The third qualifier of the €1,500 Razer StarCraft 2 GosuCup was played out yesterday, with Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen and Tim "merz" Olsson taking the two spots in the group stage.
| Razer StarCraft 2 GosuCup Qualifier #3 Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Quarter Final | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 DeathAngel | < |  dBlinG merz> |  qxc Kalin< |  Grubby AureS< |  reyonSemi Final | dBLinG< | merz Grubby> | reyonGrand Final | merz2-1 | Grubby | |||||||||||||||||||
The tournament attracted 181 players, among them many top tier European players. In the end it turned out so that the Swedish Terran player from Dignitas - merz - and the Dutch Protoss player Grubby reached the grand final. The two will go at it on Tuesday, May 3 at 19:00 to determine the first and second seed for the upcoming group stage.
Qualified for Razer StarCraft 2 GosuCup Group Stage (10/16)
HuK, Adelscott, 
Socke, LastShadow, RunA, 
Beastyqt, 
Terran, Spades, merz, Grubby
HuK, Adelscott, Socke, LastShadow, RunA, Beastyqt, Terran, Spades, merz, Grubby
Interview with Grubby- Razer StarCraft 2 GosuCup Qualifier #3 finalist
You just qualified for the GosuCup group stage, congratulations. How does it feel?
I need opportunities to perform and I made it into this one by my own gameplay. Feels pretty good to qualify!
You didn't bump into that many accomplished players to reach the final, how did you experience the competition? Any noteworthy games?
That's true, but if they don't wanna play it that's not my concern ;) they'll be jealous once they realize they missed all the qualifiers. For what it's worth, I think I had some good opponents like uniqueKalin who qualified for the DailyMotion cup and ReYoN who isn't as well known but 150-75 Grandmaster Zerg anyway. I think my game 2 against ReYoN in particular (45 minute game time) was cool as we created an epic game on TalDarim Altar and people on my stream were discussing it to be quite tense.
You're now up against Terran player merz for the first place which gives you a better seeding situation for the group stage. How confident do you feel against Terran nowadays?
- If I know what they're going to do, I feel quite confident. It's mostly sneaky stuff that gets under my skin! I still get surprised a lot or find myself in unique situations, and I think that's where I grow and create memory links for future matches. In general I find PvT to be a really nice match-up but I'm always a bit scared when I hear them stim. (laughs)
In game 2 against Reyon, you were down with 50 food but were able to come back. What was your thought process? Must have felt great.
- Well, being down 50 food against Zerg is very common because they are able to produce more units due to the way the race works, and roaches are really cheap (50% cheaper than a stalker but same food). But when the Zerg already has Hive tech, that's a little bit more scary situation. I think neither of us played close to perfect but then nearly no one does yet... I just wanted to win very badly so I kept trying and doing stuff all over the map in that crazy SC2 way, and pulled ahead (smiles)
You mentioned a while ago that you were a "hybrid" player, playing both WC3 and SC2 but would you say you have transitioned into StarCraft 2 only now? It's been a while since you had the green skin on.
- I still dream about WarCraft III and think and talk about it a lot, but there just isn't that much to play. There are (nearly, I don't wanna offend anyone) no good players left in Europe and pretty much no events. So no possible training + no events = sad green Grubby. So while my mental disposition is hybridic, the truth is that I'm transitioning into an SC2 pattern. That's not too bad because learning a new game is challenging and fun, plus the community is really huge, growing and awesome. When I was younger I play the game just for its fun, secondly for winning and thirdly for the feedback (read: love) from the community that I get, now I feel more & more like I want to play in front of big audiences. Online I already feel there's a big growing audience of SC2 enthusiasts and viewers (as I can attest to from the growth of fans and followers on facebook.com/followgrubby and twitter.com/followgrubby). Furthermore I can't wait to play for big live audiences, I feel super alive when that happens ;P
The rules of WCG (who has both StarCraft 2 and WarCraft 3) says that "One person cannot represent two or more titles for the same country at the Grand Final". I'm guessing it would be natural for you to pick StarCraft 2 - but have you given it some thought to give that third WCG WC3 gold medal another try?
- I have been asked this question a lot but in truth I have no idea how WCG NL is going to organize their qualification spots. They're doing the license for the first year now so I'm just going to have to wait and see.
You have come quite a bit in your move to SC2 in such a short period of time. Has it gone by as you had expected it to?
