Nick "Axslav" Ranish - born on November 12th, 1985 - is a Grandmaster Protoss player from the United States who is currently playing for Infinity Seven and also fulltime-casting for MLG. He is known for his deep understanding and detailed analysis when it comes to strategies and RTS-games in general. Prior to Infinity Seven he was on Evil Geniuses, went on to Team ReIGN and finally stayed at iS. Oh, and before someone asks about it: Yes, Axslav actually uses Mind Control on that picture.
Axslav will premiere a new show called Rules of Engagement on December 3rd at 5pm ET just prior to the "Tournament of Champions". The show is airing Monday through Thursday at 5pm ET.
Don't miss your chance to spend an hour with MLG’s top StarCraft II analyst Nick “Axslav” Ranish as he teaches and breaks down gameplay and mechanics geared at both new and advanced StarCraft II players.
Schedule
Monday ___________________ Talking Tactics Tuesday __________ Developing Fundamentals Wednesday ________ Mechanics of the Bizarre Thursday ______________ Community Critique
If you have any kind of questions during the show just post them at Axslav's Twitter Account. At the end of every show he will answer community questions.
Axslav releases usefull tips and tricks in cooperation with MLG. It's a series called "NOS Pro Performance Tips". They were done by JP McDaniels in the past but since Axslav joined MLG as a caster it became his mission to make them even better. He tends to use specific terms to talk about certain situations. The definition of these terms can be seen below.
Definitions
"Space" - This is a term he often uses to define the time you have until your opponent can launch a major attack.
"Power" - It's when you optimize your builds around unit production instead of fast teching.
"Muscle" - The counterpart of power; it's when you go for higher tech and stronger units instead of quantity.
!! INFO !!Episodes #1 -> #26 were done by JP McDaniels. From #27 on they are done by Axslav. !! INFO !! _________________________________________________________________________________________
As mentioned before Axslav is also a fulltime caster for MLG. He just finished co-casting the WCS Global Finals in Shanghai. His next casting-gig is the recently announced "Tournament of Champions" by MLG. It will debut on Monday, December 3rd with a best of 5 series between Flash and DRG. The tournament is a three week series and will be free to watch in HD.
MLG just announced that Axslav and Axeltoss will cast the new "Tournament of Champions". Axslav also gets a new Show called "Rules of Engagement". Both will premiere at Monday, December 3rd 2012.
Nick will cast the WCS Global Finals in Shanghai alongside MrBitter, Day[9], Artosis, Rotterdam, Axeltoss, Tasteless, Apollo, Khaldor and Kaelaris on November 17th-18th 2012 to finish the Starcraft year with style.
Axslav will cast the MLG Fall Championchip alongside Day[9], Apollo, djWheat, TotalBiscuit, Mr Bitter and Axeltoss.
MLG hires Axslav and Axeltoss. The pair will be doing full-time in-house game analysis and casting for Starcraft 2.
Due to the inactivity of the original Axslav Fanclub and it's founder Engore - who i contacted about 5-6 weeks ago because of some updates for the Fanclub and the new Frontpage that you now see here - i decided to recreate and refresh the Fanclub of Axslav on my own because i never got an answer (Engore seems to be inactive) and i really think Ax definitely deserves something better.
Another thing to add: I decided to carry over all Fanlist entrys from the old Fanclub, so if you were already on that old list please don't ask for another signup, you are already on the new list. BUT, because of the inactivity of the old founder i don't know how updated that old Fanlist was. Please check on your own if you was on that old list or not, if not just make a new request for a signup.
I'm glad to see someone finally remade that out of date Fanclub an made something like this :-) Axslav really deserved it, he is amazing! And btw.: Nice coloring of that picture :-D Stephano won't kill me if i like it ^^
Pleasure to have been this guy's teammate in Warcraft III, sign me up! Excellent casting and strategical analysis game after game. Such a shame EG released him.
Axslav is doing a fantastic job at MLG MvP once again today =) for everyone that didn't know: The show is online at the moment, Flash plays VS Soo right now. So if you missed it you still have a chance to tune in ;-)
Btw.: Axslav will be back thursday 25th for some more MLG MvP action at 7 ET, definetely tune in and also check out his stream. He tends to stream for an hour or two a couple hours before the actual event starts.
