WCS KR WR1 D3 Winners' Interview

Q: How does it feel to make it into the round of 16 of the winners' bracket?
A: I am very happy to have been able to defeat such a great player like DongRaeGu in the first round of the tournament. His fame makes me cringe a little in fear, and it made me very worried when I saw that he was my opponent (laughs). But I am confident in my PvZ, and so I believed that I could achieve victory.

Q; Your PvZ seems to be stronger than before.
A: I played a lot on ladder, and gathered a lot of experience regarding PvZ. When there are no tournaments that I can take part in, I just keep practising on the ladder. That's my secret.

Q: You won much more easily than expected in the first game. Why do you think that happened?
A: I don't know why either. I just played on this map a lot on ladder, and the strategy I used had a very high success rate. That's why I was confident I would win in the first game.

Q: Your strategy in the second game was very successful too, and it looked quite good for you, but in the end DongRaeGu came back to win.
A: At that time, my impression was that my advantage was just so amazing. I kept telling myself in my heart that I would definitely win if I did not become overly relaxed. My biggest mistake was that I never expected my opponent would produce mutalisks. When I saw those, my entire tempo and game was messed up.

Q: The third game wasn't too hard either.
A: No, it was hard. At the start, after the first wave of attack, I was in a bit of an advantage. But when his infestors came out, I was in a disadvantageous position.

Q: Watching your games today, I noticed that you have a very strong grasp when you should attack.
A: I think my control of the number of workers and the optimisation of my builds and strategies are pretty good. Of course, that's only my personal view.

Q; Your opponent in the next round is either Hero or Effort.
A: No matter who the opponent is, I will practise well. If it is PvP, the opening builds become very important, and so I hope the Zerg will advance. But I feel that Hero will win. No matter how I look at it, it just seems like it'll be a PvP in the next round.

Q: What's your goal for this tournament?
A: I know that this is a really big international tournament. I hope to be able to represent Korea, and I also feel that there is a possibility I would come in first. In order for that to happen, I'm going to have to get used to playing in these official broadcasted games. I definitely have to improve in my ability to play in matches with a "best of x" format.

Q: Anything else you wish to add?
A: I am very glad to be able to win today. I want to thank my friends who are cheering for me. I also want to thank our sponsors Tt-esports, OCZ, Thermaltake, I also want to thank our coach GerrardPrime.

Q: How does it feel making it into the round of 16 of the winners' bracket?
A: I didn't have much time to prepare before the games, and that made me very worried. The Kespa players are hot on our heels nowadays, and that makes me feel very pressured. All these really put a big burden on me. I feel very stressed during practice too.

Q: What're your thoughts after the games against Effort?
A: It seems he's not used to the pace of Starcraft 2. It could be because it's hard to do that while still having to play Starcraft 1. It's hard to adapt while playing both games at the same time.

Q; The games did not seem too difficult.
A: It was easier than I had imagined. It's just that the pressure before the game made me very worried. [T/N: Not 100% sure about the translation, but should be right.]

Q: You were eliminated in the round of 8 of the ASUS ROG tournament. Are you sad not to have won it?
A: Recently, regardless of whether the tournaments are in Korea or in other countries, my results have been in a slump. After I lost to Squirtle, I seemed to have lost the feel of the game. I'm going to have to hurry up and go back to how it was like when I first started.

Q: Are you hoping to get good results in this tournament?
A; Because I managed to get into top 4 of Code S, I didn't have to play the qualifiers for this competition in order to qualify for it, and I'm quite happy about that. Such opportunities don't come by often, and so I will do whatever I can do get good results.

Q: Your next opponent is Creator.
A; I've lost to him many times in competitive games. If I remember right, I think I lost to him 0 to 6 in IPL. Recently, my PvP has improved quite a bit. I will work hard to have my revenge.

