Interview conducted by Padraic 'Cyan' Murphy.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to speak to me man! I really appreciate it.

No problem at all!

Recently you joined Psistorm gaming as a player manager. For anyone who might not be familiar with the title, what is your role as player manager going to be in Psistorm?

So basically, I'll continue to be on the roster as a player, but my main role is going to be management of the pro and academy team.

Will you be focusing your efforts into one particular branch of the team or will you be working with all the players equally?

No, I'll be working with everyone pretty much equally.

What sort of tactics will you bring to help the players improve and grow? A focus on custom games, trying to play cross server on KR, anything special you can let us in on?

I've designed an in-house league practice system based on my time at the MVP house and my understanding of their and other KeSPA teams' practice schedules. Obviously it's a watered down version as not everybody on the team is full time, but everybody is quite excited for it and I expect it to help in multiple areas.

Other than that I'm available for any of my players to come to me and request help that they feel will be beneficial to them, so for example I've helped two of my academy players design practice schedules for themselves and rules to go along with it to maximize practice efficiency. Just pretty much that kind of stuff.

You seem to have jumped in with the team spirit very easily. I’ve seen you on Twitter cheering for your players all throughout the recent Cheesadelphia event. Is there anyone who you think has the potential to have a breakout run in the future?

All of the guys here have been extremely welcoming and they're just a really fun group of guys, so it's been a very easy transition for me to make in that respect. I can't say that I'm familiar enough with everybody's level to make wild predictions yet, but I have to say that Bowman has particularly impressed me so far going 5-0 in clanwars. DisK and Warren have also been solid. We have a wealth of talent on our academy team though, and I really look forward to seeing just how good they are.

As for the pro roster, EnDerr is going to be looking to upset Hydra at IEM this week--so make sure to tune in for that-- and PiLiPiLi, EnDerr and TRUE are all qualified for Dreamhack Montreal.

Most people counted EnDerr out as soon as they saw the bracket. How likely is a huge upset in your opinion? Can he beat Hydra?

Well, first of all ZvZ, is extremely coinflippy. EnDerr has been working hard on preparing for the match though, and if he can get a read on Hydra he should have a decent shot. People underrate him because they don't know him, but he's a very good player. I'd give him a 20-30% chance at taking the upset.

When someone joins a new team, it obviously means that they had to leave their old one. You were on mYi for years. Many people online were saying that ‘Pengwin IS mYi’. How did it feel to step away from an organization that you helped build into the success that it is today?

Well, first of all I think the people saying "PengWin is mYi" are just people who believed the common misconception that I was the owner of mYi. Aside from that, I've been open to moving for near 8 months now. It wasn't really anything like "I need to get out of here" or so, but I was keeping an eye out for a new team and they were happy to have me continue manage their side until I found one. So I guess it feels a little weird, but there's no bad feelings or anything, so it's fine.

Was the change just a desire to move on your part? The statement that was released by yourself and the team emphasized that there was no bad blood but that you had a difference of vision. What is that vision and where is the difference?

There's a few things that influenced the decision. First of all, I just kind of want a change of scenery. I love mYi and the guys at mYi, but it's the only organization that I've been a part of until now, so a change of scenery is nice. Secondly, it's gonna be cool to live in America for a while. I love the DC area and have friends around there, so it's gonna be very cool to be able to see them more regularly.

As for vision, I fully intend to bring Psistorm to the next level. Psistorm both as a player roster and in management is capable of being an absolute top tier team, and that's what we're going to push for. Strong individual performances like True and RuFF had at Cheesadelphia are a great start. Hopefully we'll see EnDerr, True and Pili have strong showings in the next couple of weeks as well. We also fully intend to win the DuSt League team league for the third season running.

The difference in vision really came in that mYi wants to focus more of its efforts domestically, not necessarily for SC2 but just for the organization as a whole, because it's a lot easier to get Swiss sponsors. Recently, the Heroes team has also kind of eclipsed the SC2 team as well, and the focus is definitely more on that area. I'm definitely looking forward to being on a team where SC2 is front and center.

When will you be moving to the Psistorm house?

As soon as I have my personal affairs in order. Probably 2 weeks.

You were formerly a member of the BasetradeTV crew, dating back to the days of z33k.tv. Are you still close with the current Basetrade crew?

Yeah, I'm good friends with all of them.

How did that relationship in the early days help to shape your career?           

Honestly, it didn't really have any effect. It was nice to be able to use Basetrade as an outlet to get some attention for some of mYi's lesser known players like ABomB through showmatches etc, but for myself personally it's not something that's had much of an effect on my career.

You also eventually became a part of a bonafide casting duo alongside Madals, who has since become the esports director at DingitTV. Do you two still keep in touch?

