9rtv
The bl9rtv interview will be released on the afternoon of August 29.
Note: The newly implemented Master Badge is explained here. Since essentially, 'Master Players' are those who play at the highest competitive level at the present moment of time, all newly promoted 'Experts' [As they were once called], shall be given the 'Masters Badge' but at any point in the future during a review, they happen to lose that Master's Badge, they shall be compensated with a permanent 'Experts Badge'
Special thanks to M00NKN1GHT^ for conducting this interview
here you go 
