Diego ‘Kelazhur’ Schwimer has become a staple of the foreign StarCraft 2 scene. Having worked his way up through the professional scene through tournaments like Copa America and The Breakout Invitational, the 20 year old Brazilian is now one of the best players outside of Korea and a member of Team Root, one of the biggest North American Esports organizations. I had the chance to talk to Kelazhur about his life on Team Root, his thoughts on the SC2 meta, the professional scene, his hopes for WCS, and his future in esports and beyond.

---  

Interview Written by Padraic "Cyan" Murphy

Thanks for taking the time to speak to me! How’s life with Team Root?

It's great! Especially with the new house, I feel like there’s fresh motivation to practice and it's been a lot of fun, since Harstem and Miniraser are visiting.

Have you been working on your TvP and TvZ with them in customs?

[ I ] haven't gotten around to custom with Harstem yet but I've played some with Miniraser. We mostly just ladder though, since there's the Ladder Qualifiers + Heroes.

I think at this point in SC2, Team Root has established themselves as kingpin of North American SC2, and you’ve established yourself as a real banner member of team Root. How much of a difference has Team Root made for you in your career? What about this year specifically?

Root has been a crucial part of my life, and without them, I don't believe I would be where I am in terms of skill. This year specifically I feel like I have improved even further, and while I didn't get any offline results, I'm confident the time is near.

According to Aligulac, 2016 is your most successful year as a pro SC2 player thus far. Do think those stats are an accurate reflection of your skill right now compared to the rest of your career?

Probably. I mean, I would hope so, right? Otherwise it would mean my practice wasn't working, haha.

You had some unfortunate luck running into Snute in the first round of DH Leipzig and Neeb in the first round of IEM Katowice, two of the strongest foreign players in LotV. As well as falling to Iasonu in the first round of DH Austin. How do you deal with being knocked out of the first round of these major tournaments when you’re traditionally so strong in the online tournaments?

Yeah, by now I've toughened up a lot, after so many first round losses in 2015. I'll just focus on doing my best and whatever happens, is meant to be.

What are your thoughts on the metagame right now? There seems to be a large separation between the Korean and the foreign meta scene, with foreign Zergs seeing much more success than their Korean counterparts.

It's a strange meta right now, especially for people like me, who practice both on EU and KR ladder. The Zerg playstyles are so much different in both regions, and I feel like it's probably because of Korean Terrans giving so much less freedom to tech to Hive. It's a tight window to hit, but they can pull it off a lot more often than their foreigner counterparts.

How do you feel about the general way LotV plays out? We’re deep enough into the life of that game that the metagame has had time to fully form. I know a lot of the pro players who are experiencing success right now are having more fun with the game. Would you count yourself among those players?

In terms of success I am pretty satisfied currently, but that isn't to say the current gameplay is optimal. Don't take me wrong, I believe the game is as fun as it has ever been, but so many match-ups feel extreme, like for example Zergs being so much stronger in late game or Protoss being so much stronger than Terran in early-mid game, and vice-versa. I have to say there's some calibration needed to the game, but I'll let the balance team take care of that and I'll focus on my job.

You’re currently sitting at #39 in WCS rankings with 185 points. Do you think that reaching top 8 and going to Blizzcon at the end of the year a viable goal for you?

I think the only way I qualify to Blizzcon is if I have a miraculous run at DreamHack and WCS Summer.

What kind of goals do you generally set for yourself? Do you go to major offline tournaments with the mentality that you should be able to finish in first place?

Indeed, I always believe in myself. Confidence is important; if you don't believe you can win then why would you deserve to win?

How do you feel about the WCS 2016 system?

For me, it's pretty good. Players like me who aren't as successful as the rest of the progamers don't get a chance to travel to those events in Europe, so having the Passport qualifiers is a nice start. Though I feel like it could use a couple more spots! I really dislike the single elimination for WCS Championships though; it's a terribly unfair format and should be reevaluated.

Do you think that Blizzard made the right choice dropping WCS premier and challenger? Was a regular studio league better for the pro scene or is the current system preferable?

As long as the players get to play offline, they're both fine, though when it came to the prize pool I heavily favored WCS Premier, with also more spots than Regional Challengers

You’ve said in the past that Neeb is your biggest rival. Is that still the case? Has anyone else been added to your list of rivals?

Probably Major. He beat me in IEM Shanghai and DH Valencia qualifiers, and I likely will have to play him in Copa America for the WCS Summer seed.

Do you think that rivalries of the classical sense exist in SC2 anymore? The kind that players like Idra and Naniwa used to cultivate, with real bad blood that created some incredible grudge matches? Or is the SC2 scene too polite for that in this day and age?

Probably the latter. As far as I can remember, all the controversial players either left or were pitchforked out of the scene. There's a lot of rivalry between players in EU, but it usually starts and ends [ on ] Twitter.

I know you run your facebook fan page entirely in Portuguese (https://www.facebook.com/Kelazhur). Your Brazilian fans must be very important to you. You seem to have a lot of love for the Brazilian esports scene. How does that national pride work its way into your identity as a pro player?

Most of the people who follow and cheer for me are Brazilian, so I show them some love back by fighting under a flag that has been underrepresented for a while now. I'm proud of it, and it always motivates me to do well when I see their support.

In the past, you briefly played some League of Legends on a competitive level. Do you have any interest in transitioning into other esports titles as a pro, like Overwatch or League, or will you be a Starcraft 2 player for life?

Maybe one day I'll switch, maybe I won't. I guess it depends on how well Starcraft 2 is going for me.

What’s your long term plan for life? Do you want to be involved in esports for your whole life, or would you rather transition into another career path if you can’t play SC2 anymore? Perhaps you will open a PC cafe in Brazil?

That's a big question -- maybe too big for me to answer now. I want to go to college [ in ] the near future, but I don't even know what I want to major in. For now, I'm just focusing on SC2. Maybe I'll look more into it when we go into off-season.

Thanks again for taking the time to speak to me! Do you have any shoutouts?

Shoutout to our sponsors Twitch, eSports Gaming, Tt esports and everyone who cheers for me! You can follow me on my Facebook page where I always post the results of my tournament runs. Thanks for the interview, Cyan!

You can follow Kelazhur on Twitter @ROOTKelazhur, www.twitch.tv/kelazhur, and https://www.facebook.com/Kelazhur.

You can follow Cyan on twitter @CyanEsports, www.twitch.tv/CyanEsports, and www.youtube.com/CyanEsports.

Images courtesy of ESL -- by Helena Kristiansson.