Fnatic - A profesional gaming team

Name: Olav Undheim
Date of Birth: 11th July 1986
Location: Stavanger (Norway)
Race: Night Elf
Marital Status: single
First RTS game: Age of Empires Red Alert
Likes: To work and strive to reach a goal
Dislikes: Using time selling something like a car or pc hardware
Food preference: Pizza
Song: 'Requiem for a dream' theme song or whatever I haven't heard 100 times before
Favourite Movie: Lord of the Rings
Favourite Model / Actress: Jessica Alba
Favorite Actor: Denzel Washington / Clive Owen
Favourite unit to kill: Ghoul
Favorite Hero to kill: Death Knight
Favourite 4K Player: Everyone =)
Favorite All-time player: Moon
Favorite Quote: "I have a dream." - Martin Luther King

The Origin of Creo~

I've been asked some times before about my nickname. Basically it was 6-7 years ago when some of the older boys decided to host a small lan in my neighborhood. In the registration paper you had to fill in your name as well as your nickname. First we didn't even know what this nickname thing was supposed to be, and when we found out me and my friends, who were going as well, tried to find a nickname each. When everyone else had picked one for themselves and time was running out I looked through a book in a biology lesson and found ”Creolophus” which was a Latin name for a certain mushroom.

The Hotkeys of Creo~

I don't use any custom keys, but I have adjusted some of my mouse buttons. For example I got numpad 1 on my scroll button and the backerase button on mouse button 4

Creo at the Battle.net finals

The Groupings of Creo~

1: Heroes and units
2: More units (could for example have all talons here and have heroes + archers at group1)
3: All production buildings (aow, wind, lore etc)
4: Main TOL
5: Hunts Hall
6: Altar
7: expo1, 8: expo2 etc
If I need one more groups for units I just move everything to one number higher

The Config of Creo~
When you go to tournaments there are in most cases pc's there already, so you just have to bring a couple of things like; mouse: razer diamondback, mousepad: steelpad S&S, keyboard: steelkeys 6G, headset: steelsound 5H v2

The First Game of Creo~
First game of wc3 was against a friend on a LAN. I used to beat him in other RTS games like Starcraft and red alert, so he came with Warcraft and told me this was a game I should test. The first game I lost pretty hard to Priestess of the Moon (solo hero) with mass archers. I didn't know much about heroes at that time, so I didn't really enjoy it at first when he had Starfall in my base and I didn't know how to stop it -_-

Hey can you introduce yourself to us give a little bit of trivia about yourself that no one knows?

Hey everyone, my name is Olav Undheim. I'm 20 years old and am currently a full-time gamer in 4K. A bit of trivia... Could be that I live in a rather small town with around 1000 people and went with the same people in kindergarten, at football and handball practice, at youth clubs and 10 years of school. You can say I'm glad to be able to travel a bit around the world nowadays.

Olav at KODE5

How did you get into computers?

My parents bought a PC when I was quite young as my mom needed something to write on for work. This PC also had one game where you tried to hit a monkey by throwing a banana; adjusting angle and velocity and looking at the wind speed etc. We soon got a 386 computer with windows 3.11 which had some better games like "Ports of Call" and "Scorched Earth". Doubt they planned that I would be putting so much time in computers as I do now, when they bought the first PC.

What attracted your fancy to gaming and now multi-gaming?

In TFT I started to play more solo ladder and got better. One day the manager of the biggest Norweigan clan, IT-Narkoman, asked if I wanted to join and I gladly accepted. From that time on it got more serious and we practiced for WC3L qualifiers and played inCups.

Which clans have you been part of?

IT, 64AMD, fnatic and now 4K

Lifting the Cup with 4Kings

Currently you reside in 4Kings, how did they approach you and what was your first reaction?

They were looking for another elf player, and first contacted me one and a half year ago and asked if I was interested. At that time I was about to move to start my first year at university, so I had no idea about how much I would have time to practice or how the internet connection would be.
A bit later they announced that they would recruit Shortround, but as most people know they had some issues about his existing contract with Mousesports. Almost a year later they contacted me again about me possibly joining. I decided to try my fortune as a full-time gamer and joined up with 4K while taking a break from university after my first years exams there were done

You spent a long time at fnatic and 64AMD with trimble and the guys, was it difficult adjusting to 4K? How did they welcome you there?

