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Navi is an American Zerg player who is "just shy of 2k points on the ladder" and who practices regularly with the /r/starcraft community. She recently took 1st place in the first ever ESL US SC2 Female Cup (which will be every Monday now!).
I don't think this interview has been posted yet, and it struck me as very thoughtful and informative. It's here on gosutrolling.com.
She goes into her history with StarCraft, her practice schedule, best and worst parts of her play, and a detailed analysis of her amazing series vs. VT.Awesome during the cup.
My favorite part is the analysis of what was going through her head in the games vs. Awesome (semifinals) and AuRora (finals):
[ZvT vs. Awesome]
"Navi: Game 1 – Xel’naga was the first map. Awesome and I have played many times before. She has been accepted on VTgaming and she frequently plays on the Reddit Open and KotH events. From what I know about her style, she loves banshees. I don’t think I’ve played a game against her where she didn’t use them. She also never lets a Zerg 14 or 15 hatch ever. So every game I made sure to pool first to hold off any early marine or bunker play. This game however, I didn’t keep my lings near my base. So unfortunately she got a lot of overlord and drone kills with just a few marines. It threw me off big time. While re-droning, I knew she was getting that natural expansion up and after confirming with a Zergling, I thought I’d play a cute Baneling trick on her through those bushes on the bottom right of the natural. It did wonderfully, and I held off the Banshee harass, but I was very unprepared for her push and I forgot I had placed my Spire down. So instead of making Muta, I made too many Banelings. In a panic I threw everything I had at her and by that point it was GG. Very rough start.
Game 2 – Metalopolis was my choice because I felt like I had a better chance at defending a more open location. Again I went pool first to be safe, and I noticed that Awesome’s SCV entered my base, saw my pool, and left quickly. No harass, and not even sticking around to see if I fast expand. I thought it was quite peculiar so I decided to make quite a few Zerglings before planting my Hatchery. It ended up paying off because apparently Awesome Maka-raxed and sent half of her SCVs with a few marines. I caught her marines out of position with my lings and cleaned up the workers after. It was a lot easier than I expected mostly just because I knew I could handle it. After defending the rush, I decided I wasn’t just going to take the advantage. I threw down a baneling nest and planned on busting down her front while she was remaking SCVs. It ended up being great timing because she still only had a few marines defending. Everything melted and I stood victorious.
Game 3 – I felt a bit better after game 2, and knew that Awesome would be picking her most comfortable map: Lost Temple. Again, I went pool first to be safe and funny enough I didn’t notice her trying to wall off my ramp until the Zerglings popped out. Luckily none of the bunkers were finished yet so I threw all of my drones, lings, and Queen at them to stop the contain. It worked and I sent her back home and my Drones back to mining. After a while I got a bit uneasy. My spire was up but I felt a timing push coming. Then my lings on the towers saw her huge army of marines and tanks make its way down to my base. I didn’t expect something like that, even though she did the same thing in game 1. I made a few banelings and as many Muta as my gas and supply would allow. Right as she got there, she turned back around. I was confused for a second but later found out it’s because she totally forgot to research Siege Mode for her Tanks. I took advantage of the situation and decided to harass with Muta while switching to Roach/Infestor, double expanding, and planting another Hatchery in my main. I had an excess of minerals because I wasn’t mining from my 4th gas. It ended up working out until Awesome made yet another push with Thors and wrecked my expansions.
Back on 2 base I was cornered and calm. I had enough money to macro out a bunch of Roaches and I believe Roach speed and +1 range attack were done upgrading. When she came in for the assault, I thrashed out with all of my Muta, Banelings, Roaches, and Zerglings. Even a couple Queens got into the fight. I was happy that my Banelings roasted her marines and relieved that my Roaches ended up saving me against the Thors. Coupled with her bad rally point and my momentum with the Roaches, I burst out to destroy her third base (which wasn’t mining at full capacity because she didn’t destroy the rocks). With that gone, I carried the momentum to destroy her natural as well. On the side I made a horde of Banelings just for the marines and SCVs that might be thrown out as a last resort. Sure enough, they came out to defend and I brought them raining green, vengeful might upon Awesome. She lifted her buildings which gave me a laugh so I decided to burrow and unburrow my Roaches over and over as a Celebratory dance. Burrowing never felt so good."
