[crAzerk]

And our Head Article Writer crAzerk gets a quick interview with the winner, aLtnirvAnA, to talk to him about his WCG experience and his reasons for using Random.

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aLtnirvAnA - WCG 2011 Starcraft 2 Champion

crAzerk: Congrats on the win! How does it feel to have won yet another WCG? (nirvAnA won the SC1 WCG in 2000&2001, as well as Warcraft 3 in 2004)
nirvAnA: It feels really good to win the first sc2 wcg! almost as good as the time when i won my first one back in 2000 haha!
crAzerk: Yea sorry for asking such a redundant question, I mean, obviously you feel good, who feels bad after winning. ANYWAY, on to my next question.

C: I saw pictures of you playing - on a tiny 15" laptop! How did that affect your gameplay! I've tried playing on a laptop and failed terribly.
N: The screen was way too small! What made it worse is im used to playing on a 24inch monitor and my eyesight is terrible.

nirvAnA squinting at the small screen

N: I recall the game vs muse i spent like 1 min looking on screen to find my observer. yea and basically i cant see anything on the minmap either

C: We saw a wide variety of tactics from you this entire tournament (from IESF too) - from solid standard play to kooky proxy Stargates. Which do you prefer doing, orthodox or unorthodox builds?
N: I like doing my own builds i come up with, dislike playing ABC.(this means standard play) sometimes theres no choice and the only way to play is ABC. hmm the void thing was a risky blunder. i had prepared a really strong strat vs 1/1/1 but the 2 free depots at the ramp are always so tempting

C: How did you feel when you found out you were going to go up against Escapist? Confident? Nervous? Worried because mirrors reflect (see what i did there) micro-intensive games when every unit counts?
N: I was actually extremely relieved when i foudn out i would play escapist rather then rev, as well as souj rather then muse. although they are my friends and team mates.
The thing is im originally a protoss player myself so i have a very good understanding of the race and what its strong/weak against. Im reallly confident vs protoss players, i think my ladder tvp win ratio is close to 80% over 50 games
(Fun fact : nirvAnA has an impressive 16-0 record using Random in the entire tournament (IESF + WCG). He started picking a race from Ro8/Ro32 onwards for IESF/WCG respectively)

C: What is it about Random that is so appealing to you? Doesn't it mean you'll need to have a much more vast AND accessible bank of knowledge at your fingertips once the game starts?
N: hmm i just like variety and its fun. actually i started randoming so i coudl help with the other sections more in TGM. played about 500 ladder games this season with random, the most i ever played in a season, and currently in the top 16
C: Yes, but why do you still pick Random in a tournament? Is the element of surprise for 1-2 minutes worth getting a race you're inferior in?
N: i pick random because i feel my random is still very strong and yes, random has big advantages in some matchups, for e.g on metalopolis if its PvP and he scouts you last. this is ESL version so only 2 spawn locations u can proxy right in the center of the map

C: I see. So what are your plans for WCG Korea? I suppose you'll be training even harder to do Singapore proud?
N: hmm yea i will def practise for it, not sure if im gonna stick to random.

C: Well we hope to see more of your creative builds! Any final shoutouts?
N: shout outs to escapist, my new clan mate for being such a boss - #2 and #3 with no practice, ninja and other clan mates who helped me practise and everyone for the kind words and well wishes!!
(Escapist has recently just joined clan aLt, in case you were wondering)
C: Alright, thank you for your time!

Photos courtesy of mezza!