Hi guys!
I was one of the representitive of SEA/ANZ in SCII blizzcon this year and just want to write up my experience for a share! Not much of a writer but I really wanted to share my experience so here I go! lol
Day-0
Friday morning I've arrived in Hilton Anaheim! Met Jaczie and Glade. We all then went to the lobby in the hotel to collect our badges thats required for entry and stuff and first funny incident happened was - Jaczie saw paper document signed by "terran" (more known as sixjaxmajor) and speaks alound the major vs SEA incident where he faked himself to be an Aussie trying to get in to SEA-only tournament, gets caught and bms everyone in SEA (I'm sure someone wrote something about this). And guess who was about 1metre away from her(behind). Major...lol We had a good laugh about it at iHop eating breakfast!
Later in the day, we all went to the venue for interviews, photos and eventually practices in the pro-gamer area (we all had to seat in the allocated seats and I was next to Dimaga!! he was super nice). I had like million chances to get autographs, take pictures of well known gamers (eg Nestea) but was WAY too shy too.. T_T..
Day-1
All gamers have to be at the lobby by 8:30am...wtf...T_T
So everyone was there, and we all went to the venue where there were SOOO many people! all the gamers including myself were concentrated on practicing. I could concentrate well cause nobody knew me and so nobody was watching me lol but players like Nestea,Sheth,Glade and ETC were being watched by sooo many people lol (I met sheth, glade and major all in the ladder while practicing, losing to sheth and glade, and beating major!) and 12pm, we started our game.
I'll focus more on my games since this is ME writing! And also, I won't go into too much details but only write at the points where I "felt" something during the game as all the game replays are out in the blizzcon official site!
game1 vs Sen on shakuras
I had the biggest dilemma.. 15h?10p? I was not going to 14g14p. I knew that with the amount of practice I had (basically none..cause I had full school commitment T_T), I had no chance against Sen if we go mirror build, or going safe. I knew I had to take an early advantage with the build order. And I decided, since I thought Sen would be confident and go safe against me, why not play greedy and went 15h16p! but when I scouted his own hatch first.. I was like damn.. but at least I haven't lost in the build order! mirror build! so I decided to do the build Mafia taught me, only drones till 28~30 supply and mass lings all of a sudden! He kinda did the same build except I went roach follow up, he went banes. We were pretty even but his roach timing in the end killed me T_T. But it wasn't a total smash and dominance of Sen so I wasn't that depressed!
game2 on shattered temple
I was hoping close air so we could both hatch first. I suddenly gained confidence from game1 as it was pretty close and we both went mirror build. But instead I got close spawns! I decided to open roaches. He decided to do the same (we both hasnt scouted yet). The build difference was he was getting a 2nd queen and late speed for lings while i was going standard 1414 speedling into roaches. With the faster speed up for lings, I managed to take down 1 queen, kill some lings and get few drones(I think?). Then I got about 8 roaches out, hiding 5, 3 on the ramp and got mass lings out with taking every drone off gas. And as I hit a timing rush, I managed to win with GGWP from Sen! My goal of "taking a single game off any player" of the tournament was succeeded!!
game3 on abbysal caverns
This game omg.. I thought I won it! it was we both hitting timings here and there, and all failing. At the time of midgame, I poke in ovie, saw not much drones+no lair. I put down 5 spines and massed roaches when I saw him moving out. I was sure I can hold this and that will put me way ahead as I had spire coming up when he didn't even start his lair. At this point I was like.."omg..I'm taking out Sen in the first round..upset!!". but sigh... he makes like 20 additional banelings to take down all my spines.. and greedy was me, adding few drones even when I saw the all in thinking I've got this loses to this timing gging..T_T
After vsing Sen, I wasn't depressed at all. As I took a game off him and I heard his ZvZ was pretty damn good! After this I watched Dimaga vs Select, and into my next game, the SEA hater, "terran" or "sixjaxmajor"!
game1 on XNC
Even before picking the map, I had my builds planned. "On XNC, I'm going to roach rush". This roach rush wasn't a 1base roach rush as any terran seeing Zerg not 15h will just auto win by teching up and playing safe. I did 15h15p(dont remember when I took the gas), and roachwarren as soon as pool finishes and NO queens at all making. As roachwarren done, I make all 6 larvs into roaches and attack! I had my 4 initial lings out. Luckily, major's depot was down (lol) and I poked those 4lings in, hold position over the depot(2marines don't kill 4lings THAT fast) and free entrance for 6 roaches! This would've auto win at the spot if he went for expansion.. but omg, his going cloack banshees.. I take down as many scvs as I can, and try to take down techlab before cloack finishes which I fail to do. But I wasn't fully commited to this, as as soon as I saw starport, I droned up, evochamber with 2 queens and was teching. As I was way ahead in workers, I went hydralingbane to kill him, which I failed to but do even more damage to his worker line, and eventually kill him, and getting NO gg but a rage quit from major..wow BM in blizzcon tournament!!
