The compLexity Academy is proud to announce that it has added three new players to it’s roster. Choosen from numerous applicants, these three players were the most qualified and passionate about StarCraft II and eSports. Congratulations to Michael ”SniXSniPe” Niven, Kyo, and Jerred “UNCjer” Miklowcic.

To help introduce these new members, Academy commissioner Michael “Twixz” Shane gave them a short interview.

Michael ”SniXSniPe” Niven application video:

First off congratulations on joining the Academy, tell us a little bit about your SC2 background.

Hello everyone, I am SniXSniPe a Terran player (formerly random), and I actively participate in the CSL League for the University of Houston. I also spend my time playing off-race every now and then, but for the most part for any matches/tournaments that I partake in I stick with Terran. As for why I decided to main Terran, well, even though I did not really play BW much besides customs such as Money Maps/UMS games, I still watched a bit of the old school Boxer/NaDa/Flash progames that were going on back in the day. Players like them inspired me to love Terran and ultimately go with this race. Another reason is that I feel like Terran is the only race that has that perfecting Starcraft RTS play style to them— decision making, build order planning and countering, precise unit control, and so forth.

What are some of your major goals with SC2?

Overall, to become a much better player. Being able to hit GM on the KR server would be nice, because that would certainly indicate you can compete at the highest level (or near there). This of course, would lead to tournament success, which would be priority #1 for any aspiring player. I also would love to see success, simply so I can maybe inspire younger players/other players so that the US would stop being hating on for being “weak” :P.

Besides that, I would love to one day beat some of those guys I looked up to back in the day, Boxer, NaDa, Yellow ( :(), Flash, Jaedong, Moon, Grubby, Sky (I personally loved WC3 more than BW, don’t hate!).

Now that you are in the Academy what are you expectations for yourself and the Academy program?

Well, I expect myself to get better for starters, and I feel that joining the Academy is one of the best methods available for determining this. These MLG qualifiers where compLexity sends out a player to MLG is a good way for showing me whether I am ready or not to compete— if I fail to win/qualify then I am not ready, if I do win, then I should be prepared to do well or at least make great progress. Either way, this will also help me see how I am improving, and also obtain some invaluable practice partners for each race.

Any shoutouts, where can we find you?

I do have all three, but I really don’t use twitter much (in fact, I mostly only use it to watch GSL :D). If you are still interested, you can find me @ www.twitter.com/snixsnipe.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/forceofmichael

Lastly, I do have a youtube channel where I upload plenty of videos. I use to actually make tutorial videos for Terran (mostly), though I have a couple of other kinds of videos from casting to videos from MLG. If you’d like to take a look/subscribe then check it out at: www.youtube.com/snixsnipe

I haven’t made many tutorial videos lately, but that could change if people actively watched/were genuienly interested. Personally, I don’t like people paying for coaching (though it might be a better way to improve perhaps) and wanted to simply make instructional videos so people could actually learn for free.

First off congratulations on joining the Academy, tell us a little bit about your SC2 background.

Thanks a lot! Well, in the beginning I didn’t actually play the SC2 Beta as I was Seeled to Brood War. I was actually one of those “SC2 is not going to be popular at all” kind of people. However, after picking it up and seeing the scene explode, especially with the GSL, I fully transitioned over to SC2. To be honest, I was a bit of a Slowpoke in the scene until about 3 months after release. I found a few practice partners such as Titan and NGry and played as much as I could before I went off to college, barely missing the first top 200 blogs. Eventually I joined Think Quick(tQ) with some known players such as Sungpa, Mewtwo, State and from there I moved over to Convergence Gaming with Fitzy, Puck, Yata, Sasquatch and a few others. Even after these terams dissolved all of these guys have helped me along the way and when the chance to join the coL Academy came up I immediately took it.

What are some of your major goals with SC2?

Realistically, I’d love to be able to make it deep into an MLG bracket or have a nice breakout tournament but it’s like fighting through Muk in these tournaments. There are just so many other good players. With that said, the biggest goal I have set for myself with SC2 is to be able, by whatever means, to interact in the scene as a career.

Now that you are in the Academy what are you expectations for yourself and the Academy program?

I currently feel as if I’m still a Bellsprout, so if I continue to grow as a player it wouldn’t be too Farfetch’d to see myself graduating from the Academy program. Even though I attend college full time I’m still able to compete with some good players. I think if I continue to analyze the game correctly I can continue to move forward in the scene. Hopefully that doesn’t Jynx me though!

