MEET GABE

I was sitting in W3Arena home channel and I spotted GaBe, guy who I met 3-4 times on the server. Just from curiosity, I checked his stats. After seeing his stats I realized how special must this guy be and decided to ask him for an interview. And of course, I wasn't mistaken.

Hello Gabe, lets do the introduction.

Hello, I am playing on battle.net since February 2010. Before that I didn't have a good computer but I did play the game at my cousins place and other places when I could. I played TFT for 1 year and then changed to ROC and decided to stay here. I might be wrong with the numbers tho because I played TFT for one year and then ROC for two years.

This question is usually not very important but in your case it is. Where are you from?

I am from Argentina.

I am saying that this is very important because I saw your latency and it is always around 300. Playing with such connection must be hard? 

It is hard but I don't lose because of ping.

Why do you lose then?

I lack of skill. Like, I micro decent but I do some bad choices like losing my mind for a minute and then add a stupid move that totally fucks me up. I am not a solid player at all.

Well, we played few games against eachother and I am very sure when I say that you are solid player.

I can play good all game and in a second I will throw the win.

I'd call that lack of experience perhaps?

Maybe, I'm not sure.

What is your stats now?

Something like 10-50.

Yea. You have 11-53 stats and you are level 2. Why don't you make new account?

Why should I?

I guess that's what people are doing all the time. Starting with new account when current one doesn't satisfy them?

People care about what other people think. And I don't care about that. I care about learning. I don't like losing but making 10 new accounts is very same.

Okay but don't you feel embarassed because of your stats? I know some players do.

Why should I? I am bad. I know it. I don't feel ashamed at all because I know I will get better and that is the only thing I care. Getting better. People have low selfesteem. They need to prove the other players how good they are. That s not how it works for me. I need to prove myself how good I can be. If i win but I play bad I don't feel good. If I lose but I know I tried my best then thats a gg.

So you believe that the stats will come with the skill?

Maybe. Stats come when you care about them. Of course, if you have skill then its easier.

How do you handle losing?

I think what I did wrong and go on. No point in looking at the lose too much. When I feel I am getting angry I just look at myself and why I got angry because normally I get angry when I do mistakes that I normally don't do like missclicking and that. But it also depends in how you transform that energy. I believe that the best players are the ones that keep calm even when they have done everything wrong. Gaming is a mental thing. For example I remember the game between S_A_I_B_O_T and Poon3ss. I was amazed how S_A_I_B_O_T managed to focus through the game, playing 1 hour against Human tanking him. In that game I saw how he won just because of his mental state. His opponent started making mistakes but not because he is bad but because he was becoming tired and losing his mind.

Lets go back to your ping and the feeling I had few minutes ago. So after our game I searched and found the game against Felix. I felt my connection is terrible and checked my ping and it was 180. And I wrote to Felix how my ping was bad and how I am handling big delay and I instantly felt bad about myself because I remember you and you mega bad ping of 300.

Well, its annoying. But if you lose because of delay it is not your fault. It is just delay. I get angry when it is because of my play. If I can't play at my best I rather not play.

You noticed how low is the amount of "less good" players on W3Arena. Why is this the case? 

People want to win. They can't stand losing. Getting on W3Arena, on top level, means you need to play with against the best and that leads to the fact that you won't be able to win all games. Since Warcraft is an old game and there is no money from a question pops up - why should you get good at it? The only answer is because you enjoy it. Only reason I play here is because I get better and better. If I can't get better I will just quit for a while.

So what you are saying is that there are numerous players who are right now on battle.net and who are meant to enjoy this game while messing with hackers, lag and channels flooded by bots and that they are staying there just because that's the only place where they can be good?

Yes because people hate losing. If there is a decision in front of you where you have to decide will you come on W3Arena knowing that you will lose and staying on battle.net knowing that you will win you will rather stay on battle.net and have something to whine about. Lag. Delay. Hackers. I was watching porn on TV while masturbating with my left hand and playing with my right hand and thats why I lost, but I own you. Excuses all day long. Now if you come here there is no delay to blame. No hackers to blame. You can just blame yourself and that kills your ego. Dabum! 

