[Int] SlayerSMin - Message from Korea #2

Banner by disciple.

In the Korean scene, there are more high level players than the ones you see in GSL. However, we don't often hear about these players due to language barriers. GSL is the premier Starcraft 2 tournament, yet at the end of the day it is only but one tournament in Starcraft 2,

Korean players have been invited to participate in various tournaments with the prize pool ranging from hundreds to thousands. Yet these Koreans are the ones who have set a mark upon GSL and GSTL. We rarely see less prominent players getting featured in the foreigner scene. I aim to change that.

Min is seen as the top Zerg player for SlayerS, the team that is currently the GSTL champion. His success continued by getting into the RO16 on his very first GSL. He isn't satisfied, however. The man has lofty dreams. He made an oath, "I will not let you down."

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself and your gaming history in StarCraft 2 so far.
My name is Hwang Do Hyung and my ID is (Z)

Min. In BW, I spent 4 years trying to get into SKT1. Even though I wasn't one of the best SC1 players, I'm very proud of being a SKT1 member (my ID was (Z)

Answer[jOin]). I loved and admired the team, just as soccer players admire and dream for Manchester United.

Although I worked hard trying to get into SKT1, my family was economically challenged at the time. I got out of the team and worked hard to make some money; however along came SC2 Beta and eventually (T)

BoxeR came and accepted me into the team. My first televised game in StarCraft 2 was during GSTL May and now I'm a GSL Code A player.

Q. Why did you choose Zerg as your main race rather than Terran or Protoss?
I used to play Zerg in SC1 and I hated the overpowered Terran and Protoss. I started SC2 as a Terran. When I played T, my win/loss ratio was amazingly high and even made it to the Qualifier Finals twice. At the time, Zerg players were in a very difficult period and were struggling. I then came across this article on a SC2 forum talking about Zerg players on higher ranks. It described them as rising up from hell. I loved the expression "rising up from hell" and I also had affection for Zerg from SC1. Therefore I switched to Zerg, however after switching I lost 1000 points on ladder.

Q. You mentioned that BoxeR recruited you into SlayerS, tell us more about it.
I was already pretty interested in Team SlayerS before I got in, however when the team was recruiting, my ladder rank went down from 50th to 2000th. At first I couldn't ask (T)

BoxeR to let me join the team, but after some time passed I got a better ranking and SC2 skills and eventually called up (T)

BoxeR.

BoxeR allowed me to participate in the tournament for the SlayerS tryouts right away. Although the tournament was only for those in SlayerS clan, (T)

BoxeR gave me the privilege to participate without a clan-entry test as we were both former SKT1 players. In the tournament, there were 64 players and I ended up getting first place and entry into the team as the prize.

Q. What do you think about life in Team SlayerS?
There are 3-4 former SC1 progamers in the house and they all agree that the team has the most ideal system and infrastructure for housing progamers. Life in the facilities and communication between players and coaches are both great. Besides these great qualities, the sense of unity shared among all members of the team is especially outstanding. I guess this sense of unity enabled us to win the GSTL after only 2 months after the team was formed.

In each of the bedrooms, there are three bunkbeds so 6 people live in the same room. The team staff change our beds around from time to time team to get all the players to know each other better. During the weekends, we have some free time. I use these times to see my friends and my family.

On weekdays, we often go to a nearby soccer field and play soccer together. When we first played soccer, most of us didn't have enough stamina to play a lot, but now we have gotten a lot better. Even though we are not that great, I think we can kick the ass of most of the other progaming teams.. Plus, (T)

BoxeR's quite good at soccer. I think that playing soccer together is great in helping build team spirit.

