You defeated Happy 2-0 in the lower-bracket, probably the biggest upset of the tournament, explain what was going through your mind before the match.

nGize.ThomasG:I started the tournament pretty damn bad but during my matches vs. VortiX in the lower bracket I started playing better. So when it was time to play Happy I already felt pretty confident at the venue and with my own gameplay.

I used to practice pretty much with Happy, so I knew his style very well and I thought to myself that I really had nothing to lose in this match since everyone, including myself I guess, thought I would lose it. I ended up playing a pretty good match though, and perhaps with a little help from Happy's bad state of mind, won it.

Many people think Happy's play was affected by his loss to Grubby earlier, so you think that as well? Or did you simply outplay him?

nGize.ThomasG: I think Happy's game was somewhat affected from his loss earlier, yes. Happy still played very good, but I know he can play even better. I think Happy had too big expectations for himself for the tournament, and thus got very upset when losing vs. Grubby.

He did have a relatively long break before the match vs me though, so one should think he had time to calm down. I think the fact that Happy played just slightly worse than what he would usually do, aswell as those games being my best games of the tournament, is what gave me the opportunity to beat him in the end.

Are there any specific mistakes on Happy's part that surprised you when you were in-game?

nGize.ThomasG: I think the biggest mistake Happy made was to not surprise me at all. The maps I played vs Happy are actually the exact same maps I vetoed vs. VortiX, but I decided to play them vs Happy since I thought he wouldn't play gargs.

I think if he would have, or perhaps played ghoulrush one game or something similar, it would have been a lot harder for me. I think Happy executed his strategy well in both games, his micro is one of the best in the world probably, it was mainly the fact that I constantly knew exactly what he would do and when he would do it, that made me able to win the games.

If I had to point out some mistake though, I guess losing 2 ghouls to my harass in game 1 was a bit sloppy, but it is not what made him lose the game, and overall he made almost none of these small mistakes.

Do you think that is what is stopping Happy from taking 1st place at tournaments, that he has strong micro but is perhaps too predictable?

nGize.ThomasG: I definately think so. I think Happy is very confident that he is perhaps the best player in the world, and thinks that if he is that, then he can just play the same strategy and if he doesn't make mistakes, he will win.

I think especially against Orc, undead has lately got a lot of new strategies that he could use, but decides to play the same one every time, with the exact same timing and execution.

I'm not saying he would win every time if he did tier 2 tower rushes or lich first tower rush, but the thing is, that if you play these other strategies sometimes, the opponent has to be aware of it, and can't just play the direct counter to your main strategy.

This makes your main strategy much stronger, and I think it is sometimes needed to use other strategies even though your winrate with them might be lower, just so you can incease your winrate with your main strategy. I have the same problem myself though, I tend to use the same strategies with the same timings, and look what happened when a guy who knew me very well, LucifroN, played me on lan. SMACK. And while Happy never gets raped that much, I think he could earn a lot from changing strategies once in a while, yes.

The first game Happy put almost 0 pressure on you, allowing you to expand and tech to bears, easily. Why do you think that is? Did you expect it to be so easy?

nGize.ThomasG:I wouldn't really say either of the games were easy. And I think you will often see this playstyle from Happy, atleast I knew pretty much how he was gonna play it. Happy will almost never ghoul rush you, and will tech very quickly for tier 3 to get this frost wyrm and then push.

I think i predicted what Happy would do pretty well, and took full advantage of it, playing very early hippos and getting the panda to level 3 quickly, which in the end made me able to win the last fight even though I was down on food. I think the unit combination in the army I used is what sealed the deal more than the micro management.

Well in the last fight in game 1 you were actually fighting with no hero at all at one point! Are you a bit annoyed to beat Happy but then lose to Nicker?

nGize.ThomasG: Even though the fourth place is pretty good for me considering the players at the event, I feel top 3 are the winners and everyone else the losers. So in that respect, yes, I am very annoyed I didn't beat Nicker, though I am not surprised.

Mirror is one of my weaker matchups, and Nicker seems to be my nemesis, I've never really beaten him except on ladder. I guess he was pretty glad when he saw I beat Happy. I also think Nicker played the match vs. me almost flawlessly, while I made my bunch of mistakes. Thus, Nicker deserved the spot for sure, but of course I am quite annoyed it wasn't me who got the third place.

So what is your opinion about the whole Orc is imba topic. As a Night Elf player and top-flight player, what do you think caused Orc to suddenly become good?

nGize.ThomasG: I don't think orc is that imbalanced. If I was to name the best race then I would say orc, yes, but I think it isn't quite the biggest advantage. What made orc become better is hard to say, I think they got better at abusing the blademaster with items and such, and realised they can play pretty much the same strategy against all races.

When that's said, looking at for example this event, there were 2 orcs in the tournament and they got first and second place, however I feel they were simply the better players there. My experience is that on lan your race doesn't matter much, it's a bit hard to explain, but in my opinion it is simply the player that matters and not the race.

How much of a role did the nerf of staff of preservation play in improving Orc against Night Elf?

nGize.ThomasG: I think it mainly made a difference in the tier 2 harass. Before, the DH/BM harass was very strong, and these days it's not quite as good, though still used a lot. Of course the change can also be annoying later on when trying to save heroes, but orc having ensnare and all I dont think it changes so much in the late game.

Finally there are very few opportunities for Europeans to attend offline events, especially now with ESWC dead. How do you feel about that as an aspiring European player?

nGize.ThomasG: I think it's very sad. Almost all international events europeans can attend are invitational, and I am not good enough to get invited. My only oppotunities for offline events in the relatively near future is if we can keep doing good in ENC and go to lan there, or if I could win the danish WCG qualifier.

I don't even know if we will get a qualifier though. The Danish community is really dead, which makes it even sadder there aren't more international events to attend, since there surely wont be any Danish ones.

--
Photos by Hellphyte of Readmore.de.