[deL]

Ascension Gaming wins the first PD ClanLeague
Ascension-Gaming.com

Ascension Gaming (AsG) has won the first PDCL with a convincing 5-3 scoreline over tournament favourites FaDe and I took the chance to catch up with the players who directly contributed to their success in the semi finals and grand final.

@ AsGNasch

+ [Read More] +

1. You've had a hugely successful tournament, going from a regular AsG member to the ace player. How did you improve so rapidly?
I wouldn't say that we have a sole ace player, we all have our strengths and weaknesses which we've been able to recognise and show when needed. I did however have a very poor start of the PDCL, I think my first two showings were loses but since, I think as individuals and as a team we've become better as we've invited more and more players to the team, some to teach, some to learn from. I was able to really improve my game when I started giving myself goals for ladder, with the help of AsGGriefer, my ZvP and ZvZ are now I feel at a low master level and a little bit of help from AsGPope and AsGThor my ZvT is slowly getting to a similar level of play as my other match ups.

2. You achieved an extremely impressive 9 win streak between the final round robin play (4-0 all kill) and the semi finals (5-0 all kill). What were you thinking at the time and how did you feel after it?
During the TA all-kill, I was quite nervous. This was at the time I'd started practicing really hard and everyone had seen this and was hyping up my eventual all-kill because they knew with the practice I'd be able to do it. I guess now I know that I need to progress in the ladder to improve more and show myself into other tournament, along side many other AsG members who really helped along the way of the PDCL like AsGEman who had an impressive showing in our first round of play as well as AsGSedZ and AsGThor who both have multiple kills to their name.

AsGNasch completes his all-kill in the Semi-Finals against VB. Learning point: Banelings not so good against mutas.

3. You didn't get to play in the grand final - were you happy with your probable position as final player even though you couldn't try to extend your win streak?
After being up 4-1 I knew that the last game couldn't be too hard to take but FaDeRawfish did really well to hold it together for his team. Obviously as team mates, you'd get to play each other a lot and a lot of our players have really good vZ games though I'm not so confident in my own so I was hesitant on the prospect on going out. It would've either been me and our captain, AsGSedZ a now master level zerg. Neither of us are super confident in our ZvZ so it would've been really interesting. Thankfully AsGRuscour was able to take it with his super hard to hold one base play, he had told me before that he'd only lost one ladder game against Zerg with that build so I knew not to be worried.

4. Where are you going to go from here? Will your practice increase or will you look to break in to masters or higher to compete in the higher level leagues next season?
I gave many deadlines to myself for progressing into masters and have failed all of them. It's been constant practice of ladder and talking through with match ups with higher level team mates but its just been disappointing not progressing. As a team, we're pretty hard on each other on progress and push one another to improve more and more. My ultimate goal for this summer is GM by the next uni year starts, once Christmas and New Year celebrations are over I can start grinding out the ladder games again. I've played in one GPD tournament and placed second, and was supposed to get a spot in the next masters cup which would be really fun but I haven't been contacted about that yet so I don't think it's happening unfortunately.

@ Goosejuice

+ [Read More] +

1. You were starter for AsG in the grand final. Was this planned and had you practiced for it, or was it a last minute choice?
I was planned to go first. To be completely honest I hadn't practiced nearly enough considering we were in the semis. I was pretty nervous but excited.

2. What was your goal heading into the first game? Was your 2 wins better or worse than you planned for?
I approach most match-ups with a macro focus. Basically I feel like I can macro as well as anyone, but strategies/tactics aren't necessarily my strongest skills. So I feel a lot more comfortable getting 4 bases up and throwing resources at my opponent rather than gunning for a timing attack. I took a fast third on tal-darim, was pretty far ahead and the game probably would have ended a lot sooner had I not been caught by 60 burrowed roaches without an obs :S

Goosejuice flexes his macro muscles as he achieves the perfect start for AsG with a win.

3. It looked as though you were much more comfortable in the PvZ games and fell apart in the PvP. Is PvP a weak matchup for you or did pressure get to you in that 3rd game?
I guess you could say that. I feel PvZ is a bit more straight forward strategically. (build sentries -> forcefield him out -> attain deathball) My big fail moment in that game was not seeing the robo being built right next to my assimilator in his base. Derrrp. I haven't really had much practice with PvP outside of defending various cheeses either.

4. All of the commentators agreed you have one of the coolest names on SEA, can you give a bit of backstory on how you came up with it?
Haha. I heard Julian Barrett say it in a stand-up routine once.

I'd just like to add that I really enjoyed playing in this tournament and it was a really good experience.
Playing in live casted games really gets the adrenaline pumping.

@ AsGRuscour

+ [Read More] +

1. You achieved the final win to seal the championship for AsG. How did you feel after the game? Were there any nerves going into it? Did you and the teammates celebrate?
I was pretty happy. I was really disappointed in my shaky performance and that I only got to play once, but overall it was a win for the team which was awesome. I was definitely nervous, especially considering the remaining maps; I'd played probably 5 times on Abyssal Caverns and I didn't want to face a Zerg on Daybreak. We celebrated in TeamSpeak after the games but we were pretty confident we'd take it from the start.

2. Your build was a little unorthodox on an odd map for that final game, was it planned or spur of the moment because of the complete wall-in?
My macro PvZ is really really bad right now, I'm still working on fixing it. Two weeks ago I practiced that build over and over and had it really well refined, unfortunately due to nerves (and my failed wall in!) my execution was sloppy, by the time I was at his base I only had 2 warpgates instead of 4. The warp prism didn't do any damage but it didn't need to, its purpose was to force units and it accomplished that. Ultimately on such a small map like Abyssal my Immortal all-in is really hard to hold and even with my sloppy execution and control it managed to work.

SHUTTLEGOON!

