SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

x5_Potter · Fri, 29th-Jun-2012, 5:39 PM

A fast paced last few months in the SEA scene has seen teams popping up everywhere. Players of high calibre have been snatched up and there's barely a morsel left on the plate.

One of the newest teams on to the scene is Team Mastermind, led by Fusion Slugs' Vulcan, who also goes by the name Phoenix in his casts. The team consists of well known sc2sea'er and ex-nRv member Bard, NotoriouS, clan mates with Cobo and Timber, WeTheBest, FlyingBanana/Stoicwilly and Evan.

In this series of interviews with the team, I will be getting to know each player and sharing it with the community, starting with the lesser known players so we can all get an understnading of what drives them and who they really are. The first interview will be with James "WeTheBest" Jiang, an Australian zerg quite unknown to me.

+ [WeTheBest] +

First question, not actually a question. Tell sc2sea about yourself:
I'm 19 years old, a full time uni student. I study science at the University of Sydney. I started playing Starcraft 2 at the end of 2010. Before that I had never played Starcraft 1, but I was into games like DotA and WC3 ladder.

Being a full time Uni Student it must be hard to get practice in, though you're still GM, how much practice do you manage?
I only play during the weekends, usually after 9 pm. I get about 8 games per day.
I also play a lot during the holidays.

What made you want to pick up Starcraft 2?
I started watching youtube videos of Starcraft 2, primarily huskystarcraft, HDstarcraft and psystarcraft
It seemed fun and similar to wc3.

What league were you placed in when you first played and how did you go about making it to GM?
I started off as diamond, but I didn’t play many 1v1s as players always cheese. In season 4, i decided to take 1v1s seriously and started playing consistently and eventually I made to gm.

What is the main force driving you to improve at SC2?
Before I joined Mi, i just played for leisure and I really enjoyed the competitive nature of the game. Watching pros play also motivated me to improve on my sc2 skills. Nowadays, I try to do my best, so I don’t let my team down.

What are your goals in Starcraft?
I play Starcraft mainly for leisure. However, I take clan wars and tournaments seriously. I don’t have any specific goals, just like to have fun!

Mastermind has a roster full of good players, what do you bring to the team that can be considered unique?
I’m the only zerg playing on the team at the moment, so I guess I can be a good practice partner.

Are you a standard player or do you have an interesting style that throws your opponents off?
Most of the time against terran and protoss I stick to standard play. However, my ZvZ matchup can be very versatile. All-ins in ZvZ are inevitable.

When not laddering, what are your hobbies in real life?
I like to watch movies, go to the gym, play DotA 2 and play the piano.

Thanks for taking the time for an interview.
Appreciate it, thanks.

+ [StoicWilly] +

First up, tell sc2sea about yourself in life and in SC2.
I am currently a student studying Maths, English, Science and IT. I am a terran grandmaster and have been going to tournaments ever since I got Starcraft 2. I used to live in Singapore but have now migrated to Australia. I got 4th at a small LAN tourney in Singapore if I remember correctly.

How much practice do you manage to get each day?
Well I played too much Saints Row so I’m very rusty now, but hopefully I would be able to play about 5 hours a day again.

When you practice, do you prefer custom games or the ladder as your method?
I try to do customs games whenever the team is online. If not i usually go ladder as i can play with all races

What made you want to pick up Starcraft 2?
Well a friend introduced me to the game and my love for the game and esports in general has grown a lot.

What league were you placed in when you first played and how did you go about making it to GM?
I started off as bronze but after playing and training, I managed to get diamond in season 2. Then, I started to go to tournaments and stuff, loved it, and so laddered til I hit masters. In season 4 I reached GM.

What is the main force driving you to improve at SC2?
Well as a kid who loves games, I strive to be the best in everything I do so I always train very hard until I become one of the best.

What are your goals in Starcraft?
I hope to win a major tournament one day. Maybe hopefully I could get a job and play Starcraft competitively at the same time but that would be hard. If I could get a steady income by playing Starcraft I wouldn’t mind moving to Korea and playing professionally.

Mastermind has a roster full of good players, what do you bring to the team that can be considered unique?
I have different strategies against different races, so I could be used for sniping people in clan wars and team leagues.

When not laddering, what are your hobbies in real life?
Mostly playing soccer and going to parties with friends. ^^

Your name just after joining Mastermind was FlyingBanana, what made you change and what does the new name mean?
I changed my name because I couldn't add Mi in front of FlyingBanana. I really liked the word Stoic, so I used it as part of my name and Willy is my nickname in school so I added it in too.

Let's just hope it's not misconstrued!
^^ Well Alex(Bard) sees my name differently.

Ok, a silly one to finish off. If you could add any progamer in to the game as a unit, what special ability would they have?
I would add IMMvp and his special ability is to open his mouth and kill everything in the opponent base.

World Eater for sure!
Yeah man sexy ability right there ^^

Ok, is there anything else you'd like to add before we finish?
Well just wanna say thanks for helping us do interviews ^^

My pleasure

+ [Evan] +

+ [Frustration] +

First up, give the people on sc2sea a little bio about yourself.
Well my name is Ashley, I’m 17 years old, 18 in 8 days so 17th July. I’m from Australia and live in Perth. I enjoy playing Starcraft, sports and hanging out with my mates. I play protoss and I’m GM in SEA, Top 8 Masters in North America and Masters on KR.

What made you want to pick up Starcraft 2?
Well my friend said it was a good game and at the time I was playing Halo Wars on the xbox, but I was always into computers games since it was my life. I’d never played an RTS before so he was the one who showed me Starcraft and I’ve loved it ever since.

So, playing Halo Wars, you kinda would have had a feel of what you needed to do in Starcraft coming in to the first time playing it?
Hmmm, sort of. I knew what you had to do in RTS by like mining minerals and building armies and stuff, but Halo Wars was completely different to Starcraft. One was a computer game and one was xbox so yeah. I found Starcraft a lot harder then Halo Wars

Having played Halo Wars myself, I can say that a keyboard is much more user friendly than an xbox controller for everything that needs to be done haha.
Haha yeah there is a lot more keys and stuff to do on a computer compared to xbox, where there is only like 6 buttons you press and an analog stick to move around haha. Such a different game.

What league were you placed in when you first played and how did you go about making it to GM?
I was placed in bronze league in SEA server and I played in the first season mainly on SEA. In the 2nd season I went to North America after I was diamond in SEA server thinking I could be like Huk and all the pros one day. From there on I practiced for a long time and now Top 8 Masters there and GM on SEA, so I’ve made it a long way from where I began.

What is the main force driving you to improve at SC2?
Hmm wanting to become a pro like Huk and all that and earn real money, plus I really liked the game so I wanted to see what my potential was.

What are your goals in Starcraft?
To become one of the best toss in SEA, to get gm on North America and to beat Destiny cause I can never stream snipe him! haha xD

We’ll have to set-up a Destiny vs Frustration show match soon then!
Haha yes definitely! I would love to verse him in a Bo3 or Bo5, or even Bo7

Mastermind has a roster full of good players, what do you bring to the team that can be considered unique?
I think I can bring my skill from other servers like Korea and America and help people in the team get better with my practice vs them and ideas I have of builds and mechanics. I also have good blink play which I can help Bard and Notorious in using which is really good against roach plays and all sorts of builds.

Living in Perth, you have the RF Lan coming up this weekend. How do you hope to go in that?
I hope to get top 3 and beat yang and put my name out there in Australia since he is the best Perth player. I’m hoping to stop that and show them how good I am!

When not laddering, what are your hobbies in real life?
Hmmm atm my hobby is Starcraft or playing other games with my friends on the computer

That or go out fishing and go-kart riding.

While you are far superior in ladder rankings, Potthead has you pretty beat in Raynor Party, do you plan to fix this at any point?
Hahaha I’m not so good at Raynor Party or many customs I think I’ll just let him have the better of me in that. But I will always beat him at the blink stalker round in it

I think Bard has us both beat at that at the moment T.T
Yes Bard plays too many customs, needs more practice in 1v1s!!! Haha, he’s a really good player though. Especially in PvP, his timings are good.

