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Sequential Gaming: Player Spotlight

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

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

Alex "SQLTt.Ninja" Smith

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

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

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

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

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

Hair is off. Sh*t just got real.

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

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

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

Nick "SQLTt.HuT" Hutton

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

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

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

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

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

HuT classes up BarCraft Sydney.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quick Comments

Nemo:

Very interesting. Thanks !