The match between CN and LRM starts in just a couple of hours, and the winner will advance to the playoffs that will be played next week. With playoffs looming just around the corner, our resident Gambit Cup expert, dRAW, has sit down with four top teams and asked them some questions about this premiere foreign team league. Special thanks goes to stevewch and HaFnium for networking and translations with Chinese team interview, they are always quick to reply and help out.

LRM had a great start to the season, but they've gone on a 3 clan war loss streak, any reasons for this? And what are you regrets for line-up / preparation, etc?

LRM)NoOne: SJ has a strong vs zerg lineup, so our CWs are always close. We should have won vs reps ezpz, it hurts my brain to comprehend that loss. Against Sziky, we should have sent out trutaCz first.

Talk about your success so far.

LRM)Bakuryu: Well I don't like that I lost the last 3 games...

LRM)TrutaCz: Hello everyone and thank you. I don't think it's a success but rather a little bit below my expectations. I hope I'll improve my record soon.

Just like the whole team, you are also on a 3 loss streak, does LRM's success depend on Bakuryu's success?

LRM)Bakuryu: In the last 3 CWs, I wasn't playing 1st because of some players the enemy could have used. Against SJ I wanted to avoid Napoleon and Terror, vs reps) I wanted to avoid dewalt and play vs largo, vs sas I wanted to avoid bizzy and play vs sziky. I got outmacroed in late game by Terror and largo and I didn't think sziky would 12 hatch 2 times in a row vs me...
so ye, in the last 2 CWs I had a role which I couldn't fulfill...

LRM has a 8-2 record against protoss, do you feel like your chances are going to be good against CN for the last playoff spot?

LRM)NoOne: lol

LRM)Bakuryu: As long as we don't have to fight vs CN + lag, I think we can make it because we have some good ZvP players. No, it will not be easy, I still cant play good ZvP on those maps....

LRM)TrutaCz: I feel pretty good playing against protoss and LRM's record vsP looks amazing but I'm sure it won't be easy. It just can't be when you have to face players like Jaystar for example. Both sides gonna show viewers good games for sure.

If you beat CN you have to play against SJ which has beat LRM previously decisively. Any special preparations for this clan war and what words/threats do you have to demoralize them if you get to that match?

LRM)NoOne: We're preparing a blood ritual to summon OyA. Last time OyA showed up, his opponent from SJ (Nb at the time) refused to play purely out of fear.

Do you plan to go all the way to the finals, how will you prepare for SJ who has a good recent record vs LRM, if you beat CN? Any special builds or ceremonies?

LRM)Bakuryu: No taunts, I just want to win. I'm currently changing my ZvT hotkeys, just need some more training and then I should be able to transition smoother into late game (compared to good macro into defiler into 1k overmins/gas without 4th into panic ultras into ragequit).

LRM)TrutaCz: Of course I plan to go to the finals and also win it. SJ has many top players, so it will be hard to beat them but it's not impossible. You say SJ has a good record vs LRM, so it's time to fix it. I would like to take a revenge versus Mazur .

Any final words: fans/friends/teammates/etc?

LRM)NoOne: LRMLRMLRMLRMLRM. Also, randomKo_Orean, you make me very very sad.

LRM)Bakuryu: Thank you all for supporting me^^ I try to get better so I can show better games...I guess..... xD

LRM)TrutaCz: Good luck everyone! Shout-out to all LRM members and fuck terrans, I hate you!

CN has its own established community with a good level of play, what do you guys think of the foreign scene so far? (challenging, easy, hard to synchronize with (i.e times, lag, etc.))

Heroes: Don't really know the scene too well. I think the foreign scene can do with a more structured competition, such as the STL that has been running for years. And as for the level of play, I feel that if you compare the top players, the Chinese players can not gain a definite upper hand. That said I think the overall level of Chinese players are higher than that of foreigners, take me as an example, I am just a second-tier player back home, probably cannot even reach top 100.

Wk, you seem to show strong games in GC, but having been all-killed by Napoleon from SJ, how do you feel about playing LRM which is almost an all-zerg line-up?

WK: Hi, I am WK, a player from China. I am confident that I can perform equally well in all match-ups. For LRM, I don't really know them a lot. The reason Napoleon could all-kill us is probably because our gameplays have been studied. Since I am a student of Jaystar, my gameplay and favourite strategy is about the same as his. We don't often use strategy, we largely win games by basic micro and macro. So this is probably the reason why we had been outplayed. We may adjust our gameplays in the following games, so please look forward to our games.

