WD Psi Storm 2010
Preview, Predictions and Round 1 Interviews
The
Western Digital Psi Storm 2010 finals are on the horizon, the largest tournament in the South East Asian area to date. After four long and difficult qualification tournaments, the final 32 are ready to play off to find out who wins their share of the
AU$5,000 prize pool.
While many of the most well known players in the region have qualified, there are plenty of players that are yet to make their name known in the region. People like DoMo and YoonYoJun are prime examples – both entering the top 10 of scoceania.com's StarCraft II monthly power ranking. With an interesting mix of known and unknown players in the tournament, the players and fans are all interested to see who will bring home the bacon (and $1,750 with that delicious bacon).
Each qualifier had its fair share of interesting stories and characters, and I had a chat to some of those interesting people for their thoughts on the tournament and what it means for the SEA StarCraft II community.
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Andrew "mOOnGLaDe" Pender
The most famous player from Australia – GlaDe has impressed week after week in everything he enters, including dominating the ladder. He was also recently featured on ABC's 'Good Game' in a story about StarCraft II and its impact on gaming (as an aside, it's actually a good story, most of their other stuff isn't very good!) which can be seen here. Easily one of the favourites for the tournament, click the spoiler to read his interview!
SPOILER: Click to view Hello Mr. Pender. Since everyone knows who you are (or at least should), what is the most satisfying unit to kill in StarCraft II?
Hello!!!! Most satisfying unit to kill would have to be the Thor, closely followed by a pack of marines dying to banelings.
You unsurprisingly qualified for the tournament in the first qualifier, were you confident in qualifying that fast and did you have any hiccups along the way?
Yeah I made sure I qualified as soon as possible so I didn't have to think about it anymore, it was also the same weekend I lost in the blizzard invitational so I hardly remember how it went!! I was too enraged at losing!!! ROAR
Do you think the final 32 of this tournament represent the talent in SEA accurately?
I think it's very accurate, I can't think of many people outside of the top 32 that would deserve to be in this tournament.
There are only two more Terrans than Zergs in this tournament, do you think that the recent patching has made Z stronger, or are Zerg players starting to figure out how to win?
Zerg is slightly stronger in this patch sure, and I also think ZvT has been getting slightly better for Zerg as strategies to deal with the numerous different ways Terran can attack you have been figured out. Zerg vs Protoss seems kinda maybe balanced but I think it's very map dependent.
You're often known for being a scumbag (read: offracing as Terran), are we going to see any of this behaviour in the Psi Storm finals?
Nah I won't be playing Terran anymore 
I regret investing so much time into them, I love Zerg <3.
You slipped to #3 on the scoceania.com monthly power rankings, are you going to overtake ice and RedArchon by winning this tournament?
OMG my power ranking slipped?! I will redeem myself in this tournament!!!
Are you going to defeat your arch-rival Filthy this tournament?)
He owes me a Seppuku from a previous best of 21 bet we had, but I'll settle for him throwing the grand finals.
Who do you think will win, and who do you think will be the surprise pack of the tournament.
Hard to say who will win, there's a lot of strong competitors all over the brackets. I think look out for JustinTime, a Warcraft III player turned SC2 pro Zerg who beat Kowi in 1 of the qualifiers!!!!!
If you win, what are you going to spend the $1750 on? (other than a bunch of roses for Kelly)
Hmm I'm not sure, maybe a trip to Korea so I can get owned in GSL 3 qualifiers or something :O. Or maybe just roses for Kelly.
Thankyou Mr. Pender sir
Np loser.
:'(
Ross "DoMo" Jones
One of the newer players to come to some fame in the region, DoMo was an old Warcraft III player (who once beat me in an Orc mirror when my PC lagged so I couldn't windwalk my Blademaster so it died) turned Starcraft II fanatic. At a young age for gaming, DoMo may be on the radar for a long time to come.
SPOILER: Click to viewHello good sir. Introduce yourself for the people that don't know you!
Hello, I'm Ross "DoMo" Jones and I'm 16 years old. I've been playing StarCraft2 since phase 2 of beta and have played Protoss since I started playing. I played Warcraft III prior, but was a nobody ^___^ I hope to do well and go far as I can in StarCraft II!
You qualified in the second qualification tournament, what happened in the first?
In the first qualification tournament breezed all matches until I faced Mez in the quarterfinals, the first game was pretty close each trading armies but he decided to expo while I tried to end the game which lost me it. The second game I tried some Korean 4gate warp-in cheese, however I had not practiced it and my timings were off with the pylons in his base so I failed miserably :<
Do you think the final 32 of this tournament represent the talent in SEA accurately?
