The interview conducted by Marcin Wąż of Valhalla.pl, translated by OceanicDrought, and edited by AsylumBuckman & OceanicDrought. Photos by FighterForum.com.Krzysztof Nalepka, to StarCraft players known simply as Draco, is undoubtedly the best Polish StarCraft player. Rivaling the skill of the very top “foreigners” (read: non-Koreans), Draco has won numerous prestigious tournaments such as Rymarov Spring 2007, WCG Poland 2006, DreamHack 2006, and PGL 2007, where he seized the first prize: 16,000 PLN (roughly $7,300). Valhalla.pl’s (one of the biggest gaming portals in Poland) Marcin Wąż has taken his time to conduct an immensely long and informative interview with him, which he has graciously allowed us to translate and publish on GameReplays.org. You can, of course, find the original interview on the aforementioned portal of Valhalla.pl.
Valhalla: What is StarCraft to you?Draco: It would be more accurate to ask what StarCraft used to be for me. Nowadays it’s just a bunch of memories, some good and some bad. StarCraft marked out a path for several years of my life, mainly because of competition, which has made the blood run in my veins since my youth. Before I started playing SC, I had practiced different sorts of sports, from football (soccer) to other athletics – with varied results.
Valhalla: Was the journey to South Korea an adventure for you or maybe a chance to make your dreams come true?Draco: It was both. Now I know that, however, when I was flying to South Korea, I was driven by a single urge – the desire for success. I know it sounds rather cliché, like some kind of a movie role I learned by heart, but when the plane finally landed at the airport in Seoul my eyes were watering. I had been dreaming of it for three years, sometimes lying awake in bed, trying to imagine myself as a progamer in Korea, thousands kilometers away. After those three years, finally getting off the plane, I couldn’t believe that it was all happening for real. Being in Cracow now, and looking back on it all in retrospect, I’m more willing to consider it simply a remarkably elevating and interesting adventure.
Valhalla: Your first impressions after the flight and after you’ve met the team?Draco: You could say I was „blind-folded” when I headed to Korea. Before I managed to join a progaming team (OnGameNet SparkyZ) I was living by a friend of mine from the USA – an ex-progamer who still lives in Seoul. Only after two weeks had I moved in into the team’s apartment. In principle, it’s hard to describe my initial impressions because I was basically enraptured with everything. I felt like if I was high. I remember the atmosphere from the very first training session rather vividly. The whole practice-room encompassed with silence, everybody totally focused, tapping the keyboard sounds, which seemed to say: “I am going to be the next StarLeague champion!”. That day, things stopped being funny, and StarCraft itself ceased to be a mere game to me. For the next eight months I’d be training together with the rest of the team thirteen and a half hours a day.
Draco and his team I think that – with all certainty – there is. In Korea, StarCraft has become a true sport – with one of a kind media coverage. Crowds of teenage girls screaming during matches like you’re at an Enrique Iglesias concert, rather than a PC gaming competition, which might seem to be a typically men’s form of entertainment.
Valhalla: How many hours a day did you spend on practice?Draco: As I mentioned before, it was precisely thirteen and a half hours of raw practice. I used to wake up at 9 o’clock and go to bed at 2:00 or 3:00 A.M. most of the time, always totally exhausted by the tremendous amount of training. By “raw practice” I mean not being able to use messengers, browse websites, and such. We were watched by four coaches, who made sure that we obeyed the rules.
Valhalla: How much did the new lifestyle and practice routine influence your play?Draco: The leap I’ve made is comparable to the gap between the multiplication table and integrals in terms of mathematics. What I’m mainly talking about is “game sense.” Training in a circle of a dozen or so people is much more efficient. This way you can share your ideas, remarks, and advice, not to mention the atmosphere of mutual motivation. Everyone wanted to participate in weekly ProLeague matches, where the coach could use only six players.
