Maciej "Raven" Polak is back in StarCraft 2, with a newfound passion that motivates him to seriously try to make it as a player. He is well known in the foreign StarCraft community and has had many projects over the years. His latest is the website Terran.pl that focuses on StarCraft strategy in blog and video format.In the GosuCup StarCraft 2 Invitational, he is back doing what initially drew him into the scene: playing. His first opponent is the Italian Terran player Carlo "ClouD" Giannacco who was more known to people as Protoss, which has confused Raven.
- "It feels weird to play Cloud and not a Protoss. I never met Cloud in a ladder game yet, but having in mind he was always a creative player and had good mechanics, I know I need to be very careful to pull a victory against him."
- "I was looking at Carlo's Protoss, literally, as a WCG referee in China, and now he switched to Terran in SC2. When you observe a player during so many years, you create some kind of picture of him in your mind like his gamestyle, favourite openings, tendencies and weaknesses," says Raven.
TvsT looks to be most differential Terran matchup to me so far"
People said early that Terran versus Terran was the new "ZvsZ". What is your take on that matchup?- "If people mean there are not so many openings to play with and TvsT is kind of arcade matchup like ZvsZ used to be in Broodwar, then... I'm totally against this thesis! TvsT looks to be most differential Terran matchup to me so far. Almost every unit is playable in most of the games, contrary to TvsP or TvsZ. I'd say TvsT is yet again as it was in BW the most challenging Terran matchup which shows the true skills of a gamer and there is a lot of space for creativity and meta-game. Plus you can't whine on imba!"
How well do you think the WarCraft 3 players will do in this tournament?
- "Lucifron and Demuslim are both favourites to win, they made an extremely quick transition to SC2 and are doing just amazing. I guess this tourney will be no exception and one of them will move to the finals... until I kick them out from the bracket of course, hehe. Xlord in upper part of the brackets, well, he did not impress me so far and he will face stronger players I think."
Do you have any special preference on the maps so far in StarCraft 2?
- "Playing a ladder, I'm never voting down any of them. I didn't like the Kulas Ravine and Desert Oasis in the first weeks, and loved Metapolis for playable "golden minerals start" Terran opening - especially in 2vs2 - but now I don't have any special preferences. I like all the maps for their diversity."
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