3. Did you expect to get to the finals against FaDe with such a strong finish to the season for AsG? Were there any FaDe players you were worried about facing?
We definitely expected to make it to the finals, and we knew we were favoured to win the whole thing. I have played a few FaDe members on ladder and I think I haven't lost (could be wrong though), the only player I was worried about potentially facing was Abstract because I'd beaten him with my Immortal all-in on ladder before and if he watched the replay and looked into it he might be able to hold it.

4. If I am correct you're a relative recent addition to the AsG roster. How did you end up choosing this team as your home and how are you finding it so far?
I played for Ascension back in 2006 in CoD4, such great memories. I saw that they were in SC2 now so I applied and was reunited with old friends (and met some new ones, such as the terrible cheesy Zealo). I was looking to apply to a team to find partners to improve with once I hit Diamond so going to Ascension was a pretty easy choice. The team's been great; I joined up a month ago when I just hit Diamond, practiced with a lot of people (Zealo especially) and two weeks ago I hit Masters, so I think it's going pretty well so far

If I can, I'd like to shoutout everyone on Ascension for being awesome, everyone involved in running PDCL, and my 11 year old cousin Chloe who stayed up past her bed time to watch my team play!

@ AsGZealo

+ [Read More] +

1. You took on some of the management responsibilities for AsG, but you also played a vital part in securing 2 wins in the grand finals. How did you choose your lineup for the finals?
We knew the starting maps a few days in advance so we had plenty of time to prepare. We approached these matches the same way we've done so all season. We decided on Thor to start on shakuras (in the semi) and Goosejuice to start on tal'darim (in the final) as they have play styles which are strong on those maps in all three of their match ups. Unfortunately Thor was still asleep at start time so we sent out Nasch because no one else wanted to start. Beyond the starters we don't really plan anything in advance and decide who to send out depending on the situation, except Sedz insists on playing last because he's the unbeatable Final Boss!

2. As one of the few true Random players what did you feel your role was in the team? Did you practice to take out specific people or maps and if so how?
I switched to random from terran shortly before the season started, as one of the weaker players on the team we decided I would be best used to snipe zergs. I spent a lot of time in PRACBUD finding zergs to practice my RvZ on abyssal with, big thanks (and sorry!) to everyone who helped me with that! I decided to use abyssal mainly because everyone else in AsG hates that map.

In the middle of the season I had to take a break from practice for exams, and afterwards found my *vZ matchups not working as well as they had been (mutas do really well against my mass 2 base carrier build ) so i switched my focus to playing RvP on metalopolis. Unfortunately metal had already been used up in the final by honey badger so I went with my backup map, shattered temple.

Also my play style is deliberately as non standard as possible, and we thought showing that in the middle of a match when the rest of the team plays very standard could be an effective mind gaming tactic and potentially leave the other team demoralised at losing one or more good players to something totally ridiculous.

Your playstyle isn't standard? You don't say...

3. You got terran in all 3 games. Was this good for you? You seemed comfortable as Terran in all of the games but do you have preferred matchups or races as Random?
I view my matchups as strong or weak rather than my races. I have several strong TvP builds and at least one of them is effective on most maps so i was happy to roll terran against notorius. TvZ i only really have one build, where i abuse the way zergs have to open conservatively against random to get away with my 2v2 gas first hellion opening, then transition into mass thor. It's not super effective, especially on antiga but i ended up getting lucky.

Against Rawfish I assumed he would be prepared for thors, being their closer and having just seen my thor build, so I tried to metagame him by using the same opening then denying scouting and transitioning into 2 port banshee instead of thors. Unfortunately he was better at metagaming than me, his late-ish expansion made me think he was doing some sort of one base all in, then he blindly made about 5 spore crawlers and a million queens so my banshees didn't do as much damage as I'd hoped. I feel like if I'd practised that build before I could have recovered from there but my macro and control were both terrible since I was trying to decide what my plan was as I was already doing it. I definitely needed more medivacs.

I would have been much more confident with my (R)ZvZ on that map, but the downside of playing random is I don't get to choose.

4. Thanks for your time. Any thanks of your own, or comments/suggestions for the PD clanleague? Do you think you can win again next season?
I think any format for something like the PDCL will have it's positives and whoever is putting in the time to run it should make the day/format/whatever suit themselves (even though with you I know this means no 2v2s will ever be included ). It's fun to be able to play competitively and i'll take any chance i can to do that.

AsG's plat/diamond team won't be as strong next season with Sedz and Ruscour getting promoted already; and Nasch, Goosejuice and Thor all likely to be promoted by the time that starts. We will definitely still be competitive though and I predict an AsG vs FaDe rematch in the finals.

Big thanks to Erasmus for setting this league up, and yourself Del for taking over the mess that was the playoffs and making it as fun as it was. All the casters and people who've tuned in to watch over the various matches who I've confused (except Xavi, who didn't even mention my PvP win over Yang at MC lan when the topic came up while I was playing), all the teams and players who've shown up each week.

Biggest thanks goes to the guys in AsG for being so welcoming towards me and my trolling and giving me the chance to show off my retarded strategies.

And of course Eman for being our star player ♥.

Thanks

Congratulations to darkhorse clan Ascension Gaming for taking out the first PDCL title! Their worthy adversaries FaDe were looking menacing all season but a killer streak from players like AsGNasch saw AsG take too much momentum in to the finals for the tournament favourites to deal with. VB have to settle for 3rd place, but there's always next season...

Thanks to the casters, streamers and co-casters of the event, Erasmus and Rizzisk for running the majority of the league, and the players and fans who tuned in to watch and make it lots of fun

See the full results here.

SEE THE VOD HERE
Semi-Final Replays
Grand Final Replays

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:
	NDG.Stitch: