The end of the road is upon us. The Masters of the Craft finals will take place this Sunday at 16:00 CET. Our finalists, Nony and Mondragon, jabbered with us about their thoughts going in.
One hundred dollars cash is up for grabs this weekend as Excello's newest recruit NonY faces off with the well known Mondragon from ToT. Both players interestingly are "King of the Hill", as NonY won the MeetYourMakers KOTH just a few days ago. On Sunday, the two will clash in a best of five series to wrap up what has been a chaotic and magnificent tournament.
Maps
The three maps (Tau Cross, Un'Goro Crater, Zodiac) will be used again for this series. However, to fill the other two potential slots, each player was allowed to pick any map they wanted to play on. NonY requested the map Loki II, and Mondragon chose Lost Temple. These two maps will be played immediately after the first game which will take place on Tau Cross.
What they have to say
Almost needless to say both players are quite optimistic about their chances. An interesting point was Mondragon saying that his opponent definitely stands a chance, pointing out that NonY was one of his personal favorites to make it to the finals. However, he noted that the skill level was particularly high, and anyone was capable of beating anyone else on any given day, so he was also not disappointed in anyone for not playing well. I asked if he thought NonY was good enough to be in the Templars of Twilight. Mondragon simply replied "Skillwise, yes".
On the other end, NonY says he feels he is well prepared, but he is not quite sure how well prepared he is for the maps specifically. He mentions they all slightly favor Zerg over Protoss, except for Loki II. He says he knows of lots of Korean Protoss players who would be heavily favored in this series, so he will try his best to emulate how they perform when the pressure is on.
It is obvious that this American player is rising to the top quickly, and he attributes that to being in shape physically as well as mentally. He mentions how being of sound body and mind is fundamental in Korean progaming.
Another thing he mentioned is that if he had never joined Excello, he would probably not ever join ToT if offered a chance, and would have stayed with Media. Perhaps there is tension going into the finals, and it should be exciting to see how things turn out.
Live Streaming!
A live stream is being worked on at the moment. The link will be posted the day of the event. If a stream is unavailable, there will definitely be a shoutcast and replays immediately following, during post-game coverage.
Good luck to both players, and do not hesitate to get your bets in!
Links
GosuGamers.net - Bet Here
