+ Show Spoiler [Korean Version - 한국어 원문정종현] +
Q: Hello and welcome to the TSL3 tournament. Have you heard of TeamLiquid before? What made you decide to accept your invite? What are your goals for the TSL3?

Hello. I’ve always wanted to compete in a foreign tournament, so I when the invitation finally came I accepted. I knew about TeamLiquid.net since my Brood War days, and my goal this tournament is to play some games overseas.

Q: Many TeamLiquid members followed you during your time on Woongjin Stars. Why did you switch to SC2 and what do you feel you can accomplish in SC2? Do you feel your time on Woongjin was a success?

I switched to SC2 because I played Starcraft 1 for so long that I lost interest in the game, and also my contract negotiations at the time did not go as I had hoped. I’d rather play Starcraft 2 for fun, instead of focusing on achievements. I don’t think my Brood War career was successful because of my poor results, but I don’t regret my time playing it.

Q: What do you think of the international fans who watch GSL and follow Starcraft? Do you have anything to say to them?

Honestly I don’t know much about my foreign fans. If you are out there, I really thank you for cheering me on, and I’ll try to show you a lot of great games so you won’t be ashamed of supporting me.

Q: Do you think Korean Pro-gamers are more aware of international events? There are many big events like IEM and MLG with big prizes in America and Europe. Would you like to go to any of them in the future?

I know about them all through the news, and I’d like to compete in them if given the opportunity.

Q: Who do you feel are the best non-Korean players? Who have you heard of and who do you wish to play against?

I haven’t played many games with foreigners so I don’t know that many. Greg Fields is the best foreign player I know, and I’d like to face him again sometime.

Q: Your opponent is Adelscott, a Protoss from France. Do you know anything about him? How will you prepare for him? Are you confident you will win?

I don’t know anything about him yet. I plan to figure out his style and use builds tailored against it. I’m always confident, regardless of my opponent.

Q: Do you think international players and Korean players play differently? How so?

I think Korean players are rigid in their style, while foreigners are freer with their play.

Q: You won the GSL January 2011. But you were eliminated from Code S by losing two fast games to Julyzerg. What do you think about the current state of Code S? Are you confident you will be able to do well in future GSLs?

With longer starting distances on the new GSL maps, it has become very bad for Terran, I think it’s pretty obvious when all the Terrans were eliminated from GSL. If Terran gets nerfed again, I think it will be hard to produce good results. I’ve even considered changing races for the next tournament, but I’m not sure about what I’ll do yet.

Q: IM won the GSTL last month. How do you think your team will do this time? What members of your team are new rising players?

I think we’ll be able to do well. I’m looking forward to IMLosira the most.

Q: If you had to introduce yourself to our fans who never met you, how would you describe yourself? Write a few sentences about your personality.

Hi, I’m Jeong Jong Hyun and I play Terran…

Q: What do you think are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a player?

I can’t really point out a strength. As for weaknesses, I think I’m a little weak against mind games.

Q: Who do you believe will win the TSL3? How do you feel the Koreans will do against the best international players?

Everyone is so good so I don’t know. I don’t know much about the foreign players’ skill so I can’t really predict the results.

Q: You qualified on points. What are your thoughts on the TSL qualification process? Was there a lot of pressure?

I think the qualification process is good, except the day of the qualification tourney. Playing on the weekend is hard for a player when they already have lan-tournaments and other events.

Q: What are your goals for the TSL? Have you been practicing hard since qualifying?

For the moment my goal is to win the first match against MVP. I practice PvT hard and think about how to counter MVP.

Q: MVP is considered one of the best Terrans in the world. Are you confident? What do you think your chances are to beat him?

I think he is one of the top Terrans in the world. I think I have a chance, but will probably the hardest match I've played in SC2 yet.

Q: Many fans are not giving you much of a chance in this series. What do you have to say to them? What is your mindset?

I think its normal for them to think that, I've lost to many European Terrans and its not my best match-up. My mindset is to play my best and have no regrets.

Q: Do you believe the international players have a chance to upset the Koreans?

Yes foreigners will have their chance to beat Korean players.

Q: Tell us about your team, Millenium. How has your experience been? Who are the best players in the team?

Millenium is a French team with a good atmosphere. A well balanced team with 2 good Terrans: Tarson and Diestar, 2 good zerg: Lalush and Stephano, and 2 good Protoss: ToD and me. We work to be one of the best European teams at SC2.

Q: If you had to introduce yourself to our fans who never met you, how would you describe yourself? Write a few sentences about your personality.

I am Benoît "Adelscott" Strypsteen, 25 years old, including 10 of Starcraft and rugby. A Protoss for life, my style is pretty different from others. I like RTS, rugby, and beer.

Q: What do you think are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a player?