I was about half a year in 64AMD and then one year in fnatic. From the old AMD team with me winner, sase, duck it was only me and SaSe left. Sase joined mouz and fnatic decided to restructure the wc3 team and change some players. Because of these big changes already it didn't feel too wrong to leave, but I had a good relationship with trimble so I didn't feel good about it either. When I joined 4K they hadn't had any new persons into the team for some time. I wouldn't say it was difficult adjusting to 4K. Of course there are different personalities in the team and I'm more of a silent person, but if everyone were alike it wouldn't have been that much fun.

L-to-R: Creo, Grubby, FuRy, Zeus, ToD

Can you introduce each of your teammates to us?

Zeus: Is my ”older night elf brother”. The one I discuss the most with and share strategies with. Knows a lot which about things which only experience can teach you. Always knows some good movies to watch as well (although they often tend to die in the end in his movies)
Fury: Together with Zeus the one that keeps the team spirit high and cracks a lot of jokes. A funny guy to be around and practice hard. Probably the one who plays the most custom games with others in the team.
Grubby: Often takes the responsibility as a "temporary" team-leader and keeps things serious whenever it's needed. The mixture of learning really fast and practicing a lot makes him the one everyone can ask for advice even if it's another match-up not involving Orc.
Tod: Lives in China now which makes him harder to practice with if it’s not offline. Works really hard, practice a lot and is a perfectionist about everything within Warcraft 3. He's also the best guy to go clubbing with...

FuRy hasn't been performing lately, is there a cause for worry there? How does the team lift a players spirit who isn't playing too well?

I think the most important part for how the "team" should help anyone is to help them stay motivated. Right after I joined 4K and lost in some matches in NGL everyone wanted to help, and also did.
I found out that I could play better if I just tried my best and didn't care that much if it was a win or a loss in the end. The results can be very brutal sometimes, a small mistake can turn a bo3 and then maybe the whole cw. As for Fury's part he's playing good in practice so it's more of a forum thing to put players in boxes which it's hard to change afterwards.

In real life whom would you consider to be your role model and why?

For me everyone has some attributes or some things they are good at, for example one guy might be a really good speaker and in that area he could be somewhat of a role model. As of being a total role model I had some older cousins which I sort of "looked up to" when I was younger. When it comes to being a role model for how to be good parents, then my mother and father top my list for sure.

Which is your favorite book/magazine?

When it comes to book I used to read a lot more fiction before. The latest years I've had enough with books which I had to read for school, but this year I've had some time for reading (mainly when waiting at an airport or similar). Favorite book most be something like Lord of the rings or Harry Potter.

What kind of music do you like listening to?

I usually like different music depending of what I do. If I'm working I'd like repetitive music which kind of makes you go into a trance and suddenly 4 hours have passed by. If I'm just watching replays it could be something like Coldplay.

With Fire and FrogB

What is your favorite choice in cars and why?

I was never much of a car-person opposed to many of my friends. I had a Honda Civic for about two years. When I moved for school I sold it to a friend who crashed it within one week...

Do you play soccer? If so then what spot and why?

When I was "young and .. fit" I used to play soccer, handball and partly volleyball. I was never any good at soccer so I used to play in defense. For some time I only went to the training and not the matches just for the exercise, but it was more effective to go to the gym instead of having to listen to the coach talking about formations and such.

What sports do you like to play?

Football and handball mainly, but I rather go jogging at the beach with some friends compared to some organized sports with angry opponents and a bad judge at the pitch.

What activities do you indulge in school?

I think math was always my best subject, but my grades in all subjects were pretty similar, didn't have something that stood out stiffly

At Extreme Masters Finals

What do your parents mean to you? Are they encouraging of your e-sport activities?

They weren't surprised that I wanted to take some time off school to concentrate all my time on gaming, as a matter of fact my mother said she had sort of expected something like it after they had seen me traveling so much just for gaming tournaments. They are supportive in whatever I do and they sort of compare it to my sister going to Australia for half a year. You have to do things like this when you still can; not when you are 40, have a family and debts on the house.

Do you plan on getting back to studies?

Ye, for sure. Progaming has it's price as everything else. The worst thing about it is seeing how little time there's left for visiting friends and "social life" in general. There's always a tournament coming up and it's almost all about putting a lot of hours in practice for it.

You mentioned earlier that ToD was the best guy to go partying with, so can you tell us some of your "progaming partying" experiences?

