[WCS] Global Finals 2013 Day 1 - Page 231

Blizzard: What was your strategy going into the game against Revival?

NaNiwa: I watched every VoD he played over the last few months so I would be familiar with him. Every player has his own traits and habits because we play the game for so many hours in the day. So, some things are set in stone. So I was trying to find what parts of him were set in stone so I could abuse it. I noticed that he never makes a really fast Spawning Pool. So in Game 1, I made the greediest build in the entire game but I was confident that he would not punish it. I started seeing an easy win because I haven’t lost with that build in practice ever. I think it was really good and important to set the pace for the entire series.

Blizzard: What made that first game so easy?

NaNiwa: It’s the best build I have in PvZ and I thought there was a lot of importance placed on this one match. So, I have to bring out my best build because winning this first game is really important mentally, because if you lose that first game it’s easy to get caught in a downward spiral.

If I had lost the first game, I would have felt like perhaps my preparation wasn’t as good as I’d thought. That would’ve cast some doubts on me. But I won the game very easily and very convincingly so I thought “Okay, my plan seems to be working well.” So I just kept on with my plan. Everything I did went okay except in Game 2. My practice partners didn’t do that one kind of response. He made a lot of Roaches really fast and he killed my Forge and my third base. I’m not familiar with that early timing and I think I could’ve handled it a lot better. Because he invested so much in the early attack, he was very weak to a counter attack. Because if you invest in an early game, you sacrifice some economy and some tech, so he had a lot lower gas and a lot lower minerals than he should have had. I thought, “If I just attack now, I’ll have a chance.” I’d say it was a 30% chance. But because he thought he was so safe, he made a fourth base, I think my chances went up to 60% that it would work. So I think everything went in my favor.

Blizzard: Revival had a strong two-pronged attack on one of your southern bases in that third game. Was that one of his most threatening moves in the series?

NaNiwa: I actually forgot about the Warp Gate for about 30 seconds or so, which is a pretty big deal. It slowed down my Zealot attack a lot. Usually it’s supposed to come earlier so that he can’t have a lot of Roaches. But he had so many Roaches and so few Drones at the third base, I thought it was kind of similar to Game 2. The difference is, now I had a lot more Sentries, a lot more energy, and I could do a lot more with the force fields. It all came down to my own control. When I got the six force fields down around the Roaches near the bottom, I thought I had won the game.

Blizzard: Let’s turn our attention to this weekend. How are you going to prepare for Soulkey?

NaNiwa: I don’t think he’s foolish enough to not see the games that I just played. Even if he were to underestimate me, which there’s a chance since he’s number one, every player at this level can beat the other players too. So I think he will be careful. I can’t explain 100% what I’m going to do, because he might read this, but I’m going to study him as well and see if there’s a weak point to him.

Blizzard: How much was Soulkey on your mind in getting ready for Revival?

NaNiwa: Obviously, it makes everything a bit harder, right? To be honest, I didn’t think about BlizzCon at all. I came here to play this one match. BlizzCon is just a bonus. Now that this is done, I’ll just focus on that with a fresh mindset. It’s a bit annoying, but I’m not the kind of player that needs a lot of time to prepare for a player. I can adapt to him very fast. It also depends on what kind of stuff I can see from other Korean players. So it will be hard.

Blizzard: You made yourself some money today. How do you like the tiebreaker process now?

NaNiwa: It would’ve been nicer if I didn’t have to fight for it (laughs). Obviously, it’s really nice. I came in second place at IEM-New York, I beat like four Koreans and I got $4,000. And here I won just one match and I got $5,000. Moneywise, it’s really good but I stopped playing this game for money a long time ago. For me, it’s about playing my best and enjoying what I do. I don’t see this like a job, it’s my passion.