EPTA Trip to China
While the tournament was not without its setbacks, the players, crew, and online audience were all impressed by the crowd and their dedication to the event and its stars. It was another good weekend for Team Liquid as Taeja claimed his 3rd title of 2014 and his very first IEM crown. An intense 7 game series between the King of Summer and Samsung upstart Solar capped off what was an exciting, talented, and high quality event.
Hopefully, we'll continue to have more tournaments in China.
Another big story of the weekend was the strong performance of two foreigners in one of the toughest tournaments of the year so far. Snute finished in the Round of 8 by beating TRUE and Stork, while narrowly losing to INnoVation and Jaedong. It was another awe inspiring outing from the Norse demigod that proved he has what it takes to be considered one of the best foreigners of today. Jim was definitely the big star of the weekend, however, as he gave the home crowd something to cheer for all the way up to the semi finals. He beat Life, Taeja and San to make the Ro4 before falling to Solar, missing out on what would have been his very first final. It is still an achievement worth remembering for the Invictus Gaming ace, and one that he will hope to improve upon in WCS America.
Meru caught up with both our foreign stars for short interviews; Snute before his ro8 clash with Jaedong and Jim after his loss to Solar.
A Chat with Snute
Meru: Hello Snute, how are you feeling today? Any jetlag affecting your play?
Snute: Everything was fine today, I didn’t feel any jetlag because I got time to rest before the matches began; my flight was early. Right now I have a somewhat bad cold, but I think it’ll be fine.
Meru: So it looks like you got Jaedong for your next matchup. Did you get what you wanted? What are you expecting going into that matchup?
Snute: I think it’s the best draw I could’ve had. I did not want to play against Zest, and I don’t know what it would be like to play Jim. ZvZ is my best matchup, so I think there’s a very good chance that I will be able to make it. And I want revenge for Bucharest.
Meru: Do you have anything special planned going up against Jaedong? We all know how much you love your swarm hosts, will we see a 2 hour long swarm host match?
Snute: I don’t have much to say at the moment about my playstyle, but Swarm host in general is not very strong in ZvZ since the recent patch.
Meru: Who do you think is the strongest opponent here? Who do you want to play against?
Snute: I’d like to avoid Zest, although it would be a challenge.
Meru: So what do you think about Snute in Code S?
Snute: I don’t know if I would make it past Code A, but I think the qualifiers should be doable. Maybe in the future?
Meru: I think we all believe in Snute!
Meru: Allright, so some questions about your trip so far- How are you liking China? Have you had a chance to walk around yet or ate anything weird yet?
Snute: I didn’t eat anything weird… Maybe the weirdest thing I ate was KFC. KFC by itself is a bit weird to me.
Meru: Lastly, do you have anything to say to your fans Snute? We all want you to win as you are our foreign hope and we love you!
Snute: The run has be really nice so far so I’m really happy about it. I’ll try to win against Jaedong as well!
Meru: Sounds great! Good luck and thank you Snute!
A Chat with Jim
Translated from Chinese
Meru: Hello Jim, thank you for taking the time for this interview. How do you feel about your last series against Solar?
Jim: I did okay, I don’t think I’m in as good of a shape as I’d like to be. I didn’t reach my full potential, so I’m a little bit disappointed.
Meru: Were you nervous? Was that why?
Jim: Yeah, a little bit. When my cannon rush didn’t work for the first game, I felt like I might get 3-0’ed.
Meru: How do you feel about playing in China in front of a home crowd, vs. playing overseas?
Jim: I think I’m nervous playing in front of the Chinese crowd, and when I’m overseas I’m relaxed and do really well.
Meru: That’s really interesting! Most people are the opposite, as they prefer having the support from the home crowd and prefer to play at home.
Jim: I think I did just okay today, I will try harder next time.
Meru: What do you think about the Chinese Starcraft 2 Scene? What do you think about its future in China?
Jim: I don’t think there are enough teams, there’s only iG and ZoO left. I think if we have more tournaments we could have more teams in China.
Meru: Did you know that you have a lot of international fans? A lot people overseas now know who you are and are following you. How do you feel about that?
Jim: I don’t have Twitter so I didn’t really know that I have followers overseas. I’m really happy that I have international followers now. I will practice even harder and get better results next time.
Meru: Currently who do you think is the strongest Starcraft 2 player in China? Is it you?
Jim: Umm… I guess it could be me.
Meru: Is there any newcomers that we should pay attention to in the Chinese SC2 scene?
Jim: We have iG.ia, and players iek, shanna, Gemini, nabixia who are all currently teamless.
Meru: How does it feel like to be treated like a rockstar, with all the fans running up to you asking for signatures?
Jim: I think I did really well this tournament, beating a lot of good Korean players. I think that’s why people are noticing me now, asking for my signatures.
Meru: You did really well here at IEM, are you planning on attending more international, premiere level tournaments?
Jim: We don’t get a lot of opportunities to attend these events, I really hope we get more chances to go to these tournaments. I think my next tournament will be WCS NA, I’ll do my best.
Meru: Why do you think the Chinese players have so few opportunities to go to these events?
Jim: I’m not really sure actually. I don’t think Visas are a problem. The visa for Germany didn’t work out last time and I was really disappointed. It’s just really difficult to play in online qualifiers from all the different regions, I really hope we can get more chances to play in the qualifiers.
Meru: Thank you for your time Jim. Last question for you: if your girlfriend was kidnapped by bad guys, and you can pick 3 pro gamers to help you save her, who would you pick?
Jim: Eh… I really don’t know… I guess MC, maybe San, and my team captain Edison.
Meru: Thank you so much for your time Jim, we hope you the best of luck!
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