The Blizzard Regionals will be soon upon us with the top eight finishers in the US and European Ladders fighting it out for golden tickets to BlizzCon in the U.S. and European Blizzard Regional Finals in Cologne, Germany.

The European Regionals promises a mix of experienced veterans with keen youngsters, while the American Regionals sees six of eight players playing Human. We managed to get hold of some of the competitors at the tournament this weekend, for their thoughts on the qualification and the upcoming competition.



Blizzard EU Regionals is missing some of the big names due to their lack of participation in the online ladder or their inability to reach top 8 (HoT, Sting, Dowaq), do you think this make the tournament any less interesting?

nGize.Demuslim: No i do not, I believe the EU regionals consists of what I class as the 3 best Euro players right now - Grubby/lucifron/happy - and I believe the mix of the "pros" with the "talents" such as vortix/thomasG who have not yet had the chance to prove themselves makes it more interesting, instead of seeing the same names.

Grubby, Happy and Lucifron, do you think you can take them down? To reach the UB Final, you would have to beat Grubby and most likely Happy..

Well, obviously the chances work against me, but yes - I do think I have a reasonable chance of taking down the top players. - If I did not I would not of tried out for the ladder season.

With ToD now retired, would you say you are next in-line to become Europe's next best Human player?

Well, Tod without a doubt was the best Human in Europe - and arguably worldwide, so now there is a definete spot open amongst the rest of us humans. As for if i think i'm next in line for that title - i don't really know, right now in Europe we have quite a few humans performing well - but i'd definetely say i'm up there with one or two others.

What is this tournament for you?

This tournament for me, is a golden opportunity for me to try and make it. I've recently finished school and I really want to succeed in wc3. While yes, I will meet friends etc.. - my main goal for this trip is to try and qualify top 3. As the "inactive" player, I hope to shock some people.




Blizzard European Regionals last year was the tournament where you rose from the shadows to gain public attention. Do you think any of the three new players this time around (Vortex, ThomasG, Nicker) have a chance to do the same as you did?

nGize.Lucifron: Yes, I think all the players in the tournament are at the moment in a good shape and could make it to the top3, even if for some of them it's one of their (if not their) first time on a LAN tournament they have showed good results online.

Do you think it takes skill to arrive in the top 8 online, or is it more to do with how much time you have available to play?

nGize.Lucifron says: Both I think, all the players who finished in the top8 had to win a lot of games to the other top players, else they wouldn't have got even to top15 I'd say, on the other hand the time spent is really important too, ofcourse.

However, I think online stats are influenced by too many things (mostly ping) to conclude if a player is skilled or not because of them; someone with worse stats online could be much better offline than another player with better stats.

The seeding is based on the final position in the online play though, is this is a bad thing in your opinion? Or will it make no difference?

nGize.Lucifron:There's a Lower Bracket so the seeding won't be that important, I believe it's the fairest possible seeding method so I'm fine with it.

How much have you prepared, and which player is your biggest threat?

nGize.Lucifron says: I finally finished with high school around 12 days ago, and been preparing since then. About my biggest threat, I don't know, I think all the players in the tournament could win against me, don't know who to choose as my "biggest threat".

I'll make it easier, Grubby or Happy?

nGize.Lucifron says: Grubby out of those two.



One human in the EU Finals, 6 in the US, how does that work exactly? Why do so many Americans pick Human?

Shriek: Human is probably easier to play at a medium level of play rather than a top one. It's really hard to compete on the level that the European regionals are at playing human. Traditionally, American tournaments haven't had so many humans. It's just that Holyhuman and I bothered qualifying, and SonKiE autoqualified.

Additionally, Yane, APM, and most of the other usual contenders chose not to play this season. Thus, the American regionals ended up having a lot more new faces, who just happened to be human players.

Doesn't that mess you up for practice partners? Unless you have good connections outside the US, the only way you could practice your human v human is to play against your competitors?

Shriek:Definitely. It's really hard to find anyone to play against, especially living in a CET-9 time zone, where sleep patterns make it really difficult to find opponents. Also, there are fewer Human players these days than there used to be (many Germans retired, among other people), and many "active" players don't want to practice mirror.

It's also a little risky asking some players to practice, because some people might choose to share replays and play favorites among competitors. However, it is not like playing against other Americans is generally good practice anyway, so it's not that much worse than normal.

You retired, so what is this event for you?

Shriek:Well, it's a chance to make some money. It's a chance to hang out with some friends and have a short vacation, especially because I have no obligations for my first two days in Germany. It's mainly just a chance to have some fun, maybe have some cool games, and hopefully make some pocket change while I'm there. Oh, and of course, I have to say that it's chance to reunite with my former teammate Benjamin Baker of England.

What do you think his chances are?

Shriek:Although I haven't really been too into Warcraft, I have watched a lot of replays, and I have a lot of ideas about how the game is played now.

I think Human vs Orc is very diffcult, but his Orc matchup used to be good, and I know he has an ability to pull out some great play and can be very disciplined with practice when necessary. He has a chance to finish in the top 3, but I don't think he has much of a chance to beat Happy, who seems to be dominant recently.



You left nGize in the hope of finding yourself a better chance to compete, and now you've reached your first international tournament. What is your aim for this competition?

x6.Vortix: My aim is winning the tournament, of course, but we all know that it will most likely not happen, so I am just preparing myself to be able to win at least one bo3 in the tournament.

So how many matches have you played against the other competitors in the online ladder? Have you had good results against anyone in specific?

x6.Vortix: The ones I've played more games versus in the online ladder are Nicker, which I managed to win some of them, like two or so I think, which is not that bad considering his style vs UD is not affected that much by ping as mine, versus Grubby I did not manage to win a game, and I lost one game vs demuslim. I did not play versus the rest.

How much is your brother helping you practice?

x6.Vortix: Oh, very much, we train a lot together and it is very helpful. He also searches for other people to train with me when I don't find any. I've played with a lot of players from WC3L and WCIP, and also with MaCk, which is my teammate and also a member of the spanish national team.

Is it difficult to be lucifrons brother, as in to become famous for your own achievement and not your brothers? Is this something you hoped to change by leaving ngize?

x6.Vortix: Yeah, it was hard when I started, to be known as Lucifron's brother and also everyone saying that "the brothers always go in a pack" and such stuff. But well, I don't really mind it, it was helpful in order to get known when I started to play. I think that I've done good lately, so there's no point on keep saying that I am who I am because of my brother.

What do you mean by "the brothers always go in a pack"?

x6.Vortix: It is because we all joined x6tence at the same time, we all joined dharma at the same time, we joined wicked at the same time and we joined ngize at the same time, so they complain that LucifroN always brings his brothers with him.

It was a reason for leaving nGize, but not the main one, I was just tired of being the future talent who we do not trust now but we will surely do in the future. After almost one year I was in the same situation. of course its not nGize's fault, I cannot compete with such players, but I needed to have a more important role, even if it was in a worse team.

Fair enough, since you said you are aiming to win only one best-of-3, who are your top 3 for the EU tournament?

x6.Vortix: 1st Lucifron, 2nd Grubby 3rd Happy, although I kinda believe that ThomasG, Demuslim and Nicker are good enough to get any of these positions and Sase too. Basically everyone except me can do it!