[TCPLemminks]

In the lead up to Oceania's Biggest RTS event ever, the WCS Starcraft 2 Oceania Finals - the SC2SEA article writing team "Writer's Block" have been hard at work putting together a series of hype articles for your viewing pleasure! Fresh content will be added daily until the explosive $25,000 finals begin this Saturday... cast none other by Tastosis!

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Table of Contents:

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WCS Tickets & Information
Monday - WCS Hype Part 1: An Introduction by Tek Kez
Tuesday - WCS Hype Part 2: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Wednesday - WCS Hype Part 3: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Thursday - WCS Hype Part 4: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Friday - WCS Hype Part 5: Final Wrapup by Cute

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WCS Tickets, Venue & Other Information

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+ [All you need to know!] +

Venue: Australian Technology Park - Bay 4 & Dining Room

The Australian Technology Park is located approximately 5km from Sydney's central business district, 8km from Sydney Airport and within 200m of Sydney’s rail network.

Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2



Catch all the action FREE featuring casting by Tastosis, HDStarcraft, Painuser & Maynarde

Schedule:

Saturday, 11 August 2012

11:00 — 12:00: Doors Open! Ticket holders have express entry through to the viewing area.
12:00 — 13:00: Loser Bracket ...
21:00 — 21:55: Australia Nationals Grand Final
22:00 — 23:00: Australia Tournament Finals Presentation

Sunday, 12 August 2012

11:00 — 12:00 Doors open for Oceania Finals!
20:00 — 20:30 Oceania Finals Presentation

Brackets will be drawn live on stream on 7th August, Tuesday 7.30 AEST! http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2
For more information or ticket enquires kindly visit the ACL WCS Oceania landing page here.
For Perth residents, make sure to check out the Barcraft being organised for WCS over here! and for Melbourne residents check out the Barcraft here!

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Interviews Part 1 by TCPLemminks

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iaguz

+ [Interview] +

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

iaguz: Shitloads of practice and study each day, plus preparation for specific opponents. Pretty much been consuming all my time the last month or so.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

iaguz: Mostly ladder. I've still played a few customs with some of the Zergs but it's been mostly ladder. I don't have a lot of practice partners outside of Australia so it's hard to do that sort of thing.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

iaguz: Me.

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

iaguz: I did try and mess around with ghosts in TvZ for a showy (and effective!) strategy, but then I found that ghosts are actually completely ******* terrible at everything. So maybe I'll make ravens instead haven't decided yet. My rule for tournaments is if you're not going to win at least make entertaining games. People seem to like those.

Lemminks : What do you think about your first round opponent iM.Light?

iaguz: Confident. Ray's PvT is ok but I think I can handle it.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

iaguz: All the non Zergs.

But mostly Frustration and Legionnaire. They're new (well, technically for Pete's sake) and they're untested in major Australian tournaments unlike everyone else. KnightLighT will be interesting to watch too seeing as nobody knows anything about him at all.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

iaguz: Shoutouts to my new team. It might not have been announced by the time of this posting so I can't really talk about it at all but it's a new team for me so... yea. Also shoutout to my brother Josh for deciding to come to WCS and watch me play.

Tt.Pig

+ [Interview] +

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

Tt.Pig: Aloha! Not bad at all. I'm also preparing for IEM so I perhaps haven't focused on ZvZ as much as I should have but there's still a few days left so hopefully I should be ready in time. I've been practicing a lot more then I'm used to and mostly on Korean ladder so I'm looking in decent shape.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

Tt.Pig: Luckily I have a pretty good range of American and Korean Terrans I train with so my ZvT practice is doing fine. I don't have so many ZvP or ZvZ partners but Light being the only super strong Protoss in the competition hopefully I won't have to play any. Also I've been training with ninja and Iaguz a bit as we're clanmates and don't mind showing builds TOO much as we tend to all just metagame in tournaments anyway.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

Tt.Pig: If I'm counting myself then I would hope for me being in there, but the other top 3 contenders would be Mafia, Glade and Tgun. With close followers Ninja, Iaguz and Light. I'd rather not share any weaknesses until after I win my share of that $25K

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

Tt.Pig: It'll make it a bit more nerve-wracking. But I have played on an international stage at IEM in China so I know that hard practice is a good remedy for nerves. And I have been practicing hard so I think I should do ok. I guess there's also a part of me that really wants to impress Tastosis and especially Artosis as his commentating from season 1 of GSL actually is responsible for my understanding of the game. Without his descriptions of how to properly train and prepare and how builds operated I don't know if I would be a progamer today. So I definitely want to be able to go back and watch the VOD in a few weeks and hear some praise for my play. That being said I will just be focused on playing my game and beating my opponents. There's enough money on the line for this event to be momentous in all of our careers and we're all determined as players to not let this opportunity pass.

Lemminks : What do you think about your first round opponent cR.Ninja?

Tt.Pig: He's a close friend, practice partner and clanmate so whoever wins it'll suck. We'll most likely both be metagaming quite a lot but we'll see how it goes.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

Tt.Pig: Frustration from MI recently formed into X5 is the dark horse. He is unknown on the Australian pro circuit probably because he lives in Perth on the other side of the country. We don't know a lot about him but he could be the next Bielsko. Bielsko was unknown going into WCG 2011 back when he was beating players like Idra on ladder and he showed he had some amazing builds. So you never know what he might bring to the table

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

Tt.Pig: Thanks for having me Lemminks! Shoutout to Tt eSports, Gigabyte Notebooks, Mwave.com.au, AVerMedia and my lovely coach/manager Dot!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

cR.EdgE

+ [Interview] +

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

cR.EdgE: Thanks very much! My preparations have been going pretty well. I've had ups and downs with confidence, slumps in my play and my overall outlook on SC2 but I've stabilized and I feel I've prepared very well compared to past tournaments.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

cR.EdgE: Well I am actually playing with a few in WCS still, mainly a few Zergs because a lot of my ZvZ's between them come down to the opening build and the form we are in on the day, and any info I can gather on the other players from them is invaluable too. I am also playing with my Team members (Carnage), and my primary games come from Korean Ladder.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

cR.EdgE: Zergs have dominated SEA for a long time and that was only made worse by recent patch changes, but I think the SEA Terrans are as imposing as ever, and the Protoss players always have tricks up their sleeve... so it could go any way but it will still most likely be at least 2 zergs -

1. Mafia
2. mOOnGLaDe
3. Ninja or tgun

Everyone has their own style and their own weaknesses I've picked up just like I do, but I won't openly reveal them yet... .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

cR.EdgE: This has indeed changed the event. It will be only my 2nd big interstate LAN, and my 3rd big LAN overall... and to have Tastosis cast it to a huge stream audience, a huge live audience and with Australia ready to show it's talent... It's going to be an amazing event as nerve wracking as it is for me. Hopefully I can at least put on a good show, but I'm aiming to remind all of SEA why I've been a top player for 2 years going strong.

