EPTI have red and enjoyed the Nazgul's Q&A in IPL thread so I made a summary of his answers there, enjoy:
On August 01 2012 13:09 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
I don't like to limit myself too much with all these factors, but I can say that picking up a Zerg at a level of our other Zergs does not make much sense at this point. Besides that, we're pretty open. I'm not desperate to add another player and I don't think doing so leads to the best pickups. If something comes along we will consider it.
I'm really not sure. I feel like being on a non-Korean team definitely has a lot of benefits, but I'm not sure if fear is one of them.
Not too much to ask at all. The past period has been very busy filled with work that had priority. I don't know when the bio will be done, but I'll make sure to harass WaxAngel again.
I don't like to limit myself too much with all these factors, but I can say that picking up a Zerg at a level of our other Zergs does not make much sense at this point. Besides that, we're pretty open. I'm not desperate to add another player and I don't think doing so leads to the best pickups. If something comes along we will consider it.
I'm really not sure. I feel like being on a non-Korean team definitely has a lot of benefits, but I'm not sure if fear is one of them.
Not too much to ask at all. The past period has been very busy filled with work that had priority. I don't know when the bio will be done, but I'll make sure to harass WaxAngel again.
On August 01 2012 13:03 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
Best Protoss still goes to MC hands down. For Zerg I like Life/Symbol/DRG.
DRG, MVP, MKP, MC, TaeJa. I like consistent results for such a big title.
I imagine IM will specifically put some guys on TaeJa and/or HerO but we can't do the same. We'll have some guys dedicated to certain matchups and maps, and some others will have to have a more allround preparation. We'll go over replays and VODs. No shirts.
Best Protoss still goes to MC hands down. For Zerg I like Life/Symbol/DRG.
DRG, MVP, MKP, MC, TaeJa. I like consistent results for such a big title.
I imagine IM will specifically put some guys on TaeJa and/or HerO but we can't do the same. We'll have some guys dedicated to certain matchups and maps, and some others will have to have a more allround preparation. We'll go over replays and VODs. No shirts.
On August 01 2012 12:52 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
When a player wins prize money that goes to the player. I don't believe in taking the prize money of their individual winnings. I'm not opposed to teams doing it to take away the variance and risk when they are trying to invest and build a team, but I don't think it should be a long term revenue source. Luckily we don't need to do it. Our revenue is based on sponsors and apparel sales.
Not thinking that far ahead.
For IPLTAC everything is played at once so we're all there in a Skype call. In NASTL and EGMC each player has their match planned individually at a time where it fits best. Suit jacket, at least.
I feel like Catz has a good sense of talent and skill. In the long run the best captains will be retired players. Unfortunately that's not really realistic for the non-Korean scene right now. It's one thing to just add a 20th guy to a house, but it's another to fund a persons life.
When a player wins prize money that goes to the player. I don't believe in taking the prize money of their individual winnings. I'm not opposed to teams doing it to take away the variance and risk when they are trying to invest and build a team, but I don't think it should be a long term revenue source. Luckily we don't need to do it. Our revenue is based on sponsors and apparel sales.
?Not thinking that far ahead.
For IPLTAC everything is played at once so we're all there in a Skype call. In NASTL and EGMC each player has their match planned individually at a time where it fits best. Suit jacket, at least.
I feel like Catz has a good sense of talent and skill. In the long run the best captains will be retired players. Unfortunately that's not really realistic for the non-Korean scene right now. It's one thing to just add a 20th guy to a house, but it's another to fund a persons life.
On August 01 2012 12:48 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
WARNING JUST MY OPINION:
I see him as the best open bracket player in the world, the best Terran player in the world, and in the mix for best player in the world.
WARNING JUST MY OPINION:
I see him as the best open bracket player in the world, the best Terran player in the world, and in the mix for best player in the world.
