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[Interview] Dewalt

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Dewalt

Andrey “Dewalt” Belyaevin born 1994, Russia, is arguably the best foreigner you can find right now. By any means everyone should agree he is and has been the top 2 foreigner for a while now. Dewalt has reached an incredible level and he keeps lifting himself to new heights. Like many that sought to be the best they can be – Draco, Idra, Nony, Ret, to name a few – he has been to Korea to really put his might to the test. Because Dewalt’s venture is not as well documented as the former mentioned few the more reason there is to conduct an interview with him. Please enjoy!

Thank you for making time to have this interview. I’m excited to get right into it!

Dewalt:

No problem. Thanks for inviting me to the interview 🙂

Most of our readers should know you by now. You have made quite a name for yourself and you’ve become an imposing force, but it would be fun to know a little more about you. I’m curious to know: How did you get into Brood War? Was BW your first RTS (real-time strategy)?

Dewalt:

I started to play BW online at the end of 2009 when we first got internet at home. Before that time I was familiar with RTS games, I enjoyed playing WarCraft 3 at Russian PC bangs with my friends. I played some StarCraft back then as well, but it was mostly vs computers and I got destroyed by them all the time. I would drop it after 2 or 3 games and then come back after some time to try again, but nothing was changing 😄 Then my friend gave me a game magazine with some StarCraft stuff in it. It had an article about Boxer’s vs Yellow bunker rush build and V-Gundam’s TvP build. I read it, tried to copy it vs computers and it worked 😄 Then I started to play StarCraft vs AI from time to time such as 3vs5. I think it was in 2003~2006, but I don’t remember the years exactly.

3v5 computers?

Dewalt:

Yeah, I would take 2 computers as ally and play vs 4 or 5 of them as Terran 🙂

When you got internet in 2009, did you immediately start playing BW online? Maybe WC3?

Dewalt:

First thing I did was registering with one of the social networks – Vkontakte (Russian facebook). I was trying to get new friends or a girlfriend with that. Haha. After 2 days that became super boring, so I started to think about what else I could do with internet. All my friends were playing Counter Strike but I never like shooters and decided to play something else instead. Somehow I got into StarCraft as it was one of the games I enjoyed and spent playing some time when I was younger. I have no idea right now why it was StarCraft and not WarCraft though, because I liked WarCraft more when I was a kid 🙂

Aha. Interesting ^^ You may have no idea why you chose BW over WC3, but it seems like it was the right choice! Could you tell us a bit about your StarCraft journey so far? Was it easy to pick up the game? I mean, in 2009 BW was already quite evolved and there were many good players. Did that ever discourage you or was that maybe what ignited the competitive player inside you?

Dewalt:

Actually, I just remembered why I chose StarCraft! I saw the first StarCraft 2 game between the developers and I really liked it, so I decided to dive deeper into BW to get to know more about the game by the release of the SC2. I started looking for sites dedicated to StarCraft and I read various articles. The first news I remember reading was about the WCG 2009, it was a match between the German player Kolll and Korean player Bisu or Stork. In the article they wrote that young Kolll (at that time he was 16 years old if I’m not mistaken) made it really far into the tournament, and I decided that I had a year to reach about his level, because I was a year younger 🙂

I didn’t really know at the time that StarCraft would be a big part of my life, it was just a hobby after school, so I didn’t really care about other players. I was just trying to get better at the game one day at a time.

I remember Sayle (a well-regarded caster back then) casting some Kolll games and hyping up Kolll as a wonder kid because of his run in the WCG. I personally thought it was a bit ridicilous judging from the Kolll games I had seen, but it’s cool to know how he was your motivator to improve!

Dewalt:

Yeah and when I first time played Kolll, in a clan war in late 2011 I believe, I was super excited too 😄 And I beat him at this CW, but he wasn’t really practiced at that time.

