Pre-MLG Interview with Stalife

By Derek “Redav” Coombes

You’ve been on a winning streak as of late, taking down your competition on a consistent basis to win a number of the daily or weekly events that you’ve recently played in. How do these wins and accomplishments affect your game play? Would you say you are on a hot streak?

I feel great that I’ve been winning more recently. I’ve been putting more hours into practice and really focusing on each match-up day after day. I’ve yet to prove myself on the bigger stages and that’s what I’m determined to do with the upcoming big tournaments like NASL, IGN and MLG. MLG Dallas comes first and I hope to perform well and get some momentum going. I’ve competed in 9 LAN tournaments for SC2 and I’ve won 6 of them. These are certainly big confidence boosters, but it’s not enough for me and I’m hungry for more tournament wins.

In the beginning of February, you attended the Project X LAN in Calgary, where you managed to win. Did you notice a difference in your LAN play from your online play?

I really played at the top of my game at Project X LAN. I won the whole tournament without dropping a single game and I felt invincible. My multitasking and decision making were great and I felt that I was in control of each game. I often feel like I play a lot better at LAN than at home. I love the crowd and it adds a whole new level of excitement when everyone’s watching you play. I particularly loved the Project X LAN because even after 10 hours of gaming all day long, many people stayed and watched the whole finals. It was great and I loved it. I guess I’m secretly an attention whore.

MLG Dallas is this weekend. Do you think you are ready? How much have you been able to practice? What have you found to be the greatest learning experience?

MLG Dallas will be tough, no doubt. I’ve never been to a major LAN tournament, but I have high expectations of myself. My first goal is to get top 16 in the open bracket and beat someone famous on stage. My second goal is to get at least top 8. I’m not sure if I’m ready or not since my practice win ratio has been around 10%… Hopefully I play a lot better at the tournament than at home. I’ve been really frustrated during practice sessions, but I feel like losing is the only way to improve (not that I’ve been losing on purpose lol). My teammates have been helping me practice as well as ValiditySAGA. I don’t think ANYONE has heard of Validity but he has one of the best PVT in NA.

In a recent blog post, you mentioned that you want to “make an impact as a player,” and MLG is the first step in doing this. This shows that you have a confident mentality going into the event. Does having this mentality have any affect on your game?

I want to show the world I can compete at the highest level. MLG is the perfect platform for me to achieve this and I am determined to do well. As I said in my blog, I don’t want people saying “It’s okay, this is your first MLG, at least you learned something out of this experience.” It definitely puts a lot of pressure on me, but I’m a competitive player and I’m going there to win.

While attending MLG Dallas you will finally be able to LAN with your teammates. Do you think that this will add more pressure, or calm your nerves?

We chat on Skype pretty often but meeting in person will be a different experience. I wish there was like a week of training with the members in a training house. It would suck to meet for the first time, and then have to face each other in the tournament.. There’s certainly this silent competition on who gets farthest among the teammates (yeah, all of us are competitive), and I want to win this competition, but I hope everyone does well :D.  I can’t wait to have a steak with my teammates.

MLG has a lot of big StarCraft 2 names. Is there anyone in particular that you would want to look out for? On the other side of the spectrum, is there anyone that you would want to play against?

In the open brackets, I’d like to avoid all of my teammates. They know my style well and they’ll abuse it to the fullest. Overall, I’d like to avoid as many protoss as possible. There isn’t a particular protoss that stands out for me. If I do qualify from the open brackets and play the seeded players, I’d like to play Socke or Select. I feel confident in my tvt, but whenever I play against Select, I have this mental block and play poorly. He’s in my NASL group too and I want to beat him so that I can break free from this mental block. Socke is an amazing player and I’d love to play against him. Huge respect for the player both in skill and personality.

The MLG bracket for this season has been criticized by many, due to it being dependent on last years results. How do you feel about this? Do you think that every season should start from scratch?

I don’t mind this at all actually. I think people who showed up to MLG last year and performed well should deserve some sort of advantage going into this years MLG. I think it’s a great format. Good players will advance in the end.

We wish you luck during you first ever MLG! Do you have anything else that you would like to say?

First, I’d like to thank all the sponsors of CompLexity Gaming who made is possible for us to compete at the MLG. Thank you to Creative, Sound Blaster and QPAD. Without them, I would be watching MLG at home wishing I was there competing.  Also, I’d like to thank all of my teammates and ValiditySAGA who are so helpful and making me a better player everyday. Lastly, I’d like to thank my lovely gf Jessica for supporting me practice hours and hours. She’s amazing.

Interview with CrunCher

by Kevin “FlatLine” Van

CrunCher, a former WC3 player, moved on to play Starcraft 2 and with a couple months of playing he is able to demolish everybody that stood in his way.  Luckily, I was able to grab some time with him and interview him.  In the interview, we will discuss CrunCher’s performance and his view on e-Sports growing in the western scene and many other interesting topics.

CrunCher, you have been smashing players recently and have been performing absolutely amazing lately.  How do you feel about your recent performances?

I feel good about it. I worked a lot on perfecting my builds, and expanding my strategies to those beyond the typical macro game, but I still have a lot to work on.

Now, we are seeing a lot of former WC3 players playing Starcraft 2.  Generally, WC3 players excel in the micro part of the game.  Do you feel like that experience gives you an upper hand than other players?  And do you feel like former BW players have a slight upper hand to WC3 players?

