[Aus/NZ] SCA Open

Congratulations to:
DoMo
Dragonfly
RefleX

sAint Winner of Bracket #1 (Bracket Link)

Tell us a little about yourself, what did you play before Starcraft 2?
Hihi, my names Andrew I live in brisvegas AUS I'm 21 studying full time at UQstlucia in my final year of a commerce degree majoring in finance, like 2 months to go.. before I played starcraft 2 I played starcraft 1 my aka was sensei back then, I was in and around most of the AUS scene back then and just breaking into the starcraft 2 AUS scene now doing a fair few tournaments and being recently added to the nation team thanks del! Apart from starcraft 2 I play AA (Americas Army) shooting [people] to let out aggression I'll keep it short so that's it!

Are you surprised to be one of the first to advance, over coming some of the other players in this first round?
Don't want to sound cocky but I'm not surprised that I'm one of the first to advance, the other players were not so good in my bracket, the only decent one was Voices.

Going forward into the round of 32 how do you feel coming up against players like Glade and Azz?
Looking forward to the ro32 and seeing who I get matched up against. I don't feel nervous or any pressure before matches anymore and it really doesn't phase me who I face. I would like to vs GlaDe first, no point in playing for second place and in my eyes he's the #1 contender. Should be fun

Looking at the qualifier #2 who would be your current picks to advance next qualifier?
My picks would be:
bracket 1- voices or sanchez should take it
bracket 2- havn't heard of anyone in this bracket, so wild guess Norada
bracket 3- youngminii - only one I know in here
bracket 4- rhodan and artanis are the only 2 I have heard/seen play

With so many tournaments coming up in the SEA region what are you doing to prepare for them all?
Haha my main problem is trying to find time to play in them all, with uni getting hectic busy at the moment and lots of peoples 21sts/22nds in september/october and having to fit in time to play on the NA server tournaments/clan leagues for rSgaming, it shall be interesting. Apart from that to prepare... practice practice practice, when I get time. I do love that there are so many things going on for the SEA region at the moment though, not just the NA server.

RefleX Winner of Bracket #2 (Bracket Link)

Tell us a little about yourself, what did you play before Starcraft 2?
Hey I am an 18yr old student studying a commerce degree in Christchurch NZ; I am not a noob like Flaunt and Stroggos as I was able to dodge the quake that hit Chch whereas they got owned by it. I played World of Warcraft for a good four years as I was young and didn't understand just how much of a disadvantage playing with 300 ping was (Stupid Blizzard >.<) . I casually played Warcraft 3, Diablo 2 and counterstrike. I also went through a phase where I tried to get pro at UT3 ^^.
I'm pretty well rounded and try to balance gaming with real life although StarCraft 2 is pretty damn addictive :D

Are you surprised to be one of the first to advance, overcoming some of the other players in this first round?
Nah not really, when I looked at my bracket I thought I was the definite favourite to get through. I was more worried about myself than my opponents as I get nervous in tournaments and play really bad. So I was a little bit worried I would freak out and kill my nexus or something =/ in one tournament game I actually focus fired my own colossus by accident .
I also had to vs. two Terrans and don't even get me started on Terran. .

Going forward into the round of 32 how do you feel coming up against players like Glade and Azz?
Lol that will be awesome! Although they will be extremely tough to actually beat I will learn so much from playing them. You only improve in StarCraft by playing players who are much better than yourself so I am very excited to have the opportunity to vs them and get the chance to study the replays and hopefully become a better player.
Now that I think about it I will most likely 2-0 them both.
;D

Looking at the qualifier #2 who would be your current picks to advance next qualifier?
I don't recognize all the players from the ladder but ill comment on a few,
Bracket one - Voices and Sanchez will face each other, hopefully in the finals. One of them will go through.
Bracket two - GO DAVE :D
Bracket three - I think this will be either youngminii or james but I am leaning more towards youngminii because his cannon rush is so well executed.

I think bracket four is anyone's game, I don't recognize players from other tournaments in there. Although I think NExt is in with a good chance.

With so many tournaments coming up in the SEA region what are you doing to prepare for them all?
I am massing ladder games and looking for practice partners. My main concern is I can't find any players who are overwhelmingly better than me on SEA - Yes there are players who dominate me etc but I don't feel like I can learn anything from them, apart from the top top players in SEA who only play amongst themselves (I think) and on the US server.
I have so many tournaments going on though which is awesome :D

What are your predictions for the top 3?
Glade (duh)
Kowi
Stroggos

Go NZ

DoMo winner of bracket #3 (Bracket Link)

Tell us a little about yourself, what did you play before Starcraft 2?
Hello, before i played StarCraft2 I played WarCraft3 for many years. However i started playing it after the prime of WC3 had gone (2005-2007) and so at the start of 2010 i looked to play a new game, due to WC3 rapidly dying. I chose to play StarCraft2 because my RL friends were playing it and it looked really great :D

Are you surprised to be one of the first to advance, over coming some of the other players in this first round?
I am quite surprised to have qualified for SCA, as when i saw i was going to be up against youngminii in the semi-finals i was pretty scared and thought i was going to get 2-0'd for sure. I vs'd him at the start of retail... he totally dominated me so i wasn't very confident.

Going forward into the round of 32 how do you feel coming up against players like Glade and Azz?
I feel honoured to be able to be playing against some of the best Australian players at this time. Azz right now is the best Australian Protoss player... and I love watching him play as his styles are so good. GLaDe is GLaDe... seems to always be a gosu in blizzard RTS games, as he was the best Australian WC3 player for a long time also.

Looking at the qualifier #2 who would be your current picks to advance next qualifier?
Hmm, a lot of those players are pretty unknown... I've only seen and heard of a few, so I think the Finals will be between Norada and Elder :D

With so many tournaments coming up in the SEA region what are you doing to prepare for them all?
To prepare, i try to watch certain protoss replays for certain matchups on certain maps. Then i'll play ladder and custom games with my teammates and friends to help train and perfect new and standard strategies. Honestly, to catch up to people like Azz and etc i'm gonna need to train a lot more.

What are your predictions for the top 3?
For the entire tournament? Hmm.. it's hard, as I think it'll be very close between Azz, GLaDe, Kowi and KJH. Although Azz being the brilliant player that he is, he somehow always seems to choke or do some mega cheese in tournament matches which makes him lose. So maybe the top 3 for this tournament will be GLaDe, Kowi and KJH. But we will see because i think Azz can easily jump into the top 3.