Any shoutouts, where can we find you?

Thanks to all the people who practice with me.

Thanks to the people support me it really means a lot; and similarly, thanks again to Complexity and their sponsors for this amazing opportunity.

Jerred “UNCjer” Miklowcic application video:

First off congratulations on joining the Academy, tell us a little bit about your SC2 background.

Thanks!  I’m super psyched to be a part of the Academy.  ^_^

My handle is UNCjer and I started playing SC2 in November of 2010 when my friend bought me the game so that I’d practice with him.  xD

Back then I was a WC3 Orc player so I was very micro oriented and didn’t really know many of the mechanics of SC2.  I placed into silver league on my first day playing the game, but I became so obsessed with laddering that I got up to platinum by the end of that day.  In about 2 weeks I was up into diamond league and then I made it into master league in February 2011 right after the patch was released.  I love laddering and I’ve now played against and beaten a lot of the top players on the ladder.

As for events, I am a huge fan of the Collegiate Starleague and I played for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s SC2 team last year in the CSL.  I ended up at 17 wins and 4 losses with the longest active 1v1 winning streak in the CSL.  I then played in the “CSL All-Star” invitational tournament in Orlando, Florida with qxc, Spanishiwa, KawaiiRice, Ostojiy, and HelloKitty.  I think that was the most fun live event I’ve played in so far and also my first event in which I’ve played on a stage in front of a crowd (and cast by Day9).

I’ve also participated in many local lans and one MLG open bracket so far.

What are some of your major goals with SC2?

My dream/goal in life is to have a career in eSports, preferably as a professional eSports athlete, so I guess that’s my main objective or goal relating to StarCraft 2.  I realize that this goal will require a lot of commitment/dedication, but I have the skills, love of the game, and competitive spirit which can propel me to achieve my dream.

Some smaller goals of mine are to make grandmaster league in the coming months, get deep into an MLG tournament through the open bracket, and to keep improving as much as possible.  I’m going to MLG Raleigh in August so hopefully I can show some good games there and take out some big name players in the process.  😀

Now that you are in the Academy what are your expectations for yourself and the Academy program?

I feel like the Academy is going to be a huge help to me as a player.  My main problem previously was neither time commitment nor devotion to the game, but finding high level consistent practice partners.  The guys in the Academy are all extremely good players and I can’t wait to set up a practice schedule in order to get ready for upcoming tournaments and leagues.

I guess my expectations for myself are that I will provide great practice for the other members of the Academy and I also expect them to provide practice and criticism to me so that we can all improve our play as much as possible.

I’m also really looking forward to upcoming show matches, tournaments, and team leagues we will do as members of the Academy.  Our roster is super solid so I think we can do extremely well as a team.

Any shoutouts, where can we find you (twitter, facebook, youtube, etc…)?

I’d like to thank my friend Chris Allen for getting me into SC2, shout out to my gf Ashley (our six month anniversary is in a few days), and shout out to all of my fans and supporters at UNC and elsewhere that have gotten me this far in my career!

If you want to follow me, you can find me at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCjer
Stream: www.twitch.tv/thegodeht  (Stream will be back up almost daily in late August)

Also, a huge thanks to compLexity Gaming for this amazing opportunity!

The compLexity Academy is proud to announce its sixth tournament. Established to determine which one player from the Academy will receive an all expenses paid trip to go play at the MLG Summer Championship in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 24th, the tournament will be held on Monday July 23rd at 7:00 PM EST. The format of this tournament is standard double elimination and will feature a best of 3 for each match.

Brackets

http://challonge.com/mlgsummerqual

Congratulations to our winner: Fuzzy

Starting Map

The starting map will be determined by veto’s, the lower Seed veto’s first, then the higher seed. This will continue until there is one map left, this will be the starting map. After the first map, all maps become playable again. The winning player gets to veto one map and the losing player gets to pick from the remaining pool. No map can be played twice.

Map Pool 

MLG Antiga Shipyard
MLG Daybreak
MLG Entombed Valley
MLG Metalopolis
MLG Shakuras Plateau
MLG Tal’Darim Altar
MLG Cloud Kingdom

Commentary for the Academy tournament will be provide by our new coL.Academy casters David and Shawn from the Stoic Series. View the tournament LIVE on our Twitch.tv stream by clicking here.

