I have for long planned doing interviews now but still I had no idea who my first victim would be. All the great players of Starcraft is already interviewed and you can read them everywhere. I was also thinking of interviewing old SC players like 1_COOL_GUY etc but most of them are now forgotten among the new players everyday joining in. One name popped up anyway. I checked everywhere for a interview with him but nowhere to be seen. The name is of course "Cyllion". A great player that have achieved little in tournaments but is still beating the great players . Meet him who can play Starcraft probably better than both you and me and can masterly express how you can improve your skills in words. Read this interview made mostly on e-mail but some on Kali.

[-PeonOfWar] First out is the commonly: Age / Sex / Location?

[[TG]Cyllion] I'm currently 15 years old, and Male, lives in Sweden - �rebro to be nigh exactly.

[-PeonOfWar] When did you start playing SC? Did you have another strategy game before it, like War2 and such?

[[TG]Cyllion] I began to play it exactly the same day as it arrived in Sweden - Juni 9. I'd been waiting for it in ages, every day talking about it on ICQ chat with my best online friend @rnold - how it would be, what race I would be playing and such. Although I haven't played War2 online before, but I played through the single player campaign - as in C&C, Red Alert and Warcraft 1 also. I loved RTS, but Starcraft showed me into the Online Gaming, and I have to say I belong there. Today and tomorrow as well.

[-PeonOfWar] Did you do well the first seasons? And did you play on battle.net or kali? What are you prefering to use today?

[[TG]Cyllion] No, I didn't do very well. I easily played up to 10 melee wins and began competing lightly in the Ladder where I assambled a total of 1200 points, almost every game was Free For All. Although, the last games I had was against Villert (who - for the unawared - won season 1) and I did lose some points. After my third and last game with him everyone were talking about him cheating - and unfortunately I was suspected for helping him win in the FFA. I've heard everything from telling him what to do throughout the game to defending his ramp (thank you Zileas...). Of course I didn't. I was just a curious newbie who wanted some games with the master. I was playing on battle.net, and have so done until for like one month ago when I switched to kali for natural reasons; the average player on kali is better than the battle.net player. But I must say I miss the spamming alot.

[-PeonOfWar] Tell me more about what happened with Villert.

[[TG]Cyllion] Ugh, ok. It was four people in the game, including me and villert of course. Everything started out with me going for hydras en mass, and I sent them to the 12 position (the game was on The Lost Temple, of course). His base was already being seizured by a terran player, and I killed all those marines and destroyed the base WHEN villert attacked me with alot of Hydras. I think I've never seen as many Hydras as I did back then ;). Anyway, I was dead and so were they if villert attacked soon. I told him to. Not even private. And that's that, not much of a big deal but people still think I cheat with him. I won't tell names, that wouldn't be kind to Zileas.   

   
[-PeonOfWar] Do you have any contacts with Villert today?

[[TG]Cyllion] Yes, he's on my ICQ list but we rarely chat with one another. It happens sometimes though.

[-PeonOfWar] Now over to something else, your favourite race?

[[TG]Cyllion] Hmm, Terran. But, it's not my best race and I have really a hard time meeting a Protoss on island maps. But I like River Styx alot.

[-PeonOfWar] What are doing as Terran vs a Protoss on a map like Temple, Rivarly or Styx?

[[TG]Cyllion] On River Styx vultures are the key to winning. They are super fast, and can strike rapidly. They can also execute Hit 'n' Run like nobody else can. And with the mine upgrade they are the best unit early on, but not alone.

[-PeonOfWar] Tell us more, build order, how to adjust to what the opponent is doing.