For the most part yes, it is pretty accurate however their a few names that didn't make it for whatever reasons them, being deth, KJH and ice most of them being from ArchaicMSI. Other than these 3 who didn't qualify I'd say all the other top players are there.
How do you find the racial stats in the tournament? 13 P, 9 T, 7 Z and 3 random, I guess you'll be practicing PvP for a while!
Haha, SEA has so many Protoss so it's not a surprise for them to be the higher number in statistics and it's interesting to see 3 random players ;O
Guess I'll be practicing my 4gate!
You were ranked #9 on the scoceania.com monthly power ranking, how far up the rankings do you see yourself going in the next few months?
At this rate, hopefully up to 6-5 or even higher, I plan on improving much more and really hitting it hard in tournaments.
Are you looking forward to any grudge matches or matches against any rivals?
I want to play Fenneth sometime during this tournament, he beat me in a SEA Open and I want to re-pay the favor 
Who do you think will win, and who do you think will be the surprise pack of the tournament.
I believe RedArchon or OxygeN will win this tournament based on their beastly performances in the Blizzcon invitational; however I think that if Azz performs his very best he may also win. Surprise pack I see as Filthy
If you win, what are you going to spend the $1750 on? (apart from alcohol since you're like 11 years old)
I'm 16, and my parents could buy it for me But most defiantly a new computer specified for gaming and apart from that I'd most likely just buy a new mouse, keyboard, headset etc. Otherwise I'd save the rest for travelling later on.
Thankyou DoMo
Thankyou frequency, you're my hero and the (second -deL) best admin in the world. Bye ^__^
Johno "Pinder" Pinder (aka JP Money)
An ex-Broodwar player, Pinder has been one of the most impressive players on SEA. Now in Archaic, one of Australia's best e-sports organisations, he will be a real contender for the title of Psi Storm champion.
SPOILER: Click to viewJP Money! For the few that don't know you, introduce yourself!
Hi I'm Pinder, I'm living in Melbourne at the moment for university but originally from Bendigo, and right now I play Starcraft II for ArchaicMSi!
Despite being one of the regions best players, you left it till the final qualifier to advance. Did you play in the others, and if so why didn't you get through?
I played the first two but via both inactivity and just general bad play by myself and good play by my opponents, failed to qualify... So I decided to give the third a miss and not play until the fourth, when I was more practiced and would 100% qualify
Do you think the final 32 of this tournament represent the talent in SEA accurately?
Hmmm, I think for the most part yes, but there are definitely a few top players who unfortunately failed to qualify. I feel deth, Shuffle, Voices and KJH are all big names that are definitely in the top 32 players of the region, but via inactivity or just general bad luck/choking in the qualifiers failed to make it 
You're one of the 13 Protoss players in the tournament, why do you think there are so many in the tournament and in SEA in general?
Because getting past qualifiers by 4-gating every opponent is a pretty easy option for the mid-tier diamond players just hoping for a spot in the tournament ;P. I definitely don't think it accurately represents the balance at the top level.
You didn't get invited to the Blizzcon qualifier tournament held by Blizzard last month, are you going to try and make the community pay attention this tournament?
Hahaha, I guess ^^. Not getting invited to the Blizzcon tournament was frustrating for sure, I feel like there were a few questionable choices for that tournament, but at the same time considering how I was barely laddering at all at the time they decided to choose the participants, it wasnt suprising.
During the qualifiers you did some casting with Unstable, has watching and casting games helped a lot with your own game play? And if, touch wood, you get eliminated early, will you join Unstable in casting the event?
Casting is great fun, it's nice to just chill back and call it how I see it, and Unstable is a great caster to do it alongside of. However I won't be getting eliminated early, but if I somehow do I doubt I'll be in the mood to cast . As for learning from it, to be honest I don't think I did that much, I just take it as a chance to kick back and enjoy the game whilst laughing at people's mistakes and watch in awe at some of the brilliance.
You've been playing on the North American server a lot, is the practice really that much better?
Personally, yeah I find it a lot better, on the SEA server it seemed like you either ran into one of the top top players and got a decent game, or 80% of the time got matched against a person who abuses their 1 all-in strategy as quickly as possible to climb the ladder. However on US there's a lot more players at that top top level, so you can run into someone you've never heard of and have no idea what kinda of opponent you're up against, which I find a lot more fun.
How do you think the SEA community is going? Has the NA server access really dented it as much as lots of people think and will the Psi Storm finals be a breath of fresh air into the community?
As long as CyberGamer continue to host awesome tournaments like they have been doing since beta it won't be a problem. Everyone on SEA will still be on US at around the same time, and my personal experience is that everyone I had on my SEA friends list is on my US friends list and plays there now instead anyway.