Hey Jaystar, you are known in the community as a mega gosu, any introduction to those who don't know who you are? (i.e brief history, your current level of skill, how do you enjoy BW these days, etc)

Jaystar: Hi everyone, I’m Dingwei, player ID is Jaystar, from China Hunan province. I’m a Protoss player. I was a pro gamer back in 05-10 I was one of the representatives of China back then, participating in 06 Italy WCG and 09 Korean IEF competition. 10 WCG China-region was the last event that I played as a progamer. Regretfully, I could only get no.4 at last. After this I retired from BW professional scene and started playing games like NBA2011, I also started my own business in taobao.com (basically ebay in China). Until July of 2012, I began practicing BW again for C-OSL, and slowly regaining the feeling like when I was a progamer. My current level of play is far below than the time when I was playing it professionally, but I remain confident to surpass that level sometime later. Now I play about 10 games of BW daily, managing my business on taobao.com, with the rest of my time cooking and looking after my pregnant wife.

Your upcoming opponent is LRM for the last qualifying play-off spot, they are 8-2 against protoss. What are your plans to prepare for this? How are the foreign zergs compared to the CN zergs?

Heroes: We will try our best to win. Our protosses are not weak, their good record probably reflects that they haven't met us yet. The strategies used by foreign zergs are different so at first we are struggled initially, by now we have been adapting so I no longer feel much difference. Two strong zergs in sziky and michael have been defeated by us, so we remain confident versus them really.

Jaystar, you were recently playing in C-OSL and lost to fengzi, and then lost to fengzi in the show-match, in GC you are 2-2 vs Z losing to Napoleon and Michael. Would you say your PvZ is your worst match-up and do you plan to improve it over the season? (Also, your next opponent is LRM, a zerg heavy line-up, any special preparation?)

Jaystar: Hm... I would say it takes more time for me to recover my PvZ level, but new concepts come up everytime I lose. I would say I am a thinking player and that the PvZs losses did make me improve in some ways, hopefully I won't lose in PVZ anymore. Both Michael and Napoleon are very strong players and I have not played with foreign players for a long time now, not getting their tempo and rhythm now. I do know that LRM is an old team, with frequent clashes with my old team Duskbin, I believe I won't let you guys disappointed in the coming matches.

Heroes, you have the best record in team CN and also the manager/co-manager, how do you act as a role model for your team? Do you think that the others can perform better for future games? (i.e: are you disappointed in your standings now, satisfied, etc) Also, CN has the best Protoss line-up in all of GC (15-10 results) how do you feel about this?

Heroes: I've got the best results only because I am sent out the most. I feel that I am just average in the team. I hope you guys can see their appearance more later. As for the ranking for now, I feel slightly disappointed. The time is quite late for us so mobilizing my teammates is a big problem, leading to sub-par performances in the first few matches. Otherwise I think we'd secure the playoff spots sooner. As for saying that our protoss line-up is the best, I think this is indisputable, just that the 10 losses doesn't sound too good at all so hopefully we can win the coming matches cleanly to redeem ourselves.

If you guys win, you will play against SJ where napoleon destroyed your whole roster, do you have any plans for revenge? How will you let them know your force? (any words to discourage the opposition, any threats? i.e SJ will die a quick and easy death?)

Heroes: Napoleon is very strong but I feel confident for the revenge. I feel that I lost because he has seen the match between me and sziky so my strategy would not work. In the following matches I will change my play-style and change the structure of our team so people won't call us protoss team. Anyways I feel that if we can take down LRM, then we've got good chances to take SJ out too.

Wk, your thoughts? Also, any other regretful losses so far in this league?)

Wk: I think if I can play SJ again, I will put up some strong games. Brood War is a game that you don't always win even you are the more skilful side. I’m satisfied with playing a good game. I don't think any games I lost were regretful because my opponents were good. They really showed me a high level of gameplay.

Also, any words to the opponents? (i.e fear tactics: don't mess with CN you will get owned!!)

Wk: I hope foreigners can understand us more, treating us with more respect. The network in China isn’t good, and thus quite a lot of foreigners aren’t being nice to us. I can sense their hostility. Everybody wants to play a lag free game, including us. From my point of view, the higher skill the player, the better manner they have, such as Michael. I have played him quite a lot of times, and we were about even. He has never blamed my connection not being good. So I hope you all can bear with us, and communicate more.

Jaystar, how do you find the level of competition of Gambit Cup overall? Do you wish to show your force in future games? (i.e dominate the competition, maybe throw in manner nexus, etc)

Jaystar: I really like this competition, shortening the distances in the world of Brood War. It's also something that I have always hoped, bridging the gap and having more communication between different communities. I also feel that Fish is faster than ICCup and lag becomes less of a problem. As for manner nexus, I think it's a bit over the top, afterall we are all mates in brood war, and friendliness is a must.

