[x5.Crescendo]

Behind the Username is an interview series where I ask some questions of regular players I meet in and around SC2SEA and our tournaments.

Today I have a chat with Shane 'Swarmstika' Lee, currently with Eternal eSports, known for his late night streams and entertaining proxy hatch plays.

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To get us started, how long have you been playing Starcraft 2, and have you always played Zerg?

I was first drawn into Starcraft II during the WCS EU Season 1 Finals in 2013, Stephano and Mvp which occurred on the 26th of May. Shortly after the series ended I went and picked myself up both WoL and HotS and got cracking. Initially I did not play Zerg, I started out as a Terran main inspired by Mvp's recent success and led by Gillyweeds audio tutorials… for about 2 weeks. Once I heard that starting out as Zerg will develop your mechanical ability faster I made the switch and have been one of the swarm ever since.


The best Terran is an infested Terran. How did you decide upon your username?

My original username was the typical name followed by multiple numbers and I wanted something unique. Having at the time been undertaking Religious Studies classes we were focussed more on Buddhism, and within that was their version of the Swastika. Me wanting a unique username I combined Swastika with Zerg aspects and ended up with Swarmstika


I remember the first time I saw your play, during SEAcraft Weekly 24, in the game vs [iG] XY - you might recall it as the one with all the nukes - and afterwards I made a point of checking out your stream. Now, while I enjoy a good cheese and am a big fan of your proxy hatches, I know you've been focusing on more macro-oriented builds of late. Do you look at any particular progamers when selecting the builds to work with? Are there any builds that you are finding particularly enjoyable at present?

XY almost gave me PTSD with all the nuking he did that game. When it comes to looking for builds there is one progamer who has helped me out a lot both directly and indirectly: x5.PiG.

I recently purchased an hours coaching from him, which involved him going over aspects of my playing and builds and refining them, which led to me have my openers for ZvP and ZvZ. With ZvT I also was taken under the wing of x5.JunO and he directed me to another of PiG's builds, the 1 gas ZvT build (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgnaGLDHnc8) which has dramatically improved my ZvT.


I find PiG's coaching streams are the impetus for most of my successful ladder assaults Describe your playstyle in ten words or less.

Proxy hatch, Proxy hatch, Proxy hatch and roaches.


That's what it's all about! You are probably aware of the potential changes to the Swarmhost, making them a more mobile harassment unit. Have you got any thoughts on the changes to the ZvX matchups if Blizzard were to incorporate them prior to Legacy of the Void?

I have mixed feelings about the changes to the Swarmhosts being implemented. Whilst it will help greatly for the ZvT Match-up against Mech, I feel that it would hinder ZvP quite significantly. With the Swarmhosts costing more supply and having a longer cool down on the locusts, it will be a lot harder to directly face off against a Protoss army in the late game with Zerg constantly needing to keep the protoss on their toes with unit composition changes throughout the game. However it will be a hell of a lot easier to harass a protoss with a small hit squad of Swarmhosts.
ZvZ I don't think will be affected nearly as much, with the current meta largely favouring Roach play.


A lot of us, whether in tournaments or on ladder, have games which stick in our memory as being more fun or entertaining than others. Do you have a war story or favourite match you'd like to brag about? (Apart from the nuke extravaganza, that is)

Ooo, I'd have to say my series against Arthur in SEACraft Weekly #29. Going into the series I knew for a fact that I would not be able to compete with him if I opt to Macro against him, so I went back to my dark and cheesy self. First game started with me opening 10p speed against Arthur's Nexus first on Deadwing, It did an incredible amount of damage but with some miss-micro by me (Attacking the main nexus with lings for 10 seconds) he was able to hold and eventually push back and kill me with 1 base blink stalker aggression.

Game 2 was and still is my favourite game I've played. It was on Overgrowth and I opened with a Proxy hatch against Arthurs FFE (Good news for me), 3 minutes later he opted to try and hold off the natural with mass cannons but my amount of spines, queens and lings was too much for him which ended up with me taking one of the two games he lost during that tournament as a whole.

The third game was on Merry-Go-Round, Arthur catching onto my cheesy nature decided to play it safe and opened Gate FE and got 2 sentries out as fast as possible.. the hard counter to my speedling all in that game. He held impeccably and me accepting defeat GG'ed and wished him luck


An exciting series. I missed seeing your name in the WCS qualifier brackets this year (If I recall correctly the starting times and timezone differences between the eastern and western coasts of Australia had a lot to do with that) - do you have any plans on trying for WCS in the future? Are you making any preparations to build up to it?

Unfortunately I feel my presence within the Starcraft II tournaments this year isn't going to be as great as I'd like it. With me moving up to the big city (Perth) next week, I'm going to have to spend a fair amount of my time settling in, working full-time etc etc. So no plans for WCS


Perhaps Legacy of the Void will be your time to shine! Apropos of nothing: as an Englishman in the colonies - much like Fenner - how are you finding the SEA Scene?

I'm loving it! It's a hell of a lot more active than the European community I was accustomed to during my early days of Starcraft II. Everyone is great, there's a ton of tournaments to participate in and the clan scene is a lot stronger than I was initially used to.


With all the games you've played, on ladder and in tournaments, who would you consider your greatest rival at the present time?

I don't feel I have any rivalries to be honest. Obviously there is pressure when you're playing a respected member of the community, or someone significantly better than you, but I don't feel I have played everyone enough to have developed a rivalry, with me only being active in the scene for the past 6-7 months.


Is there a particular moment in your career which you consider particularly important or formative for who you are as a player and person now?

I'd have to say joining ETL (Now known as AxS 2.0) would be the defining moment in my career. They have helped develop me as not only a player, but as a person. With the likes of Jadron Hamburger leading us and going over a countless number of my replays and offering all sorts of assistance when I needed it to people such as NaMeK offering help with not only game-related matters but personal issues too. All in all joining AxS 2.0 has been by far the best move that could have happened to me when it comes to SC2.


For a bit of fun: if there was anyone in the world you could challenge to a Best of Five match, who would it be, and why?

Hmmm… If I had to challenge one person it'd probably be tGun, purely so I can have a chat with him about the art of proxy hatching during and after the series


Proxy Hatch vs Proxy Hatch would be a sight to see! Finally, feel free to self-promote and drop some links here if you want folks to follow you on the various social media sites

Come have a look at ETL's website - www.eternal-esports.com and follow me on twitter if you want to read tweets from me every month or so - www.twitter.com/ETL_Swarmstika
Also www.twitch.tv/Shane11997 if you wanna see some Proxy hatch shenanigans every so often.


Thanks for taking the time, Swarmstika, and good luck with the move to Perth!

Thanks man, appreciate it

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Although the coming few months may reduce the amount of proxy-hatch viewing pleasure available to us all, something tells me that LotV, Lurkers, and Swarmstika will be a very good fit when the new expansion arrives.

GLHF!