You reached the semifinals! Now that you had a few hours to collect yourself, how does it feel?

Woo, I feel about the same as after I won except now I can actually say that I feel that way. After I won I had a hard time saying anything :D !

You were up 2-0 but the series went to a fifth game. What was going through your head after Game 4?

"**** how did I let this get to Blistering Sands? Gotta focus 100% now." Then nothing.

In Game 1, you did a Raven rush similar to what you did vs TT1 in MLG Dallas finals. But Choya stole your gas.

Stealing the gas doesn't affect the build very much at all, I was a little worried when I saw the phoenix as I thought this meant he had analyzed how to beat this build. However, he only made one phoenix and he made observers as well, so at that point I knew he would be too low on sentries to defend and felt confident I could win.

In Game 2 Choya decided to proxy a Dark Shrine. Did you know it was coming?

Yes, in Game 2 I thought DTs might be possible -- I scanned the 2 warp gates and it immediately brought to mind some comments made by Hero about being mindful to have 2 scans at the 7:30 timing. Even after accidentally misclicking one scan I was able to defend, but it was close.

Choya's army was very large, but you picked off colossus with vikings and landed an EMP on all his sentries. Did you feel relieved after winning from a disadvantageous position?

I was definitely happy, it was a pretty damn hard fought game.

In Game 3 both you and Choya did standard fast expansion builds.

I should have expoed sooner because of the positions. I wasn't really sure what his composition was aside from the colossus, despite trying to scout him a lot. I ended up fighting in a bad spot, which cost me the game.

In Game 4 you were caught by a very good forcefield. Did you know Choya didn't expand the entire game?

No, I thought he expo'd. I was told he canceled his nexus afterward though. The force field didn't matter much, if I had known he didn't have an expo I'd have just stayed back. Also, they told me he had no units after his attempted attack in the beginning, while I thought he was on 4+ gate, so I should have attacked immediately

In Game 5, your reaper was critical in scouting his Dark Templar tech.

Yeah, that's why it was made basically. It's reason for being was to scout. oGsHero told me to do this build when I asked him for advice on Blistering Sands, and while I asked many people for builds this was the one I liked the most. You 2 rax, pressure some see what hes doing, then fac and 3 rax or expo depending on what you see

You were very conservative in the late game, what were you thinking when you saw he didn't take a 3rd base and kept building an army?

It's very hard to find a good place to engage on Blistering, and I wasn't really sure where I stood in regards to army size as I'm not really used to this situation. I think taking a 3rd is pretty difficult for anyone on this map so I didn't think much of it, I just tried to find a favorable fight while delaying his 3rd as much as possible.

You celebrated with a lot of the oGs guys outside your booth. What did they say to you?

Congratulations, that they are proud of me, that they were really happy - just what you'd expect basically . I haven't really celebrated any wins until now, but I couldn't contain it this time.

ChoyafOu seems like a nice guy.

He is really nice. Before the games, he told me I look like his cousin and and that he liked me. His coach translated for him.

You play your teammate and friend oGsMC next. Did you check TL before the match to see MC's results? Did he say anything to you before your match?

Yeah I was keeping up via the live report . He didn't say anything special, just normal good lucks before the games.

Is there going to be any house tension now that you guys have to play each other?

Nah, I don't even think I will bother to use anything but my normal account - we all trust each other. It sucks that team kills happen but on the other hand, we have a 100% guaranteed player in the finals.

Are you guys going to practice with different teammates?

Yeah, I think we'll split things up a bit to avoid having the practice partners be put in difficult situations.

Who gets TheStc?

Hahaha, maybe we can roshambo it for him.

Ret told a story about you sleep talking about how impressive gorilla man was.

Well he is pretty impressive...

Have you adjusted your goals for this tournament now that you are in the semifinals? Will it be hard trying to beat a teammate?

Always one goal at a time, first round of 8, now round of 4. It will be hard but not because it's a teammate, but because he's the scariest Protoss in the world right now.

Did MC help you practice for Choya?

Yeah, but we only shared two maps so we mostly focused on our own practice. He gave me lots of advice though whenever I needed it.

You already secured quite a bit of prize money. Are you thinking about the prize money at all? Does this put more nerves or pressure on you?

Money doesn't feel real until paid for the most part, but yes, 9k vs 3k is a big difference - it does add to it.

Is there any established tradition at the oGs house when someone gets this far? Do you and MC buy chicken or pizza or something?

Pretty sure we will be buying a loooooot of chicken/pizza if we win. But yes, that is basically what happens - winners pay for this stuff =)

Did you see the Chinese nicknames for you? "Muscle man" and "Scandinavian Thor".

The Chinese nicknames are gosu. I wonder where muscle man comes from, I'm not exactly buff (yet! I have aspirations). Maybe compared to average progamer, I don't know.

Your beanie and facial hair are very intimidating.

Ah maybe that is why lol

We're enjoying these interviews every round. Hopefully we'll get another winners' one in a few days. Any last shoutouts?

Thanks to everyone who helped me prepare for this - oGsHero, oGsWant, oGsCarmel, oGsInca, oGsMC, oGsVINES, IMYongHwa, oGsTOP, oGsGon, oGsTheWind, LiquidHuk and LiquidNazgul. Thanks to TLAF and everyone supporting me and especially thanks to the people making those sick gorilla Terran posters ^^