EPTThe full list of players interviewed(not all released yet potentially) are:
+ Show Spoiler +
Snute
Kelazhur
Probe
JonSnow
Optimus
GAMETIME
PiLiPiLi & Harstem
Pokebunny and Dolan
Xpired
PengWin
Bails
MCanning
Neuro
Raze
FeaR
Creature
Kelazhur
Probe
JonSnow
Optimus
GAMETIME
PiLiPiLi & Harstem
Pokebunny and Dolan
Xpired
PengWin
Bails
MCanning
Neuro
Raze
FeaR
Creature
Here are the ones posted so far.
FULL PLAYLIST
DAY ONE
SnuteTranscript(courtesy of Wardi)
+ Show Spoiler +
feardragon : Hey my name is feardragon and I’m here with the one and only Jens “Snute” Aasgard [pronounced with zero effort in regard to pronunciation].
Snute : *Corrects feardragons pronunciation, honestly sounds like nonsense.*
feardragon : I’m pretty sure it’s Jens (with a J) in America.
Snute : Yeah that is correct but you can say Jens (with a Y), anyway it is not very important
feardragon : But then I just sound like I am saying Yams or something, do you really want to be called Yams? I can call you Yams if you want.
Snute : [Awkwardly laughs] No… [Looks defeated]
feardragon : Alright so we are here at DreamHack Austin it is Day 1 the initial group stage is starting to play out right now and you don’t have to worry about any of that for a while do you?
Snute : No, well I mean it’s probably wise for me to see how it’s going maybe watch some of the top players games but in general I just have to wait.
feardragon : How was your trip over?
Snute : Ah it was great, I only had one stop so good flight to New York and then flying from New York to Austin was pretty good. I slept most of the trip and then not feeling particularly jet lagged or anything so should be in good shape.
feardragon : Awesome, expecting a good showing then?
Snute : Ah maybe, I’ve been practicing a lot lately I played a lot of ladder games and I was able to increase my win rate against Protoss by a lot, got a little bit better against Terran and a little bit better against Zerg. I still find ZvZ and ZvP very difficult so I’m not super confident but I think my level is ok right now, but not at a point where I would be confident to say something like “Yeah I’m going to win this tournament” or something because there are too many good players here. Especially ZvZ and ZvP is going to be rough.
feardragon : Who are you most worried about right now?
Snute : Statistically I would say I’m the weakest against Neeb, maybe got a slightly higher chance but not by much against Showtime. Nerchio & Serral are also very good players in the ZvZ match-up. I think if I was going to face TLO I would have trouble in ZvZ as well. uThermal is the Terran player I struggle the most with so I would rather play any other Terran but uThermal. I think I would do better against someone like Masa or MajOr compared to uThermal- so there are a lot of players I’m concerned about but hopefully my recent improvements will be able to carry me far.
feardragon : You’re one of the few EU players who ladders also on the NA server, do you feel that gives you any advantage in knowing how some of the NA players are playing?
Snute : Sure, but it’s been a while since I’ve played on NA though. I really tried to play in the NA ladder heroes but I couldn’t find the er… the bonus pool just out ran me so I had a hard time catching up because people are playing so much on both ladders nowadays, so it’s very hard to be on top on both unless you really try to play on the NA server, but yeah I chose to play mostly on Europe for the last month so I haven’t been able to compete that much with the NA scene. But I still have a lot of memories and I do know for example, I do know how the different players play. I know PiLi’s (PiLiPilI) style, I know Pokebunny’s style, I am familiar with JonSnow, GAMETIME. I know how the different players play and what they are capable of and some of those players also play on Europe so I have a good idea of what the field looks like.
feardragon : Makes sense. So do you feel there is any kind of dark horses that you think people don’t really know that much about or like a lot of people won’t be given enough respect as they deserve?
