Welcome to “Meet your WCS Challengers”, an interview series where we talk to new and returning players that made it through the brutal qualifiers into WCS Challenger League. Today's player is Kevin “qxc” Riley a long standing veteran of the StarCraft II scene, and one of the best known NA Terran players. Despite various ups and downs qxc has had one of the longest running careers in StarCraft having been active since the Wings of Liberty beta. His qualification into Challenger follows a break from StarCraft II, and we were able to catch up with him on what he did during the break, and what his plans for the future are!

Kevin 'qxc' Riley Competing at the 2012 MLG Summer Championship

Photocredit Kevin "Silverfire" Chang

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I'm guessing most of our readers know who you are, but you've been somewhat off the radar until recently, so could you start by telling our viewers what you've been doing during your time off?

I took a break from StarCraft II after I lost to Kane in WCS Challenger. I had been playing Heroes a decent amount and informally played with the team ESV Tempest while reamining on Complexity. I also began some preliminary work on making my own board game. I had made a list prior to my break of various things I wanted to try while I stopped playing StarCraft. Around this time I tried streaming a bit more consistently as well. I felt pretty lost and directionless when I stopped playing StarCraft. Suddenly, I had much more free time and no real consistent obligations. My break time was largely a space where I tested a variety of different ideas and ways to spend my time. As it turned out, I had the strongest affinity to designing my own board game. Eventually I quit playing Heroes as well as cut back on some of the other small projects I had briefly started in favor of pursuing design on my deck builder named Discord. That ended up consuming the majority of my free time through all of March. I played a bit of LoTV beta when it started and around the first week of April I started playing HoTS again to prepare for wcs.

Compared to a lot of other players you had a pretty difficult qualifier run, and were forced to play against a lot of Terrans most notably avilo and intense. How do you feel the state of your TvT is right now?

Fortunately for me, the caliber of Terrans in NA is relatively low. The most notable Terrans right now are MaSa and Xenocider, neither of which I had to play. My TvT’s were generally pretty easy. My TvT seem to be in a pretty good place overall, but there’s been a dearth of good Terrans for a long time now so it’s hard to say.

What was your practice regiment like leading up to the qualifiers? Did you play more ladders or custom games? Is there anything you change when practicing for an event versus just day to day practice playtime?

Over my break I played Zerg a few hours a week and did a few hours of coaching as well. This consistency definitely helped keep my skills/game sense a bit fresher than it would have been otherwise. Before the qualifier I was practicing a few hours a day for about a week. For anyone who’s known me for a while, they know that one of my biggest issues has always been my emotions and stress. I have been very careful since returning to Starcraft to err on the side of under practicing to make sure I keep my mental state in check. Now that I have an actual opponent to prepare for, I play almost exclusively custom games.

I know that you've also been playing a lot of Zerg in your off time, and you were even on a quest towards Grandmaster. Has all that time off racing affected your ZvT at all? Do you feel you better understand the match up?

I definitely feel better about ZvT because of this time I spent playing Zerg. Most of the gains are very subtle things though. I can’t think of any specific examples, but most of the understanding changes have been relatively subtle.

You're older and a lot more experienced than many of the players you face in tournaments and qualifiers. I'm wondering if that experience gives you a different approach to the game than younger players, and what advantages you feel that might give you.

Maybe my ages gives me some advantages, but there are few competitive environments where I feel like age is as irrelevant as in Starcraft. There seems to be a lower bound in that people won’t be good before a certain age, but besides that it’s much more important for how the player is progressing rather than how old they are.

We've seen you playing some Legacy of the Void, and having a lot of success with the Cyclone in Apollo's LotV show matches. What do you think of the current state of Legacy, how do you feel the game stacks up with HotS?

I enjoy LoTV a lot more. I like the faster pace and faster starting time. I hope that events switch to LoTV sooner rather than later. There are some balance concerns notably revolving around the Cyclone and Ravager, but the core gameplay feels much better already.

I know you've said that your current run in WCS shouldn't be considered your return to StarCraft, and is more along the lines of you testing the waters, what would it take for you to become commited to the game again?

I’m currently trying out different practice schedules to see if I can play this game without losing my mind. So far practice is going well, but the biggest thing is to see my level of improvement. Besides the emotional issues i was having, my biggest frustration was from feeling like I wasn’t improving. Starcraft has given me a lot, but it’s also taken a lot of time and potential from my life. I won’t be continuing if I can’t find a pace from which I’m consistently improving. If I can find that sooner rather than later, chances are good that I will be active again.

In order to advance into Premier you'll have to take on viOlet who is known as one of the stronger Zergs competing in the NA region. How is your confidence level going into that Bo5, and do you have any special preparation you plan on going through.

I’ve been playing customs consistently. Unfortunately, due to lack of time I can’t prepare anything super special so I’m just trying my best to get whatever builds I can ready. I don’t really know where my skill level lies right now or viOlet’s so I don’t know what to expect from the match. I will simply play my best and go from there.

I know a lot of viewers have also enjoyed the casting that you've done for WCS in the past, and more recently with BaseTradeTV during the qualifiers. How do you feel about casting, and is it something you'd even consider returning to in the future?  

Casting is a thing that I may return to in the future, but not something that is likely to hold my interest long term or as a consistent endeavor. I had a tough time toward the end of last year and got pretty burnt out on commentary. I’m mostly over that and may look toward some opportunities soon.

Finally do you have anything else you'd like to say to our readers.

Thanks to everyone who’s continued to support me. It’s been a long ride.

Where can we find you on social media, and do you have any shoutouts for us?

Special thanks to Complexity Gaming, my team, for allowing me to continue pursuing my passion. I’m @col_qxc and colqxc on twitch. Thanks.

 qxc plays against viOlet tomorrow night for the chance to qualify into Premier league. 

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