[deL]

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Sequential Gaming: Player Spotlight
Andrew "SenSei" Carmichael

One of the less heralded teams floating around the ever growing SEA scene at the moment is Australia's Sequential Gaming. While they are not commonly included among the bigger names like Xeria, aLt or the recently disbanded Archaic they have been quietly achieving with some home grown talent. They don't throw money at the biggest names, but instead go for a small, close-knit squad of underrated or up-and-coming players and after the ACL results it's beginning to pay off. This had encouraged me to start an article series on SQL to get to know their players, plans and performances up close.

Andrew "SenSei" Carmichael recently published a blog, "Going All In" about his intentions to take StarCraft II more seriously and play almost full-time. As one of the less appreciated players with talent to burn on the SEA server SenSei has mostly gone under the radar until recently. Despite some reasonable performances in beta and some appearances for Team Australia it has been his recent successes in online and LAN events that have him considered as one of the stronger Protoss players on the server. You can see from his recent achievements below that he is punching well above his weight for someone who doesn't put in many practice hours, which is what makes it so exciting that he will be applying himself soon.

Recent Achievements:

• Semi-Finalist APL Season 1
• Third Place ACL Brisbane

With goals including making a living financially off of StarCraft winnings, streaming himself, and playing in international tournaments SenSei is a player worth keeping an eye on as he tries his luck at the highest levels of play. With 8 years of SC:BW experience including Team Australia representation under his belt we have no doubt that he will achieve what he sets out to and we wish him the best of luck. I'm sure he will keep us updated on his progress but I reasoned an interview would give us a baseline to compare his goals and ambitions as he climbs the ladder.

Andrew "SQLTt.SenSei" Carmichael

Age: 23
Location: Brisbane, AUS
Race: Protoss
Team: Sequential Gaming
Clan: Terror Australis

1) In your blog, "Going All In" you said travel plans fell through so you skipped straight to playing full time. Did your position on SQL encourage this move or was it always something you planned?
Full time gaming has always been something I have wanted to do ever since I first started playing Broodwar competitvely, but before now there has never been an opportunity for me to do it. SQL didn't really make a huge impact on my decision to go "full time" it was more the fact that now I have finished my studies and have worked a full year full time within my industry and saved up enough to last me awhile.

2) You mentioned in our last interview that your contacts from your days at the top level of SC:BW would make ideal practice partners for you. Do you still practice with these NA based players regularly, or will you? or is it enough to practice on SEA and with teammates?
I can't say that I keep in regular contact with them anymore, having a fulltime job and not much time to play limited me to concentrating my time on one server (SEA). However I do still talk to all the check-six guys on vent, but it's nothing like when I first made the move from Broodwar to sc2. In terms of practice I think that SEA ladder is not very helpful, having teammates is great for if you want to practice specific builds but I don't think that should be the main source of practise, this is why I plan on grinding up my korean account to (hopefully) high masters and get most of my practice on there.

3) People will also notice back then you played as Terran, citing that you liked the aggressive, non-turtle and micro-intensive play style. Is this still the case, and what made you switch to Protoss?
The main reason I made the switch from terran was because of TvT, I hate tank lines.. I would find myself in a demanding lead in games and then throw it away running into a line of tanks because I am very impatient, something I need to work on. I still definitely prefer playing a more aggressive micro-intensive play style over . However I still struggle with my PvZ as I find if zerg , being such a reactive based race, get the correct scouting information they can counter you very easily.

4) What will be the first steps you take to improve your play? As a player already near the top of the GM ladder it's not as simple as paying for coaching, so do you have anything special in mind?
Like I said earlier my main focus will be to mass play on my korean account which I haven't had time to play on previously. I will definitely be analysing the korean pro's and downloading a bunch of their replays/fpvods. Apart from that I will start to analyse my own play a lot more instead of just taking a loss and moving on without thinking too heavily about it.

