EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/CTC/2020S2/axlogo300.png)
American organization
Alpha X has come into the spotlight of the StarCraft 2 community more and more this year, organizing a huge number of tournaments and reaching new competitive heights. These days, one can watch events created by Alpha X basically every day of the week and also see their players in more and more high-level tournaments. With players like Astrea and Zoun making it into GSL Code S, the team has reached the apex level of competition in StarCraft 2. This success is not limited to individual tournaments, Alpha X was able to reach the Top 4 in the Gold Series Team Championship 2020 Spring Season in their debut season in the league, winning several big upset victories against favourites along the way. As we go into the next season of the world’s most prestigious team league, TL.net's TheOneAboveU talked to Sushi, the owner of Alpha X.
TheOneAboveU: Hi, Sushi! For those who don't know Alpha X, please introduce your team.
Sushi: Alpha X was set up late Dec 2018 when most of us moved from PsiX and continued on as a semi pro team with a focus on events (Alpha Pro Series show matches sponsored by AfreecaTV). These show matches often feature an Alpha X player versus an external player for a bit of money. We get emotionally invested in these events as we like to see our players perform well!
We also provide all round support to our players akin to what happens in real sports—coaching (
Matiz is our main coach), opponent research and analysis and later on sports psychology support as well (we have a professional psychologist helping some of our players).Over time, we attracted some sponsors and more players and grew to what we are currently with a professional player roster as well as something of a content studio. We do have a preference and focus on developing younger talent rather than signing established stars as we feel this is meaningful and contributes more to the scene long term. We even have three GMs in our academy team all under 16 years old—
Arrogfire (13 years old), Babymarine and Exostriker.You had an amazing debut in GTC 2020 Spring, how did you come to participate in the league and what was your initial expectation or goal?
Well, we knew that Astrea was going to be in Korea for some time and thought it would be cool to have an American playing in this team league! So the staff at Alpha X (Mage, myself and Sugar) looked around for a couple of players to field a roster and found
Zoun and BreakingGG.Zoun in particular fits our profile as a team who prefer to develop young talent. In terms of goals, we probably just did not want to finish at the bottom to be honest! However we did feel we had a chance to be closer to the middle of the pack if we prepared well!
What does reaching Top 4 last season mean to you and the team?
I guess to some extent it validated the tremendous amount of work our staff and players put into the team. And it also showed that our model of carefully picking young talent and giving them the resources and support to improve and develop can also work too in terms of being competitive against top players. We are/were not really a well-known team but hopefully our results and performances against the top dogs gave us a better standing within the team scene.
What's the greatest lesson you learnt during the last season, what's something to improve in the upcoming edition?
Preparation and research go a long way considering the format of this tournament. If you put in some effort to prepare, you will increase your chances of success. However, what we need to improve is our playoff preparation. It is harder because you do not know the match ups till very late. Should we make the playoffs again, we will have to come up with something.
Your team really seemed to thrive in the preparation-based format of the league, can you tell us a bit how you prepared for the matches last season?
Without giving away too much, we have staff who searched for opposition intel via VODs/replays and a coach who gave advice depending on opponent playstyles and builds.
What was your favourite moment of the last season? What was the biggest surprise? What was the biggest disappointment?
While fans might be forgiven for thinking our favorite moment could be beating huge favourites
KaiZi Gaming in the third round, my personal favourite was when BreakingGG beat Cyan in Game 5 in Round 1 and essentially secured us our first team victory. First victories are always the sweetest, but this also gave us belief that we can be competitive.Not sure if this is the biggest surprise but the most fun one was
Dian Lake Gaming cheesing out Triumphant Song Gaming in Round 1 with some fun games! It showed good spirit and preparation by the players despite being one of the smaller teams—something I definitely appreciated being one of the smaller teams ourselves!My biggest disappointment was us losing a bit of steam in the second half of the regular season. With better preparation maybe we could have beaten
Team LP and taken Dragon Phoenix Gaming to the ace match. We would have finished second in the Regular Season if that had happened and secured a minimum Top 3 finish overall. We did well in the first half of the season and put ourselves in a good position to finish very strongly but we did not take the opportunity. Not sure if this will come again this upcoming season as it's so competitive!Do you think your underdog status helped you last season, making the other teams underestimate you a bit?
