WCS Europe Season 3
Challenger League

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

Interviews by monk

While we wait to see what exactly the WCS Challenger players are actually "challenging" for, enjoy our expanded "Better know a WCS Challenger" series! Now that we are featuring players from the Europe region as well, meet the Israeli player on a Ukrainian team, Cascade.Adonminus!

Adonminus

Adonminus: I see you released an interview with uthermal, what kind of introduction is that?

Monk: what do you mean?
You need to add flavor and style to the introduction.

Haha, I mostly copied it from the WCS AM interview. You can write your own introduction if you want.
I am the incredible Protoss player, the unbeatable ladder hero, the heroic challenger.... the one and only... Adonminus! I'm 18 year old Starcraft gamer from Israel.

I also have my unique barcode introduction on b.net. I use the mustache protoss portrait and then I'm like:
My name is hidden
My identity is secret
I'm the incredible, unbeatable, invincible...
Mustache toss!!!!!

It's all about that when you're barcoding.

I didn't even know there was a Protoss mustache portrait.
https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/3F00I1AT4K511380047722679.jpg They added those! The mustache protoss!

So you're from Israel? That's new. What's that like?
Yes, I'm from Israel. Well.. there were other good players from Israel like Zanubis or Osho if you remember. Now they retired though. Maybe it's time for me to achieve even better results than they ever achieved.

What about just life in general? What do you think is most different about Israel than from any other typical western country?
Life? Well it's hard to have a life when you're grandmaster. You know... lol. As for the other question, well I don't know, don't think it's really that different. Though stuff are really quite expensive here in Israel.

So we know you're a grandmaster in SC2. Are you saying you're a grandmaster at life as well? And if so describe one way that you're a grandmaster in life
Nah... I'm grandmaster at Starcraft 2. Actually on 3 accounts by now. Last one it took me 75 games and only 2 days to get promoted from a brand new account. It's getting quite easy. You know also I really enjoy the other parts of starcraft, not only the ladder. Like the arcade games, the story/campaign/lore and the editor. I could expand on that a bit more if you want?

Sure
It probably came from my Brood War experience. If people remember the US East server there, where people gather and had fun in UMS games. Like the arcade here nowadays. It was really fun times and met great people there. That's why I still enjoy playing all the fun games on the arcade too, even though I practice alot of 1v1 now too.

What games do you enjoy in the arcade? Any hipster ones you'd like to share? Like not nexus wars.
Let's see. Mafia, raynors party, strikers, blood pressure marathon, they're all quite fun. And also want to mention photon cycles. If no one tried that before, you should definitely try it out. The micro maps are nice too, can play arcade and practice micro at same time. lol

Btw, you kinda dodged my question about your ranking at life. How would you rate yourself at life in terms of a SC2 rank?
Hmm. Maybe diamond/master would be nice? After all I'm still quite young, just finished high school, so it's hard for me to answer.

Oh, so your season just reset. What are your plans now then and how much will SC2 play into those plans?
I want to continue studies now. I guess I'll still have time for SC2, I don't think I can just abandon it. Many players play and study at same time so it shouldn't be hard.

Do you know what you'll be studying in the future? And are you going to continue studies in Israel?
I'd like to study programming, seems like a logical choice. You can do so much with programming and could even end up helping to make video games, plus spending time in front of the computer is my specialty. And there's also other factors that make it a really good choice.

You forgot the second part of the question
Oh. Yes I will study here.

How disadvantaged do you find it being a SC2 player in Israel? How's the lag to the servers? And are there any lans or any other particular opportunities to show off your skills?
About the servers, there's not much lag really. Can play on EU and NA easily, but lag on KR like most people on EU face. As for the Israeli sc2 scene it's been going quite badly lately actually. Like no LAN tournaments, no tournaments with prizes even. It's just been degrading the last year... maybe there's hope but it's doing badly. I guess it's also harder to travel to European events since you need to travel by plane unlike if you live in Europe you might even just travel by car to an event.