You Tube

You Tube

SQLTtSenSei vs NEOindy in Eddie's Masters Cup

5) How will your SC:BW experience help you achieve these goals, if at all? Do you feel you are at a similar level or higher in SC2 than you were in SC1?
I think the mindset in training sc2 compared to Broodwar is the same, so it will definitely help me. I'm not at the same level I was in Broodwar in sc2 currently, I was a lot more competitive, especially on an international level.

6) You were mostly competing at a high level in online tournaments in SC1, without much of a chance to go to international offline events. What do you wish you achieved during your time as a BW player, how far do you think you could have gone, and will you be trying to achieve this in SC2?
By the time I started getting really competitive and good at Broodwar it was nearly 5-6 years after release and the scene in Australia was pretty much dead except for online. Overseas still had a huge following for it but here there was not much left, this is why the majority of my achievements were online, the only offline LAN event that was big was WCG which I placed 2nd behind Legionnaire in 2005. I'm happy with what I achieved as my time as a Broodwar player, I had my fame and made a lot of money at the time for a young kid playing games. I feel like if there were more opportunities within Australia at the time I was playing I could have competed in overseas tournaments with all of the big names as I did online, but even being in overseas sponsored teams at the time they did not want to pay for flights or anything out of Australia. It's alot different now with online qualifiers and many tournaments paying for your way overseas and sponsors being a lot more lenient with paying for you to compete so I feel like I can achieve this.

7) What's the next big event you will be focussing on, either individually or as part of a team/clan? How do you plan to achieve your goals?
I am going to be focusing on improving my own game rather than concentrating on taking out tournaments, if it happens it happens. I wish to represent SQL as well as I can and enter all the big tournaments that are around, I will also be flying around Australia to partake in them. Apart from Australian tournaments I will be joining in as many international qualification tournaments as I can. A goal of mine for this year is to win a national ACL event.

8) We've seen with a lot of the older (22+) Australian SC1 players decide to take the plunge and go full time for SC2 only to end up playing more casually as real life or disinterest gets in the way. Examples include Legionnaire, Starhunter, XaraCoS and SeMu - how will your case be different to these players?
The only thing that will stop me from following in their paths is keeping a strong mindset of what I want to achieve, setting short-term and long-term goals for myself along the way. Once I set my mind to something I don't quit easily.

External links

Sequential Gaming - Twitter @SenSeiSC2 - Stream

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Sequential Gaming: Player Spotlight
Mark "yang" Richardson

Continuing on from the last Sequential Gaming player feature, aimed at helping us learn a bit more about our local sponsored teams that slip under the radar, we will look at another ACL underdog who performed. He was crowd favourite after making it all the way from the open bracket, though I think the satisfaction that comes from saying his name does a lot to put him on side with the fans! Infeza is the manager of the SC2 division of SQL and is responsible for the selection of his charges who are doing so well to start 2012.

Mark "yang" Richardson has lurked in the shadows of the few Protoss SEA stars for a while now, but has finally come into his own and can claim a place among the best of them. His breakout tournament was probably his performance in the IEM Kiev qualifiers for the SEA region, where he took out more well known opposition to claim a place, which he unfortunately could not accept. After quietly practicing on ladder and with TA teammates, yang finally landed a position on the SQL pro-team. Seemingly motivated by this move yang took the LAN scene by storm - rare for a Western Australian - to qualify from the open brackets at ACL Gold Coast, and eventually taking a top 4 position.

Recent Achievements:

• Fourth Place ACL Gold Coast
• First Qualifier IEM Kiev SEA Qualifier

While he hasn't quite made it yet, yang has shown his potential and dedication to improving his StarCraft abilities and we may just find that this is the start of a lot of success to come. YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAANNNNNGGGGGGG!~

Mark "SQLTt.yang" Richardson

Age: 19
Location: Perth, AUS
Race: Protoss
Team: Sequential Gaming
Clan: Terror Australis

1) First of all congratulations on a successful run in ACL. You seemed to be a crowd favourite - did you know you had this kind of tournament in you, and what was your reaction to all of the support?
I knew I definately had it in me to win over every person who attended but I hadn't played for a couple weeks. So I was sure I was going to lose first round in the championship bracket. I didn't believe there was cheering for me when I was told so I jumped into stream chat and sure enough there was enough yaaaaaaaang to fill a room. I basically spent my time, while other people were playing, laddering to try to work out kinks so I wouldn't disappoint. It definately let me get as far as I did.