Snute : I think perhaps that player for me in this tournament would be Lambo. I think Lambo has been improving very steadily the past couple of months, so I think he can do something good here. Zanster is also very good. I pay the closest attention to Zerg players of course, so I’m not too sure about Protoss or Terran but maybe erm… I always feel PiLi can be capable of quite a few upsets here and there, I mean he just has a high average level also so I think maybe Pili should have some results soon. But I do think Lambo is the biggest or the best dark horse for me this tournament.
feardragon : So one kind of last question, more about you, a more serious question. After losses you tend to be one of the players that really gets really down on yourself and everything, a couple instances come to mind. Do you feel like it’s just because you are super emotionally invested in the game? What makes it so much harder for you to bounce back from losses? Especially when those losses I feel like come in the grand finals or semi-finals or something & you’ve made a really good run in the tournament.
Snute : Well, I mean, I don’t think anyone likes to lose, for example. I don’t think I’m particularly worse nowadays than others but it’s like you said, I am quite emotionally invested in the game but I think lately it’s not that bad. I tend to bounce back losses more or less like in… yeah I don’t know, I went out early in Blizzcon and that was awful of course but I also bounced back a couple weeks later in other tournaments so it’s like – Yeah. I don’t necessarily feel that same way of course. I don’t think anyone likes losing but you just bounce back.
feardragon : Feel like you’ve definitely improved in a lot of that then?
Snute : Maybe – I try not to think too much of the past but I think the mind-set got a little bit better. Also my average level has gone up as well. I mean in the end it is just about skill, right? Of course youa re going to lose sometime sand its just about getting better at the game and that’s it.
feardragon : Cool, that’s about it. Do you have any final shout outs? I also want to hear one interesting fact about you that no one else knows. [Snute laughs awkwardly, almost as if to say “god damn it Ravi”]. You can think about it while you do your shout outs.
Snute : Yeah, shout outs to Team Liquid, the best team with the best team mates and the best sponsors. So big shout outs to Team Liquid check us out on Twitter & visit the website teamliquidpro.com and teamliquid.net – shout out to everyone there and everyone doing good stuff in Starcraft. Ravi, thanks for the interview & thanks everyone cheering me on this tournament. The interesting fact is that, well it can be StarCraft related right?
feardragon : It can be anything – it can be 99% useless.
Snute : Nah I’m just going to say I practiced really hard for this tournament. I might get a tough opponent and lose in the RO16 for example, that’s very much so possible but I practiced really hard for this and I was able to, for the first time, hit 7000 MMR on the Europe ladder so I think I’m getting a little bit better and I hope I can keep a 7k MMR level here at this tournament.
feardragon : Ok man, we’ll see you guys next time.
Snute : *Corrects feardragons pronunciation, honestly sounds like nonsense.*
feardragon : I’m pretty sure it’s Jens (with a J) in America.
Snute : Yeah that is correct but you can say Jens (with a Y), anyway it is not very important
feardragon : But then I just sound like I am saying Yams or something, do you really want to be called Yams? I can call you Yams if you want.
Snute : [Awkwardly laughs] No… [Looks defeated]
feardragon : Alright so we are here at DreamHack Austin it is Day 1 the initial group stage is starting to play out right now and you don’t have to worry about any of that for a while do you?
Snute : No, well I mean it’s probably wise for me to see how it’s going maybe watch some of the top players games but in general I just have to wait.
feardragon : How was your trip over?
Snute : Ah it was great, I only had one stop so good flight to New York and then flying from New York to Austin was pretty good. I slept most of the trip and then not feeling particularly jet lagged or anything so should be in good shape.
feardragon : Awesome, expecting a good showing then?
Snute : Ah maybe, I’ve been practicing a lot lately I played a lot of ladder games and I was able to increase my win rate against Protoss by a lot, got a little bit better against Terran and a little bit better against Zerg. I still find ZvZ and ZvP very difficult so I’m not super confident but I think my level is ok right now, but not at a point where I would be confident to say something like “Yeah I’m going to win this tournament” or something because there are too many good players here. Especially ZvZ and ZvP is going to be rough.
feardragon : Who are you most worried about right now?
