[Winner's Interview] SSL Group Ro8 - Day 1

[Itembay] Jo Il Jang (hero), "I will do my best to cover Movie's absence."



For Hero, the opponent he wanted to avoid the most in the Sonic Starleague is Jin Young Hwa (Movie). They were together on Kespa's 8th Team before and announced their retirement around similar time periods so they know each other well. Also Movie's verses zerg matchup was so good that Hero would've liked to avoid him if possible. However when the Round of 8 was picked, these two players met.

If this was an unavoidable obstacle, Hero had to prepare himself well to win. In a tough practice environment, Hero picked smart builds against Movie's choices, even blocking a strategic play by Movie and entered the Round of 4. Hero mentions that "I will do my best to cover Movie's absence."

Q. How do you feel as the first one entering the Round of 4?
Hero - Honestly I thought if I just avoid Movie it was possible, and after seeing the matchup list I wasn't feeling well. Anyways one person has to move on and I thought it would be okay if either of us moved on, since I moved on I'll do my best to cover Movie's absence.

Q. How did you feel when Movie was decided as your opponent?
Hero - I hated it. Since Movie is such a strong protoss and has excellent PvZ I was extremely worried. I was luckier than him today.

Q. You have a good ZvP record but your head to head score against Movie you were behind 3:6.
Hero - I have a mindset that I won't lose ZvP's but during my progamer days I kept losing to Movie. My progamer debut was slightly faster than Movie and I lost to him often during our several matches in our rookie period. After seeing Movie performing well later on, I thought "He was a worthy opponent that I could lose to."

Q. Did you do any special preparations for this match?
Hero - Different from our pro days, the way we practice is now open to everyone. So instead of any special prep, I brainstormed a lot. I believed in my judgment during the game.

Q. Why were you late to the studio?
Hero - I live in Kyunggido Hwasung so I didn't expect this amount of traffic on the weekends. There was so much congestion.

Q. It feels like the 3rd set of the turning point for you. Did you know Movie's strategy?
Hero - Movie used this kind of build regularly, and I played against a lot of these situations. Since it's hard for protoss on 'Andromeda' just doing regular builds, I saw other protoss use a similar strategy. So I had a strategy in mind.

Q. You did a great job blocking the cannon rush. Did you lose to this strategy often when you were in Team 8?
Hero - I didn't lose to it often, but after looking at the map I determined that this map was hard to cannon rush. Since it was hard to cannon rush I think Movie tried exploiting that point. I kept a close eye on the first probe.

Q. You're matched up with either Lim Hong Gyu (Larva) or Choi Ho Sun (sSak), who do you want to meet?
Hero - It's the same for both. It is troublesome against terran, and since zerg is a mirror match up I can't make any predictions.

[Itembay] Choi Ho Sun (sSak), "This Round of 8 has become good training."



For Ssak amongst the ex-progamers in the Itembay 8th Sonic Starleague, his retirement was the most recent. It was close enough for him to even reconsider his retirement back when they held the Group Selection ceremony. For him that meant he has been training hard and that his pro sense was still alive.

Even when Ssak lost to former teammate Lim Hong Gyu (Larva) in the 1st set, Ssak lasted until the end. This was part of the process of finding his game sense. Pushing game 1 to the limits even getting ultralisk dropped, Ssak found his stride in game 2, he won the next 2 consecutively and entered the Round of 4. During his progaming days he didn't have many matches but it seems like he found the way to win.

Q. How do you feel entering the Round of 4?
Ssak - It was tougher than I expected. I recently caught a bad cold so I couldn't practice, I lost in the 1st set so easily so that made me nervous.

Q. How did you feel when Larva was decided as your opponent?
Ssak - I saw the matchups being drawn when I was eating. Recently Larva has barely lost any games to other BJ's, so that made me slightly nervous.

Q. During your SK Telecom T1 days, when you two played who won more?
Ssak - Since Larva was a practice partner back then I won more. But now Larva is much different. He has gotten very strong recently.

Q. People rate your verses zerg as a weak matchup, but your bio unit control today was decent.
Ssak - Thinking that I will have to practice even harder, I didn't perform well today. It feels like Larva couldn't get out of shock after he lost in the 2nd set.

Q. Any special preparations for this match?
Ssak - I couldn't practice a lot so I went freestyle. In the end, it turned out better than planned.

Q. In the 1st set, Larva's mutalisks gave you huge problems
Ssak - My first group of units that went out couldn't do anything, I knew I had lost the game then. Larva's mutalisk control was very good.

Q. As the sets continued, it felt like your management in the late game became more solid.
Ssak - As the sets went on I adapted better to the match. My hands felt warmed up and I could control the units the way I wanted to.

Q. You're playing against Hero in the Round of 4. People believe that he has a weak ZvT matchup. Are you confident enough to reach the finals?
Ssak - I practice with Hero in bit by bit regularly, he's a good player. I feel like the maps don't favor terran so I will have to prepare a lot.

Q. Anything you want to say?
Ssak - Nope.