I bet that felt good, beating the player that inspired you regardless whether he was practiced or not. It would be cool to now list all your achievements since that time, but let’s continue our talk. Your BW journey has lead you to visting Korea very recently. I’ve been meaning to ask you more about this. How many times have you been there so far? Was this your 2nd or 3rd time?

Dewalt:

I have been to Korea 2 times; the first time in 2019 and the second time in 2023. I would have gone to Korea in 2020 as well, but unfortunately that was when the pandemic started.

Right. What made you want to go again after the first time? Surely you went with a competitive goal in mind. Some of us may already know the answer to this question, but why don’t you tell us ^^

Dewalt:

I went to Korea to train and take part in the ASL – the top class StarCraft tournament. When I went there the first time, I unfortunately did not get the dates for the qualifiers of ASL nor KSL.

I see. Was that because of a language barrier or was your first visit simply more of a spontaneous decision? Like… Did you go to Korea to intend to play in the ASL qualifiers even then?

Dewalt:

The first visit was not a spontaneous decision, it’s just that at that time I had a full time job and I had to plan this trip in advance and no one knew the exact dates of the qualifiers for ASL or KSL. I guessed, judging by the previous seasons what time period the qualifications would be, but unfortunately I did not guess right.

That’s rather unfortunate. I guess I can attest to ASL being a bit random in its tournament schedule and making sure people know what’s going on. Anyway, in your latest visit you did get to play in the ASL qualifiers. Were there any other competitions you’ve played in during your stay? And are you happy with the results you got?

Dewalt:

I played in the ACS – part of the ASL tournament for non-professionals. Unfortunately I played very badly in this tournament and got out pretty early. At the ASL, I knocked out an ex-League of Legends pro, Tank, and another strong Zerg. On the first day of the qualifiers I was out after losing to Soma and on the second day I immediately fell to Ruin. Both players that I lost to ended up in the ASL. Overall I’m definitely not happy with my results. I hope I’ll do better next time, when I have a chance to go to Korea again 🙂

That’s a good competitive mindset. I do think it is a nice consolation to have lost to players that did make it into the ASL, especially with Soma being a very renowned top Korean Zerg.

So during your last stay ACS and ASL were the 2 things you planned for. Did you have a strict training schedule to prepare for this? I imagined you arrived a bit earlier to accommodate to the new time zone and playing on TR24.

Dewalt:

Yes, I arrived a little early to adapt to the environment rather than the latency and time zone. I lived in a very small room with not the most comfortable work space, which was a little annoying. I do not think that this greatly affected the result, but next time I will take a more responsible approach to address this issue. As for the training schedule, there was no strict schedule, and in fact it’s almost impossible to learn something in StarCraft in a few weeks, so I just trained at a comfortable pace. Before the tournament I tried to plan a schedule so that it would be convenient for the tournament, eat well and get enough sleep 🙂

From having watched tons of competitive BW, it gives me joy to hear you say that it’s very difficult to learn something new (and practice it well enough) to get it down in just a few weeks. Also, now that you’ve mentioned food. What is favorite food you’ve eaten in Korea. Can you name a dish that is not Korean BBQ? ^^

Dewalt:

As for the food, it was not very convenient either since I was just by myself in Korea (Seoul) this time. It’s not great to go to Korean cafes alone, plus I didn’t live in a tourist area and there were some difficulties with the language barrier. I mostly ate at places where there were self-service kiosks. My favorite dishes besides Korean BBQ were soup stew with some stuff and hochao chicken.

Before you went to Korea you were staying in Kazakhstan, correct? I assume that was because of the war? Would you mind telling us a bit more about it? Perhaps you can tell us about what impact the war had on you and your situation? And where do you reside now being back from Korea?

Dewalt:

Yes, I lived in Kazakhstan for a few months before going to Korea. I was on vacation when the mobilization began and decided not to return to Russia at that moment. Now I am back in Russia because I need to settle some issues and paperwork, after that I will most likely leave Russia again for a while. Unfortunately, I cannot yet tell the details of where and why, but soon I will let my fans know about it. In general, war is disgusting, there is nothing good in it, and life has not become better for sure.