2) How did you go about preparing for the event? Do you think it helps that in SEA Protoss is usually underrepresented at the highest levels, meaning you had some element of surprise against opponents who have not had as much experience in the matchup? Or do you think laddering on Korea means this is not the case?
I didn't prepare at all for this event. Everybody plays on Korea so there being no Protoss really doesn't make a difference as I'm sure everybody works on their matchups equally. Though nobody prepares any builds for Protoss like Rossi does for Zerg for example, so there's that.

3) You've been representing SQL for a while now and seem to be a proud member of the team. What prompted you to join the team and how has your experience as part of SQL benefited you so far?
I was looking for a professional team and I was looking at joining vortex but then I was told by Mayo that 'Snake' was shifty and I should jump ship. He also told me SQL was looking for some people and got me into contact.

SQL has been amazing, for one they payed for the room at QLD so I could actually manage the trip. There's been a bit of a lul with HuT having no internet and Sensei working full-time but now that they're both rearing to go there should be a lot more coming from SQL in the future!

Last week's featured player SenSei shows his support for yang!

4) Will you get the opportunity to have a second attempt at an ACL event considering your success at the first? Does your success guarantee that your team will sponsor you to attend ACL Sydney or Melbourne or is that still up in the air at this point?
Money is a bit of an issue with sponsors obviously but I think Sydney is looking promising because everybody can attend but me without flights. Melbourne is a definite, I'll pay my own way there if necessary. Victoria is the place to be after all.

5) Interestingly you seem to be one of the few players who is unaffected by the LAN environment, playing to your potential most of the time despite not having much experience at live events or in competitive games. Do you have a secret to this or are you just good at hiding nerves? How would you classify your play style and does that help?
Truth be told this is the first time I haven't been super nervous. I've played a lot of games at quite a high level and have attended LANs before so this isn't a new thing. However I used to get really nervous and do things that weren't familiar to me (I think this is common) but now I just stick to what I know. The first game on Antiga against yaguz is a great example of this, just a cookie cutter game with a solid build I know.
I think for this event though, I came in with no expectations and was happy to get out of group stages so I just relaxed afterwards and was surprised with every win.

You Tube

You Tube

SQLTtyang vs ToTJerry in Eddie's Masters Cup

6) You missed out on representing SEA in IEM Kiev despite qualifying as #1 seed against some very tough opposition. Was it just not feasible financially or do you think you weren't ready for an international event? Do you plan to go international any time in the future?
I straight up couldn't get the Visa to Ukraine before the event lol. If I did go I fully expected to go out without taking a game so I am happy TargA went instead. If it's possible I'd love to go international, i'm quite happy with the Australian scene for the time being though.

7) Being in the WA timezone obviously has it's drawbacks especially for offline events. Do you find yourself practicing with Southeast Asian players more, who share your timezone, or do you still mostly practice with your TA friends? How do you think your move to Melbourne will affect your gaming 'career'?
If you look at my SEA accounts I barely play on them. I practice exclusively on Korea as I think it's straight up the best use of my time. Being in WA basically only affects my offline participation. Once I move to Melbourne I'll be attending as much as I can. I'll probably end up doing a lot of road trips lol.

8) Finally, what can the fans expect from yang and Sequential Gaming in 2012? Do you have anything planned?
2012 should be amazing, a tonne of offline performances. I'll qualify for this Blizzard tournament coming up and get to take out Mopglade, hopefully at least. With all of our players playing full time SQL should make some waves. Look out for Sensei especially, he's better than me and he works full time. Wouldn't be surprised if he starts winning everything, dude is amazing!

