Interview with winner of ThermyCup 3! InZaNe

PharaphobiaSC

Czech Republic457 Posts

April 21 2019 23:16 GMT

Hello everyone,

For those who did not noticed, there was a ThermyCup 3 last weekend which was hosted on Dutch The-Party Lan. And I had the unique opportunity to interview the winner of its André “InZaNe” Becker, 22 years old Terran player playing for team Wolf’s Pack!

ThermyCup is small offline tournament open for everyone organized by uThermal. Prizepool was fundraised by his stream viewers and subs.

Final standings:
+ Show Spoiler +

Complete bracket
+ Show Spoiler +

https://liquipedia.net/starcraft2/ThermyCup_3

Q: First of all, congratulations! According to your liquipedia this is your biggest prize money so far so describe for everyone how does it feel winning this LAN which included really decent players.

A: It's my first offline tournament win so I am extremely happy to finally get a trophy under my belt.

Q: Group stage was kind of easy for you since u went undefeated, but in quarterfinals you went against mighty Rotterdam himself and that series was really close. Could you tell us what happened?

A: I think playing in a Lan environment is way different than playing from home. I didn't really get into my normal playing mode and got crushed in the first 2 games. After that I kind of gathered myself and made the reverse sweep.

Q: Your semifinal opponent was aGaham who you 3:0ed, are you feeling confident in your TvZ? And for those who weren’t watching are you preferring bio or mech vs Zerg?

A: TvZ is actually my worst matchup at the moment. I felt quite confident since I already knew how aGaham plays and could just adapt to his playstyle. I prefer Bio over Mech!

Q: Your winner’s final opponent was Kelazhur who is still an active progamer and was the highest ranked player on this lan. This series was your first lost so my question to you is what happened? Was he playing really well or it was nerves which came to you?

A: I wasn't really nervous since I expected to lose to him. The first game was actually in my favor but I managed to throw the game in the end. the other 2 games went preatty one sided for Kelazhur.

Q: After that you dropped into losers’ finals where you met French terran player Reinca. That series was full of tense moments and it ended 3:2 for you. Were you surprised by his level of play? You have also showed that you like mech in TvT so please tell us if you again prefer mech or bio in TvT.

I was actually quite scared to play TvT vs Reinca, because I know it's his best matchup and we kinda go 50/50 on ladder. I chose Mech because I felt like it was one of his weaknesses so I tried to capitalize on that. In TvT I prefer bio.

Q: So now we are moving to grand finals where you faced Kelazhur again. This time it felt like you were way more confident and relaxed. Can you please talk about the first 4 games? Except the final game which we will cover as separate question (because it was really epic!)

A: First game I was kinda disappointed that I died to his first push. Second game I just defended his proxy reapers which wasn't really perfectly executed. Game 3 I was in a good position but I did some mistakes and barely lost it in the end. Game 4 I caught a good position and managed to kill his 3rd which allowed me to snowball the game.

Q: In the last game you could literally feel the tension from casters voice. You went for what was called “Reinca” build, when Kelazhur opened with standard 1,1,1 into 3rd base. So my first question was what was going thru your head when you saw him coming with bigger army and he managed to disable 2 of your tanks.

I didn't really see his attack coming since I was busy with my Cyclone. Honestly, I was quite surprised that I even survived that push.

Q: After that magic hold were you down by a lot of workers but please tell us what was going on in your mind were your panicking or did you know that you have a fair chance with stim already done?

I knew that it was now or never and I had to kill him fast to have a chance to win the game.

Q: And the last question is describe the final moments of that game, when you canceled his stim and had him cornered in his main base!

After I got into his main and killed his stim I kinda knew that it was over and on me to secure the game. I was kinda nervous but it all worked out in the end.

Q: Thank you so much for the interview and as a tradition if you have any shutouts please write them down!

Shoutout to Uthermal's community and marc himself for organizing such a cool tournament. Also, I would like to thank my team Wolf's Pack for supporting me and giving me the chance to visit international events.