Hey Idra and congrats on your victory over Tester. How does it feel to win the final tournament of the beta?

It feels awesome, I wasn't performing particularly well towards the end of phase 1 so its great to be able to come back and win a tournament like this right before the big release.

Tester is a player who has given you a bit of trouble in the past. Do you feel like your victory over him is the result of personal improvement over the course of the beta, or do you think you simply adjusted to his style, allowing you to pull through?

It was almost purely an adjustment to his style, in tournament games he tended towards 2 base collosus/stalker based allins because he knows i prefer ground macro games. I recognized this and designed builds and tactics, the muta openings and faster ultras as well as the focus on ling runbys, to counter it. He also tends to open with zealot pressure, so the speedling opening helped vs that as well.


I noticed that Tester picked maps that were pretty cramped (Steppes and Blistering), while you chose maps that were more wide open (Metalopolis and Scrap). Was the reason for this mostly related to the ease of use of early pylon shenanigans, which he used on the maps he chose, or were there more complicated reasons?

Well we mostly chose along zvp balance lines, but the reason steppes and blistering are good for protoss is the relatively short rush distance, and the fact that they're 2 player maps. So while they're good for pvz in general they're especially good for rush builds like his cannon block. I chose purely for big open macro maps.

In the 5th set, you sniped Tester's robo bay at a critical moment. Hypothetically, if he had been able to build up a bunch of colossi, how would you strengthened your composition to deal with the inevitable big attack?

Once you have ultras out the stalker/collosus ball is almost useless. I would have just kept adding ultras and hatcheries, gotten drop and started harassing.

The beta is over. Do you have any plans that are set in stone as far as competing professionally in Starcraft 2? We know from previous interviews that you'll be attending various tournaments representing CJ, but are there any specific events that you know you'll be attending?

Nothings really set yet, most of the upcoming tournaments haven't even been announced as far as I know. I think there's a very good chance I will be at the Intel extreme masters event in Germany in August, but like I said nothing is for sure yet.

Well, I think this about wraps this up. Good luck in your efforts to win more tournaments in the future, in Korea and abroad. Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans?

A: Thanks for all your support, hope you enjoyed the games. Oh also, thanks to white-ra. He helped me practice the day before the match vs tester and it helped quite a bit. I probably wouldn't have won without those games.