[Interviews] TSL Ro16

Congratulations!
Thanks. I did not expect to advance that easy, especially not vs Rafa, but I'm happy that I could win him 2-0. Was kinda close and I don't have any clue how I could win the Longinus game o.o

In the first ZvZ game against ToT)GOsia(, you won with 12hatch against 9pool.
I don't really have a clue how I could beat it. He probably made some severe micro mistake in that game, else I cannot explain that.

In the second game against ToT)Gosia(, you also had a build order disadvantage, but it ended up in a very close game.
I don't know why you think I had a build order disadvantage in the second game. I am kinda sure that we used same BO, just that I built 1 or 2 drones more before I started building lings?! Thus I kinda had an advantage I think and of course the game became close in the end because Rafa is just a plain amazing player who totally deserved to advance as second.

MIStrZZZ played very safe in your match with him.
I think he prepared a lot considering his play. It seemed that he was scared of a 2 hatch hydra rush follow up on Blue Storm and he intended to play very, very safe. He wanted to counter my bo which did not work out that well and in the end I won in a close match.

You have said it’s impossible to win ZvP on Longinus, but you won vs MIStrZZZ on that map.
Everyone knows that Longinus is one of the most imbalanced maps I guess and winning ZvP is even tougher than winning ZvT there. Zerg really needs to play 150% to gain the edge in a ZvP there and P must lack some things in order to give Zerg a chance to win ... and of course luck is very important.

In the Blue Storm game, MistrZZZ came out with Sair/DT/Reaver at a weird timing. Do you think the new "Bisu"-style counters you better than the +1/Legspeed style?
Don't really know, I am fine with anything.

How far will you and ToT)Gosia( make it in the TSL?
I think both Rafa and me MIGHT make it far, but it's tough to predict with such an amazing player lineup. Anything can happen and those new maps are kinda debatable as well... In order to survive those I need a lot of luck to beat anyone.

Your first opponent will be MYM.Dreiven.
Especially against Dreiven it will be very tough since he's a very good player and a very cool dude. Will be fun to watch and I hope I can rely on my luck.

You started with a loss to your teammate ToT)Mondragon(. Did the fact that he's on the same team make it less harsh?
No it didn’t, even though I'm not a confident person, I love to win like everyone does. I don’t really know how could I lose 9 pool vs 12 hatch .

You then played Legionnaire. In the first game you delayed his third expansion quite a bit.
Yes, that probably won me the game.

Were Legionnaire’s Carriers scary?
Nah, not really. At that point of the game I had a huge advantage so I didn’t really care about carriers anymore. Threw away so many units as you can see, but still I had enough to come out at the top ;p.

Looking at your pre-game interview, you consider MIStrZZZ a better player.
I didn’t say that he’s better. Just said that I don’t feel confident and I didn’t really think that I could make it. I thought either Mistrz or Leg would make it instead of me.

You lost the first game to MIStrZZZ after he scouted your fast lurker build. But you came back to win 2-1.
Actually I messed up the 1st game badly. First I gave vision to mistrz instead of an admin. Then my lack of control cost me the game. In 2nd game I knew he was gonna do the same bo, so I did a perfect counter and won without any biggest problems. I had few ideas how to play the last remaining game, after all I decided to do that funny 2 hatch hydra rush.

You will be playing T.SQD)Kr in your next game.
No I don’t expect to win that match. Lets just hope I'll be lucky enough to steal the win

You are the only qualified player without a team?
I don't feel anything special. I've been playing StarCraft for so many years and I've been in so many teams that it doesn't really make any difference for me.

You played standard against ScT-HoRRoR while he did some tricky builds.
I guess he thought that his chances to beat me with standard builds aren't as high as with all-in builds. I was expecting that so I tried to play a little bit more safe.

You seem to be involved in some drama on the TSL forums with ToT)ClouD(, and you beat him 2-0 in your group.
There's no drama. Simply ClouD has been teasing with me for a long time and finally my nerves couldn't stand it. It felt just like any other win.

You face MYM.Strelok first round of TSL. Two of the Terrans are in your part of the bracket.
Strelok has been active for a long time and I'm pretty sure that he'll be well prepared. Anyway I hope that I will be able to win this match with my experience. I'm happy as long as I don't have to play most unpredictable match up - PvP - so every terran is welcome on my way to the finals.

Though you are famously 'Retired' despite your continued strong performances, who do you practice with in order to prepare for TSL?
I named my id "Retired_Draco" not without a reason. I played two practice games since the ladder stage was finished. I don't know if I will find the time to practice against Strelok so most probably I will have only one practice partner - computer, right before the match.

Who do you think will go far in the tournament? Are there any surprises?
No predictions.

Any last words to your fans?
Do I still have some? :-P

Congratulations! The cookie monster Protoss has advanced to TSL!
Surprisingly many people are supporting me. I love you all and I'll try my best to go as far as possible, you give me a lot of motivation!

Your natural choke dual gateway build against ALF was quite aggressive.
I just thought, since he knew I was confident I could win, that he would never expect me to proxy gate in the first game. His build was like the worst one he could do against zealot rush so in the end my strategy worked pretty well.

How did you practice for the Ro32 games?
I practiced with Mondragon every day. He helped me improve a lot and I'm very grateful for that. Thanks so much Dissy <3

Unfortunately, you were defeated 0-2 by Draco.
Well I just knew I had to play my best to defeat Draco. I feel like I could do better but in the end he deserved to win so I don't have regrets about it. Actually I'm quite happy I lost against him, I think I overrated my PvP a lot before that and now I have better motivation to practice and become a better player.

You faced ALF again, and this time you played longer macro games.
Well I thought about rushing him again but his games before that match were a lot longer than mine. He must have been very tired after the series against Horror so I decided a straight up play in both games would have been the best choice to fight him.

You face Canadian Protoss Excello.IefNaij first round of TSL.
He is the favourite for sure and I have great respect for him, but I believe in myself and I'll practice to beat him. If he doesn't give his best against me he will lose.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
I think and hope Mondragon wins the tournament. There won't be surprises since all players are well known and everyone expected them to make it so far. I'm quite disappointed Squall, Xiaozi and Infernal didn't make it and I'm very amazed by Rondo who came out of that super hard group. Really nice job by him

Congratulations!
Thank you, I'm happy I made it this far, but it's unfortunate that not our whole group could get played.

You advanced with a W.O over Castro and a win over Yayba.
Yeah, I was hoping to play TvZ, I practised it a lot and I felt ready to play Castro. I felt very insecure against Yayba but the games went better than expected, I think it wasn't Yayba's best day.

You played very impressively against Yayba. How did you practice for the Ro32?
I mainly practised TvZ with Squall, a little bit with DinOt and some other guys like Incontrol and Machine. I hadn't practised ZvP at all, except for a few games vs Infernal a week prior to the group. Those actually kinda helped.

You play TvZ ZvT ZvP, please rank your matchups in order of their strength.
That would probably be ZvT, TvZ, ------------------------ ZvP at the moment. I basically don't have any Protoss friends I'm close to so I never play the matchup, all my best friends are either T or Z.

Many Media players entered the tournament, but only two advanced to the TSL.
Getting into the TSL is no easy task and many players failed to qualify. Even getting top48 was a good accomplishment, and they simply had hard opponents, and some others bad luck that stopped them from qualifying. They are still great players.

You are playing Excello.NonY. What are your predictions for this match?
It's probably the hardest opponent for me in the whole bracket. His PvZ is really strong. However if I play well I can put up a good fight and I am going to try my best to win.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
Mondragon, JF, Nony and Draco will probably make the final 4. I would expect Mondragon to take this home. I guess Rondo and Kr making the top16 is somewhat surprising, but they are great players and definately deserve it.

Any final words for your fans?
Thank you all for still being my fans even if it took me a while to get my skill back

Congratulations!
I'm very happy that I advanced and was very nervous all the time.