Who do you think will win, and who do you think will be the surprise pack of the tournament.
I'm going to win it. For the sake of a more detailed answer, as for who will runner-up, I'd say from past experience Glade and Azz are by far the 2 better players, but Azz has a ton of pvp ahead of him and Glade's race sucks, soooo it really could go to any top 10 seed...
As for the dark horse, hmmm, iaguz is a pretty big wildcard, he did really well in the first ever SEA tournament then kinda disappeared off the face of the earth until a few weeks back and is actually playing really well, i wouldnt be surprised if he did very well. Edge and Kinetic are also really, really good, either of those two making it deep in the tournament wouldn't surprise me.
If you win, what are you going to spend the $1750 on?
No idea, maybe I'll use it on a pseudo holiday to Korea... about the time a GSL starts 
And an interview with the man casting these matches:
Daniel "Unstable" Siddel of
UnstableTV
Unstable made the switch from player to caster, and is having great success in doing so. Easily the most popular Australian caster, he's been doing every event possible and is often joined by a wide variety of co-casters, including Pinder, Paz, GlaDe, tgun and many others! You can see all of his VODs at his Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/unstabletv1
SPOILER: Click to view
Hello Mr. Unstable! You're the main person behind high level shoutcasting in the SEA region, how did that all start?
Well I've always been competitive for pretty much every game I play, but unfortunately as you grow up you don't have the spare time that you normally do when you're at school/uni, and I just don't have a good 6+ hours a day to practice to get my game mechanics on par with the top tier players plus the stress of performing well all the time can get to you, so I decided to cast instead since my game knowledge has always been top notch. This way I can provide to the community something that nobody really has the technical knowledge of physical ability GO AU NET. But it is a lot more work than people think, not only the stamina you need to stay energized for hours at a time, but the time it takes to upload/manage VOD's aswell.
You've cast more or less every good match in the Psi Storm qualifiers, has there been a single stand out series or match?
Razor vs Justintime epic 40 minute ling/baneling on Xel'Naga Caverns (Ed: I was spectating this match too – so epic!), I remember on Skype we were all laughing out asses off since it was like the game was on a 5 minute repeat timer. Also Nuri vs Louson game 2 , proxy preigniter hellions vs early push no scv's vs no probes ftw? Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the entertainment value of the games!
Do you think the final 32 in the tournament represent the skill of the server well?
I am pleasantly surprised at the caliber of players. There are a couple of people I was surprised didn't make it, mainly due to choking 4 times in a semi final as one example. But overall I would say it is 99% legit to be a good standing for the top 32
Who has improved the most since you started casting the tournament?
I would have to say since release, the 2 players that stand out to me would be Domo and Kinetic, from what I saw of them at release to now they would get my most improved player awards
Anyone that missed out (cough lost semi final 4 times cough) that you feel should've been in the finals?
Hahaha I didn't read this question and I have already stated that particular nameless newb, but not really, I feel the top32 is pretty solid, while I think the player caliber between the top 32 and top 64 players isn't all that different. The players who made it through all proved themselves to belong there. Although I'm surprised kashimashi didn't play! Disappointing. Oh also Ice and revenant, I'm pretty sure Ice is doing world championships for a different HORRIBLE game instead to participate. (Ed: Ice was at WCG for League of Legends, and his team didn't even win, what a noob)
Having watched most of the games, who do you think will win and who do you think will pull off some upsets?
I can see DoMo or Kinetic causing some upsets if they play at their top level. My top 3 picks to take out the tournament would be, nirvAnA, GlaDe and Azz (if he doesn't choke to Kowi in round 2).
Who is the best player for each race in the tournament in your opinion?
Glade for Zerg, YoonYoJun for Terran and nirvAnA/Azz for P.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how awesome are my puns and jokes?
When I've been drinking 10 when sober 1
Thankyou Unstable, and drink more when you're casting!
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With the huge number of names and potential epic matches, I've gone ahead and given my predictions. Day one will play down to the final four of the upper bracket, and the third round of the lower bracket. With a player list this packed, I have a lot of trouble deciding who would win many of the matches, so in some cases I just had to go with my gut, which is also where I keep the food I eat, therefore it is quite important to me :---)
MY DAY ONE PREDICTIONS:
SPOILER: Click to view
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Post your predictions, if someone does better than me then I'll give you a virtual high five!
Edited 7 times, last edited 8/10/10 - 11:27am by TAdeLReason: Made a mistake in predictions, I'm so good )))
Posted on Friday, 8th October 2010
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