Lemminks: What do you think about your first round opponent iM.yang?

cR.EdgE: I think i've grown a bit of a rivalry with yang now - mainly because I normally get the better of him in tournaments and yet in practice he takes me down. I'm confident but I'm not going to get ahead of myself, yang is a tough tough opponent and i don't know how hard he's been practicing.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

cR.EdgE: There are a few players (mainly the Protosses) that are more unknown than the rest, but the dark horse to me is YoonYJ. He is an insane player and since he's got strong practice in finally I believe if any non-Zerg can turn heads it's him.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

cR.EdgE: Shoutout to my mum and dad for supporting me, also shoutouts to my Team Carnage for being a great team in so many ways, to Terror Australis for being a second to none community and finally to the whole SEA community for making these 2 years of my life of gaming incredible.

Lemminks: Good Luck!

Tek.BiGbiRd

+ [Interview] +

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Ahhh my preparations have not gone so well to be honest, I had no internet at home so have been staying with my friend/team-mate Champi the last 5-6 weeks but didn't have my PC. I used his computer whenever I could but have not played anywhere near as much as i would have liked unfortunately. I was able to watch some streams and replays using his laptop but couldn't get the games under my belt that I really wanted too. I went home last week and spent 3-4 days unable to play at all .

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

Tek.BiGbiRd: As you said almost all the top players are playing in WCS so it was harder to find good practice partners (When i could play) but i managed to have a good practice session with ToRPox about two weeks ago which helped a lot. Apart from that it was just ladder whenever i could on either NA or Korea.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

Tek.BiGbiRd: I think the favourites for this tournament will be the same as every other tournament in Aus: Zerg, Zerg, Zerg hahaha. But personally i think it is hard to go past mOOnGLaDe. No matter what his form is or is suppose to be in comparison to everyone else he seems to draw from live events and just play at a completely different level. His biggest challengers will be Mafia who has looked extremely strong lately and PiG. Almost everyone in WCS has a shot if they play well enough on the day but I think those three are the favourites. I think my weakness is simply the fact that until two months ago i was working full-time and played very little compared to everyone else. I also live in rural South Australia and often had access to either Mobile broadband using a netstick with very bad coverage or no internet at all so it was hard to keep up consistent practice and thus skill level but I will try my best .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Having the best of the best international casters that cast the very best in the world every week actually added quite a bit of pressure. I will have to focus 100% and play my very best for fear of being humiliated in front of thousands of viewers :\ it didn't really change the way i approach this though as this is my first chance playing in a high-level competition so will just play to the best of my ability.

Lemminks : What do you think about your first round opponent GoSu.tgun?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Tgun is in my opinion one of the top contenders in both the Australian and Oceania WCS and is a very difficult opponent, especially having chalked up some tournament wins recently giving him the winning edge. All I can do is focus on my own play and hopefully cause an upset!!! .

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

Tek.BiGbiRd: There are a couple of dark-horses in my eyes simply because they haven't had the best results lately but have the talent for upsets. Rossi has been extremely strong in the past as well as his teammates YoonYJ and deth and they will be very eager to show some Terran skills. Light has the ability to shake up the Zergs choke-hold on Australian events and so does yang.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Shoutout to my team Teknicity eSports, my team-mate and good friend Champi for letting me stay at his house the last few weeks and to Australian Starcraft/ACL/Blizzard for making this amazing event possible!!!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

x5.Frustration

+ [Interview] +

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

x5.Frustration: My preparations at the moment for WCS have been average my computer hasn't been running properly so I haven't been able to practice as much as I want to, and I haven't been able to play without my computer freezing so its actually being really crap to try and practice with :/.

Lemminks: Unlike a number of the other participants, a lot of your practice partners aren't competing in this event. How much of an advantage do you consider that to be?

x5.Frustration: Hmm I consider my advantage to be a lot more then the other players in wcs only because I'm the newest player in the sc2sea scene and no one actually knows me or my builds so I think I have a good advantage in that part.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

x5.Frustration: I think the top 3 players for Oceania would be the players who play the best on the day and have the right mind set everyone going in there has a chance of getting top 3 but if i had to choose it would be , Pig , Moonglade , Mafia, I'm not willing to share weaknesses in their plays, I wish to have that for myself .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

x5.Frustration: No it has not changed me in anyway shape or form in who's casting or where it is, it will still be the same for me as at RFLan just a bit bigger and across the country. Having Tastosis there and casting will be cool and i would want to show them good games but it wont change my play at all.

Lemminks : What do you think about your first round opponent Nv.YoonYJ?

x5.Frustration: I think it will be a tough match hes a very good terran player but i think i have a chance! .

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

x5.Frustration: I would probably say I'm the dark horse in WCS Australia since I'm the newest to the scene and no one actually knows about my play.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

x5.Frustration: Thank you , I would like to shoutout to my team Exile5 and all the people in exile5 especially bard who has helped me a tonne with my builds in all match ups and to our sponsors Western digital , Cm Storm , Cooler master, iinet and Nvidia Gaming and to all the fans who will cheer for me at WCS, Thank you!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

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Coming Up Next - Interviews Part 2 by TCPLemminks

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[Cute]

Text: Lemminks. Formatting: Cute

In the lead up to Oceania's Biggest RTS event ever, the WCS Starcraft 2 Oceania Finals - the SC2SEA article writing team "Writer's Block" have been hard at work putting together a series of hype articles for your viewing pleasure! Fresh content will be added daily until the explosive $25,000 finals begin this Saturday... cast none other by Tastosis!

SC2 SEA WCS Oceania Coverage
WCS Tickets & Information
Monday - WCS Hype Part 1: An Introduction by Tek Kez
Tuesday - WCS Hype Part 2: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Wednesday - WCS Hype Part 3: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Thursday - WCS Hype Part 4: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Friday - WCS Hype Part 5: Final Wrapup by Cute

Interviews in this piece:
(Click to jump)
iaguz
PiG
EdgE
BiGbiRd
Frustration

Venue: Australian Technology Park - Bay 4 & Dining Room

The Australian Technology Park is located approximately 5km from Sydney's central business district, 8km from Sydney Airport and within 200m of Sydney’s rail network.

Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2

Catch all the action FREE featuring casting by Tastosis, HDStarcraft, Painuser & Maynarde

Schedule:

Saturday, 11 August 2012

11:00 — 12:00: Doors Open! Ticket holders have express entry through to the viewing area.
12:00 — 13:00: Loser Bracket ...
21:00 — 21:55: Australia Nationals Grand Final
22:00 — 23:00: Australia Tournament Finals Presentation

Sunday, 12 August 2012

11:00 — 12:00 Doors open for Oceania Finals!
20:00 — 20:30 Oceania Finals Presentation

Brackets
For more information or ticket enquires kindly visit the ACL WCS Oceania landing page here.
A Warp up of all the Barcrafts covering the event can be found here.

