Ian ''Muse'' Ang: ''Games are made for us to have fun''

445 times Written by: Ronnel on 2012-07-24

An era ends as Flash E-Sports StarCraft powerhouse Ian “Muse” Ang retires. Muse had been a part of Flash E-Sports for a long time. He had been a part of the StarCraft II division together with Marcus “Revenant” Tan. Muse topped in several StarCraft tournaments like IESF 2011 and Go4SC2 Cup.

Today we bring you an exclusive one on one interview with Ian “Muse” Ang about his retirement.

RGN: Hi Muse.

Muse: Hi Ronnel.

RGN: How are you Muse?

Muse: I’m doing fine. Everything in life’s going right. :)

RGN: Cool. We have heard about your retirement in the StarCraft competitive scene, why did you leave?

Muse: I actually got tired of StarCraft near the end of last year. There are many accumulative factors as to why I ultimately decided to quit StarCraft. Things such as game balance, lack of social aspect (B.net is really bad for this), having not enough time to maintain my skills without totally losing my social life.

But the most important thing though is I didn't find any fun in playing the game anymore. It gave me a lot more negative emotions than positive, unlike when I first started it and would jump at every set win in a tournament.

RGN: What is the reaction of your team mates at Flash E-Sports?

Muse: I'd already quit StarCraft when Kyzer, Blitz and Drake joined. Check (Coach) and Terence (manager) tried to persuade me to continue when I told them about my decision early this year, but I ultimately still stuck to it.

Flash E-Sports Manager, Terence (left), Muse (right)

RGN: Does this mean we are not going to see Muse in StarCraft action anymore?

Muse: Probably not. I still play a game or two once every few weeks when the D3 servers are down and it seems like the mechanical aspect is still automated in my brain: D

RGN: Let's go down to your years in the competitive scene, what is the most unforgettable experience during those days?

Muse: Wow, great question. I actually was a competitive L4D player as well and the best moment for me would be in the semi-finals of 2010 WCG SG, my team (MtX) were underdogs against the 'all-star team'(Vortex) and we were trailing all game until the LAST SECOND of the entire two-hour long game, where we managed to pull a survivor off the boat before he got on it, resulting in us winning by the smallest of margins. My whole team went berserk.

Another great moment would be when I won the ESL cup. I put in a lot of effort into innovating my TvZ and was extremely confident at it (you might remember my annoying hellion banshee crap lolol) and managed to beat a few reknowned and much better players at that point.

RGN: That souds like a really great experience man! Let's talk about Revz for a minute. Now Revz is in korea having his training. What can you say?

Muse: I'm proud of him. He's frustrating to communicate with at times because he gets frustrated at every small annoyance (if that makes sense lol) but I'm proud of Singaporean gamers who make it to the big stage. He's a great talented player and I wouldn't be surprised to see him come up ripping up the SEA scene.

Ian “Muse” Ang together with Marcus “Rev” Tan (right)

RGN: How was him as a partner?

Muse: It was interesting and definitely a positive experience having someone consistently better competing with you. LAN training sessions were limited to 50% laddering and 50% TvZing against him playing BO7s. He has quite a unique way of approaching the game. His advice and opinions can only usually be applied to himself, but applying 20% of those to my game helped me out a lot.

The Flash E-Sports StarCraft powerhouses

RGN: Any message to your former partner, Revenant?

Muse: Starve the ego, feed the soul. Also stop the emo tweets on Twitter. They make me sad.

RGN: Let's go with SG eSports. What is your dream for Singaporean eSports?

Muse: To be honest, Singaporean eSports = Zenith. They're just five times ahead of every other team out there. So, the dream is to have more teams and players who can compete at an international level (and dominate like how Zenith does).

Pro-gaming then becomes viable as a whole. You can't force it. You need results or some sort of marketing leverage to do it.

RGN: What should we expect from Muse in the future?

Muse: I've been Diablo crazy since the launch. My team and I (from WoW Guild AQL led by Zeys) cleared Inferno relatively early (a week from release IIRC). I've been trying to sustain a real plan where I can just game all day while paying myself reasonably. It's been working out alright and I've made a fair bit of money from Diablo RMAH & gold selling: P Definitely better paying than all the other jobs I can get right now.

My team was going to attempt Inferno Hardcore clear, but it just isn't that impressive anymore after all the nerfs and a few have lost interest. We'll see how it goes with that one.

Other than that, I'll just continue enjoying games as much as I can. A tip to all the competitive gamers out there: Try other games, don't just play SC2/DotA. Your goal in playing games is to ultimately have fun.

RGN: What are you going to miss the most?

Muse: Marines. Oh don't forget to bring along the SCVs

RGN: Any message to everyone?

Muse: Keep a lookout for my upcoming multi-gaming team eXemplar. We're a team who are going to break records and compete in new games together. Also, games are made for us to have fun. Stop raging at your teammates, opponents, the game itself, don't try to win always, find new ways to have fun with it. :D

"For the past half year I've lost interest in StarCraft and have moved on to other interests.

I want to thank Lance, Terence, Marcus, Wen Jun, Phirkhan and the rest of the crew for the great times and opportunities.

Flash gave me my first foray into pro-gaming and I really appreciate that. Good luck to the rest of the SC2 squad, please continue dominating the SG scene, and I will hopefully see you guys in HOTS. Back to Bastion Stronghold!"

- Ian 'MUSE' Ang

This was the official statement of Ian “Muse” Ang on Flash E-Sports website.

You heard it from the man himself. In behalf of Rapture Gaming Network and all the fans we would like to thank Muse for all his contribution on the StarCraft competitive scene. He will surely be remembered.