- Well I feel like I should still be improving at a faster rate and I'm kinda impatient to get where I want to be. Nonetheless, I have to indulge in some patience, for my own good. Still, I said I wanted to compete with Europe's best in 3 months, and by getting 3rd place at Copenhagen Games I think I showed that it was not overly ambitious. Still gotta go onwards and upwards though!
Any last words to your opponent for tomorrow, to your fans or anyone else?
- I'll take a moment and say a word of thanks for my Ikari Laser mouse in getting that perfect surround and my 7H headset for offering me a cocoon-like concentration - thanks SteelSeries! ;) I've already done this, but I'll offer a public thanks once again to everyone who voted for me in NASL, ESL's DailyMotion cup and everyone who supports me as well. Also thanks to GosuGamers casting duo Micro & Icicle for following me all the way through to the finals in GosuCup Qualifier #3 =]! Curse is broken.
Interview with Dignitas.merz- Razer StarCraft 2 GosuCup Qualifier #3 finalist
You just qualified for the GosuCup group stage, congratulations. How does it feel?
- It feels great, I've kinda struggled with putting up results lately so it kinda feels like a relief to finally be qualified for a major tournament and getting to finals in the qualifier
You defeated fellow Terran QXC in the quarter final. Tell us about the games!
- They were kinda sick games actually. Qxc plays a kind of unique style that involves 110% aggression from beginning to the end, even though you know about it, he kinda makes it work. I was made aware of it for the first time when I lost to him at Assembly (0-2) in the groupstage, so It didn't come as quite the shock this time, and I dealt with it a lot better... Game 1 was basically a slugfest where we just threw units at each other from like the 7 minute mark to the very end (32 minutes), we were both nearly dead at different points in the game and I really couldn't tell if I was winning or losing until the very last two minutes. Game 2 he caught me offguard with a somewhat unorthodox strategy which relies on just using blue flame hellions/banshees while transitioning into fast battecruisers, I think it's a build popularized by a guy named iechoic at teamliquid. I know how to counter it somewhat, I just didn't realise he was doing it in time, so I lost rather convincingly. Game 3 he tried the blue flame/banshee thing again but this time I was looking for it and when I saw that he went for the same thing again, I kinda knew what I had to do to win.
You then defeated UK player dBlinG to reach the final and therefore qualify for the group stage. To determine who will get the better seed for the next stage, you're up against Grubby. Does his eSports legend as a WC3 player affect you in your preparations/expectations?
- Hmm not really, I try to use it to my advantage instead. I mean he's the guy that everyone is cheering for and hoping to do well, that means basically zero pressure or expectations on me, and I like having it that way. He's gotten incredibly good over such a short period of time though, I definitely respect him for the great RTS player he is and won't take the match lightly.
You're living in Sweden, and a couple of your team mates in Dignitas are moving into a team house with TLO in Stockholm. You were not mentioned in the announcement - are there plans for you to move in there?
- Well, SjoW mentioned it like 2-3 months prior to the "announcement" and it sounded like something i'd be wanting to do. But I have studies holding me up in Umeå for the majority of the year, but I'd definitely love to come and live with them during the summer, and get some hardcore practice in for all the up & coming events. There's still some questions regarding if they have space for one more pe
one more person though, so we'll see how it works out in the end, but yeah if given oppertunity to do so, I will definitely go there for at least a month or two
You've been in the scene for quite a long while, way back in the SC:BW days. What were your thoughts when StarCraft 2 came? Did you imagine it turning this big?
- I was having mixed feelings about Starcraft 2 up until the very day of the beta. Like some other SC/BW players, I felt like the game had been dumbed down and was too newbie friendly, it felt like mechanics literally would mean nothing. But when I got the beta I instantly fell in love with the game and it felt fresh and new but with a resemblence to the game I'd loved for so long. The introduction of race specific mechanics and stuff helped, as in the game still requires quite a bit of mechanics. I never thought i'd be this big, and I'm really hoping this is only the beginning. As a SC/BW player you were happy if there was a major tournament or two to follow per YEAR and now there's basically tournaments going on 24/7. In the end, at least for me, competition is always one of the most important things to me in a game, and if there's tons of competition, there's tons of stuff to play for (smiles)
Any last words to your opponent tomorrow, to your fans and to GosuGamers?
Thanks to gosugamers for hosting another awesome event like Gosucup! And if I have a lonely fan or two out there, thanks for cheering for me! Also I'm going to try my best to put on a real show in the finals vs Grubby!
Also thanks to my team dignitas for always supporting me and to all our sponsors!