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Interview with Fnatic's Hafu
Written by Karsh in interview 3 months ago (72 comments) | Tagged in: fnatic hafu montreal
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Rumay 'Hafu' Wang has a brief chat with me on how she got into the professional scene of World of Warcraft and her thoughts on the newly released 3.0 patch which was live at the Extreme Masters Montreal event this weekend.

Hello Hafu, firstly tell us a little about your gaming history, how did you get so involved within the eSports scene?

World of Warcraft is the only game I’ve spent a lot of time on. I started playing a lot when I was out of school and sick with Mono during my freshman year of high school. I’m competitive by nature, so when the arena system was introduced, I did my best to get to the top. I was very lucky to be in a competitive battlegroup off the bat (I really do think Ruin was the best battlegroup during the first two seasons). Being a girl definitely played a role in getting to the actually tournaments, but I believe that I’ve proved that I can compete with the boys after all.


You are definitely the main female World of Warcraft player on the scene at the moment, is that a pressure you would rather not have?

ImageGender doesn’t play a role in the game itself, so I don’t see it as a “pressure”. There’s more attention drawn towards me, but it’s done both good and bad, so overall I don’t mind it.


In your opinion why do think we are not seeing more elite female World of Warcraft players around at the moment?

The male to female ratio is pretty ridiculous on WoW, so I think it’s pretty natural to see mainly guys on the tournament scene. There are definitely good female players out there. To name a few, Noxn is one of the best shadow priests in the game, and Anna of PMS is a great rogue that was at ESL LA.

The 3.0 patch has not gone down well with the professional players like yourself, what is your take on the patch?

Well, 3.0 is too new. There was absolutely no time to adjust, and Montreal was just a zerg of rogues, mages, and retribution paladins. I’m sure with time, things will be balanced out for the better.

Do you think event organisers such as ESL should consider not using 3.0 in their future tournaments until Blizzard have addressed the unbalance issues?

Haha, it’s a bit late for that now isn’t it? I was hoping that ESL would keep the old patch intact for Montreal, but I’m not sure if it’s even possible. If it is, then certainly.

The Extreme Masters Montreal was the first event which featured the 3.0 patch, how did the event feel and go for you?

ImageAgain, it was really just a zerg-fest. Warlocks are too weak right now, so we opted to use a ret paladin instead. Our finish was upsetting, but I don’t think it was any of our faults. Aside from that, the event was a lot of fun. Montreal is beautiful, and we got to see a lot of cars (the tournament coincided with a car show).

WLD comp has really suffered a blow, will your team be able to adjust to all the changes and perfect a new comp in time for the America Continental Finals next month?

I do think we’ll be able to make adjustments to be a strong team once again. One month is definitely not enough time to work out all the strategies, but surely we will strive to do what we can.

What is your main ambition when it comes to your career? We have seen big teams say they are only doing this for money to get into university and some saying playing is what they want to do, what’s yours?

Personally, I just have a blast travelling and attending tournaments. How cool is it to be flown around to play a video game, all the while making some extra cash? I love it, and I’d like to keep doing it for as long as possible.

Any last shout-outs?

A huge thank you to fnatic, for supporting my team. MSI for my gorgeous new laptop, Steelseries, Coolermaster, Bestpoker.com, and Ugame.net. Thinktank, Influenza, and of course Glick and Rhaegyn.

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Photos by ESL and supplied by Hafu



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