So what you're saying is that SC2 is dying...in Israel. What was it like before?
The last event with a big prize was by the end of 2012. I won it actually, 300$ prize for 1st place.

Have you ever thought that the reason there's no more lans is that you've been too easily dominating them too much? Maybe you're killing Israeli esports.
No it's not about that, the Israeli community is too small. There's not enough people and viewership to attract big sponsorship.

Is that just a lie you just tell yourself at night?
Why you're making me laugh? lol

What else makes you laugh? What other sources of entertainment besides SC2 do you enjoy? Any other games? TV shows? Special Israeli TV shows perhaps? Special Israeli games?
Nah, I don't even watch movies all that much. I prefer my Starcraft cause every game on ladder just ends up being ridiculous, I just have to watch the replays afterwards to laugh to death. Grandmaster ladder just gets ridiculous sometimes, especially if I'm doing troll builds. Yes, you can clearly see my passion for Starcraft. That's why I'm here, no? ;p

So you're saying you're not the Zohan?
Emm who? I only know myself, the great one and only Adonminus.

Wow you're hopeless.
I know.

Btw that reminds me, what's an Adonminus? I tried to google it but only found references to yourself
Guess it's time to tell you the story of how I made the name, just like when anyone else asks me.

Adon means like mister, or sir in hebrew. And then I fused that with dominus which means dominator. Into the great Adonminus. The lord of domination! Of course the hard part of doing that is having to put all those prefix titles before my name when I do the introduction.

Prefix titles?
Like you've seen when I introduced myself... it adds flavor and style!

So since you've got such a passion about SC2, let's talk about SC2!
Great!

How difficult was it qualifying for WCS Challenger? Any particularly memorable moments or games along the way?
How hard? You might say I had an easy bracket and luck. But my greatness and awesomeness had to fight challenger hungry players who tried to take my challenger spot, Europe is just full of extremely strong players. Anyone could beat anyone on a good day. I think you can notice how volatile it is in the premier league as well.

Now for the memorable moments: Well my 1st notable win is against Bischu. (the long 3 game explanation or shorter 1 game explanation?)

Gogo long explanation
Alright the 1st game Bischu went for a FE in PvP, we all know how that ends up. He didn't really hide it so I could punish him with fast oracle into a 4 gate and take the game. Then I decided to add some cheese in game 2, but I guess that would be just unfair if I won bischu with cheese so I threw that game away. In game 3 it was one of those PvPs that I just love: The Phoenix vs Phoenix battle. And phoenix is actually my favorite unit, I was the better phoenix master and won him in the sky battles.

Then I was walking further into the bracket and faced Sonder. I won him 2-0 to move to my final match by using the most evil build you can against zerg, the 1 base 5 gate zealot all in. It's really hard for me to macro because I have only 80 apm, but luckily for me I'm playing protoss so I saved my macro strength for the final game vs Minirazer.

The first game was pretty close. I lost it though. The 2nd game he did quite a stupid mistake.You might think it's a good idea to run lings into the protoss base to kill probes and cripple the protoss, but I just trapped all his lings inside my natural and they die to photon overcharge while counter attacking and denying his 3rd. And he was just too behind so I decided to finish him instead of even taking a 3rd. The last game I just went for standard macro on akilon and he went for ultras. And if you wall correctly on 4 bases on akilon as protoss, ultralisks just can't break it. And minirazer doesn't play swarmhosts so I knew if I just keep turtling and make the ultimate composition I would win and advance to challenger. Unfortunately I forgot to get upgrades but I don't know how, my 0-0-0 army killed his 3-3 ultras and I won. Maybe it's my 80 apm a move that influenced it. I know it sounds ridiculous but it really happened.

One more funny moment if you want is when I ask my team for information about the other players. One of the guys from my team is even like: I can bribe your opponent's teammate so he says what style he plays lololol. It's so funny.

You know, you're not really helping the perception that Protoss is a no-skill a-move race
I only play the race that I think is the most imbalanced, every progamer should take my advice.

