By popular demand, myMYM.com catches up with former professional player Olav 'Creolophus' Undheim who decided to hang up his mouse for good last year.

Widely regarded as the best Non-Korean Night elf player in his prime, the 22-year-old decided to put his university education on hold for a year to taste the life of a veritable progamer. Things did not go his way however, with bumpy performances initially until he reached the peak of his skill level close to the end of his career.

Nonetheless, Creolophus managed to clinch the first-place titles from Blizzcon and the prestigious WCG from 2007, and is looking to qualify for this year's iteration again, although just for 'fun'.

Is gaming really all over for you? Will there ever be a comeback?

I'm done gaming professionally, but I don't mind playing some for fun now and then. Perhaps I will try to qualify for an event again in order to meet up with the guys I used to play with, both former team members and competitors. However I doubt I would have been able to do much at such an event in terms of results.

And what have you been doing recently?

Recently I've been mostly focused about my exams. Had my last one like 2 weeks ago, and it was a good feeling to finally get a vacation. Right now I've mostly met up with my friends back at home and worked a bit, and will probably go to a festival or two as well.

Before when I was gaming the summer was usually a very hectic time with a lot of travelling and tournaments, with intensive practice inbetween. Now I suppose I have more of the standard freetimeworktravelling vacation as most people have.

I was thinking of applying for a job related to my education in computer science, but I decided to wait a year with it when I've done three years at the university and instead be more flexible of what I could do this summer, since I already had made up some money and wasn't sure about what I wanted to do this vacation.

I'm from an agricultural area of Norway, and it's pretty hard to find good labour right now. I decided to step in for my uncle at his farm because then I can be flexible, as basically I can just say when I want to work or not, and the pay is really good as well.

Do you not miss the time as a pro player?

Some parts I miss and some I'm glad I'm done with. For example it's kind of strange to get to know people from other countries who you travel with, practice with and basically become good friends with, and then suddenly it's just "over".

Sure I can still talk to them on msn and such, but it's not the same as meeting them real life and when we all live in different countries it's hard to get together again. That's also why I'm a little tempted to try to qualify for another tournament, hopefully one of the bigger ones with lots of players, so I can meet up with most of them again.

Besides of that competing is fun and challenging, but it can also be really exhausting and frustrating. The time sacrifice is certainly the thing I miss the least. At the top level of gaming there's little time for anything else than practice, and that certainly takes it toll.

Creolophus finished first at last year's Blizzcon

Looking back, did you really enjoy gaming? Why did you hang up your mouse then?

I think it would be really hard to get far in such a thing as progaming if you don't enjoy, or love, what you are doing. Naturally the game can become less interesting when you are playing it so much, but then the whole concept of competition and all there is to tournaments took over and made me more motivated.

In the end it was just as much the "race" against other players to improve and develop new strategies that made thing the most interesting for me, but I certainly enjoyed the game all the time as well. When I finally quit it wasn't because I didn't like to play anymore, but it was more a choice of lifestyle and the one year I had set aside to see how it was as a top gamer had ended.

It was a tough decision to stop gaming, but at the time we had some economy problems in 4k which made the situation worse for all of us and I had become really motivated to go back to school.

So what exactly went wrong during your time in 4K?

Well, there's been quite some articles and such about why 4K went down, but it basically came down to the economy in the team. Strangely enough the problems started around the time when I joined and basically more money was going out than was coming in, which ends up being a major problem over time. The management did a lot to fix it, but maybe because of just pure bad luck or other reasons it still wasn't completely solved. It's hard to say, but maybe the web site should have been updated earlier and more effort put in it.

Also I remember at Stars War in China we met a fan who had a 4K shirt which was almost the same as ours. Since 4K never started selling anything someone had started making a couple of fake 4K shirts instead. As I said it’s hard to point out a single thing, but us players in 4K tried for a long time since we believed it could be worked out.

It's quite obvious that you miss everyone in 4Kings. But who do you miss most in particular and why?

