Although Marcus “Revenant” Tan is only a rookie compared to others in the nearly ten-year-old Singapore WarCraft III competitive community, he has already made waves internationally with his progress in various international tournaments online. He was recently signed by semi-professional esports outfit XTC to kick off the revival of the team’s WarCraft III division, a clear vote of confidence in his abilities.
GameSync interviews Revenant to find out more about the young WC3 player, his views on WC3 in Singapore and how he thinks he will fare in this weekend’s World Cyber Games 2009 Funan League.
Let’s start with a short introduction about yourself.
Hi, I’m Marcus Tan Sin Yik. I’m currently studying Business Informatics at Nanyang Polytechnic. I just turned 17 last month on 27 May. My in-game name is currently XtC.Revenant.
How often do you play and how do you cope with school?
Well, I went inactive from February to April and just got active again recently. I usually play 1 to 2 hours a day currently, due to school ending around 6pm on some days. I cope with schoolwork by keeping up with my tutorial work or by asking my classmates for help.
Tell us more about your WC3 career.
My first WarCraft 3 competition was GXLeague 2007. I then went on to play a few DreamCups, ZotacCups, WCG Singapore 2008 and G-League Season 6.
The most important competition to me was G-League Season 6. I qualified for G-League Season 6 by beating mouz.TH000 with a 2-1 scoreline. From there, I got a chance to meet a lot of professional gamers and got invited by quite a few Chinese teams to join them, specifically Dhc, IAM, etc.
Why continue to play the standard game at a time when almost everyone else is playing DotA?
Believe it or not, I used to be a DotA player before I switched to Warcraft 3. I like that the standard game is more independent in nature, because of the fact that my friends often quarrel or argue over DotA, and more challenging because of the higher level of APM and micro required.
Some say that you’re the best Orc player in Singapore. What do you think about that?
Who?! Go burn those liars alive!
Hahahaha!
Well, I don’t think I’m the best Orc player in Singapore. There are still other strong Orc players such as SiN[OxygeN] and SiN[Tagan]. Many people say that I’m the so-called “best Orc player” in Singapore because of my Orc versus Orc matchup, which is quite consistent versus both Farseer and Blademaster users.
Which race do you have the most trouble against?
Human and Night Elf.
Why?
Well, for Humans, the standard tower rush, although nerfed, is still quite effective against Orcs when it is executed with the right timing. As for Elves, a few mana burns from the Demon Hunter will render the Orc’s second hero, Shadow Hunter or Tauren Chieftain, rather useless in an engagement.
If I recall, some world-class players have said that Orcs have no real weaknesses as long as you play with the right strategy. What do you think?
As far as I know, two years ago Orc was the weakest race. Warcraft III is a rather imbalanced game both map-wise and race-wise but I believe that’s what makes the game interesting. This diversity gives players some room for innovation and with the right mindset, hard work, creativity and flexibility, it will help one improve.
I would like to emphasize having the ‘right mindset’ because quite a number of players just blame it on the game’s imbalances when they lose. They never analyze things properly, or sometimes are just too arrogant.
What do you think of the WC3 scene in Singapore?
Well, I find that Warcraft is inevitably dying in Singapore with lesser and lesser competitions each year. This might be due to more thrilling games with higher ego-boost factors coming out and appealing more to the general public.
Yeah, it’s kinda like the only WC3 event left on the Singapore calendar is WCG.
Yup. I have to find other alternatives like the China leagues.
How is the Singapore standard compared to the rest of the world?
I would say apart from China and Korea, Singapore is the strongest in Asia. Singapore has very strong players that mainly come from SiNister, for example SiN[OxygeN] and SiN[Gosubay], and there aren’t many strong players in Asia outside of Korea and China.
So how do you stand up against the players for SiNister?
Well, I feel that I’m still inferior composure and skill-wise to some of their players like SiN[NickT], SiN[OxygeN] and SiN[Gosubay].
You’re probably going to see them at this weekend’s WCG Funan tournament. How do you think you’ll fare?
Judging from the brackets, I’ll most probably meet last year’s WCG champion, SiN[OxygeN] in the top eight, so I’m unsure of how well I’ll fare.
You’re not confident against Oxy?
Well, I’m not too confident offline because he has excellent composure in LAN events. In a LAN event, the keyboard position, the sitting position and my ability to stay calm is different than from playing in an online event.
At home, I sit on my bed to play and have my keyboard in the keyboard slot of the table. I also mostly hug my bolster (whoops, exposed!) between my arms when I play to keep me comfortable. In LAN events, the keyboard is positioned directly in front of the monitor and I’ve to straighten my legs instead of crossing them.
You could always bring your bolster to LAN events!
And get laughed at by everyone. Hahaha no thanks!
Any other challenges you think you’ll face this weekend?
Well, I don’t have as much experience as the other top Singapore players since some of them have been playing for 5 to 7 years. That might be a factor as well.
To close the interview, do you have any shoutouts?
Shoutouts to ESM-Army Alliance for their hospitality, my primary school buddies Kevin and Janson, all my classmates from DBI0901-ZA and to XtC’s sponsors!
That’s it then! Thanks for your time.
Thanks for the interview.
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