Top

iaguz

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

iaguz: Shitloads of practice and study each day, plus preparation for specific opponents. Pretty much been consuming all my time the last month or so.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

iaguz: Mostly ladder. I've still played a few customs with some of the Zergs but it's been mostly ladder. I don't have a lot of practice partners outside of Australia so it's hard to do that sort of thing.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

iaguz: Me.

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

iaguz: I did try and mess around with ghosts in TvZ for a showy (and effective!) strategy, but then I found that ghosts are actually completely ******* terrible at everything. So maybe I'll make ravens instead haven't decided yet. My rule for tournaments is if you're not going to win at least make entertaining games. People seem to like those.

Lemminks :What do you think about your first round opponent iM.Light?

iaguz: Confident. Ray's PvT is ok but I think I can handle it.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

iaguz: All the non Zergs.

But mostly Frustration and Legionnaire. They're new (well, technically for Pete's sake) and they're untested in major Australian tournaments unlike everyone else. KnightLighT will be interesting to watch too seeing as nobody knows anything about him at all.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

iaguz: Shoutouts to my new team. It might not have been announced by the time of this posting so I can't really talk about it at all but it's a new team for me so... yea. Also shoutout to my brother Josh for deciding to come to WCS and watch me play.

Top

Tt.Pig

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

Tt.Pig: Aloha! Not bad at all. I'm also preparing for IEM so I perhaps haven't focused on ZvZ as much as I should have but there's still a few days left so hopefully I should be ready in time. I've been practicing a lot more then I'm used to and mostly on Korean ladder so I'm looking in decent shape.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

Tt.Pig: Luckily I have a pretty good range of American and Korean Terrans I train with so my ZvT practice is doing fine. I don't have so many ZvP or ZvZ partners but Light being the only super strong Protoss in the competition hopefully I won't have to play any. Also I've been training with ninja and Iaguz a bit as we're clanmates and don't mind showing builds TOO much as we tend to all just metagame in tournaments anyway.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

Tt.Pig: If I'm counting myself then I would hope for me being in there, but the other top 3 contenders would be Mafia, Glade and Tgun. With close followers Ninja, Iaguz and Light. I'd rather not share any weaknesses until after I win my share of that $25K

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

Tt.Pig: It'll make it a bit more nerve-wracking. But I have played on an international stage at IEM in China so I know that hard practice is a good remedy for nerves. And I have been practicing hard so I think I should do ok. I guess there's also a part of me that really wants to impress Tastosis and especially Artosis as his commentating from season 1 of GSL actually is responsible for my understanding of the game. Without his descriptions of how to properly train and prepare and how builds operated I don't know if I would be a progamer today. So I definitely want to be able to go back and watch the VOD in a few weeks and hear some praise for my play. That being said I will just be focused on playing my game and beating my opponents. There's enough money on the line for this event to be momentous in all of our careers and we're all determined as players to not let this opportunity pass.

Lemminks :What do you think about your first round opponent cR.Ninja?

Tt.Pig: He's a close friend, practice partner and clanmate so whoever wins it'll suck. We'll most likely both be metagaming quite a lot but we'll see how it goes.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

Tt.Pig: Frustration from MI recently formed into X5 is the dark horse. He is unknown on the Australian pro circuit probably because he lives in Perth on the other side of the country. We don't know a lot about him but he could be the next Bielsko. Bielsko was unknown going into WCG 2011 back when he was beating players like Idra on ladder and he showed he had some amazing builds. So you never know what he might bring to the table

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

Tt.Pig: Thanks for having me Lemminks! Shoutout to Tt eSports, Gigabyte Notebooks, Mwave.com.au, AVerMedia and my lovely coach/manager Dot!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

Top

cR.EdgE

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

cR.EdgE: Thanks very much! My preparations have been going pretty well. I've had ups and downs with confidence, slumps in my play and my overall outlook on SC2 but I've stabilized and I feel I've prepared very well compared to past tournaments.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

cR.EdgE: Well I am actually playing with a few in WCS still, mainly a few Zergs because a lot of my ZvZ's between them come down to the opening build and the form we are in on the day, and any info I can gather on the other players from them is invaluable too. I am also playing with my Team members (Carnage), and my primary games come from Korean Ladder.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

cR.EdgE: Zergs have dominated SEA for a long time and that was only made worse by recent patch changes, but I think the SEA Terrans are as imposing as ever, and the Protoss players always have tricks up their sleeve... so it could go any way but it will still most likely be at least 2 zergs -

1. Mafia
2. mOOnGLaDe
3. Ninja or tgun

Everyone has their own style and their own weaknesses I've picked up just like I do, but I won't openly reveal them yet... .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

cR.EdgE: This has indeed changed the event. It will be only my 2nd big interstate LAN, and my 3rd big LAN overall... and to have Tastosis cast it to a huge stream audience, a huge live audience and with Australia ready to show it's talent... It's going to be an amazing event as nerve wracking as it is for me. Hopefully I can at least put on a good show, but I'm aiming to remind all of SEA why I've been a top player for 2 years going strong.

Lemminks: What do you think about your first round opponent iM.yang?

cR.EdgE: I think i've grown a bit of a rivalry with yang now - mainly because I normally get the better of him in tournaments and yet in practice he takes me down. I'm confident but I'm not going to get ahead of myself, yang is a tough tough opponent and i don't know how hard he's been practicing.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

cR.EdgE: There are a few players (mainly the Protosses) that are more unknown than the rest, but the dark horse to me is YoonYJ. He is an insane player and since he's got strong practice in finally I believe if any non-Zerg can turn heads it's him.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

cR.EdgE: Shoutout to my mum and dad for supporting me, also shoutouts to my Team Carnage for being a great team in so many ways, to Terror Australis for being a second to none community and finally to the whole SEA community for making these 2 years of my life of gaming incredible.

Lemminks: Good Luck!

Top

Tek.BiGbiRd

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Ahhh my preparations have not gone so well to be honest, I had no internet at home so have been staying with my friend/team-mate Champi the last 5-6 weeks but didn't have my PC. I used his computer whenever I could but have not played anywhere near as much as i would have liked unfortunately. I was able to watch some streams and replays using his laptop but couldn't get the games under my belt that I really wanted too. I went home last week and spent 3-4 days unable to play at all .

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

Tek.BiGbiRd: As you said almost all the top players are playing in WCS so it was harder to find good practice partners (When i could play) but i managed to have a good practice session with ToRPox about two weeks ago which helped a lot. Apart from that it was just ladder whenever i could on either NA or Korea.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

Tek.BiGbiRd: I think the favourites for this tournament will be the same as every other tournament in Aus: Zerg, Zerg, Zerg hahaha. But personally i think it is hard to go past mOOnGLaDe. No matter what his form is or is suppose to be in comparison to everyone else he seems to draw from live events and just play at a completely different level. His biggest challengers will be Mafia who has looked extremely strong lately and PiG. Almost everyone in WCS has a shot if they play well enough on the day but I think those three are the favourites. I think my weakness is simply the fact that until two months ago i was working full-time and played very little compared to everyone else. I also live in rural South Australia and often had access to either Mobile broadband using a netstick with very bad coverage or no internet at all so it was hard to keep up consistent practice and thus skill level but I will try my best .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Having the best of the best international casters that cast the very best in the world every week actually added quite a bit of pressure. I will have to focus 100% and play my very best for fear of being humiliated in front of thousands of viewers :\ it didn't really change the way i approach this though as this is my first chance playing in a high-level competition so will just play to the best of my ability.

