TL: Overall, how are you feeling about your chances coming into this tournament?

Day[9]: I actually feel probably less good about playing Artosis, but more comfortable playing Incontrol or slush second round. To be honest, this week is the first week I actually get to sit down and play a lot. I thought it was going to be much earlier, but I spent about 30 hours trying to get all my new computer equipment to function.

I feel ok, but I'd probably flip a coin on me verse Artosis. I really think that when I practice I'm really comfortable at learning stuff and working kinks out. I also don't get nervous in tournaments, so that helps quite a bit, but Artosis is good, so that can only do so much.

TL: How do you think the difference in game styles on the Asia server is going to affect you in that matchup?

Day[9]: I downloaded a lot of replays from the Asia server, and the general trend that you see is just outrageous aggression, especially with zerg. They'll early expand and get two queens, but only have like six drones at their expansion as they try to just batter you down with speedlings and then roaches, a slow forward tech but a lot of aggression. You don't see that much on the American servers.

TL: How do you feel about your gauge of the strengths or weaknesses of the players in the tournament?

Day[9]: I'm going to speak in outrageous generalities. It's an interesting mix; I've played with many of the players on here. I actually met qxc a few days ago, and we played some games and he trashed me pretty hard. I think CauthonLuck is the best player in this tournament. Honestly, I think he is just out of control, on another level, and it's great because I get to cast him in the MLG showmatch things, and I get to just steal all his builds, and I have the replays!

I'm not gonna lie, as a commentator, I get the replays of all these events with the knowledge that they're never going to be released. That's the payment I receive for casting. I don't know too much about HuK, I've only played one game with slush way back, but other than that I'm pretty familiar with the rest of the gamers out there.

TL: Do you think doing something like your Day[9] Dailies makes your thought process more transparent to your opponents?

Day[9]: No. I've never really been that threatened by that idea. To be honest, they help me a ton. It's one thing to re-watch your replays and x3 it and just go yeah blah blah done, let me go back to playing. When I'm trying to really slowly articulate stuff, I occasionally say, "Wow, so that's true." This actually happened when I did NonY's phoenix games. I was just trying to blab on, to do things slowly, and there were a few things I noticed that I wouldn't have caught sight of normally because I was watching on fast speed and not x6. It really speeds up the learning process. I kind of cheat in that regard.

I definitely think it's far overrated, the idea of getting someone's replays and trying to get into someone's head and figure out what's in there. Really, you should be trying to figure out what the race is capable of, and then battling against those possibilities.

TL: Which, if any, of the recent balances changes will have a significant effect on the games?

Day[9]: I suppose the biggest one would be the neural parasite, for the Thors. It just works like permanently. I wish you could just shoot the tentacles. I suppose the immortal getting slowed a bit, but I don't think there's any bullshit strategy that I used as my linch-pin.

Infact, any time I found one of those strategies in practice where it was like, "Wow, this is really really good and I can't figure out how to stop it," I would not do that strategy. I would assume that everyone else would go and do it, so there was no reason for me to focus to much on it. First of all, it might get patched, and second of all I want to try to figure out a more stable method of play. For instance, the four warpgate immortal push. Everyone and his grandpa was doing that the first few weeks of beta, and I pretty much steered clear of that because you try it twice and you have the timing down perfectly. There's nothing else to learn. Yeah, you can win a bunch of games, but why just do that? I was trying to figure out ways to make the games extend longer, and just always have that idea in my pocket.

TL: Do you have any final thoughts for the audience out there?

Day[9]: I hope my brother beats white-ra in the HDH Invitational, because he beat me, but now that he's in this tournament I hope we meet in the grand final and I get revenge!

For WCGs and tournaments in BW, I was always shooting for first place. Here, I'm just shooting to win a game. I've just had a brutal last two weeks of the semester, so I'm just intentionally not putting pressure on myself to immediately jump out of a hellish end of the year, straight into being the best Starcraft 2 player possible. I don't think I'm physically capable of that.
I'm just gonna try to take it easy, try to kill Artosis a little bit, and then go back to casting all the games. In between my games, I'm going to be casting all the other rounds. Front row seats, baby!