There was an unfortunate incident with you and one "oblivion" replay a few months ago. Is this a chance to prove yourself?
Yeah, I'm happy I got this chance to show that I can win too.

You lost the first time you played Yayba, but you won when you played him again.
Well after I won the first game on Longinus I was so confident in my skill that I played really bad in the following two games. So it was good that I got a second chance to play him.

You struggled very hard in the games against Yayba, coming from a very difficult position after his cannon rush.
Actually I was about to gg but then I looked closely and saw that a sunk would kill the pylon and that the 2nd pylon wouldnt be able to resupply the cannons with energy so I did that. That game pretty fun too cuz he kept sending zealots to kill my 20 hp hatchery but I kept blocking them and that let me come back in the game.

You play TvZ ZvT ZvP, please rank your matchups in order of their strength.
ZvP has always been my weakest mu but since I've playing it a lot lately I think its my best. My ZvT and TvZ are equal and come in 2nd place.

You are only one of two players (Draco is other) who has no team. Who did you practice with for the Ro32 games?
Well I'm still playing with the guys I used to play with before I became clanless so the only downsides are not being able to play wtgcl or iccl, but since I'm banned from both it doesnt matter if I have a clan or not. Me and ret practice with each other but this time we couldn't so I had to practice with other players, for ZvT I played with Strelok and with Zpux for ZvP and for TvZ i played with the swe-a player Naugrim.

You are playing Russian Terran, RoX.BRAT_OK.
I dont know anything about Brat so its gonna be very hard for me, because I don't know him and can't prepare how to counter his playstyle.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament? Are there any surprises?
Strelok and Mondragon will go far, and I'm suprised to see Rondo and Kr. I was expecting Xiaozi/Notforu and A2/Squall instead.

Congratulations! Many fans are glad that you advanced to TSL.
I wanna thanks them for they support.

Your games against KwaK and Idra were very impressive.
They did it to this far, so they must be good players, in my games they showed greats skills.

How did you practice for the Ro32 games?
I trained with many people, 5 games approx., and with the ones who I played more like 15 games.

You went 2-0 in your group.
I didn't really know how it would go, since I didn't play Kwak ever before and Idra is training with koreans.

You are playing fuSion.Rondo in the Ro16. He is a Protoss player from Russia that many people did not expect to get this far.
If he did this far he must be a strong player, so I won't look down any player, they are all dificult. I hope I win.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
Strelok, Mondragon and Draco without doubt.

Any final words to your fans?
I wanna thanks the ones who helped me with training, to the TSL crew for making this perfect and to the ones who have followed me, especially Chileans who have supported me.

Congratulations! Your play in the TvPs was quite impressive. How has the Korean practice at eStro made you better?
Mainly more confidence, I believed I could outplay them in the long run and so played more conservatively/safer early on, assuming I could earn back any disadvantage. That worked to my advantage against hannigan, but unfortunately Zerg can make their units invincible.

You played 5 games against NT.hanniGan, and his style was particularly risky in both series.
We've played multiple times in the past. He knew he wasn't going to outplay me in a long game so he took his chances with allins. Like last time, that’s to be expected in a tournament like this.

How did you practice for the Ro32 games? Did anyone in eStro know about TSL? I played a lot with tosslife[fou] on blue storm, that was mainly for courage practice but it helped for this too as he played a fairly similar style to hannigans (although executed much better).

Unfortunately, you were defeated 0-2 by MYM.DinOt.
First game I thought he was dead after I killed his 2 expos, his double gas was going to deplete soon as he took it very early. Because of this I mostly stopped tank production and switched to sk terran to have more mobility to deal with him running around trying to harass and sneak expos. Unfortunately my macro slipped and I lost an army to ultra/defiler and wasnt able to hold off his followup attack. Second game I saw he didn't have speedlings in front of my wall so I thought it was safe to move out, apparently speed finished immediately after that.