Lemminks :What do you think about your first round opponent GoSu.tgun?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Tgun is in my opinion one of the top contenders in both the Australian and Oceania WCS and is a very difficult opponent, especially having chalked up some tournament wins recently giving him the winning edge. All I can do is focus on my own play and hopefully cause an upset!!! .

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

Tek.BiGbiRd: There are a couple of dark-horses in my eyes simply because they haven't had the best results lately but have the talent for upsets. Rossi has been extremely strong in the past as well as his teammates YoonYJ and deth and they will be very eager to show some Terran skills. Light has the ability to shake up the Zergs choke-hold on Australian events and so does yang.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Shoutout to my team Teknicity eSports, my team-mate and good friend Champi for letting me stay at his house the last few weeks and to Australian Starcraft/ACL/Blizzard for making this amazing event possible!!!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

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x5.Frustration

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

x5.Frustration: My preparations at the moment for WCS have been average my computer hasn't been running properly so I haven't been able to practice as much as I want to, and I haven't been able to play without my computer freezing so its actually being really crap to try and practice with :/.

Lemminks: Unlike a number of the other participants, a lot of your practice partners aren't competing in this event. How much of an advantage do you consider that to be?

x5.Frustration: Hmm I consider my advantage to be a lot more then the other players in wcs only because I'm the newest player in the sc2sea scene and no one actually knows me or my builds so I think I have a good advantage in that part.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

x5.Frustration: I think the top 3 players for Oceania would be the players who play the best on the day and have the right mind set everyone going in there has a chance of getting top 3 but if i had to choose it would be , Pig , Moonglade , Mafia, I'm not willing to share weaknesses in their plays, I wish to have that for myself .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

x5.Frustration: No it has not changed me in anyway shape or form in who's casting or where it is, it will still be the same for me as at RFLan just a bit bigger and across the country. Having Tastosis there and casting will be cool and i would want to show them good games but it wont change my play at all.

Lemminks :What do you think about your first round opponent Nv.YoonYJ?

x5.Frustration: I think it will be a tough match hes a very good terran player but i think i have a chance! .

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

x5.Frustration: I would probably say I'm the dark horse in WCS Australia since I'm the newest to the scene and no one actually knows about my play.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

x5.Frustration: Thank you , I would like to shoutout to my team Exile5 and all the people in exile5 especially bard who has helped me a tonne with my builds in all match ups and to our sponsors Western digital , Cm Storm , Cooler master, iinet and Nvidia Gaming and to all the fans who will cheer for me at WCS, Thank you!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

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Coming Up Next - Interviews Part 2


Brought to you by the SC2SEA Writing Team

[TCPLemminks]

Text: Lemminks
Formatting: Cute + xpaperclip

In the lead up to Oceania's Biggest RTS event ever, the WCS Starcraft 2 Oceania Finals - the SC2SEA article writing team "Writer's Block" have been hard at work putting together a series of hype articles for your viewing pleasure! Fresh content will be added daily until the explosive $25,000 finals begin this Saturday... cast by none other than Tastosis!

SC2 SEA WCS Oceania Coverage
WCS Tickets & Information
Monday - WCS Hype Part 1: An Introduction by Tek Kez
Tuesday - WCS Hype Part 2: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Wednesday - WCS Hype Part 3: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Thursday - WCS Hype Part 4: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Friday - WCS Hype Part 5: Final Wrapup by Cute

Interviews in this piece:
(Click to jump)
iaguz
PiG
EdgE
BiGbiRd
Frustration

Venue: Australian Technology Park - Bay 4 & Dining Room

The Australian Technology Park is located approximately 5km from Sydney's central business district, 8km from Sydney Airport and within 200m of Redfern Station on Sydney’s rail network.

Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2

Catch all the action FREE featuring casting by Tastosis, HDStarcraft, Painuser & Maynarde

Schedule:

Saturday, 11th August 2012

11:00 — 12:00: Doors Open! Ticket holders have express entry through to the viewing area.
12:00 — 13:00: Loser Bracket ...
21:00 — 21:55: Australia Nationals Grand Final
22:00 — 23:00: Australia Tournament Finals Presentation

Sunday, 12th August 2012

11:00 — 12:00 Doors open for Oceania Finals!
20:00 — 20:30 Oceania Finals Presentation

Brackets
For more information or ticket enquires kindly visit the ACL WCS Oceania landing page here.
A Warp up of all the Barcrafts covering the event can be found here.

Top

iaguz

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

iaguz: Shitloads of practice and study each day, plus preparation for specific opponents. Pretty much been consuming all my time the last month or so.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

iaguz: Mostly ladder. I've still played a few customs with some of the Zergs but it's been mostly ladder. I don't have a lot of practice partners outside of Australia so it's hard to do that sort of thing.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

iaguz: Me.

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

iaguz: I did try and mess around with ghosts in TvZ for a showy (and effective!) strategy, but then I found that ghosts are actually completely ******* terrible at everything. So maybe I'll make ravens instead haven't decided yet. My rule for tournaments is if you're not going to win at least make entertaining games. People seem to like those.

Lemminks: What do you think about your first round opponent iM.Light?

iaguz: Confident. Ray's PvT is ok but I think I can handle it.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

iaguz: All the non Zergs.

But mostly Frustration and Legionnaire. They're new (well, technically for Pete's sake) and they're untested in major Australian tournaments unlike everyone else. KnightLighT will be interesting to watch too seeing as nobody knows anything about him at all.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

iaguz: Shoutouts to my new team. It might not have been announced by the time of this posting so I can't really talk about it at all but it's a new team for me so... yea. Also shoutout to my brother Josh for deciding to come to WCS and watch me play.

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Tt.Pig

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

Tt.Pig: Aloha! Not bad at all. I'm also preparing for IEM so I perhaps haven't focused on ZvZ as much as I should have but there's still a few days left so hopefully I should be ready in time. I've been practicing a lot more then I'm used to and mostly on Korean ladder so I'm looking in decent shape.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

Tt.Pig: Luckily I have a pretty good range of American and Korean Terrans I train with so my ZvT practice is doing fine. I don't have so many ZvP or ZvZ partners but Light being the only super strong Protoss in the competition hopefully I won't have to play any. Also I've been training with ninja and Iaguz a bit as we're clanmates and don't mind showing builds TOO much as we tend to all just metagame in tournaments anyway.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

Tt.Pig: If I'm counting myself then I would hope for me being in there, but the other top 3 contenders would be Mafia, Glade and Tgun. With close followers Ninja, Iaguz and Light. I'd rather not share any weaknesses until after I win my share of that $25K

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

Tt.Pig: It'll make it a bit more nerve-wracking. But I have played on an international stage at IEM in China so I know that hard practice is a good remedy for nerves. And I have been practicing hard so I think I should do ok. I guess there's also a part of me that really wants to impress Tastosis and especially Artosis as his commentating from season 1 of GSL actually is responsible for my understanding of the game. Without his descriptions of how to properly train and prepare and how builds operated I don't know if I would be a progamer today. So I definitely want to be able to go back and watch the VOD in a few weeks and hear some praise for my play. That being said I will just be focused on playing my game and beating my opponents. There's enough money on the line for this event to be momentous in all of our careers and we're all determined as players to not let this opportunity pass.

Lemminks: What do you think about your first round opponent cR.Ninja?

Tt.Pig: He's a close friend, practice partner and clanmate so whoever wins it'll suck. We'll most likely both be metagaming quite a lot but we'll see how it goes.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

Tt.Pig: Frustration from MI recently formed into X5 is the dark horse. He is unknown on the Australian pro circuit probably because he lives in Perth on the other side of the country. We don't know a lot about him but he could be the next Bielsko. Bielsko was unknown going into WCG 2011 back when he was beating players like Idra on ladder and he showed he had some amazing builds. So you never know what he might bring to the table

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

Tt.Pig: Thanks for having me Lemminks! Shoutout to Tt eSports, Gigabyte Notebooks, Mwave.com.au, AVerMedia and my lovely coach/manager Dot!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

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cR.EdgE

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

cR.EdgE: Thanks very much! My preparations have been going pretty well. I've had ups and downs with confidence, slumps in my play and my overall outlook on SC2 but I've stabilized and I feel I've prepared very well compared to past tournaments.

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

cR.EdgE: Well I am actually playing with a few in WCS still, mainly a few Zergs because a lot of my ZvZ's between them come down to the opening build and the form we are in on the day, and any info I can gather on the other players from them is invaluable too. I am also playing with my Team members (Carnage), and my primary games come from Korean Ladder.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

cR.EdgE: Zergs have dominated SEA for a long time and that was only made worse by recent patch changes, but I think the SEA Terrans are as imposing as ever, and the Protoss players always have tricks up their sleeve... so it could go any way but it will still most likely be at least 2 zergs -

1. Mafia
2. mOOnGLaDe
3. Ninja or tgun

Everyone has their own style and their own weaknesses I've picked up just like I do, but I won't openly reveal them yet... .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

cR.EdgE: This has indeed changed the event. It will be only my 2nd big interstate LAN, and my 3rd big LAN overall... and to have Tastosis cast it to a huge stream audience, a huge live audience and with Australia ready to show it's talent... It's going to be an amazing event as nerve wracking as it is for me. Hopefully I can at least put on a good show, but I'm aiming to remind all of SEA why I've been a top player for 2 years going strong.

Lemminks: What do you think about your first round opponent iM.yang?

cR.EdgE: I think i've grown a bit of a rivalry with yang now - mainly because I normally get the better of him in tournaments and yet in practice he takes me down. I'm confident but I'm not going to get ahead of myself, yang is a tough tough opponent and i don't know how hard he's been practicing.

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

cR.EdgE: There are a few players (mainly the Protosses) that are more unknown than the rest, but the dark horse to me is YoonYJ. He is an insane player and since he's got strong practice in finally I believe if any non-Zerg can turn heads it's him.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

cR.EdgE: Shoutout to my mum and dad for supporting me, also shoutouts to my Team Carnage for being a great team in so many ways, to Terror Australis for being a second to none community and finally to the whole SEA community for making these 2 years of my life of gaming incredible.

Lemminks: Good Luck!

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Tek.BiGbiRd

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Ahhh my preparations have not gone so well to be honest, I had no internet at home so have been staying with my friend/team-mate Champi the last 5-6 weeks but didn't have my PC. I used his computer whenever I could but have not played anywhere near as much as i would have liked unfortunately. I was able to watch some streams and replays using his laptop but couldn't get the games under my belt that I really wanted too. I went home last week and spent 3-4 days unable to play at all .

Lemminks: Considering a lot of your practice partners are participating in WCS Australia, what other methods are you employing to prepare?

Tek.BiGbiRd: As you said almost all the top players are playing in WCS so it was harder to find good practice partners (When i could play) but i managed to have a good practice session with ToRPox about two weeks ago which helped a lot. Apart from that it was just ladder whenever i could on either NA or Korea.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

Tek.BiGbiRd: I think the favourites for this tournament will be the same as every other tournament in Aus: Zerg, Zerg, Zerg hahaha. But personally i think it is hard to go past mOOnGLaDe. No matter what his form is or is suppose to be in comparison to everyone else he seems to draw from live events and just play at a completely different level. His biggest challengers will be Mafia who has looked extremely strong lately and PiG. Almost everyone in WCS has a shot if they play well enough on the day but I think those three are the favourites. I think my weakness is simply the fact that until two months ago i was working full-time and played very little compared to everyone else. I also live in rural South Australia and often had access to either Mobile broadband using a netstick with very bad coverage or no internet at all so it was hard to keep up consistent practice and thus skill level but I will try my best .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Having the best of the best international casters that cast the very best in the world every week actually added quite a bit of pressure. I will have to focus 100% and play my very best for fear of being humiliated in front of thousands of viewers :\ it didn't really change the way i approach this though as this is my first chance playing in a high-level competition so will just play to the best of my ability.

Lemminks: What do you think about your first round opponent GoSu.tgun?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Tgun is in my opinion one of the top contenders in both the Australian and Oceania WCS and is a very difficult opponent, especially having chalked up some tournament wins recently giving him the winning edge. All I can do is focus on my own play and hopefully cause an upset!!! .

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

Tek.BiGbiRd: There are a couple of dark-horses in my eyes simply because they haven't had the best results lately but have the talent for upsets. Rossi has been extremely strong in the past as well as his teammates YoonYJ and deth and they will be very eager to show some Terran skills. Light has the ability to shake up the Zergs choke-hold on Australian events and so does yang.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

Tek.BiGbiRd: Shoutout to my team Teknicity eSports, my team-mate and good friend Champi for letting me stay at his house the last few weeks and to Australian Starcraft/ACL/Blizzard for making this amazing event possible!!!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

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x5.Frustration

Lemminks: Firstly congratulations on qualifying for WCS Australia. How are your preparations going so far?

x5.Frustration: My preparations at the moment for WCS have been average my computer hasn't been running properly so I haven't been able to practice as much as I want to, and I haven't been able to play without my computer freezing so its actually being really crap to try and practice with :/.

