The 17-year-old from Russia has had many ups and downs in his WC3 career but he told SK-Gaming that he has never been happier than he is with Gravitas. The team has had an impeccable NGL-One season, with a 100% win rate so far, and look like favourites to qualify for WC3L for the first time in their history.

Abdrakhmanov's personal career hit a peak two weeks ago when he single-handedly beat Wicked eSports in NGL-One. With an NGL LAN and a possible WC3L berth to look forward to, the youngster was in talkative mood.

Lets start off with you; you've been through a lot of clans over the past couple of years. Will Gravitas be different, and why?

Yeah, to be honest I had a lot of clans in my wc3 career and now I think I’ve got the best clan compared to what I had. I’ve got all the conditions to play my favourite game and I’ve got very good teammates who I know in real life, with them we can go wherever we want. I think this is the best thing in your job - to like your job and to have good friends in it.



You and your friends are currently top of NGL-one with an unbeaten 6-0 record and only two games to play. How do you rate your chances at the finals?

Well we failed last wc3l qualifier and we were very upset about it. So after that we wanted to prove that our team is best and can do all that we want. We concentrated on ngl-one and made every effort to be first. We practiced a lot in Moscow together to be a real team and to have real team spirit You know team spirit is a half of your victory in team league. What can I say about finals; we have a very good chance to win this league and we’re going to practice very hard to be first at finals, I promise.

I’ll come back to WC3L in a moment but do you think you can beat the likes of MYM, mouz and SK on LAN?

Well, the time will show but one thing I can say for sure is that we will do everything to win this league. We simply must do it.

I can't leave behind the NGL questions without mentioning your "allkill" against Wicked. What i really want to know is whether you planned the BM/Naga/Tinker strategy, or just made it up on the spot.

I practiced it with [Olav]”Creolophus”[Undheim] when he was active.

Well, everyone knows that Koreans play very good in standard situations because they are practicing a lot. So I decided to use very old [Junghon]”DayFly”[Lee] tactic which I used lately quite a lot. Plus [Deok]”Soccer”[Man Yoon] didn’t know that I’m using this tactic so that’s’ why I won I think. But if we will play next time with him on Turtle Rock I’m sure he will check me and will be ready.

You mentioned WC3L qualifiers. Last season you lost to Hoorai who you face again this season. Can you turn it around?

Yeah we lost against Hoorai but mostly because we were a very young team, with mostly solo experience. But now we are not staying in one place, we always step up. That’s why I think that we won’t have any problems in this qualification and we will be in the WC3L regular season without losing a clanwar.

And if you could choose between winning NGL-one or qualifying for WC3L, which would it be?

Haha. I can’t choose between these two leagues. But I think at this moment we can do both

You said haven't played Ancient Isle yet, but what do you think about leagues using new maps in general?

I think it’s a very good idea to add some new maps . Blizzard said to everyone that soon we will have a patch but, as you see, we don’t have it yet and these new maps can change games in general. It will be more interesting to watch because it will force some innovation, some new moves.

So far this year we have seen Orc players having a lot of success, especially SK's own Lyn. What changed?

Well from time to time a race becomes stronger than any other races . I think that Orcs just understood all the game styles of other races and now they are just ready to counter whatever any other race do. Plus this town portal selling and buying circlets and claws, making the Blademaster very strong. But still I think that practice, only practice, is making these changes. The player who practice more than everyone else becomes better and only the guy who practices even more can stop him.

Ok lets end with a bit of fun. If you could pick your ideal army (any four units, two heroes, one tower) what would it look like?

Blademaster, Shadow Hunter, Raiders and fortified tower. Haha, my style.
Only Raiders! Raiders are my destiny!

And finally, which WC3 player do you most admire?

Well, I respect every pro-gamer who started to go to his dream and is still trying to achieve it; Who doesn’t stop and is trying to step up every time when he has a chance. I can’t name just one favourite player.