来源:TL:http://goo.gl/pOfnA2
__________________________________
uThermal is one of 2016's biggest breakout stars, winning IEM Shanghai to
become the first foreigner Terran to win a major title in years. He's also
one of the biggest beneficiaries of the drastic changes in WCS 2016. I talked
to him about the pros and cons of the new, region-locked WCS, and how it
could be improved going forward.
*Interview has been edited for clarity.
uThermal是2016年进步的最突出的明星之一，他在IEM上海站获得了冠军，这使他成为了
这一年来第一个获得大赛级别冠军的非韩人族选手。他也是在2016年有着极端变动的WCS
系统下的最大获益者之一。我跟他谈了赞成跟反对WCS锁区的理由，以及这个系统可以如
何改进。
为了(让访谈)清楚起见，这个访谈有编辑过。
Wax: Now that WCS 2016 has played out for almost an entire competitive year,
how do you feel about it? I guess the answer is a bit obvious…
Waxangel:WCS2016年度几乎要比完一整个赛季了，你感觉如何?，我想答案很明显…
uthermal: Well for me, it’s good. The thing is, it feels kind of extreme in
a way, because the WCS players make a lot more money than the Koreans now. I
looked at the Aligulac.com earlier, and I think the top five earners of 2016
are all WCS (link to rankings).
uthermal:对我来说这很棒。某种程度来说，这很极端，因为参加WCS的选手现在比(留在)
韩国选手赚了更多的钱。我之前有查了Aligulac，2016年赚的最多的5个人都是参加WCS的
(2016奖金榜http://goo.gl/S76jBU)。
I think they went from another extreme to this extreme. Because before, it
was pretty much impossible to be a progamer as a foreigner. I think I made
around $10,000 a year before, which was pretty terrible. And now I make over
$50,000, so it’s a really big difference. I think it’s good, but they
messed up some stuff in the process.
我想他们(暴雪)从另一个极端走到了这一个极端。之前对非韩选手来说，当个电竞选手
是不太可能的事。我想我之前大概每年赚1万镁，这是个很糟的数字。但我现在赚了超过
5万镁，所以这真是一个很大的差别。我想这样很好，但他们(暴雪)在过程中搞砸了一些
事。
The worst thing is they had events for Koreans for so long, and then they
region locked it after five years. So there are a bunch of Koreans who were
living off foreign tournaments, and suddenly their careers just died.
最糟的是他们让韩国人长久以来都能参加比赛，5年后(突然)就实施锁区制度。这让很多
原来依靠国外赛事生活的韩国选手，突然他们的生涯就完蛋了。
So even besides the one big championship you got at IEM, you’re saying in
general there’s a lot more chances to pick up money from high finishes.
W:所以你除了夺得像IEM上海站这样的大比赛冠军，还有很多机会在其他比赛表现出色
来赚钱。
(译注:原文用粗体/一般来区分作者/uthermal，以下我用W代表作者，用U代表uthermal)
Yeah, because last year and the years before, going to a DreamHack was like,
you go because you’re a progamer and it’s your duty. But in reality you
knew it was pretty much a waste of time. There’s like thirty-five Koreans
and you’re probably going to lose to one of them in the Ro32 or something.
There was almost no point in going, except for team exposure and the off
chance you get a lucky bracket and get top eight.
And now, every foreigner is super tryhard to get to every event. Not everyone
can win, but everyone has a chance at top four, top eight. There’s actually
a point in going to events now.
U:对的，因为今年以前，参加DreamHack就只是因为你是个职业选手，这是你的义务。你
知道事实上那就是在浪费时间。当时大概有35个韩国选手，你可能在32强或其他阶段
就输给他们。除了让队伍能够曝光之外，你几乎没有动力参加。如果你运气好点有个
好签表，你可以晋级八强。
但现在每个非韩选手都超级努力要参加每个比赛，不是每个人都能赢，但每个人都有机
会晋级四强或八强，这是参加比赛很重要的一点。
If everyone is trying hard, do you think everyone has become better? Do you
notice people practicing harder and getting better?
W:如果每个人都很努力，你认为每个人有变强了吗?你有注意到选手们练得更多变的更强
了吗?
Yeah, I’m sure people are better. You can also see a lot of the players who
weren’t that motivated before—Nerchio is a good example. He was really not
that good in HotS, and then in LotV the game became better and the system
allowed him chances. Now he’s trying pretty hard and he’s gone really far.