On August 01 2012 12:29 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
We don't doubt at all that he is the main reason we are in the finals. Of course the other players would have liked to contribute more as well, but honestly when it comes to the level we're facing here we need our champion level players to step up to make it through.
It's a little annoying to read opinions about the rest of the team, when it is those players who won NASTL and finished really high in the previous IPLTAC (5-3 TSL, 4-5 Prime, 4-5 FXO). They deserve a little more love than that.
We don't doubt at all that he is the main reason we are in the finals. Of course the other players would have liked to contribute more as well, but honestly when it comes to the level we're facing here we need our champion level players to step up to make it through.
It's a little annoying to read opinions about the rest of the team, when it is those players who won NASTL and finished really high in the previous IPLTAC (5-3 TSL, 4-5 Prime, 4-5 FXO). They deserve a little more love than that.
On August 01 2012 12:13 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
People like to draw conclusions so easily, but how can you truly know and attribute all of this so specifically? I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know exactly how much Liquid does for a player and how much the player would have gotten on their own or on another team. It's fair to say that nearly all of our players peak after they join Liquid. You can call that good management, good scouting, or neither/luck either way I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
I know that TaeJa has gotten a lot better on Liquid and has had many opportunities to show this improvement to you. He didn't get many chances on SlayerS, where other skilled players got sent to tournaments before him. Interesting note is that no other team really cared about picking TaeJa up, so apparently it wasn't all that obvious.
People like to draw conclusions so easily, but how can you truly know and attribute all of this so specifically? I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know exactly how much Liquid does for a player and how much the player would have gotten on their own or on another team. It's fair to say that nearly all of our players peak after they join Liquid. You can call that good management, good scouting, or neither/luck either way I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
I know that TaeJa has gotten a lot better on Liquid and has had many opportunities to show this improvement to you. He didn't get many chances on SlayerS, where other skilled players got sent to tournaments before him. Interesting note is that no other team really cared about picking TaeJa up, so apparently it wasn't all that obvious.
On August 01 2012 12:00 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
I love mafia so we will see what we can do.
I love mafia so we will see what we can do.
On August 01 2012 11:54 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
Can you expand a bit on the question not sure what you're looking for from me.
Can you expand a bit on the question not sure what you're looking for from me.
On August 01 2012 11:40 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
a) Everyone and we'll fly Bumblebee out as well.
b) Depended on the matchups. I think it is a bad habit to blindly set your finisher regardless of matchup and strategy. It can be good but doesn't apply in all situations.
c) No thoughts at the moment.
Unfortunately TaeJa was booked to go to Red Bull before we got our GSTL dates. Originally GOM thought they could make everything work while avoiding conflict, but the Red Bull one slipped in there unfortunately.
We're not really looking at add a Korean right now, but I also have to say that these things are not absolute and depend a lot on the scene and its players. If I see a guy that I could see fitting well on the team then we would still try to make it work. It depends on so many things such as cost, team dynamics, current skill, potential skill, marketability, race (the sc one), etc.
a) Everyone and we'll fly Bumblebee out as well.
b) Depended on the matchups. I think it is a bad habit to blindly set your finisher regardless of matchup and strategy. It can be good but doesn't apply in all situations.
c) No thoughts at the moment.
Unfortunately TaeJa was booked to go to Red Bull before we got our GSTL dates. Originally GOM thought they could make everything work while avoiding conflict, but the Red Bull one slipped in there unfortunately.
We're not really looking at add a Korean right now, but I also have to say that these things are not absolute and depend a lot on the scene and its players. If I see a guy that I could see fitting well on the team then we would still try to make it work. It depends on so many things such as cost, team dynamics, current skill, potential skill, marketability, race (the sc one), etc.
On August 01 2012 11:30 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
Everyone will be there.
Maybe after the finals.
The Aces Face Off is going to be tricky. It's played before the finals, which makes the player choice interesting because of the stamina required to play so many matches. I'm not a fan of the concept to have aces face off before one of the biggest team league finals.
