With an impressive showing at CeBIT and WC3L, the young undead from Russia is well prepared to amaze the public with his skills. We decided to speak to Dmitry Kostin, who is better known as the little Happy undead from mousesports.

Unfortuntately, the 16-year-old has expressed his exasperation at the Russian gaming scene with his lengthy, but interesting answers. He also discusses about his future plans as a professional player, and his perspective on how one should improve as a player.

Tell us a bit about yourself. Why did you choose that nickname? Is it connected with your life motto - being happy all the time?

Hello - my name is Dmitry Kostin, I'm 16 years old and I'm from Moscow, Russia. Currently I'm attending school which will end very soon and at the moment I am a semi-progamer.

I have chosen my nickname because many of my friends told me that I was always looking unhappy a long time ago. So I've decided to make nickname to "reverse" it - I think it looks good, so that's okay.

No, my nickname isn't connected with any motto in my life anyhow. And yes - I don't have motto in my life at all, just live the life as it is.

You're very young if we compare you with other progamers. Isn't it a little annyoing that you can't compete in most tournaments?

No, it's not annoying. The only difference of my age matters on the free time that I have to practise, and the overall length of my future gaming career.

Is it your aim in life to be a progamer? Do you want to move, for example to Korea and live from the money you make in gaming?

Well currently my aim is to become progamer and try to live on money I can earn with it. But it's still undecided by me because I would have to move outside Russia.

Anyway, since in my opinion you can't do both - study and competitive (top level) gaming - and if I won't study I would have to go army, which is unacceptable for gaming career. So it's quite a hard question about me being a progamer. Time will show.

mouz.Happy with a strong desire to reach the top

Is it hard to become a progamer in Russia? It seems that in your country, gaming is expanding very fast - Gravitas gaming with their training rooms, and tournaments like KODE5 etc.

At first, everybody has different opinions on what a "progamer" is. In my opinion progamer is not the one who's playing on high level - he's a man who gives all and full attention to gaming and consider it as 100% job - a man who lives on money he's making from gaming.

From that point of view, it's kinda easy to say for me that there are NO progamers in Russia - but it's kinda understandable. Russia is not a country where one can become progamer - we have to serve the army. If you don't go study, and you aren't disabled, you have to go there - and once u go there I doubt you can complete your gaming career, at least on competitive level.

Also, it's hard to get visas in Russia for foreign events, which have a real prizemoney, unlike Russian tourneys. Gravitas doesn't have a training room, by the way. They rented a flat in Moscow and are training in one of Moscow inet cafes.

About KODE5 being held in Russia is kinda surprise for me. Althought it's not that big of a tournament anyway - prize money is not that high , for example as like at Extreme Masters or other major events, but still it's good that we have big international tours in Russia.

So you want to say that only one way to become a progamer is to leave Russia and move to Korea/China? What about other European countries? Do you think that being progamer is possible in other countries like in Korea or China?

Russia has many problems besides something that appears in culture called "progaming" - I don't think our government really cares about it, so yeah unless you will avoid army somehow (you can go study - but as I've said I don't see how can it be real to play on top and study at same time) - and yeah you talking so easy about "move to other country" - it would be a BIG step in a life of anyone. It's really hard decision for anyone - and yeah - as I've told it's hard to get visa in Russia - so if u don't have "real" reasons to come to other country (if you would tell in some embassy that you wanna be "progamer" they either will laugh at you or either will just give you refusal of visa) - you will never be able to come to other country.

And Yeah personally I plan to move to Europe - one of my parents living there so it shouldn't be hard in a matter of making visa and anything has to do with it - but it's hard to make such step as I've stated about. Still undecided.

Happy: "There are NO progamers in Russia"

What are your thoughts about Russian-based teams like Gravitas Gaming? What do you think about them?

There is no single russian roster team which can really compete on international level besides Gravitas so I think these teams should be considered as mid-level teams.

About Gravitas, well for me, as I don't really care since they are just a team, with a russian roster of course :). Yeah I've been offered a place in team but I won't leave mousesports for Gravitas

Because I think it would be more of a "step down" than "step up" for my career. And why do I think that way? I don't wish to talk about this in public.

Lets talk more about you and your career. When had it started and of course how?

Well at first I just was playing computer games .. then I've played counterstrike - during this time I was sitting in some lan-cafes with my friends and we were playing it alot - then WC3 appeared - at first I just was watching demos and checking coverages for it - once upon a time a friend showed me battle.net - I never knew about it so I've just tried to play it - and liked it.