U:是的，我很确定选手们更好了。你也可以看看其他很多以前没那么有动力的选手，
Nerchio是个好例子。他在虫心不是那么好，在虚空，他表现得出色的多，比赛系统
也给他机会。他非常努力，现在排得很前面了。
It’s kind of similar with me. Last year, I had been trying really hard for a
long time. When all your effort results in a single top eight, and some Ro32s
and whatever... ...it really felt like it was pointless to practice back then.
我也是一样，我先前也努力了很长一段时间。但当你的努力只换来少许的8强或是一些
32强时，比赛后我真的感觉没有动力练习。
Now, for example, Elazer and Drogo and all the players who have a chance for
BlizzCon—and me and all the top players—are trying really hard. I do think
we’re better than ever, for sure.
举例来说，Elazer跟PtitDrogo，还有其他所有有机会参加年终赛的选手，包含我跟其
他顶尖选手也是，我们真的都非常努力。我很确信我们比以前更好了。
Like, I read Harstem’s interview (link to interview), and I talked about the
interview with some other progamers, and everyone thought it was complete
bullshit what he said. Made more money even though he was worse? But everyone
thinks he’s like ten times better than he ever was. Maybe he feels that way
himself, but he was just a Ro32 player like me, previously, and now he’s a
double champion. He’s so much better, it shocked all of us that he had that
perception. Really, all of us think everyone is better pretty much, except
for like a select few like Harstem.
我读了Harstem的那篇访谈，也跟其他几位选手讨论了那篇，每个人都觉得他说的是狗
屎。赚得更多但变得更烂?但所有人都认为他比之前强了十倍。也许他就是这么想的，
但他之前像我一样，只是个32强选手，现在他拿了两座冠军，他变得这么好，我们都很
讶异他会有那样的想法。我们每个人都觉得自己变强了许多，除了那天选之人Harstem。
(译注:Harstem的访谈可以参考小弟的文章 #1NatF8Lk http://goo.gl/iLVFJZ)
If you look at the main, Blizzard WCS tournament itself, it’s not THAT
different from the previous WCS Premier Leagues in terms of the number of
Koreans competing. Do you think the main WCS tournament has changed much?
W:如果你观察暴雪自己办的WCS的比赛，就韩国选手的数目来说，跟之前WCS Premier
Leagues没有那么大的不同，你认为WCS比赛有改变很多吗?
No, definitely not. That’s what’s surprised me the most out of the
comments. Because I read Reddit and TeamLiquid a lot, and I read all the
comments. There's a comment I see sometimes. For example, when ShowTime won
in Tours(link to bracket)—a lot of people acted like it wasn’t that big of
a deal compared to previous years, because it’s region locked now. I feel
the tournaments are exactly the same.
U:没有，很明显没有。这是最让我惊讶的一点。因为我看了很多Reddit跟TeamLiquid的
讨论，我读了全部的讨论。我有时会看到一种评论，比如说，当ShowTime赢得春季赛
冠军时(http://goo.gl/as7220)，相较于之前几年，很多人表现的就像那没什么了不
起，就因为现在锁区了，但我认为比赛还是一样的。
Yes, there was one point when WCS was harder, it was when the six Koreans
were living in Germany, MC, YoDa, First, etc. That’s when it was a bit
harder.
有个观点是当年WCS比赛时，有6个韩国选手(MC, YoDa, First等)住在德国，那个
比赛才具有挑战性。
But for example, when Lilbow won WCS (link to bracket), it was the same, or
even a bit easier than now. Because Polt and Hydra were already there, and
the other Koreans in that season were Stardust and Jaedong, who were
basically like foreigners in level. They were not seen as top players the
last year.
但以去年Lilbow获得WCS第三季冠军时来说(http://goo.gl/97rMjV)，那也是一样的
，甚至比现在更简单。因为Polt跟海皇已经有年终赛资格了，其他韩国选手就只有
Stardust跟Jaedong，他们的实力就跟非韩选手一样，他们在去年并不被认为是有实
力的选手。
And I think now, it's a little bit harder with the addition of TRUE. So I
think the WCS main tournaments are pretty much exactly the same.
然后现在因为有了TRUE的加入，比赛变的困难一些，所以我认为WCS大比赛其实是差
不多的。
So what the region lock has really changed for you guys, is your chances at
third party tournaments like IEM, DreamHack, etc.
W:所以对你们来说，锁区真正的改变是，你们有更多机会参加像IEM, DreamHack 这样
的比赛。
Last year, it was literally… let me pull up my results (link to results).
