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WCS Interviews for this Week:
- (Clicking on the link will take you to that interview)
- 2013 WCS Korea Season 1 Code S Ro4 Day 1 Winner's Interview
- 2013 WCS Korea Season 1 Code S Ro4 Day 2 Winner's Interview
- 2013 WCS Korea Season 1 Code S Placement Matches Winners' Interview
- 2013 WCS Korea Season 1 Challenger League Round 3 Day 2 Winners' Interview
- 2013 GSTL Season 1 Pennant Race Week 10 Match 1 FXO vs ST Winner Interview
- 2013 GSTL Season 1 Pennant Race Week 10 Match 2 NSH vs MVP Winner's Interview
- 2013 WCS Europe Season 1 Premier League Grand Finals Winner Interview

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Source: This Is Game
Congratulations on winning the championship. Tell us how you feel about winning the 2013 WCS Europe Season 1 Premier League.
I was anxious about the end result because I was lacking in preparation, so I am really happy that I was able to win like this. I think I’m even happier than usual about this championship because it’s my first one in a while.
As you stated yourself, this was your first championship in a while. Your last championship was IEM 7 back in August of 2012. Why do you think you haven’t been able to produce any results since then?
During all this time, I didn’t get to practice a lot as I prepared for tournaments and I also got really sloppy. I think a lot of my motivation died because of that whole neck disk problem. And that resulted in my skills falling severely behind.
After watching your matches today, it feels like you’ve somewhat grasped the concept for HotS. Has anything changed?
I still haven’t completely grasped the concept for HotS yet. I practiced a whole bunch of TvT because I had a feeling that I was going to play a lot of TvTs for this tournament. Because of that, I was lacking in preparation for TvZs so I decided to mix it up by using both WoL strategies and HotS strategies. It ended up working out well, but overall, I still think my skills are lacking a lot.
Your opponent for the semi-finals was DIMAGA. Since you had an entire day to prepare for him after the quarter-finals eneded, how did you prepare for the match?
After I played against TLO in the quarter-finals, I expected to face Happy in the semi-finals. Which is why I still practiced nothing but TvT up until the day before the quarter-finals. I was unsure of what I was going to do because DIMAGA turned out to be my opponent for the semi-finals but after I played against him, I was able to realize that it was easy to deal with his kind of play style. So I just decided to play my match against him by reacting to what he was doing.
Your victory against DIMAGA was a complete 3-0 domination. You held the advantage throughout that entire series. Did you expect such a result?
I had a feeling that if I did win then I would win by a score of 3-0. I knew that DIMAGA is the type of player who gets nervous a lot so I had a feeling that I would advance comfortably to the finals as long as I won game one.
Feels like game two was probably the most memorable. There were a lot of back and forths and you also seemed to be at a disadvantage, but it looked like DIMAGA got a bit too greedy with his roach drops and that was the reason why you were able to turn things around. Around when did you know that you had won?
Honestly, I was in a really good situation for the beginning-mid game but it had been such a long time since I played mech that I kind of fell into a daze as the game progressed on. I think that’s why the situation started getting bad. But I knew I had the game won when I took down all of DIMAGA’s mutas.
You probably saw the Stephano/ForGG match. Since you said that you only practiced TvTs, did you want ForGG to make it through?
That’s correct. While it’s true that I did lose to LucifroN in the Ro16, you still couldn’t overlook the fact that the top 1, 2, and 3 spots on Europe ladder were all taken up by Terrans. I expected to play a TvT for either the semi-finals or the finals so I practiced extensively for that match up. For a minute there, I even told myself that playing ForGG would be the comfortable route since I had so much confidence in my TvT.
What kind of score did you expect for the finals?
I’ve seen enough of Stephano’s games to know that he is an excellent player. I expected a difficult match with a score of like 4-2 or 4-3 in the end.
It seemed like you lost game one pretty easily because there wasn’t much diversity behind your attacks. Where do you think things went wrong?
Ever since the Ro32, I just kept on vetoing playing on Bel’Shir Vestige. I just kept on avoiding playing on it so I was really lacking when it came to needing to adapt to the map. That’s why I just ended up losing too easily.
You went for a mech composition for game two. The highlight of the game was that you understood the map well. We even saw Stephano play a little too defensively in order to take down your tanks that were positioned very well. Were you originally planning on going for mech? If so, could you tell us why?
I wasn’t originally planning on going for mech. I stated earlier that I felt dazed when I went for mech vs DIMAGA and this time was no different. The build order was not that good and things got a little messed up but I was able to win because of my early-mid game advantages I achieved.
From game three and on, your medivac plays just kept being phenomenal. After you blocked the nydus strategy, you went for an attack with your bio/hellbat composition and grabbed the victory. Were you somewhat expecting a nydus play?
I didn’t really expect a nydus strategy to come at me. My build order was just perfect for handling nydus plays because I wouldn’t die even if I did get broken through. I don’t think it was really something I needed to worry about.
For game five, we saw a banshee play for the first time ever in the finals series.
I didn’t use a banshee strategy once during the quarter-finals and the semi-finals so I figured that I would be able to win if I went for it for game five. That’s why I decided to go for banshees.
With this championship, you are ranked #1 in WCS and you secured your spot for the season finale. And you also secured your spot for next season’s Premier League. What are your thoughts about this season?
I think this really was the best season. I want to prepare extensively for next season and win the championship again (laughs).
You have to return to Korea to participate in the season finale. When do you plan on returning to Korea?
I have to get on a flight to Korea on the 27th @ 15:00 KST. After the interview, I will be leaving in six hours.
How high do you think your chances of winning the season finale are?
I’m not giving myself a really high chance or anything like that but my goal for now is to at least get to the quarter-finals.
Why the quarter-finals?
It will start from the Ro16 so I am telling myself that I should at the very least take down one player (laughs).
You had to play through this tournament while staying in Europe for quite a duration.
While living in Europe, I was able to realize just how difficult it was to participate in a tournament. Aside from the fact that it was hard for me to focus because the studio didn’t have separate booths for the players, everything else was pretty satisfactory.
Anything you particularly remember?
I remember the most that every time I go overseas, I always end up eating Korean food regardless of where I go (laughs). I normally just eat like cereal, bread, or ramen noodles, but whenever I go to a Korean restaurant, it’s always so expensive.
Anything else you would like to say?
First off, I want to thank my parents, my girlfriend, the supervisor, and the fans for cheering me on all the way from Korea. I think I was able to make such a good result because my girlfriend found VODs/replays of my opponents and sent them to me because that’s how much she cared. I want to let her know how grateful I was and how much I love her. ByuL helped me out a lot with practice even though he was in Korea. I think I’m going to have to buy him a delicious meal when I get back. Lastly, I want to thank our sponsors LG Electronics, Steelseries, ASRock, Kingston HyperX, Coca-Cola, Googims Company, Super Flower, Cooler Master, and DXRacer.
Methods to locating SC2 interviews!
- Go to the TL.net search bar and type in [Interview] and then search. You will find the most recent interviews at the top
- Go to the SC2 Interviews/Translation Archive
- Go to the liquipedia page for that player and look at the section titled "Interviews" http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/PartinG#Interviews
- Go to the liquipedia page for that specific tournament and find this icon:
If you click on that icon, it will take you to the interview for that group's match winners