GSTL is undecided right now.
The word slump is grossly overused, allow the guys to lose before calling it a slump. I'm not afraid, everyone loses.
Everyone will be there.
Maybe after the finals.
The Aces Face Off is going to be tricky. It's played before the finals, which makes the player choice interesting because of the stamina required to play so many matches. I'm not a fan of the concept to have aces face off before one of the biggest team league finals.
GSTL is undecided right now.
The word slump is grossly overused, allow the guys to lose before calling it a slump. I'm not afraid, everyone loses.
On August 01 2012 11:29 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
You should never expect this, but always be open to the possibility.
Also, unfortunately you're misquoting me. I literally said to me TaeJa is a player with the potential to be a Code S champion, and that he could grow a lot in Liquid.
You should never expect this, but always be open to the possibility.
Also, unfortunately you're misquoting me. I literally said to me TaeJa is a player with the potential to be a Code S champion, and that he could grow a lot in Liquid.
On August 01 2012 11:26 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
I feel like our Zergs had a great shot today and lacked a bit of subtlety to finish the job. I believe that watching these games today with more than just an eye for score, you will see that the Zerg play worked out in terms of putting ourselves in a good position to beat Genius.
At the GSTL they had a laptop and were getting the picks through Skype, was pretty awesome to do it that way. I make the final decisions together with Bumblebee.
I feel like our Zergs had a great shot today and lacked a bit of subtlety to finish the job. I believe that watching these games today with more than just an eye for score, you will see that the Zerg play worked out in terms of putting ourselves in a good position to beat Genius.
At the GSTL they had a laptop and were getting the picks through Skype, was pretty awesome to do it that way. I make the final decisions together with Bumblebee.
On August 01 2012 11:22 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
My goal is to win and do so through making players comfortable. It's not the goal to feel comfortable and not be competitive in case that's what you thought. Internally we don't think like that, although I understand why it could feel that way for you.
My goal is to win and do so through making players comfortable. It's not the goal to feel comfortable and not be competitive in case that's what you thought. Internally we don't think like that, although I understand why it could feel that way for you.
On August 01 2012 11:19 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
We listen very carefully to what our players have to say and then I decide on the order together with Bumblebee. I'm not sure how much other coaches listen to their players versus pushing their own thoughts through, but we do a lot of listening to make sure we fully understand the dynamics of our players.
Most of them have performed in front of a large crowd before, but any suggestions are welcome! We'll probably just talk them through the event so they know what to expect.
We listen very carefully to what our players have to say and then I decide on the order together with Bumblebee. I'm not sure how much other coaches listen to their players versus pushing their own thoughts through, but we do a lot of listening to make sure we fully understand the dynamics of our players.
Most of them have performed in front of a large crowd before, but any suggestions are welcome! We'll probably just talk them through the event so they know what to expect.
On August 01 2012 11:16 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
Most of the time our players practice on ladder. We don't really have a mass player facility to provide the diversity a player needs for consistent improvement. It's very common for Korean pros to ladder a lot as it helps you deal with all sorts of situations. When it comes to being in tournaments where you have time to prepare, TSL, GSL, IPLTAC, there is more matchup specific practice.
Most of the time our players practice on ladder. We don't really have a mass player facility to provide the diversity a player needs for consistent improvement. It's very common for Korean pros to ladder a lot as it helps you deal with all sorts of situations. When it comes to being in tournaments where you have time to prepare, TSL, GSL, IPLTAC, there is more matchup specific practice.
On August 01 2012 11:12 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
You see, there is this misunderstanding in the scene that an ace player plays last. To blindly play your ace last means you have to have an enormously deep lineup that makes sense for every matchup before you get to your ace. Even in the deepest teams an 'ace' is often strategically played before the last. In this case we're up against a Protoss and we still have our two best players behind. The usage of their skill level comes out the least in PvP as the variance in that matchup is high. So the idea was to play TaeJa as fourth against the Protoss and in case he beat him and then lost to a Zerg (very possible considering we thought Coca would be the guy to watch out for vs TaeJa) we would have HerO behind that. In a way you could say how it played out HerO was our ace, but in truth the word ace is weirdly used.
