By David Wise
@wiselingsc2
The match between UC Irvine and UC Berkeley marked the first time that these two collegiate e-sports titans faced this season. UC Irvine finished last season at the top of the West 1 Division, the most-competitive division in the CSL. UC Berkeley also performed exceedingly well last year, as it posted a 6-2 record without their ace player Conan ‘Suppy’ Liu. The following occurred in the series.
Game One
ImThatOneGuy (Protoss – UC Irvine) vs BubbaGump (Protoss – UC Berkeley)
BubbaGump opened the game with Oracle harass but he only managed to score a few worker kills. The match stabilized until BubbaGump moved out with his Immortal-heavy force in the late-game. BubbaGump almost sniped ImThatOneGuy’s third base but failed to finish the kill. As BubbaGump retreated, ImThatOneGuy whittled off much of the Berkeley Protoss’ force. BubbaGump could not withstand the counter-onslaught and ImThatOneGuy took game one for UC Irvine.
Game Two
Power (Random [Terran] – UC Irvine) vs Arka (Protoss – UC Berkeley)
Power opened the game with Hellion and Widow Mine harass. However, Arka successfully repelled the Terran gambit. Power continued the harassment with Bio drops which also failed to deal damage. However, Power’s aggressive play pinned Arka in his base and succeeded in delaying the Protoss’ second expansion. Power took full advantage of the situation and utilized this valuable time to macro up to a powerful Bio-Viking composition. Arka found himself out of position as the Terran force hit, which allowed Power to gain a massive concave and obliterate the Colossus-heavy Protoss army. Arka could not muster up enough reinforcements and Power took the game and the series for UC Irvine.
Due to administrative issues, the UC Berkeley 2v2 team forfeited its match, which allowed UC Irvine to claim the 3-0 sweep. While almost nobody expected UC Irvine to be a pushover in this match, it was stunning to see UC Berkeley fall in a sweep. UC Irvine proved, once again, that it is a powerhouse in collegiate StarCraft.
______________________________________________________
I caught up after the series with the UC Irvine coordinator, Jasper ‘Power’ Chou, to pick his brain on his team’s amazing performance.
Me: Many expected this series to be a high-level match but not many expected either school to sweep. What do you attribute the success of this series to?
Chou: Probably their 2v2 team not being able to show up. I think that they have one of the stronger 2v2 teams in the CSL. As the ace player, I had builds prepared but I don't know if it would had mattered if they had gotten to the ace match because Suppy is, in my opinion, the strongest player in CSL right now.
Me: Last season UC Irvine was #1 in the West 1 Division, the most competitive division in CSL StarCraft. This year, you are 2-0 so far in the West Division. How do you prepare as a team for your matches and how do you keep maintaining these consistently high results?
Chou: We don't really prepare. I just ask the club ‘who wants to play?’ and ‘what map do you want to play on?’ The older players on the team have already accepted the fact that we missed our chance to get super far in CSL a few years ago, so basically we just try to get everyone in the club and on the team a chance to play and get involved. Since this is a game, having fun is the number one priority.
Me: You are a high-level Random player. You exhibited really good mechanical skills in your match versus Berkeley's Arka. How do you differ from other Random players and how do you prepare to compete at such a high level with all three races?
Chou: I used to play an extremely large amount of games in Wings of Liberty through multiple accounts which allowed me to build a large understanding of all the matchups. I still use a lot of similar builds from Wings of Liberty. What people don't know about me is that I was on FXO.NA until it disbanded during Wings.
Me: ImThatOneGuy illustrated his game knowledge in the Protoss mirror-matchup. Were you nervous when BubbaGump almost sniped your teammate's third base? How do you explain how he keeps his cool in such a potential game-turning situation?
Chou: From my perspective, as long as no probes were lost at the third base the game is still even. I wasn't nervous because ImThatOneGuy spoiled the results before it was over on stream when he got out of the game. As for him keeping his cool? His hair is probably the primary reason for his composure.
Me: Anything else?
Chou: I think KespadA (one of our Zergs) would appreciate it if CSL casters continued to call him Kespa-Panda. He feels extremely cute listening to it.
UC Irvine powered its way to a 2-0 start this season while Berkeley fell to 1-1. The West Division continues to prove extremely competitive and entertaining and we will undoubtedly see many more exciting matches to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment