After the GG: x5.PiG regarding WCS Ro32

After the GG is an interview series where I celebrate a SEA player's moment of triumph, whether the event is local or on the international stage, and try to share their thoughts with you all.

This week I have a chat with Jared 'x5.PiG' Krensel who recently forced his way into the WCS Ro16 after an intense sequence of matches.

---Cross-posted from http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=9049---

Q: PiG, I think it's fair to say that your relationship with WCS up until now has been patchy, with your best prior result being in 2014 Season 1, where Axiom's Crank knocked you out of the Challenger league. It has taken some insane games to reach this point and, while I think by now we have all seen the epic fistpump .gif, I'd like you to express in words just how you feel reaching this milestone and entering WCS Ro16 now you've had some time to let the fact of the achievement sink in.

A: Yeah, in the past I've got rekt a lot in WCS. It was really frustrating after doing so well in 2012's national WCS and then failing to qualify repeatedly. Especially when I went up 2-0 vs Crank and managed to lose 3 games in a row to not make it... it was pretty sad, and at times quite demotivating.

I remember when I first got into SC2 it was my first competitive game and I didn't really know much about eSports but I was just in love with it. There were a lot of foreign progamers as well as Korean players I looked up to, and as I got more serious about the game I imagined getting top 8 once or twice at a big event would make me pretty happy with what I'd achieved in the game. I saw a thriving foreign scene and dived into it. It was kind of bittersweet to finally start making a little headway into that international scene in the end of 2012, winning WCS Australia, having a few close games with top players at big events and eventually almost beating MC in a very close series and actually defeating Vortix at IEM Singapore. Unfortunately around this time the foreign scene started to dwindle for obvious reasons, and as I started to get some more serious performances like at DH Summer 2013, it unfortunately coincided with a lot of teams dropping SC players, foreign teams falling apart (as well as ESF teams in Korea) and Kespa/top-Korean players travelling to foreign tournaments in larger numbers than ever. I felt like I was finally getting close to my goals from when I started out, but in this new environment it just didn't count for anything. I was being eliminated from tournaments by players like Life or MC well before the top 16, and finding that beating some very good foreign players no longer counted for anything. It was pretty disheartening seeing how much harder the scene had become, and also seeing the downturn in popularity amongst fans as the environment that tournaments like MLG, IPL had begun, and WCS had fostered, now had overtaken the entire scene. Koreans flew in, they took money, and they flew out. Some came to stay, usually in teamhouses continuing to improve at an incredible rate. I tried to take it on the chin that this was the new environment and I really needed to just match that professionalism and try to emulate KeSPA routine on my own at home, but there was always a bit of sadness that I'd come so far and yet the pay-off was very small compared to what it would be in 2011.

I think understanding all that is really necessary to understand how I feel about the new WCS system and qualifying for it. After years of working at this game and often going into debt in order to focus on training and try to catch up to the players at the top, I've been closing the gap. But it still wasn't really paying off in terms of money or support. As I returned from Europe in 2014 I was seriously considering looking for work outside of eSports. Luckily I decided to give streaming one last serious try, and to reboot my effort into advertising my coaching, and that has worked out really well and made supporting myself much easier, but I was still moving away from playing and more to a content/personality role. I was happy to be able to stay in the scene, but sadly having to come to grips with putting my aspirations for international competition to the side, at least for most of the year.

Now with the WCS system allowing me to actually qualify on an equal playing field rather than a 200ms disadvantage, and in an admittedly less competitive qualifier, it's given me the ability to practice more and embrace my role as a player once again. It's never been a question of passion with me, it's been a question of how much can I really play and still have money for rent and groceries? WCS has meant I can actually be a Starcraft player again. Qualifying for Premier, being flown over to Germany all expenses paid and getting to play in the collective spotlight of the SC scene has been a very special experience. It's felt like I'm part of something bigger, not just struggling on the outskirts any more. I finally feel like I belong.

The epic fistpump in all its glory: http://gfycat.com/ScratchyElderlyBarnswallow

Q: You are certainly in a place where your fans have felt you belong for quite a while, and it's good to see you reach it! Speaking of your twitch channel, I know you mostly stopped streaming for a couple of weeks prior to the qualifiers to focus on training. Please share with us some details about the preparation you put into WCS. Any shout-outs to particular practice partners?

A: Mainly I just focused on ladder because I felt like my skill level was pretty bad when I first started preparation. With my coaching and streaming commitments I haven't really found much time to focus on practice beyond maintaining my level, and in the meantime everyone else has been getting better! I knew I needed to take some time focusing purely on practice so I spent close to 2 weeks leading into the event just doing that. I actually played a pretty abysmal number of custom games and that's something I'll be changing leading into the next event. I usually try to follow 40% ladder 40% customs 20% replays as a good distribution of practice time.

Q: You recently wrote an excellent blog on mindset and how to deal with the dreaded tilt. At first, after dropping two maps to Happy, there was a very real fear among your fans that stage nerves and tilt had set in. However, when setting up for the match against Targa you gave the camera that 'ZvZ, boys' thumbs up and fought your way back into contention. What went through your head after you'd lost the first series to Happy 2-0, and subsequently faced the longer path to clearing the bracket? Was there something in particular which enabled you to recover so strongly and prepare for Targa with a smile? You mentioned in the post-game interview Dot had been providing advice - anything you'd like to share?

A: I think the core of my mindset going into the matches was that this was an opportunity, not something to be hung onto, but to really be taken advantage of. Rather than worrying about losing or what could mess me up I just focused on what I could do to destroy my opponents. After the first series speaking to Dot helped remind me of that mindset and I came back still excited and nervous, but eager to take the opportunity and play with confidence.

"ZvZ Boyz!!!"

Q: As a brief aside - it's that mindset, I think, which wins you your loyal fans. It's refreshing to see such a consistently positive outlook in the sea of balance whine and 'ded gaem' nonsense folks get subjected to online (even if a lot of it is meant in jest). Your gosu zerg play is the cream on top.

Following the first series against Happy, you were one map down to Targa after an incredible back-and-forth match - one which featured almost every possible variation of the zerg roach wars. Although the outcome of the series speaks for itself, please tell us more about why you elected for a triple 9-pool - was this something you'd prepared for Targa specifically? The 9-pools didn't seem to cause a lot of initial damage, and yet you never seemed to stay behind for long. Was the choice of maps part of your decision? Were there mind games involved based on your past experiences in games against Targa?

A: Hmm... I think mainly because my level wasn't so strong and I feared fighting Targa in standard ling-bane wars I wanted to do something to throw him off balance. In practice I found myself beating several high-ranked Korean players with 9-pool vs pool-first on these maps and was a bit shocked that I was so consistent with it. So I felt the combination of Tempo and the fact that I thought Targa would take more risks and go hatch-first at least 1-2 games I thought it was a good plan. In hindsight I see it wasn't a good choice with Targa's tournament life on the line he didn't want to take any chances. I think Targa under-estimated my build and thought he was further ahead than he was. Otherwise he would have reacted differently and the set probably wouldn't have gone my way.

Q: Speaking of previous matches against Targa, when you were staying in Europe last year you participated in several of the go4sc2 weekly Cups, even winning #382. However, in cup #399 Targa knocked you out in the finals. How does it feel to know you got a little bit of revenge for that on the WCS stage?

A: I guess it was pretty nice to get that back over him. He knocked me out in a few other qualifiers/weeklies if i remember correctly. I think that loss you mention was right after I 2-0'd MC and ruined my excitement haha. It was definitely nice to defeat someone who's had good success against me in the past

Q: That was the one

With the number of hours you played over Group D there's an innuendo hidden somewhere in there about progamers and stamina. I'm going to rely on that stamina for this 2-part question:
1) How did you manage to cope with the longer games in group D without losing focus or that spark of cheeky humour which led to the Roach Drop/Nydus play ultimately taking you into the Ro16?
2) That final game on Catallena is the kind of thing I expect people will talk about for years to come. When did you decide on the drop+nydus strategy for the crucial final map? Was it inspired partially from watching Kane's games? Was there an element of friendly rivalry there with 'Well, you went nydus, but I went nydus AND drop'

A: 1) I think I definitely was losing my focus, I adjusted pretty well to local time, to a point. But by about 11pm I was really feeling that heavy overwhelming sleepiness that only comes from jetlag, on top of which I was dealing with some silly monitor issues which we later realised were because Happy had changed the settings - causing the lights to reflect off the screen. I tried to counteract all this with energy drinks.

In the end though I was lucky that I have huge experience vs mech, last year it got very popular for a time and I was very comfortable against it - resulting in hundreds of several hour games. This experience means I can execute the basic sh/viper/festor micro in my sleep - and that really paid off.

