Fray'Petraeus

Name: Mack "Petraeus" Smith | Country: New Zealand | Race: Zerg | Team: Frenetic Array

After bursting onto the scene a year and a half ago, Mack "Petraeus" Smith has proceeded to dominate the SEA Starcraft 2 scene, becoming the best player in New Zealand and one of the best in SEA. After qualifying for the WCS America Season 3 Challenger League, I had a chat with Pet about qualifying, his path to the top, and his plans for his career.

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Lemminks: Heya Petraeus, why don't we start off with a short introduction?

Mack 'Petraeus' Smith: Hi I am Petraeus, a Zerg player hailing from New Zealand and playing for Frenetic Array.

Lemminks: On behalf of the writer team here at sc2sea, congratulations for qualifying for the WCS America Season 3 Challenger League. Do you have anything to say about qualifying?

Petraeus: Thanks. I've been trying to qualify for challenger league for a while now but always fell short due to the awful times the qualifiers were on or the masses of Koreans playing in them so I am glad I got an easy bracket and was able to qualify!

Lemminks: Would you mind taking us through the your qualifying run? It seemed like a small bracket.

Petraeus: Round 1 was a walkover. Can't remember what happened against Maze but I don't remember it being very difficult hence the 2-0. Pretty much the same with my 2-0 against Kamzer. The terran player Revenge was the first challenge I had, only barely beating him 2-1. In the final game I thought I had lost and almost gg'd but somehow managed to come back. Against GuitarCheese it came down to holding off an all in game 1, doing a silly build game 2 and winning a macro game in game 3.

Petraeus and his trademarked orange

Lemminks: Over a year ago you made a thread on sc2sea about making Grandmasters on SEA. You quickly followed that up with qualifying for the SEASL Season 2 finals. Was there a main reason for this improvement?

Petraeus: I'd say it came down to really wanting to better myself as a player. The more time I spent in the competitive scene the more I found myself hooked on improving my play.

Lemminks: Were there any particular strategies for improvement that you employed during this period?

Petraeus: Although many people think this is an ineffective way of practicing, for me it was always just mass ladder. I rarely go over replays, when I watch streams its more for entertainment. I prefer to grind out tonnes of games and so far that has worked out for me. I think every person is different though.

Lemminks: Most SEA tournaments start rather late for New Zealand. Has this affected your ability to play?

Petraeus: I wouldn't say its affected my abilities in any way but I've probably missed out on some money and prestige along the way.

Lemminks: What about your studies and daily life?

Petraeus: I don't think its affected it much at all. Most of the time I just won't play in tournaments that go late.

Lemminks: In a recent interview that you did for Stuff.co.nz, you stated that you were planning on leaving school to live in Sydney and compete both locally and internationally from there. Has this changed in the last month or is it still something you want to do?

Petraeus: The plan to leave school and play professionally has not changed, it is something I have wanted to do ever since I qualified for the Tokyo Game Show last year. The plan to live in Sydney has changed however. I now plan to move the the US to play professionally.

Lemminks: When you do move to the US, would that also mean transferring to an international team or do you view them as no different from some of the teams currently operating in the SEA region?

Petraeus: International team.

Lemminks: Any particular reason for the move away from both home and country?

Petraeus: There isn't really the infrastructure in SEA let alone NZ to support full time gamers unless you want to live with your parents. There is also not a lot of exposure to be gained in such a small, closed off scene so I feel that my efforts may be wasted if I continue to compete in SEA.

Lemminks: Do you feel that Starcraft 2 is on the decline in both the SEA region and globally?

Petraeus: Not really. It seems to be more being overwhelmed by the successes of other games. Although there's a lot of negativity within the scene at the moment, I feel that's caused mostly by paranoia rather than actual decline. In the SEA scene however there seems to be a lot less interest in the game. Hopefully that will change.

Lemminks: Any ideas on how the SEA eSports organisations and Blizzard can do this?

Petraeus: I don't really have strong enough opinions to make any recommendations.

Petraeus has been subject to many nicknames, such as Petreaus (seen here on his shirt), Prataenus and Patchraeus

Lemminks: Despite the historic rivalry between the Kiwi's and the Aussies, do you feel that Australians still support you during tournaments? Do they support you more during international tournaments than local tournaments?

Petraeus: Yeah for sure. There's always a lot of SEA support behind me in any event but especially international tournaments which is awesome. I don't think the 'historic rivalry' surfaces too much in eSports, except for the occasional sheep joke.

Lemminks: You seemed to have developed a number of rivalries during your SC2 career, care to share about some of them with us?

Petraeus: I'd say the only real rivalry I had would be with Jazbas when I was first breaking into the competitive scene. I saw him as a sort of God when I first played him at my first every LAN. After that we played each other in almost every tournament and gradually I began winning more and more. I think if I hadn't had the constant need to improve and take games off players like Jazbas, Mafia, Iaguz or anyone I struggled to beat I wouldn't be where I am today.

Lemminks: People would sometimes refer to you as the Owl Zerg, is there any particular reason for this?

Petraeus: I used to comment "Who?" a lot in reddit threads about players I didn't particularly like. This quickly became a catchphrase of mine.

Lemminks: #Dedication is something that you and the Frenetic Array boys have also popularised. Would you mind telling us about how that started?

Petraeus: I actually don't know how it started but I use it to criticise players who don't practice enough or praise those who do.

Lemminks: Thank you for your time Mack and once again congratulations on qualifying, do you have any final shoutouts?

Petraeus: Thanks for the interview! Shoutout to my team Frenetic Array and their sponsors Razer, Micis Consulting and Gametraders. Also a shoutout to Spook, Cam's mum and any orange lovers.

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Interview by Lemminks
Graphics by Cute and UHF

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More Tea with Titans!

Episode 1: Legionnaire

Protoss
Australia

Episode 2: KingKong

Zerg
Australia
cR

[Matt93]

This is kind of cool Lemminks. The important question remains, what kind of tea?

[Cute]

Originally Posted by Matt93

This is kind of cool Lemminks. The important question remains, what kind of tea?

Doesn't matter, provided that it's not Ginseng. I'm not gonna get hopped up on dope!

Nicely done Lem!
And yay Pet

[SLCN.ARze]

Nice interview, pet fighting!

[FLuX]

Wow no shoutout for me. Pet literally killing SEAsports

[CryovaK]

Nice! I wonder if his name is from that American military guy, General Douglas Petraeus?

Anyway, love seeing a fellow Kiwi making a name for himself, glhf!

[ToRSpookToR]

It is. 10char

[HuT]

who? asdffff

[RuineD]

"ti·tan
/ˈtītn/
Any of the older gods who preceded the Olympians and were the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). Led by Cronus, they overthre...
A person or thing of very great strength, intellect, or importance: "a titan of industry"."


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