Get to Know Your WCS Challengers: iaguz

iaguz is the reigning king of the Oceania region, and a near lock to represent Australia in WCS Circuit tournaments. He'll be heading off to WCS Jönköping in June, in search of that big tournament finish that's continued to elude him. But before we talked about that, I made him confront the much more pressing issue of rating everyone else's facial hair.

*This interview has been edited and condensed.



Wax: First off, could you introduce yourself briefly for people who still don't know you by now? Or not so briefly. Whatever.

iaguz: Hello I'm Ethan "iaguz" Zugai and I play Terran for ROOT Gaming. I'm the only progamer who can't be arsed getting a proper haircut. Or shave.

Is it really that you can't be bothered? Or is it because you're afraid of the man you might find underneath it all?

When I was a wee lad I eagerly awaited being able to grow a beard and a stache. Now I have these things I don't really wanna go back. I know not the secret to happiness but well trimmed whiskers are a part of that. Really should just get me hair cut, thought.

Was there anyone you looked at admiringly in particular when you were young?

None in particular, it just seemed if you had a beard then you knew what it was all about, you knew what was going on.

I'm just going to send some examples of progamer facial hair your way, and you rate it on a scale of 0 to 10.

I don't really know how to rate beards. As long as it's well trimmed it's alllllllllllright.

C'mon just play the game. IT WILL BE FUN.

Fine...

#1: SortOf


iaguz: SortOf's running about a 7/10, it's properly trimmed but not much thickness you know? I spot too much skin, but it's even on his face and he's put a bit of effort in. People like it when you put some effort in.

#2: Nathanias. Again, not specifically beards, but just rating facial hair game in general.


iaguz: Honestly I'm not much of a fan of the simple goatee. Round out that jaw, yo. At least he looks less like that guy in Clerks, or did he have a goatee too? I don't remember now. 5/10 No, wait, 3/10. 5/10 is an average, this is below that

#3: Hobo TLO


iaguz: 8/10. Thick and lustrous, just needs a wee trim to be less hobo-ish. Or different hair. But it's pretty good, imo.

#4: Groomed TLO.


iaguz: 5/10 Bit patchy, less distinctive.

#5: Bly


iaguz: 2/10. Pure bumfluff. Better without, imo.

#6: ViBE


iaguz: 6/10, that's alright.

#7. Kelazhur


3/10, fairly bumfluffy and patchy.

Wow, so harsh, even to ROOT players. A truly honest man when it comes to facial hair. I'm not even gonna ask you to rate Catz. Alright, here's the last one.

#8: Kaelaris


iaguz: 5/10. Better then not having one I suppose.

Alright, enough with beard nonsense, and onto OTHER nonsense. So I just realized your ID is your last name backward. Does that make me stupid?

Took you long enough. There was an NA Zerg called Namhcir or something? He used the same very, uniquely clever naming system back in Wings. Good thing he doesn't play anymore or I'd not feel so special.

What were some of the other candidates on the board before you settled with iaguz?

I'd been iaguz a looooooooooong time ago. Nicked it from me brother when he wasn't looking. Curiously, when required to name an online profile (which isn't quite so often these days) he goes with Zugai.

You know what the origin of the last name is? Like all of the European last names are some sort of profession.

Not a clue. Something Polish. Grandfather renamed it from Zugaj to Zugai so as not to confuse people with the pronunciation, but if he'd kept it the same way I'd have an ID people would more consistently pronounce. Considering I've never heard of any other Zugai's anywhere else (well, might be a few on Facebook haven't checked) I'm guessing the origins are a bit more obscure then normal. But I'm not very knowledgeable about Polish naming conventions, other than ski's tend to show up a bit.

Makes me think though, how Cooper is a common last name now, but its' actually an extinct job. A barrel-maker. You could change your last name to be "progamer" and in 400 years there will be people with that last name going around, without the faintest idea of what it means.

I guess so. Wait, no progamers in 400 years? That doesn't sound right.

What? Are you saying esports isn't a bubble? Anyway, onto STARCRAFT. I think this is like four? five? WCS events you've qualified for in a row from your region.Have you arrived in a place where you can sorta look around and think "wow, I'm the best player in my region"?