Phil "SQLTt.inFeZa" Bertino

Age: 21
Location: Melbourne, AUS
Race: Protoss
Team: Sequential Gaming
Clan: Terror Australis

1) While you are designated as a manager for Sequential Gaming, you seem to put a lot of effort in to developing your own SC2 skills as well. Is this because you see yourself as a future player for the team or will your role be predominantly managerial and you use practice to help you keep on top of the scene?
I used to play a lot more seriously before i took a bit of a hiatus, i broke top 200 on SEA before Masters was even out, and now i really want to get back into practicing intensely again, but i have a full time job, and it's kind of hard to practice as much as the other top tier players.

I'm currently High masters on SEA and i'm happy with that. I know i can't compete with the really top top SEA Players but i know i have the potential to take games off of some GM and High masters.

I won't be a full time player for Sequential, but i will always play my best to represent the team as much as i can, and i want people to think that "Hey, the manager actually knows some things bout this game".

2) On the topic of your position in SQL, how did that come about? Did you apply, were you approached, why did you want to manage a team and what was your reaction when you got the position?
I used to play a lot with Ninja after hitting him on the ladder in the past we became friends and practiced together a lot. He told me that Sequential picked him up for a team, and Glock (the head of SQL) knows very little about Starcraft 2 and the SEA Scene.

I felt like I wanted to do more within the SC2 Community because I love the game so much and being in my position I just went ahead and asked him to manage the team and pick out the rest of the players.

I was pretty happy, and nervous because I have had managing experience (part of my job) but not within the eSports world, and i didn't know what Sequential could offer or if I would get the right players, but now I am more confident as I have a strong team to support and look after, and I feel much more comfortable making decisions.

inFeZa wasn't just at ACL to manage and support the players - he had a crack himself!

3) What are your roles in SQL, and can you give us an idea of the direction you or the higher ups are heading with the SC2 team? Will the roster expand, will you focus on local LAN events or international ones, will you enter team leagues?
My main role is to keep my players happy, I'll do everything I can to keep them motivated and looking forward to playing their next game or attending a LAN and arriving feeling fit and ready to play.

I also try to schedule practice, but it's hard on SEA so laddering is the most practice that our team can really get apart from some in house stuff.

There's also the Practice show which I organise (which hasn't had a show in a few weeks, mind you) and a bunch of random miscellaneous things that are more behind the scenes - such as getting our name and sponsors names recognised within the community.

The SQL Roster is always open for applications, I've been looking to take on some more lesser known players to have a bigger roster and create some in-team competition and motivation to practice hard and earn their sponsored flight or whatnot.

We don't have plans to send any player international, but online events they are more than welcome to participate and represent the team. I know some of our members have played against top ranking NA/EU and KR GM notables so I have confidence we can make an impact in the future on the international stage.

4) The direction SQL seems to be taking is a bit different from conventional "pro teams" out there, in that they picked up relative unknowns and a lot of young players, and you're happy to associate closely with the social clans that your players are from, such as aLt and TA. How do you compare SQL to what other pro teams in SEA or internationally are doing?
When I was asked to pick a team for Sequential I had to choose very carefully and studied everyone in Australia's playstyles and how they perform, and most of the super high top players are already sponsored or unavailable.

From what was on the table, I beleive that I chose a very strong team. As I know these players may be young and lack some experience I think they will gain the confidence and mature into a successful player as they practice and get hungry to win and be #1.

The Clan aspect of the team is huge, it is where our players enjoy, practice and communicate about the game, and if I took them away from their respective clans I'd feel as if I would take some of the Starcraft out of the players. I'm glad our team is playing for their clans this season, but next season Sequential will hopefully have our own very strong team.

I would say that Xeria is the closest to us in terms of similarity. We have a good friendship and healthy rivalry between the teams, as for international it's a bit harder for Australian teams to compete because we're so far away and can't afford to send our players to events such as MLG or Korea, etc. But who knows what the future holds for us.

