The compLexity Academy is proud to announce that it has added three new players to it’s roster. Choosen from numerous applicants, these three players were the most qualified and passionate about StarCraft II and eSports. Congratulations to Michael ”SniXSniPe” Niven, Kyo, and Jerred “UNCjer” Miklowcic.
To help introduce these new members, Academy commissioner Michael “Twixz” Shane gave them a short interview.
Michael ”SniXSniPe” Niven application video:
First off congratulations on joining the Academy, tell us a little bit about your SC2 background.
Hello everyone, I am SniXSniPe a Terran player (formerly random), and I actively participate in the CSL League for the University of Houston. I also spend my time playing off-race every now and then, but for the most part for any matches/tournaments that I partake in I stick with Terran. As for why I decided to main Terran, well, even though I did not really play BW much besides customs such as Money Maps/UMS games, I still watched a bit of the old school Boxer/NaDa/Flash progames that were going on back in the day. Players like them inspired me to love Terran and ultimately go with this race. Another reason is that I feel like Terran is the only race that has that perfecting Starcraft RTS play style to them— decision making, build order planning and countering, precise unit control, and so forth.
What are some of your major goals with SC2?
Overall, to become a much better player. Being able to hit GM on the KR server would be nice, because that would certainly indicate you can compete at the highest level (or near there). This of course, would lead to tournament success, which would be priority #1 for any aspiring player. I also would love to see success, simply so I can maybe inspire younger players/other players so that the US would stop being hating on for being “weak” :P.
Besides that, I would love to one day beat some of those guys I looked up to back in the day, Boxer, NaDa, Yellow ( :(), Flash, Jaedong, Moon, Grubby, Sky (I personally loved WC3 more than BW, don’t hate!).
Now that you are in the Academy what are you expectations for yourself and the Academy program?
Well, I expect myself to get better for starters, and I feel that joining the Academy is one of the best methods available for determining this. These MLG qualifiers where compLexity sends out a player to MLG is a good way for showing me whether I am ready or not to compete— if I fail to win/qualify then I am not ready, if I do win, then I should be prepared to do well or at least make great progress. Either way, this will also help me see how I am improving, and also obtain some invaluable practice partners for each race.
Any shoutouts, where can we find you?
I do have all three, but I really don’t use twitter much (in fact, I mostly only use it to watch GSL :D). If you are still interested, you can find me @ www.twitter.com/snixsnipe.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/forceofmichael
Lastly, I do have a youtube channel where I upload plenty of videos. I use to actually make tutorial videos for Terran (mostly), though I have a couple of other kinds of videos from casting to videos from MLG. If you’d like to take a look/subscribe then check it out at: www.youtube.com/snixsnipe
I haven’t made many tutorial videos lately, but that could change if people actively watched/were genuienly interested. Personally, I don’t like people paying for coaching (though it might be a better way to improve perhaps) and wanted to simply make instructional videos so people could actually learn for free.
First off congratulations on joining the Academy, tell us a little bit about your SC2 background.
Thanks a lot! Well, in the beginning I didn’t actually play the SC2 Beta as I was Seeled to Brood War. I was actually one of those “SC2 is not going to be popular at all” kind of people. However, after picking it up and seeing the scene explode, especially with the GSL, I fully transitioned over to SC2. To be honest, I was a bit of a Slowpoke in the scene until about 3 months after release. I found a few practice partners such as Titan and NGry and played as much as I could before I went off to college, barely missing the first top 200 blogs. Eventually I joined Think Quick(tQ) with some known players such as Sungpa, Mewtwo, State and from there I moved over to Convergence Gaming with Fitzy, Puck, Yata, Sasquatch and a few others. Even after these terams dissolved all of these guys have helped me along the way and when the chance to join the coL Academy came up I immediately took it.
What are some of your major goals with SC2?
Realistically, I’d love to be able to make it deep into an MLG bracket or have a nice breakout tournament but it’s like fighting through Muk in these tournaments. There are just so many other good players. With that said, the biggest goal I have set for myself with SC2 is to be able, by whatever means, to interact in the scene as a career.
Now that you are in the Academy what are you expectations for yourself and the Academy program?
I currently feel as if I’m still a Bellsprout, so if I continue to grow as a player it wouldn’t be too Farfetch’d to see myself graduating from the Academy program. Even though I attend college full time I’m still able to compete with some good players. I think if I continue to analyze the game correctly I can continue to move forward in the scene. Hopefully that doesn’t Jynx me though!
Any shoutouts, where can we find you?
Thanks to all the people who practice with me.
Thanks to the people support me it really means a lot; and similarly, thanks again to Complexity and their sponsors for this amazing opportunity.
Jerred “UNCjer” Miklowcic application video:
First off congratulations on joining the Academy, tell us a little bit about your SC2 background.
Thanks! I’m super psyched to be a part of the Academy. ^_^
My handle is UNCjer and I started playing SC2 in November of 2010 when my friend bought me the game so that I’d practice with him. xD
Back then I was a WC3 Orc player so I was very micro oriented and didn’t really know many of the mechanics of SC2. I placed into silver league on my first day playing the game, but I became so obsessed with laddering that I got up to platinum by the end of that day. In about 2 weeks I was up into diamond league and then I made it into master league in February 2011 right after the patch was released. I love laddering and I’ve now played against and beaten a lot of the top players on the ladder.
As for events, I am a huge fan of the Collegiate Starleague and I played for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s SC2 team last year in the CSL. I ended up at 17 wins and 4 losses with the longest active 1v1 winning streak in the CSL. I then played in the “CSL All-Star” invitational tournament in Orlando, Florida with qxc, Spanishiwa, KawaiiRice, Ostojiy, and HelloKitty. I think that was the most fun live event I’ve played in so far and also my first event in which I’ve played on a stage in front of a crowd (and cast by Day9).
I’ve also participated in many local lans and one MLG open bracket so far.
What are some of your major goals with SC2?
My dream/goal in life is to have a career in eSports, preferably as a professional eSports athlete, so I guess that’s my main objective or goal relating to StarCraft 2. I realize that this goal will require a lot of commitment/dedication, but I have the skills, love of the game, and competitive spirit which can propel me to achieve my dream.
Some smaller goals of mine are to make grandmaster league in the coming months, get deep into an MLG tournament through the open bracket, and to keep improving as much as possible. I’m going to MLG Raleigh in August so hopefully I can show some good games there and take out some big name players in the process. 😀
Now that you are in the Academy what are your expectations for yourself and the Academy program?
I feel like the Academy is going to be a huge help to me as a player. My main problem previously was neither time commitment nor devotion to the game, but finding high level consistent practice partners. The guys in the Academy are all extremely good players and I can’t wait to set up a practice schedule in order to get ready for upcoming tournaments and leagues.
I guess my expectations for myself are that I will provide great practice for the other members of the Academy and I also expect them to provide practice and criticism to me so that we can all improve our play as much as possible.
I’m also really looking forward to upcoming show matches, tournaments, and team leagues we will do as members of the Academy. Our roster is super solid so I think we can do extremely well as a team.
Any shoutouts, where can we find you (twitter, facebook, youtube, etc…)?
I’d like to thank my friend Chris Allen for getting me into SC2, shout out to my gf Ashley (our six month anniversary is in a few days), and shout out to all of my fans and supporters at UNC and elsewhere that have gotten me this far in my career!
If you want to follow me, you can find me at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCjer
Stream: www.twitch.tv/thegodeht (Stream will be back up almost daily in late August)
Also, a huge thanks to compLexity Gaming for this amazing opportunity!