Alright guys, MLG MvP just started. The show kicks off today with the quarterfinals of NaNiWa -VS- OZ .. definitely worth watching. Tune in and listen to the manbeard-caster himself :-)
Sign me up please good sir if I'm not already (can't open spoilers from my silly cell phone ). Been a fan of his since TFT. He consistently produces great work, very entertaining to watch.
Added the last 7 guys =) it's up to date now again.
Ax had some great games on his stream today, unfortunately he will stop streaming in about half an hour :-7 But don't forget, today is another day of MLG MvP with semifinal games from Soo VS Soulkey (ZvZ) and Oz VS Major (PvT).
To me it sounds like a lot of fun, so make sure to tune in to the manbeard caster later on!
Omg, you keep improving the look of the fanclub :-O i remember the first day you created it, it looked stunning in the beginning but now it's close to being flawless...
Axslav is lucky to have such a talented supporter on his side creating all this for free, i'm actually on the same level of being impressed as by Axslavs casting.. this is a compliment for both of you!
always nice to hear appreciation for stuff like this. It took a lot of time making the Frontbanner and creating all the Symbols for every category. While speaking of categories, i just added two more: "Pictures" and "Tips and Tricks".
Pictures speaks for itself while Tips and Tricks is a category where i'll sum up all tips by Axslav for playing Starcraft. The Tips and Tricks aren't only for protoss players, so Terrans and Zergs should check them out too.
On October 29 2012 00:05 Sammex wrote: Love this guys casting. We need more good analytical casters!
I agree 50/50 on this one. I think it's always good to have a guy who can analyze stuff AND a guy who can fill time where basically nothing happens. That's the way nearly every casting duo works in every sport, not only e-Sports.
Oh, and before i forget it: Don't forget to tune in to tonights MLG MvP Finals! It's Oz VS soO (PvZ - Best of 7). Boradcasting starts in roughly 8 hours. The winner takes it all and gets 10.000 $ + Seeding for MLG in a couple days.
Greets, MiND. ____________
EDIT:
On October 27 2012 03:02 bblack wrote: Yeah sign me up too, thanks for the great OP!
Also, why aren't there any 'favorite team banners' visible at posts in this thread?
Just seen that you asked that question in your post. Didn't notice it because u added it later. To answer the question: I have no clue. I don't have any options where i can enable or disabe stuff so it's either something TeamLiquid related OR maybe they aren't displayed on fanthreads in general?
Still the only stream for which i will drop pretty much anything to watch (as well as sase's) just because the insight he gives into his thoughts when he is playing. I don't watch MLG often due to the time frames, but what little i have seen of him doing that has been excellent also.
Axslav just wrote that insight article about some KeSPA players, you guys should definitely check it out considering that MLG Dallas is about to start :-)
Hell i'm pumped to see some Axslav analyze-owning on the streams! What makes it even greater is that the opening match will be grubby vs flash !
Sign me up for sure. I'm in love with Axslav's casting. He comes across as the most intelligent of all the casters out there constantly pointing out important details: tech, saturation, scouting, tactics. He's a GM though from what I understand so this makes sense.
He's got the best personality of all the casters I've seen too. Comes across as a really humble human being with a strong mind (love his chess references, I'm a master and long time chess player myself). Just an awesome caster!
Looking forward to more of his casts, truly my first favorite caster since hearing Tastosis over a year ago (great memories). I also like how he combo'd with all the other casters and especially with Axeltoss during MLG proleague.
I'll add it on the front page in the Interview category too. As far as MLG Dallas goes, thanks Axslav for an amazing job casting games.. i said it so many times already but it was a real pleasure to watch your commentaries once again =)
Really dumb post by me, should have known better, apologies. What I meant to say was that his lisp is really annoying to me, and I had to listen to it during some of the matches at MLG. Other than that he is really knowledgable and a decent player (better than me for sure), and beside the lisp his casts are good. Also I didn't know that a lisp is someting you were born with/cannot do anything about so sorry again, idk why I made the post to begin with, it was stupid of me.
On November 05 2012 23:01 achristes wrote: Fix your lisp.
What a terrible post.
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I hadn't heard much of Axslavs casting before MLG Dallas, but I have to say, I liked what I heard of him at this event. He knows what he's talking about, has a good flow and plenty of energy. Him and Axeltoss seem to have pretty good synergy as well. Hope to hear more from them in the future.
On November 05 2012 23:01 achristes wrote: Fix your lisp.
All i have to say about this is that haters always gonna hate. There are people around the internet who always try to find something no matter what... it's just the nature of some humans out there. But be sure to remember my words, son:
"It's always easy to dismantle something in seconds, but it's very hard and takes a lot of time to create something in exchange."