Lemminks: Unlike a number of the other participants, a lot of your practice partners aren't competing in this event. How much of an advantage do you consider that to be?

x5.Frustration: Hmm I consider my advantage to be a lot more then the other players in wcs only because I'm the newest player in the sc2sea scene and no one actually knows me or my builds so I think I have a good advantage in that part.

Lemminks: In your opinion, who do you think will take top 3 in WCS Oceania? How would you describe their style? Do they have any particular weaknesses that you’re willing to share with us?

x5.Frustration: I think the top 3 players for Oceania would be the players who play the best on the day and have the right mind set everyone going in there has a chance of getting top 3 but if i had to choose it would be , Pig , Moonglade , Mafia, I'm not willing to share weaknesses in their plays, I wish to have that for myself .

Lemminks: This will be the first time an Australian Starcraft 2 event will be casted by Tastosis and watched by the world, has this changed the way you approach the event in any way?

x5.Frustration: No it has not changed me in anyway shape or form in who's casting or where it is, it will still be the same for me as at RFLan just a bit bigger and across the country. Having Tastosis there and casting will be cool and i would want to show them good games but it wont change my play at all.

Lemminks: What do you think about your first round opponent Nv.YoonYJ?

x5.Frustration: I think it will be a tough match hes a very good terran player but i think i have a chance! .

Lemminks: Lastly who in WCS Australia would you describe as the dark horse?

x5.Frustration: I would probably say I'm the dark horse in WCS Australia since I'm the newest to the scene and no one actually knows about my play.

Lemminks: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, any final shoutouts?

x5.Frustration: Thank you , I would like to shoutout to my team Exile5 and all the people in exile5 especially bard who has helped me a tonne with my builds in all match ups and to our sponsors Western digital , Cm Storm , Cooler master, iinet and Nvidia Gaming and to all the fans who will cheer for me at WCS, Thank you!

Lemminks: Good Luck!

Top

---

Coming Up Next - Interviews Part 2 by TCPLemminks

---

Brought to you by the SC2SEA Writing Team
Top

[Cute]

Text: Tek Kez
Formatting: Cute + xpaperclip

In the lead up to Oceania's Biggest RTS event ever, the WCS Starcraft 2 Oceania Finals - the SC2SEA article writing team "Writer's Block" have been hard at work putting together a series of hype articles for your viewing pleasure! Fresh content will be added daily until the explosive $25,000 finals begin this Saturday... cast by none other than Tastosis!

SC2 SEA WCS Oceania Coverage
WCS Tickets & Information
]Monday - WCS Hype Part 1: An Introduction by Tek Kez
Tuesday - WCS Hype Part 2: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Wednesday - WCS Hype Part 3: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Thursday - WCS Hype Part 4: Player Interviews by Lemminks
Friday - WCS Hype Part 5: Final Wrapup by Cute

Interviews in this piece:
(Click to jump)
The Build Up
Class S Players
Class A Players
Class B Players
Final Thoughts

Venue: Australian Technology Park - Bay 4 & Dining Room

The Australian Technology Park is located approximately 5km from Sydney's central business district, 8km from Sydney Airport and within 200m of Redfern Station on Sydney’s rail network.

Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2

Catch all the action FREE featuring casting by Tastosis, HDStarcraft, Painuser & Maynarde

Schedule:

Saturday, 11th August 2012

11:00 — 12:00: Doors Open! Ticket holders have express entry through to the viewing area.
12:00 — 13:00: Loser Bracket ...
21:00 — 21:55: Australia Nationals Grand Final
22:00 — 23:00: Australia Tournament Finals Presentation

Sunday, 12th August 2012

11:00 — 12:00 Doors open for Oceania Finals!
20:00 — 20:30 Oceania Finals Presentation

Brackets
For more information or ticket enquires kindly visit the ACL WCS Oceania landing page here.
A Warp up of all the Barcrafts covering the event can be found here.

Top

Introduction


Photo Credit: dOt89

Eerily silent, the air snaps like electricity as the crowd stares at Pig Vs Mafia. The scene: ACL Melbourne Grand Finals. Suddenly, a wild GG appears and PiG is crowned champion. The crowd roars and an equally large TA side groans. This, ladies and gentlemen, this was the last big event to be held in Australia. However, a new event has been rising in the deep. Biding it’s time, through various qualifiers for ACL Melbourne, thoughts looming deep in players minds, “what about WCS”. After months of organising, a painstaking plethora of hours planning and hundreds of nerd sweat and tears, it’s finally here. WCS Australia has come.

Announcements of announcements of possibilities of announcements had, until last week, led us to believe this event would be one of the biggest Australian E-Sports (Dudes who play video games for money) events ever to be seen. Well, last week, CEO of ACL, ‘I couldn’t find his full name 'Vanzr' something’ dropped a massive nerd knowledge bomb. That’s right people; we would finally get what various reddit threads, nerd dreams, fangirl and fanboys hoped and desired for; Tastosis, HdStarcraft and Painuser to commentate WCS Australia. Where the 16 top players from around Down Unda’ will compete for their chance at glory and one whopping grouse boomerang (note; Boomerang not actual prize).

In reality they’re competing for the 10,000 USD prize pool, where the top 6 placements will also be qualified for WCS Oceania finals, featuring our Kiwi brothers from across the Tasman sea Thomas ‘Jazbas’ Cho, and Tilea "KnighT" Flavall. 6 Aussies and 2 Kiwis will battle it out for prize, sheep, and 15,000 USD and the chance to compete with the worlds best at WCS World finals in China. But lets not count our sheep before they’re sheared.

On the 8th of August WCS: Australia will begin, and I for one, am giddy in my seat, and in a few other places I’d rather not mention, simply waiting for this to kick off. Players have been practicing non-stop, pride is on the line, and this is also the chance for Australian and other SEA players to show the world what talent we have to offer. Since not many may know of the talent we have grown in the outback, I thought I would take a little time to write up a (perhaps not so) brief summary of every player who will be competing.
Eerily silent, the air snaps like electricity as the crowd stares at Pig Vs Mafia. The scene: ACL Melbourne Grand Finals. Suddenly, a wild GG appears and PiG is crowned champion. The crowd roars and an equally large TA side groans. This, ladies and gentlemen, this was the last big event to be held in Australia. However, a new event has been rising in the deep. Biding it’s time, through various qualifiers for ACL Melbourne, thoughts looming deep in players minds, “what about WCS”. After months of organising, a painstaking plethora of hours planning and hundreds of nerd sweat and tears, it’s finally here. WCS Australia has come.

Announcements of announcements of possibilities of announcements had, until last week, led us to believe this event would be one of the biggest Australian E-Sports (Dudes who play video games for money) events ever to be seen. Well, last week, CEO of ACL, ‘I couldn’t find his full name 'Vanzr' something’ dropped a massive nerd knowledge bomb. That’s right people; we would finally get what various reddit threads, nerd dreams, fangirl and fanboys hoped and desired for; Tastosis, HdStarcraft and Painuser to commentate WCS Australia. Where the 16 top players from around Down Unda’ will compete for their chance at glory and one whopping grouse boomerang (note; Boomerang not actual prize).