game2 on shak
A standard TvZ game was here. Back and forth engagements (I love engagements in TvZ. Thats why I hate and lose vs Rossi cause he doesn't engage enough!!), drops everywhere. I made an overseer at good timing to check his 3rd expansion timing, and get no more mutas, but ling bane only after about 10mutas? and kill him with good focusfire with mutas and good engagements throughout. And I did my /dance lings in his base!!! but this time I DID get a gg from major which made me feel a little bad lol
So I took down the SEA hater major.. was sooo happy! and the next player is an ex SCI progamer toodming which I thought I would have a very high chance of winning.
vs toodming, I was on stage. WAY too neverous, first time every on stage, in booth..
game1 on temple
My nerves... I stopped all my drones at about 8 supply while spamming..T_T but!
9pool vs 14g14p! I was 1414! I had the build order win.. and decide to throw my game away by being way overaggressive after taking down 2 queens, and die to roach timing in midgame T_T
game2 on shak
lol..o..m..g.. when I watched the replay of this. 10pool vs 15h.. I was 10pool!!. Nestea always sends out drone at about 1:40 ish and when he sees hatch first, he brings all his drones. Which was what I did! I was sure that I was going to win. And somehow, I lost and his lings came out out numbering my lings in the end.. I was like wtf.. I thought it was goodmicro of toodming+good choke he made with pool+my bad micro.. But all these wouldn't have mattered if my TWO lings that were sitting in his creep doing NOTHING for like 20~30secs joined the battle...
I was sure I wouldn't be any sad if I'd lose after beating major.. but losing after having the build order wins made me feel sad also when I went to TL, I saw alot of trashtalking about how shitty the games of me were and see people raging about showing games that NO ONE cares(I think it was mainly because blizz showed me vs toodming(WHO??? to non SEA people instead of Nestea vs Naniwa). I was sad but Jaczie later came and cheered me up, saying don't care about those stuff! and congratulating me on beating major!
GSL finals MMA vs MVP
SOOOO many people!!! the seats were full and Jaczie, omg, she got a txt(email?) from Mike (CEO of Blizzard!) to come watch GSL together! which I was allowed to join too! So we were next to Mike and his wife at the reserved seats. The games were REALLY awesome (I loved the proxy, but late rush from MMA). During one of the games, 2 familiar faces seated infront of us. And it was...Jaedong and Bisu!! (Fantasy was there too but I don't know much of him). Bisu was like actually RIGHT infront of me!! BISU!!! and believe me if you can see how much excited I am through the writings, Jaczie was 192047094701309times more excited than me. I regret so much that I put back my gears back in the hotel as I couldn't get autograph from bisu or jaedong on my mousepad T_T. Instead, I got a picture with Bisu so it was still great! and GREAT finals it was!
It's been only few hours since I got back from 20hours+ trip so I'm going to rest now and write the rest maybe tomorrow! Hope my writings aren't too shit
I just wanna say... throughout that entire weekend, I was channelling every essence of my being into one of you matching MajOr and destroying him 2-0. I couldn't be happier with your performance, thank you. It's even better since his Korea hype.
Wonderful blog, very happy to read it all from your perspective and I'm eternally jealous that you got to sit next to my hero Mike.
Oh yearr , U TOOK DOWN MAJOR , no need to worry about other stuff !! Lol..
Great writeup man , keep it up , i'll be sure to keep reading.
I do download ur replays from this website and well ur playing more and more like a pro !!
I was so sad when I found out that they didn't cast you vs Major, and only your loss against Toodming. Trust me Jaz I would have watched you vs Major instead of Naniwa vs Nestea.
Anyway I think most of us agree that you did SEA proud and showed those yanks that we're much better than they think.
Bro, sounds like you way overachieved our expectations despite many nerve mistakes. Just think about what you(hopefully we) can achieve if you didn't make these silly nerve-related mistakes. Also, I think I speak for everyone on SEA in saying thank you for destroying Major, and him GGing you at the end of game 2 only indicates his/and the worlds growing respect for SEA thanks to you!
Congratulations and keep doing what you are doing!
Someone rip out this kids ears so he stops playing Jazz and starts playing SC fulltime!
Complete beast! You heard Sen was pretty good at ZvZ??? LOL he was considered one of the best ZvZ in the world second only to nestea for a long time! You were a hairsbreadth from beating him! Seriously taking a set off major and almost beating Sen in your least confident matchup! So impressive man!
And you got photos with Bisu and Jaedong ZOMG!
*Bows
P.S. Oh yeah and ignore those TL threads they are filled with angry retards!
Thank you everyone!! Really, every single word you guys said to me really gives me confidence and encouragement!
Oh and I'll post up the pix when I finish my last exam for the year tomorrow riichard !
@Nirvana: Major was a oversized guy about sheth's size and looks very Mexican! should be able to find his pics online haha I didn't take any pics with him..lol I'm sure he wouldve rejected me lol
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