Q. What's the practice schedule like for you in Team SlayerS?
As I play Zerg, I don't spend time making special tactics, rather I practice heightening my senses to predict and read the opponent. Besides general practice, we play soccer during the morning or after dinner. We also spend a lot of time talking about SC2 with each other and I think this communication between the team helps make my skills a lot better. I can understand P's and T's strategies and use it against them to win games. However we don't really have a fixed amount of time that we talk with each other as the conversations are pretty sporadic occurring at all times of the day. As we are all dedicated to SC2, simply talking about it refreshes us from the pressure we get from the fierce competition.

Q. How do you feel about the GSTL win and how did your team work to win the GSTL?
I think that SlayerS is just like the basketball team Shohoku High School in the Slam Dunk manga. During the 2nd GSTL, we were widely accepted as the weakest team in the competition just like Shohoku team was perceived very lowly by the public. However we didn't really care about the public perceptions of team. We played amazing every game in the GSTL and most of the members of the team weren’t even Code A at the time. Yet at the GSTL, many of our team fought really well against Code S players on teams like for example oGs. Despite all the negative perceptions of our team, we still won the tournament.

Our team practices far longer than the other teams and we were very confident in our skills. Players were assigned a map and we would play 30-40 games a day on the maps. All members of the team also analyzed each of the opponent’s team members style and favorite strategies.

I want my foreign fans to watch my first game on GSTL vs (P)

oGsInCa. I prepared for the game for a very long time and the game went exactly as I predicted. It meant a lot to me since it was my SC2 debut.

Q. Do you have any rivalries in the progaming scene or in your team?
(Z)

IMLosira is my rival because my mother watched him all-kill team ZeNEX. My family's surname is "Hwang" but my mother also found out that (Z)

IMLosirA's surname is also "Hwang." So my mother told me to never get behind him since we share the same surname. In SlayerS, my rival is (T)

Ryung because we played SC1 together, became semi-progamer on the same day, joined SC2 Prime clan together, and then joined Team SlayerS together. So I don't want to fall behind him.

Q. Recently you lost in the GSL Code A RO16 to IMmvp, tell us how the games went and what you would do to improve upon these losses.
(T)

IMmvp is one of the best player in the SC2 world and I'm one of the newer players in the scene. I predicted that the pressure is on him to win the game because he had a lot more to prove. Thus I prepared the games with the intention of going into long macro games. However in the 1st game, his base was the first base I scouted and I recognized that he couldn't possibly defend my early rush with his build so I easily won the game. On the second game (T)

IMmvp cheesed and I couldn't defend it (2 Barracks at 11 pop). On the 3rd game, since (T)

IMmvp was very defensive early game, I got enough resources to win the game with Broods and Infestors, I got a bit greedy and wanted to show off to the SC2 fans and that caused me to lose most of my army which composed of Brood Lords and Infestors with full energy. I first lost all my Infestors to mass Tanks and then Marines came to kill off the Broodlords.

The series gave me a big confidence boost as it showed me that I was able to almost take the series from one of the best players in the world. I learnt a lot from the last game such as although it's OK to show off be careful not to mis-micro your army. I learnt my lesson that I'm going to play a lot more stable from now on. By stable I don't mean less aggressive but less mis-micro so I won't do that kind of mistake ever again. I view myself as a man of my words so I will never disappoint my fans like that ever again. I will show the result of this lesson via future GSL games.

Q. Recently in ZvP, Zergs have been using a 2 base 8 Roach and mass Zerglings build vs 3 gate Sentry expand, what do you think about this strategy?
After (P)

Alicia's loss vs (Z)

IMLosira ( (P)

Alicia and (Z)

Min are in the same team) we had a team meeting concerning this build order. We concluded that it's a great anti-3Gate expand build. However there are several Protoss build orders that counter this push like fast Voids or DTs because Zergs are spending the gas on the 8 Roaches, the Lair tech is delayed and stalkers prevents Zerg scouting. Also if Protoss goes stalkers to pressure the lings before speed is completed, it gives them map control. Although it has its own weaknesses, it is a good build but not an all-in. For example this build isn't meant to kill the Protoss outright, not even to destroy the nexus. (P)

Alicia's opinion is that he made the mistake of having his zealots+sentry too far away from his expansion.