People like you tend to surround everything with negativity and i can't even understand why. You should better fix your personal attitude instead of posting stuff like this.
So nice to see that this new Axslav fanclub is updated and running, as I tried to sign up for the previous one, unfortunately it was too late and never got signed in. So, could you please sign me up for this one? Thank you Axslav fighting!
Btw.: I'm thinking about some kind of interactive feature for the members of the Fanclub but i'm still not sure about what exactly i'll implement. Any ideas out there?
On November 05 2012 23:01 achristes wrote: Fix your lisp.
What a shitty comment. A lisp is something you are born with and can't always be "fixed".
His lisp is not even annoying, just minor.
I know it's not the same, but to me your comment is not far from telling a black guy to fix his skin color, or a legless guy to stop complaining and grow his legs.
Let's please try to stay civil, i mean he is banned and let's keep it like this. He doesn't need to get more attention than he deserves... it's better to just ignore it than always bumping what he posted.
On November 06 2012 01:04 MiND.GaMeS wrote: ...
Btw.: I'm thinking about some kind of interactive feature for the members of the Fanclub but i'm still not sure about what exactly i'll implement. Any ideas out there?
My ideas would be some kind of FanclubAwards for Members or maybe Fanart-Contests... stuff like this maybe :-)
You're doing a really good job handling this fanclub to be honest, keep it up MinD, love your attitude and work so far :D
Not totally sure yet, the Fanclub Award thing sounds interesting, i seen it in the Scarlett Fanclub i think... it's a nice idea =) but i still don't know if that's exactly what i was thinkig about. I'll keep you guys updated about that stuff, feel free to throw out any ideas too
It's just confirmed that Axlsav will cast the WCS Global Finals in Shanghai alongside MrBitter, Day[9], Artosis, Rotterdam, Axeltoss, Tasteless, Apollo, Khaldor and Kaelaris next week on 17th-18th November 2012 to finish the Starcraft year with a big boom.
For more imformations about the event itself visit the WCS site.
On November 09 2012 04:41 brobrah wrote: So happy Ax is getting a chance in the spotlight, he seems like a genuinely awesome person. I LOVE YOU AXSLAV!
I'm not 100 % sure but shall i consider an "I LOVE YOU AXSLAV" as an sign me up pls or is it just some thrown out love for a handsome guy from a random guy? :-D
So happy for Axslav. This opportunity is highly, highly deserved. He improved on his casting so much recently. The only sad thing about it is that he might prefer actually competing but as he said himself, there are only very few people that can focus on practicing 100% at this point in time.
Just seen that Axslav will participate today in Lone Star Clash 2 to compete for the prize pool of 15.000 $. Unfortunetely his first match in the championchip bracket will be Stephano.. i guess he didn't get the easiest way to start off a tournament but we'll see how things turn out.
If he loses i hope he gets a more fitting and non-zergy opponent in the losers bracket.
MLG will run a new format called "Tournament of Champions". It will debut on Monday, December 3rd with a best of 5 series between Flash and DRG. The tournament is a three week series, will be free to watch in HD and will feature matches between:
DongRaeGu (Spring Arena 1, Spring Championship)
Flash (KeSPA Invitational at Spring Championship)
Leenock (Summer Championship)
Life (Fall Championship)
MarineKing (Winter Arena, Winter Championship)
Soo (MvP Invitational)
Parting (Battle.net World Championship, WCG 2012)
Rain (2012 OSL Finals, WCS Asia)
The format is a Single Elimination Bracket (no losers bracket) with a bunch of Best of 5 Games and Best of 7 for the finals. 1st place will take 5.000 $, 2nd will take 2.000 $. The event will be casted by Axslav and Axeltoss.
Open your eyes and make sure to read correctly on this part: Axslav will premiere a new show called Rules of Engagement on December 3rd at 5pm ET. The show is airing Monday through Thursday at 5pm ET.
Don't miss your chance to spend an hour with MLG’s top StarCraft II analyst Nick “Axslav” Ranish as he teaches and breaks down gameplay and mechanics geared at both new and advanced StarCraft II players.
Still really hoping to see you back in tournaments for HOTS though.
On December 04 2012 16:33 usNEUX wrote: Ran into you in NYC this past weekend! Was good to meet you and I look forward to your show :D
Now your posts are in the right Fanclub.. have fun! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Another thing i wanna add:
I just updated the Tips & Tricks Corner, you can check out the latest "Rules of Engagement" VODs there. I'll always update the VODs as soon as possible.
Rules of the motherfucking engagement! So glad that MLG and Ax are doing it. That's like Day[9] daily with sick knowledge bombs one after another. No story time, but very well prepared show.
I'm not totally sure but closing the thread wouldn't change that. The problem is that google looks for the thing that was earlier there i guess. The only thing that could happen would be deleting the thread i guess but i somehow think they are only able to close the threads.. it's everything i always see. Never seen a deleted Thread yet but i could be wrong too.
On December 07 2012 01:01 MiND.GaMeS wrote: I'm not totally sure but closing the thread wouldn't change that. The problem is that google looks for the thing that was earlier there i guess. The only thing that could happen would be deleting the thread i guess but i somehow think they are only able to close the threads.. it's everything i always see. Never seen a deleted Thread yet but i could be wrong too.
Would be rather impressive if you had seen a deleted thread, as it was deleted. But I get what you mean, there is always a way to delete it though, but that option might not be available to moderators.
Axslav is doing really well at MLG I think. Keep it up!
Sry guys for not updating the fanclub for some weeks now. As everyone else i'M kind of on vacation during christmas, i'll update everything to date when i'm back in two more weeks. The god thing is that SC2 is kind of on a break too, so i dont miss too much, same is true for you guys :-)
On December 22 2012 08:38 Emporio wrote: Does Axslav stream anymore? He used to be one of my favorite streamers but I haven't seen him for quite a while.
I guess it's the same as with everyone else. Christmas holidays and the famous december/january SC2 break :-) i'm pretty sure he'll be more active in january again!
Maybe he'll check the fanclub too and response personally to when he will be back again ;-)
Currently watching the MLG stream and enjoying it.
No idea why it isn't a featured stream, seems to be Kespa players vs the world today, it's great. Axslav and Axeltoss are casting it and sound like they are enjoying it also, which makes for a wonderful experience.
Especially I'm enjoying listening to Axslav. Obviously he has incredible game knowledge, but before he had a slight lisp that I found annoying, however he seems to have fixed it now? It's basically gone now right? I have no idea how he did this, but I'm happy about it, he's really enjoyable to listen to now.
I just wnna note that i'm very impressed with your commentary and analysis lately axslav,, you've really grown into one of the most knowledgeable casters, equally even artosis.
Loving Rules of Engagement and your casting, you reached and probably already passed Tastosis in terms of ability to analyze! Sign me in for Axslav's club.
sign me up this guy is awesome! i had no idea who he was when he left EG, but good to see someone who is so knowledgeable and helpful casting at mlg and has his own show. rules of engagement is amazing
On April 06 2013 05:05 JulDraGoN wrote: Hi guys This thursday 9 - 12 am EDT / 3 pm - 6 pm CET I will be having a 3hr session with Axslav. One hour for each matchup.
About me: I used to be master in WoL but haven't played a game in HoTS. Axslav will walk through the changes from WoL to HoTS with me.
f you are interested I'll stream it / post it as a blog / youtube video.
Axslav is casting the WCS American Qualifier alongside Axeltoss today and in the next couple days as well. Make sure to tune in. There are a lot of interesting games to be honest.
Axslav is currently solo-casting the "WCS American Qualifier - Group D" like a baws with a huge amount of joy. I think people should show some love for hustlin the qualifier out =)
Have to agree man. Normally i am really bored by solo-casts but he definitely proved that it's possible to make really mindblowing solo-casts too. He shows so much passion while casting. I enjoy it a lot
Axslav is mature, very knowledgeable, doesn't bullshit around and is actually humble. He is a lot better in helping viewers follow and understand the game than more famous casters like Tastosis, who are more personality than substance.
Watched Suppy vs Heart game 2 in the WCS quals, amazing game and Axslav did an amazing job, can't have been easy to solo cast that for that long and be both the flavour AND the analytical caster. He kept it exciting and informative. Great job.
On June 24 2013 04:11 MiND.GaMeS wrote: Was a bit inactive lately. I just updated everyone from ~ the last 2 months who wanted to enter the club. My message to every new member:
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eyUJu.jpg)
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- Event already finished![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MyU3n.jpg)
- Event still to be casted![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3HnMI.jpg)
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). Been a fan of his since TFT. He consistently produces great work, very entertaining to watch.![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lKN1B.png)
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