In reality they’re competing for the 10,000 USD prize pool, where the top 6 placements will also be qualified for WCS Oceania finals, featuring our Kiwi brothers from across the Tasman sea Thomas ‘Jazbas’ Cho, and Tilea "KnighT" Flavall. 6 Aussies and 2 Kiwis will battle it out for prize, sheep, and 15,000 USD and the chance to compete with the worlds best at WCS World finals in China. But lets not count our sheep before they’re sheared.

On the 8th of August WCS: Australia will begin, and I for one, am giddy in my seat, and in a few other places I’d rather not mention, simply waiting for this to kick off. Players have been practicing non-stop, pride is on the line, and this is also the chance for Australian and other SEA players to show the world what talent we have to offer. Since not many may know of the talent we have grown in the outback, I thought I would take a little time to write up a (perhaps not so) brief summary of every player who will be competing.

You Tube

You Tube

Since I’m terribly indecisive and humpty dumpty has nothing on me sitting on walls, I thought I would divide the players into 3 groups or ‘seeds’ if you will, S-B on their chances of taking out this event, however, make no mistake, the talent in Australia, especially recently, is extremely close in skill.

So, without further procrastination, delay of my predictions, holding my tongue (or hands since this is a keyboard), let us begin!

Top

The S Class Players

Nv.mOOnGLaDe	Tt.PiG	iM.Mafia	GoSu.tgun	iM.Light

Nv.mOOnGLaDe
First up, let us gaze at Australia’s prime E-sport Export; Moonglade!
Andrew ‘Moonglade’ Pender, I know he capitalises his name somehow but for the life of my I’m not going to bother, has, until recently, been Australia’s undisputed not-so-heavyweight champion of the world. (at least in Australia’s mind) From competition to competition, locally he proved unbeatable, coupled with being on the international team; FXO along with Tgun. Not only has he enjoyed unrivaled success in Australia, he has competed internationally and not only exceeded expectations of his fans back at home, but made the world feel his presence as well.

His greatest placing is of course at IEM Season V world championships coming 4th, also the highest placing non-Korean, losing spectacularly to Squirtle 3-2. Since then he has proven to be a force to be reckoned with in Korea, where he spent a short period of time, and now back at home in Straya’ C***. With all these massive achievements there is a silver lining on this proverbial cloud.
Moonglade placed 4th yet again at ACL Melbourne, a great result by any means, but not up to his usual standard. Perhaps we have finally found the Achilles Heel of Mr. Pender, or he just hasn’t been practicing as much, a much more likely answer. Nonetheless, he placed well but not won any of the other big recent Australian tournaments such as GESC, where he placed second to Targa, or the Tokyo Game show Qualifiers where he placed second to Mafia.

However, if there is one thing we have learned from the ‘Dark Prince’, at major offline events you simply cannot count him out. Whether it be his experience, innate skill at the game, or that extra something which cannot be quantified or identified, but should be feared, Andrew Pender will still be the player to beat coming into this weekends event.

iM.Mafia
Next up we have the player with so much momentum behind him even an immoveable object would be blown away and ensuing paradox would not occur, we have Immunities Mafia!

Tim ‘Mafia’ He, an ex-poker professional has been a big name in the SEA Starcraft 2 scene for quite some time, but only recently has been a true powerhouse, instilling fear into nerds hearts. Recently he has gained a lot of notoriety for briefly being #1 Korean GrandMaster, Placing top 8 in TSL 4 Qualifiers, Semi finalist and Finalist in various NA Playhems, placing 2nd at ACL Melbourne and lastly, Winning The Tokyo Game Show Australian Qualifiers. All in the space of about a month. That is one busy gamer.

His ZvZ is impressive, his ZvT is unstoppable, his ZvP I actually haven’t seen as Protoss is an endangered species in Australia, I jest, it is of course as good as his other match-ups. I’m not exactly sure who the player to take him down this event will be, as he is one of the most solid players I’ve seen in quite some time.
I believe his chances of winning this event are extremely good, provided he can play to his full potential. Being calm and cool in high pressure situations is no challenge for Tim, as he has been at higher stakes than this on the poker table, taking 3rd at ANZPT Sydney event to win $320k. Will he replicate these results in Sc2? Only time will tell.

Tt.PiG
Next in line, we have Pig. Australia’s loveable full-time gamer. With an international outing to IEM: China, and a few other international online appearances such as ONOG invitational #2, Pig is a name more and more foreigners and Koreans alike are starting to recognise, and for good reason.

His dedication to the game has been amazing the last 12 months or so, since he decided to go pro, and his results have steadily increased since. After breaking out and taking 3rd at WCG: Australia in 2011, Pig would go on to take 3rd in many other events such as ACL: Gold Coast, ACL: Sydney, Sea Star League season 2, along with placing well at various other events. Until a few weeks ago where we saw him shove aside his 3rd place demons and take first at ACL: Melbourne. This could be an indication that he has finally conquered whatever offline stage fears he may have had, and is now finally ready to once again win another major offline tournament.

For those of you not familiar with the SEA scene, ZvZ is the major match-up down here, and Pig (along with just about every other Zerg on the planet) has expressed his distaste for the match-up. However he will need to put these problems aside if he wishes to equal his ACL Melbourne placement. I know there’s a “when pigs fly” joke in here somewhere but for the life of my I can’t think of one so you’ll have to do the legwork yourself!

GoSu.tgun
Feast your eyes on: the loveable rage-a-holic who was on FXO and competed in GSTL and practices with amazing players. Alas he also appears to have problems at offline events, where unfortunate it is say, most of pro gaming matters. However, irrespective of classes or labels, Tgun is an amazing player who should not be taken lightly and has just about as good of a chance to take it as any of the other class A players. Recently taking first place in the ASUS Starcraft2 Pro-Am, I thought we might see continued dominance into ACL Melbourne, an event I’m sure you’re tired hearing of now. Tgun took a respectable 5th-6th place, equaling other past ACL events.

Challenges will include not beating himself up for losing a map or a series to a player he feels he shouldn’t, and then getting over what LAN nerves he might have, (disclaimer: I have no idea if he does or not, merely speculation, as his online performances are far better than his LAN ones). Regardless, definitely keep an eye or 3 on him, yes I said 3.

iM.Light
Lastly but certainly not least: Immunities Light, the best and sexiest Protoss in Sea now that Pinders' Jaw line has retired. Light will be looking to make a good impression now that the world is watching. He placed 3rd at that event I keep referring to, and has been a very talented Protoss when he wants to be. Most notably his narrow loss to ST.Ace at the NRG Lan in Sydney a while back, and has since been just as talented and just as quiet. Definitely a player to look out for on the stream and I wish him the best of luck!

