[syfSoundwave]

WCS Season 1 Qualifier Results:

+ [Results] +

1st: x5.PiG
2nd: x5.KingkOng
3rd: ROOTiaguz
4th: PSISTM.EnDerr
5th/6th: DuSt.DemiLove
5th/6th: mYi.Blysk
7th/8th: PSiArc
7th/8th: aLtNXZ

The first WCS qualifier of 2015 was a fun event that saw some new faces making an impact and also served as an illustrator of the growing competitive level within SEA. Notably, it was also the start of the 2015 OSC season. The last two years Eddie has been running an awesome initiative where he allocates points to those who place in tournaments, with the Top 32 getting a shot at the OSEANIC Finals and lots of money.

This year, Eddie has made it even better. You can get 5 points simply for participating in an OSC partnered tournament, meaning that even if you don't have what it takes to win one of these tournaments, if you continue to participate you have a chance at the Top 32 at the end of the year. It's a great thing Eddie has created here and with more money in the Oceanic/SEA scene than ever, you should all be participating in as many tournaments as possible!



Some notable upset victories from the weekend!

+ [Upsets Ahoy!] +

ETL.Ravenflames 2-1 x5.Yours
TMjpg 2-0 Nv.deth
ETL.Azz 2-1 eCKo’Satu
eCKo’Satu 2-1 TtSYF.Frustration
Vivid 2-0 ETL.Azz
fray’Crimson 2-0 TMjpg

Almost upsets. Better luck next time, guys!

+ [So close...] +

ETL.NaMeK 1-2 x5.Arrival
Lapack 1-2 TMjpg
TtSYF.Soundwave 1-2 PSiArc
ETL.Azz 1-2 aLtNXZ
Jothree 1-2 SLCN.Law
x5.Sparrow 1-2 aLtNXZ
Vivid 1-2 Fenner
mYi.Blysk 1-2 x5.KingkOng

You Still Got It (clap clap, clapclapclap)

A few old faces we hadn’t seen in a while returned for this qualifier. We saw players like fray’Eros, who may not have set the world on fire with their performances, but still did solidly and made a nice return to the competitive scene. The star returning players were no doubt Cabracan, who managed to come one series away from qualifying for the second day, a fantastic performance for his first tournament in more than a year, and Azz, who slew Zergs left and right before being upset by Vivid one series away from Day 2 himself. Cabracan wrote a blog about the experience, which you can read here.



New Kids On The Block

The Japanese players had a strong debut, with the first streamed game of the day featuring Japanese Zerg TMjpg versus powerful Australian Terran deth. TMjpg was able to defeat the veteran of the SEA scene 2-0 and prove himself to be a very powerful competitor. He was mentioned in the preview article by a few people as being an incredibly strong player, and he proved as such, although he was not unstoppable and it seemed ZvZ was his Achilles heel, as both his losses came at the hands of Zerg players.

PSiArc, the most well-known of the Japanese players, had a great run and proved himself to be fearsome to even some of the top SEA players, with convincing defeats over Crimson, Wally and Frustration. Even on Day 2 he was able to perform well as he defeated Law 2-0 and Lobo 2-0 and scored himself some money and a Top 8 finish.

A more under the radar player came in the form of Vaisravana who managed to qualify for Day 2. Although he may have gone 0-4 on Day 2, it was a big step in the right direction and a step towards proving the power of the Japanese players.

Overall, the Japanese players definitely proved their mettle and gained a few fans along the way. We definitely hope we’ll be seeing more of them in future SEA tournaments.



A Vivid Display Of Skill

In my opinion the single most surprising qualifier for Day 2 was Sydney Starsoc’s Zerg player Vivid. Vivid had always been a solid if unremarkable player in the past, with highlights being his qualification for the main event in the ACL Online tournament late last year and being one series away from groups at ACL Sydney 2014. However, Vivid had a true break-out performance here, as he was able to beat the tough Japanese Zerg TMjpg 2-0, take a game off Fenner and qualify for Day 2 by defeating Azz (who had been playing excellently that day, taking a game off NXZ and defeating Satu 2-1) with a surprising 2-0 score. Vivid didn’t carry his strong performance to the following day but given the level of competitors he was up against, hardly anyone could blame him. Vivid could be someone to watch out for in 2015.