Yeah especially during the earlier rounds. I think KaiZi underestimated us and rested
INnoVation. It seemed like some teams did not really prepare for us either. Would not mind if teams continue underestimating us this season too! We’re a small indie team after all, no need to try so hard against us! Was watching the games in any way different for you than watching your players compete in individual events?
Hm well apart from looking at the team scores overall not really. I feel the same each time I watch one of our players. I am emotionally invested in them and just want them to win all the time!
With
RagnaroK and Nice you signed two very solid players to prepare your next campaign, so what's the goal for the upcoming season?Well the competition has gotten tougher with
Jin Air Green Wings playing again now. We will aim for a Top 4 finish again, though it will not be easy. However I feel with Nice, we have a more balanced and overall stronger squad too and he is a non-Korean player that can take maps off of anyone so we are cautiously optimistic!Do you think Astrea can make it back to Korea in time for the playoffs, or even the tail end of the Regular Season perhaps?
That really depends on whether Korea lifts the two week-quarantine for travellers. He wants to go back when they do. Spending two weeks in a hotel for 80 USD per day is too costly and impairs practice, too. It's not something within our control, unfortunately. Astrea's been doing great recently and we would have loved for him to play.
What roster size you think is ideal for the format as it is right now? We've seen KaiZi and
Invictus Gaming use more variety of players than other teams, for instance.I think DPG’s roster is ideal with one top player from each race as well as one strong Chinese player—so perhaps a roster of four. Having a top player from each race gives a team a lot more flexibility when trying to adjust for opponent races and play styles as well as map choices.
Who's the favourite this season, in your opinion? [interview was conducted before week 1]
No doubt it’s got to be DPG—they have top players from each race in
Dark, Cure and PartinG and have a really solid Chinese player in Firefly.A while ago, you signed an open letter to Blizzard with fellow team owners, urging them to support existing SC2 teams. Could you elaborate on ways you'd think are suitable to start with?
Maybe allowing and facilitating team sales of in game items such as portrait packs, sprays and team themed consoles could be a good start and something manageable. These items are cheap and affordable and give a chance to let people support teams they like!
A number of existing teams also like recruiting and developing young players but have no incentive to do so. Perhaps a modest (prize pool) team league like just 2.000 USD twice a year with a cap on the top players could help in that regard, especially if it could be streamed/casted on an official channel like Blizzard’s YouTube or Twitch channels like how CSL was done last year.
Thank you very much for your time, and good luck on your GTC Fall run! This is your opportunity for any shoutouts you want to make.
There are so many people to thank and I'm sorry if I miss anyone out but perhaps most importantly to me are the staff on my team, especially senior managers such as Sugar and Vitamin. Sugar has been on the team for almost a year now and has been a rock—he gives great advice and insights following his experience on PSISTORM, helping the team make sound strategies and decisions. But beyond that he really cares for the players and always acts competently in their best interests so that we can come up with sound development and management plans. Vitamin is similar as well except he is quite a recent addition to the team!
Other than that I have some solid and tireless casters who work selflessly for the team—Kozan, Rushi, Passer and Snoopy. Officers like Blackone, PotatoPleb, Bibbs, Sniper, CaptCanuck, Zerikk, XenoDactyl and Akontistes who always step up when I need them. Migwel who looks after our academy roster and runs Junior Championships. Mage who competently manages our Gold Series Team Championships roster and related matters. Also a special mention to Sunlily who takes care of most of our graphics and animation needs fabulously! She is a great designer who grew with the team as well!
Lastly, big thanks to TitanEX1 led by Jackson who supports our teams’ GSL endeavours and cares for our Korea based players too!
Sushi fighting!