Q; Any last things to add?
A: I want to thank the fans who are always cheering for me. I also want to thank my parents for giving me the motivation as well as my family at TeamLiquid. I also want to thank our sponsors The Little App Factory, TwitchTV, Razer.

Q: Jinro announced his retirement not long ago.
A: He is really very passionate about the game. But his interest in the game seemed to slowly fade away because results were not being produced, and there weren't many large improvements. Recently, he seems to be playing poker. I believe that he'd produce great results no matter what he does.

Q: You are the first Kespa player to make it into the round of 16 of the winners' bracket. How do you feel?
A: This will lead people to be more interested in me, and I'm happy about that. But because of that, I have to push myself even more to improve my skills, which gives me quite a bit of pressure. I'm going to have to continue working hard in the future.

Q; Do you feel like you have improved since you made it out of the preliminaries?
A: During the preliminaries, SPL round 2 just ended and it was a rest period. Because of that, I was able to concentrate all my efforts on Starcraft 2. But now, SPL round 3 has started. Also, not long ago, I was helping Jangbi to prepare for his OSL finals. These are leading to a shortage of time for the practice of Starcraft 2. My skill now is still at about the same level as when I played during the preliminaries.

Q: How do you prepare after knowing the brackets and who you were up against?
A: I took a look at my opponent's VODs, and I realised he liked to go pool first. During the preliminaries, I used many different types of strategies, but I felt that if I continued that way, it'd be really hard for me to play in my future games. Hence, I worked hard to prepare strategies which are specifically catered towards my opponent. I originally preferred a strategy using two forward barracks, but because my opponent likes to go pool first, I didn't use that strategy. Then I realised he did not like to use mutalisks, and so I tailored my strategy against this.

Q: The Kespa players who played before you were all knocked into the lower bracket.
A: I think that it's natural to lose. I think that's the mentality of the fans as well. But this also lessens the amount of pressure that I have (laughs).

Q; You won with a 2:0 scoreline. What did you think were your odds of winning before the games?
A: The games went on as I had imagined them to go. Perhaps, when people saw the games, they'd think that I had prepared a lot. But even until yesterday, I was practising Starcraft 1. I only used the strategies which I used while laddering last time.

Q; Do you feel sad for Soulkey and Jaedong, two players who came up before you and lost to Terrans?
A: Even though we are not on the same team, but I still cheer for them because we are all Kespa players. I was hoping that they'd show a performance that'd give the GSL players a run for their money, so it's kind of sad. It's the same way in SPL too. It seems like they're in a period where they're unable to play at the level they're usually capable of.

Q: How does it feel playing for the first time in this place?
A; For me, I feel like the environment here is similar to our training room. It's really convenient to prepare before the games.

Q; This is a double elimination format tournament.
A: Even though it's very foreign to me, I just treat it as if it was the format of OSL round of 32. As long as I don't lose twice, it's ok.

Q: Which Terrans have you been studying lately?
A: The Terrans that I see recently are all really strong, and I've seen the VODs of many Terran players. I've mainly been watching Taeja, and I've learnt a lot from his games.

Q: Your next opponent is Puzzle.
A: I think it seems like Terran players nowadays all seem to be afraid of playing against Protosses, so I'm not alone in this. Zergs too. Since it's a Protoss I'm going up against, I hope the expectations that people have on me would be slightly lower. Honestly, my TvP is really noob.

Q: In the future, you're still going to have to face GSL players.
A: There're no special ways around this. I just have to keep on practising really hard. I would also have to learn more strategies that I don't know now. The key is to work really really hard.

Q: Was your experience in the preliminaries helpful for today's games?
A: The preliminaries led me to understand that the gap between everyone really isn't that big. As a result, I still had some confidence going into today's games. I won't be intimidated by my opponents' reputation.

Q: Anything else you wish to add?
A: Roro hyung is playing tomorrow. I hope he'll make it further in the winners' bracket. I also want to thank all the team mates who practised with me. [T/N: Not sure who he thanks, but I think it is BBatta.]