"Good afternoon Torenhire! How are things going today?

Hey, things are going great! I was pretty nervous the night before, mostly because of all of the freezing rain and bad weather that came through the area. It figures, we had been planning since November and today of all days ends up being the worst weather we've had all winter! We had a few people unable to show up, but we still have a ton of people here and I couldn't be any happier with the turnout!

How did you feel as the Netolic LAN event got closer and closer to fruition? Were you happy to see more and more sign-ups everyday leading up to such a wonderful event

Excited, a little nervous. This was our largest event and the first time we've done a dual tournament. Also the first time running it from organization to tournament mostly on my own! I was definitely happy to see us blow our previous turnouts out of the water! The only bad thing that has happened today was that the PC Center had less PCs than anticipated due to some construction, but we were able to resolve that just by juggling some people around, and delaying the diamond tournament a little bit.

How do you feel about the attendance of the LAN event today? Were you expecting more or less? If so why?

Well, going by sign-ups, we did great! It's been a while since we did a LAN so there were lots of people eager to get back into another event. Like I mentioned before, the weather caused a handful of people to be unable to be here, but we expected that and I think the turnout was just what we thought it would be.

How did you go about finding this LAN center and asking them to run an event like this? Was is difficult setting an event of this size up?

It's a long story, but to keep it short, we have been bouncing around LAN centers in the northern Virginia area, because we keep outgrowing them! Luckyfool and I hosted Brood War LANs together and were using another LAN center, when someone suggested Netolic to us. However at that time, Netolic was being sold or changing management or something along those lines...years later after some construction, we're back at Netolic! I think everyone that showed up today has agreed that this is the best LAN center we've been to, but we're already too big for Netolic!

The most difficult part is getting the groups and brackets set up to a "decent" number. I think we had 24 Diamond and Under tournament players, so the bracket got kind of wacky. Other than that, things are pretty smooth once the event gets started!

How is it running two tournaments at once?

Tiring, would be the first answer! It's a lot of fun though, and a lot of the DC LAN regulars are very self-sufficient at this point, so I don't have to babysit anyone or anything like that. Usually once I tell people groups or brackets are posted, they're off on their own and only have to flag me down to report wins! However, I do pull people for help in making groups, making brackets, signing players in, and so on, and I appreciate their help a ton!

From what I am hearing, it seems this has been the biggest turnout for a D.C. LAN. When do you feel that these events will start attracting sponsors?

It's definitely the largest turnout we've ever had, I think the Diamond tournament is to thank for that. We had some feedback that people were getting discouraged now that more masters and grandmasters are showing up to play, so Luckyfool and I decided to host a tournament for the Diamond and below ranked players. It ended up being a fantastic plan and I think that helped our turnout a bunch! We'll definitely be doing this from here on out!

In the past, I had emailed a few places for sponsorships for a LAN, but nothing ever ended up coming from it. It's more of a passive search, other than reaching out for sponsors via email, I don't do anything more active than that. Maybe if we have another LAN with this same amount of interest, we'll start being a lot more active in a sponsor search!

How do you feel this LAN event is going so far? Who do you "want" to win the Open Tournament and Diamond and Under Tournament? Who do you think "will" win?

That's a tough one...I'll start by saying that I'm definitely biased, so you've been warned! I would love for NrGLuckyfool to take the open tournament, and for Hooktits to take the Diamond tourney! Mainly because Rob, or Luckyfool, has been my partner in crime for these LANs for a couple years now, and because Hooktits is my team's captain!

For who I think WILL win it, for the open tournament, we've had a ton of "upsets" so far, that tournament could go to anyone in the bracket stages at this point! I'm just going to pick avilo based on the fact that he's won probably 90% of our SC2 LANs already...

For the Diamond Tournament, I'm going with OldManZerg or NeSVintage, they tore up the Open tournament, so I'm thinking they're going to do pretty well in the Diamond tournament as well!

Alright, thats all the questions I have for right now! Do you have any shout-outs you would like to make?

First of all, Netolic PC for allowing us to use the building for a day. Thanks a ton to "FiveHunDred" and "NeSVintage" and all the other Netolic Staff for helping people with setup and being great hosts! Also d3_crescentia for being my bracket/group helper, Sadistx and SacredSystem for interviews, NrG, Area 51 gaming, Tits Gaming, NeS, and all the other teams for sending players! And of course the LAN attendees!

Thank you Torenhire for running such a great event! Area 51 hopes there will be more events like these to come!"

Thank you for coming, and we hope to see more of Area 51 at future events! Planning is in the works for DC LAN #8, look for it in Late February or Early March!