I miss the whole team, can’t really pick one friend over another. I think some of the arguments between team members in the end was catalyzed by the uncertainty of the future of the team, and what should have been done in regards to it. I think the economy was also a reason why FoV ended up leaving and it also affected my decision of going back to school. I didn’t feel like starting up in a new team again.

How did you feel right when 4Kings announced that they would be disbanding their WC3 team?

It wasn’t a shock to me that they finally decided to disband, as it had been lying in the air for some time. Even though I had already quit I really felt sad about it and I had hoped the economy could have been repaired. Even if you take the wc3l, season after season, and get the big 1on1 titles, it still doesn’t matter if doesn’t generate enough revenue.

It was as said really sad when it happened, and it was especially a big loss for the representation of Europe in the team leagues.

What were your thoughts about LiiLD.C as a replacement for your retirement? Was he talented enough in your eyes?

We started to get low on players in 4K and I think D.C was a really good addition. I don’t think it’s fair to say he’s a replacement, because he’s a different player, and whenever you are supposed to “replace” someone you are automatically compared to them in everything you do.

I remember it wasn’t too fun when FoV changed team and a lot more pressure was on everyone else. Suddenly I would be wildly nervous in clan matches, and thus play poorly, while in 1on1 tournaments I would play much better when I only felt I had myself to play for. A lot of pressure doesn’t help you to become better, and already D.C is really good.

It’s too bad 4K didn’t last too long after he joined, but if he keeps it up he has the potential to really become a top player.

Did it ever occur to you that one of you would be joining MYM while all of you were still together at 4K?

MYM used to be our main rival in team leagues, but still if I knew the team was to disband then I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone ended up in MYM. Although there’s a rivalry between teams, I think most players get along fairly well. I think there’s a lot of mutual respect among players and not simply hate or love.

Creo - Not surprised with 4K shutting down their WC3 division

Which event did you see as a breakthrough for you as a professional player and why?

The first tournaments I attended were the ones that generally made the biggest impression on me. My first real tournament was The Gathering in Norway, a lan with around 5000 people. I was seeded as 7th or something like that, but ended up grabbing 2nd place. I went 0-4 total in the final vs sk.dominator, who had just returned from his stay in Korea. The final was brutal; a lot of people were watching (I was nervous enough already), I didn’t have mouse drivers (first time I played on something called a “tournament pc”) and the games were really one sided. Still this first tournament gave me a lot of motivation to become better, and some day maybe even beat this dominator guy!

Many events have been fun, I especially remember my first WCG in Singapore, and the first time I went to China were zax and some others took us sightseeing to a large mountain. I also remember my first WC3L final very well, with me, winner, sase, duck, ownitsch and trimble. Everyone were young and really silent. When we went to eat hardly anyone spoke from what I remember.

It was really funny, but losing twice to 4K with me against fov and winner against grubby wasn’t all that fun =)

You placed second at ESWC, just before you officially retired from gaming. Yet in the same year, you came back from retirement to win WCG. How did the miracle happen?

I had prepared a lot for ESWC. Since there were hardly any humans (no sky or tod) I could just focus on the other 3 matchups. Although I did some calculated risks in the final which didn’t work out at all, I still feel I played really good the whole tournament, much better than at WCG for instance. ESWC was sort of the point where I finally decided to stop. I felt I had experienced quite a lot as a progamer and that another year would be just more of the same stuff, and not totally new as it is the first time.

After ESWC I had a direct trip to China for Stars War and PGL. Although I felt like I was in good shape, I still went out fairly early in PGL after losing two bo3’s to Sky in the group phase. I also played some practice games against Sky before his final against Moon in PGL, so I basically had a lot of games against Sky which helped me for the WCG final (but it’s mutual as he also gets information about me through the same games).

At PGL I also lost to Xiaot on EI, which was a map I thought I couldn’t lose to Orc on at that time. I later found out what I had done wrong and when I had to play Xiaot at WCG it helped me there too. Ironically my losses at PGL helped me a lot at WCG.

