EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/MLGRaleighPhotos/Lastshadow.jpg)
Source: (English version / German version)
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readmore.de: Alright, let's start off with an introduction. Reveal as much about yourself in general as you'd like to. I heard that you don't even own a PC?
Nick 'ajtls' De Cesare: I'm Nick 'ajtls' De Cesare, I'm 17 years old and I live in Maryland, USA. I played SC:BW since late 2006, until december 2009. I came back to SC2 at retail and put in a lot of time just studying to catch up. Lastly, I play Terran, and spend most of my time doing poker and SC2.
As for owning my own computer, this is correct, I don't own my computer, I borrow my friend's, which has faulty hardware and crashes quite often. It has proudly attributed to exactly 87 disconnects on ladder...lol
readmore.de: You went by the ID of LastShadow in Brood War, but started registering for tournaments as ajtls in SC2. What was the reason behind that? And what ID do you go by now that many people just use your older, more memorable nick anyway?
ajtls: lastshadOw actually became my ID when I was playing around with a player named Kwark (now Teamliquid.net admin). At first it was Shadow[Siege], then LiquidShadow, then finally, a play off of lastgosu, using lastshadow. The ID ultimately means the last defense, or the final stand, as in the Reaper, or death bringer to end a battle. ajtls was just such a fun sounding name, and I really admired ajtls[S.O]'s play in SC1. I love how it sounds when it's pronounced fast with aye-jay-tee-el-es. It mean's "inhuman" or "machine" in Korean, it's just coincidence that it has the LS, which only helped to me adopting it. I go by both ID's.
readmore.de: You attended the MLG Pro Circuit Raleigh a week ago. Being the first major North American offline event, how did you like it?
ajtls: It was awesome, I met so many players that I knew from online, and it overall just went really smoothly. I was disappointed I didn't interact with some people that I wanted to, but yeah. It was really really well run, everything was good, except for the fact that the audience was robbed of the games not all being streamed or what not... But I'll be attending MLG D.C., so yeah, hopefully it's better.
readmore.de: Since you didn't belong to the top seeds, you had to play a great many of strong opponents, starting with SeleCT right in the first round, and then PainUser, SLush, KiWiKaKi, Sjow and Socke. What were some particularly memorable moments in those games, and did you expect to win so many of them, eventually finishing fourth place?
ajtls: SeleCt - Game 2, getting the faster medivac BO made me have such a psychological boost, after a melancholic loss in game 1, due to being completely un-warmed up. Followed this through with the SC1 suffocation-style, with just contain w/ air superiority and turrets all over the map. Game 3, I was really really panicing when he sieged my production facilities and had me greatly outnumbered. On top of this, he had his high-yield running and I hadn't even started mine. I envisioned my good friend tot)yosh( saying "Your only chance back in this, is to gain air superiority and out play him" and so I did, 12 vikings and 2 point defense drones later, 3 banshees forced the GG as he had no anti-air. Made me feel so good.
PainUser - I was ready to throw up, I heard "upgrade complete" and it was concussive shells, not stim, and I charged his ramp with my all-in 3rax maurauder timing attack on blistering sands... needless to say, I would've won had it been stim, and not concussive shells, and I just didn't do enough damage.
Game 2, I went for a proxy maurauder build. since I noticed he scouted extremely late in game 1, he misplaced his bunker and I punished him for it, nothing more to it.
Game 3, riding the psychological advantage of the tilt, since he misplaced his bunker, I did my signature medivac drop, and it just did too much damage, and I slow pushed with tank/viking to seal the game.
SLush - Game 1, he busted my ramp, because I moved out with a reaper timing, to catch the drone-roach transition, however he had developed a build it had seemed and it was aimed at killing me right around this reaper timing (SLush and I had practiced quite alot before MLG). I instantly lost to the bust, and scanned to check his drone count. After realizing he was all-in, I re-assured myself, that i beat myself basically, to keep optimistic. So in game 2 he went for the same build again, and this time I responded with my only all-in, and it caught him. Game 3, it was too obvious, he picked blistering sands, opting for the asme build again, but I knew it was that build as soon as he chose the map. I countered with 3rax reaper before FE, which punishes his early-ling count and low drone style. I then timed an all-in scv/reaper/maurauder attack based around his spire timing, and won the game off that, with the theory of "I have mules, you don't".
KiwiKaki - Nothing to really say, I got BO walked both games, all I remember was being extremely depressed.
Sjow - I obsed his games against SeleCt and realized he didn't scout till late, so because of this, I opted for 7rax reaper game 1, and 8rax in-base game 2, both won me the game instantly.