Usually the parties which are held at tournaments like ESWC are really bad, as it's 90% male gamers. It's different when you go to china for a small tournament and Tod happens to know all the best places and clubs. The clubs in China are so much better than the usual "discos" we have at home.

What is the atmosphere like in the team before a tournament like WC3L or NGL?

It's always more fun going to a team tournament when we are all in the same boat compared to an individual tournament where we might have to face each other. We try to do an analysis about starting maps and who our opponents might use, just generally talk some about the upcoming clan war. Then after we go to some good place to eat and just do something not related to gaming to relax a bit.

Creo at WCG

Any funny experiences you've had with your team-mates in real life?

There's always a lot of joking and such, but I especially remember when I first joined 4K and went to StarsWar. I was sharing a room with Grubby, and suddenly in the morning he said we were changing hotel now and had to pack our staff right away. I thought he was just joking and asked why we would need to do that, but he just asked "You don't believe me?", then started packing his bag and asked again; ”You still don’t believe me”.
After some time it looked like he was thinking and then just said a room number where we were supposed to drop off our bags. I thought he was dragging this joke a bit too far trying to convince me that it was real. When we got to that room however, they all were waiting and were upset because I wasn’t ready to leave and hadn’t packed my bags -_- As a conclusion it's always different to meet someone in real life as opposed to just chatting through the internet with them.

From the scene, who is the most entertaining player you've met?

When it comes to entertaining when not playing it's my teammates in 4k for sure. If it's entertaining as in watching someone play then it's probably some elf player for my part. I'd say Deadman just because he makes it look so easy.

Strategy of Creo

How do you handle a tower opponent? What are your basic aims, can you guide us step by step from the moment you see the peasants/peons coming in to the end of the battle?

The most important thing is to scout it as fast as possible. When he's just staying on tier 1 and making footies peasants it's hard to know if he's going to tower you or expo. If you put too much resources in Ancient of War' as defence you'll have a hard time if he decides to expand instead. There are some different styles of towering as well.
One is when he brings ~4 militia as soon as his hero is out. It depends a bit how his units hero is positioned, but normally you should try to mana burn and focus AM until he runs and go for the peasants building the towers. Normally the best time to kill the towers are just before they are finished (they die really fast to focus fire from archers). At the same time as this you should try to build couple of Ancient of War' close to his towers while producing archers from 1 Ancient of War and couple of moon wells to heal your Demon Hunter.
A general tip could be to have some patience against a tower rush. When you have 1 Ancient of War and archer build and he's first coming to your base with 4 militia as well as his army it's usually better to build 1 moon well in the back so he won't have anything to cancel. Then when his militia becomes peasants you can build 2 Ancient of War' on the same time close to his towers. He can also do a late tier 1 tower rush with defend footies which makes it bad to have many archers (better to have a 2nd Ancient of War and try to get something like pit lord).

In your experience what has been the most unique strategy you've seen ever?

The most unique strats I've seen came from WEG. There were a lot of one-time-only strategies; those tactics that usually just work one time when the opponent doesn't know what's coming. If I was to pick one specific then it would probably be Moon building his base in the middle of turtle rock with naga first, or fast tech to glaives+zep+hippos against undead.

How do you handle a human opponent?

Against human the elf role is in most cases to be offensive; harassing with Demon Hunter and archers, trying to slow his creeping and try to do some damage to his AM. In "normal" games it's all about getting a big t3 army with bears and dryads which beats the human rifle+caster army. The hard part is getting to that point though, so it's a lot about harassing in the start and then defending at the mid-game.
Of course there are other strategies which human can make as well, so it’s important to scout. It depends a lot on the map if the human will go for expo, tower rush, 2 sanctums, rifle, casters etc. Dark Ranger also works good, especially on maps like Terenas Stand and Echo Isles.

What difficulties have you encountered in a mirror match?

I tend to like elf mirror because there's not just one strategy that beats everything. This is also why it could be a difficult match-up, there is so much that can work and it's hard to scout for everything. On the same time it's also possible to play it really standard. Demon Hunter vs Demon Hunter, Priestess of the Moon vs Priestess of the Moon and Demon Hunter vs Priestess of the Moon feels like three different match-ups instead of just one. There's also a lot of variations even if you do the same heroes, like archer push, archers+talons with t3, archers+bears, archers+dryads expo etc. It's more about being unpredictable and adapting to the opponent than just microing good and creeping fast.