You see, there is this misunderstanding in the scene that an ace player plays last. To blindly play your ace last means you have to have an enormously deep lineup that makes sense for every matchup before you get to your ace. Even in the deepest teams an 'ace' is often strategically played before the last. In this case we're up against a Protoss and we still have our two best players behind. The usage of their skill level comes out the least in PvP as the variance in that matchup is high. So the idea was to play TaeJa as fourth against the Protoss and in case he beat him and then lost to a Zerg (very possible considering we thought Coca would be the guy to watch out for vs TaeJa) we would have HerO behind that. In a way you could say how it played out HerO was our ace, but in truth the word ace is weirdly used.
On August 01 2012 11:09 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
I think that with the money involved in team leagues it wouldn't be fair to the players to remove their focus from the individual leagues. The biggest issue with your question is that it is often not a choice. By the time we must confirm our participation in individual tournaments such as for example ASUS ROG, we won't have advanced far in IPLTAC yet. Naturally without being able to predict how we will do we can't deny our players participation in ASUS ROG based on the assumption that we're going to beat all of these teams and make it to the final. We love team leagues but I can't speak of a focus on one or the other because of these reasons.
For every IPLTAC round we do scouting on who they can line up, and do a lot of thinking on which of our players plays which matchups. Subsequently our players devote focus to the maps they map pick and the matchups they may play. Our team is pretty small compared to the Korean teams so that leaves you with a lot less options regarding dedicated practice, but we do what we can.
I think that with the money involved in team leagues it wouldn't be fair to the players to remove their focus from the individual leagues. The biggest issue with your question is that it is often not a choice. By the time we must confirm our participation in individual tournaments such as for example ASUS ROG, we won't have advanced far in IPLTAC yet. Naturally without being able to predict how we will do we can't deny our players participation in ASUS ROG based on the assumption that we're going to beat all of these teams and make it to the final. We love team leagues but I can't speak of a focus on one or the other because of these reasons.
For every IPLTAC round we do scouting on who they can line up, and do a lot of thinking on which of our players plays which matchups. Subsequently our players devote focus to the maps they map pick and the matchups they may play. Our team is pretty small compared to the Korean teams so that leaves you with a lot less options regarding dedicated practice, but we do what we can.
On August 01 2012 11:05 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
Good question, couple reasons. I think that the first two Zergs that we played showed that us that he is beatable in that matchup. If you only look at the record then you may think that it doesn't make sense, but if you analyze the games I think everyone would agree Sheth lost the game in five seconds and other than that had the upper hand. Zenio also was ahead in that game and didn't tech up to hive when he did have the money for it, and didn't make spines when Genius decided to remain on two base and go for the push instead of expanding another time. The better player always wins, but they had shown him to be very beatable.
Sheth and Ret are our Zergs in good ZvP shape. We feel that playing Ret now in a ZvP against Genius would lead to a higher chance of winning the game than waiting with Ret for another matchup.
Good question, couple reasons. I think that the first two Zergs that we played showed that us that he is beatable in that matchup. If you only look at the record then you may think that it doesn't make sense, but if you analyze the games I think everyone would agree Sheth lost the game in five seconds and other than that had the upper hand. Zenio also was ahead in that game and didn't tech up to hive when he did have the money for it, and didn't make spines when Genius decided to remain on two base and go for the push instead of expanding another time. The better player always wins, but they had shown him to be very beatable.
Sheth and Ret are our Zergs in good ZvP shape. We feel that playing Ret now in a ZvP against Genius would lead to a higher chance of winning the game than waiting with Ret for another matchup.
