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Serral has been on a rampage, winning the European Challenger tournaments for both WCS Jönköping and WCS Valencia. One of the best European players without a major title, Serral will soon have back-to-back opportunities to rectify that situation. I talked to Serral about his place on top of the European scene, possibly going to Korea, and, uhh... golf.*This interview has been edited and condensed.
Wax: First off, could you introduce yourself briefly? Although, I don't think you need much introduction nowadays.
Serral: Hello everyone, I'm a Finnish Zerg player. Yeah I think a lot of people know me nowadays, but I have actually been around from the beta, not just at the highest level.
How are you feeling these days? You've been absolutely destroying the WCS qualifiers, and it really looks like there's no one who can stand up to you in Europe.
I have been feeling extremely confident with my play lately, but I was still fairly surprised on how the last two Challengers went. I still wouldn't necessarily rank myself as the best European, as I have been struggling to performance on offline events. Hopefully this will chance at Jönköping and Valencia, though.
It feels like this thing has been been going on for several years now, where all the other progamers hype you up before tournaments. Has that put a lot of pressure on your shoulders?
Not really, I never feel too much pressure when I go to events. I'm not exactly nervous either, so I think my problem has been that I always do bad at one match up. The moment I manage to improve that one match up, I find myself losing in some other match up. But right now I'm actually doing pretty good in all match ups, even though my ZvT is slightly lagging behind.
Was that the problem back in Austin, when you went up against Special (MajOr)?
That was partly the problem for sure, I was struggling with Terran early-game. MajOr probably was better than me during Austin though, so I would have had a hard time even if my ZvT was stronger. MajOr also was better than most of the Terrans I got to practice and play against in Europe.
I've heard other people say that the small number of top-tier Terrans in Europe is a problem as well. Even beyond Jönköping and Valencia, do you think that's gonna be an issuein mixed region events like GSL vs World and BlizzCon?
Yes, that's going to be an issue. I personally think you need to go to Korea if you want to get success in tournaments where Koreans are present. This is why I'm thinking of going to Korea before Blizzcon if I manage to maintain top eight WCS spot. Then again Nerchio and Snute seem to excel at ZvT even though they did not go to Korea.
What do you think about the way Zerg has dominated two EU qualifiers in a row? Do you think there's a problem right now?
I think maps are the problem, at least for now the maps are quite good for Zerg. I don't think the game is too unbalanced otherwise. ZvP has come down to the point that it's mostly Hydra-Bane stuff, but I don't think that it's too overpowered. Issue there is, that if it comes to Protoss always defending these hydra bane builds, it's not too enjoyable.
At Austin, you seemed pretty hesitant to talk up your chances, even though all the other pros were naming you as one of the scariest players there. Given all the recent conditions—maps, your ability to play the various match-ups—do you think you're one of the favorites to win it at all Jonkoping and Valencia?
Actually at Austin, my goal was to win the whole thing and I think I had quite good chance there. But yeah at Jönköping and Valencia, I will have the same goal, but my chances are better for sure. That has to do with the maps, but also with my improvement. I think, it's fair to say that I'm one of the favorites based on the recent results.
You recently tweeted a graduation photo with fellow Finnish player Zhugeliang. What's the story behind that?
There isn't too much story behind the picture. My parents organized the graduation party and shared the invites, there were some people from Finnish esports and StarCraft scene. Zhugeliang actually wanted to take this picture and later pressured me to tweet it, as I don't tweet enough. But yeah I had the party on Saturday, so basically two parties for that day.
Is the Finnish scene generally close knit like that? I remember stuff like Elfi and the ENCE guys going for a swim in freezing water, things of that sort.
Yeah I think Finnish StarCraft scene is great, everyone knows each other and most of the people are in good relationships with other people. I guess that's what happens when you have a small scene. I have no clue what Elfi has done, but I wouldn't be too surprised.
What do you plan to do now that you've graduated? Will it effect your approach to StarCraft/progaming? Besides, giving you the time to potentially go to Korea, anyway.
My plan is to play full-time for the next year, which I have been basically doing since March when I finished my last exam. I haven’t really changed my approach too much, I still mainly just practice, but more. Being able to focus only on one thing instead of two has been extremely helpful.
Anything you want to take some time off to do, besides practicing at StarCraft? I dunno if graduation trips are common in Finland. Maybe after Valencia...
Well after the weather gets warmer, I’ll probably be going to summer cottage and play some golf. Outside that, I won’t be doing too much besides StarCraft. I travel enough, so no graduation trips for me.
Ever consider lining up a StarCraft trip and a golf trip? The USA has many fine courses.
Probably too fine for me :D. Well, I guess the problem is with transporting the equipment and playing alone is no fun.
Which way does that interaction work? Golf helps you relieve the stress of StarCraft, or StarCraft helps relieve the stress of golf? At least from the people I've seen, golf never seemed like the most 'leisurely' game.
Honestly, I never get too much stress from StarCraft during just a normal practice week. I guess golf works as a well-earned break kind of thing. I find one day or couple day breaks very effective to keep yourself motivated. And golf actually is extremely leisurely game if you play it that way.
Alright, it's time for our famous pirate question. Your loved ones have been kidnapped by pirates, and you can only recruit a squad of three StarCraft II players to go rescue them. Who do you pick, and why?
First of all you need strength, so Harstem and ShoWTimE as swordsmen. Then I would hire Nerchio as an archer and tactician due to his intelligence.
Any shoutouts, comments, or thing you wanna say to end?
Shoutouts to my fans and ENCE eSports for all the support I have gained.
If you're watching a major EU tournament, then there's a good chance you'll see Serral and ShoWTimE meet at the crossroads. For now, Serral has taken the upper hand, winning a 3-0 sweep in the Challenger tournament for WCS Jönköping.
You can follow Serral on Twitter at @ENCE_Serral, and you can find his competitive statistics on Aligulac.com.
You can read more interviews with the WCS Challengers who will compete at WCS Jönköping during June 17-19!
More interviews are coming soon™