[ZvZ vs. AuRora]
"Navi: ZvZ is both my strongest and weakest matchup. It’s hard to tell what kind of economy your opponent has and how much they can produce at any given moment. I was going to go with Roaches through the whole series but discovered that she liked to get Muta quite quickly. After losing the first game, I made sure to get Muta out before her every time. I had better Ling/Baneling control and ended up finishing the last game with a Fungal Growth on her Mutalisks (which felt very satisfying). They were all very intense games for me just as much as the Awesome games were. Aurora is quite a challenging opponent and it’s no surprise to me that she made it into the Finals."
link to replays
She thinks the handsomest progamer is Jaedong. Personally, Jaedong is my favorite progamer, but I'd pick Bisu or Reach for handsomest.
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United States6335 Posts
I've got to play Navi a couple times... we used to play with the Reddit guys (/girls) just after release. Goodtimes.
She is really good and beat me a couple times :D
Very mannered and polite player! It was a pleasure.
Much respect and congratulations... I never even thought about her when I heard of this tourney, very glad that she won 
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Extremely awesome interview. I'm really happy she won.
I'm even more happy that Awesome was picked up by VT Gaming - a great acquisition by them.
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On November 19 2010 03:10 Peanutsc wrote:
She thinks the handsomest progamer is Jaedong. Personally, Jaedong is my favorite progamer, but I'd pick Bisu or Reach for handsomest.
Why did they ask her what progamer she thinks is handsomest? Do we ask our male tennis players what female tennis player they think is hottest? I don't mean to be obnoxious, but she played well - why do we have to ask shit like that? how does that further the cause of female gaming? while questions like that are being asked I don't have much hope for anyone taking female progaming seriously at all.
Otherwise a good read, +1 to op
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As someone who's had the pleasure of both playing with (although I'm definitely worse) and watching Navi play, it's really not surprising she won. I rarely see a zerg make innovative game decisions and actually win but Navi knows how, and it's exciting to see.
Great job Navi, and I look forward to [hopefully] playing again. Your talent and personality are great.
P.S. That site Gosutrolling has a damn nice visual style.
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On November 19 2010 03:30 tnkted wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2010 03:10 Peanutsc wrote:
She thinks the handsomest progamer is Jaedong. Personally, Jaedong is my favorite progamer, but I'd pick Bisu or Reach for handsomest. Why did they ask her what progamer she thinks is handsomest? Do we ask our male tennis players what female tennis player they think is hottest? I don't mean to be obnoxious, but she played well - why do we have to ask shit like that? how does that further the cause of female gaming? while questions like that are being asked I don't have much hope for anyone taking female progaming seriously at all. Otherwise a good read, +1 to op
I totaly agree with this man. Im kinda happy there arent any pics of her in this Interview actually because otherwise 90% of the comments would be about titts.
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On November 19 2010 03:30 tnkted wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2010 03:10 Peanutsc wrote:
She thinks the handsomest progamer is Jaedong. Personally, Jaedong is my favorite progamer, but I'd pick Bisu or Reach for handsomest. Why did they ask her what progamer she thinks is handsomest? Do we ask our male tennis players what female tennis player they think is hottest? I don't mean to be obnoxious, but she played well - why do we have to ask shit like that? how does that further the cause of female gaming? while questions like that are being asked I don't have much hope for anyone taking female progaming seriously at all. Otherwise a good read, +1 to op
Thanks, but dude, chill out. We don't ask male tennis players which female tennis player is hottest, but then again we don't ask female tennis players about the attractiveness of male tennis players. This is because tennis is super high profile and serious. This is like saying Korean players shouldn't do ceremonies because dancing or pulling silly stunts takes away from the quality of their play. It just adds personality to a player who is obviously very qualified skill-wise.
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Congrats to her on the win! I really enjoyed reading her writeups. Hope to see more of her in the future :D
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This is for me "AMAZING" since girls/chicks never get this high up in the skill-level because they never tries to. Im just amazed actually, and hopefully she will continue and get really really good. practice practice practice ~
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On November 19 2010 03:34 Peanutsc wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2010 03:30 tnkted wrote:On November 19 2010 03:10 Peanutsc wrote:
She thinks the handsomest progamer is Jaedong. Personally, Jaedong is my favorite progamer, but I'd pick Bisu or Reach for handsomest. Why did they ask her what progamer she thinks is handsomest? Do we ask our male tennis players what female tennis player they think is hottest? I don't mean to be obnoxious, but she played well - why do we have to ask shit like that? how does that further the cause of female gaming? while questions like that are being asked I don't have much hope for anyone taking female progaming seriously at all. Otherwise a good read, +1 to op Thanks, but dude, chill out. We don't ask male tennis players which female tennis player is hottest, but then again we don't ask female tennis players about the attractiveness of male tennis players. This is because tennis is super high profile and serious. This is like saying Korean players shouldn't do ceremonies because dancing or pulling silly stunts takes away from the quality of their play. It just adds personality to a player who is obviously very qualified skill-wise.