I have good vision of the game and timings, but I'm slower than many top players.

Q: Which matches (other than your own) are you interested in? Why? Who do you believe will win?

Qxc vs Genius will be really interesting, first because I play the winner and because I like Genius' style.

Q: Do you have anything to say to your fans and supporters before the Round of 32?

I hope I will not disappoint anyone and go as far as possible in this competition.

Q: You won the TL qualifier while at Assembly, playing very late into the night. How was your TSL qualifier experience? What are your goals for the TSL3?

I found myself a bit disappointed after losing to HuK at Assembly. For whatever reason whenever I lose an important match I feel a great need to go play immediately after. It's sort of like a cleansing ritual now. Lose important showmatch/tournament. Ladder for hours without resting. Feel a bit better.

I wanted to qualify for the TSL but due to other real life things going on I hadn't really been in the correct state of mind when the tournament inevitably rolled around on previous Saturdays. For all practical purposes the atmosphere at Assembly was nearly perfect and became better as the night grew later. I was actually fairly close to losing in the Ro64 when I made some pretty significant mistakes vs. antimage TvP. After that I didn't have much fear of getting knocked out until I play SelecT.

By the time the finals rolled around it was already 2 a.m. or so in the old cable factory. Jimpo and the last fan had long since left. So there I was sitting alone on the second floor of the LAN waiting for Zeerax & Strelok to finish playing. No distractions. As long as I was going to give up the whole night for the qualifier -- I figured I might as well win. So I tried really hard and took the finals in convincing fashion.

Afterward I was a bit miffed that I didn't have anyone to share the results with. At some point around the finals a Fin sat down and watched me finish playing Zeerax. He asked if I wanted to play a best of 3 vs. him after I finished the TL Open. I said sure. After massing ravens in the second game we had a good laugh and I left him with the mousepad I won from beating Grubby earlier that day at the steelseries booth. It's a strange feeling to both lose and win a tournament on the same day.

Q: You are currently studying in Spain. Do you feel this is affecting your practice? How is the EU server compared to the NA?

Let me start by answering the question that you meant to ask. Europe is a better server overall. There are more better players and more people who take the game more seriously. In general the Europeans seem more consistent than the North Americans but I'm not sure about the skill gap at the top. I haven't really played on NA since December. Since I'm only in Madrid for a single semester I've been trying to fit in a lot of things that can only be done while abroad here. So I've been traveling for a number of European events. I've also been practicing my Spanish and staying in shape by doing parkour with natives on the weekends.

As far as practice goes -- it's been different. Having relatively good latency to Europe has been helpful but the internet at my homestay is pretty terrible and when my roommates are using it I tend to have a lot of delay. I also cannot really participate in any NA tournaments due to time differences and having to wake up at 10 a.m. for school Monday to Thursday.

Q: You recently played at IEM World Finals, but you did not advance out of groups. What do you think went wrong?

I failed to prepare properly for IEM world finals. I've always had a great deal of difficulty playing in the morning and I didn't have my sleep schedule in order for the event, partly because I got sick the previous Saturday and ended up staying up all night. In terms of general game preparation I should've spent a bit more time practicing with better players instead of mostly on ladder. As there are very few high level Zergs, ladder tends to not be the most helpful way to practice that matchup. Unfortunately, due to latency problems, playing on NA was fairly challenging as well.

Alas -- I don't really like talking about IEM in general because my explanations inevitably start to look like excuses and I don't like making excuses. I messed up and I've learned from my mistakes. Hopefully I can perform better at future events using my newfound knowledge.

Q: Your opponent is MVP_Genius, a Protoss player from Korea. Do you know anything about him? What do you think your chances are? How are you approaching the match?

Genius won Blizzcon and since has not done a whole lot from what I understand. I'm focusing more on my own builds and skills rather than trying to analyze an opponent that I don't really know much about. In terms of chances -- I don't know. I'm tired of answering questions about expectations of my own performance. I'm just going to play as well as I can and see how it goes.

Q: Do you think the NA/EU players will be able to compete with the Korean invites? Who do you think stands the best chance?

Latency may end up being the trump card for some foreigners if it ends up working in their favor. Honestly I don't really expect many -- if any foreigners to make it very far. An all Korean server round of 8 would not be surprising. I feel like I hear about foreigners saying how they can compete with the Koreans a lot of the time. What I don't hear is why foreigners think they can compete. There are very few players who take the game as seriously as the Koreans do and put in the same amount of time and practice. If I worked twice as hard as everyone else I would expect to be better than they are. Anyway - we'll see soon enough.

Q: How is ROOT lately? Do you still interact with your clanmates often even though you are on a different time zone now?

Time zones make it almost impossible to interact with anyone in North America. When I wake up the majority of them are already going to sleep and when I go to sleep most of them are either asleep / working / at school / not online yet.