U:去年，不夸张…让我给你们看看我的成绩吧(http://goo.gl/VODzH0)
At offline events, I would pretty much lose in the first or second round of
everything. I went to gfinity, lost to sacri twice in the group stage, the
first round of the tournament. At DreamHack Tours, I lost in the group stages
to PartinG, and in the Ro32 against TRUE. In IEM I lost in the Ro8 against
PartinG. And in the gfinity after that I lost in the first round to MyungSiK.
在线下赛，我在第一轮或第二轮就会被淘汰了。我参加了gfinity, 第一轮的小组赛
输给了sacri两次。DreamHack Tours我在小组赛输给了PartinG，在32强输给TRUE。
在IEM，我在八强输给PartinG，之后的gfinity我在第一轮输给了MyungSiK。
It’s pretty important that you build results to be better. It’s kind of
hard to explain that part, but if you’re stuck in the Ro32 because of the
Koreans, you can’t grow to become a better player. You need to be able to
get further in tournaments to learn more and do better. If you just lose in
the Ro32 all the time, there’s no room to grow ever. Before, pretty much all
the foreigners who did well were the people who played in WoL early on, and
already had experience from when tournaments weren’t as hard. But for new
people, it was super hard to break out. Every time you lose in the Ro32, even
against a Korean, it doesn’t feel like you’re a good player. All you did
was lose in the first or second round. And now, a lot of the players that
were just Ro32 players got better and are now champions like me, Drogo and
Harstem.
让结果更好是很重要的。这很难解释，但如果你老是在32强输给韩国人，你没办法成
长为更好的选手。你需要在比赛中晋级，学得更多，做得更好。如果你总是只停留在
32强，你不会成长。之前在自由之翼时，有很多非韩选手做的很棒，他们在不是那么
困难的比赛中学了很多经验。但对新人来说，要突破超级难，每次你在32强输掉，就
算是对上韩国选手，你还是会觉得你不是个好选手，你所做的就只是在第一轮或第二
轮败退。但现在，很多那些以前只能打到32强的选手，像是我、PtitDrogo跟Harstem
，变得更好，拿到了冠军。
Once you get that level of results, I think you can put up a fight against
Koreans, because you feel like you’ve achieved something and you know how to
play further in tournaments, under pressure.
一旦你达到那种层级的结果，我认为你可以挑战韩国选手了，因为你感觉你到达了
某种程度，而且你知道如何在比赛的压力下发挥得更好。
How has this year changed your outlook on progaming going forward?
W:你对电子竞技未来的看法，在今年有什么改变?
I always felt like I could continue progaming. I probably would have started
my studies a bit earlier if it was the same story. If you’re like seventeen—
I think that was the first year I got into WCS—and all your friends are just
working in the supermarket and you make $10,000 in one year, it’s nice. Once
you’re like twenty, twenty-one and you’re still making like $10,000 a year,
you’re like "I guess I’m gonna have to do something else." And now we’re
actually making money, it doesn’t feel bad to continue progaming for a bit.
U:我一直认为我可以继续当电子竞技选手。(但)如果情况相同的话，也许我会更早一点
开始我的学业。你17岁时(我想那是我第一年参加WCS的年纪)你的朋友只能在超市上班
，而你已经可以一年赚1万镁了，这样很好。一旦当你20岁或21岁了，你还是一年赚1
万镁，你会想:我猜我得找点其他事来做了。现在我确实赚到钱了，继续当一阵子的电
竞选手好像还不赖。
What could have been better about WCS 2016? What changes should be made next
year?
W:2016WCS如何才能更好?明年该采取什么样的改变?
We actually all had a long chat with Blizzard about this at DreamHack
Montreal. I think the biggest thing was that the formats of tournaments were
absolutely terrible.
U:就这个议题，实际上，在夏季赛时我们跟暴雪谈了很久。我想最重要的，是现在比赛
的形式绝对是很糟糕。
The single elimination Ro32?
W:你是说32强开始单淘汰赛?
Yeah. Here’s a good example.
U:是，我有些好例子。
TRUE won a single elimination tournament, beating two players who were top
eight in WCS points. And I won a single elimination tournament beating four
players who were in the top eight. His format wasn’t harder, it wasn’t a
harder tournament. But his just happened to have more points points and
money. I think I actually won a harder tournament than TRUE did, but he just
got lucky and won the right tournament.
