EPTEarlier today Empire|Beastyqt was the first foreign Terran to be crowned a champion of a TSL4 qualifier. He did so by taking out d.KiLLeR in the semi-finals and then BabyKnight 3-1 in the finals in a series that combined both insatiable greed builds and quick cheese. We got his thoughts after the games were over and as the implications of a TSL4 spot began to sink in.
#11: EU/NA Qualifier 8
When the dust settled, this was who on top. Top 32 bracket on Liquipedia.
| 1st | Empire|Beastyqt |
| 2nd | BabyKnight |
| 3rd-4th | ROG.Elfi |
| 3rd-4th | d.KiLLeR |
| 5th-8th | Acer.bly |
| 5th-8th | Quantic.Ddoro |
| 5th-8th | d.Bischu |
| 5th-8th | coL.qxc |
Interview with Empire|Beastyqt
Congratulations of qualifying for TSL4!
Thanks!
Please introduce yourself for everyone who might not be familiar with your work!
Hey everyone, my name is Aleksandar Krstic 21 year old coming from Serbia! My ID in SC2 is Beastyqt (not BeastyQT 
) and I play Terran for Team Empire.
) and I play Terran for Team Empire.You had quite a few points coming in to this qualifier, but you were still out of the Round of 8. Were you feeling confident about your chances of qualifying?
I lost twice before to all-ins in Bo3 games, but I always thought that I can win TSL4 qualifier, I'm usually always very confident in my play when I really focus on it. Time was running out since there were less and less qualifiers but I'm glad I made it.
How was your qualifier run overall? Any good games people should watch in the replays?
I think games today were pretty straight forward standard play, my favorite 2 games were vs Cytoplasm G1 and G3 (ends funny). But if you like macro style Terran with a lot of multitasking action check all the games.
In the semi-finals you faced d.KiLLeR, were you comfortable with the match-up considering you had beaten DIMAGA and Cytoplasm earlier?
I've been having very hard time with TvZ since the patch came like every other Terran, I tried many different builds and play styles but I think I finally found something that suits me best which is heavy aggression with good multitasking and trying to spread out Zerg forces and just try to win with superior macro. I think TvZ is still my weakest match, I hope it improves in future.
The third game looked really dicey for you, with broodlords between your third and natural, with lings flooding in. How did you come back?
I actually have no idea how he managed to get back into game after my banshee harass, I thought one push would kill him but he managed to get back into game and it was very close at the end. Key moment was when I killed greater spire while he was pushing so he couldn't reproduce broodlords. Another thing that was very important is multitasking during that 3rd game, I kept sending small bio squads to take out expos left and right which enabled me to win on end.
So into the finals, where you faced BabyKnight. How did you expect the series to go? Last time we spoke, you seemed to feel your TvP was improving rapidly.
I was pretty confident going into it. I played BabyKnight many times back in Europe so I knew his play style from earlier and I'm glad it didn't change TvP sometimes feels like rolling dice, some tech paths of Protoss can completely blind counter Terrans or Terran builds can completely blind counter them and get big advantage early game, its probably not my worst match-up but probably the one I like the least. It improved a lot last couple of months ago, I had about 20-30% win rate vs Protoss before which was really bad.
TvP sometimes feels like rolling dice, some tech paths of Protoss can completely blind counter Terrans or Terran builds can completely blind counter them and get big advantage early game, its probably not my worst match-up but probably the one I like the least. It improved a lot last couple of months ago, I had about 20-30% win rate vs Protoss before which was really bad.In game one, you both went for absurdly greedy builds. BK actually scouted your hidden expo at one point, but didn't notice it at the time. Were you aware he took an early third? In general, what were your thoughts on the mind-games of that map?
I knew since it was Daybreak he would either 6-8 gate all-in or double expand, I feel colossus 2 base all-ins are pretty weak on that map so if you double expand as Terran all you need to do is to make 3 bunkers and you are fine vs anything Protoss can do on that map. Daybreak often goes into late game so mining out your opponents 4th base is pretty good advantage to have going into late game. :D
In game two, you went for a two base all-in with some really clever positioning, but it was held off. What went wrong there?
Haha, my stim was 10sec away :D its really good build I just failed attacking without stim and my bio positioning was very poor in first fight.
Game three, what was your thinking in terms of BabyK's mind games as the whole thing played out?
I actually knew he will all-in from moment I entered his base because first 2 games he made a zealot and game on Entombed he skipped zealot and went for stalker which allowed me to do full eng bay block. Once I saw second stalker on the eng bay I knew it was a 4 gate since he had only 1 gas in his main base and I just confirmed it 30sec later with a scouting SCV at his natural when I saw no expo.
Still, against Bischu in the second qualifier, you fell in a similar situation. This time, Baby was perhaps even cleverer about it, especially with the run-by. What allowed you to hold this one off?
I think vs Bischu I just played really poor, I lost to 3 gate, and then second game I lost to 4 gate which should never happen, but better bunker placement and switching to marauders on time helped a lot vs BK.
In the final game, you switched it up a bit. Was it a spur of the moment decision, or do you keep that build in your pocket for situations like these?
After him doing 4gate in the 3rd game and losing, I thought he will FE the last game which is why I took a risk and it paid off. I noticed that he skips sentries in past games so I just went for all-in, I'm not a big fan of cloud kingdom vs Protoss late game also.
When you took the game, how did you react?
Haha, no Beasty roar this time. :D I'm just happy I got into TSL 4. Last year I think I missed TSL 3 by couple of points which I was disappointed about so I'm just glad I'm able to play it now. TSL 3 was really great tournament to watch and hopefully TSL 4 will be great tournament to play.
Speaking of that, your first real results came in those TSL3 qualifiers, where as you said, you came quite close to qualifying. Does it feel like your career has come full circle now that you're into TSL4?
I always have really high expectations from myself and unless I win something its a failure because no one really cares about second place. Full circle will be complete when I win major LAN or win TSL 4, I don't think any pro should strive to be "top 5" you should always aim for first place and I feel that when day comes that I'm happy with second place I will probably quit Starcraft 2, because being a champion one day is what is motivating me to practice and compete in this game.
The TSL4 field is becoming more and more set as the qualifiers go on. Who would you like to play in TSL4?
I would like to play Thorzain and SaSe from foreigners..from Korea no one seems interesting so far. ^^
And who else would you like to see get in?
I'd like to see everyone from Empire qualify, as far as other players go I didn't really think about it, but I think that there will be more upsets to come in the upcoming qualifiers.
Awesome! Here's one final question... were you really on the phone in G4?
My joke failed actually lol. I wanted to write "sorry was on phone, bitbybit was calling me", but he left the game. :D Still ended to be pretty funny I guess in the end.
Hahahahha. Ok, that's about it. Shoutouts?
Shoutout to my team Empire and all our sponsors Razer, Adidas, Intel and Seagate, thanks a lot to Ben "Mr.Bitter" Nichol for inviting me into the Razer house here in beautiful California. Thanks to my family and friends for supporting me and last but not least thanks to all of my lovely fans that are supporting me no matter if I win or lose, you guys give me a lot of motivation to keep fighting! And thank you for interview. (again :D)
Thanks to my family and friends for supporting me and last but not least thanks to all of my lovely fans that are supporting me no matter if I win or lose, you guys give me a lot of motivation to keep fighting! And thank you for interview. (again :D)Nice to speak again so soon! Now go celebrate American Independence day. You're the first person to qualify while playing in NA, do you know that?
Haha. USA USA USA!
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