If you could pick any pro-gamer to be a unit with a special ability who would it be and what ability?
Hmmm, it would have to be Idra and the special ability would be mutas and roaches kill themselves!

Ok thanks for your time Frustration, anything to say before we finish?
Hmm I thank Mastermind for inviting me into their team and I ask that all on Saturday who watch or go to the LAN please cheer for me and support me, I will need it!

+ [NotoriouS] +

Firstly tell sc2sea about yourself:
Hihi, I am a 15 year old protoss player living in Australia. I am in the grandmaster league and started playing Starcraft shortly after it was released, being placed in bronze. Before this I was never a "gamer"; however I have grown to love the sc2sea community and SC2.

What made you want to pick up Starcraft 2?
Well a few friends from school bought the game and it was MiPhoenix (Rhys) who convinced me to buy it after he talked about it and how fun it was for about a week. I still remember my first game, it was me and Rhys vs our other friend who had bought the game at its release, we lost to mass voids T_T

You were place in bronze when you first played, how did you go about making it to GM?
I was placed in bronze on the NA server when I first got the game. I remained bronze for a long time until I was coached by a guy called QuietCalm who taught me the basics of protoss, which resulted in me mass laddering to diamond. I then went on to meet Evan who convinced me to play on the SEA server. On SEA I placed platinum and eventually worked my way to GM through mass laddering as well as receiving a lot of important advice from friends along the way, like Evan teaching me the importance of macro!

What is the main force driving you to improve at SC2?
I guess I am pretty competitive and always know I am still a long way from being as good as I can be. However, right now, being on Team Mi is a driving factor for me to practice as I don't want to let the team down.

What are your goals in Starcraft?
Right now my goals are to become more competitive in SEA online tournaments and LANs and gain greater understanding of the game.

Mastermind has a roster full of good players, what do you bring to the team that can be considered unique?
At the moment, not much except for my non-standard play style which can catch opponents off guard, like in the clan war versus iVn. However, I'm hoping in the future I can add more to the team as I develop as a player.

When not laddering, what are your hobbies in real life?
My main hobby is playing football, this year I am playing for the South Australian State Football team as well as the North Adelaide Roosters, school and club which takes up a lot of my spare time and energy. I also enjoy long beach walks, holding hands and talking about feelings.

You’re definitely the man for me then Vince

Being only 15, you're a few years younger than a lot of the pros in Australia. Do you feel your youth is an advantage?
I think being young does give me a slight advantage as I have more time to develop and probably more time to practice then those who have jobs and busy schedules. However, I think that overall the most important part about improving at the game is amount of time and effort put in so basically age isn't an advantage if you're not training often.

You’re on State and the North Adelaide team for football, so you’re obviously a great player. Will Starcraft need to take a backseat if you get further on in your football career?
I'm sure I can always find time to play Starcraft. For example this week I have had an intra-state carnival playing for North, so it has been get up early in the morning, play footy, do recovery (ice bath, stretching, warm-downs etc) then hitting up the ladders in the afternoon and night. The two seem to go well together although they can clash at times, in these cases Starcraft does tend to take a backseat temporarily, however, as I said I will always make time for it.

If you could turn any pro-gamer in to a unit, who would it be and what special ability would they have?
I would turn HuK into a Dark Templar because I know he has always wanted to be one, and I would give him the ability to stream again because I have been missing him so badly T_T

Ok thanks for the interview NotoriouS, anything you'd like to say before we finish?
Thanks to my teammates/team manager for being awesome and yourself for doing these lovely interviews

+ [Bard] +

You're the most well-known on sc2sea of all the Mastermind players, but tell us about yourself in case there's anything we don't know.
Well I'm 22 years old and currently studying Economics and Finance at Uni. I’m a GM protoss player from Adelaide and well known in the sc2sea community for my coaching and casting.

