Bly interviewed before DH Austin

Hello guys, I'd like to present you an interview with The Man on Fire himself. I got in touch with Bly few days before DH Austin and we talked about the tournmanet, his chances, the current meta and other stuff. The interview was originally conducted for GoodGame.ru, but I've translated it into English so you could read it as well.

– Before we start discussing DreamHack Austin itself, let’s talk about the Challenger tournament. You played really well in the Challenger, and you were literally one map away from qualifying. You managed to beat Harstem, Elazer and PtitDrogo. How would you estimate your Challenger performance? Was there a chance to get a better result?

– I had to play a lot of ZvZs, and in the current meta it’s a very random match-up, so playing against zerg was really hard for me. Speaking about the games against Snute – yeah, I was close to winning the match, and if I had microed my bane drops better I’d have won. So generally speaking I played quite well, and I was in a good shape back at that time.

– This weekend you’re going to Austin. Do you count how many tournaments you have attended so far? And how do you feel at LANs? Are you fully accustomed to them, or still nervous, or just get tired easily, or?...

– I don’t know how many LANs I’ve attended – I’m just sure there’s plenty of them! Offline tournaments are always very different from playing online. I’m always very nervous at LANs. And if I’m able to handle my nerves – I’m able to show good performance, though that happens quite rarely. It’s just too difficult for me to stop thinking about what’s on the line – especially if it took you 24 hours to fly to another continent and you spent 2k on tickets, and all the things like that…

[image loading]

– Which of your LANs do you remember best of all? And why?

– Speaking about the latest ones – it’s DreamHack Leipzig, I managed to show really good games there. I was not nervous at all and I’d even say I was rocking (smiles).

– So, it will be your second tournament in Austin. How was your first one – DH Austin 2016? What can you tell about that tournament, and about the city in general?

– The previous year I wan into Hydra quite early – and he was playing ve-e-ery well at that time. So I didn’t manage to advance far in the bracket. Hope this time I’ll be able to get to the last rounds and get more WCS points. The most important thing for me is to get through the first group stage – and then we’ll see how it all works out (smiles). Speaking about the city I can only say that the tournament venue is in the downtown, so there’re not many interesting things to see. Just a usual big city.

– In the first group stage you’ve got such opponents as FeaR, Warren and Silky. What do you think about your group? Are you happy to get two zergs and a protoss? What do you know about your opponents? Are they a serious threat for you?

– FeaR is a perfect opponent for me, but the other two players are a completely different story. Aligulac says they have been showing some good results recently and both have about 6k MMR on Korea, what’s quite good. And if we take into consideration the fact they both play zerg – things get rather sad for me (smiles). I suppose I must win with 2:0, 2:0, but playing ZvZ against players you’ve never met and not prepared to playing against… Well, ZvZ is random, and I hope I’ll be lucky.

– Who do you think are the best players of the European and the American scene? And who are the best players for each race?

– The best European players are ShoWTimE, Nechio and Neeb. And speaking about the non-Korean world in general – that’ll be Neeb, Nerchio and MajOr. They have the highest level of play in the world, they’re strong at all the game components and they understand SC2 perfectly.

[image loading]

– Are there certain top players you think you have good chances of winning against? And is there anyone you’d like to avoid meeting with?

– I’d like to play against all the protoss players – that’s my dream. Well, I’d like to avoid only two protoss players – Neeb and ShoWTimE. And playing against other toss players is the best set up for me, cause my ZvP is very good at the moment. Speaking about ZvZ – well, a lot depends on luck here, there’re a lot of maps in the map-pool where zerg can play an all-in and it’ll be difficult to scout. Still I play ZvZ on a rather decent level, though. It’s ZvT where I’m the weakest, so I hope I won’t encounter any strong terrans. There’re not so many of them, that’s good for me.

– How did you prepare for the tournament? How much time did you put into practice, and what was your practice routine?

– I’ve been practicing hard for the last month, I’ve played a lot of games. And after I had learned who my opponents in the first group stage are – I jumped into watching VODs. Well, better to say – jumped into looking for VODs. It’s very difficult for me to find videos of the American zergs I’ve got in my group.

– What’s your opinion on the current meta? How fast is it changing, evolving? Doesn’t it stagnate?

– Each meta lives for approximately 2-2,5 months. The current meta is about to end. As soon as there’re new maps – there’s a new meta.

– You’re known as a player who often plays non-standard strategies and who often cheeses. Why do you like such style of play? Are there any players you try to look at in terms of strategy? And what top players would you name as the most non-standard ones?

– I create almost all my strategies on my own, but I’ve been trying to play in a more macro-oriented way recently. But I still break down sometimes though – and start doing all-ins (smiles). And I guess I’m the only player from who you can expect something unusual. If we speak about high-level play, of course.

[image loading]

– Is constant patching important for the game? Do you think patches should be released as often as possible, or is it better to let the players figure everything out on their own?

– I think a new patch should be released every two weeks - then we definitely won’t get bored! (smiles)

– How much do the play styles in different regions differ? How are the Korean, European, American and Chinese schools of play different from each other?

– I wouldn’t say the American region has its own style of play – they copy either Europe or Korea. So there’re only two schools of SC2, which are the European and the Korean ones.

– What do you think about the current WCS format? Which of WCS formats do you think is the optimal one? And did the new WCS system help non-Korean players to raise their level of play?

– I’ve always been for separating Korea from the other world. I think that the region lock really helped our players to raise their level of play – they’ve got more opportunities for earning money and thus better motivation. As the result, the level of play has always increased.

– Currently you’re obviously the best player from CIS. Is there anybody in the region who may be a serious competitor for you? Who do you think will be the next big thing from CIS? If anybody?

– I wouldn’t say there’re no players who are on my level in CIS. After I started practicing in the beginning of the year, there has always been certain gap in the level of play between me and the other CIS players, and it’s still there. Probably Minato will be able to reach the top level sooner or later, since he’s been playing rather well recently, but he broke his arm a couple of days ago and that’s some sort of an obstacle for practicing.

– There’re several countries where SC2 is on a rather decent level – there’re a lot of good players, there’re new names in the scene. I’m talking about such countries as Poland and France, for example. Why is the CIS region behind? Is there something that can help the growth of the CIS scene?

– Both Poland and France have very large and supportive SC2-community. And these countries also have a lot of local championships, which contributes to the growth of the scene. We, unfortunately, do not have things like that. We desperately lack regular LAN-tournaments.

[image loading]

– Going back to DreamHack Austin – what’s your aim for the tournament? What result will you be satisfied with? And is there a chance you can win the whole thing?

– When I saw my group for the first time, I got really nervous. I don’t like random, I often need a good warm-up before games, and I’m often scared of losing in the earlier stages. But if I make no serious mistakes and manage to get to the second group stage – then I’ll show my best level of play (smiles). I’m in a good shape and I think that I’ve got a decent chance for top-16.

– Well, it seems it’s our last question. Any words you'd like to say in conclusion?

Thanks Team Expert for the LAN support! And for the constant support in general. And I’d also like to thank all my fans and people who cheer for me – I’m doing my best not only for myself, but for you as well!

Image credit: DreamHack, Team Expert.
The original interview can be found here.

Bly interviewed before DH Austin

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming