The Ace: Close-up on KaaZ

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In order to give you more insight on the players in our tournament The Ace, we now give you various close-ups on some of the remaining players in The Ace. First up is iG.KaaZ, the powerful Swedish Zerg player who started off by winning versus Play.Enemy.

iG.KaaZ is a 17-year-old guy from Lund, Sweden, whose real name is Jussi Puranen Hallman. His achievements are winning a couple of QOTH matches, 2nd place at DreamHack Winter 2005 and reaching to the playoffs in Global Gaming League 2. I have personally met KaaZ twice, one time at the Nordic World Cyber Games preliminary, and one time at a local Swedish StarCraft tournament. He is a calm and friendly guy with a nice and manner attitude to other gamers.

Zerg versus Protoss flows on, says KaaZ

In the first round of The Ace, KaaZ went up against Play.Enemy, a Protoss player from Ukraine. He says to GosuGamers that it felt good, but nothing spectacular.
- I knew I would most likely win since Zerg versus Protoss is my favourite matchup, he says. So it was kind of a dream start for KaaZ in the tournament. KaaZ explains why Protoss is his favourite opponent.
- It just feels the most natural to me, it flows on, he says, and also points out that his Zerg versus Terran is not that far away from the other. So he's hoping for Protoss and Terran gamers in the tournament.

"Lucky guy I am - playing Mondragon in the second round"

“ If I can manage to avoid any zerg gamer I think I have great chances to win it all”

The first round KaaZ took two straight games and then Enemy forfeited that last one. Next round may not go as smooth, considering he has the Zerg player ToT)Mondragon( waiting. Not only is he considered the best player (given the Player of the Year title last year), Mondragon is also a very tough Zerg opponent, something KaaZ had wanted to avoid.
- If I can manage to avoid any zerg gamer I think I have great chances to win it all, he thinks. But with no Loser Bracket, KaaZ feels like it may have an end in the second round.
- Playing a couple games versus Zerg and trying to stabilise my play, KaaZ says when asked on what his preparations are before the match against Mondragon.

About the tournament and poker

KaaZ tells GosuGamers that it is a great tournament except for the fact that there is no Loser Bracket. He also thinks more poker sites should sponsor StarCraft tournaments.
- I am myself interested in poker and have checked out the site to see what its all about, he says and smiles. Although he is not a very good player. He says himself that he is horrible, and all he has played is with some friends in school.
- But I have started to read about it on some sites. RakeMeBack.com is pretty good, the idea of it all is great I think.

If he wins the tournament, he will save the money, for not knowing what to use it for now. If he wins, it will be his biggest prize money won. He did however win 2,000 SEK at DreamHack Winter 2005, and some small cash prizes from various tournaments. GosuGamers wishes iG.KaaZ the best of luck in The Ace, and in the future of his gaming career!

KaaZ at Nordic World Cyber Games 2004

Links
GosuGamers.net - The Ace event coverage
RakeMeBack.com - Sponsor