Dates: May 25th 7pm est Groups:
Group-A Caster: ZombieGrub
https://www.twitch.tv/zombiegrub
MeomaikA
(P) Ninja
Creature
PengWin
Group B Caster: FalconPaladin
https://www.twitch.tv/falconpaladin
Bioice
.CalebAracous
Tesla
(Z) Ukko
May 26th 6pm est
Playoffs on https://www.twitch.tv/zombiegrub with FalconPaladin
both semi finals and finals will be best of 5's
Down Below we will have Interviews with the players:
Pengwin
+ Show Spoiler +
Kilokilo: Hello, How did you get into the Game starcraft and is it the first RTS you played?
Pengwin: I started playing Starcraft 2 at release after learning about it through one of my high school friends. I played Age of Empires 2 and Warcraft 3 prior to picking up SC2.
Kilokilo: Did you start off as zerg or did you play the other races too?
Pengwin: I have always mained Zerg
kilokilo:Why pick zerg and not the others?
PengWin:My friend Oliver told me to play Zerg
kilokilo:So why the name Pengwin? have you always used it as an in game name or something for just starcraft?
PengWin:I used the name PenguinOfDoom in an earlier game, which was too long for SC2 so I adopted PengWin because I thought it sounded good
Kilokilo: Lets talk about the tournament how do you feel about your group?
Pengwin: There's no Terrans in it so I'm pretty happy with it. The two Protosses are both teammates of mine and Meo is a good friend of mine as well so it should be interesting. I imagine Meo will probably make it out in first, and then it'll be up to me to take out Ninja and Creature. I'd say I have a 50% chance of advancing
Kilokilo: How do you feel about ZvP in general right now?
Pengwin: Honestly I find it kind of boring. I'm confident in it because I have a lot of super out there all ins that I can mix in, and I'm perfectly capable of playing macro, but I find that macro ZvP gets very repetitive since Zerg is kind of pigeonholed into going ling hydra bane every game. Roach hydra is viable, but I feel like you have to play at a much higher level than the Protoss to pull it off since the standard Protoss army just demolishes roach hydra in any straight up engagement.
Kilokilo: If you could change one thing what would it be?
Pengwin: I just want more options across the board. A lot of the matchups feel very stagnant at the moment, which makes the game less entertaining both as a player and a viewer. The game is very predictable in its current state in macro games, so it would be very beneficial if more unit compositions were viable
Kilokilo: I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
Pengwin: Shoutouts as always to my team, PSISTORM Gaming. My twitter is @psiPengWin and I stream most days at www.twitch.tv/pengwin_s
Pengwin: I started playing Starcraft 2 at release after learning about it through one of my high school friends. I played Age of Empires 2 and Warcraft 3 prior to picking up SC2.
Kilokilo: Did you start off as zerg or did you play the other races too?
Pengwin: I have always mained Zerg
kilokilo:Why pick zerg and not the others?
PengWin:My friend Oliver told me to play Zerg
kilokilo:So why the name Pengwin? have you always used it as an in game name or something for just starcraft?
PengWin:I used the name PenguinOfDoom in an earlier game, which was too long for SC2 so I adopted PengWin because I thought it sounded good
Kilokilo: Lets talk about the tournament how do you feel about your group?
Pengwin: There's no Terrans in it so I'm pretty happy with it. The two Protosses are both teammates of mine and Meo is a good friend of mine as well so it should be interesting. I imagine Meo will probably make it out in first, and then it'll be up to me to take out Ninja and Creature. I'd say I have a 50% chance of advancing
Kilokilo: How do you feel about ZvP in general right now?
Pengwin: Honestly I find it kind of boring. I'm confident in it because I have a lot of super out there all ins that I can mix in, and I'm perfectly capable of playing macro, but I find that macro ZvP gets very repetitive since Zerg is kind of pigeonholed into going ling hydra bane every game. Roach hydra is viable, but I feel like you have to play at a much higher level than the Protoss to pull it off since the standard Protoss army just demolishes roach hydra in any straight up engagement.
Kilokilo: If you could change one thing what would it be?
Pengwin: I just want more options across the board. A lot of the matchups feel very stagnant at the moment, which makes the game less entertaining both as a player and a viewer. The game is very predictable in its current state in macro games, so it would be very beneficial if more unit compositions were viable
Kilokilo: I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
Pengwin: Shoutouts as always to my team, PSISTORM Gaming. My twitter is @psiPengWin and I stream most days at www.twitch.tv/pengwin_s
Ukko
+ Show Spoiler +
Bioice
+ Show Spoiler +
Kilokilo: Hello, How did you get into the Game starcraft and is it the first RTS you played?
Bioice: I got into it as soon as it was realised because SC1 was my favorite game at the timeage of empires was that first rts i've ever played
RGkilokilo:How did you get into SC1 and how long did you play it for?
Bioice: my cousin who lived near me at the time showed me it and i bought it because of that and i played it for around a year but was never very good at it
kilokilo:Did you main Zerg in both games or did you try all 3 races?
Bioice: I tried all 3 races in broodwar but Zerg was my favorite then and because of that it's the only race I played in SC2
Kilokilo:So why the name Bioice? have you always used it as an in game name or something for just starcraft?
Bioice: I chose it when I was really young first getting into online gaming because I thought it sounded cool and I've stuck with it ever since
RGkilokilo: Lets talk about the tournament how do you feel about your group?
Bioice: I think ill probably get out of my group 1st or 2nd I feel fairly confident against the other players in my group but there still definitely decently challenging opponents for me.
RGkilokilo: Overall how do you feel ZvZ and ZvP are doing right now? How do you think the new maps will affect it?
Bioice: ZvZ is probably in the best state it's ever been right now but i think with the news maps especially the 4 player map their adding there is going to be alot of randomness and new builds in the matchup for atleast a few weeks.ZvP I think is a little bit Zerg favored right now but if Protoss doesn't get crippled off the early to midgame they end up favored going into the lategame.the new maps i think are pretty bad for protoss in ZvP though
RGkilokilo:I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
Bioice: Ya, I want to give a shoutout to my team Sloth Esports and if people want to keep track of me they can follow me at twitter @bioicesc2 and at my stream twitch.tv/bioice
Bioice: I got into it as soon as it was realised because SC1 was my favorite game at the timeage of empires was that first rts i've ever played
RGkilokilo:How did you get into SC1 and how long did you play it for?
Bioice: my cousin who lived near me at the time showed me it and i bought it because of that and i played it for around a year but was never very good at it
kilokilo:Did you main Zerg in both games or did you try all 3 races?
Bioice: I tried all 3 races in broodwar but Zerg was my favorite then and because of that it's the only race I played in SC2
Kilokilo:So why the name Bioice? have you always used it as an in game name or something for just starcraft?
Bioice: I chose it when I was really young first getting into online gaming because I thought it sounded cool and I've stuck with it ever since
RGkilokilo: Lets talk about the tournament how do you feel about your group?
Bioice: I think ill probably get out of my group 1st or 2nd I feel fairly confident against the other players in my group but there still definitely decently challenging opponents for me.
RGkilokilo: Overall how do you feel ZvZ and ZvP are doing right now? How do you think the new maps will affect it?
Bioice: ZvZ is probably in the best state it's ever been right now but i think with the news maps especially the 4 player map their adding there is going to be alot of randomness and new builds in the matchup for atleast a few weeks.ZvP I think is a little bit Zerg favored right now but if Protoss doesn't get crippled off the early to midgame they end up favored going into the lategame.the new maps i think are pretty bad for protoss in ZvP though
RGkilokilo:I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
Bioice: Ya, I want to give a shoutout to my team Sloth Esports and if people want to keep track of me they can follow me at twitter @bioicesc2 and at my stream twitch.tv/bioice
Tesla
+ Show Spoiler +
Kilokilo: Hello, why don't you tell use a little bit about yourself?
