Beyond the Game - Into the mind of the professional Warcraft player

Warcraft III enters the lives of mothers and fathers

‘Beyond the Game’, shown on television the 3rd of September by HUMAN media, follows professional Warcraftgamers. Lead player Grubby: “The movie reaches people who can be astonished by our world”.

Moviemaker Jos de Putter explored the world of gaming for his documentary ‘Beyond the Game’. The movie shows two professional Warcraft III-gamers in the running towards the world championship, were they compete in a final battle. The game ‘Warcraft III’ is a war-game between two players who are fighting a battle in a new world - cyberworld.

Leadplayer of the movie Manual Schenkhuizen, better known online as ‘Grubby’, answered some questions for Human.nl by e-mail. Manual is currently in the USA for a tournament and a short vacation. We translated the Dutch interview in English for all the international viewers of this website.

Director Jos de Putter describes ‘Warcraft III’, as a kind of chess playing game. How would you describe the game for people who are not familiar with it?

“’Warcraft III’ is a computer game en is part of ‘real time strategy’ gaming. You can play it by yourself, but you can also play against gamers from over the whole world in short intensive games. The world of ‘Warcraft III’ looks somewhat similar like the popular story from ‘Tolkien’s Middle-Earth’ (Lord of the Rings).

Players can win by building up an economy, and after that producing unities with, for example, monsters, archers, magicians and heroes. Magical spells, tactics, speed en surprise elements help to gain superiority over your opponent. Just like in a chess game you need to think ahead and an excellent knowledge of the game is necessary.”

Jos de Putter defines you as ‘an impressive calm player, that is considered to be the artist, and who has a philosophical approach towards the game’. Do you recognize yourself in his words? And what do you believe to be the main difference between you and ‘Sky’, your antagonist in the movie?

“We find ourselves in a very young branch. ‘Warcraft III’ is played professionally for six years now. The longer people play ‘Warcraft III’, the better the players become. This raises the level that you play at and increases the importance of the mental aspect in competitions. Very important elements are, among others, controlling your emotions and using your experience as an advantage. I believe the main difference between ‘Sky’ and myself is that I would rely on a surprise element, while ‘Sky’ pays more attention to improvement of one of his existing tactics.”

How much time do you spend on ‘Warcraft III’, and what do you do in spare time?

“I practice about eight to twelve hours a day on a normal workday. In my spare time I like watching movies, read a lot, visit family or hang out with friends and off course my fiancé.”

How have you been doing since the making of the documentary?

“After I won the ‘World Cyber Games 2008’ in November last year in Cologne, I regained the trust of my fans. My self-esteem has improved as well. Since then I have made some good achievements and I won some tournaments. I am in America for a tournament and a small holiday right now.”

How do you look back on ‘Beyond the Game’, does the movie provide an accurate image of the world of ‘Warcraft III’?

“I have always wanted to show to the world and the Dutch people what ‘eSports’ (competitive playing of computer games) is. I am very disappointed in the fact that the documentary did not or barely made clear that there is a major difference between ‘Warcraft III’ and ‘World of Warcraft’.

Other than that I believe that the movie is good for people who are not familiar with the game. It is the first time that the ‘eSports’-world’ makes an entrance in the lives of ‘mothers and fathers’ through the big screen. Thanks to ‘Beyond the Game’ I can reach out to people who can be astonished by our world.”

View ‘Beyond the Game’ online (Dutch version). More information on the English version (DVD/downloadable version etc) of this documentary will be posted on this website. 

Picture: Manuel ‘Grubby’ Schenkhuizen