How did you select the Night Elf Sentinels?

In reign of chaos I used to play orc in 2on2 rt, going Farseer and Tauren Chieftain with mass wyverns against everything =). I got TFT like 5 months after it was out (I was happy enough with ROC). I started watching some 1on1 replays and played more 1on1 ladder. I changed a lot; whenever I met something which seemed really good I changed to that race and used it again until I know what would beat it. In the "beastmaster patch" I played both orc and elf. If it was a tryout for a clan it would be better to play orc since nobody wanted another BeastMaster, mass tier 1 guy, but since I won the most with elf I kinda stuck with it, even after they patched the beastmaster.

What is the most unique strategy you've ever used?

The most controversial strategy would be the "merc abuse" on TS. I saw a replay from German EPS where someone used 1 archer to hit the creeps and run in with dh from the other side to get the murlock with ensnare. A bit after in practice Pato came and told me he had a new strat for mirror.
I don't know where he got the idea from, but it worked really good (too good for some leagues apparently since they some of them banned it). We then practiced it a lot and made some adjust, like getting the shredder as well. Both me and Pato had a clanwar on the same time but I only I met an elf so I was the only one to use it. It was against MYM]EVE and he tried to countered it by buying extra circlets.

For more tips don't forget to check out Creo's Replay Pack

Farewell Olav

Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

Probably just started working in some kind of computer software company. Many things might change in 5 years; like I have no idea where I will end up living.

Do you want to concentrate on college or do you want to play more computer games?

I will play warcarft 3 competitively a bit more, but I'll go back to school sooner or later. I hardly see myself changing to another game and playing it as much as I do now with warcraft. One thing I've learnt from being a full-time gamer is that a guy who practice 14 hours a day can easily lose to a guy who play this game 4 hours per day. Everyone can get a certain amount of micro and strategies are generally easy to copy, so luck factors in the game like items, maps, starting positions play an important role compared to many other games.

Whom do you consider to be your role model in the online world?

When someone is playing really good I might try to find out if he's doing something a new way, has new ways of practicing or a new mindset in the game. I wouldn't call it role models though, as in the online world you usually only see parts of a person. One guy might be really mannered, one guy might be very focused when playing an important game, one guy handles pressure good; would be beneficial to learn something from everyone =)

Creo at StarsWar

What do you think is the future of this game in Europe?

As long as there are tournaments people will still play it on a high level. If a new game like Starcraft 2 is released then most people would probably change game rather fast. For Warcraft 3 it will probably remain the RTS game most people play for some years more, but I'm not the person you should ask for time estimates.

Would you like to consider moving to Asia to go after a more lucrative career in gaming?

It crossed my mind to do something like Tod and Sase and live in China, or just stay some months if the whole 4K went for some sort of boot camp there. As for my own situation right now I feel I can practice really good from home already. Hardly have any duties and just get my clothes washed and dinner ready. Might have been more productive to live around some other gamers who you could discuss with, but you can pretty much do that online too with MSN and IRC.

Have you ever thought of becoming a coach or a manager after you retire?

Sure it could have been interesting to be something more like the coaches in Korea for Starcraft; knowing the game as a former progamer and then get payed to help someone to become really good. There's probably a lot of time going to waste having to search for opponents to play on GGCL, finding out info of new tournaments and such. I can't see myself being one of the "normal" managers scheduling clan wars and keeping the players motivated; there are probably better people for that than me.

Any last words/praises/comments/shoutouts?

Thanks to everyone reading - we need your support both in good and bad times! A big thanks to Intel, Razer and SteelSeriesas well. See you!

Creo the monster of elf mirrors and one of the most feared players in competitive Warcraft 3 shared a huge chunk of his replays from his account on bnet known as submarine so please patronize!

4K^Creo's Replay Pack

His pack contains:

submarine vs ELFNEEDSNERFING on EchoIsles
submarine vs SK.Miou on TerenasStand
submarine vs FmR.Vyfer on TurtleRock
submarine vs srs.zerter on TerenasStand
submarine vs Troublestarter. on TerenasStand
submarine vs MYM]Sasuke on GnollWood
submarine vs IneyReset.Lose on GnollWood
submarine vs mTw-Tak3r on TerenasStand