Qualification Stage Round 4
Whitecourt vs Spaden Sunday, 22nd July, 20:00 GMT
Whitecourt vs Spaden Sunday, 22nd July, 20:00 GMT
As a guy from Switzerland I have to ask: How justified was Sweden's 1:0 win against Switzerland in the FIFA World Cup?
You guys had more shots, shots on goal, ball possession, passes, pass accuracy and corners, but we scored one more goal, and that is all that matters in the end. Shaqiri's tears were tasty after the game, so it was justified.
How does summer in Sweden look like?
At the moment it is unbearably hot and dry, but it's usually nice with temperatures between 20-25 C and moderately rainy (I like rainy days, unless they last weeks which they sometimes do). It's not a huge difference between north and south in the summer (way bigger difference in the winter). The northern parts are bit more rainy, slightly colder and and is a mosquito hell, so to avoid the mosquitos I hike in our mountain range whenever I visit the northern parts. Right now it's 28C in Kiruna, our northernmost large city, 32C in Stockholm where I live and 27C in Barcelona for comparison. Please pity us, this is not normal
In your first LotH2 game at all, you lost vs barely 2k martinhs. (Also, you lost your first game in the second match.) Do you question your Arabia Huns fitness in these moments? How do you lose your first games?
Usually I play very standard in the first games to judge my opponent to see what (s)he plays like, and then adopt my playstyle in the later games depending on the way my opponent played in g1. Especially ara huns players tend to be very one dimensional. I am probably worse than the average player on my level at standard stuff.
The first game serves sort of as a warmup game and it puts me in the tournament atmosphere. Then more unexperienced players might get nervous after leading vs someone better than themselves. I know I was nervous as hell when I was leading 1-0 vs Nicov back in CoT because you feel like this could actually happen. These days I dont get nervous in tournaments anymore, which I honestly feel is good. You could argue being nervous is good because you might try harder, but personally it just makes me unfocused because I think of things that might happen after the game etc, and not the actual game I am playing.
I dont doubt my ara hunswar abilities (not so used to WK hunswar though). I lose because I am not warmed up (hadn't played a game in 2 weeks when I played vs AJ), that I dont have my game face on yet or that my opponent is just outplaying me in the first game. Maybe you could ask those players why they win the first game and not the others :D.
In your second match, close games vs Arabia Huns specialist Angelina_Jolie were to be expected. What gave you the edge at the end? During the 1h23m game, Desert_F0X wrote in the spectator chat that both of you don't want to win. How accurate was his judgement?
AJ is a really good ara huns player and I felt like the underdog when I walked in to this series. I checked his profile and saw that he hadn't played aoc for a few days as well, so I just played standard to see if the rust hits him faster than me. Then I remembered that he is so much better than me at "normal" ara huns games, so I decided to not let him play standard.
I guess I have more experience than him, especially in tournaments, which might have influenced the outcome and I felt my DM experience kicking in in the last game. I think we both wanted to win last game but we were both playing kind of sloppy wasting army left and right. He might have mistaken "not wanting to win" with "not wanting to make a mistake" and it's easier to avoid mistakes if you play a bit more passive. Fun sidenote: I was down 0-1 vs Desert_fox in WSVG but then won 3-1.
Your next opponent is Chile B player Whitecourt (who was involved in the double conq downfall of Germany A last NC). What do you know about him? Will he be stronger than AJ or does the resignation of yinghua in Whitecourt's bracket part mean a free pass to the Final Stage for you?
I've played Whitecourt quite a few times in tournaments and rated games, so I know how he plays. Most recently I lost to him in the nomad 2v2 tournament few weeks ago, so I gotta take revenge for that. I believe he is a worse ara huns player than AJ, but better all around. I think Yinghua's resignation made it easier, but I am sure I could have beaten him since he hasn't really reached his former glory lately. The games vs Whitecourt should be close and I won't underestimate him.
You are known for excelling in tournaments. 2015, you eliminated DauT in Balance of Power's Ro32. Last year, after your King of the Desert 2:3 match vs JorDan_23, swissboyy commented: "Not making the event to nearly kicking out Jordan_23." In case you win against Whitecourt: How terrified does slam have to be?
Slam was one of the first if not the first expert I managed to beat in 1v1. It must have been 2011 or early 2012. He had a smurf account and was at 1990 rating with 0 losses. I am about 95% sure it was ara hunswar as well. He then proceeded to beat me twice after that I think and won 2-1, but I still stopped him from reaching 2k without any losses, so I obviously have a HUGE mental edge if we are to meet.
Compared to many events in the last two years, LotH2 does not have any prize pool crowdfunding success so far. What do you think are the reasons? Is it the one dimensional setting? The lack of an affiliation with a popular streamer?
I honestly don't know. Most of the viewers that would be potential donors are newer to the game, so they have missed the whole arabia huns hype and prefer WK settings, I think.
You joined LoS together with mentalist, Zuppi plays with Suomi, Lojza and 8th_wonder are inactive. Is NaBs history?
BoA was probably the last big TG tournament for us under the NaBs tag. There might be a comeback in the future if certain players return to active gaming, but can't guarantee it.
In political discourse about macrosocial reforms, there is often a divide between people who point to the horrors of socialist regimes (specifically Venezuela at the moment) and people who point to northern Europe countries as working social democracies. How content are you personally with the nation-state society you live in?
I am not a man who thinks a lot about politics and I am far from an expert at the subject, but I believe it's working good. I am not as left-winged as the ruling party atm, but I can't complain about much. We got election in september, so things might change.
Last edited: