Martin “Fjant” Koffman, jeune joueur Zerg évoluant sous l’aile de la Team Rotti, a accepté de se confier au micro de la rédaction. C’est l’occasion pour lui d’évoquer son parcours et ses ambitions, dans le contexte d’une scène affaiblie ces derniers mois.
You turned 18 last August. How does someone your age get into Starcraft when there are many other popular alternatives out there?
Well, I don't really know how other people get into RTS. Personally, I think I was always just built for RTS. When I was a kid, there was this Wii Lego Star Wars game that I used to play. There was this one level that I just loved and replayed a million times, akin to RTS with bases, buildings and armies. I’d wake up early in the morning just to play that level. I think I was just born to love controlling armies and watching them fight, I just love it.
I started with the campaign and that's the reason I started playing the game in the first place. I think it was when I was 7 or 8, so in 2014, one of my classmates told me that we should play StarCraft, so we played it and I enjoyed it so much that I wished for the campaigns as a Christmas present.
You can regularly be seen grinding the game on the ladder and playing in various online cups. You even recently broke the 6000MMR threshold. What have been some of the challenges you’ve encountered on the journey?
I always try to play tournaments because it's the most fun part of the game for me. I am a very very competitive person and I think part of that comes from having two brothers whom I always tried to outdo in everything when I was younger.
Since Fall 2022, hitting 6000 MMR was my main goal, and it took a long time to hit, mainly because of how I approached it I think. Instead of focusing on improving so I could actually reach my goal, I was only focused on winning games to get my MMR up, which isn't how you should approach the game at all. I think it slowed down the process.
Getting 6000 MMR was a very long and mentally taxing challenge for me, my mentality was definitely a problem. I would tilt a lot, I was obsessed with my MMR. Recently I have been trying to improve my mindset so I don't tilt as much as I used to. When I was diamond or low masters, I always put things into perspective and wondered what I was doing wrong, whereas once I reached 5.7k-5.8k I started blaming the maps, the meta, my opponent’s “dumb” moves, the balance… Nowadays, I strive to think that the better player will come out on top anyway. Having your mental in check is underrated. It’s your everything.
The EPT circuit has come to a temporary close while we all wait for ESL to announce what's next in store for StarCraft. Does that affect your ambition and will to practice?
At the time of writing, there's no new ESL season announced, which drains my motivation a lot. I don't really know what to do if there is no new season. I feel a bit lost. Now I’m fairly sure we will get a new season, but the question is more of how that would look, how many tournaments there’d be and if it is worth putting in all the work. In that sense StarCraft is probably a bad game to be playing since CS, Dota or League will have tournaments for a very long time looking forward.
I think it's really hard to practice with no tournaments on the horizon, not only because of my motivation but also because of all of the other players' motivation. Ladder is pretty dead right now and it can be very difficult to find matches that are in a 200-300 MMR range on the high level which just makes ladder not as fun.
Could you walk us through your practice routine?
My practice routine is a bit weird I think. I like to drill a lot, and what that means is that I sit in a game with a very easy AI and I do all my macro with creep spread and overlord positioning, while I try to always move a zergling on the map, playing with 450 APM and trying to always have the ling moving while doing my macro properly. I think that is what put me to the level that I am today. For like an hour a day, I would drill which is pretty boring to most people, but I found it really fun and, at the time, it made my macro insane.
My ladder routine is very unstable. Some days I’ll play 20 games and some days I’ll play 0. I do it all by how I am feeling and if my friends want to do things on the day. I usually prioritize them over playing ladder which can hurt the practice but also keep my mental in a good place in the long run.
If ESL resumes the EPT circuit, would you ever consider going full time?
If ESL resumes the EPT circuit and there's a lot of tournaments, it would be very nice but I don't think I am good enough to be a full time player, or at least as of now. If this was CS, Dota or League, then I would be able to make a pretty good living as all the other players but I just don’t think I am good enough right now.
Now being a full time player is my dream and my biggest wish would be to get that discord message or mail from a big organisation. But if ESL resumes their EPT circuit, I would start practicing like crazy again and maybe some magic can happen when I get better. I try to always have a positive outlook on things but at the same time I am super hard on myself at all times. I think I just strive for perfection of myself a bit too hard sometimes. If ESL announced a new good circuit, I would try my absolute best to achieve my dream of becoming a full time player and lifting a trophy on stage.
As a young player, does seeing the successful careers of Clem or Reynor has made you consider you have a shot at being the best in the world one day?
Seeing Reynor and Clem do well in all the things they touch is really nice and it motivates me to play when I see them do well but there's also a flipside to this. There’s also all the people with the same ambitions that never get there. Now I always see myself lifting a trophy offline one day, but Clem and Reynor are like 22 or 23 years old, so they are still a few years away from me. Maybe years of hard practice can get me to that level.
Speaking to them at offline events is pretty nice because they are always so "supportive" of other people playing the game and trying to be at their level or at least, that's how I see it. I do think I have a shot at being the best in the world one day but it will take a very long time, a lot of hard work and mental fortitude.
In your opinion, which player is flying under the radar but has the potential to become a breakout star in the future, and what makes you believe that?
I think new players in StarCraft are pretty rare. It takes years to get into the scene and to get good at the game. That aside, I think Russia has the most good players that are flying under the radar : GGmachine, ART, Uedsoldier are all players that most people don't know about.
Now I think that if you are talking about more known players then Youngyakov, BattleB, and ForJumy are probably the best from each race at becoming big. I know this kid YoungZest is supposedly really good and really young, but I have no real opinion since I have never played against him, and only seen 2-3 games. But there is a chance the next big player is from China, and I think that is because of Oliveira's magical run in IEM 2023.
Otherwise, I think the ideal answer would be myself but I don't think I can answer myself. I think of BattleB and Mixu really highly. I think they are both insane at the game and I wish them all the luck in the game so I think I'm going to go with those two.
How does being part of Team Rotti influence your gameplay and motivation? Do you often discuss strategies or watch each other's replays?
Being a part of Team Rotti is fun but there wasn't really a lot of talk between the players, we played customs every half moon but it wasn't super active talking until my best friend sebesdes got into the team. We don't really discuss strategies, we just mess around. Being a part of Team Rotti has been absolutely amazing and I have nothing but good things to tell everyone about all the people behind the scene like Jakob “Whieshark” Andre, and, of course, the big man himself Rotti. These people are just great !
Had Starcraft II never existed, in which game do you think you could have had similar success?
Had StarCraft never existed, I don't think I would have done good in any other game. I play a bunch of games with my friends like CS and Deadlock, but I am not as good at those, and I don’t have the same passion for those games. There's no passion in my heart for other games. StarCraft is just the best game.
Maybe with Stormgate, ZeroSpace, and Battle Aces I can have some success but that also comes from having already played StarCraft for 6 years competitively.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Maybe a message for the French audience?
I can't think of something right now that I would like to add, other than the French audience shouldn't think of me as bird poop as my name means according to many French people I have talked to. It is a bit funny though so maybe the French audience remembers my name ! I will continue to play the game for as long as I am enjoying it, and I will be doing my absolute best to have some good offline performances as well. Hope everyone that has read this got to know me a bit better and I will see you wherever whenever. Love everyone that cheers for me !
