WCS America Season 1 Challenger League

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Interviews by monk

The second part in our interview series with players in the WCS America Challenger League. This time we've gone international, featuring Bails, Drunkenboi, and Tilea.

MYi.Tilea

Introduce yourself: Hello! I'm Tileä Flavall, I'm from New Zealand (but live in Seattle) and I currently play Terran / Zerg for MYi. I recently turned eighteen and have played SC2 for around two and a half years, though I've only been taking it more seriously for the past year or so.

Origin of ID: I've never been very creative with names and besides the names I picked for myself before I turned ten (which are far too embarrassing to list) all my names, which were often changed, have either been copied from something or recommended by someone I know. In SC2 I used GotC (my WC3 clan name), kiwi, and KnighT (both semi-recommended by LighT teammates). When I attended WCS Oceania last year I felt very disconnected from the name KnighT (which everyone called me), because all my friends have always called me Til(eä). After WCS Oceania I changed my name from KnighT to Tilea/Tileä and don't see any reason to change it again yet.

Describe your style in 25 words or fewer: Generally very economic mass-expanding with an emphasis on heavy trading continually with my opponent until they mine out and I still have money.

Most notable accomplishment/Proudest moment in SC2: In terms of results I suppose you'd have to say WCS has been my most notable accomplishment, both this year and last. Last year I got second at WCS New Zealand and seventh/eighth (last place T_T) at WCS Oceania, this year I've just qualified into Challenger League for WCS America and can hopefully do even better. I don't think either of these things are too notable though. I also don't think I've accomplished anything really worth being proud of yet. I'm extremely self-critical and as long as I have room to improve (which I believe I do) I don't want to get happy with my results.

Biggest strengths and weaknesses as a player? I believe I have a pretty good understanding of how T/Z work (and am currently learning P better) so I have a good game sense of what is possible for each race to achieve at any point in a game. I'm always willing to try out new things (and am trying to make a habit of trying new builds or unit compsitions every day to see how they play out) and am very improvement focused which, with my work ethic, means I can improve very quickly when I put time and effort into trying.

On the other hand my mindset is pretty poor and I can get very frustrated with myself when I perform worse than I think I'm capable of. If I lose a games or series I often play poorly for the rest of the series/tournament respectively because I'm too distracted thinking about why I lost and how I can improve on my performance to focus well. My micro/macro/etc. is also pretty bad and still needs a lot of work.

Why do you play two races and how do you decide which one to play in a given match?
When I first started playing I picked R after a bit of trying out P and Z because I thought it would be more fun to do (myself being a casual player). I kept playing R, with brief periods focusing on one race or another to improve it until WCS New Zealand. In 2012, you had to pick one race for the entire duration of WCS and I didn't feel comfortable playing R because my P was far too bad to compete with, there are lots of Z players in New Zealand/Oceania and I only had a couple ZvZ builds so I picked T because I thought I would be able to perform the best with it. Prior to WCS, my Z was my best overall (but my ZvZ was very underdeveloped) and during WCS I only focused on T, so my T managed to catch up to around the level my Z was at, after WCS was over I started playing T/Z.

I pick whatever I feel most comfortable with at the time which can vary depending on a lot of factors. The map pool available, what I know of my opponent's play-style, how well I've been performing with either race on ladder recently, which race I personally feel like playing at that time, etc. Sometimes the race I feel most comfortable with shifts during a series.

What SC2 unit represents you best? I don't really know. A medivac, maybe? We're both female and don't hurt people. She helps people by healing them, I try to help some people by coaching them. / o \

One thing you would change about StarCraft II. Fix the little worker pathing/rally bugs with SCVS/Probes on some mineral patches.

Form a team with any other 5 players, not including those currently on your team: This seems like one of the hardest questions so far. ^_^ Can i just put Gumiho five times. \ o / That doesn't force me to think though D: Trying to make an actual list is hard. Gumiho is the only person who is really important \ o / Can i say that instead of just repeating Gumiho?

GuMiho is the most important person because I've been a big fan since before he got into Code S, he's one of my favourite players and really good. After GuMiho it becomes too hard to pick the other four, there are too many amazing people in SC2 '~'

Prospects on first match against Capoch: Because I practice on KR I haven't played Capoch yet in HotS, so I don't have any games to base my opinion off of but I think I have a pretty chance against him if I play decently and get into a longer game. Hopefully I have enough time to figure out what kinds of aggressive openings he likes to do so I can get prepared for them.

Winners of Season 1 of NA, EU, KR?
NA – Polt or aLive
EU – I don't follow the European scene enough to know how good the players there are anymore. So I don't feel confident enough to make a guess, possibly a Terran though?
KR – Winner of iNnoVation/RorO (iNnoVation if I had to pick one)

Favorite player? GuMiho, like I mentioned before \ o /

Favorite food: Orange Fruju ice blocks in New Zealand. Whenever I visit my family I eat a ridiculous number of those in very short periods of time. If you're looking for something more regular then it'd be most kinds of sandwiches with avocado.

Flash or Jaedong? I barely followed Brood War (I got into Starcraft a few months after WoL came out) so I'm not very attached to either of them. Probably Flash though? I find Terran players more interesting than Zerg players generally.

Cats or dogs? My family is a dogs family so I've never owned a cat. I think I would probably be more of a cats person if I gave them a chance though.

Coke or pepsi? Neither. I try to avoid drinking any soda because it brings my acne out for a few weeks and makes me feel awful about myself.

Soap or body wash? Body wash. I got told once that soap dries your skin out more (I haven't actually checked to confirm if that is true or not) and I've used body wash since then.

Bonus Question 1: Can you tell me what these are?
+ Show Spoiler +

Bonus Question 2: What do the little square pieces at the bottom left of these VHS tapes do?
+ Show Spoiler +

c.Bails

Introduce yourself: Hi, I'm Bails. I am a 16 year old grandmaster protoss player playing from Kansas City. I have been playing Starcraft 2 since Wings of Liberty's release, and I am currently on Team Clarity.

Origin of ID: Well my real name is Bailey, and my friends have always called me Bails and I stuck with it.

Describe your style in 25 words or fewer: My play revolves on scouting my opponent and reacting accordingly, I generally play safe but I am not afraid to cheese.

Most notable accomplishment/Proudest moment in SC2: At MLG Raleigh 2012, I performed extremely well for my first LAN and like to think it was one of my best accomplishments.

Biggest strengths and weaknesses as a player? My strengths are execution of builds and noticing how my opponent plays. A major weakness I have is playing under pressure in front of people but it is getting much better for me.

What SC2 unit represents you best? The Zealot because it is really good and generally overlooked.

One thing you would change about StarCraft II. I do not think anything needs to be changed, it is very balanced in my opinion.

Form a team with any other 5 players, not including those currently on your team: Innovation, Parting, SaSe, HyuN, and MC.

Prospects on first match against Fenix: I think I can take it, PvT is my best matchup but Fenix is also really good.

Winners of Season 1 of AM, EU, KR?
America : Polt Europe : MMA Korea: Innovation

Favorite player? SaSe. I've always been a fan of him and he plays different from most other players

Favorite food: Marines

Flash or Jaedong? Flash

Cats or dogs? Dogs

Coke or pepsi? Pepsi

Soap or body wash? Body Wash

Bonus Question: Can you tell me what these are?
+ Show Spoiler +

Bonus Question 2:What do the little square pieces at the bottom left of these VHS tapes do?
+ Show Spoiler +

FXO.Drunkenboi

Introduce yourself: My name is Henry Luu, I go by the tag Drunkenboi and currently playing for FXO North America. I'm 18 years old and from Ottawa Canada.

Origin of ID: I stole the ID from my brother. We would share accounts playing broodwar and I basically took over his account/id. haha

Describe your style in 25 words or fewer: I'd say my style is aggressive, or just using a lot of hellbats lol.

Most notable accomplishment/Proudest moment in SC2: Qualifying for WCS NA Challenger league

Biggest strengths and weaknesses as a player? Hmm, I think using different builds and not always playing standard is one of my strengths. For weaknesses it would have to be my mechanics.

What SC2 unit represents you best? The hellbat. Actually I'd pick the hellion since they're pretty annoying which is kind of like me. lol

One thing you would change about StarCraft II. Maybe nerfing hellbats a bit

Form a team with any other 5 players, not including those currently on your team: lol hard question. I think 5 is too many... or too little. Too many people I don't know! I'll go with I don't know scene well haha.

Prospects on first match against State: I'll 2-0 state.

Winners of Season 1 of AM, EU, KR?
Mvp will win EU, Ryung will win NA, and Innovation for KR

Favorite player? I don't have a favourite player, but in tournaments I'd usually root for foreigners or Terrans.

Favorite food: probably poutine, which i think is only a canadian thing

Flash or Jaedong? Flash

Cats or dogs? Dogs

Coke or pepsi? coke

Soap or body wash? Body Wash

Bonus Question 1: Can you tell me what these are?
+ Show Spoiler +

Bonus Question 2:What do the little square pieces at the bottom left of these VHS tapes do?
+ Show Spoiler +

Interviews: monk,
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Editors: monk and Waxangel.