[Winners Interview] SPL Finals: SKT vs KT

Q: How did you prepare for the finals?
A: I worried a lot about the lineup. Because the preliminaries for the Starleague 2012 were going to happen, I gave the players time to practice, but their results weren't very good. During those matches, our key players like Bisu and BeSt all got eliminated, I felt uneasy about their game ability, but I think it was actually good medicine for the players. They figured out their weak points and worked harder, and they'll be able to play with precision and skill in the finals.

Q: You were most concerned about Bisu.
A: On the outside, he pretended to be strong, but in his heart, he was troubled. Roro was a weaker player compared to Bisu, but I think some days he can rise up and beat anyone. But Bisu is someone with strong mental strength, so he coped with it quickly and will play in the finals like it doesn't affect him.

Q: Your reason for choosing "Neo Chain Reaction" as the final map?
A: During the regular season, Flash had never even once come out on this map, and we thought that it would be a map where even if he did get sent out, we could win anyway. Also, after we attained first place in the regular season, we performed a wide range of analyses and decided that Neo Chain Reaction would give us a better chance of victory than Neo Outlier.

To be honest, Neo Outlier is pretty volatile. Whenever our Protoss meets other Protoss there, there's no guarantee we can win. You saw that when Stats came out against KHAN in the playoffs ace match. Even the highly skilled Stork cannot be assured a 100% PvP record on this map. And so we chose Neo Chain Reaction. KT's position would have been tough. But Flash had no games on this map, and Stats didn't have many either, so we had to start our research from scratch. But when we finished gathering intel, I think we managed to gain a small sliver of an advantage.

Q: The KT Zerg contribution was incredible.
A: I saw Action get through the OSL preliminaries, and it seems his strength was no bluff. He'll be on guard and prepared. I think he'll be the most focused in the finals than ever before.

Q: What were your plans to take down the KT Zergs?
A: We analyzed the patterns that KT Zergs tended to show in their play. They managed to win many games through all-ins, but as you'll see when you watch the finals, those strategies will all be blocked. [T/N: lollll KT zergs 3-0]

Q: You won silver in 2010 and in 2011, a losing streak against KT in the finals.
A: In the 2010 finals, we were too stubborn. In the post season, we had nothing but the ambition to fight our way to the top. All we had was our conviction to win. The truth is, we only had about 3 days to prepare. The entry was as it was in the post season and we didn't prepare any ambitious strategies.

In the 2011 season, we had confidence in our lineup, but in terms of concentration, we fell behind. Our conditions were just right for the finals in Shanghai, but due to the postponement, the team atmosphere became chaotic. Even though we had to win it, we lacked the motivation. The players spent a whole month resting and ended up losing their feel for the game. But we learned a lot from our mistakes this second failure and prepared hard for the finals this time.

Q: SKT's Round 3 results were really good.
A: When we start having doubts, our team begins to perform better. Perhaps we're a skeptical team? (laugh). After Round 2 ended, we held a workshop. We examined our performances in the first 2 rounds and dicussed with the team what we should do for Round 3. I think that most of our failures had to do with n.die_soO. Despite the fact that SoO is a extremely good player, the coaching staff made a lot of mistakes in choosing to send him out when we did. SoO's style was fixed and we sent him out against other races to overcome that habit, but it caused him to accrue many losses. We started to make changes in Round 3, and Hyuk decreased his own lineup opportuniies to help SoO improve, and SoO started doing better rapidly.

Another person that improved a lot was by.Sun. Whenever Sun lost, our team would lose too. And so we worked to boost Sun's morale and I think that we managed to revive him to an extent.

If I give both Sun and SoO their chances in the finals, we will certainly be able to win. Best, Bisu, and Fantasy, no matter when or where, always play their parts. If your backup cards are unable to produce 50% records, the team will fall.

Q: Last time in the finals against KT, you were unable to take out Stats or Flash.
A: The truth is, Stats' strength lies in his well-devised strategies. He's quite good at countering our strategies. When watching Stats play, you get the feeling that the analytical skills within KT are outstanding. We're also very strategic and we try to gain the advantage in the beginning, but during games against Stats, our strategies get challenged early on and we end up playing with a 4:6 chance of winning.

Dealing with Flash is simpler, but he's just so strong. KT never ever forces Flash to get sent out. We picked a unfavorable map for him, so we don't need to think that we are facing a difficult player. We'll send the one who can safely bring home a win. After Coach Lee started to use such tactics, Flash's performance became ridiculously good.

In order to beat Flash, it's not enough to simply come up with a strategy. Strategy, execution, timing, etc. we have to use a combination of them all. Or we'll have to put something that Flash has never seen before on the table. This time around, when facing Flash, we'll be able to see victory by not being standard and doing new things.

Q: There are many people who wish to take on Flash and Fantasy.
A: These two were both the season's best players. Against each other, it's hard to guess the winner.

Q: Was this the winning score that you wanted?
A: Honestly I just want to win. It's important to brush aside our previous 2 losses. But of course 4:3 is the most thrilling outcome. Nothing could make our team happier than winning in the Ace Match. Winning in a longer series is better than winning in a shorter one, so with that in mind, I hope we'll win after taking it to the ace match. [T/N: coach park are you a prophet or something, seriously]

source: http://esports.dailygame.co.kr/news/read.php?id=58988

Thanks to rslee who helped me out with this one ^^