I think when first coming into the game, BW players have an advantage over other gamers, but after some practice there is really no difference. The most important thing is having dedication and knowing how to practice, rather than just massing game after game.

Moving on to your performances, I want to cover up the most recent The V showmatch between EG.StrifeCro and yourself.  You completely dominated the series going 4-0; what are your overall thoughts of the series? 

You can find the games at compLexityINSIDER.

It was a good match. I love playing bo7/bo5. They really open mind games and promote having multiple strategies, rather than having a few different play styles or build orders.

You also participated in the FXOpen Invitational #2 where you placed 5th in the entire event.  You had to go through some very well-known players like oGsInCa, CheckPrime.WE, and MarineKingPrime.WE.  What was going on in your head when you had to face them?  Do you feel like the latency issue played a huge role when you faced some of these top Korean players?

You can find the series with MarineKingPrime.WE at compLexityINSIDER.

Latency definitely had a role in it, and I also know most of their play styles, so I had an advantage there as well. However I wasn’t really worried about facing them, I love playing against Koreans, and see how I compare to someone who made 2 GSL finals.

Lately, it seems like EG.IdrA looks down upon you saying in his TSL interview you are nothing but a mere walk over.  Do you know why he does?

I don’t know. It seems he underestimates every opponent he plays against.

Talking about TSL, in your TSL series against EG.IdrA, you were able to pull an upset and shock the world by winning 2-1.  What were your thoughts throughout the series? 

You can find the series against EG.IdrA at teamliquidnet.

I went into the match with a ton of preparation, and finding every flaw and counter I could, mostly in the first map. The map I was most worried about was Terminus Re, due to not having enough practice on it. And on the final map I hit a good timing attack followed by some perfect forcefields to end the game early.

“Donuts.  Is there anything they can’t do?” – Homer Simpson

They defintely were some tasty forcefields I must say lol.  Moving on, you were announced as one of the fifty exclusive members to participate in the first season of the NASL.   What are your thoughts on the event and your group?

For more information regarding the NASL, check out their website.

The event looks like it has a lot of potential, and would be awesome if it became GSL in USA. My group is pretty interesting, and I hope to qualify to the offline finals.

MLG is around the corner at Dallas where you be making your debut appearance at a MLG LAN event.  Are you excited and how do you think you will do at the event?  Are there certain people you do not want to face going into this event?

For more information regarding MLG, check out their website.

I’m excited. It will be my first SC2 LAN event. I am not too worried about facing anyone. I hope to make it out of the open bracket, and of course to win the whole thing.

Yeah.  The open bracket seems pretty brutal for how many matches you have to play.  All of these events are just popping up left and right in the western scene.  What are your views of e-Sports growing?

It’s awesome. It has just been blowing up the past few weeks, and it will be awesome to see it continue to grow.

Talking about the western scene, it seems like foreigners are pretty close if not equal to Korean players.  Do you feel like Koreans had an advantage over the foreigners to begin with?

The gap is way smaller than it was in SC1 and WC3. I wouldn’t be surprised if foreigners began to have shots at taking down top Koreans at the finals of a lan event.

Going back to you for a quick bit, you have been dominating so much I can’t really tell if you have a bad matchup so I’ll ask this.  What is your best and worst matchup and why?

My best is PvT. I have perfected a lot of different strategies against them. My worst is PvP, since it can be a coin flip matchup a lot of the time.

With the recent patch, do you think Protoss are up against the ropes?  And what is your overall stand on the recent patch?

The patch helped Protoss a lot against Terran, even with the amulet nerf. Stim takes way longer to complete, which means less early game pressure. The infestor buff is interesting, but Protoss still have multiple strategies they can pull off.

Ever since you joined compLexity Gaming, your skills seem to improve tenfold from mechanics to builds.  Do you practice a lot against your teammates?  Do you have like a daily routine you go through?

Yeah, I play with everyone quite a bit, and it has been a lot of help. I don’t have a routine I go through.  I play whenever I have free time, and work on whatever I need to.

Time is running short now as I know you have to fly out to Dallas tomorrow and practice for the event, so I’ll just end it here.  Would you like to say anything to your fellow fans, the community, and to your team?

I’d like to thank all my fans for supporting me, and hope they keep on doing so. I would also like thank to Creative, Sound Blaster, PNY and QPAD for sponsoring me, and making this event possible.

“Awwwwwwwwww Shiiiiiiiiiitttt” – DJ Wheat

Today we’re happy to announce that compLexity Gaming once again has control of #compLexity on the Quakenet IRC channel.

For a good amount of time some juvenile trolls were holding the channel ownership hostage and demanding payment for it.  With the help of Quakenet we assumed control today. (However, we didn’t totally purge the squatters until after they banned the entire channel list.  Our apologies if you were banned.)

From here on out we invite everyone who uses Quakenet to stop by #compLexity.  It’s once again an official channel.

Thanks as always for your support!

compLexity Gaming: YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!

Yesterday our very own Josh “AskJoshy” Sutherland hit the road for a three day visit to the newly formed ROOT Gaming training house in Florida. 

Josh will spend some time with ROOT stars like Catz, Kiwikaki and Drewbie and send back video interviews and coverage from his stay.

On Thursday he flies from Miami to Dallas for MLG Dallas where he’ll be providing some of the best coverage of the event.  Stay tuned for videos, interviews, photos and more!

Keep it locked here on the site and check out AskJoshy’s YouTube channel for amazing coverage all week long!

compLexity Gaming: YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!