Socke - It was my first time playing a european Protoss, and I had never seen one of the builds he used against me, which gave him game 1 instantly. In game 2, I used a build I hadn't fully refined, misplaced my bunker, and got punished for it. Again, very depressing :[
readmore.de: How did you prepare for the tournament? Despite your good results, you have not joined a team yet, so who did you mainly practice with?
ajtls: I only practiced with ToT)yosh( 90% of the time, Artosis, SLush, Ostojiy and others I ran into on ladder. Yosh would watch my livestream, or my practice games, and try to give me his mind in the game, and I would play according to how he thought and we would discuss possibilities in the game. He would always watch from my view only, to further accelerate the learning process. I owe him so much for this, thanks so much Sherwin.
readmore.de: Prior to the tournament, QXC claimed to have practiced ten hours a day. Yet, he didn't even finish top-8 in the end, completely missing out on the prize money. You were the one who beat him in the upper bracket. Do you think he just got unlucky, or did everyone else play even more than him? Or is the game still so fresh that training is trumped by talent, maybe?
ajtls: It's fresh enough that any SC1 players can come over and shove-aside the people that haven't been playing since beta. I don't believe in mass practice, I believe in talent, and I believe in accelerated learning through studying replays, over playing games. I can learn 10x faster out of 1 of my own replays, win or loss, than I can if I play 20 ladder games. I continue to get better with every game I play, since I've only been playing since retail, I don't think I'm as good as I should be, but yeah.
readmore.de: The next two major tournaments that came up for you were the GosuCup finals with over 1,000 Euro in prizemoney, as well as the IEM group stage. Both took place over the course of this weekend. And for you, it was basically MLG all over again, facing Socke in the GosuCup third place decider as well as being put in an IEM group with HuK and KiWiKaKi. Were you glad to have a chance to face all three people who placed in front of you in Raleigh again, or would you rather have played other opponents?
ajtls: My Terran vs Protoss is god awful, I was actually learning TvP in my games vs KiWiKaKi in the IEM. After the games I discussed with yosh a lot of things going on, especially my timings, but now I'm starting to understand the matchup, so I only think it's so long till I methodically produce a system for my TvP, the same way I have one in TvZ and TvT. As for being happy, no, Socke plays extremely unorthodox, random, and very low-eco. It's not a style I support, nor do I like playing against it.
readmore.de: Having covered all the recent tourneys, let's talk a bit about SC2 in general. How would you describe your own style of playing? So far, you are known for cheesing almost every game, yet you apologized to Insolence about it, stating you're only cheesing versus Protoss until safe builds like in BW are found. So, are you the next Flash, causing upsets right and left by cheesing bigger names out of the tournaments, only to later become the most solid player ever?
ajtls: I like to consider that the TvZ BO/Style yosh and I have come up with, is the absolute best style of Terran right now anyway. If you look at all my tournaments, no T's or Z's have taken series off me in quite a while, I'd like to consider my TvT/TvZ extremely control-freak and just playing it like SC1. I don't think I do anything cheesy in either of these match-ups, in fact, I would love to just enter the mid-game without a disadvantage and simply use my sc1 knowledge and new-found understanding from all this recent practice/coaching to just play a standard macro game versus my opponent.
readmore.de: A few days ago, Blizzard uncovered its plans for the first balance patch. Anything you have to say about that? Are you content with the timing and the changes? Do you care about balance at all?
ajtls: It's dumb, but not bad. Reapers will barely be affected, my BO is still viable in TvZ, so is every reaper build; instead of having 10 reapers, you'll have 9. The tank nerf is just silly, too. They should've waited much longer to make a balance patch, because surprise surprise, the players are learning how to play the game, and Protoss is starting to dominate with unfair results. As well as, in Korea, Z's dont seem to have a problem with Terran.
readmore.de: What are your future plans regarding SC2? Would you like to play it full time, go to Korea for GSL, like some players do? Or do you prefer keeping it as a hobby and a small source of extra income from time to time?
ajtls: I plan to become a progamer and either live in Korea, or in a US-based progaming house. I do poker on the side.
readmore.de: Ok, that's it for the long questions. Finishing up the interview are a few short ones. Feel free to not do any further explanation to your answers!
What is your...
favorite dish? Veal Parmigiana
favorite book? The Notebook
favorite unit in any RTS? Way too hard for me to answer.
favorite map in any game that has maps? Micro Tournament lol Destination.
favorite player of any sport ("esports" included)? Korean - It's always been a toss-up between Flash and Jaedong. Foreigner - yosh
best SC2 matchup? TvZ
worst SC2 matchup? TvP
Which fictional character would you most like to be?
This is too hard lol hahahaha.
And finally, what are the best ten minutes in life you can imagine?
Don't know, I dont like to think about my past actually.
readmore.de: Thank you very much for taking your time and answering all the questions then! If you've got anything else to say and/or any shoutouts to do - now is the time!
ajtls: Shoutouts to tot)yosh(, i-emerge, exalted, infernal, ret, artosis, ostojiy, ranged, marcoon (who got me into sc2 lol), morrow, tyro, select, rlbe, cmb, and my friends adam and corey.