Do you see this changing anytime soon?

Yes. People will eventually come here because battle.net is going to die and everyone is going to switch to private servers same like in Warcraft 2.

What would be your advice to those players who are delaying the switch because of numerous reasons we mentioned?

You can't really advise those players. People like that are not listening to others. But if they would ask for advice I would tell them that they should start realizing that they are not Gods. You can win some and lose some but you can't win all. Just deal with the lose and try to win next time. Don't start saying shit to eachother because things just get worse. Also, getting angry because of the game means that you are nerd. So stop being a nerd?

Would you say that for those players a game doesn't finish after the actual game is done, but they seem to prolong the war with their excuses and flames and expand it on websites, chat rooms and other places?

Of course. War never ends. But it is pretty much a war against themselves. It is easier to say shit to other than yourself. So they will say shitty things after games. If you know that you are good even if you lose nobody can take that from you. I don't feel like a noob even if I lose and lose.

Can you give comparison between battle.net and W3Arena players?

W3Arena players know what to do. Battle.net players normally don't. Here, on W3Arena, you need to micro. In battle.net you just can't. In here people are also making less mistakes. To sum up level here is way higher than on battle.net. Some players are cool, like in battle.net, and some rage when they lose but that's the thing I don't often see since I don't normally win.

That's a funny one on your own account!

No really! They check my stats and they are like: HOW THE FUCK I LOST TO THIS SCRUB!? YOU ARE BAD KID! And leaves.

I found stats being very tricky way of judging people's skill on W3Arena, don't you think?

Yes but people care about stats. If you lose to 100-0 dude you won't put yourself bad since he is so pro but if you lose to a 0-100 you will prolly break the computer. And since my stats are bad people rage more than usual.

Lets skip to easier questions. Are you satisfied with map pool?

As long as Tranquil Paths is vetoed I am happy. I hate huge maps and since the maps in here are small I am love each one of them. Games are full of fights!

What race do you meet most of the time?

Random, I think.

What is your opinion of that? Why are so many players going Random instead of picking a race?

Because it is better. If I play Random I have better stats. Since when you race up people just do a start that fucks up your race. Like for example, I am Undead and I meet a Random guy. He will prolly DL+Ghouls or DK+Fiends which makes things harder for me. Or even LICH+Ghouls which really fucks me. Random gives you an advantage and even wins your games. And since when we hate losing?

I completely agree with you on this matter. Would you say that people wont go for their main race because they are in fear of being disadvantaged?

I would say yes. But lets not say fear. It's just "we hate losing". And knowing we couldn't do anything, unless maphack to prevent it.

What race bothers you the most?

Random. 

Damn stop, I'm laughing!

Cause I can't know! I was used to play always knowing opponents race which makes my start easier. When you don't know you can get fucked just by the choice of strat in the start.

So tombola players are harder to beat than regular players who pick their race?

They are harder but I don't know. Thing just, if you go Random you just can't get better. You might generally get better but you are not focusing on one race and you foce is split.

Your main race is Undead. Do you have any players that you admire and that are playing Undead?

Of course. There is S_A_I_B_O_T and Ojune and last few days I am inspired by Vankor since I watched replay pack that you uploaded on blog. I am not trying to implement his macro in my own game player.

I would add eS.Rus and Pumppaaaja-Eki to that magic UD crew.

Yes. Pumpa is amazing. Add him too. Forgot him because he often changes his account.

And what about hb.thespecial?

xD. No really, Vankor is amazing player. I think I played versus him on a smurf and he owned me in like 10 minutes but I'll do better in next game.

Gabe, chat was amazing and I think we should stop now, good luck in your gaming.

Thanks, asking me for this interview was a big surprise.

Why so?

Who want to talk with 11/53 Random guy.

Well, I think I have an eye for interesting stuf and interesting people. And I am never mistaken.