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The Class A Players

Nv.Rossi	Nv.deth	cR.Ninja	iaguz

To preface this group of players, a word to the wise. Any of these following players on their day can compete with the very best of Australia and SEA. The scene is actually incredibly tight these days, and I had many sleepless nights (but not really) deciding who would be the favorites, and who would be cast aside. The only traits the next group of players lack is consistency, and proven tournament wins in big situations, with that being said..

To start of with the next round of players who I hope will still be friends with me even after ranking them (slightly I swear) below the rest, we have

Nv.Rossi
Mr David "Rossi" Rossi (Still trying to figure out how he got his handle) Is a David vs Goliath story. Starting out in Starcraft 2 in Australia's' Premier clan 'Terror Australis', as a newbie in gold, with tender love (or lack of) and care he quickly grew into a powerhouse Terran, taking 2nd at ACL Goldcoast. Since then, he has placed highly in many online and LAN tournaments, and taken 2 qualifying tournaments in IEM Gamescom SEA Qualifier #1, and [WCS] APL National Qualifiers #2.

Whilst I put him slightly below the favorites make no mistake, this Italian stallion should not be messed with, and on his day will easily slice through the SEA (geddit?) of zergs like they were spicy home made meatballs.

Nv.deth
Daniel "deth' Haynes is another strong Terran, bursting out into the SEA scene early after release winning multiple online and LAN tournaments and representing Australia in the Southern Cross series. In 2011 he won every major Melbourne LAN defeating Targa handily every time, which as far as I'm concerned made Targa rage quit Melbourne and move to Brisbane.

This year with school commitments studying journalism (however still not being able to spell 'death' properly) he has been unable to practice for various amounts of time and has had somewhat lackluster results on the national stage. This time round however, he has been practicing heavily as he has been on holidays, so expect his impeccable macro and decision making to come shining through.

cR.Ninja
Alex "cR.Ninja" Smith has exploded out of the woodwork not, unlike, a ninja, to take an impressive 4th place at ACL Sydney. Shortly afterwards crushing everyone in online tournaments that stood in his path, he very quickly made a name for himself as someone you don't want to mess with.
This particular event many fibers in my body wanted to put him in with the big dogs, the only thing holding him back is being slightly unproven in winning events. A word to the wise tho, watch this player. Posting various replays of him dismantling none other than iM.Nestea and going 2-1 with ST.Rainbow in various series, this little ninja is a force to be reckoned with.

iaguz
Next up, we have a player (dwarf) who's name is older than time and the Australian scene itself. Ethan "Iaguz but should have called himself Gimli' Zugai. When I was just a lowly platinum newbie, fresh and eager to learn about the Australian and SEA scene, I would always see two names popping up. Moonglade, and Iaguz. These two have so much history playing each other the scriptures of the kings don't even go that far back. Unluckily for Iaguz this was when Moonglade was in his prime, playing with FXO, and the Gimli Terran was bested every time that I can recollect.

Regardless of this rivalry, and with new uprising superstars, Iaguz has remained a relevant and very deadly threat in Australia. Boasting the best TvZ, a very important match-up in SEA atm, he will have to live up to his big words (cough) and deliver.

Nv.YoonYJ	iM.yang	Eve.techtron	cR.EdgE	Tek.BigBird

Nv.YoonYJ
Yoon had a great year in 2011 taking just about as many online competitions as he dare enter. This year he has been relatively inactive with school and other commitments, but rumblings in the deep warn of his intense practice schedule leading up to the event. This old school player will have to bring some new school skills to make it far into this tournament, will he be up to the challenge? only time will tell.

iM.yang
This adorable little fellow came into the scene in a big way winning 2-3 big Sea cups, defeating Moonglade and other various established players. Since then he has been Perths' shining hope at making Australia realise it is indeed a part of the country. With good, solid performances since then, and being protoss, definitely keep an eye on this one!

Eve.techtron
Staying in theme with adorable players, this young player has steadily been making more and more of a name for himself. Originally performing well at Melbourne LANs and online competitions, he made his first major LAN Victory taking down Nv.Yoon in the open bracket. Steady practice, and an innate ability for TvZ continued, with this little guy astounding everyone but me (I can prove it with previous blogs) to make it out of his group at ACL Melbourne, eventually taking 7-8th! If he has practised, and even if he hasn't, if your race begins with T and you get Techtron, you better have something planned up your sleeve, or you might quickly find yourself in the losers bracket.

cR.EdgE
Starting a new theme with adorable players Mums, we have EdgE who for a long time has been putting Adelaide on the map for Starcraft 2 in Australia, until recently where he was bested by BigBird to qualify for ACL Melbourne, and WCS. He managed to qualify via last chance tournament by a single map over yours truly, but deserved his place, crushing all in his group except for Moonglade and Tgun, where he lost narrowly. Now he is back for revenge.

Widely regarded as one of the most naturally talented players who gives the littlest of fucks, if Edge has decided to practice for this event people had better watch out and take note. He is one scary mofo.

Tek.BigBird
The man from Sesame Street himself, Luke "BigBird" Bridley is a strong up and coming player from my very favorite team in SEA, Teknicity Bias aside, he is showing strong promise. Recently going toe-to-toe in his group with Techtron, Rossi, Targa, YoonYj in close 2-1 series, I'm waiting for this bird to release his wings and fly.[/spoiler]

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The Class B Players

Legionnaire	Exile5.Frustration

By now we come to the lesser known players (in Starcraft 2, at least):

Legionnaire
For you Broodwar followers, you have probably heard of Legionnaire. He was the first foreigners to all kill a Korean Team, one of the first foreigners to live in Korea, and took 3rd place at WCG 2005. Unfortunately, he has quit pro-gaming. Recently by some miracle he qualified for WCS by taking 4th place at the qualifiers at Brisbane. It will be interesting to see how much he has practiced, if at all, and how well his gifted skills from BW have transferred into Starcraft 2.

Exile5.Frustration
After Yang had qualified for WCS, we heard rumors that Perth would be allocated 2 spots for this prestigious event, and suddenly everyone was trying to think who else actually bought and/or played Starcraft 2 in Perth. The answer would come in the form of Frustration. Whilst I don't hold him at the same standards as everybody else, provided he has come into this tournament prepared and plays well, anything can happen. Always fear those that have nothing to lose![/spoiler]

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Final Thoughts

So that's it folks. I await with baited breath as my phone/inbox will blow up with angry people telling how much they hate me. But it's fine, it's for the good of e-sports damn it! Australia has been waiting for an event like this for quite some time now. I know myself and every other avid Starcraft 2 enthusiast has had to buy many new changes of underwear thinking about this event. So please, tune in, tell your friends, spread the word, WCS Australia and WCS Oceania is not to be missed!

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Coming Up Next - Interviews Part 1 by TCPLemminks

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Brought to you by the SC2SEA Writing Team
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