TLO at IEM Gamescom - 17th to 21st August 2010

As you all know by now, our very own TLO will be at IEM Gamescom in Cologne from the 17th to the 21st of August. As mentioned previously, his group has his nemesis White-Ra in it, and he's preparing hard for the event and aims to do TL proud!

Of course, the big news is not just that TLO will be playing. We've known that for ages. The cool part is that both TLO and Nazgul will be at the TL Meetup at Gamescom. If you're in Cologne, or in Germany, or in Europe this weekend, make sure you head down to Gamescom and hang out with other TLers. Studies have shown that attending TL meetups increases your SC skills by up to 20%. PM fishyjoes and book your dinner seat today, kids!

Jinro 3rd Place @ Go4SC2 / Haypro Qualifies for Gosucup

TLAF-Liquid`Jinro went up against some fierce competition this weekend in Go4SC2 #29. Facing the likes of Ciara, Mana, Hasuobs, Brat_OK and Dimaga, our Terran in residence managed to edge all but one of them out and secure 3rd place at the event. Replays of his games are available in This Week In Reps.

TLAF-Liquid`Haypro too did well for himself and for Liquid` this week as he qualified for the Gosucup. Meeting and beating the likes of Tarson, Haypro qualified for the finals where he lost to aftls. However, since the top two finishers qualify for Gosucup, Haypro is now through to the main event. Congrats!

While the rest of Liquid` would have loved to take part in the event, commitments such a GSL (Nazgul, Jinro, TLO) and MLG (Tyler) have prevented them from doing so.

Liquid` to Korea, August 2010

The original news post announcing the move came out on Friday and since then the community has been abuzz with well wishes and predictions of how our guys will do in Korea. We know you're excited about it, and well we're plenty excited too. Today, we bring you a short itinerary of our intended travels, so you can keep up with everything in the busy days to come.

24th August - TLAF-Liquid`Nazgul, TLAF-Liquid`Jinro and TLFA-Liquid`TLO arrive in Korea.
28th August - GSL Offline Preliminaries

Liquid`Tyler at MLG Raleigh, 27th to 29th August 2010

Set to be a major part of the competitive SC2 scene in America, the MLG Pro Circuit will kick off on the 27th of August in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Liquid` will be well represented there in the form of the artist formerly known as Nony. Reigning TSL Champion and renowned Broodwar veteran, Liquid`Tyler will open his bid for American dominance at this event, and we look forward to seeing him on stream!

TLO at Blizzard Regional Finals Showmatch - Event Finished

I'm sure many of you caught the TLO vs Madfrog show match the weekend before last. If you didn't though, this picture should sum it up pretty well for you. Thanks out to Blizzard's coverage team for summing up the series better than I ever could have.


In short, the games were fun, and despite some clever play by Madfrog, TLO came through as predicted to win both series 2 - 1 and 3 - 2 respectively. It will be interesting to see how the two fare against each other at Gamescom when they meet again in the Group A preliminaries. Speaking about the event, Dario had this to say -

Liquid` in SC2 Clan League - Event Finished

We started off the weekend well, with a Ro16 win against the French team aaa, and qualified for the next stage of the SC2CL. Liquid` the played their SC2CL Ro8 match vs ESC on the 15th of August, with ESC bettering them 3 - 2. GG ESC, and we look forward to playing you guys again soon!

Tyler on TeamLiquid - Event Finished

TL Attack Season 3 kicked off two weekends ago with Liquid`Tyler being matched up against TLers, and Chill and Incontrol commentated their way through many a funny game. If you missed the cast, make sure you check out the VODs. New Protoss players in particular will want to keep an eye out for the new Phoenix Bench press, a truly unique play that everyone should perfect at some point in their career.

Hi Dario, thanks again for joining us this week! You're in the news a lot these days, aren't you?
Hi, and it's always a pleasure talking to you! Yeah, it's getting almost scary how things are revolving around my person at the moment, but it's also awesome, especially now that I am going to places.


Indeed! Did you feel the pressure mounting as you attended your first live event for SC2 in cologne last weekend?

I was pretty nervous. I would have hated to lose at my first live event and I was a little bit uncomfortable playing in an unfamiliar environment like that. So I am glad that I did well.