Thanks so much
.
Nick 'ajtls' De Cesare: I'm Nick 'ajtls' De Cesare, I'm 17 years old and I live in Maryland, USA. I played SC:BW since late 2006, until december 2009. I came back to SC2 at retail and put in a lot of time just studying to catch up. Lastly, I play Terran, and spend most of my time doing poker and SC2.
As for owning my own computer, this is correct, I don't own my computer, I borrow my friend's, which has faulty hardware and crashes quite often. It has proudly attributed to exactly 87 disconnects on ladder...lol
readmore.de: You went by the ID of LastShadow in Brood War, but started registering for tournaments as ajtls in SC2. What was the reason behind that? And what ID do you go by now that many people just use your older, more memorable nick anyway?
ajtls: lastshadOw actually became my ID when I was playing around with a player named Kwark (now Teamliquid.net admin). At first it was Shadow[Siege], then LiquidShadow, then finally, a play off of lastgosu, using lastshadow. The ID ultimately means the last defense, or the final stand, as in the Reaper, or death bringer to end a battle. ajtls was just such a fun sounding name, and I really admired ajtls[S.O]'s play in SC1. I love how it sounds when it's pronounced fast with aye-jay-tee-el-es. It mean's "inhuman" or "machine" in Korean, it's just coincidence that it has the LS, which only helped to me adopting it. I go by both ID's.
readmore.de: You attended the MLG Pro Circuit Raleigh a week ago. Being the first major North American offline event, how did you like it?
ajtls: It was awesome, I met so many players that I knew from online, and it overall just went really smoothly. I was disappointed I didn't interact with some people that I wanted to, but yeah. It was really really well run, everything was good, except for the fact that the audience was robbed of the games not all being streamed or what not... But I'll be attending MLG D.C., so yeah, hopefully it's better.
readmore.de: Since you didn't belong to the top seeds, you had to play a great many of strong opponents, starting with SeleCT right in the first round, and then PainUser, SLush, KiWiKaKi, Sjow and Socke. What were some particularly memorable moments in those games, and did you expect to win so many of them, eventually finishing fourth place?
ajtls: SeleCt - Game 2, getting the faster medivac BO made me have such a psychological boost, after a melancholic loss in game 1, due to being completely un-warmed up. Followed this through with the SC1 suffocation-style, with just contain w/ air superiority and turrets all over the map. Game 3, I was really really panicing when he sieged my production facilities and had me greatly outnumbered. On top of this, he had his high-yield running and I hadn't even started mine. I envisioned my good friend tot)yosh( saying "Your only chance back in this, is to gain air superiority and out play him" and so I did, 12 vikings and 2 point defense drones later, 3 banshees forced the GG as he had no anti-air. Made me feel so good.
PainUser - I was ready to throw up, I heard "upgrade complete" and it was concussive shells, not stim, and I charged his ramp with my all-in 3rax maurauder timing attack on blistering sands... needless to say, I would've won had it been stim, and not concussive shells, and I just didn't do enough damage.
Game 2, I went for a proxy maurauder build. since I noticed he scouted extremely late in game 1, he misplaced his bunker and I punished him for it, nothing more to it.
Game 3, riding the psychological advantage of the tilt, since he misplaced his bunker, I did my signature medivac drop, and it just did too much damage, and I slow pushed with tank/viking to seal the game.
SLush - Game 1, he busted my ramp, because I moved out with a reaper timing, to catch the drone-roach transition, however he had developed a build it had seemed and it was aimed at killing me right around this reaper timing (SLush and I had practiced quite alot before MLG). I instantly lost to the bust, and scanned to check his drone count. After realizing he was all-in, I re-assured myself, that i beat myself basically, to keep optimistic. So in game 2 he went for the same build again, and this time I responded with my only all-in, and it caught him. Game 3, it was too obvious, he picked blistering sands, opting for the asme build again, but I knew it was that build as soon as he chose the map. I countered with 3rax reaper before FE, which punishes his early-ling count and low drone style. I then timed an all-in scv/reaper/maurauder attack based around his spire timing, and won the game off that, with the theory of "I have mules, you don't".
KiwiKaki - Nothing to really say, I got BO walked both games, all I remember was being extremely depressed.
Sjow - I obsed his games against SeleCt and realized he didn't scout till late, so because of this, I opted for 7rax reaper game 1, and 8rax in-base game 2, both won me the game instantly.
