Stalife after winning the Project X LAN.
After displaying some amazing finishes lately, our Canadian Terran, Sung Min Park (Stalife) sat down with us for an interview. In the interview, we will discuss Stalife’s play as of late, as well as his future in SC2.
Congratulations on winning the scReddit Open and Frag for Cancer recently! How do you feel about your performence as of late?
I haven’t been playing that great, but I seem to be getting lucky and winning tournaments. They’re not big tournaments so I don’t feel too accomplished yet, so I still have a long way to go.
Let’s go back to the scReddit Open. What were your initial thoughts when you had to face sixjaxDDE in the semi-finals and then ThisIsJimmy in the finals, with both being TvT matchups?
I was pretty comfortable going into semi-finals versus dde since I know his style very well. I’ve had lots of tournament matches against him previously and I feel like I can use that to my advantage and switch up my style accordingly. I got really lucky against him in game 3, as I didn’t know what he was doing, but my pressure basically won me the game in 7 minutes. I think I lost one of the games entirely due to my own stupid mistake but in the end, I won the series and I was pretty happy that I got to the finals. In the finals against ThisIsJimmy, I was super confident since I met him several times on ladder. It also helped that I won in each of the games we played. I feel like I knew his style and could adapt to it well. I ended up losing one game against him on Xel’ Naga Caverns as he played great. It ended up being a base trade game and proved to be back and forth, but he did play better and won.
Speaking of the base trading between yourself and ThisIsJimmy, what was going through your mind during the match?
I was pretty desperate to win the series 4-0 as I had been playing TvT all day. I was tired but I was determined to end the series as fast as possible. I was hoping he would make a mistake and that I would somehow come ahead with a superior tank count, but I mismicroed my army at the last engagement and I lost. He played it well and was being as cautious as possible.
The day after winning the scReddit Open you participated in the Frag for Cancer and displayed absolute dominance throughout the event. Would you say your TvZ matchup is better than your TvT? How has your TvP been doing?
I would say my TvT and TvZ are about equal. I favor the marine tank composition and I use them quite a lot in TvZ and TvT, so it’s just a matter of maneuvering correctly and reading the situation well. With regards to TvP, Blizzard needs to fix that matchup as soon as possible because it is honestly so broken. The big ball of Protoss army is too strong and I feel like if Protoss plays it right, it’s impossible for Terran to win. There’s really no way for Terran to engage efficiently in a macro battle against Protoss.
Your mass raven build in the Frag for Cancer tournament was quite unique as very few have witnessed it during a tournament. Did you do because you felt like you already won and just wanted to do it for the viewers or was it an actual build that you have been working on?
My actual build for that game was the 2 factory blue flame hellions. I remember doing it back in beta against my teammates, while trying to figure out new ways to annoy Zerg. I stopped using them for some reason and on the day before the tournament, I played against ROOTCatZ and won pretty easily. The Zerg i faced in the FFC tournament held it off better, but it still did quite a lot of damage and I felt like I could do some toying around. Also, I love TB casting, so I used different strats =D.
Even on some of the larger maps, instead of doing a fast expand build like most Terrans tend to do, you decided to tech up and be hyper aggressive against Zergs. Do you feel like that’s a more effective way for Terrans to play?
I was using that to my advantage. I thought my opponent would expect me to play a very macro-oriented play, and then my fast tech would catch them off guard. It worked out very well.
You seem to love both hellions and banshees. Which is your favorite?
I love the banshees the most because they can make the difference between a win/loss in many different situations. When I’m base trading, I always go for the banshees. It has won me many, many games because it forces opponents to play a specific way.
There is an upcoming MLG Dallas event in April. Will you, and any of your teammates be attending?
Definitely! CompLexity is flying me all the way to Dallas. I do not want to disappoint my team or the fans and surely don’t want to disappoint myself. It is my first major LAN event and I hope to get to top 8 so I don’t go home empty handed.
It seems like the relationship between CompLexity and yourself is really taking off. Is that the case?
Haha yeah it is very true. coL has a great team environment with some very amazing people. The management is very good at keeping the team up to date on a daily basis.
Will we be also seeing you (coL) participating in the NASL as well?
I hope many of the coL players will be able to compete in the NASL, as we have a lot of talent. I lose about 80% of my practice games against my teammates and they’re definitely very good players. I hope I’ll be selected as one of the top 50 players for NASL, but if I don’t get picked, I’ll just have to focus more on other tournaments.
While we’re on the topic of major tournaments, GSL is offering a house for foreign players like yourself. Are you interested in playing in the GSL and if so, have you applied to get accepted in the foreign house?
I am not interested in playing in the GSL at all since I have other life commitments. The biggest thing is that I’m working full time right now and it takes a lot out of me. I come home just in time to play in tournaments and I rarely get any decent practice sessions. So, in the end, I am just playing this as a hobby, although sometimes I get overly passionate about it. I love the competition and I love the strategies, but GSL is a huge life commitment and I’m not committed enough.
Do you offer any coaching sessions to the public? If so, how does one get a coaching session set up with you?
I do offer coaching sessions, however I don’t advertise it publically. To schedule a session, add me on Skype [iamsungminpark] or message me on battle.net [NOVAStalife.446].
Thank you for your time. Anything you would like to share?
Thank you to CompLexity Gaming. More importantly, thank you to our amazing sponsors in Creative, XFX, QPad, and G8 Brand.