 


"It is nice to finally meet you NrGLuckyfool! How are you doing this evening?

Good!

So you usually run events in the D.C. Area. How many events so far, including other games?

Yes I run or help run most of the sc2 events, so far I've run or helped with 9 or 10 LAN tournaments in DC area. Only SC2 and before SC2 it was Broodwar. No other games.

Did you choose to focus on playing and winning this event instead of having to split you time doing both? If so, what makes running events like these so difficult, name some challenges?

It was nice having Torenhire do most of the work for this LAN. It's alot of work for just one person though so I ended up helping quite a bit. One challenge we had for this event was the lan center had less pc's available to use, we thought we would have 40 pc's to use for sc2 but it turned out lots of them were under repair or had issues. So we only had 24 pc's for over 40 people at the event. I ended up helping cast some matches too which was fun.

How did you feel after going through your pool play undefeated?

I played quite well in the morning during my group. I had a pretty easy group I think, I won most of my games without much trouble.

Later in the main bracket you also advance all the way to the Semi Finals, beating Endoftheline and Area51Strength. How did you feel about those games and what led you to your victories in those best-of-three series?

Both series went to a game 3. During vs. EndofLine I actually was playing pretty poorly. I made alot of mistakes and nearly cost myself in game 3 when I made an extra barracks instead of a starport and didn't notice till the barracks finished. This killed a timing I was going for with double medivac and almost made me lose but I won somehow. Strength series was one of the best series in the entire event it's a shame it wasn't streamed. In my opinion those games were better quality and more even match than even the finals. We both played well and I won game 3 on MLG Shakurass  which is a map I do pretty well on in TvZ. Lots of nice places for tanks. ^^

In your Semi-Finals match, you were facing LegionAvilo. What were your feelings after that series was finished and seeing LegionAvilo come out on top?

I play Avilo quite a bit at LANs I think my overall record vs. him now is like 2-7 or something pretty bad. I know I can win against him but I didn't really prepare my Terran vs. Terran much before the event so I wasn't too confident. He cheesed me first game and I lost it in 5 minutes, it put me on tilt for the rest of my games too which was bad.

Why do you feel you lost that series? Was there anything you thought you could have done better?

Game 1 was reaper expand v.s. proxy marauder and I almost always win, you just send the reaper to their base and get a bunker up and its an auto win. Somehow I lost my reaper and didn't get bunker up. That was pretty frustrating and made me play worse in the rest of my games in the day.

Right after your series with LegionAvilo, you had to play Area51Focus for the third place consolation prize. How did you feel going into this series?

I wanted a do over vs. Avilo. Was still too much on tilt to play my best. it's a big weakness I have in my play which I need to improve on.

You won the first game pretty convincingly. Why did it change into Focus's favor in the next two maps?

First game I won mainly because he tried the same cheese Avilo beat me with game 1. I didn't lose my reaper and got the bunker up so it was an easy win. I usually almost never lose to that cheese, I think focus might have been watching my game against Avilo and wanted to try it. games 2 and 3 focus played safer builds and did well and I eventually lost.

Why do you feel you lost that close series? Was there anything you thought you could have done better?

Terran vs. Terran is my worst match-up and I didn't really prepare well before the event. Plus I was frustrated over losing to Avilo. Focus played well too so all of that pretty much lead to me losing that series. It was supposed to be a best-of-5 but I conceded it to a best-of-3 because I was still tilting.

Your a really notable player that has been to a few MLG events and IPL 3 almost making it into the Championship bracket a few times. Do you plan on going to any MLG/IPL events this year? If so, how many and what is your goal for those events?

I do plan on getting out to as many MLG's as I can. I have many friends in the Starcraft 2 community so I expect I will probably continue to compete at these events and travel around. Starcraft 2 is a hobby for me, I work full time so I don't really have time to try to make it full time in Starcraft 2, the money isn't really there to try to dedicate my life for Starcraft 2. I don't go to MLG's to make money, I go to compete and to travel and meet new people and also being there live to watch games is super exciting too.

What is your daily practice schedule during months with events in it? Does it vary or stay fairly consistent?

I play consistently around 20-25 hours a week or so. This is not much compared to other pros but I can't really dedicate more than that because of work and life. In the future if something ever happens I may be able to change my living situation to play more but right now I'm pretty happy.

Alright, well thank you for your time! Care to do any shout-outs?

Shout out to Team NrG. VileIllusion and KawaiiriceLighT (I steal builds from these kids constantly) and everyone in DC that supports me, also SacredSystem for making my epic fanclub on TL recently. LOL ! :D

We at Area 51 hope to see more of you in other events. We wish you the best of luck in the future!"