[[TG]Cyllion] I prefer to go three factories and one rax. Firstly, you build a Factory with your ~16th SCV or something, and with the same SCV you directly after that start to build another Factory - the third. So somewhere between those two you shall begin to build the second Fac. Then just build add-on on one of them and upgrade mines and go mine him in, or if he's attacking - mine yourself in. The Toss opponent can do whatever he wants to, both Goons and Zealots die to many mines. Then, switch to one Factory building Tanks and upgrade Siege Mode, with the two other Factories still doing Vultures non-stop. Then Switch to the contrary, then it's up to opponent if you want to add an Armory and do Goliaths for air defense or keep it up with two tanks and one vulture a time, or three tanks. Whatever you do - expand and you'll be fine. Once you can siege him in the game is over, if you handle your Tanks right. Don't die sillily to Zealots or get Reaver dropped just by your tank. Well, this is an interview and I won't go too detailed into it. Also have in mind that soon another strategy will be up at www.blizzardaddicts.com, read it instead =]

[-PeonOfWar] So what can the Protoss do to stop mines?

[[TG]Cyllion] Hmm, just don't scout with probes like some players do. Only because they don't set off the Spider Mines. That can also be good to know once you have observers - kill of stupidly Mines with your probe(s). And remember, if you're in a Mine field you can build one or two Cannons. The Mines won't attack the probe, nor the Pylon or the Cannons. This is only if the Protoss is too mine happy, which happens in some fortuitous. Reavers and Templars are also good Mine killers in freakish occasions, as well as any flying unit that can attack.
[-PeonOfWar] Good answers. Tell me do you play Random always, even in important occasions like tournaments and such? Or do you stick around with your best race whatever it is?

[[TG]Cyllion] Nowadays I play random, although my best race is Zerg or perhaps Protoss. But a smile on my face always emerges when I choose random and get Terran.

[-PeonOfWar] Talking of "important occasions", have you did well in any Tournament or Ladder season? Tell us some about your achievings by playing SC.

[[TG]Cyllion] Not really, I've been exceedingly anonymous throughout every Ladder and Tournament almost. The first Ladder season I got up to 1200 but dropped down to 1130 at the end. The second I gambled myself up to around 1250, and I stayed there till the end. I remember that season well, it was when eVERLAST won, and everyone remembers his and Agent911's decisive match at the end. It was cool. Well, the third season I ended around 1400 in rating, winning 20 games in a road, but dropped down some at the end, and I stopped playing after 1� month. The other seasons including the BW seasons it was the same when i competed, around 1400 and I stopped playing although I didn't lose. I guess I'm a little strange as person.
Hmm, then in season 3 I think Starcraft.se (the official Swedish SC site) arranged a tournament that got really popular. I competed in it and smurfed of course ;) I won my first 16 games with my newbie-looking name and people started wondering and when I did a mistake writing this smiley: =C it was over, hehe... I ended with the best percentage winning record - 92%. Then I won my first playoff game but lossed to [TM]Defender (as always). Ohh, I'm so glad he retired ;).
Then the Swedish Championship in Brood War I also smurfed. Everyone in my group were decent Zerg players but unfortunately they could only play Zerg vs Zerg, which I couldn't. I although won some but stopped playing. If I would have won my last two games I would have been in the playoff but I didn't give a shit about it. The whole Championship was worthless I thought... I'm strange as I said.
Then after that, I haven't been competing in anything, but if SC will be the game in 12e2 you can expect to see me there.

[-PeonOfWar] We are near the end, but I'd just want you to name some players you have played and defeated?

[[TG]Cyllion] Uhh, I won't remember all but here we go: Pillars, X'Ds~Grrrr..., Nice_Guy_Mike, -force-, :+:jolly:+:, Xaanix, eVERLAST, Kain-The-Feared, and alot more but I just can't think of everyone. Those are the one's on the top of my head right now.

[-PeonOfWar] Maynard isn't on your list?

[[TG]Cyllion] No ;)

[-PeonOfWar] I forgot, tell me your favourite map.

[[TG]Cyllion] It gotta be The Lost Temple because everyone plays it and there's no way around it, you just can't get a game on another one. But if you ignore it I must say that it's River Styx, at least with Terran.

[-PeonOfWar] Another classic question, do you feel that the game is imbalanced right now?