Any final words? (Fans/friends/teammates/etc)

Heroes: I'm glad to participate in foreign competition. As one of the organisers of STL and leader for my own team, I hope network speed and time permitted, more foreigners can join our STL competition. Our match time is Saturday 8pm at night (GMT +8 Chinese Time).

(T/N: STL = the team league in China, that has been running in for years, currently I think its the 22nd one.)

Wk: I welcome you to join our STL (China Starcraft Team League Matches), join my team The. Currently, Defi and Dewalt from Reps) have joined my team, as well as Korean bomebo and Sizz. We are now in division A in STL. Please tell me if you are interested.
I also have to thank my teacher Jaystar for guiding me, sensui and hafnium for managing team CN. They are so responsible. Last, I need to thank my teammates who fight along with me, SC1 no gg!!

Jaystar: I don’t really perform well in this event, I feel sorry to all of my fans. But I will try my best to deliver many good games in the future. WK is my student, and he is a highly skilled player. I’m glad that he did quite well. I think European players have made a huge progress. I’m looking forward to similar events like this one, prompting the communication among all foreigners. Support SCBW forever!!!

Congrats, sas team #1 after regular season round 1 of GC, any comments?

Zaraki: Our work is not finished, we did a good season but I still remember last gambit finals. I hope we can finish 1st this time... we need to show our best performance now.

Congrats sziky, you finished the regular season with the most wins @ 12-3 any comments on the level of the league?

Sziky: Thanks! The skill level feels similar to the previous cups, the only difference is that now we have even more good players, so we have it all a little easier this time.

Michael, You have an impressive record as well @ 10-1, any comments?

Michael: Thank you. Everybody knows I have been the luckiest noob ever this season, not having to play guys like Sir.Fapman, Sir.Executer, Fox.Rush(who is also Fox.Bibiane), and iFu.Alfio was sheer luck as they would have totally murdered me.

Skzlime, your team finished in 1st spot how do you feel about this, and what's your response to sas having the best record in Gambit Cup but their terran line-up is the worst? (How do you plan to improve the record or will you start to play for serious now? )

Skzlime: It was a really unexpected finish, what with Sziky and Michael on the team in an SWL format, but yeah, I guess it's okay. First place isn't too bad. Don't let the record fool you, our terran line is the best (obviously. protoss, too.), we just had some differences with Fortuna lately. It should be ok now. We set up a contain in her choke.^^

The remaining challengers in the playoffs are SJ, then either CN or LRM. Who do you want to face in the grand finals?

Zaraki: I dont have preference at all, we want to play vs best team possible to show great games, maybe for the show is better not to be LRM) because of the massive ZvZ's, but I dont dislike ZvZ just saying :D SJ did a great comeback this season after losing 2 first CW's and CN won us.. so.. all of them are really great teams, gl to all them in PO.

Skzlime: All of them. ^^ We are doing good. I feel like I could AK any team in the finals, and I'm pretty sure my in-house win rate is below 10%.

Sziky, how about you? Do you have any plans for revenge if you meet SouthPark, Heroes or Trutacz?

Sziky: I'd like to avoid playing LRM at all costs. They are mostly Zergs with strong ZvZ, and bo1 ZvZ is really unpredictable anyway, even if there's a skill difference. I'm afraid of lag vs CN, and their playstyle makes me wary, so I guess SJ. Only my loss to Heroes made me mad, but I have no interest in revenge of any sort. If I planned revenge after every single loss the list would be pretty long by now. The current BW scene is pretty small so it's no surprise that the same players are playing in every tour, i'm bound to drop games to people.

Michael, who do you want to see in the GC Grand finals? How will you prepare for them, any words of discouragement/bm/etc to the opposition? (do you wish to seek revenge on Wk?)

Michael: As long as the 5 guys I mentioned above doesn't show up somehow, I am ready to play. I gave WK free win he seemed like he really wanted it because he was lagging the whole game intentionally otherwise I would have won the game with the first 4 drones.

sas is 8-0 on electric circuit, any special preparation for this map? Also, sas line up is 27-12 +15, but thats mostly from the Zergs who are 25-6, meaning your T/P combined are 2-6, any ideas to solve this problem? (or just they didnt get enough opportunity because of michael+sziky monsters)

Zaraki: I don't really look at maps or players when I sent them to play, I think is just "luck" and for our T and P they are so few and also didn't had that much chance to play, because yea Michael and Sziky are monsters, my favorite monsters I have to say.

What makes a sas zerg so scary? (sas Z line-up 25-6 #1 in league by far)

Michael: FS not being in the map pool.

