The Final of the Season V ExcelloCup featured a handful of recognised Warcraft3 players which just shows how far the tournament has come in recent times.

SonkiE was seeded 6th and his first match versus Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom from Fnatic did not go as planned. " My games against focus were thrown due to mistakes," said SonKiE, "On echo I played sloppy and ended up losing far too much on a creep jack. On Twisted Meadows I think I could have won if i didn't lose my AM when I was on my way to tower him."

With such a poor start to the competition, how did he feel? "My morale was sort of hurt and I felt like I didn't have a chance to get far after I lost in round one," explains SonKie "I thought to myself even if I didn't make it far this cup was still really good practice.

SonKiE was fortunate enough to meet Canadian DizZ in the next round who he beat 2-0 to prepare him for the next rounds which would be a true test of his mettle, his next match was versus Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen of MeetYourMakers. "My games against grubby I played VERY well. The combination of playing well and maybe some help from lady luck led to me a 2-0," said SonKiE, "This victory meant alot to me since i look up to Manuel with alot of respect."

With an impressive 2-0 win versus Grubby under his belt SonKiE now had to face another top player, Hyeong Ju "Check" Lee of the Beijing E-Sports Team.

"When it came time to face Check I knew i could be in trouble," explained SonKiE, "Check is a strong elf, capable of abusing bear dryad or even dott pushing.I saw some games of him against sky recently and knew what to expect, I prepared for it."

The 1st game in the series was on Secret Valley and SonKiE suffered defeat but came back in the second game on Turtle Rock. "I tried to concentrate alot harder and with a lucky spawn on Trock I was able to make it 1-1," said SonKiE, "The third map was TS and I expected warden, but he decided to play DH style. Since I knew his style I prepared for it, and ended up winning."

SonKiE's next match was a rematch against FoCuS who had sent him to the lower bracket, and this time SonKiE avoided the careless mistakes which cost him the first round and took the series 2-1.

His final match was against Du-Seop "whO" Chang from Beijing E-Sports team who up to that point had not lost a game.

SonKiE after all his hardwork failed to win the overall final, how did he feel? "My games against who were... disappointing," states SonKiE, "Who is an EXTREMELY good player and I'm very happy to get the opportunity to play against him."

However WhO found a handful of good items on the first map Lost Temple, "On LT he dropped scroll of roar/healwards/book of the dead. This lead to the fall of my expo - gg for short."

The next map was Echo Isles, "Game two was as epic as our wc3l series, I killed his main and he tried to last as long as he could off of an expo," explained SonKiE, "but that didn't work out for him."

This forced the series onto the final map which was Twisted Meadows but SonKiE's admits to getting a little overconfident. "The third game was Twisted Meadows and I got cocky when I saw I dropped a Tome of Experience," said SonKiE, "I decided to tower rush and it ended up being a fatal idea.
When I realised I couldn't win I called gg and went for a nap xD".

His thoughts

So how did he feel about coming second, proud or dissapointed? "Very proud, I took down some good players today. I proved what I'm capable of on a good day," expressed SonKiE, "even though 500 euros would be awesome in my pocket right now I'm still happy with my results."

With a handful of matches against top players which victory shocked him the most? "MY win 2-0 against Grubby shocked me the most. He's been on fire lately and to beat him 2-0 is pretty damn good."

Finally when asked which game of his he would recommend to watch from a fan's perspective he said "I'd recommend both LT games of me vs focus. You see alot of human tier 3 action, either breaker mortar or 16 armour gryphons."

Congratulations to SonKiE on his second place and thanks for his time.

You can find all you need to know about the tournament in our Excello Season V Coverage Item