Can you please introduce yourself to the audience?
I'm Mikolaj Ogonowski, player from Poland. I'm playing zerg for team Extreme Supremacy.
Congratz on premier. You got picked by ShoWTimE who got 2nd seed. Did youe xpect this and would you have preferred to play someone else instead?
I knew ShoWTimE was going to pick me because SouL told me that. How he knew it, I don't know. So I was already preparing for him. But I was expecting some of the top players to pick me because I wasn't known at all.
You won 3-1 in a very close series. I want to talk about game 2 in which you held the cannon rush but lost drones. Did you feel you were ahead after the cannon rush?
It was very close. I knew he was going to cannon rush me but I knew this style of cannon rush on this map so I was training to hold this with hatch first. So I knew I can hold this if I can block the 2nd entrance to my natural with a drone, but I couldn't. He somehow sneaked the probe so I thought I was going to lose the game but somehow after I destroyed all the cannons I only lost like 6 drones I think. I knew I was ahead. He spend I think 1600 minerals on the cannons.
On Iron fortess you cannot cannon rush I think. So I was just going 3 hatch before pool every game on that map. So after I saw the cannon rush I knew I would win the game.
It was a bad decision by ShoWTimE.
You're known for playing in a lot of online cups. Will you continue to or will you focus more on WCS?
I will play the online cups, but not as much as before for sure. Like, maybe only go4sc2 or something like that. Because before I was playing every online cup. Now I'm just practicing for WCS, not showing my strategies. So maybe after the premier league this season I will start playing again.
Were there any players from the european region that you thought stood out in season 1 of WCS?
I think ShoWTimE. But I wasn't that interested in premier league this season. I prefer to watch koreans. I only watch the WCS non-koreans when my friends play. Maybe Snute, I
watch the TeamLiquid players a lot because I they are showing they are very high level, maybe I can learn something.
Who do you think is the best player in Europe right now?
Snute. Normally you can think maybe Bunny, maybe Snute but after you played versus Snute you can really feel that he's just better.
In season 1 only viOLet got knocked out by non-koreans. Polt and Hydra made the finals while ForGG got knocked out by Polt. Do you think non-koreans will knock out more koreans this season, if so, which players do you think have a good chance?
Yea I think so. Maybe not all of them but Hydra is for sure beatable, ForGG is only playing mech so you can somehow just allin him. Polt isn't very solid. Like, he's solid but sometimes he plays strange timings. So if you get lucky, you can always beat these guys.
Do you think a non-korean will win a WCS season this year?
I think so yea, it's possible. Obviously Snute or Bunny, they have some chance. Maybe MaNa has potential.
In game 4 you played a similair roach ling attack to game 1 but this time did a lot more damage. What do you think went different in those 2 games?
They were totally different, In the first game I was totally stressed out. In the first timing that I played, I attacked him with I think with 10 roaches or something. I was totally suprised because he had no army to defend. So I just started spamming lings and thought I would win but I just didn't do anything. So after that I had like 1000 minerals in bank, like 500 gas. So I thought I already lost the game but I still played a longer game like 20 or 30 minutes I think. So I was really happy with the first game that it went like that. And I knew I had a really high chance to win after the first game.
And in the 4th game he failed the cannon rush. He spend 3 pylons and cannons, it's 450 minerals plus probe. And I went 3 hatch before pool anway so I was really far ahead. And the spawning locations were close so I could walk to him base with my queens so his startport and voidrays were useless, so I could just destroy the 3rd no problem. Because only voidrays can hold this push. And yea he couldn't use them.
I was suprised because I thought the games would be really really hard but I was spamming roaches and a-moving almost every game. So I was just really suprised. Very happy and suprised I think.
You are in the ro32 group of Polt, MajOr and TLO. Fortunately you have to play in germany. How do you feel about your group and what are your expectations for this season?
I think this group is not the toughest one, like I think it's in the middle so it's doable. I think I can beat MajOr and TLO, I'm almost sure I can beat them. With Polt maybe, like I said if I get lucky. If I won't get totally stressed out, maybe I have a chance with Polt, but we'll see.
Do you want to give any shoutouts?
Not really, maybe to my team, team Extreme Supremacy. to Harstem for practicing with me. I think without Harstem I wouldn't win for sure.
Elazer's twitter: https://twitter.com/Elazersc2
The interview was conducted on the 8th of May.
Interview done by JayPower https://twitter.com/JayPowerSC2