Time was going - I was playing - it was so much fun for me - and so somehow I've improved and improved - then joined my first clan (es4x) - played many of my first clanwars. IT was looking really good for me - I've enjoyed it - then after we failed to qualify for regular season team crashed. I didn't like it.

After I've joined up with mousesports, one of their ex-orgas (Blunt) made me an offer - I had friends in mouz even before so both sides were happy about me joining them.

From then onwards, I just was improving - and only like at beginmomg of 2006 (I was inactive like for 3 months at the the end of 2005). I've decided that I wanna reach the top of gaming, so that's what I'm doing currently.

You're one of the best undead in the world. Do you think you can reach the top1? Your shape is impressive for now, but what the future bring? Is it hard to handle that fame? Does your friends/family know about your hobby/job?

Yeah I think if I work hard and become a real progamer, I can reach anything in gaming.

It's not hard to handle the fame as long as long as you practise and you are confident in your shape and skill.

Well my friends know that I'm playing warcraft professionaly but not one of them is taking it serious - goes the same about my parents as well. It's a little sad, but I'm kind of a person who never listens to somebody who tells you what to do and what you should aim for.

Happy - mousesports over Gravitas Gaming

So what is it like being managed by mousesports?

Well currently, I am in mousesports for 2 years already, and I'm happy with everything I have here. I owe mouz that they gave me opportunity to prove myself as promising gamer - only because of them I could take part in WC3L - play tourneys - get practise among other clanmembers - they support me for all my needs like visa, travel expenses, salary and whatever - I just have no right to fire them for anything.

As I have mentioned above, you're in impressive shape. Very good matches in WC3L and at Cebit. Is it because you have been practicing a lot? Or are you just plain lucky?

Well I haven't seen anything really good at current WC3L season from me at all :). But since CeBIT is lan and there isn't any lag unlike the internet and I can show all my abilities to win.

No - there is no luck involved - Professional gaming is never about luck - that's about practice, practice and practice again only. But understanding of the word "practice" is not that easy - since it's quite different for each person.

So well yeah I practiced a lot before Extreme Masters and have been trying to practice as much as I can. unfortunately, there are not much practice options available in Europe. I play custom games only, so it may be difficult to find practice here.

Does your practice schedule clash against real life?

Honestly, yes. Some of my friends are giving the time which are supposed to be their "spare time" to additional studies; they go to university after school, some are just idling somewere - having fun or whatever, I don't really know.

So what about me, yes I'm giving ALL my free time to practice - if I can't practice I prefer to do something to have a rest - maybe watch TV. Maybe play some fun game like CS or whatever. Gaming consumes so much time.

And as I've said before - a man who doesn't give his full attention to gaming at WON'T reach the top. He can be good for some time but he will never be top - I'm not even talking about being consistent.

And you do you believe that imbalance affects the game a lot?

There is no imbalance but just easier or harder matchups - there are hundreds of reason which can explain that, but I won't be able to name all of them up. One of the factors that can affect the game a lot is the latency/ping.

If you mean the game itself - perhaps the better player wins, but on high level of gaming in such game as WC3, item luck for example may matter quite alot. But that's still not a reason of a loss - if you lose, it means you lost and you have to practice this matchup and find and examine your mistakes.

Lets talk a bit about your past and future achievements, what do you want to achieve? What can the public expect from you?

I don't have many achievements - ESWC Russia 2007 TOP4, OLDI Proplay cup lan-finals top2, Extreme Masters season 2 finals 5-6th place - these are my only solo-lan achievements so far, so in the future I plan to attend A LOT of events - all possible events I can attend but it mostly depends not on me but whether or not my visa is approved.

mouz currently attending 2 online leagues - WC3L and NGL. We're aiming at least for playoffs in WC3L (3-4 place) and are willing to qualify for offline finals at NGL.

Happy: "There is no imbalance, just easier or harder matchups"

When we will be able to see Happy in action in near future?

I don't know, kode5 russian qualifiers - then if I will qualify grand finals, both in Moscow. Currently I don't have any events in my mind which I can attend - as I've said that I will attend as many events as possible.

We wish you good luck in the future. I personally hope that you will reach the top! Good Luck Happy! If you want to greet someone it's the right time now.

Thank you - yes I want to send all the greetings to my parents, friends, clanmates, fans and whoever else that is supporting me. Also I want to thank a lot my clan which gave me all I ever wanted and still giving me all and helping me in order to become the best player - also I want to thank it's sponsors - BenQ GeIL Steelseries Intel Adidas and wwhatever else if I forgot =).

Photos courtesy of readmore.de