Marcus ‘Revenant’ Tan: From WarCraft 3 to StarCraft 2 - Still Legendary

When we talk about Singapore’s StarCraft II community, Marcus ‘Revenant’ Tan, a 19 year old StarCraft II Champion of IeSF World Championship 2011 Singapore Qualifier at TGX 11, definitely is the first name that comes to mind. 

Marcus 'Revenant' Tan

Revenant started his gaming career with Team ESM-Army Alliance (eAa), Team XtC, Team inFinity and is now in Team Flash eSports. He has won two championship titles in a row at World Cyber Games Singapore 2009 and 2010 with WarCraft III. However, one of the greatest StarCraft II legendary players was born in late 2010. “When StarCraft II came out, the majority of WarCraft III's community moved over, so I followed suit,” he explains. His first victory with StarCraft 2 came on September 2010, when he competed and won in a SEA weekly tournament and went to 1st position only after a few months. He continued down his victory streak by winning both EPIC eSports and Singapore StarCraft League (SSL) on November. On January 2011, he proudly defeated the one, who was considered his biggest rival, iceiceice at NVIDIA Malaysia StarCraft 2 tournament with a cleansheet score 2-0. It seems this remarkable wining cannot satisfy his enthusiasm, he continued to keep track on the journey of dominating StarCraft II scene by taking part in IeSF StarCraft II Singapore 2011 Qualifier at The Game Expo 2011, Singapore.

Marcus 'Revenant' Tan won NVIDIA Malaysia StarCraft 2 tournament

The IeSF StarCraft II Singapore 2011 Qualifier has already concluded with an intense final match between two members of Flash eSports (a Singaporean multi-gaming clan), Marcus 'Revenant' Tan and Ian 'Muse' Ang. Zerg, an aggressive and blood-thirsty alien race, Revenant’s favorite, had to fight against a modern race, Terran, which was chosen by his opponent, Muse.

Marcus 'Revenant' Tan (left) & Ian 'Muse' Ang (right)

During the three-matched series, Revenant first took advantage by winning Muse on the map Metalopolis. However, Muse equalized the score by applying a solid defence strategy, which made Revenant’s counter-attack strategy useless. In the final match, overcoming his failure in the second match, Revenant immediately took advantage the first 10 minutes, while Muse struggled to defend his base from Revenant’s waves of attacks with Siege Tanks. Revenant managed to win the battle after destroying Muse’s gold base.

However, both Revenant and Muse turned down the offer to compete at IeSF World Championship 2011 in Andong, Korea. RGN managed to catch Revenant online and did an interview to reveal how they arrived at such a decision.  

RGN: Hi Revenant, could you briefly introduce yourself?  

Revenant: Hi, I'm Marcus Tan Sin Yik from Singapore and I'm 19 years old. I'm currently studying at Business Informatics at Nanyang Polytechnic. My In-Game Name is 'Revenant'.

 

RGN: How did you start your gaming career? 

Revenant: I started playing Warcraft3 competitively at 2008 after discovering the game at a very late period; The Warcraft3 scene/community was already fading out when I started.

 

RGN: You were an original WarCraft gamer, why did you change to compete at StarCraft II? 

Revenant: I switched to StarCraft2 from Warcraft3 at 2010 after the scene almost completely died out in Singapore. It wasn't a matter of choice to be honest, because I prefer Warcraft3 much more than StarCraft2. =] However, I've grown to like StarCraft just as much!

 

RGN: Why did you not switch to DotA, which is based on WC3, instead of SCII? The Singaporean DotA scene seems very developed. 

Revenant: I feel that the Real-Time-Strategy genre interests me much more and I really enjoy the feel of having to perform Critical Thinking and Multi-Tasking, as well as forcing your brain to think every second, giving it an "exercise". 

RGN: Do you have any trouble switching to SC II after a long time playing WC3? 

Revenant: I had a very hard time switching to Starcraft2 from Warcraft3 mainly because of the unit sizes of the races I used; Orc had the biggest unit models in Warcraft3, whilst Zerg had the smallest unit models in Starcraft2. Also, Warcraft3's models were all relatively much bigger than Starcraft2's.This made it very hard for me to select or click on units and buildings, etc.

 

RGN: Oh, it was tough, right? So, how did you overcome these setbacks? 

Revenant: Two words. Sheer Practice. LOL.

 

RGN: How did you become a member of your current team, Flash eSports? 

Revenant: They first approached me sometime at May, and I've known one of the managers a little, so I've given it a hard thought and decided to give it a try. Till now, I've no regrets in joining it. =]

 

RGN: Could you name your toughest opponents since you started competing WC3 and SC2? 

Revenant: For Warcraft3, I felt my hardest opponents that I've met (and can remember) were wNv.TH000, mouz.Fly100% and WE.Pepsi.TeD. For Starcraft2, mOOnGlaDe (King of SEA!) and StarTale_KingKong.

 

RGN: In TGX 11, IeSF Singapore Qualifier, you faced your comrades, Muse in the final. Could you tell me how the match went? 

Revenant: The match was the most nerve-wrecking match of IeSF for me. I was under a lot of pressure as both Muse and I are familiar with each other's playstyle, so it was about trying to outwit each other to the very end. Also, both of us were already very exhausted for the Finals.

 

RGN: However, both you and Muse turned down the offer to compete at IeSF World Championship 2011? Could you share with us why you guys ultimately made this decision? 

Revenant: It was a downer that IeSF's dates clashed with another tournament, ESTC. I wanted to go for both events, as did he, but since the dates clashed we had to make a very hard decision. We finally decided to go for ESTC instead because we felt that we could both go together (unlike IeSF), and it was to our best interests.

 

RGN: So, does practicing SC2 take you much time? 

Revenant: Frankly speaking, I'm caught up in my Final Year Project and just recently ended my Event Plannings, leaving me with just around 2-3hours a day at most to play Starcraft2. Even with this 2-3hours, I may not use all of it to play Starcraft2, but other leisure games such as Bridge and BlackShot.

 

RGN: What are your favorite gaming gears? 

Revenant: I don't have much gaming gears preferences as I'm comfortable with most gears. If I had to pick, I'd say a Razer Abyssus, a Filco Majestouch Keyboard and an Alienware laptop would be awesome !

 

RGN: Besides gaming, do you have any other hobbies? 

Revenant: I used to love badminton, and swimming a little, but with the current time constraints I don't have time for either. I also love to read books or watch documentaries about Animals as I'm very fond of them. If I had spare time, I'd like to pick up Ice-Skating.

 

RGN: Last question! If the WC3 melee scene in Singapore would be revived again, do you consider coming back with WC3?

Revenant: HELL YES! 

RGN: Thank you so much for the interview. Wish you all the best on your gaming career!

For more information about Revenant or Flash eSports team, please visit Revenant Facebook fanpage, Flash eSports Facebook fanpage or Flash eSports website.