Oh yeah, even better, the whole hemisphere. Well, possibly not including Diego, I dunno what part of Brazil he's from. But no, I'm the most accomplished Australian Starcraft player there has ever been. I'm taking that one to the grave until SC3 comes or Seither decides to Royal Road.

So that's something you'll always be able to take pride in, regardless of everything else.

Yeah I suppose so.

Does that make you feel a lot of added pressure in turn. Like you're the best from your region, out here against the rest of the world, trying not to let them down.

Well, not really it's not like I get angry messages after I lose all me games about how I'm letting down the Queen with my terrible play. But I do kinda hate it when I don't win the qualifier outright. Honestly I tend to feel more pressured when I'm playing the qualifier than when I'm at the tournament. I have a much higher expectation on myself in the former. At the latter it's like "well, I achieved the barest minimum of my expectations for myself, which basically is showing up, so just calm down and try and do better then last time." Sadly it's that doing better than last time bit I'm having trouble with. Actually qualifying's tricky, too. Shit's hard, yo.

So you don't have a folded up Aussie flag hidden in your beard, one that you're just dying to break out and wave on stage after winning an important match?

No. Once at a Ro32 match after I won, Apollo ran on stage and draped an Aussie flag he had handy around me, which was nice. I mean back home that sorta thing runs a high risk of looking like a racist nationalist twat but I felt if I brought that up it'd be unseemly so I dunno just roll with it.

So Aussies are just kinda chill about that thing? Growing up in the US and Korea, I sorta got that national rah-rah stuff ingrained in you, Olympics and all that. And that sorta spirit seems to carry over to esports as well.

Well, we do pride in the country like all places I guess, I think it's just a specific imagery thing. You can respect the flag, but wearing a big one's going a step too far.

What do you think about the general quality of the region? Probe had a pretty solid run last tournament. And Seither seems to be on your guys level, at least from qualifier results.

It sort of waxes and wanes, currently waxing. Like initially Moonglade was good, then he wasn't good and everyone sucked. Then me and PiG got kinda good, then in later HotS the rest of Australia sucked. Now it's picked back up again. I'm kinda surprised how good Seither and Probe got, and how quickly.

Got any theories on how that happens for a relatively isolated region?

Nope! Just the way it goes.

Everyone is complaining about the lack of #storylines to follow. DRAW UPON YOUR GREAT KNOWLEDGE OF CRPGS AND TELL YOUR STORY.

As I see's it, I'm one of the older players at these things. And I'm not as well accomplished as I'd like to be, at these things, and I'm worried about the new kids that I might not be able to keep up with, and I'm hoping for that one big win before I decide to call it all quits. So basically I'm 3 GSL's away from being Nestea 2.0.

Who's the villain?

Time.

Ok let's do a few more silly questions and close out. Do you ride motorcycles or chop wood with an axe?

Both. AT THE SAME TIME.

Seither is a bit nervous about travelling via plane. Will you hold his hand to keep him calm during the flight?

Fuck no. I'd rather just booze him to the gills and let him sleep through it.

But you have such a loving embrace, it would calm the most anxious soul.

It's a long fucking flight man I gotta use that hand to read my book or whatever.

And now for our world famous pirate question. Your family/loved ones have been kidnapped by pirates. You can recruit three progamers to take with you on a rescue mission. Who do you select, and why?

I think I've answered this one before... ...but alright. Jonnyrecco, Sniper, Ziktomini. I figure all progamers are gonna be fucking useless at this so I'm going to use this as an opportunity to rid the world of some patchzergs. Sure the loved ones are probably doomed, as am I I suppose, but that's a given.

Okay, any final comments, shoutouts, jokes, and whatnot?

Not really, just thanks to ROOT Gaming for being awesome, and thanks to PJ Russell the Blizzard ANZ guy who argued for us to have spots in the last few WCS events and for us to have 2 spots, I believe.

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If you want to see just how good iaguz can be, check out his series vs. Scarlett from the Copa Intercontinental:


Make sure to follow iaguz on Twitter and look up his competitive record at Aligulac.

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You can read more interviews with the WCS Challengers who will compete at WCS Jönköping during June 17-19!

• Seither
  
• iaguz
  
• Namshar
  
• JonSnow
  
• Winter
  
• Semper
  
• Serral

More interviews are coming soon™