Interview: Naugrim about Go4SC2, Assembly

Tell us about the first game on "iCCup Testbug". You held off his zergling push in the start quite nicely. Key points in the game?

I think that was the turning point. It allowed me to get a head in economy. If i remember correctly i went for a pretty fast +1 range attack, which allows roaches to kill zerglings in 2 hits instead of 3. I knew that my economy was better and therefore the momentum was on my side. I just kept producing roaches from 3 gas and attacked before lair, which i was confident would end the game.

You lost the second game where you both went zergling, banelings. What went wrong? The baneling bomb in the middle favoured you a bit, no?

Yes, i think i got the most out of my banelings. The problem was that i took 1 guy off gas, and dimaga didn't. Usually when i see this i just go roaches instead, to make his banelings almost useless. But it was the finals and its hard to always make the right decisions when you're under pressure. So anyway, he had more banelings then me and i think that won him the game. Not to take away any credit from Dimagas micro tho, he played very well.

What do you think of the iCCup maps Testbug and Pawn Re?

They are as up to this point my favourite maps. The main reason for this is that they are quite open, which allows zerg to finally flank in a very effective manner, like i brood war. I think the maps are what needs to be changed in order for sc2 to be a more interesting game then it is atm, in my opinion.

The third game on Pawn Re you guys played very similar, until he started to mix in hydralisks. Was your game plan off when you didn't do much damage with your initial banelings?

Yes it was. I tried to just straight up kill Dimaga with a very fast baneling nest. In practice i usually lose when the attack don't work, so instead of over-committing in the baneling count, i dropped a baneling nest first, and metabolic speed, zergling speed, with my next 100 gas. This is just to keep map control, because if my attack fails, i need to control the map in order to decide how many drones i can make. I was so far behind when i basically did no damage at all, so i needed that map control to only make drones and hope to catch up. I think i did a decent job with caching up but it was still not enough.

You found DIMAGA's banelings morphing outside your expansion on Metalopolis, and then outnumbered him with roach, zergling. Would you say early baneling attacks like that are a bit all-inish?

Well i think if you see roaches, you should never attack with banelings, unless you are sure you can kill him or do a lot of damage. Roaches are just way too cost effective against banelings, so the way to go is teching roaches yourself, and saving those banelings. I actually went a lot of speedlings to tank the damage from my roaches, and if he had saved those banelings the game might have looked differently.

Your roaches kept getting surrounded in the last game. He also took out your expansion, and kept a heavy pressure on you. What could you have done differently?

Actually i was in a HUGE lead, after he just kept making lings and banelings. Even tho i lost my hatchery i just should have remade it and i would still probably be in the lead. I panicked and attack with my roaches instead of playing safe. That was my first mistake. When i moved out i didn't pay enough attention to my roaches, and they did split up in the middle, so half of the got surrounded, that was the point where i clearly lost the game. Dimaga played well, but he would have lost for sure if i didn't attack. Again, its hard to make the right decision in the finals of a tournament.

How's your practice sessions going? Is there any matchup you're struggling with right now?

Pretty great actually! I went kinda under the radar after the beta, but now I'm getting pretty good again and can consistently beat most players. I used to have problem with zvp, but recently i think I've figured the match up out. I've been playing around with a new build order and strategy for zvp, which i tend to reveal once i hit another zvp finals.

What did you learn from Assembly? How was the experience?

It was an awesome experience! The best part was to meet all the players i play with online all the time, which was really nice. Also seeing other progamers play first person gave me a few new ideas and inspired me.
Unfortunately i did not play very good. I used to be a terrible lan player, and I'm still not a good one, because i always get so fracking nervous! I think that Assembly may have been the turning point for me. I've always been good in practice, especially in BW and in sc2 as well, but not so good when the games really matter, online tournaments and lans. But for each lan I've played i get less nervous, and i felt that i was pretty calm when i played at Assembly.
I want to give a special thanks to Marko (marCoon) for giving me some last minute advice, and he acted like a mental coach, which actually helped me a lot, so thank you Marko! <3