As for WCG I hadn’t been inactive that long, and I just needed a certain amount of games to get used to playing again. I barely passed the group but the more I played the better things went, and I guess in the single elimination people tended to underrate me too much because of the inactivity. Going into a game thinking that your opponent is out of shape is a really dangerous state of mind and a straight way to find yourself on the losing side of the table.

Before this WCG, Shortround had already proven that inactive players can come back and get good results. Players who haven’t played for a while have replays of everyone else before a tournament, but not the opposite, and can possibly look at things in a different way than that of the mainstream.

After winning WCG, were there any offers that tempted you to come back from retirement?

I had some offers, but it was more of a choice whether I wanted to continue as a progamer or stop, as I didn’t really enjoy 50% gaming and 50% difficult subjects at school. So it didn’t really matter what teams it was as I decided not to pursue gaming as a living anymore. In wc3 past achievements weight heavily, for example famous players will usually get a tournament invitation before a young and upcoming player who’s possibly better. By the same reasoning it would probably have been easier to find a new team after WCG than before.

Practice from PGL was one of the keys to victory for Creolophus to defeat Sky at the Grand Finals of WCG2007

You decided to quit gaming right when you reached the peak of your career. How smart was that decision?

I can understand it wasn’t the right thing to do for the community, winning WCG and then just not play anymore. There’s been a lot of discussion about the living or dying wc3, and established players quitting doesn’t really help for that issue. Personally I decided to have one year off, after ESWC I had decided to stop as planned, I kind of knew my “skill” and I was pretty happy with what I had done. Blizzcon then happened to be an extra bonus, winning the last tournament before I quit. WCG was supposed to be a trip to meet up with the old guys, didn’t really expect anything from it although I practiced intensive a week before and had laptop to practice on during the event.

Winning WCG made me wonder a second time if it was the right decision to quit, but I didn’t really feel it changed anything. I still knew roughly my own performance during the summer so I knew it could have been possible to win more tournaments. So personally I don’t regret quitting, but it was a close decision and could have easily been another year as a progamer.

Since I already had started school, gotten an apartment and moved furniture it was more work to return as a progamer after WCG, would have been easier if I had changed my mind right after blizzcon.

Why did we never ever see an unconventional strategy from you despite so many hours of practicing?

Depends a bit what you mean by unconventional strategy as I regard myself as a macro-oriented player, usually trying to have the game won even before the big fight. When I was in fnatic and played WC3L I relied mainly on one-time-strategies. Basically we made the lineup one week before and then I had one week to prepare something that only needed to work this one time, and then prepare something new for the next clan war.

I suppose as you become more known and play at a higher level you rely more on your knowledge of the game, you don’t have to do all-in rushes anymore. This is why players often opt to go for the safe and standard strategy, in elf mirror dh archers tech. I often tried to vary by going potm or dr in mirror and make the mirror game look like just another non-mirror matchup with different units and heroes against each other. However, such strategies often rely on heavy denial of your opponents scouting, and if both played without fog of war it would be really hard to win with such heroesunits. For example at Blizzcon I was really happy at blizzcon for example, when both moon and remind went potm on sv so that I could be the one playing dh against potm for once.

I’ve done some unconventional strategies, for example panda solo + 2aow t1 expo on TR against fov in WC3L, or Kotg first against ud on TM, hunts+fearie dragons in mirror etc, but over all I guess I should have tried to do more diverse strategies. The thing is that if I would play incup, I would rarely have anything new to offer in terms of strategies, because I felt I didn’t need it.

In tournaments like WCG you can do an unconventional strategy against one person, but then the next guy might have heard about it already (myst beating tod with potm, xyligan beating myst the next game).

If I had played more tournaments of the kind where you have one week to prepare for 1 map, or 1 bo3, then you would probably see more diverse strategies. Maybe that’s an idea for a 1on1 league. If there’s something at stake players could prepare for each match and have about a week to prepare. It’s usually harder to find something totally new if the map has been played for multiple years already.

