[syfSoundwave]

To start out, let me remind everyone (especially since Friday Fun Night didn't have that many people this week) that you get 5 OSC points just for competing in a tournament no matter the result and of course the experience of playing versus another human being in a highly stressful situation, sometimes with money on the line. It's a great experience and if you have lots of OSC participation points at the end of the year you may be able to get yourself sponsored for 2015!

Quick Results

SEAcraft Weekly #33

+ [Winner] +

1st: KLG.JimRising - $50 + 80 OSC Points
2nd: DuSt.Spear - $30 + 50 OSC Points
3rd: Ax.Heart - $20 + 25 OSC Points
4th: PSISTM.EnDerr - 15 OSC Points

SEAcraft Melee #3

+ [Winner] +

1st: eCKo'RivaL - $30 + 50 OSC Points
2nd: MiTH.StriKE - $20 + 25 OSC Points
3rd: Lobo - $15 + 15 OSC Points
4th: TtSYF.Soundwave - $5 and 5 OSC Points (Go me!)

Friday Fun Night #36

+ [Winner] +

1st: PSISTM.EnDerr - $10 + 25 OSC Points
2nd: Frustration - 15 OSC Points
3rd/4th: ETL.Azure - 5 OSC Points
3rd/4th: fray'Crimson - 5 OSC Points

Eastern StarCraft League Up/Down Matches

+ [Results] +

Day 1
Fenner 1-3 DynSL.DarK
mGGChase 1-3 DuSt.Spear
PSISTM.EnDerr 2-3 iG.MacSed

Day 2
Nice 3-0 fray'SouL
Galaxy.Armani 2-1 State
TeeNagerYO WALKOVER YoeFW.Ian

Day 3
ETL.Azure 0-3 iG.XY
Galaxy.Hurricane 3-0 fray'Crimson
eCKo'RivaL 3-0 iN.T1Wec

Day 4
eCKo'Probe 3-1 Frustration
Galaxy.eMotion 3-2 Shana
fray'Alpha 1-3 VirTues
ESC.DemiLove 2-3 PSiArc

Day 5
DynSL.Metalcore 1-3 x5.Yours
Spider.Rex 2-3 dPix.TRUE
MiTH.StriKE 0-3 Lobo

Upsets:

+ [Not many this week!] +

KLG.JimRising 2-0 Ax.Heart
TtSYF.Soundwave 1-0 ETL.Azure

Almost Upsets:

+ [Once again, not many!] +

PSISTM.EnDerr 1-2 DuSt.Spear
DynSL.DarK 1-2 Lobo
DynSL.Metalcore 1-2 fray'Crimson

Not including some of the more remarkable results from the Up and Down matches in the upsets list this week as I've already listed them right above anyway. They should speak for themselves really. But anyway, not that many upsets this week. Seems like its getting smaller when all of you want it to be bigger. C'mon guys, work hard and make it happen!


JimRising made his first appearance in a SEA tournament this week, winning the SEAcraft Weekly in dominant fashion, even taking out two scary Korean Terrans without dropping a single map. JimRising is Mexico's 2nd best player behind MajOr, and a solid KR GM. Thanks to MajOr has never been able to enjoy the spotlight. It's okay JimRising, the world may forget your skills but we shall always remember!

Perhaps the fastest rising star in SEA, Azure (with whom I conducted an interview last week if you're interested in learning more about him) joined eCKo Esports on Sunday. Azure was quite the hot topic recently, involved in a bidding war of sorts between at least four different teams. The fact that eCKo won means they should certainly be happy.


Upsets abounded in the ESCL Up and Down matches. There were some interesting matches here, with underdogs having nothing to lose going crazy vs highly favoured players, local SEA players going against unknown quantities and some very even matches such as DemiLove vs PSiArc. In particular, shout-outs should be given to Chase, who was definitely a sentimental favourite going into his series against Spear, but his odds were not looking good. It looked like he would give up without a fight after losing game 1 despite going 14/14 vs 11/11. However, he used some very well hidden and well executed roach/bane all-ins to take a game off the Korean menace and very nearly a second game too. It's fun to imagine what Spear must have beeen thinking. Did he research his opponent at all? Did he go in weary but confident? Was he shaken at all by losing, or was it disregarded? Fun to imagine and I'd very much like to ask Spear myself.

One of the notable upsets (the very first in fact) from the Up and Down matches was Dynasty's DarK managing to take out Fenner. I'm sure Fenner was taught a harsh lesson about playing too much Heroes of the Storm! I interviewed DarK briefly to get his thoughts on recent events and his future.

Interview with Luke 'DarK' Briedis

+ [Interview] +

Hi DarK, thanks for accepting this interview. Can you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your history with StarCraft 2?

My name is Luke and I’m a 24 year old Aussie web developer with an LCD tan. Been playing SC2 on and off since release. I played CSS and TF2 competitively for around 5 years. I joined Solarity (which became IXL?) a while back and have been playing and failing in a lot of weeklies. Master since 2010, never really felt like the grind to GM was for me, keep taking 2-6 month “breaks” and end up not regressing. I’m going to try and focus on SC2 100%.

You recently joined the team Dynasty. Can you tell us a bit about joining that team and how things are going?

The SEA scene is definitely small enough that no one is discounted, but I was surprised to get the offer. Dynasty is just starting out so I’ll have to get back to you on that, but everything has been great so far and there’s definitely the support to push yourself to the next level.

Recently in the ESCL Up/Down matches you scored a huge upset over Fenner, defeating him 3-1. What was your mindset like going into a match versus a favoured opponent and what was your reaction when you won?

I had completely forgotten about the match, I woke up 5pm, starting checking my Skype/email before breakfast and had to start straight away. Was expecting to be a quick 0-3. ZvZ is probably the only match-up where a series can go the way you don’t expect. But I’m sure we’ll face each other again eventually, it’s a small SEAworld.

Your group in ESCL is quite difficult, as you face off against the mighty MacSed, the Korean eMotion and your fellow Australian Zerg, Yours. How will you prepare for this group and do you think you can make an upset happen once again?

Haha, I’ve actually done well against a few well knowns before, especially when I didn’t check their alias before playing. I’ll try to just play my best and not think about the outcome.

What are your goals for the future in StarCraft 2? Do you plan to attend any LANs like ACL in the future?

I’ve never really been “competing’ so I saw no reason to go to LANs before, so I’ll probably try and get good enough to play and I’ll go.

Any last words or shout-outs you would like to give?

Soul Dynasty hype etc.