TRUE获得的冠军，打败了2个在WCS积分排名前八的选手(译注:POLT跟SNUTE)。我获得
的冠军，(可是)打败了4个在WCS积分排名前八的选手(译注SNUTE、Elazer、viOLet、
Neeb )。TRUE的形式不是那么困难，(对他来说)不是个困难的比赛，但他获得的积分
跟奖金比较多。我认为事实上我赢的比赛比TRUE困难，他只是比较好运赢得了对的比
赛。
(译注:常威这篇访谈在TL讨论非常热烈，后来常威自己还写了篇补充，我在最后面会翻，
根本火上加油。大家战制度，战态度，到今天为止，在TL上已经超过480人回复，Harstem
那篇才77个人回。)
I think that was the biggest problem. There has to be some way to distinguish
the tournaments. Everything is single elimination. We told Adrian (of
Blizzard esports) that if you had that format at IEM or DreamHack Open, it
wouldn't be that big of a deal. But what does a WCS tournament even mean if it
’s a single elimination bracket? So first of all, we suggested they take a
different format for sure. Most of us—I think twenty of the thirty-two
players, including the Chinese players, were there—most of us agreed, the
DreamHack Winter format was really good, the six man round robin groups.
我认为这是最大的问题。需要把比赛作一番分类。(现在)每一个都是单淘汰。我们跟
Adrian (暴雪电竞部门)说你们在IEM或DreamHack推这种制度就算了，但为什么WCS的
大赛也要采单淘汰呢?我们建议他们改采不同的形式，我们大部分的人，我想(参加夏
季赛的)32人中的20个吧，包含中国选手都在那儿，我们大部分都同意DreamHack Winter
那样的六人小组循环(译注:http://goo.gl/97lNH8)是很棒的赛制。
Just imagine—there’s only three WCS tournaments a year—imagine if a Dota
Major had a single elimination bracket, or the International. Just imagine
how dumb that would be. That was really the biggest problem everyone had.
想想看(一整年只有三场WCS大赛)如果Dota的大比赛或国际赛也是用单淘汰赛，那会
有多愚蠢。这是我们最大的问题。
Besides that we talked a bit about player conditions. Some events don’t even
have food for the players, some events the chairs are terrible, just general
stuff like that. Blizzard has requirements regarding player conditions if you
want to hold a WCS tournament like DH, and we told them they could require
better conditions. For example, at DreamHack Montreal, if you played on the
B-stream, you were kinda fucked because the chairs there were so low your
wrists would just hurt all the time. On the main stream, and also the
B-stream, the tables were super shaky and the conditions were not that good
for most of the tournament. It wouldn’t be as bad if it was a DH open, but
for a WCS tournament, stuff like that has to be on point.
除此之外，我们也谈到了一些选手碰到的环境问题。有些比赛选手们没东西吃，有些
比赛椅子很糟，一些像这样的庶务。如果你想举办像DH这样的比赛，有WCS积分的，暴
雪对设备是有要求的，我们告诉他们可以要求更好的条件，举例来说，夏季赛(在蒙特
娄)，如果你是在副舞台比，你会觉得很干，因为椅子太低了，你的手腕一直都会痛。
在主舞台，副舞台也是，桌子超级晃，比赛的环境没有其他大部分比赛的水准。如果
是DH的公开赛，这不会那么糟，但这是WCS的大赛，这样的情况就是出包了。
But in terms of the big picture, you’re happy with this year.
W:但总体而言，你今年还是很快乐的。
I guess so. I think it’s pretty good. Like, the idea of WCS is good, but the
execution was not that great, I think. There’s a lot of small issues here
and there. The planning of the events is always pretty bad. Blizzard knows
dates of qualifiers and stuff like that way before we get to know. It’s not
like they know one month before and we find out three weeks before. Blizzard
has a schedule with all their events and qualifiers and stuff. For example,
for the qualifiers for the last WCS in Montreal, Blizzard knew the dates
three months before, and they told us like one week before. The scheduling is
really not that good.
U:我猜是吧。我想这很棒。就像WCS的想法很好，但执行上没那么棒。一直都有一些小问
题。比赛的规划总是很糟。暴雪比我们早知道资格赛的时间等等讯息。这不像是他们1
个月前而我们是3周前知道(这么单纯)。暴雪有他们所有比赛的日程跟通过资格赛的人
等等资讯。举例来说，最近一场的WCS夏季赛，暴雪三个月前就知道日期了，但他们好
像一周前才通知我们这些通过资格赛的选手。日程安排真的不是那么好。
Okay I think we're reaching the end of most reader's attention span. Final
comments? Anything funny?
W:我想我们到大部分读者注意力的极限了。最后有没有什么要说的?有什么有趣的?
I can’t really think of anything, I woke up not long ago and my brain is
kind of fried right now.
U:我没办法想到什么，我才刚起床，我的大脑现在就像炸开了一样。
Always nice talking to you.
W:跟你聊天总是很耐斯。
___________________________________
http://goo.gl/GwGGce
常威自己的补充:
Alright, I usually don't argue about topics like this but I just wanted to
clarify some stuff :
我通常不会再这样的主题下提出争论，但我想澄清一部份:
1. I can't imagine why any 'foreigner' would lie just to try and keep the
current WCS system for longer. As you can probably imagine no one would
become a sc2 progamer to make the big money. If my opinion about the current
WCS doesn't match with yours, it doesn't mean im not being honest.
1.我没办法想像有任何理由一个非韩选手会去说谎，就为了让现在的WCS系统继续下去。
你们也许可以想像没有SC2电竞选手可以赚大钱。如果我对现在的WCS观点跟你们的不一样
，不代表我不诚实。
2. Even though Koreans are clearly better players, it does NOT mean
foreigners are just lazily playing starcraft 2 once a week just coming in for
the quick wcs welfare fame and cash grab. I did not quit my studies 3 years
ago while I wasn't even that good ( a huge risk ) to play hearthstone and
overwatch the entire day, most of us actually do try hard to become the best.
Many people don't understand you can't just randomly go to Korea and practice
with the best all day, no matter how much of a wonder story it sounds like.
Many people can't afford to do that, probably not be able to get in a good
teamhouse, while the ladder is not even that strong because of proleague (it
really wasn't that challenging while I was playing from Shanghai) aswell as
being 5 million miles from your home, family and friends. Yep, as much as you
guys like to believe that Koreans are better than non-Koreans PURELY based
off of hard work, its simply not true as they have had a large advantage ever
since the start of sc2, and even early broodwar, about 15 years before now.
2.即使韩国选手很明显的是比较好的选手，这不代表非韩选手是懒惰的，一周只玩一次
SC2，靠着WCS福利获取名利。3年前我没有停止我的学业，也没有那么厉害可以玩炉石或
斗阵整天(这样风险很大)。事实上我们大部分的人都很拼想要成为最好的。许多人不了解
，你没办法随意的就跑去韩国，跟最好的选手练习整天，虽然这听起来是个很棒的故事。
很多人没办法负担这样做，甚至没办法有机会在好的训练室练习。因为proleague，天梯
强度不是那么强(当我在上海时，我真的感受到天梯不是那么有挑战性)，另外，离家5百
万哩远也是(个困难)。你们很多人相信韩国选手比非韩选手强仅仅是因为努力，但那不是
事实，他们是从SC2一开始就有很大的优势，甚至是怒火早期，大约15年前就是如此了。
3. Most foreigners understand the points about foreigners and koreans and
agree with them atleast a little bit ( we know winning a dreamhack open now
means less than winning a dreamhack open in 2014 or 2015 ). No one here is
pretending we have suddenly become literal gods and that is why we win
championships. All the top players in Foreignland are still working hard and
trying to win bigger championships with good koreans one day, anyone who
dreams about winning stuff in starcraft2 and is still playing as a progamer,
would clearly rather have a top finish at blizzcon than winning a dreamhack
open. Most of us are just sad with the disrespect we players ( and community
figures ) get from the community, we're really not as stupid and ignorant as
some of you guys seem to think.
3.大部分的非韩选手了解非韩选手与韩国选手的不同，我们知道现在获得DH冠军的意义不
如在2014或2015获得DH冠军。没有人假装我们突然变强了所以我们可以夺冠。所有非韩顶
尖选手依然努力，试着在某一天赢得有好的韩国选手参加的大赛冠军，任何一个梦想在
SC2赛事夺冠的电竞选手，都想要在嘉年华上夺冠而不是在DH上夺冠。我们大部分只是对
我们选手(还有社群领袖)在社群上得到的无礼对待感到难过。我们不是你们有些人想的那
么笨、那么无知。
Clarifications :
1. My earlier comment about us being better players now, is not because of
practicing against worse players rather than better players, but because
there is much more motivation to practice now due to more opportunities,
theres a big difference!
2. I didn't mean that dreamhacks/IEMs etc. are harder now than before, it was
purely about the WCS circuit championships.
澄清:
1.我之前说我们现在是更好的选手的言论，并不是因为跟比较不好的选手练习，而是基于
我们现在有更多的动力练习以获得更多的机会，这是有很大的差别!
2.我并不是说DH或IEM等等比赛比之前困难，我只是拿它跟WCS大赛比而已。
__________________________________
常威今年几乎可以说是非韩第1T了，祝他闯进年终赛，跟韩国选手比看看到底差距在哪。
这一篇翻的比较快，如果这篇有哪里翻的不好的，还请多多包涵，并请告诉我让我有修改
的机会，谢谢。