Yes, congratulations and well played. We're going to focus more on Gamescom this week, but I don't think your fans would forgive me if I didn't ask about your day two, game one fast battelcruiser build against madfrog. Could you tell us a bit about how that came to be?

Scrap Station is one of the worst maps, so I thought "What the hell... I'll go Battlecruisers! They are awesome and there is no way he will defeat that!" As it turned out though, he did so pretty easily! ^^


Haha, amazing. Your play so far in SC2 has been characterized by constant innovation. Do you ever see yourself settling down and playing less and less out of the box and more standard, or do you think that trying weird stuff is just a part of who you are as a player?

Well I am starting to play using more standard build orders now. But from time to time it just strikes me and I can't resist to make ghosts in TvT or mass Raven in TvP! Overall I don't think I play that innovative. Anyone can do what I do. The only difference between me and most others is that I really follow through and do it.


Speaking of which, who do you think are the most creative players on the scene today, and whose play do you admire most in terms of sheer innovativeness?

Socke amazes me all the time. Playing against his protoss is so different from facing anyone else. Another name I would like to mention is Matiz. Unsurprisingly, he is coming from Supreme Commander too and I can't wait for him to own many tournaments!


Alright, let's get to the main topic at hand today! The IEM Global Challenge next week in Cologne at Gamescom - how psyched are you, and how are you going about preparing for the event?

I am pretty excited especially as fate has brought me together in a group again with him, whose name shall not be spoken by my tongue! Right now I am playing non-stop so I can be in the best shape possible. I think I've got some new suprises for everyone prepared.


Awesome! I'm sure it's going to be a blast for everyone involved. So let's just say you're working hard on your TvP, eh? Let's talk more about your group now. Recent polls on Team Liquid have shown that people think that Group A is most definitely the 'group of death'. Got anything to say about that?

I disagree. In my personal opinion, Group D is the hardest group. But maybe that's because I see 4 strong players and in Group A only 3 because I dont play against myself.


Interestingly, Madfrog is in your group as well. Is there anything you learnt from playing against him last weekend that you will bring with you as you face him once again in Cologne?

Haha, yeah, that was quite funny to see for me as well. However I don't wont to comment on that! He might read Teamliquid as well, right?


True that! Of course he reads Team Liquid. Which professional athlete doesn't? Good thing we stay humble though, right? Since we're on the topic of TL though, rumour has it that you'll be hanging out with Nazgul at the Gamescom TL meetup on Saturday. Could you confirm or deny this please?

The finals are on Sunday so why should I leave cologne before that? Good thing we are humble indeed! No, seriously I would stay in Cologne just for that I think. Unless something really important comes up, that is, but I definitely do want to go!


That's great news for TLers at Gamescom. We hope you guys have a fantastic time. As a member of the only SC2 team that has a community like TL behind it, what would you say is your favourite thing about being a part of not just Liquid`, but Team Liquid?

Is there any community in the world that is as cool as TL? I am so proud to be part of this awesome site. We have so many talented people, and I am humbled to be allowed to represent you as a member of your hometeam! Every time I browse TL I have a good time and it's so informative.... also ALMOST everyone is really friendly and cool!


And the people who aren’t friendly and cool, they get all expenses paid vacations to Disneyland, so np it's a win-win. Let's talk a bit about how your life has changed since you started playing SC2. While most of the other names at the IEM Global Challenge have been in or around Broodwar and related tourneys for years, in a few short months you've gone from playing beta ladder to being one of the most recognised faces in all of SC2. Tell us a bit about how your life has changed these past few months.

Well it has changed quite a lot. I've never been as busy as this in my life. I still need to find a way to deal with all the stress but I think I am doing okay. It's hard not to damage your health but I try not to neglect it. Also I am going to travel so much more than ever in my live... it's all a little crazy to be honest!


Indeed, man. Living the dream! There are hundreds of thousands of players out there who throw themselves at the ladder everyday. Many of them want to be exactly where you are right now now. If you could give one piece of advice to those guys, what would it be?

Well it's not really a big secret. Obviously practice as much as you can (but never neglect your social live and work/school), stay healthy and keep an open mind!


And on that note, I'm gonna let you go. You probably have to get back to your games anyway! Good luck from all of us here at TL then, and we hope to see you rip through your group at IEM. Good games, Dario, good games!

Thanks, I hope it goes well and it's gonna be fun to meet everyone!

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