For the fifth part of our “Meet The Academy” series, Academy commissioner Michael “Twixz” Shane sat down with Sean ‘vGEroSennin’ Gough. Being one of our newest members, we wanted to give Sean the chance get his name out in the community and let people get to know one of our rising stars.

Let’s start off with a little introduction about you, your background, and interests?

My name is Sean ‘vGEroSennin’ Gough, I’ve been playing StarCraft off and on since 1999. As I said previously in my blog A Little Bit About Me I started playing Brood War in 2001, beating my first Korean Progamer in 2003. Took a few breaks in between, and wound up finishing in two final four qualifiers for WCG 2010 with games off of Machine, Sheth, Slog, LastShadow, among others in the various qualifiers that I played in.

As for non-StarCraft related events, because of my teacher deciding to give me a ‘C-’ in a physics class for a final grade even though it shows as a ‘C’ online, I’ve had to retake the course in a span of six weeks this summer. After that I will receive my diploma with a BA in Athletic Training. I’ve already passed my national exams back in April, so once that is squared away I will have my license. For those of you who are unaware of the duties an Athletic Trainer performs, we do preventative taping; we provide acute care for athletes on the field, specializing in orthopedic injuries, muscle strains, ligament sprains, and all that fun stuff. We also participate in rehabbing the athlete to help get him or her back on the field as quick as possible.

I’m a pitching coach and instructor; I also play amateur Baseball, so those, combined with gaming, are my interests.

How long have you been into professional gaming? What other games have you played before SC2?

As I spoke about briefly in the previous question, I’ve been around the BW scene since 2001, with a couple year break from late 03 – late 05. Before StarCraft 2 came out it was all SC1. Sure I’d play around a bit with DOA4 for the 360 or Madden, but it was pretty much all SC1.

What have been some of you favorite moments with SC2?

I’m not sure I have many favorite moments, but I’ll mention a couple that stick out in my head.

I started playing SC2 in October 2010, and the second day my friend added Combat into our Skype chat and we played a 1v1 PvP on Lost Temple. I won, and he was ranked ~100 in the world at the time I believe.

To continue on that, about a month and a half later I beat RootCatz PvZ on Scrap Station in a tournament, which I thought, was cool because I had beaten a few people on teams before that point, but I was aware that Root wasn’t some no-named team, so I thought it was nifty, considering I still wasn’t taking the game that seriously. Not until after I got into compLexity Academy did I decide to start putting forth some effort into the game.

In the Spring of 2011 I won a chance to go to MLG Columbus 2011. It wasn’t all expense paid trip, just, competitor pass was paid for.

My first opponent reaches over shakes my hand, and goes, “Oh my God, I know you from Brood War.” I thought that was pretty cool.

Who are some of the SC2 players you follow closely/ take interest in?

To be honest? No one. I’ll keep an eye out for a well-known Protoss player, like a Sase or Bling, and if they’re playing in a MLG or something I might give a look or might download their replays from a Red Bull LAN. I’ll see how a coL member or a former teammate of mine is doing in a tournament, but other than that? I really don’t follow anybody closely.

There is a MLG qualifier coming up for the academy, how do you think you will fair? Who do you think will be your biggest competition?

I’m hoping to win it. I was hoping to win the last one but I wound up taking 3rd, so this time I better win it. As for the biggest competition, I’d say it’d be anyone who plays Zerg.

You recently beat qxc in the academy vs qxc showmatch. How did it feel to take a game off of him and get a win for the Academy?

It was nice to take a game off of him; he’s a really solid player who will capitalize on any mistake he sees in your play. It felt nice to step up for the Academy and potentially set the pace for a comeback. Most importantly, I just wanted 25 bucks, and there was no way for me to get my money unless I took a game off of him.

Any final words, shoutouts etc?

I would love to. I want to give props to Brood War, which is the greatest RTS ever and is the sole reason all of this is possible. I pray that nobody ever forgets that.

I want to thank compLexity for being amazing so far. From someone who literally spent 8 months out of a year training for 10 qualifiers in 09 and 2010 for Brood War, to have the scene grow as it is now and to have the opportunity to go to events like MLG, it’s still a shock. So, again, thank you for the opportunities.

Also I want to give a shoutout to Kyle ‘LRM)Semih’ Himes who is a fantastic gamer and a so-so friend :). Everybody should be pestering this man to start playing SC2 because he is one of the best foreigners to play Brood War. Any team that is lucky enough to take a chance on.