How much time does the Uni course leave you for practice?
Considering I live by myself, very little. I’ve always struggled to balance uni, sc2 and living. Lately I have decided to simply play 5-10 ladder games a day during the week and this is working very well. Time isn’t really the issue for me with practice, as I struggle to ladder due to anxiety which I still have no clue as to why I get it

Yeah, I remember a while back playing 5 games a day and writing a bit about what I did and how I won/lost each game and while I was only silver, the improvement in a short amount of time was clear.
I’ve never really been a mass gaming player because of that reason, I think I’ve managed 40-50 ladder games in the last 3-4 seasons which is pretty pathetic really haha. I’m very happy with my current progress in just the last week and a half from 5 games a day. I am of course doing more customs with the Mi guys, but I find customs a completely different experience to laddering and tournament play.

Do you find laddering or customs a better way to practice for you personally?
It’s hard to say since I get so nervous on ladder. I usually take 2-3 games to calm down so if I can get through them I can generally learn a lot. Customs are great for trying new things but playing against the same group of people can be bad as I tend to get into bad habits with meta-gaming them. I find that if I can make it a few rounds through a tournament it’s generally the best thing for my game. For instance the first Arena LAN I went to was by far the most I have improved in a single day and even though I didn’t place I was extremely happy with that.

What made you want to pick up Starcraft 2?
Well originally when I was a kid I used to play the original Starcraft on my friends N64, it was by far my favourite game. Eventually when my family got a computer I searched for some way to play Starcraft on it and when I discovered that it was an actual PC game I shat bricks. I basically played Brood War pretty much as a hobby from then on until I went to boarding school and I stopped. Once I left school I started playing Brood War again when I had my knee reconstruction (3 years ago now) when SC2 was just being announced. So naturally I wanted to play it and pre ordered it as soon as it was available!

What league were you placed in when you first played and how did you go about making it to GM?
Originally in season 1 I was placed in plat and after 10-15 games was put in diamond. I was regularly in the top 8 and used to check sc2ranks for my overall placing which was around 150-200. Unfortunately uni/life smashed me pretty hard just before they released masters so I was unable to finish off the season properly. I then took a break for 1-2 seasons due to RL stuff and came back in season 3. Wanting to get back into the game in a big way I purchased a sub to the TGM manual on SC2SEA so that I could get some builds. After around 1-2 weeks of playing I made it into masters and after another 1-2 weeks I was rank 1. Around this time the ladder locked and I went to my first LAN at Arena in Adelaide where I placed 6th (I think?) and at the start of the next season I was promoted to GM! I’ve basically been hovering around low gm since then, never really having the drive to ladder/practice properly. Hopefully that has changed now though

What is the main force driving you to improve at SC2?
I’ve never really had one, I play this game mainly as a hobby. However lately (the last month or so) I’ve developed a keen interest in taking my game to the next level. My main driving force is the team around me, WTB is doing really well for instance and seeing him play like he does makes me want to improve! So hopefully I can get the required practice in to do so

What are your goals in Starcraft?
I just want to be a well respected member of the community who can take games of the big guys, basically I just want to be competitive! Overall I guess it would be awesome to get a placing at a big event like ACL, but so far I haven’t even played for a qualifier so I have to take a big step forward in that regard.

Mastermind has a roster full of good players, what do you bring to the team that can be considered unique?
At the moment I honestly feel like I don’t bring much, losing to Dano in the clan war against ToR was extremely dissapointing for me. I basically just hang around and bug everyone for customs or advice lol. That being said I am very optimistic about the future and hopefully becoming a key player in the team

When not laddering, what are your hobbies in real life?
Fishing, Drinking, Snowboarding, A.F.L, Rugby Union, Cricket, Movies/TV/Music and cooking!

How did you get your battle net id?
Back when I played Brood War as a kid I had an obsession with DBZ, after watching the Bardock special I thought to myself "omg gokus dad is ******* awesome" so in Brood War I was called Bardock, which I copped a bit of flak for. In SC2 I decided to go for something similar so I shortened it to bard

If you could turn any progamer into a unit, who would it be and what would be their ability?
SK.MC, he would be a zealot with a troll face and instead of charging he would do his murloc shuffle. Bossmode.

Thanks for the interview, is there anything else you'd like to say before we're done?
err I would thank the sponsors but we have none!

+ [Phoenix] +

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