New school year! And MaddeLisk is already very busy: ladder, training, TV show with Nazca... And competitions of course! This week-end, the Zerg player has qualified for the ieSF final bracket, winning the Swedish final against QueenE 3-0 : she will represent Sweden and Millenium in this purely feminine competition in Bucharest on October 31. The opportunity to learn more about her current performance, her reaction to team's news ... And a little about herself!
[M]Kaefer: Hi MaddeLisk, thanks a lot for this interview. How are you today ?
[M]MaddeLisk: I'm great thanks !
You just won your ticket for IeSF, beating QueenE on offline qualifier. Was this a priority for you ?
I really wanted to win and I was a bit nervous since I barely had any time to play the weeks before the match due to work. And my goal was not to win, it was to win 3-0 and I reached it :)
Does it mean that you are the favorite for this tournament ?
I don't know who is going there so it's hard to say. But I'd say I'm one of them.
Do you know a little about your future opponents ?
I barely know anything about them. I know some about Akane and among the players I know are going there, she is by biggest threat for sure.
IeSF this year is a female only tournament. You have been playing in many female-only tournaments, including the ones organised by Millenium before you joined. How do you feel about these tournaments ?
When I first started playing I was basically only playing casual 4v4 with my friends. Then, when we heard about the female cups, they started to motivate me to play in them and we practiced together for them. So I must say that female cups are probably the reason why I got into competitive gaming. So it would be stupid of me to say that female only cups are a bad idea. However, I also like to compete with the guys and play in mixed tournaments.
That's my priority. But if female cups can help other girls like they helped me, I still see a point with them considering what a minority female SC2 players are.
It's also about making tournaments for smaller groups. I think that in general is a good idea. Like the University Star League only for students or the national tournaments. It's not very different.
However, no cashprize will be given, did you feel insulted by that or do you think it's normal ?
The prize pool is not set yet so there might be one. If there will be no prize pool I don't understand why they want to spend so much money on organizing the cup, pay for travel/hotel and then not even give a small prize. It's really strange to me. I also think the reason they have a female only cup is to try to do something good for the female community and try to help it grow, but having a huge prize pool for the guys and non for the girls is not really helping.
The female scene is really struggling to emerge. Why is that in your opinion ? And what would be needed to make it stronger ?
I think that is a really hard question. I thought about it many times. I think it's important to give space in the scene to the girls that are doing a good job and that are really into esports, smix is a good example I think. I think female role models are really important. I would like to know how many girls that are following the scene compared to guys. According to facebook only 5% of my followers are female, and I asked some other players about this and everyone had about 5% female followers. That number is terribly low in my opinion. I think for esports in general to become mainstream it would be a lot easier if there were more girls. How to make it happen is, like I said, a really hard question and I don't have the answer.
Did you try the new maps on Ladder? What do you think about it ?
I don't really like them. I think Polar Night is ok but the colors are terrible. I always change the screen settings to get a more colorful game. But with that map it's impossible. The Frost map is too big for ZvZ in my opinion. It turns into a complete gamble. I will however give the new maps some more time before I remove them, and see if I can figure out a good way to play on them.
What are the points that you want to improve in your playstyle ?
I need to improve my multitasking. When I'm practicing with better players I usually feel that it is my biggest problem right now. I am currently working hard on map awareness. I'm trying to give extra focus to one thing at a time and then I change it. It's working well for me.
Did you train as hard as you expected in the Millenium House ? What did you learn that improved your playstyle ?
I played a lot when I was in the house and it was really nice to be able to focus on SC2 only. When I play at home I always have work and other things to think about too. I can't really point out what I improved on but I think in general I'm getting a bit faster.
What did you think of Millenium performance in Acer Teamstory Cup ?
I think it was a good result. Considering the teams that participated it was really good. And I'm sure Millenium will be able to do even better in the future.
You have known BBK for a while, since your eSahara/AL time and he told us you influenced him quite a lot to join the team. Tell us more about your discussions.
We talked quite a lot about Millenium before he joined. I explained what Millenium is about and what a stable and big organization it is. I think pretty few people outside France knows how big Millenium actually is. We were pretty unlucky with AL and so I think it was good for him to hear from me that joining Millenium would be a good idea, he knows how picky I got after AL and the unfortunate story with Quantic disbanding. Personally, I talked a lot with Lalush before I joined Millenium and that was very helpful and I think those type of discussions are really important before you decide to join a team. He is a really motivated player and I think he is a great fit for Millenium.
How do you feel about your ZvP? Do you plan to train with BBK ?
I focused a lot on ZvP lately for my match vs QueenE. Right now I think I have to focus mostly on ZvT since it's my weakest match-up. And also, I think ZvT will be a lot more fun after the latest patch. The overseer speed buff might seem small, but it makes it so much easier to use mutalisks.
FUN QUESTIONS :
You call him BabyLisk on Twitter, where does that come from ?
I think it was when we played 2v2 in a team league back in esahara. We just started coming up with silly names like BabyLisk and MaddeK, then we just continued on that path.
Speaking about names, which is your favorite nickname: Sweety or NutteLisk ?
If I have to choose I'd go for NutteLisk. Sweety is more suitable for Dayshi!
Did you find an empty place at home for this big trophy you won Saturday ?
Haha, yes. It got a spot right next to my trophy from University Star League. It looks huge in comparison :)
Some rumors say that you are now beating Dayshi. He didn't want to answer, maybe he is ashamed... So is it true ?
Haha. Well, I beat him every now and then but it's still pretty rare. He is a very strong player.
I heard you wanted to become an astronaut, what's the story ? Are you going to plant a Millenium Flag on the Moon ?
When I was 16 it was time to decide what I wanted to focus on in school. I decided to move to Kiruna, 1600 km away from my family to study space technology. So I lived there for three years and then I decided I wanted to do math instead.
Since you left, it seems that nobody bought Nutella anymore in M-House. Are you disappointed by your mates, and will you scold them next time for not buying Nutella ?
I'm so sad to hear that. I thought I taught them well :) I will give it another try next time I go there !
Thanks a lot, you can conclude with your words !
Thanks to everyone supporting me and please - keep smiling !
Again, thanks a lot MaddeLisk for this interview. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and TwitchTV.
Also, many thanks to Nazca for her help and Alma for the translation.