Shoutouts? Everyone loves shoutouts! - Follow me on twitter @inFeZa, follow Sequential Gaming and our sponsors on Twitter & Facebook (linked below). Thanks to our sponsors USAFoods and Tt eSports. Shoutout to TA & Thanks to deL for this interview.

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This is part 2 of a three-part series covering the SQL players.

Part 1: SenSei - Part 2: yang, inFeZa - Part 3: HuT, Ninja
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External links

Sequential Gaming - Twitter @markr155 - Stream

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Sequential Gaming: Player Spotlight

In the final installment of this feature article on the players and staff of Sequential Gaming's StarCraft II division, we talk to the remaining (and until recently less active) players. Both Ninja and HuT are on the rise trying to get back to their former glory, and have shown promising results in the latest SGL 6 tournament on the weekend.

HuT has shown he can take games off of most top players but is yet to hit the consistency required to take places in tournaments. However, HuT is very young and now that he has a lot more time to focus on improvement he will provide a solid Terran option for SQL. Ninja on the other hand has already had some significant results in the always competitive Sydney LAN tournaments and is even younger than his teammate HuT at only 17 years old. Ninja isn't so much an up-and-coming player as one who really just needs to find his feet again at the top level of competition.

Alex "SQLTt.Ninja" Smith

Age: 17
Location: Sydney, AUS
Race: Zerg
Team: Sequential Gaming
Clan: aLternative

1) Before some inactivity over the holidays you were one of the real contenders for best up and coming Zerg player on the server. How have you adapted coming back from inactivity and how are you preparing to represent SQL?
This season I have still only played about 100 games but past few days I have been laddering on the korean server to prepare for SGL where I'm aiming to do the best I can, top 3 will be tough with competition like moonglade, iaguz, pig, tgun, rossi and more recently pokerface though.

2) You were quite active in the Sydney LAN scene until recently. With the success of SQL's Protoss aces on the Gold Coast will you be looking to travel interstate for offline events? How long do you think it will take until you're up to the level of your teammates for representing in LANs?
I still got 5th at the last sydney lan, although there was some luck involved in my series vs iaguz so I don't feel like I have fallen off completely yet.

Not sure about interstate lans yet...depends on how much funding I can get and how much I am practicing tbh.

3) In addition to playing for Sequential in individual tournaments, you are playing for your social clan aLt for SEA Premier League. How does this benefit your progress and do you think it helps you as a team player with SQL or hurt it?
The opportunity to play in more leagues and tournaments can only help us as starcraft 2 players simply because the more experience we have the better we are going to get, so I think it's a great thing.

Hair is off. Sh*t just got real.

4) You mentioned SGL as your main focus for practice at the moment. Are there any other events you are looking forward to? Which ones will require the most practice and who are your biggest rivals?
Looking forward to ACL Sydney when it comes around in April, definitely going to prepare well for that . As for rivals it's hard to say as everyone on SEA kind of knows each other and is friendly, but the players that have beaten me in most recent lans have been iaguz, PiG and Pokerface and I can't say I wouldn't mind beating them all and making a stronger run to top 3 or 1st in future lans .

5) There is certainly no lack of top Zerg players in SEA. How would you describe your play style and how are you different from other top Zs like PiG, MaFia, EdgE, Revenant or GLaDe?
Most zergs play fairly similar, my playstyle is very mechanical/macro based but I try to play for the win in tournaments so if I think they are cutting corners on defence, cutting corners against tech, etc. I will take advantage of it and mix it up!

6) You broke in to the top 8 elimination bracket in the recent SGL 6 LAN, returning to the Sydney LAN scene where you left off! Did you expect this performance or did you do better/worse than expected? Do you have room to improve?
I expected to get top 8 but I didn't expect the games or the format to go how they did. There was a lot of lag and half of the players got more sleep than the others so it was pretty tough. The swiss format was also harsher on some players than others - hut had to play moonglade, rossi, mafia and I in the swiss, while some players like yoon or myself and maybe a few more only played a couple of top players.