Every now and then. Madals is a good guy. He's doing very well for himself nowadays!

That's great to hear! So you’ve been affiliated with Basetrade, you’ve had a long run with Madals, but lately it seems that you’ve been less focused on casting. Is that correct or is it more a matter of there not being as many opportunities to cast in the 2016 WCS system?

I think it's more just that there are so many talented casters in SC2. We as a community are very spoiled in that regard. Getting a casting gig as a "non-premier" caster is extremely difficult. Basically you have to hope for two events to be conflicting, and maybe a couple of people unable to make either and then maybe you get a call. I'm very sad that Gfinity doesn't do SC2 anymore, as they were very happy with my performance last year.

You’ve been a man of many hats. You’ve been filled the roles of player, caster, manager, streamer, and talk show personality. What’s your preferred role in esports?

I'm just a guy that loves SC2, so I pretty much like all the roles.

I think that's a great attitude to have! Moving into gameplay, how do you feel about the balance of SC2 right now?

ZvT is a giant conundrum right now for the balance team. In Korea, it's horrendously Terran favored to the point where nobody outside of Rogue and Dark, the two best Zergs in the world, has even looked close to having a chance at advancing in the leagues. So just looking at Korea, you would say "Wow, Terran really needs to be addressed." But then you take a look at the foreign scene, and while Terran still wins more games than Zerg, it's a hell of a lot closer (last I checked somewhere around 53-54% compared to like 70-75% in Korea). I personally think that this comes down to the top tier Korean Terrans having such impeccable control of their micro that they're able to fully abuse aggressive openings moreso than their foreign counterparts, but when people with really good micro like uThermal are really on form, you see him taking solid wins against Nerchio as well. I think the correct move from Blizzard would to be to give larva a buff (perhaps finding a middle ground between what we have now and what we had in HotS), and then handing some nerfs to Zerg (Chitenous plating, Adrenal glands).

Personally I think ZvP is fine right now. I just hate ZvZ because I honestly don't feel like there is very much skill involved in the matchup. Pick build A and hope that the opponent picked build B because then you win, but if he picked build C, you lose-- but there isn't any way to scout and respond, so it's just blind luck.

What do you think can possibly be done to fix ZvZ? It’s been the coinflippiest matchup ever since the first iteration of SC2. Is there a way to fix it? I've seen some ideas like faster overlord speed pitched. Would it help?

Faster overlord speed is the only fix, but it risks being too strong in ZvT and ZvP. I don't know if there is a fix. It's very possible that Blizzard just ruined it for LotV.

Those are some unfavourable words for the expansion most people tout as the best version of StarCraft ever released. What are your thoughts on LotV overall?

I love LotV overall; the new units are great, the pace of the game is great. It's a great spectator sport. ZvZ is really the only design qualm I have with it.

What are your thoughts on WCS 2016?          

I think the system is fine-- Not great, but fine. It'd be nice if we had more events open to Koreans. Blizzard needs to make an option in 2017 for tournament organizers to host global events without having to front a $150,000 prize pool. Overall though, the level of the foreign scene is solid, and it's not just being farmed by the Koreans with visas, which is a nice surprise to many people. I think only having two seasons a year in Korea is also very bad. At the very least they should stagger it, because it's just extremely demoralizing to be a player who loses in Season 2 Code A and know that your year is done despite it only being June.

Can you talk about what you think of the health of SC2 in 2016? A lot of people outside the scene think of it as a ‘dead game,’ and even within the scene there are lots of fans who claim the game and its professional scene are dying. Do you agree with that?

It's just people being poorly informed. Average viewership has been pretty steady for the past 3 years. SC2 is similar to Smash Melee in that it occupies a unique niche that no other game is able to fill. People will always want to watch the game and unless another replacement comes along, I don't really see the viewer numbers going down much.

One of the first things you said in this interview was how excited you were to be a part of an organization like Psistorm that puts SC2 front and center in their priorities. Would you ever consider switching to another esports title or are you on SC2 for life?

I managed mYi Hearthstone for about 6 months. Wasn't really for me. I don't really care much about any other esports.

So what's in the future for Stefan 'PengWin' Mott? Will you stick with esports or will you eventually transition to another career path?

I guess we'll have to see, won’t we?!

Thanks so much once again for speaking with me. Are there any shoutouts you'd like to do?

Just a quick shoutout to my new team Psistorm Gaming! I'm streaming a lot nowadays, so if anybody wants to check that out, please do. That's at www.twitch.tv/pengwin_sc. You can follow my twitter @psiPengWin as well.

If you enjoyed this interview, follow @CyanEsports on Twitter for more Starcraft 2 content.

Photos courtesy of Psistorm