The reason we don't ask male tennis players about the hotness of female tennis players isn't because it takes away from the quality of their play, its because female tennis players are as good or better then male tennis players, and we think of them that way. It just doesn't occur to interviewers to ask them things like that because its not so weird for girls to play tennis.
now, gaming on the other hand... its a male dominated sport, and so a good girl at it considered 'sexy' or 'tomboyish' for her interest in it. the problem isn't the interviewers being sexist, its the attitude of the community. as more girls play this sort of thing will pop up less.
i'm not critiquing you or anything man, it was a good interview, i just thought that we were past this.
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People ask guys who the sexiest korean progamer is all the time, of course they all say Mantoss, unless they don't know anything.
Congrats again to Navi We need to play together more so I can teach you the secrets of ZvZ ;D Hahaha. You're fun to play against Navi. You're the only person on my friends list i've ever played on Ladder, and i've played you twice 
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On November 19 2010 03:50 tnkted wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2010 03:34 Peanutsc wrote:On November 19 2010 03:30 tnkted wrote:On November 19 2010 03:10 Peanutsc wrote:
She thinks the handsomest progamer is Jaedong. Personally, Jaedong is my favorite progamer, but I'd pick Bisu or Reach for handsomest. Why did they ask her what progamer she thinks is handsomest? Do we ask our male tennis players what female tennis player they think is hottest? I don't mean to be obnoxious, but she played well - why do we have to ask shit like that? how does that further the cause of female gaming? while questions like that are being asked I don't have much hope for anyone taking female progaming seriously at all. Otherwise a good read, +1 to op Thanks, but dude, chill out. We don't ask male tennis players which female tennis player is hottest, but then again we don't ask female tennis players about the attractiveness of male tennis players. This is because tennis is super high profile and serious. This is like saying Korean players shouldn't do ceremonies because dancing or pulling silly stunts takes away from the quality of their play. It just adds personality to a player who is obviously very qualified skill-wise. The reason we don't ask male tennis players about the hotness of female tennis players isn't because it takes away from the quality of their play, its because female tennis players are as good or better then male tennis players, and we think of them that way. It just doesn't occur to interviewers to ask them things like that because its not so weird for girls to play tennis. now, gaming on the other hand... its a male dominated sport, and so a good girl at it considered 'sexy' or 'tomboyish' for her interest in it. the problem isn't the interviewers being sexist, its the attitude of the community. as more girls play this sort of thing will pop up less. i'm not critiquing you or anything man, it was a good interview, i just thought that we were past this.
Peanut is a girl BTW............. lol so yea.
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Great interview Peanut
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good interview..
i think the progamer sexiness question was fine/funny(im curious what girls think)
flying buildings and burrow banes is a little strange tho ^_^
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whats the point of a female only tournament thats kind of degrading to the females imo. almost like when racism was prevelant with black only restroom and sport teams etc.
User was warned for this post
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On November 19 2010 03:41 SiGurD wrote:
This is for me "AMAZING" since girls/chicks never get this high up in the skill-level because they never tries to. Im just amazed actually, and hopefully she will continue and get really really good. practice practice practice ~
how can you determine her skill if she is playing females only, not many females play games seriously let alone games like sc2.
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On November 19 2010 04:20 Domokan wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2010 03:41 SiGurD wrote:
This is for me "AMAZING" since girls/chicks never get this high up in the skill-level because they never tries to. Im just amazed actually, and hopefully she will continue and get really really good. practice practice practice ~ how can you determine her skill if she is playing females only, not many females play games seriously let alone games like sc2.
Well the OP did state that she is nearly 2k diamond which is pretty damn good. And on ladder I doubt she is playing vs many other girls.
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Why do they make female cups? i don't get why they can not just play in the normal cups, in sports i get it because alot of the anatomy is different, but in computer games? come on :S
User was warned for this post
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Alright, nice interview, thanks OP. Always good to see more female gamers.
All in all she seems quite knowledgeable about the game. it's interesting to note that she is understands very well Zerg macro gameplay.
That question made me smile:
+ Show Spoiler +evoli: Who’s the most handsome progamer? ^.^
Navi: Jaedong.
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EPT
