WCS KR WR1 D2 Winners' Interview

Q: How does it feel to make it into the round of 16 of the winners' bracket?
A: I'm happier about defeating Mvp than I am about making it to the round of 16. Of course, making it to the round of 16 delights me as well.

Q: The opponent you defeated was Mvp, who has a winning record against you. What were your thoughts after seeing the brackets?
A: To be honest, I didn't like being matched against Mvp. I want to avoid players who are hard to play against. How good would it be if I didn't have to face up against these strong players, and they end up getting eliminated by other players (laughs). I felt like the games would be very hard, but having such a tough match up gives me more motivation to practise well.

Q: What strategies did you prepare specifically to go up against Mvp?
A: Mvp is a player who's really good at playing mech, while I am very confident in my marine tank style. Hence, I prepared strategies which would counter mech. I worked to deliver a fatal blow to my opponent before he could get his mech army together. This way, I could take control of the game.

Q: You recently returned to Code S. Seems like you're on a rise period.
A: Today's games were really important. If I had lost, there would have been an interruption in the rise period. Since I was able to defeat the player whom I think is the hardest to go against, I am confident of winning no matter who my next round opponent is.
[T/N: That'd be Tails.]

Q: This match up received a lot of attention because it's a match up between two champion competitors. However, to be honest, you haven't had many good results after you won the championship.
A: That's why I want even more to do well in this tournament. Amongst the tournaments this year, this is the one which I really really want to do well in. The tournament schedule might have some clashes with other big tournaments, but I will focus mainly on this tournament.

Q: Who do you want your next opponent to be?
A: It doesn't matter who he is, though I hope it'd be a Protoss. Those are easier to go up against.

Q: Are you very familiar with the double elimination format?
A: This is a format with an insurance. As compared to a single elimination format, there is less pressure. This is the same for all the players.

Q; Anything you want to add?
A; I want to thank the players who practised with me, especially Punisher. He sacrificed his sleep to help me practise, and I am really grateful for that. I will repay this favour to everyone. He and Shine came down to the studio to support me. Really very thankful.

Q: How do you feel about making it to the Ro16?
A: I've practiced an enormous amount, so I feel quite proud of myself. When I made it through the preliminaries, I was hoping that I wouldn't face a Terran, but that's exactly what happened. To make up for my weakness in PvT, I played a huge number of practice games against Bang and Noblesse. I played around 40 games within two days.

Q: It seems like a long time since you took a victory in an individual league.
A: I feel that it's because my skill is inadequate. I remember losing to TaeJa and being knocked down to Code B during GSL Season 3. During the first round of Code A, I was in advantageous positions but made many fatal errors. In team leagues such as the GSTL, I feel okay because I can prepare an especially large amount, but in the individual leagues, I make a lot more mistakes, even when I prepare.

Q: Do you feel more tense when you appear in individual leagues?
A: That used to be the case, but after losing so many times, I actually feel more relaxed when I compete. I didn't feel that nervous today.

Q: In today's games, you put on a lot of early game pressure. Is there some reason for this?
A: I hate scouting [with workers], so I just sent out Zealots to do it. I thought that I may as well pressure with them while they were out there.

Q: In the third set, you dealt with Happy's attack smoothly.
A: My first Observer died before reaching my opponent's natural. At that time, I saw that Happy had a bigger army than I'd thought. I knew that this was going to be a mass Medivac push, so I made a lot of Photon Cannons and cut Probe production, but he delayed his attack, so I just made more workers and cannons and shut it down.

Q: Your next opponent is Polt, who is really good at PvT.
A: I think this will be more difficult than today's match. I don't like playing against aggressive players, and Polt is the aggressive type. I think I'll have to focus during practice the same way I did for today's match.

Q: Do you have a strong desire to take this tournament?
A: I'm confident in my matchups against Protoss and Zerg. If I just make it through the Ro16, I don't think I'll meet another Terran, and as long as that happens, I think I'll do well. Since I practiced against Terran a lot for today's match, I feel more self-assured in my PvT matchup.

Q: Anything more to say?
A: I'm really grateful towards Bang and Noblesse, the teammates that practiced with me. I'd like to thank the fans and friends who cheered for me, and as always, I want to thank my parents. I would also like to thank my team's sponsors, Lotte Chilsung and Razer.

Q: How does it feel making it to the round of 16 of the winners' bracket?
A: I haven't practised at all for about a week, not even a single game. The weather was simply too hot, and I was spending time resting at home. In the end, my body condition worsened. Up until yesterday, my body condition was really bad. Fortunately, before sleeping time last night, the coach switched on the air-conditioner so I could get a really good sleep and rest. I was only able to win because of this help from the coach. Really grateful to him.

Q: This is the first official tournament that you're taking part in after winning the championship. Was the pressure very big?
A: I am the type of player who never gives himself too much pressure during tournaments. Winning the championship has indeed made me a bit prouder than before, but I've never felt like I was one level ahead of everyone in terms of skill and ability. Even after winning the championship, I was still practising on ladder as usual before going home for a break. So my form was still pretty good.

Q: Coca is known as the Protoss killer. Didn't you feel like this would be a really tough match?
A: I think Zergs are all the same. In the end, it still depends on his tactics and strategies. He's played in many ZvPs and even though he's really strong in the match up, it makes it easy to analyse his ZvP style. If I just played according to how I think I should play, I think I have a very sufficient chance of being able to beat him. Very happy that the results turned out well in my favour.

Q: Your PvZ seems stronger than when you played against Curious last season.
A: To be honest, I played about 20 games on ladder after coming back from my break, and the results of that was really bad. The ranking on my account is not high, and so losing so many games on that made me feel really worried about today's games. At that time, it felt like I couldn't take the pressure anymore. However, this morning, I suddenly got the feeling that today's games would go really smoothly. I ended up playing so much better today as compared to when I was playing on ladder.

Q: What differences have there been after you won the championship?
A: Many people congratulated me. I want to thank them. In the past, when I met with my fans, they would want one copy of my autograph. Nowadays, there're many people who want at least ten copies of my autograph.

Q: Your winning ceremony was quite long today. It seems like you managed to kill two birds with one stone.
A: Even though two birds were killed with one stone, it wasn't because I had any bad feelings against Coca that I did it. It's just that our sponsor is Coca-cola, and it tastes really good, and defeating Coca made me really really happy, and I hope I can win the award for best ceremonies at the end of the year. That's why I spent quite a bit of time on it. Recently, it seems like Parting is doing quite a few ceremonies as well. I just want to say to him, "Parting, you can't do it. I will have a never-ending flow of ideas. The award for best ceremonies is mine."

Q: It seems like people are saying that you're the top favourite for winning WCS Korea.
A: I was looking online for the predictions of who would win. It doesn't seem like they think I'm the top favourite. It seems like more people think that Coca would win (laughs). There are many GSL players playing in the WCS Korea competition, and so I don't dare to confirm that I will definitely come in first. I just hope I would do well enough to go to China. The thing which worries me most now is that I would have to go to America the IPL TAC 3 team tournament. That'd leave me with little time to practise, so my next round opponent can relax. If I'm not wrong, once I get off the plane, I would have to make my way here immediately to play the games. This is the first time I'm going overseas to play in a tournament. It makes me kinda worried.
[T/N: IPL TAC 3 is over the weekend (11/12 August), and WCS ro16 winner bracket is either on 10 or 13 August. From what he's saying I guess his game is on 13 August. Pretty rush indeed.)
[T/N: Thanks Canucklehead and LongBow for the clarifications regarding the thing ]

Q: Any last things to add?
A: We are going to take part in the IPTL. Hopefully we can do well there. I want to thank my coach and his wife for switching on the air-conditioner last night before sleep time. His wife has also prepared a lot of things for us for our preparation of IPTL. Really very grateful. Also want to thank our sponsors, LG, Steel Series, Googims Company, Coca-Cola, Nvidia.

Q: How does it feel making it to the round of 16 of the winner's bracket?
A: The games were really difficult, but because of that, it makes me even happier.

Q: This is your first official tournament after the GSTL finals. Was the pressure very big?
A: Yes it was, and so I really practised a lot. To be honest, I was really very lucky during the GSTL finals. But because of that, the expectations that people have of me have risen by a lot. To show the skills that people were expecting of me, I really practised a lot.

Q: Your opponent was Kespa player Soulkey.
A: I felt like if I were playing against another GSL player, the pressure would have been lesser. However, it seems like the Kespa players are just as nervous as us when they are playing against us. Even though I was really worried I might lose, I just felt that if I had the skills that I need to win, I would win. If I ended up losing, it'd just mean that my skills are not good enough. No amount of worry would help me in the tournament.

Q: Did you prepare to go into the late game for both games today?
A: Recently, when I play TvZ, I just can't seem to find opportunities to end the game. I keep making such mistakes during practice too. As a results, both games went into the late game. But I feel that in tournaments, it's still better to finish off the game the moment you are able to. I got the feeling today's games would go into the late game, and it'd be a challenge of our late game mechanics, so I just relaxed myself, and pitted my mechanics against his.

Q: You used ghosts pretty actively today.
A: I thought he wouldn't have been able to cope with it, so I just used more of those. However, in the end, I couldn't cope with it either. If this strategy could be properly practised and familiarised, I think the ghost strategy can be a very good strategy. Some players like to starve their Zerg opponents to death slowly, and some players like just attack until the end. I think I might be too confident in my control, and sometimes the more I want to end games earlier the more I lose the games. Overall, I feel that when it reaches the late game, all types of units should be used.

Q: What's your assessment of Soulkey's skill?
A: I think he is at the level of the top of Code A. However, I'm not close to Code S level either. I think we're both at the same level.

Q: Your fans' assessment of you changed quite a bit after GSTL. Do you feel it yourself?
A: When I surf the net, news about me frequently appears. Sometimes, I will overhear people calling me Gumigod. It makes me feel like I indeed have more attention on me than before.
[T/N: His Korean name is Koh Byeung Jae, and I think people call him Koh Byeung God. The Chinese website called it Gumigod though, haha so I'll just go with that.]

Q: Your opponent in the round of 16 of the winners' bracket is Seed.
A: I lost to him in the WCG qualifiers. Even though I'm not too confident in my TvP, I still hope to be able to prepare properly to go up against him. I just need 2 more wins to reach the safe zone, and so I really hope to be able to defeat him.

Q: Any last things to add?
A: Choya hyung's birthday is tomorrow. I want to wish him happy birthday. A few days ago, when I had my birthday, I didn't have the time to go home. I am really sorry. I want to thank my parents for bringing me up. I will work hard to play more entertaining games in the future. I also want to thank our sponsor Razer, FXO, and GomTV.