Tesla: My name is Robbie Plata(Tesla) I've played Starcraft II since its release, and have played CSL every year of college.
Kilo: What got you into starcraft and is starcraft your first RTS?
Tesla: I was always a big console player and the idea of playing an RTS was always boring to me. I played Halo, Call of Duty and other games growing up and I had no urge to play something like Age of Empires or Starcraft. One day however, my oldest brother and his friends were playing a game on the kitchen table where they would setup their computers and LAN on the weekends when school was over. They were playing a very pretty looking game and I recall asking my brother "is that a nuke" and him yelling at me for giving away his strategy. I thought it was a bit of an overreaction and I watched them play even more, I wanted to play it because I wanted to play with them too. I wasn't that good though, and my brother and I were very competitive in every game we played so I wanted to at least get to a level to where I could beat him, but when I got there, I wanted to keep going.
Kilokilo: Did you start off as protoss or did you play a 3 races?
Tesla: I started off as zerg. I still remember playing my first game with the gang, and when I did, I didn't know that making more drones would pull in more minerals, so working off of 6 drones I made a lot of corrupters. I remember my brother's friend Gary playing protoss though, and I thought it was a simpler race to learn at the time and he was willing to give me build orders, so I switched to protoss.
Kilokilo:So why the name Tesla? have you always used it or just recently?
Telsa: Recently as in probably 2 years ago. Since I started playing my ID was always Rob and a lot of people still call me Rob. I switched from Rob to React to Audien to Rob again and then to Tesla.
Kilokilo: Okay, So lets talk about the Tournament. How do you feel about the group you are in?
Tesla: Caleb and Ukko are good players but I think that Bioice would be the hardest player to beat in the group since he's always been a solid player in WCS.
Kilokilo: How do you feel about PvZ at the current state?
TeslavZ's current state is very stagnant. Protoss doesn't have many options vs zerg at the moment, and zerg continues doing the exact same builds as they always do. Most of the matchup's deviation comes on the protoss end making the zerg play differently. The top protosses that I know on NA have under 50% winrates compared to their near 70% winrate vs terran. If these protoss players could have more success vs zerg, NA wouldn't be infested with so many zergs at the top of ladder. Protoss vs Zerg is in a rough place.
Kilokilo:I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
Tesla: Shout out to Temple CSL for the big win recently after 2 years of being runner up. Follow my stream because I am getting a couple new parts that will allow me to stream at the best quality and FPS possible. Cheers!
You can check Tesla’s stream out at https://www.twitch.tv/robsc
Tesla: My name is Robbie Plata(Tesla) I've played Starcraft II since its release, and have played CSL every year of college.
Kilo: What got you into starcraft and is starcraft your first RTS?
Tesla: I was always a big console player and the idea of playing an RTS was always boring to me. I played Halo, Call of Duty and other games growing up and I had no urge to play something like Age of Empires or Starcraft. One day however, my oldest brother and his friends were playing a game on the kitchen table where they would setup their computers and LAN on the weekends when school was over. They were playing a very pretty looking game and I recall asking my brother "is that a nuke" and him yelling at me for giving away his strategy. I thought it was a bit of an overreaction and I watched them play even more, I wanted to play it because I wanted to play with them too. I wasn't that good though, and my brother and I were very competitive in every game we played so I wanted to at least get to a level to where I could beat him, but when I got there, I wanted to keep going.
Kilokilo: Did you start off as protoss or did you play a 3 races?
Tesla: I started off as zerg. I still remember playing my first game with the gang, and when I did, I didn't know that making more drones would pull in more minerals, so working off of 6 drones I made a lot of corrupters. I remember my brother's friend Gary playing protoss though, and I thought it was a simpler race to learn at the time and he was willing to give me build orders, so I switched to protoss.
Kilokilo:So why the name Tesla? have you always used it or just recently?
Telsa: Recently as in probably 2 years ago. Since I started playing my ID was always Rob and a lot of people still call me Rob. I switched from Rob to React to Audien to Rob again and then to Tesla.