Socke - It was my first time playing a european Protoss, and I had never seen one of the builds he used against me, which gave him game 1 instantly. In game 2, I used a build I hadn't fully refined, misplaced my bunker, and got punished for it. Again, very depressing :[
readmore.de: How did you prepare for the tournament? Despite your good results, you have not joined a team yet, so who did you mainly practice with?
ajtls: I only practiced with ToT)yosh( 90% of the time, Artosis, SLush, Ostojiy and others I ran into on ladder. Yosh would watch my livestream, or my practice games, and try to give me his mind in the game, and I would play according to how he thought and we would discuss possibilities in the game. He would always watch from my view only, to further accelerate the learning process. I owe him so much for this, thanks so much Sherwin.
readmore.de: Prior to the tournament, QXC claimed to have practiced ten hours a day. Yet, he didn't even finish top-8 in the end, completely missing out on the prize money. You were the one who beat him in the upper bracket. Do you think he just got unlucky, or did everyone else play even more than him? Or is the game still so fresh that training is trumped by talent, maybe?
ajtls: It's fresh enough that any SC1 players can come over and shove-aside the people that haven't been playing since beta. I don't believe in mass practice, I believe in talent, and I believe in accelerated learning through studying replays, over playing games. I can learn 10x faster out of 1 of my own replays, win or loss, than I can if I play 20 ladder games. I continue to get better with every game I play, since I've only been playing since retail, I don't think I'm as good as I should be, but yeah.
readmore.de: The next two major tournaments that came up for you were the GosuCup finals with over 1,000 Euro in prizemoney, as well as the IEM group stage. Both took place over the course of this weekend. And for you, it was basically MLG all over again, facing Socke in the GosuCup third place decider as well as being put in an IEM group with HuK and KiWiKaKi. Were you glad to have a chance to face all three people who placed in front of you in Raleigh again, or would you rather have played other opponents?
ajtls: My Terran vs Protoss is god awful, I was actually learning TvP in my games vs KiWiKaKi in the IEM. After the games I discussed with yosh a lot of things going on, especially my timings, but now I'm starting to understand the matchup, so I only think it's so long till I methodically produce a system for my TvP, the same way I have one in TvZ and TvT. As for being happy, no, Socke plays extremely unorthodox, random, and very low-eco. It's not a style I support, nor do I like playing against it.
readmore.de: Having covered all the recent tourneys, let's talk a bit about SC2 in general. How would you describe your own style of playing? So far, you are known for cheesing almost every game, yet you apologized to Insolence about it, stating you're only cheesing versus Protoss until safe builds like in BW are found. So, are you the next Flash, causing upsets right and left by cheesing bigger names out of the tournaments, only to later become the most solid player ever?
ajtls: I like to consider that the TvZ BO/Style yosh and I have come up with, is the absolute best style of Terran right now anyway. If you look at all my tournaments, no T's or Z's have taken series off me in quite a while, I'd like to consider my TvT/TvZ extremely control-freak and just playing it like SC1. I don't think I do anything cheesy in either of these match-ups, in fact, I would love to just enter the mid-game without a disadvantage and simply use my sc1 knowledge and new-found understanding from all this recent practice/coaching to just play a standard macro game versus my opponent.
readmore.de: A few days ago, Blizzard uncovered its plans for the first balance patch. Anything you have to say about that? Are you content with the timing and the changes? Do you care about balance at all?
ajtls: It's dumb, but not bad. Reapers will barely be affected, my BO is still viable in TvZ, so is every reaper build; instead of having 10 reapers, you'll have 9. The tank nerf is just silly, too. They should've waited much longer to make a balance patch, because surprise surprise, the players are learning how to play the game, and Protoss is starting to dominate with unfair results. As well as, in Korea, Z's dont seem to have a problem with Terran.
readmore.de: What are your future plans regarding SC2? Would you like to play it full time, go to Korea for GSL, like some players do? Or do you prefer keeping it as a hobby and a small source of extra income from time to time?
ajtls: I plan to become a progamer and either live in Korea, or in a US-based progaming house. I do poker on the side.
readmore.de: Ok, that's it for the long questions. Finishing up the interview are a few short ones. Feel free to not do any further explanation to your answers!
What is your...
favorite dish? Veal Parmigiana
favorite book? The Notebook
favorite unit in any RTS? Way too hard for me to answer.
favorite map in any game that has maps? Micro Tournament lol Destination.
favorite player of any sport ("esports" included)? Korean - It's always been a toss-up between Flash and Jaedong. Foreigner - yosh
best SC2 matchup? TvZ
worst SC2 matchup? TvP
Which fictional character would you most like to be?
This is too hard lol hahahaha.
And finally, what are the best ten minutes in life you can imagine?
Don't know, I dont like to think about my past actually.
readmore.de: Thank you very much for taking your time and answering all the questions then! If you've got anything else to say and/or any shoutouts to do - now is the time!
ajtls: Shoutouts to tot)yosh(, i-emerge, exalted, infernal, ret, artosis, ostojiy, ranged, marcoon (who got me into sc2 lol), morrow, tyro, select, rlbe, cmb, and my friends adam and corey.
Thanks so much
.