Snute : Statistically I would say I’m the weakest against Neeb, maybe got a slightly higher chance but not by much against Showtime. Nerchio & Serral are also very good players in the ZvZ match-up. I think if I was going to face TLO I would have trouble in ZvZ as well. uThermal is the Terran player I struggle the most with so I would rather play any other Terran but uThermal. I think I would do better against someone like Masa or MajOr compared to uThermal- so there are a lot of players I’m concerned about but hopefully my recent improvements will be able to carry me far.
feardragon : You’re one of the few EU players who ladders also on the NA server, do you feel that gives you any advantage in knowing how some of the NA players are playing?
Snute : Sure, but it’s been a while since I’ve played on NA though. I really tried to play in the NA ladder heroes but I couldn’t find the er… the bonus pool just out ran me so I had a hard time catching up because people are playing so much on both ladders nowadays, so it’s very hard to be on top on both unless you really try to play on the NA server, but yeah I chose to play mostly on Europe for the last month so I haven’t been able to compete that much with the NA scene. But I still have a lot of memories and I do know for example, I do know how the different players play. I know PiLi’s (PiLiPilI) style, I know Pokebunny’s style, I am familiar with JonSnow, GAMETIME. I know how the different players play and what they are capable of and some of those players also play on Europe so I have a good idea of what the field looks like.
feardragon : Makes sense. So do you feel there is any kind of dark horses that you think people don’t really know that much about or like a lot of people won’t be given enough respect as they deserve?
Snute : I think perhaps that player for me in this tournament would be Lambo. I think Lambo has been improving very steadily the past couple of months, so I think he can do something good here. Zanster is also very good. I pay the closest attention to Zerg players of course, so I’m not too sure about Protoss or Terran but maybe erm… I always feel PiLi can be capable of quite a few upsets here and there, I mean he just has a high average level also so I think maybe Pili should have some results soon. But I do think Lambo is the biggest or the best dark horse for me this tournament.
feardragon : So one kind of last question, more about you, a more serious question. After losses you tend to be one of the players that really gets really down on yourself and everything, a couple instances come to mind. Do you feel like it’s just because you are super emotionally invested in the game? What makes it so much harder for you to bounce back from losses? Especially when those losses I feel like come in the grand finals or semi-finals or something & you’ve made a really good run in the tournament.
Snute : Well, I mean, I don’t think anyone likes to lose, for example. I don’t think I’m particularly worse nowadays than others but it’s like you said, I am quite emotionally invested in the game but I think lately it’s not that bad. I tend to bounce back losses more or less like in… yeah I don’t know, I went out early in Blizzcon and that was awful of course but I also bounced back a couple weeks later in other tournaments so it’s like – Yeah. I don’t necessarily feel that same way of course. I don’t think anyone likes losing but you just bounce back.
feardragon : Feel like you’ve definitely improved in a lot of that then?
Snute : Maybe – I try not to think too much of the past but I think the mind-set got a little bit better. Also my average level has gone up as well. I mean in the end it is just about skill, right? Of course youa re going to lose sometime sand its just about getting better at the game and that’s it.
feardragon : Cool, that’s about it. Do you have any final shout outs? I also want to hear one interesting fact about you that no one else knows. [Snute laughs awkwardly, almost as if to say “god damn it Ravi”]. You can think about it while you do your shout outs.
Snute : Yeah, shout outs to Team Liquid, the best team with the best team mates and the best sponsors. So big shout outs to Team Liquid check us out on Twitter & visit the website teamliquidpro.com and teamliquid.net – shout out to everyone there and everyone doing good stuff in Starcraft. Ravi, thanks for the interview & thanks everyone cheering me on this tournament. The interesting fact is that, well it can be StarCraft related right?
feardragon : It can be anything – it can be 99% useless.
