escene.de: Hello Carlo, you’re living in Germany for quite a while now. How do you like Germany and whats your favourite City?Carlo ‚ClouD‘ Giannacco: So far I’ve been living comfortably in Germany and I like the country. Sure I have a really hard time dealing with the cold but everything else is just nice. The city I enjoyed the most so far is Hamburg and I hope to return there as soon as possible.
How did your german improve? Do you have the time to learn the language beside StarCraft2?
I haven’t really made that much progress in german just because people here understand english just fine and I don’t really go out enough or interact with non eSports people to have any need to learn the language.
You were a StarCraft:Broodwar player for a long time. Do you think the current balance at StarCraft 2 is on the same level as on StarCraft:Broodwar? If not, where are the problems considering specific units or compositions?
I don’t know about the balance, the game still seems to be evolving and if I have any complain I would say that some races are way too easy to play compared to others. But I don’t really play at the absolute highest level so I don’t feel I can make balance remarks right now. Broodwar was just better in every aspect except graphic and I still feel Blizzard failed to put the right people to make SC2 the epic game it should have been. It’s still a nice game, just much worse than its predecessor and way less entertaining to play and watch. I think the main issue in SC2 is that they made the units clump too much, making aoe spells and units too strong and making the real interesting units like spider mines, lurkers or reavers not viable because they would be way too good, especially at the lower leagues. Also the ground and the map doesn’t matter as much because every race has its own deathball and the fights are also way too short because of it. I just fail to understand how they could do such a bad job at this when they could have hired any developer or progamer that would have identified the problem right away.
Is the recently released Heart of the Swarm beta a good step towards the balance? What do you think about the removal of the warhound?
I like that they removed the warhound, its purpose was basically just to give an all around a move unit to terran while I think they should focus on making both protoss and zerg harder to play than they are right now. You can always balance numbers and add any unit you want but in the end what’s most important is the game design and how well thought the unit interactions are.
Back in the first StarCraft 2 EPS Season you lived together with NaNiwa and he is known as a difficult person. How was the living with him? Would you like to live together with a teammate again?
We had our good and bad times. He is a good guy once you get to know him and gain his trust and I have to say overall it was a positive experience. I would like living with another progamer a lot because right now I feel kinda alienated in what I do. I am constantly thinking wether I should quit and have a more social life since the game is taking away much from me. Having somebody who shares my same feelings and dedication in what I do sure would help.
After your contract with MYM expired you joined Team ALTERNATE. Are you happy where you are now?
Team Alternate was a good experience so far for me and I am happy with it. Take is also my team manager and he’s helping and supporting me a lot, which gives a really good feeling.
Whats your opinion on the gaming house in Linden? How often were you able to play there?
The house in Linden is really nice and big, I enjoyed my time there and whenever our team was there we practiced and enjoyed our time a lot. So far I’ve been there only in two occasions but it would be cool if all the SC2 players had more bootcamps there together.
The house in Linden is really nice and big, I enjoyed my time there and whenever our team was there we practiced and enjoyed our time a lot. So far I’ve been there only in two occasions but it would be cool if all the SC2 players had more bootcamps there together.
Have you ever considered to live in a gaminghouse like the Ministry of Win?
Well I can’t really go there since EPS kinda locks me in Germany. It would be a fun experience to go somewhere to play with other progamers for some time but I can practice just as well from Take’s gaming house. And honestly european progamers seem to be very reluctant to share their knowledge because they feel threatened since they play each other so much in local and international tournaments, and after all the bad experiences and disappointments I had when trying to improve together with someone I just find it hard to trust somebody enough to get the most out of a gaming house experience. I would really like something like a korean gaming house to happen here but it doesn’t seem possible at the moment. European progamers are overall too selfish and lazy and can’t seem to look past the short term gain for the most part. There’s a few who are different in this but we don’t really have anything or anyone that puts us together and makes us practice in a way that we would be competitive enough to face and beat koreans in tournaments.
Italy isn’t known for having huge eSport „Stars”, why are there no other Italian players like you competing with the top European players?
Because the player pool is very low. There aren’t just enough players to have a big enough chance for international starts to raise from the mass. Also another thing I noticed is that italian players always tend to be way too emotional and concerned about other people’s opinion about them, which holds them back a lot and doesn’t let them practice with a good and healthy mindset.
Your rivalry with GoOdy is known for many years now, how is the rivalry accrued and what are your first thoughts when you see you have to play GoOdy in a tournament?
It’s not really a rivalry since I just lost every time. I just accept the fact he’s an hard opponent for me but I don’t really consider my chances low when I play him. What makes me upset is that several tournaments just seem to pit me against him for the sake of fan entertainment, and I seem to get the worst out of that.
How does the preperation for the new EPS Season look like? Do you like the Cup system more than the old system where you could prepare for one opponent per week?
I don’t prepare for EPS. If I reach round of 8 it’s another story, but you can’t really prepare specifically for cups. I just do it by practicing my skill level every day as I would normally.
What would you consider your biggest achievement in StarCraft 2, and what are your plans for the future?
I was very proud of my ro8 in ESWC, but so far there’s no particular achievement I had that satisfied me and I am overall extremely disappointed with my results.
The last words are yours.
I’ve had a hard time in the past few weeks and sometimes I find myself struggling in my private life a lot because of what I do. I will try my best in the next tournament period but even though I love what I do I am not sure for how long I will be able to keep living this life with no certainty about anything and no stability. I am just grateful to the people who show support and to Take who is really helping me a lot in pretty much everything. But anyway, even if I have such feelings at the moment I know that whenever I go to any event or I am around my friends I can remember how amazing eSports is and how much it has given to me and eventually this always brings the motivation to try and improve myself.
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