Q: If you had to introduce yourself to our fans who never met you, how would you describe yourself? Write a few sentences about your personality.

Hi. I'm qxc. I like long walks on the beach. I enjoy staring at the stars and splashing in puddles. I am sarcastic and enjoy subtle humor. You might even call me a troll. I am a workaholic and like to excel at anything and everything I do. I'm also fiercely creative and enjoy coming up with new angles and perspectives to approach past problems. I like to think that there is nothing (except for maybe art) I cannot do with my list of activities beyond Starcraft 2 also including things such as parkour, Brazilian jujitsu, ice hockey, ultimate frisbee, poetry/writing, a number of different games as well as rhythm games such as DDR/GH3.

I prefer to carve my own path in the activities that are most important to me. In high school I founded a Chess Club which died once I realized that there was no one left to play at school. In College I started a Brazilian jujitsu club which is hopefully branching into some MMA under the guidance of someone else this semester. I enjoy throwing myself into activities with all the energy I have. When actively doing physical activities I tend to live in between injuries. Right now I have around 10-15 minor scratches and open wounds from diving in frisbee (on sand) as well as climbing walls in parkour.

Q: What do you think are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a player?

My greatest strength is my flexibility. I don't mind pursuing outrageous strategies or trying things that are off-beat in order to take advantage of the situation. My greatest weakness is that sometimes I get so absorbed in my own cult of qxc that I forget how important practice and hard work are to producing results.

Q: Which matches (other than your own) are you interested in? Why? Who do you believe will win?

I'm most interested in Tyler vs. Strelok as Tyler is in my group at MLG and I can use that as an opportunity to see directly into his soul. In general any TvP/TvZ/TvT interest me as long as the players perform well. As very few people consistently show good results and an up to date understanding of the metagame, I won't really know what I'm excited for until after I've already watched the games.

Q: Do you have anything to say to your fans and supporters before the Round of 32?

Thank you to all my fans and supporters. I am sorry to have disappointed with my performance at IEM and hope to turn that around.

My facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/qxc/128129407223366
My twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/qxc0000

gl hf

+ Show Spoiler [Korean version - 한국어 원문] +
Q: Hello and welcome to the TSL3 tournament. Have you heard of TeamLiquid before? What made you decide to accept your invite? What are your goals for the TSL3?

I'm the type that doesn't really turn down invitations. I heard about TL when I played BW. Reaching the finals is my goal for now.

Q: What do you think of your international fans who watch GSL and follow Starcraft? Do you have anything to say to them?

I'm really grateful for people taking interest in me. I'll try hard to show them entertaining games.

Q: You won Blizzcon. How was your experience? Were you surprised at how many fans there were? Do you think Korean Pro-gamers are more aware of international events? There are many big events like IEM and MLG with big prizes in America and Europe. Would you like to go to any of them in the future?

There's so much I could say about Blizzcon. I was just so surprised by everything, and winning there was the happiest moment of my life. I couldn't tell while I was playing, but I was really surprised by the size of crowd when I saw pictures later. I know about foreign tourneys because news is posted frequently on Korean sites. Of course, I'd love to compete in every Starcraft 2 tourney out there.

Q: Who do you feel are the best non-Korean players? Who have you heard of and who do you wish to play against?

Well there's limitations to judging players based off just watching their games, so I can't really say without having played against them. I guess Idra is the best.

Q: Your opponent is ROOT.qxc, a Terran from the United States. Do you know anything about him? How will you prepare for him? Are you confident you will win?

I don't have any information, but he always seems to place highly when I look at foreign tournament news. As long as I don't let my guard down, I should be able to win.

Q: Do you think international players and Korean players play differently? How so?

They're definitely different, because their builds and the way they think is different. Their overall management differs as well.

Q: You won Blizzcon but since then you have not had as much success. Is it bad luck? Is Code S becoming harder to win?

When I competed in Code-S, Blizzcon, or other foreign tournaments, I was so happy just to be able to participate. I didn't have much desire to win, and I was playing a lot of other games as well, so my skill level dropped. I joined a team lately and I'm practicing a lot and not playing so many other games on the side, so I should be back in shape soon.

Q: If you had to introduce yourself to our fans who never met you, how would you describe yourself? Write a few sentences about your personality.

If you like standard, safe Protoss play, you should watch my games. I admit it's not that entertaining T_T.

Q: What do you think are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a player?

My strength is that I believe I'll never lose as long as I can play a safe macro game, and my weakness is that I try to play too safe.

Q: Who do you believe will win the TSL3? How do you feel the Koreans will do against the best international players?

I will win, keke. I suppose that Korean players are a bit better, so I think they'll be more prominent in the later rounds.