You are in quite a difficult bracket, playing MYM.White-Ra first and then MYM.Strelok or Draco second.
I’m confident vs White-Ra, we played in the ladder and split the games I think, but most of my losses were due to stupid mistakes on my part. Having Othello and Wuthering Heights in the map pool gives me a distinct advantage, as I'm sure I've practiced them more than anyone else in the tournament and they are pretty good maps for TvP.
Strelok/Draco will be difficult, I don't know how much of his old shape Draco has regained but its not hard to brush the rust off of PvT. I don't know if I've ever seen Strelok TvT, but my TvT is still kinda suspect. A lot will depend on the maps I guess.

You are one of two Americans who qualified, and one of the few Terrans.
Well winning consistently with Terran requires skill, so not a whole lot of foreigners play it and even less play it well. As for the Americans, quite a few made it to the ro48 and then lost for various reasons. Skew is mentally retarded, Artosis doesn’t know how to attack, Incontrol had a good opponent as did lzgamer. Machine got jewed. On a different day I think we could have had 6 Americans go through.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
I think the final four will be Iefnaij Mondragon Nony and myself, although that could change depending on who advances from C. I could imagine ret advancing from Mondragon's bracket if he gets C2. I don't really see any upsets happening, although the eurotrash will consider it an upset when me and Nony advance.

Any final words to your fans?
Thanks for your support.

Congratulations!
Yes, I am happy, but I did not show my best game.

You were a favorite in your group and you advanced easily 2-0. However, both Notforu and Xiaozi did not qualify.
They lost because they thought that they will win against Rondo without difficultly.

How did you practice for the Ro32 games?
ICCup and friends, I try play in day minimum 4 hours.

You play Idra[Media] in the Ro16. He is currently practicing in Korea, and TvP is his best matchup.
It will be a very hard game for me because last time I did not play many PvT. I shall play my standard game.

Four MYM players qualified – Dinot, Dreiven, Strelok, and you – the most from any one team.
MYM is a very active team and we have many great players. We practice when we have time together.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
Mondragon must, but 100% hard to say.

Any final words to your fans?
Thanks all for the great encouragement since 2002! I respect all of you! Starcraft is more than just a game!!!

Congratulations!
Thank you! Also thanks to all who support me, especially to my clan - fuSion team. When I won the deciding game, our whole team gathered in channel to congratulate me. Very nice! Of course I'm happy that I qualified to top16. However, I didn't expect it.

You were an underdog in your group, but surprised everyone by qualifying. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Okay. My name is Egor Kolchin, I live in Ural. It's quite far from capital of Russia, but it's not hampers the beating all I'm 20 years old. I'm playing Starcraft not so long time - relatively 3 years. I learn to lawyer, working at energy company, like electro music and often visit nightclubs.

You used cannons in both your series against Xiaozi and Notforu. Did you plan to cannon rush?
Nope, I wasn't planning cannon rush at all! In game against Notforu, drone prevented to make nexus and I decided to try to build canons under the mineral line. Xiaozi hasn't built pool a long time, and I've noticed that the hole between minerals can be blocked by one pylon, so I took the opportunity.

You defeated Xiaozi and Notforu to qualify.
Xiaozi and Notforu are two of the best non-korean Zerg-players. Their style is very similar - they both aren’t scared to use non-standard and risky strategies. It's respectable, because the most of current Zerg players trained sickly one strategy and always use it on any of maps.

How did you practice for the Ro32 games?
I've trained with many players little by little. But all I've prepared to Ro32 was playing ladder and watching replays of my opponents. Intensity was usual - near 10-15 games a day.

You play MYM.DinOt in the Ro16.
As far as I know Dinot is 15 years old now. Sorry if I made a mistake. Also I know that he has reached high ranks at PGTour. Very strange, is it possible to play in 12 years old such as that? :D Generally, I played with him at last seasons at on ICCup and often lost. That's why it's impossible to predict results.

You are one of two Russian players (BRAT_OK is the other) to qualify.
I would like to congratulate Brat_ok with confident move from 1st place. He also is very active now and our result is quite appropriate. Although, third had to be Notforu, but luck wasn't on his side...

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
It's very hard to predict any results. I can only say that a Protoss will be in finals

Any final words to your fans?
We are really need support of fans! Believe in our victory and we will certainly win!

Congratulations!
Thanks. I am glad that I have fans Thanks for everything!

You are relatively "unknown." Everyone originally thought you were Androide, Ex, or A2. You are the only Russian Terran to qualify.
Hmm Androide , EX , A2 play better me when they prepare, but I still carried the games with NonY and Tarson . I was Top 8 WCG Russia 2006, and I also won a few lesser tournaments. I am a simple Russian terran

Who did you practice with for the Ro32 games?
3D.Temujin and NT.Hannigan

You won your group 2-0.
It was not easy, but my opponents made more mistakes than I did. NonY is a good player, with such opponent it is always difficult.

You were behind in your first game against Tarson, but you came back.
Yes, it was difficult.

You face HayprO in the Ro16.
I hope will win.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament? Are there any surprises?
Anyone can win. If I shall enter in top 4, it will be a surprise.

Congratulations!
Thank you! I'm very thankful to the fans who are cheering for me. I'll try to play excellently in the TSL to remind them why they're my fans ! I'm very happy I qualified but I am far from satisfied. It's still a long road to the finals.

You had to beat ToT)iNfeRnaL( twice to qualify. Your PvP seems very strong – who did you practice with?
I mostly practice with Koreans on ICCup.

You lost to BRAT_OK 1-2 in the winners match.
He seems like a pretty unpredictable guy. I think him and I are similar as we're both showing very strong recent results and we're coming into the TSL with a lot of momentum and confidence. But the field of TSL is so strong that I can't say for sure that he'll go far. I can imagine some very difficult matches for him in the Ro16, Ro8 and Ro4. It'll be a great chance to prove himself and instantly establish himself as a top foreigner.

You are one of the two Americans (Idra[Media] being the other) who qualified for the TSL.
I'm glad two Americans made it this far. I think we have a strong group of players who deserve representation in a league like this.

Who do you think will give exciting games in the TSL? Who do you think will go far?
I think Draco will have the most exciting games. My predictions for the semifinals are Mondragon, JF, Idra and myself.

You play ret[Media], Excello.CaStrO, or LRM)Yayba as your first opponent. What do you think of these players? Who would you want to play?
I guess I'd most like to play Yayba. Castro is a current teammate and Ret is a former teammate and we wouldn't want to have to eliminate each other.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
Dinot might do surprisingly well but I guess it's not much of a surprise anymore after he has shown good results throughout the qualifiers.

Any final words to your fans?
Thanks for the support!

Congratulations! Despite dropping your first game, you advanced #1 in Group G.
It was good but I honestly didn't expect to beat Strelok, I've always lost versus him. I gained some confidence after beating him.

In game 3 against Temujin, you displayed your signature harass style.
Well, I just felt that harassing is a very good counter vs fast dts, so I just did what would be best.

The earliest you can expect to face another Terran is the semifinals.
I'm quite convinced that my PvT is my weakest matchup and winning Strelok was a big surprise for me. There aren't many Terrans in this tourney, so I'm quite happy.

You are facing the Cookie Monster Protoss ToT)Cloud( in your Ro16 match.
At this point of the tourney, everyone's quite strong and there will be no easy games. I think me and Cloud are quite even.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament? Are you surprised by any of the results?
I think Draco or Mondi has the most potential in making the finals. No major upsets thus far.

Any last words for your fans?
I don't even think I have any fans, but I will play my best.

Congratulations!
Thanks. I was sure I'll make it. But it was a bit harder then I expected. Nevertheless, I feel no emotions yet, because my aim is much higher then Top-16.

You were down 0-1 to 3D.Temujin in the deciding match.
I was fully concentrated, no fear, thoughts what would be if I loose, etc.