Snute : Nah I’m just going to say I practiced really hard for this tournament. I might get a tough opponent and lose in the RO16 for example, that’s very much so possible but I practiced really hard for this and I was able to, for the first time, hit 7000 MMR on the Europe ladder so I think I’m getting a little bit better and I hope I can keep a 7k MMR level here at this tournament.
feardragon : Ok man, we’ll see you guys next time.
KelazhurTranscript (courtesy of Wardi):
+ Show Spoiler +
feardragon : Its feardragon and I’m here with the one and only Kelagod, how’s it going man?
Kelazhur : Pretty good, and you Ravi?
feardragon : I’m pretty fantastic! So its day three right now the semi-finals are happening between the 2 Zerg players and Kelazhur, you had a crazy good run through this DreamHack Austin, how do you feel you did?
Kelazhur : I feel pretty good about my run; I feel I’ve finally broken through in a WCS tournament and I’m satisfied.
feardragon : I think would argue you are the most successful player that has ever been on my show Breaking Out.
Kelazhur : Yeah I guess so!
feardragon : So kind of walk us through how do you feel exactly how the event went. Any matchups you are in particular super happy or proud about.
Kelazhur : You mean matchups like games I played
feardragon : Yeah games you played not just “Oh TvZ I like” or anything.
Kelazhur : I was proud about my games vs Neeb because I actually prepared a lot of TvP builds for ShoWTimE and Neeb and I was confident that even if I played them in a BO5 I would beat them because I prepared enough builds against them that I would just win so… I’m glad it went as I planned, so just very happy about that.
feardragon : Awesome I know you also spent a lot of time in Korea at the BaseTrade house, can you talk a little about that experience how do you feel that experience payed off? Or did you feel it was just nice living with other people playing SC2 - but I guess you did that already in ROOT house right?
Kelazhur : Yeah I already had experience living with other StarCraft players but it was really nice living with a lot of experienced players such as Scarlett and MajOr who I got to learn a lot from – they are very experienced and very good StarCraft players. And the thing about training in Korea or like training anywhere that will raise your skill level is that when you are playing there you don’t notice you are getting better, because you are playing the ladder but the better you get you are still at 50% win rate because you are playing against better and better people. But when you come back to your own region or something, per se, and you see how you’re playing against these guys you used to have such a hard time against that’s when you realise how much better you’ve become
feardragon : That’s really cool, I know one thing a lot of people always talk about is like “Oh he went to Korea he’s going to just be like insanely better” and I feel like a lot of the time we watch players do that and if they are only there for like 3 months or 4 months or something you actually don’t see crazy significant improvements, but I feel you have gotten significantly better in the past few months. Do you feel there is something different about the way you trained than a lot of people or something like that?
Kelazhur : I don’t remember who said it but I feel it describes it pretty well: Going to Korea isn’t like some magical fountain of skill that you are going to acquire; you don’t go to Korea and suddenly you are the best StarCraft 2 player ever. It’s not like that. It’s just like playing from home except you are in a place you don’t speak the language and the opponents are so much better than you so they are just trashing you and the thing is, playing there you get punished so hard for your mistakes.
It was SortOf that said this – that in other regions you don’t get punished for your mistakes, you have to watch the replays and see what you did wrong. In the Korean ladder they will show you in the middle of the game what you did wrong so I guess the biggest benefit for me is that I don’t like to watch replays, I almost never watch my own replays I just really don’t like it, I prefer to play. Practicing in Korea, as I said it shows my mistakes immediately without having to see the replays, I can just feel in the games what I did wrong because they punish me for it. So I just got to play ladder over and over like I usually do without having to watch reps and get all benefits of watching reps
feardragon : Makes a lot of sense it’s kind of like in Korea you have a teacher who will points out all of your mistakes that’s what your opponents are doing for you, whereas in North America it’s like, almost training by yourself and having to realise all your mistakes by yourself, that makes a lot of sense. But I think you are moved out of Korea now and back in the US and going back to the ROOT house? Or I think you said spending some time with your family for a bit?
Kelazhur : Yeah I’m going to spend a couple weeks with my family. I heard that challenger should be soon again or…
feardragon : I think it’s in, from the time were recording this, in two or three weeks, three weeks maybe? Three weeks for North America and 2 weeks for Europe.
Kelazhur : Yeah so I definitely want to be in NA for that. I didn’t qualify for challenger last time; unfortunately I had to play major. But I want to be in North America for if and when I play Cham *challenger?* So I don’t have such a ping disadvantage. If I do go back to Korea I’m thinking around June or July, that’s probably the earliest I can go. But until then I’m probably going to be staying at the root house.
feardragon : So you are interested in going back to Korean then when challenger settles down and everything?
Kelazhur : Yeah I think it would be nice.
feardragon : Cool, so is there anything you want to talk about or any shout outs you want to do before we close things up? I want to keep the interview short because I know there are awesome games going on right now.
Kelazhur : Yeah first of all I want to give a shout out to my sponsors, OSC ROOT for giving such good support to the players & Twitch of course. I want to give a big shout out to all the people who cheered for me especially my Brazilian fans who really gave a lot of good support messages and I was really happy about it so thank you.
feardragon : And one last thing, can you tell us one interesting fact about yourself that nobody else knows?
Kelazhur : Erm… that nobody else knows? I’m not really sure about that.
feardragon : It can be like 99% useless, like 95% of people don’t know.
Kelazhur : Ahh… I have to think about it.
feardragon : It doesn’t even have to be about StarCraft.
Kelazhur : I guess one thing that most people don’t know is that I have really bad memory. Sometimes I can’t even remember what I did yesterday. [Laughs a bit at himself] So I guess that’s why I don’t like to watch replays because I’ll just forget it after.
feardragon : Well, so if you ever see Diego playing and there’s a Medivac sat in the corner for twenty minutes, he’s not just trying to drop later on and keep his opponent at home he just forgot about it. Thanks you very much Diego & we will see you guys next time.
Kelazhur : Pretty good, and you Ravi?
feardragon : I’m pretty fantastic! So its day three right now the semi-finals are happening between the 2 Zerg players and Kelazhur, you had a crazy good run through this DreamHack Austin, how do you feel you did?
Kelazhur : I feel pretty good about my run; I feel I’ve finally broken through in a WCS tournament and I’m satisfied.
feardragon : I think would argue you are the most successful player that has ever been on my show Breaking Out.
Kelazhur : Yeah I guess so!
feardragon : So kind of walk us through how do you feel exactly how the event went. Any matchups you are in particular super happy or proud about.
Kelazhur : You mean matchups like games I played
feardragon : Yeah games you played not just “Oh TvZ I like” or anything.
Kelazhur : I was proud about my games vs Neeb because I actually prepared a lot of TvP builds for ShoWTimE and Neeb and I was confident that even if I played them in a BO5 I would beat them because I prepared enough builds against them that I would just win so… I’m glad it went as I planned, so just very happy about that.
feardragon : Awesome I know you also spent a lot of time in Korea at the BaseTrade house, can you talk a little about that experience how do you feel that experience payed off? Or did you feel it was just nice living with other people playing SC2 - but I guess you did that already in ROOT house right?
Kelazhur : Yeah I already had experience living with other StarCraft players but it was really nice living with a lot of experienced players such as Scarlett and MajOr who I got to learn a lot from – they are very experienced and very good StarCraft players. And the thing about training in Korea or like training anywhere that will raise your skill level is that when you are playing there you don’t notice you are getting better, because you are playing the ladder but the better you get you are still at 50% win rate because you are playing against better and better people. But when you come back to your own region or something, per se, and you see how you’re playing against these guys you used to have such a hard time against that’s when you realise how much better you’ve become
feardragon : That’s really cool, I know one thing a lot of people always talk about is like “Oh he went to Korea he’s going to just be like insanely better” and I feel like a lot of the time we watch players do that and if they are only there for like 3 months or 4 months or something you actually don’t see crazy significant improvements, but I feel you have gotten significantly better in the past few months. Do you feel there is something different about the way you trained than a lot of people or something like that?
Kelazhur : I don’t remember who said it but I feel it describes it pretty well: Going to Korea isn’t like some magical fountain of skill that you are going to acquire; you don’t go to Korea and suddenly you are the best StarCraft 2 player ever. It’s not like that. It’s just like playing from home except you are in a place you don’t speak the language and the opponents are so much better than you so they are just trashing you and the thing is, playing there you get punished so hard for your mistakes.
It was SortOf that said this – that in other regions you don’t get punished for your mistakes, you have to watch the replays and see what you did wrong. In the Korean ladder they will show you in the middle of the game what you did wrong so I guess the biggest benefit for me is that I don’t like to watch replays, I almost never watch my own replays I just really don’t like it, I prefer to play. Practicing in Korea, as I said it shows my mistakes immediately without having to see the replays, I can just feel in the games what I did wrong because they punish me for it. So I just got to play ladder over and over like I usually do without having to watch reps and get all benefits of watching reps
feardragon : Makes a lot of sense it’s kind of like in Korea you have a teacher who will points out all of your mistakes that’s what your opponents are doing for you, whereas in North America it’s like, almost training by yourself and having to realise all your mistakes by yourself, that makes a lot of sense. But I think you are moved out of Korea now and back in the US and going back to the ROOT house? Or I think you said spending some time with your family for a bit?
Kelazhur : Yeah I’m going to spend a couple weeks with my family. I heard that challenger should be soon again or…
feardragon : I think it’s in, from the time were recording this, in two or three weeks, three weeks maybe? Three weeks for North America and 2 weeks for Europe.
Kelazhur : Yeah so I definitely want to be in NA for that. I didn’t qualify for challenger last time; unfortunately I had to play major. But I want to be in North America for if and when I play Cham *challenger?* So I don’t have such a ping disadvantage. If I do go back to Korea I’m thinking around June or July, that’s probably the earliest I can go. But until then I’m probably going to be staying at the root house.
feardragon : So you are interested in going back to Korean then when challenger settles down and everything?
Kelazhur : Yeah I think it would be nice.
feardragon : Cool, so is there anything you want to talk about or any shout outs you want to do before we close things up? I want to keep the interview short because I know there are awesome games going on right now.
Kelazhur : Yeah first of all I want to give a shout out to my sponsors, OSC ROOT for giving such good support to the players & Twitch of course. I want to give a big shout out to all the people who cheered for me especially my Brazilian fans who really gave a lot of good support messages and I was really happy about it so thank you.
feardragon : And one last thing, can you tell us one interesting fact about yourself that nobody else knows?
Kelazhur : Erm… that nobody else knows? I’m not really sure about that.
feardragon : It can be like 99% useless, like 95% of people don’t know.
Kelazhur : Ahh… I have to think about it.
feardragon : It doesn’t even have to be about StarCraft.
Kelazhur : I guess one thing that most people don’t know is that I have really bad memory. Sometimes I can’t even remember what I did yesterday. [Laughs a bit at himself] So I guess that’s why I don’t like to watch replays because I’ll just forget it after.
feardragon : Well, so if you ever see Diego playing and there’s a Medivac sat in the corner for twenty minutes, he’s not just trying to drop later on and keep his opponent at home he just forgot about it. Thanks you very much Diego & we will see you guys next time.
Probe (player)DAY TWO
OptimusJonSnowGAMETIMEHarstem and PiLiPiLiMCanningPokebunny and DolanNeuroFeaR1FPro]Xpired
PengWinBailsRazeCreatureSorry the post is getting a bit big! If people prefer, I'll put them into spoiler tags but I'M going to leave it as a kinda big OP until I get complaints because I like having player faces visible on the youtube thumbnail.
Thanks and let me know what you guys think!