Kilokilo: Okay, So lets talk about the Tournament. How do you feel about the group you are in?
Tesla: Caleb and Ukko are good players but I think that Bioice would be the hardest player to beat in the group since he's always been a solid player in WCS.
Kilokilo: How do you feel about PvZ at the current state?
TeslavZ's current state is very stagnant. Protoss doesn't have many options vs zerg at the moment, and zerg continues doing the exact same builds as they always do. Most of the matchup's deviation comes on the protoss end making the zerg play differently. The top protosses that I know on NA have under 50% winrates compared to their near 70% winrate vs terran. If these protoss players could have more success vs zerg, NA wouldn't be infested with so many zergs at the top of ladder. Protoss vs Zerg is in a rough place.
Kilokilo:I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
Tesla: Shout out to Temple CSL for the big win recently after 2 years of being runner up. Follow my stream because I am getting a couple new parts that will allow me to stream at the best quality and FPS possible. Cheers!
You can check Tesla’s stream out at https://www.twitch.tv/robsc
Ninja
+ Show Spoiler +
kilokilo - Hello, How did you get into the Game starcraft and is it the first RTS you played?
Ninja - Hmmm. When I was 10 or so I started to casually play Age of Empires(always offline), and I remember enjoying that a lot. I was really into youtube at the time, so when SC2 beta became a thing, I remember I stumbled on the HDH invitational and saw a match between TLO and Sen on Lost Temple. Instantly I thought this was the game I needed to play. I remember I went to gamestop to buy it and for whatever reason I was super confident I was going to be really good. Of course, once I started playing I was bronze for at least a year and from there it was a slow grind upwards. At first I didn't really have a computer which could run the game adequately which made things tough but soon afterwards I bought a gaming pc, got super into esports and started playing a lot. I've never felt like I'm very talented at SC2, but I definitely fell in love with esports and the game in my teens, so I had no choice but to play the game constantly. Once I started to play at a somewhat competitive level I fell in love with the game even more, as this new aspect was very appealing to me.
kilokilo - Did you always played Protoss or did you play other races too?
PatrickRobb - Originally I played terran. For a while I only played 1 base thor drop. That definitely wasn't working well, so after a committed but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to push to silver, I changed to zerg. I played zerg for a while, but I stagnated at platinum, so at that point I switched to toss. From there I was able to ride the patches to grandmaster and glory baby.
kilokilo - So why the name Ninja? have you always used it or just recently?
PatrickRobb - Yeah. When I was a little kid I used to do this thing with my cousins Courtney and Justin where we attacked each other and yelled "ninja" really loudly. I'm not sure how this is but at the time it was really fun. I guess I was so passionate about this game that when I made my sc2 name I called myself ninja as a callback to that game I played with them. At one point in like 2013 I changed names to Ajax, and then Oneida, but I came back to Ninja because that's what all my sc2 friends still called me. The name definitely isn't the best but I can't give it up now.
kilokilo - Lets talk about the tournament how do you feel about your group?
PatrickRobb -To be honest group B is much much harder than group A, so I'm pretty happy. Bioice, Ukko, and Tesla are all extremely scary players. Caleb is no push over either. My group has players with quite a lot of experience who are in good form, but I don't feel that uncomfortable going into a series vs say Pengwin or Creature. If Creature does a little anti-cannon rush prep he should be able to win vs me, but I feel like we don't play that often, and that's better for me. Also, it doesn't seem like he's playing that much. Maybe he just barcodes. I don't really know anything about Meomaika, but his aligulac rating is quite good. With that being said, if we're playing on NA, he will have to play with quite a bit of ping as he is Vietnamese, so that would be pretty disadvantageous for him. Ultimately, I have a group of players with a history of performing well who can all beat me if they practice well, but who I can also beat on my day. I'm excited to see how it plays out.
kilokilo - How do you feel about pvp and pvz? Do you think the new maps will have a big impact on the matchups?