In the final game, Temujin chose to Dark Templar drop. When did you know you had won?
I didn't know he made so early forge and so late 3rd base, that's why I thought he was slightly ahead all the game. That's why I became sure I won only after he left. But when I saw rep, I realized I was ahead all the game.

You also played iG.Slider and Excello.IefNaij.
Games vs Slider appeared to be easier then I expected, games vs JF harder then I expected. Maybe against JF I was too overconfident in win and made some mistakes I shouldn't make.

You had three Protoss in your group.
I'd prefer to have 3 terrans or 3 zergs, but yes, when all opponents are 1 race, it's much easier... I practiced mainly with White-Ra.

As one of the sole remaining Terrans, you face Draco in the first round of TSL.
I do not want to think who wins from us, but I will practice hard to beat him.

Who do you think will go far in this tournament?
I think Mondragon and Gosia with best ZvP matchup have huge chances to go far, because of the very many Protoss users. I can name Iefnaij as a favourite in his 1/4 of grid too. But TSL brings so many surprises, that even these guys have to work to reach top-4.

Congratulations on qualifying! You are a bit of an unknown player.
My name is Kristijonas Barisas and I am living in Lithuania. I’m on my way to finish the school, only 1 month left there. I’ve been playing BW for like 5 years now. Have been playing for the best team ever for 3 years or so (you already know that is T.Sqd) don’t you ?). That’s it.

You got W/O in the match against MYM.Dreiven.
I hoped for some good and fun games against Dreiven. But the fact that he didn’t showed up helped me to qualify more easily and I’m happy of that

In the first game against ToT)SquaLL(, you put up 4 more cannons quickly. Is this because Squall is known as an aggressive “crazy zerg?”
I scouted that early hydra den, that’s why I made four more cannons. And no, I didn’t knew anything about "crazy zerg," I thought he will just try to play safely.

You won the second game with solid play and constant pressure – qualification seemed quite easy.
Just did what I can! Nah, I got lucky with Dreiven not showing up. That’s why I qualified easy. Not sure how everything would have went if Dreiven had come on time.

Your first opponent in the TSL will be ToT)GOsia(.
My chances are very slim. But I will do my best and try to win this!

Congratulations! Not the most ordinary barbecue you had today.
Yeah BBQ . In Poland we had holiday break and I was sitting with my family at the cottage for a few days.. Thats why I completely forgot about the TSL group stage .. If TSL admin not call me I think
I wouldn't be there to play.

After you had a default loss to T.SQD)Kr, you had to play RoX.Advokate in the loser's match.
I was prepared that I will start with loss.. I haven't been playing cuz of that BBQ and I wasn't sure if can play at my normal level.. 1st game was some kind of a warm up for me and advo suprised me with that push he played but I managed to survive though.. In the 2nd game I was sure about the loss cuz of the map where I lose 95% of my PvT

The third game you made an awesome comeback.
I always fight to the end.. I never felt I was lossing this that map and just went on playing my game. It was quite a nice game

You faced Squall in the finals. Did you expect him to do something as risky as lurkdrop in the first game?
It was really a suprise for me.. I was expecting some mutas acutally but I think I did good job defending those lurks.

Your Sair/Reaver/Dt build didn't have that much success in the beginning. Why did you decide to keep shuttle harassing even when scourges were out?
That strategy is based on shuttle harrasing, I made a big mistake loosing that sairs too early but shuttle with speed is very deadly weapon.. If u have train a bit with speed shuttles u learn to control them well + u can do some great storms there Its always better for u if zerg makes drones instead of fighting units

Did the burgers taste better combined with the smell of victory?
Thanks! I was a bit nervous about making to the top16 but it was really great feeling to achive it ! Thats why every burger tasted twice as good as normal one !!

You will be facing off Mondragon, rumoured to be the strongest foreign ZvP player. Are you confident?
I'm confident about the loss but I never give up. I'll prepare as much as I can for it ! If I win beers for mondi on next WCG will be on me