At the end going for the cheeky play was a bit of a desperation move because I knew I couldn't play a macro game, my reactions were too slow and my focus was just not there

2) Haha yeah this is a cute build Jaedong used a long time ago in 2013 WCS vs Hack. I thought it was really interesting and as it takes very little skill to execute and is so different to other all-ins. A community-member was asking me a week or so before I left about cool builds for him to write a little article on and I actually briefly explained this one to him. So maybe that's why it was floating around in my head at the time. Finally, after seeing Kane finish Happy off in such a quick fashion I thought doing a similar style was the best idea. I actually was thinking how I was one-upping Kane by using drop as well as nydus

"If JD can do it..."
The face of a man about to roach drop nydus some fool:

The face of a man who just roach drop nydus'd some fool:

Q: I knew it! It's certainly a build I want to try out at some point. However, not all of the games quite went as well as that one. Of the games you played in the Ro32, if you had the ability to rewind time, would you have approached any of them differently? Can you give us some thoughts on things you'd have improved on in some of those matches for educational purposes?

A: I would have practised more vs YOLO mech

I forgot to add more queens and get a timely roach warren when I was playing a balanced style. I wasn't sure if Happy was going mech or Bio - and still should have been ok but I kinda let myself get rolled over by underestimating his aggression. If I could go back I'd change that and enjoy playing the first series on an even footing going into the midgame

Q: When travelling to an international event, jet lag and different climates can affect a player's ability to perform to their full potential. Do you have any methods of dealing with travel fatigue prior to tournament matches?

A: I've only recently really started focusing on improving how I deal with Jet lag. Leading into the event I started shifting my sleeping pattern later and later each night until I was used to sleeping around 7pm Germany time. I figured getting used to staying up another 5 hours would be a lot easier than trying to adjust to the whole 10 hour difference in just the few days leading up to it. In the end, the group didn't start until 6pm and ran until past 1am though, so it turned out I should have been staying up much later!

I think in future I will adjust my schedule to get used to sleeping 3 hours+ after play should be finished for the day.

A big part of adjusting is just getting used to thinking about what time it is where I'm going and working off that. Also getting sunlight when I land and good exercise in the lead-up to the event helps with endurance and relaxes me so I can sleep when I need to.

I'm still very far away from having the perfect formula but I hope by the end of the year I have it down pretty well

Q: Hopefully that comes together With the Ro16 now on your immediate horizon, I know you are ramping up your preparations. Are you working on any special tactics and strategies for particular players in advance? What changes are you making from your preparations for the Ro32?

A: I have a bit more time to practice this time around so I'm just going to make sure I give myself plenty of time to get in shape. I usually don't like preparing many special builds as you never really know what a player's going to do on the day. As such, I think it's usually best to have a good range of reactive plays and seek to really understand the matchup. I'll make sure I play a lot of customs against each race and hopefully I'll have that range and understanding in place.

Q: With this next question, I am confidently assuming you will make it out of your bracket: given the choice, are there any players currently left in WCS you'd like to play against? If so, why?

A: Not particularly. I think I'd feel very confident vs Firecake so in the interests of going as far as I can I'd naturally like to play him

. I'd definitely love to get some nice wins vs Bunny and ForGG the last Terrans, but I also think they would be some of the hardest opponents in the entire tournament so I definitely wouldn't say I'm eager to face them.

Q: Hahaha, on that note, are there any players you'd rather not face off against at all?

A: In the interests of surviving probably those two guys I just mentioned haha. That's why beating them would make me all the happier haha! I've never played Snute in a tournament either, so after we play in this group stage we'll see if he's as scary as he looks

Q: Finally, do you have any words for the many fans - both Australian and international - currently cheering you on?

A: Just a big thanks for loving the game and continuing to support players like myself. We couldn't devote so much our lives to competing in this wonderful game if it wasn't for the fans, so a huge thanks to all of you. Hopefully I'll perform well and win a few more of you over in the ro16!

I am also going to squeeze in a big thanks to Team Exile5 and our Head sponsor Nvidia here for supporting me and investing so much in helping me get to where I am currently.

Q: Jared, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions! You inspire a lot of people with your streams and cheerful disposition, and I hope you take this all the way to the finals of WCS!

---

It was an absolute pleasure interviewing PiG, and I look forward to his matches in the Ro16.

A special thank you to PiG's sponsor Saulo Silva for letting me steal his thunder and take on the post-WCS interview for him. I hope you enjoy the results, Saulo!

I've put together a link to PiG's Ro32 VODs here:
First Series v Happy:

Second Series v Targa:

Group D decider v Happy:

- Game 3, with the Roach Drop Nydus play, starts here: http://youtu.be/sIIJdeyLbj4?t=1h27m34s

You can also follow PiG on social media and streaming sites via the following links:
http://www.twitch.tv/x5_pig
http://www.youtube.com/PiGstarcraft
http://twitter.com/x5_PiG

Please cheer on PiG as he prepares for his next opponents!

GLHF!

After the GG: x5.PiG regarding WCS Ro32

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