[[TG]Cyllion] Yes, slightly on land because Protoss is better than Terran, no doubt. You can always say that 'a good Terran is hard to stop'. Right, but a good Protoss is harder to stop. It's more imbalanced on islands though, Protoss vs Terran again.

[-PeonOfWar] DuDeY for example said that Corsairs is great, and soso said this quote that I personally think is great: "A Corsair can't kill 20 peons with 1 scarab". What's your thoughts about it?

[[TG]Cyllion] I personally DON'T like that quote. It's the same as saying that a Reaver can't melt Mutas like butter, or a Dark Templar can't kill 20 Hydras with 1 storm. All units has its advantages and disadvantages. Do never compare two units with eachother, they are good in different ways. Every unit has its uses.

[-PeonOfWar] After chatting some with you I realise that you are of the same kind as Zileas. But still you dislike him, right?

[[TG]Cyllion] I don't dislike him very much now, but I did. His ideas of balancing the game and what units are for etc are somewhat exaggerated, but they are really good. His apparition of this game is unlike the one that others have. He's a smart player and knows what he's doing, not to mention his great micromanagement. There's not many players of his kind, but one of them is Blacklizard (the beta winner in SC). And facts tells that these guys learn very quickly. Blacklizard won the beta in Starcraft, and Zileas won the beta of Brood War. They are of the same kind...

[-PeonOfWar] As well as you are too. Anyway, what are your thoughts about Brood War? Some extra's you like there, or dislike?

[[TG]Cyllion] I like Brood War. It woke up the SC community once again. Although it can be better. Personally I don't like this cloaking here and there, every race has at least one cloaking unit. And none of them except Ghoasts are used really often because you don't need much Tech Tree climbing to grab hold of them. Dark Templars are invariable cloaked, which make them the best invisible unit. And once Lurkers dig themself underground, they can stay there forever if they want to. Terran must click on a button to cloak their Wraiths or maybe Ghoasts, and the cloaking can't stay for long. You require alot of time to cloak and uncloak and every time you make the invisible for the first time it takes an extra 20 mana. That is stupid. If Blizzard loves invisible so much, Wraiths should be able to cloak and uncloak as much as they want to without losing extra mana. Now you surely think that Protoss and Terran would be in deep shit trouble with that changing, but it's just equaling out. Terran have a really hard time to deal with Dark Templars and Lurkers and they cannot use the scan to scout as much as they could before, they need the mana for detecting. Therefore Science Vessels has became more important now. Many games are lossed because of the lack of detectors, this is not good in my mind. The game is really good anyhow, and Corsairs, Medics, and somewhat Devourers have all affected the way the game is played now. You rarely see Valkyries or Dark Archons out there, and that has its natural interprets.

[-PeonOfWar] The last question but not least do you have anything to tell the average player out there who is trying to be better? Any tip?

[[TG]Cyllion] Well, scout alot. But don't get me wrong. Just don't scout once in a while just for the kicks, you must know what the opponent is most likely doing, you must see all his buildings and how many attacking units and defensive buildings he has, as well as peons and maybe expands. All this affects his economy, better or worser. You must learn when to strike, and only experience and talent tells you when. If you realise you're not much of a talent, specialize on one race and maybe one map. I know some players that got really far by doing that.

[-PeonOfWar] Thanks for taking your time and answered my question in a very good manner. You are free to say Hi to anybody out there.

[[TG]Cyllion] No problem. I want to say hi to all in TG (The Gauls, my clan), @rnold, villert, Xaanix, Nice_Guy_Mike (if he's reading this, he retired for a long time ago), :+:jolly:+:, -force-, :+:weird:+:, 1_COOL_GUY and all of my other friends that I just can't name because this list has its restrictions. And of course my family - Sudden (my really nice and auxiliary brother that's also playing this game alot and have me to thank for it ;), my mom and dad for showing some interests in what I'm doing like a big hobby, and also working with.