Do you expect to win The Play-offs? Any words to discourage other teams? (or words to motivate your players?)

Zaraki: I expected to win since before the league started, that's why I tried to make a really strong team, and I think we only showed 50% of our potential, we will show in regular season that we have a really great team. Best of sas will be showed in future CW's.

Skzlime, If you have realized that you won the game, will we see any BM plays, such as manner command centers, mass firebat drops, nukes?

Skzlime: Not really. sorry? I'm boring.

And you Sziky?

Sziky: I never bm, unless someone bm's me first.

What words do you have to the challenging opponents for your team's top spot? (i.e warnings to the opposition to play against you)

Skzlime: You will know true despair when your team is down 3 games and only I have played for sas yet. *kiss*

Sziky: I'm practicing as hard as I possibly can given the circumstances, so all my opponents should be afraid. They should be very afraid. :D

Any final words to fans/teammates/friends/etc?

Skzlime: I doubt I have fans. My teammates should let me play sometimes. My friends have no interest in BW. So yeah... exercise regularly. Don't get dehydrated. Read good books. ^^
I'd like to give a shout-out to organisers, competing teams, and everyone watching the games. You keep the torches lit. ^^

Sziky: I'd like to thank everyone supporting me and/or this event, and the organisers for prolonging BW's life until SC2 fails and crumbles!:D Back to BW everyone! Thanks to Zaraki for taking care of team sas now that that piece of sh!t Pez is no longer around...!:D And an emphasized thank you to everyone pouring time, money, and endless effort into this amazing game. Thanks.

Michael: I have no fans or friends.

ZaRaki: 4 Gl and hf to all, and thx to all people who support sas and his players <3

Congrats on your 2nd spot Qualification for the Play-offs, any comments? (success/regrets/etc)

TerrOr: Well I think I didn't play as good as I would like to but still got some wins so I am happy about that.

dOTY: Thanks a lot, i'm glad we made the 2nd spot after having a very bad start, but at the end we showed great performance overall ( especially Napoleon ! ). I'm sad though that i couldn't play as much and perform as well as i wanted. But i can change that in the next round, at least i hope so

SJ Protoss line-up is 3-4 overall, and all protoss in GC have a combined win-rate of around 25% any reasons for this?

dOTY: I dont know if there's a special reason for that, I with only 4 games played and 2 lost, didn't perform too awesome and too much as mentioned before. Mazur just was getting back in shape lately so i think he'll beat every zerg soon again . And i think that was all Protoss of our team which played so far on gambit. Mainly Terror and Napoleon was our best players, and the ones who played the most matches so far in this league (as far as i know) ! ( me SP and Mazur only played a few).

TerrOr, Neo Outlier is a Terran Graveyard, you have 3 TvZ on it, going 0-3 what do you think about this particular map and do you like to play it? (do you have any hidden strats to improve the vsZ m.u incase you will stumble upon a zerg opponent in the play-offs?)

TerrOr: Although I have a bad record on Outlier I enjoy playing on it. I've lost so many times on that map mostly because I played very good players who knew how to abuse the map so for the play-offs I will try to come up with something if I have to play on Outlier.

Who would you rather face in the Semi-Finals, LRM or CN? And do you have any words to strike fear into their hearts?

dOTY: I'd rather face CN since they dont have as many zergs as LRM + I wanna get revenge on Jaystar badly. Yeah I do, Mazur, Terror, Lossi and Me gonna destroy every team which comes our way! So don't even bother guys.

TerrOr: I would like to play LRM again because if we face Team China only napo will play n.n. Also I think playing against LRM is more fun but lately due to those rules against BM I think Nb vs LRM has lost some entertainment value I actually miss those fights between h00li and Game. u.u

SJ Team is 7-0 on Ground Zero, do you guys prepare religiously on this map? Coincidence?

dOTY: I cant speak for my teammates but I did not practice gambit maps too much at all (especially Outlier makes me cry, no spoiler though you'll see soon) I think it is more of an coincidence.

TerrOr, if you are to do an all-kill in the play-offs will you do any in-game ceremonies on the last game? How would you celebrate?

TerrOr: eh I don't think I am able to do an all-kill but if somehow I do it ... I will come up with a surprise.

Any final words to the fans/friends/etc?

dOTY: Shoutout to my team, thanks for always showing up and performing as good as you guys can, we're doing good ! Also thanks to all my "fans" who are watching my stream and rooting for me in tours, leagues etc. I hope i can get back to my ISL3 shape soon and yeah in it to win it !

TerrOr: I want to thank organizers, sponsors, casters and everyone who is involved in this league. Also if I have any fan out there I promise I will show a better play on the play-offs and that's all. SJ fighting!!!