It goes without saying no one sane wished for this war and let’s hope it ends asap :/ Besides being a competitive player and supergosu Russian BSL caster. Do you have interests other than BW? Any sports or hobbies? And socially? Earlier you mentioned friends and also having interest in girls. Does being a competitive player get in the way of any of this?

Dewalt:

As for the girls, everything is quite simple, I have been married for almost 5 years and love my wife very much. I spend most of my time outside of StarCraft with my wife. I don’t really have any other hobbies. I play a little League of Legends and sometimes watch football and some stuff on YouTube.

I was a professional swimmer and football player as a child so sports was always something close to me 🙂

Excuse me for forgetting you are in fact married. That’s awesome! Life is always better together.

Dewalt:

Yeah, it is 🙂

Let’s get back to BW. We’re on TL after all. You’ve mentioned Kolll’s story inspired you, but I must always ask this question: Who is your favorite progamer and why?

Dewalt:

Well honestly I never had one. I always tried to take best from different players like Bisu, BeSt, Jangbi, Stork, free[gm], Anytime and many others. But right now I enjoy watching Rain. I think he’s best Protoss player of all time, because he combines everything that I like in a player – incredible micro control, competent build orders and macro and excellent decision making in various critical situations. Unfortunately he’s not playing much lately, but when he plays he still rocks!

Damn, unknowingly I found myself dealing with yet another Rain fanboy. And surprisingly you didn’t mention Snow! If I knew ahead of time this would be the case… Hahaha. All jokes aside…

Dewalt:

Well honestly, as a professional player trying to learn something new, I don’t like players such as Snow and Mini. They are amazing players from a viewer’s perspective, but it’s hard to copy their play style/build orders/strategy because they mostly rely on micro control, which you never can copy.

Thanks for giving the readers more insight. Your answer makes a lot of sense 🙂
What has been your favorite experience or memory in BW so far?

Dewalt:

Hmm. I don’t have big one for myself yet, I hope it will be joining ASL one day haha. But honestly winning tournaments is always nice, the biggest one for me was RCG 2020, so i’ll say this one.

Awesome, I like it and we’d all love to see that ASL dream happen! Right now you’re playing in the BSL once again. You’ve survived the Ro6, came out as top 3 player and now your next match in your run to the finals is a Zerg like you had predicted. How are you feeling about your chances to win the next match and about winning it all? You will have the “joy” of playing all 3 match ups, with arguably the top non-Korean players of their respective races, when you make it to the finals 😉

Dewalt:

I’m fine with playing all 3 matchups 🙂 I’m confident with my skill level so if everything will go right, this BSL should be mine!

I’m sure Nyoken will love to hear this answer! The guy is always rooting for you to win the BSL.

Dewalt:

Yeah haha, I should finally make Nyoken proud of me!

You should! I will forget about your answer earlier and also cheer for you!

Dewalt:

😄

I have one final question. Have you tried playing on ShieldBattery and what are your general thoughts about the ShieldBattery project?

Dewalt:

Yep, I played some on ShieldBattery and I like it. The only bad part about it – not enough players. And honestly I have no idea how to attract more players to this platform, maybe host some tournaments only on ShieldBattery. But in the end if battle.net will be still playable, most players will still go there instead of ShieldBattery…

I think so too, and it’s a nice thought to have ShieldBattery as a safe haven for when battle.net eventually falls. Thank you so much for your time. It has been a great joy. Is there anything I didn’t ask that you would like to say?

Dewalt:

Yep, thanks for inviting me to the interview once again! I’d like to say thanks to all my viewers and supporters and special thanks to the guy with the nickname fantomofdoom, without his financial support it would be impossible for me to be a full time StarCraft person so thank you very much!

You can find Dewalt at:

And please tune in for his upcoming BSL match this Saturday in

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Interviewer: Peeano

Graphics: v1

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