fix the link

done!

Why would SK drop rapha lol

Only reason i can think of is Rapha wants more money and SK is a sinking ship in terms of paying players :]

Just a follow up to recent rumours on rakaka.se plus the fact that SK have lost a lot of big names lately.

www.tek-9.org/news/rapha_linked_with_sk_exit-2259.html

Interesting, I knew the Lyn thing was probably financial, but I didn't know the Rapha situation would be too. Who knows, I thought it was safe to assume SK was doing fine financially, but if they're going crazy with picking up too many teams, then I can see where resources run thin.

I'm 99% sure that Steelseries was upset because of Rapha using little to no Steelseries gear at the event. Normally he uses the QCK and a Steelseries headset, but at the IEM NA event, he wasn't even using the Steelseries headset.

I really doubt SK would boot him for that, but no doubt it created some conflict.

I think cooller mentioned Rapha's SK pay is around $500/mo (plus sponsoring trips to events etc.).

If that's indeed true, then SK's funding is probably being cut short a bit for 2010, so they might not be able to pay Rapha that monthly salary.

My mistake, it was $700/mo for Rapha, and cooller gets 500 euros per month + free devices/sponsored trips etc. Just watched the video again :)

Yeah, I'd say that SK is probably having issues financially then, hence why Lyn left, and why probably Rapha is leaving, or is forced to leave.

So is kinda thing typical for these guys when they are in these groups- Sponsored trips, free devices? I figured there may be a salary agreement, but I always wondered whether the players had to pay out-of-pocket for hotels, plane tickets, etc.

Most of the time it's free travel + hotel + hardware etc, with no salary. The only agreements higher up from that are ones with all the above, plus salary.

So I imagine that anything you win you get to keep all of (if not a team game, of course)?

99% of teams allow the players to keep the winnings. There's very few teams that require the players to give a percentage of it back to the team. There's some cases where it's done as an exception, like when some of SK's CS players didn't record demos, 5% of winnings was taken from them.

he better pray more

Ouch - much less than minimum wage.

Erm...what did you expect? He has to win to make money :)

That's far below minimum wage without winning, and maybe equal to minimum wage (yearly) if you win EVERY tournament.

hint: its not a job for them, its a hobby

It won't be either when they're on the street.

Link to video plz?

It's in Russian :/ But here it is: http://www.goodgame.ru/video.php?ocd=view&id=986#comments

good read

"winning a major international event is my goal."

Surprised you haven't already.

Where has he said he had hadn't that goal?

Nah, he just hasn't won a major international event yet.

k

[ - ]

had or hadn't? shouldn't be too hard to sort this out

?

Good read, indeed. Hopefully he does well in March

CHA CHA DACHANG

if rapha wins iem european championship, its still 5th international win in row!

he will maybe win iem world championchip, but i doubt his chances of winning iem europe :D

If he won with 150 ping, would he be 'all times lucky'? :)

oops :D

Prefer classic Q&A format interviews myself, otherwise nice read.
Think it's a bit too early for dahang to be claiming top NA player status though he somehow manages to do so will still comming out humble. Hope he really does prove me wrong as his specability is through the fucking roof.

you stole my opinion about the interview :o
so "seconded" i guess

I plussed this because it was written in decent English. It also avoided asking questions like "What is your favourite soft drink?". I still think it could have probed a bit more on match dynamics/personal story/motivation, etc, but overall a good iview.

DaHanG best in NA is bullshit, like always in interviews where they brag and stuff.

I thought he was very reasonable actually, I was impressed.

Often Quake players (and athletes in general), have a skewed vision of reality that includes making excuses for losing, egocentrically overhyping themselves, and at least in Quake, pretending to put in far less time and effort than they actually do. There are so many examples of this, it just becomes comical. It would make more sense to follow the example of Federer and Nadal. Both of them usually leave that impression that if they won, it's because despite their opponent playing amazing, they were still able to come out on top, and if they lose, it's because their opponent was so on fire as to be unstoppable, or whatever. It's mutually beneficial, and reflects the high skill level and effort put in by everyone. It probably makes people more interested in watching the next final, too. Not many people want to hear about how Av3k lost because he didn't feel like practicing.

I think Dahang's view is correct. If you want to talk about the "best player", you need a good definition to do so. He won the most recent NA lan, which makes him the best player here over the last month or two. Rapha won 3 or 4 tourneys in a row in 2009, which would make him the highest ranked player worldwide over the entire year. There's no contradiction, it's just a matter of how you look at the information you've got.

I think that the sayings "the other player was unstoppable" when people lose, and "the other player played good but I played better" are excuses. It gives the other person credit but it does not help player A much if he attributes all of his wins and loses because someone "just played better". I do agree that people always pervert their cognition by saying that they didn't practice enough or whatever, but both these instances are excuses.

I really think you don't understand the context of DaHanG's quotes, since you don't play among them. These players understand each other's play, often studying each others' demos...they know when another player is "zoning out" or going "supersaiyan" etc...

As DaHanG has said in interviews, there's such a tiny fraction of "breathing room" when pros play each other...just look at DaHanG's comeback on T9 against Rapha...every single predict rock that did a LITTLE damage was BARELY enough for DaHanG to put together sufficient frags to prevail...

These guys aren't just going around the maps hoping to get a frag...they are in fact, gambling all the time on choke points, predict shots and precise movement anticipation...this really is chess but with aim and motor skill superiority.

p.s. DaHanG never brags, ever.

DaHanG NEVER said he was the best NA player...where's the quote?

Actually he did, but it was taken out of context in order for this news to "sound" more provocative:

- I, with caution, consider myself number one in North America since I just won the last event. I don't deny rapha may have a better case in this because he won four in a row with deeper fields of talent and that's much harder than what I accomplished.

okay see it...I was more replying to Glow's comment about "best in NA is bullshit" and the bragging...thing about DaHanG -- he's consistently rigorous about his comments, almost philosophical, in that he builds a valid argument for his conclusion. Almost too thoughtful sometimes :)

yeah, well he acts like he wouldnt have any kind of confidence.

hehe yea that's a bit cheeky of him for sure, good obs...very smart young man though, and I think he continues the mental strategies off the monitor as well as on!

Yeah, I was watching pre-edmonton interview with Tim, and I was quite surprised how modest/normal the guy is.. Of course, it's always a possibility that he's just acting, but I don't think so, guy looks pretty 'down to earth' and I like that :)

lol ^^

what? :P

turbo agree

potatoe

cooller will crush dahang with ease

3 words: fatal1ty

practice practice practice?

practice, practice, practice !

SELL SELL SELL

exaggerate! exaggerate! exaggerate!

i miss mathbot :(

when will he finish his math phd?

T9 was def the best match of all. ztn, t7, and dm13 were one sided and rapha made too many mistakes on dm6.

ZTN was decent. Watching Rapha's POV initially on ZTN, I kept wondering why DaHanG is still alive?

That killer RL by Rapha can be deceiving. He hits it so much, but he's getting the bad end of the damage ranges when it hits often times, giving the illusion of dealing more damage than has been dealt.

Go Tim!

It's not so impressive when DaHanG gets tooled in two maps (and badly) and barely wins three. Looking forward to some more matches to see if he can solidify his standing.

Well played by both.

It's pointless to arguing about american players, cooller crushes them easily...