In what other ways is Protoss imbalanced?
I'll tell you that if you promise that protoss won't get nerfed.

Well, Protoss looks to be getting a few buffs next patch.
Ah excellent, this reminds me. My oracle killed like 15+ drones in that game vs minirazer. If it was buffed, I could probably play with 60 apm after that.

That sounds awesome. What about your experience in the actual challenger league? You faced lucifron yesterday. How'd that go?
My PvT is the worst match up. Probably since I haven't yet learned how to micro colossus and stop drops.

Stopping drops sounds important in pvt
I just go phoenix, terrans just stop dropping me after they see phoenix and it all goes fine. Like jim's style, you know?

Ya, did you get it from Jim?
I developed it on my own, Jim's play just inspired me to go into that direction of PvT. Where you don't get dropped and can play with 80 apm again.

So I lost to lucfrion 2-0. The 2nd game was actually kinda funny. I failed with my proxy stargate so I followed the usual protoss advice. When behind...Dark shrine! I almost killed lucifron with it and he was down to less than 10 scvs. However lucifron still had a sizable bio force with which he managed to inflict a deadly blow to me before my economical advantage kicked in. so yeah I lost 2-0.

How do you usually practice for these matches? You mentioned you're a ladder hero but also mentioned that you talk to your teammates. Do you mostly ladder for practice or did you actually look at lucifron's games and custom game with your teammates?
I did check some of his games. I actually try out a ton of different strategies on ladder. Then I look at my opponent's style and what maps we play the matches on. And try to fit my strategies to counter his playstyle on that map. And the "how you usually practice question", I mostly play ladder a ton, but I also go for custom games with my teammates and some practice partners.

You also mentioned that you got inspiration from Jim.
Only for PvT

What other Protoss players give you the most inspiration?
MC strategies and his killer instinct are really inspiring. He plays protoss like it should be played. duckdeok's play is kinda nice, I like looked at him back in season 2's ro32. And I'm like wow he's really good he could win the whole wcs eu season 2 while other players called him cheeser and all inner. I believed he could win and so he did. Naniwa's PvZ play is also kinda nice, but he bms on ladder

Those are some really unconventional picks. Most people would say along the lines of Parting, sOs, and especially Rain. Btw are you aware naniwa just copied his PvZ from sOs?
I heard about it, but I don't see much sOs games.

Do you mostly follow the foreign SC scene?
I try to watch the gsl but I often miss parts of it, so I have nothing left but to watch a bit of WCS EU in the evening. But foreigners are so bad compared to Koreans.

I'm sorry to hear that and i apologize on behalf of all foreigners. Going through your history, I noticed you wrote a guide on PvZ in the TL strategy forum. How was that experience and would you consider doing that again?
It was nice, I like trying to do innovative strategies... Writing guides on innovative strategies which you practice on your barcode account to get easy wins in tournaments matches isn't a good idea at the moment though.

I'm sorry to hear that. It is quite a dilemma though that the top players don't have much incentive to share strategies. though if you'd ever like to do it again, you should contact TL strategy (hint hint) Your teammate Zeth already works with us!
Maybe once I use them in tournaments a couple of times.

Ok so final big question that i like to ask everyone. If you had a chance to be on a team with any 5 other players in the world, who would they be?
forgg, mc, leenock, sos and stardust

That's quite a interesting list of names. You didn't even seem to know much about sOs 10 minutes ago. Did this interview enlighten you?
No, I did. I even remember his game with tempests against innovation which inspired me too.

The others are mostly European based, often known fro their interesting and less-than-standard playstyles. Is that why you picked them?
yes, exactly

Ah, that makes sense since you come off as that type of player as well, one with perhaps unique builds and playstyles. So let's wrap this up! Shoutouts or any last words to our readers?
Shoutout to my team Cascade and their main sponsor 1xbet, and partners Demix and MultiSales. Shoutout also to OCL on battle.net where my buddies are. And Shoutout to the Israeli commmunity at Forcefield.

Interviews: monk