Creolophus enjoying life after progaming with booze and friends

How much money did you earn throughout your time as a professional player?

I don’t have the exact number, and I’m not sure if I would have revealed it either , but all tournament winnings are official. Most of what I earned was from 1on1 tournaments, but salary and team leagues also contributed some. Zerter wrote a nice article at gotfrag, which set me on 47,709$ for tournaments in 2007, but I can’t recall everything anyways.

I would say I’m happy with what I’ve earned, considering the amount of travelling I’ve had in addition to it. However, you could always argue that if those money were won by someone living in another part of the world, they’d be effectively worth a lot more than here in Norway.

And....What about salary wise?

I’m afraid salary is still a personal matter in e-sports and I won’t reveal mine. Some cs players thought I earned crazy amounts as they knew what some of the former cs players in 4K had received and the wc3 team generally did better.

I never went to 4K because of the salary, but to become better, and I rather get less in salary and win a tournament than the opposite. On a sidenote, as the economy in 4K was so unstable in the end, it was really hard to know when and what the salary would be.

Was it all worth it to be a professional player now that you can look back at your career?

Yes, for sure. It was a lifetime experience and not something everyone get a chance to do. I got to meet a lot of nice people, a taste of what it’s like to compete at top level, got to travel around the world and still have some money from it when it’s all over. It’s risky, since you never know how far you can come, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t make it either.

At the moment progaming is an unstable means of living, but for young people it can be a great experience before you settle down for the next 50-60 years of your life.

Are you recommending youths to give up their education for professional gaming?

In fact I usually say the opposite if anyone ask me if they should try to become a progamer. I’ve had some guys at home mentioning that they’d like to become a progamer, because they want to travel to China or Korea, want to earn money or something similar. I usually answer that they would probably be better off just getting a normal job and travel there for their own money if their dream is to go there.

Maybe it’s wrong to start with a game and instantly think “I want to play this because I want to become rich”. From what I’ve seen the good players just try to become better all the time, they really hate to lose. Earning money from it is more of a byproduct of their competitiveness. So in general I wouldn’t recommend progaming, especially not drop out of school for it.

If you notice you are already doing really good in a game and have the potential to improve then it’s possible to try it for some time, but don’t forget about everything else.

Legendary squad

If you can change one thing back while you were a professional player, what would it be and why?

The obvious answer would be to magically fix the economy in 4K, but that would probably have been a little out of my control anyways. Other than that I don’t have too much regrets; I don’t mind the games I lost where I did strategy A but B would have been better, because what I did seemed correct at the time.

Maybe I should have given more feedback to tournaments (ESL are for example very good at taking feedback from the players both during and after the event). For example if it was possible it would have been great to see some of the 2nd best players in Europe vs the 2nd best in Asia - a league with different divisions with a game a week or something.

Perhaps the hosts should have received a little for every bo3 they hosted so it was possible to get really good hosts which could lead to good Europe vs China games. Even people not playing wc3 would have installed it and hosted some games a week if they got money for it, maybe they heard of it from a friend who plays wc3 and knew he was a good host etc…

It’s important to not be afraid of trying new tournament systems and experimenting to see what the audience and the players like, and what generates games with the most quality. Show matches are for example almost extinct nowadays, but was seen a lot before.

And finally, where do you see yourself in five years from now? Any chance that we will see Creo returning to WC3 again?

In five years, I’m probably done with my education, and in work somewhere. The army still seems to be out after me, so I might have to have my mandatory one year service there after I’m done studying.

I will still play some games from time to time, and follow the results from tournaments and the scene in general if some of the guys I know still play then. I’m sure that I won’t try progaming again; it’s quite a bit of dedication, and especially learning a new game is really demanding. Although newcomers don’t have the experience of the old guys, they can often make up for it over time by extra dedication and motivation to learn more.