Digital Games interview: knolz

Yesterday I got a chance to catch up with knolz, the current leader on the Digital Games Command & Conquer 3 ladder. He recently lost, then retook, his first place spot from LeOwnzAll. I talked to knolz about the current state of C&C3, his aspirations, and other gaming topics. He especially had some scathing words for EA. Check the interview…

Please tell us your real name, age, and occupation.
I’m Benjamin Coste AKA knolz; I’m 21 years old. I live in Valence and I’ve study IT for three years.

What made you join the Digital Games tournament?
I joined the DG tournament because of the finals in China. That’s the only motivation for me in this tournament, even if the travel, hotels etc will not be paid y the organisation and even if there is no cash prize.

How do you train for your opponents in ladder play vs. bracket play?
I don’t train at the moment because EA didn’t release the new patch (they should have done it 2 months ago). Everybody is tired of the game right now and nobody wants to play lots of games in an unbalanced game.

What has changed, competitively, in the Kane’s Wrath expansion? Has it changed the competitive game at all?
The problem with C&C3 is that EA wants to do a game dedicated to esport, but they don’t make efforts to reach this goal. So KW didn’t change anything, it’s the same game as Tiberium Wars, with the same bugs.

How do you feel about RTS games on consoles?
I don’t think I like to play RTS games on consoles because I always play with keyboard/mouse. I think it’s very hard to be competitive on consoles and there is no competition. I would like to try to play RTS games on consoles, just for fun, but not for competition.

You recently overcame LeOwnZAll to retake your first place spot on the European C&C3 ladder. How did you do it?
At the moment, I played more matches to reach the top. I lost only against Technique and LeOwNzAll, they train more than me. I know I can beat them if I train but at the moment the game is crappy, so I don’t ;)

Who is your toughest opponent on the ladder so far and why?
Hum I think Leownzall. He’s one of my mates in Epsilon eSports Team; I’ve known him since the beginning of Command and Conquer 3, and I used to play against him.

The original C&C3 was known for having incredibly short competitive games. Has this continued with Kane’s Wrath? Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?
Like I said, C&C3 was not a perfect competitive games because of bugs, latency in binds, and many other things. KW is just the same game as Tiberium Wars but with more units. So it’s a bad thing that KW is like TW and that EA doesn’t listen to players. The community manager said that EA needs money, and needs to make games to sell them. Maybe that’s the reason.

What faction do you play and why?
I play NOD since the end of the World Cyber Games 2007. I played Scrins before, but I wanted to change because in this game, you just have to repeat the same strategy again and again. I said before WCG that I would change to Nod, and since the end of WCG, NOD is overpowered (except against mechapedes) so I kept them :D

What’s your favorite strategy? What about your favorite counter-strategy?
I like using Avatars, so my favorite strategy is the fast-tech. They are very powerful and I like to micro them ! About my favorite counter-strategy, I like to counter fast mechapedes because they are just imba, they are unbalanced and it’s funny to stop them with another strategy. But unfortunately, it’s harder and harder to stop them. The new patch will correct that, and that’s a good thing.

What’s your favorite map?
My favorite map is Tournament Decision, because they are lots of ways to go on it. You need to scout and to have lots of APM to control all the areas. I like to make my opponent crazy on that map :)

Thanks for the interview! Any shoutouts?
I would like to thanks my managers, Olympus and Luke, Phoennix, Soulimano, Didier, and my sponsors in Epsilon eSports : NIKE, OCZ, SNS and GIGABYTE.