Lazytown

Disappointingly, many skilled players did not participate in the qualifier due to (get this…) SLEEPING IN. Players like Alopex, SouL, RivaL and JaBiTo didn’t participate. Now, I don’t know for sure that they all slept in and didn’t have some other kind of commitment, but for the sake of fun I’ll assume that they were just lazy. Frustration woke up at 7am or something his time, and he made it all the way to Day 2. No excuses, people! Do much better next time.



No Trophy For KingkOng!

So, KingkOng didn’t win! PiG was able to deny KingkOng from winning yet another SEA tournament, which may be surprising given PiG’s typical weakness against him. KingkOng may have been stopped today, but Challenger League is the true test, as PiG takes on KingkOng again. Can PiG break the curse and finally beat KingkOng when so much is on the line?



WCS Challenger Preview

ROOTiaguz vs PSISTM.EnDerr

In my preview article for the qualifiers I highlighted how incredibly powerful iaguz’s TvZ match-up is. However, he struggled a little bit over the course of last weekend, losing to KingkOng and nearly losing to his Challenger League opponent, EnDerr. Now, they’re both exceptionally strong players and there’s absolutely zero shame in losing to them, but iaguz, after playing some of the best Zergs worldwide recently (such as Rogue) and going toe-to-toe with them, iaguz probably expects a little more from himself. This match represents a chance to right that wrong and get a whole lot of money as well as international exposure in the process.

Speaking of exposure, a victory here for EnDerr would be huge. He qualified for WCS once before by upsetting Petraeus, but was unable to advance beyond Challenger League. EnDerr had some very close games with iaguz in the qualifiers, but with only a couple hundred dollars on the line and the possibility that he could be playing iaguz the following weekend, you have to wonder if EnDerr has shown everything he’s got. He’s known as a very tricky player and it isn’t out of this world to imagine that he still has something up his sleeve. Either way, it’s an uphill battle for the Filipino Zerg. He is in that odd position where he has nothing to lose and everything to gain, so expect to see him break out his absolute best. This is where we discover what EnDerr can really do.

Prediction: iaguz 3-1 EnDerr


x5.KingkOng vs x5.PiG

The history between these two is immense. KingkOng has served as a longtime nemesis for PiG in the Australian scene. PiG currently stands at a 37.70% all-time winrate against KingkOng, a score that doesn’t bode well for the Australian. However, PiG went 4-2 against KingkOng last weekend, and the two hadn’t played a tournament match against each other for 6 months prior. Although it’s still hard to tell at this stage, perhaps PiG has used what he picked up from his time in the My Insanity house or simply through rigorous practice and discovered the winning formula for regicide.

KingkOng has been practicing hard for this match himself though, and perhaps comes in with a mental advantage, given that at the most key moments he seems to always triumph over PiG. A well-practiced and prepared KingkOng also represents a clear danger to nearly any Zerg in the world. This should be an utterly fascinating match and it is incredibly difficult to call a winner. Either way, both will represent the SEA scene amazingly in Premier League and stand as legitimate Top 8 contenders.

Prediction: KingkOng 3-2 PiG




Interview with Jared ‘PiG’ Krensel


I secured an interview with PiG, hoping to get the low-down on what’s makin’ the bacon tick recently.

+ [Interview] +

Hi PiG, thanks for taking the time out of your day to answer some questions. Let's start.

How did you prepare for the WCS qualifiers? Are there any players in particular you practiced for?

A lot of Korean ladder! Since I've come back from Europe I haven't had a chance to commit to really wrestling Korean ladder to the ground, so it's felt really damn good to get back to a high MMR and consistently face top 50 GM players over there. It's a faster paced and more fluid game you have to play at that level and it feels really great to be able to get back up there. As for specific preparation I've done quite a bit of ZvZ, most recently with Kane haha. https://twitter.com/mYiKane/status/5...370048/photo/1

Being perhaps the face of Australian StarCraft 2 right now, do you feel any extra pressure this year to perform well, especially in a Premier League featuring far less Koreans?