Q. The tank with bio support push is a prevalent TvZ strategy, how do you try and deal with this strategy?
I'll tell you how I did it against (T)

IMmvp in a recent GSL match. I built my 3rd hatchery earlier than usual and if T doesn't choose all-in, he can't push out early enough. When T does come out, he does it at 8-9 game time minute. Until that time, I don't do anything besides making Drones and when I see him moving out, I start massing Roaches, Zerglings, and Banelings. This way, I can fight the marines and tanks in a more stable way and have control over the center of the map. After I fight off his army, I go early Hive while adding Infestors into my army. You may be curious on why I chose Roaches instead of Mutalisks. I think Mutalisks to fight off Marine and Tanks is not a great choice since you can easily give the away control of the game to a Terran player if your Mutalisk tech isn't fast enough.

Q. A common complaint about mirror matchups is that it's too luck based. How do you feel about this in ZvZ?
I don't agree with them. I think ZvZ is more of a skill based matchup than ZvT or ZvP since both players have exactly same units and same starting point. I get more angry when I lose a ZvZ match. However I know a lot of people who think mirror matchups are luck-based, but I think a great player makes his own luck. I am very confident about my ZvZ skills and I am l looking forward to playing ZvZ on a televised match in the near future.

Q. This year GSL has been making more maps, what do you think about the GSL and ladder maps?
Generally speaking, small maps are for people who prefers BO and strategy-oriented games, whereas larger maps are for people who prefers macro games. That's why most Code S players like (P)

MC,

IMmvp etc prefers huge maps like Tal'Darim. It's not that they prefer macro games, but Code S players believe in their ability to gain control of the game the longer the game goes so they prefer more macro-oriented games on bigger maps.

Of course, smaller maps should also be represented in the map pool for the viewers that prefers shorter, micro-oriented games. However, at the end of the day, bigger maps are better for evaluating a player's skill level and I love bigger maps. My favorite map is Tal'Darim Altar. However my least favorite map is Delta Quadrant. I always feel so powerless on that map and I can't do really do anything on that map.

Q. How much do you know about Teamliquid.net and the foreigner scene?
Of course, I know about the team and the website, however I don't visit it often due to my lack of English and I'm sincerely sorry about that. I'm also very interested in the foreign scene as we have all seen from the last world championship hosted by GOMTV. There really isn't a skill-level difference between Koreans and Foreigners. The skills of foreign players have gotten a lot better compared to SC1. I've played against (P)

HuK,

mOOnGLaDe, and (Z)

Sen on ladder. I guess SC2 is very popular in the foreign scene and everyone on my team including myself wishes to get a chance to participate in a foreign tournament.

Q. What do you think about SC2's growth in Korea?
I think it's doing pretty well. Since it's very interesting and fascinating, I think there is still huge potential yet to be developed. However, it's not getting enough media coverage yet and I don't think SC2 is maximizing his potential. I would be happier if there are as much media-coverage in SC2 as there is in SC1.

Q. Any last comment you want to say to TL?
In my life, I have always been dreaming of a chance to make somebody shed tears of intense emotions because of my work. I am a progamer. I will make my goal a success through constant practice and preparation. I don't want to be known as an average progamer. One day, I want to be somebody someday. Someone who isn't easily forgotten by people, but someone that people can remember for a long long time. I want my foreign fans to watch me craft beautiful games. I will not let you down.

SlayerSMin replays

In GSL Code A, RO16 Game 2 vs IMMvp, Min lost to 2 barracks bunker rush. Min wants to prove to the world that he learns from his mistake by showing a win against this strategy versus Ensnare.

Credit goes to NosRainyDays (Nicholas Seo) for helping to translate for SlayerSMin

[Int] SlayerSMin - Message from Korea #2

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