PatrickRobb - I don't know what to think of the new maps. They're pretty strange. I don't want to make any predictions other than all protoss have to veto Darkness Sanctuary. 4 player maps should never come back. I feel pretty good about pvz. I feel fairly good about my pvp. I just hope it doesn't go into a macro game vs creature.
kilokilo - I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
PatrickRobb - Thanks! First of all I'd like to thank PSISTORM gaming. I'd also like to thank Starkiller's dad for being a baller. Follow me on twitter @Ninjastarcraft https://twitter.com/NinjaStarcraft
Ninja - Hmmm. When I was 10 or so I started to casually play Age of Empires(always offline), and I remember enjoying that a lot. I was really into youtube at the time, so when SC2 beta became a thing, I remember I stumbled on the HDH invitational and saw a match between TLO and Sen on Lost Temple. Instantly I thought this was the game I needed to play. I remember I went to gamestop to buy it and for whatever reason I was super confident I was going to be really good. Of course, once I started playing I was bronze for at least a year and from there it was a slow grind upwards. At first I didn't really have a computer which could run the game adequately which made things tough but soon afterwards I bought a gaming pc, got super into esports and started playing a lot. I've never felt like I'm very talented at SC2, but I definitely fell in love with esports and the game in my teens, so I had no choice but to play the game constantly. Once I started to play at a somewhat competitive level I fell in love with the game even more, as this new aspect was very appealing to me.
kilokilo - Did you always played Protoss or did you play other races too?
PatrickRobb - Originally I played terran. For a while I only played 1 base thor drop. That definitely wasn't working well, so after a committed but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to push to silver, I changed to zerg. I played zerg for a while, but I stagnated at platinum, so at that point I switched to toss. From there I was able to ride the patches to grandmaster and glory baby.
kilokilo - So why the name Ninja? have you always used it or just recently?
PatrickRobb - Yeah. When I was a little kid I used to do this thing with my cousins Courtney and Justin where we attacked each other and yelled "ninja" really loudly. I'm not sure how this is but at the time it was really fun. I guess I was so passionate about this game that when I made my sc2 name I called myself ninja as a callback to that game I played with them. At one point in like 2013 I changed names to Ajax, and then Oneida, but I came back to Ninja because that's what all my sc2 friends still called me. The name definitely isn't the best but I can't give it up now.
kilokilo - Lets talk about the tournament how do you feel about your group?
PatrickRobb -To be honest group B is much much harder than group A, so I'm pretty happy. Bioice, Ukko, and Tesla are all extremely scary players. Caleb is no push over either. My group has players with quite a lot of experience who are in good form, but I don't feel that uncomfortable going into a series vs say Pengwin or Creature. If Creature does a little anti-cannon rush prep he should be able to win vs me, but I feel like we don't play that often, and that's better for me. Also, it doesn't seem like he's playing that much. Maybe he just barcodes. I don't really know anything about Meomaika, but his aligulac rating is quite good. With that being said, if we're playing on NA, he will have to play with quite a bit of ping as he is Vietnamese, so that would be pretty disadvantageous for him. Ultimately, I have a group of players with a history of performing well who can all beat me if they practice well, but who I can also beat on my day. I'm excited to see how it plays out.
kilokilo - How do you feel about pvp and pvz? Do you think the new maps will have a big impact on the matchups?
PatrickRobb - I don't know what to think of the new maps. They're pretty strange. I don't want to make any predictions other than all protoss have to veto Darkness Sanctuary. 4 player maps should never come back. I feel pretty good about pvz. I feel fairly good about my pvp. I just hope it doesn't go into a macro game vs creature.
kilokilo - I see, Well thank you for your time! Any shoutouts you want to make? Also how can people keep track of what you are up to?
PatrickRobb - Thanks! First of all I'd like to thank PSISTORM gaming. I'd also like to thank Starkiller's dad for being a baller. Follow me on twitter @Ninjastarcraft https://twitter.com/NinjaStarcraft
CalebAracous
+ Show Spoiler +
Creature
+ Show Spoiler +
MeomaikA
+ Show Spoiler +