Haha, well I don't really think of myself and my results in terms of what others expect of me anymore. I guess I'm a bit of a veteran now (coming up on 4 years fulltime SC2) and I've reached a point where I've learned that all that really matters for me when I play StarCraft is that I play my heart out every chance I have. Winning and losing isn't always in your control, someone can always prepare a really sick cheese or timing, or do some nice mind-games. Or maybe they can just out-multi-task you in a really messy game. Maybe you make one clutch mistake and it costs you everything. That's just StarCraft. I've realised that whenever I get too hung up on winning or losing it's easy to get tilted with a single win or loss, or to carry a lot of emotional weight for weeks on end in-between tournaments. This leads to worse performance over time and can lead to missing even more opportunities than the first one. So for me, winning or losing is a little bit beside the point. Before or after a match I only think ‘Am I training well? Am I in a good mindset?’ And most importantly ‘Did I play to the best of my ability?’ The only time I let myself be consumed by my hunger for victory is in the game itself.

For your upcoming Challenger match, you're unfortunately playing your teammate and fellow Zerg KingkOng. KingkOng has a...pretty good record vs you. You were able to defeat him in the qualifiers, what can we expect from the Challenger match?

It's sad we have to face off after placing 1st and 2nd in the qualifier but we'll both do our best, and on the up side there'll definitely be at least one x5 player in Premier! You can expect a lot of fast-paced games. I think if one of us picks up momentum we might be seeing a 3-1 or 3-0. I'm very confident, but ZvZ is very volatile so all I can say is I'll show my best play.

You spent a few months last year in Europe. How was the experience and do you have any plans/desire to travel overseas for an extended period of time again?

I was pretty sad about my LAN performances for the most part, but online I took a fair amount of scalps. The real benefits I reaped though was being able to focus every ounce of my being on the game. Living in the mYi house surrounded by great players, having dinner cooked for me and groceries provided and the beautiful Swiss countryside to exercise in was a great environment to improve my game. I always had a huge, meaningful tournament just around the corner to prepare for and I also got to mass customs with lots of other foreign players and discuss the game and improve my understanding as I helped players prepare for WCS matches. Especially in the last month I honed in on a lot of bad habits that have been haunting me forever and I found an effective method for addressing them. Since then my efficiency in and outside the game has increased tenfold and I'm maintaining a healthier lifestyle which has had great benefits all throughout my life.

Exile 5 brought in an academy of up and coming players a couple of months ago. How much time do you put into teaching these players and how well do you think in the coming year? Are any almost ready to step up to the next level?

I was a little "meh" about the Academy when I first heard about the idea. But as soon as KingSlayer came on board as the Academy Manager and I got to know him and JunO (Coach) as well as the guys better, I couldn't help but love them all. Everyone is passionate about the game and we have a great group of guys that actively compete in tournaments, are practicing and improving as well as being very active in the community. Having this group around has made the game a lot less lonely for me too . As for coaching, I think most credit goes to the guys discussing and working on their games together and with their practice partners as well as JunO for always being on hand to give them advice. Juno's actually the highest ranked Random player on NA ladder usually (top 100 GM) and has awesome game knowledge. I started off doing a fortnightly session with the guys but with WCS I've slacked off recently. I'm looking forward to kicking it up again right after this Challenger match.

Any last words or shout-outs?

A massive shout-out to Exile5 and our amazing sponsor NVIDIA Geforce for giving me so many opportunities and supporting gamers in their passion. Also a shout-out to my personal sponsor Aorus (Gigabyte NB new gaming brand) who've been with me for ages now. A big thanks to everyone who makes the community, the tournaments and the game as amazing as it is, Blizzard, TL, SC2SEA, SCReddit. Lastly a thanks to everyone that's been supporting my stream and coaching over the last few month. I'll be back to full-time streaming myself learning and teaching the game after my challenger match, hope to see you there!

Thanks.

[Fullmetal]

you have clearly displayed your ability to give us good content!
GIVE THIS MAN THE DAMN WRITE UP JOB!

[syfRize]

I second above...

Unless someone produces something a loooooooot better, this dude deserves it!!!

[ShayneRarma]

Sick write up Burgerman! Once again showing quality content.

Guz vs Enderr will be a close one, I think Guz 3-2.
PiG vs KK, after seeing last weekend, I honestly think PiG can make it, 3-1 PiG IMO.

So hyped for this shit!!

[mGGSouth]

Great write up!

I'm confused, why is pig playing kk when they came first and second in the qualifier? Seems a little bit unfair to me.

Quick Comments

asdfSchnitzel:

wcs points yo

[Blysk]

Your write-ups are really enjoyable. Keep it up

[Inv.JunO]

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ raise your kingkongers ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

[SLCN.NXZ]

Nice! I feel like you missed a potential topic with blysk and demilove, especially blysk.

Will be fun to see kingkong vs pig