Nick "SQLTt.HuT" Hutton

Age: 18
Location: Sydney, AUS
Race: Terran
Team: Sequential Gaming
Clan: aLternative

1) You're one of the less accomplished players on SQL in terms of pure tournament wins, but you have youth on your side and are no slouch on the ladder. What do you see as your role in the SQL team? Are you a practice partner, support player, or Ace player under-development?
I feel my role within the team will change as I mature as a player. I only just moved to Sydney from an isolated country town, so I will be able to participate in alot more offline tournaments and as such, I feel my skill level within not only the team, but the community, will flourish.

2) How do you go about practicing with your team and improving as a player in order to better fulfil your team role? Do the scheduled team in-house games help or do you mostly practice?
I mostly practice privately due to the difficulty of scheduling all of us guys to play on a certain date and time as we're all busy. Of course, I can always turn to any of the guys and ask for advice or to help me with any troubles I'm having. All in all, I'm more concerned with improving my overall skill, not just achieving a nice ladder rank.

3) Though you enter tournaments now and then, not that much is known about you as a player and you've slipped under the radar even amongst SQL. How would you describe your play style? Is it modelled after any other players?
Having joined SQL and then undergoing a period of 2 months inactivity would've contributed to that of course, but I feel my skills remained at a good level during this period. I love macro-orientated play with strong timings and multiple drops at the same time. I feel I take alot of cool things I see other players doing and implement them in my own way. In SEA, I see Rossi and iaguz being the two guys to base your play on.

4) Being in Sydney now you are close to most of the major LAN events in Australia, but have you discussed with Sequential about travelling to any other events such as those in Melbourne or Brisbane in the future?
Of course you think about it, but at the end of the day, the team needs to send its strongest players to an event. If they can afford to send all of us, awesome, otherwise only sending a select few increases my desire to get better and make sure I'm performing well in interstate events to prove myself to Infeza and the rest of the guys that I'm worthy of the spot.

HuT classes up BarCraft Sydney.

5) You seemed to have a strong start to the Swiss rounds at the recent SGL 6 tournament, but then hit some tough opposition and lost in some close series. Were you disappointed in your performance or was it expected given your inactivity? Where do you think you can improve the most?
The swiss format is a seriously flawed system. Being drawn against Rossi, Glade, Ninja and Mafia was a nightmare from a bracket perspective and especially when looking purely at my results on paper it looks seriously disappointing. However, I feel going 1-2 against these guys was a good effort, but I am extremely disappointed in myself for throwing away a lead in a series, which is what happened vs Glade and Mafia, but also vs Targa in SEACL aLt vs inFi. I guess I need to improve my scouting and decision making the most.

6) How do you find your play changes at LAN? Does it suffer without the familiarity of your home setup, or do nerves get to you? Or are you more comfortable in a social LAN environment?
Playing at home vs playing at a LAN is the exact same for a guitartist. Performing at home is alot more comfortable, it allows you to perfect alot of flaws in ones play, however to grow as a player in both regards you have to expose yourself to events where things will almost never go the way they go in practice at home - I feel this is where truly great players are found, in their ability to think on their feet and give a solid performance regardless of the conditions of play. For me, I don't get nervous at LANs at all, however if I'm at home playing in tournaments I do. SGL was fairly laid back so I guess thats why I was more relaxed, but I'll have to wait for ACL Sydney to give you a 100% correct answer regarding nerves.

And thus concludes this three-article series on Sequentual Gaming, I hope they have made some new fans or rekindled passion in their current fans as they look to represent SEA and their team at events in 2012!

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This is part 3 of a three-part series covering the SQL players.

Part 1: SenSei - Part 2: yang, inFeZa - Part 3: HuT, Ninja
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External links

Twitter @TteSports - Twitter @USAFoods - Sequential Gaming - Twitter @SQLGaming - Facebook