MbL reflecting on his tournament run, the strongest opponent he faced so far and how Arena compares to other maps he regularly plays.
In contrast to a lot of high level Arabia players you enjoy and play a fair amount of Black Forest. Do you feel playing BF influenced your Arena game in any way? How does noob map Arena compare to noob map Black Forest?
MbL: It's no secret that BF really helped my economy management, and because of that I think my strength is being able to boom well while defending / attacking. I also feel my Post-Imperial game can be pretty strong at times due to BF. It's also a tricky question because I don't usually compare maps like that. Arena is more strategy based and BF is more boom/chill/do whatever I want.
You lost to Arena nerd Edie in a close fought series but worked your way up in the lower bracket and beat both Chris and slam by a decent margin. Did you expect to go that far before the event started? Who was your hardest opponent until now?
MbL: I didn't expect to reach this round when I first signed up for this tournament, but around Christmas things changed a bit with my playstyle and I could feel some kind of tiny improvements, especially when it comes to map awareness and strategies adapting to it. Take game 1 vs Chris as an example where I walled all his forward gold and just waited it out until he ran out of all extra golds. It's also noticeable in my recent Arabia games I think. After that I kinda got a feeling that maybe I could actually reach quite far in this tourney, and it doesn't hurt to try.
After all the rounds I still think Edie was my hardest opponent due to his playstyle countering mine pretty good. He's also smart in his Arena play and I'm pretty stupid so that had a good impact as well.
slam made a bit of a mess of the pick/ban process in his series vs you and he wasn't the only one who felt he chose wrong. Do you feel the challenge of picking the right civilization is a big one?
MbL: After thinking for a few minutes it was pretty clear to me that I wanted to give slam Franks because of their limited unit choices and bad monks etc. It's also hard to be the one giving a civilization away first because the other can choose whatever counter he likes. Not sure why he gave me Turks, if I were in his shoes I would probably give myself Vikings.
Who do you feel is the biggest challenge you have to overcome to make the upper bracket final an all Norwegian affair and face countryman TheViper? Can you, him, or anybody else stop Lojza from taking the title?
MbL: I take one round at a time and we'll see what happens. I don't want Lojza to win so I hope someone will stop him, but I have no clue who... Anything could happen.
In contrast to a lot of high level Arabia players you enjoy and play a fair amount of Black Forest. Do you feel playing BF influenced your Arena game in any way? How does noob map Arena compare to noob map Black Forest?
MbL: It's no secret that BF really helped my economy management, and because of that I think my strength is being able to boom well while defending / attacking. I also feel my Post-Imperial game can be pretty strong at times due to BF. It's also a tricky question because I don't usually compare maps like that. Arena is more strategy based and BF is more boom/chill/do whatever I want.
You lost to Arena nerd Edie in a close fought series but worked your way up in the lower bracket and beat both Chris and slam by a decent margin. Did you expect to go that far before the event started? Who was your hardest opponent until now?
MbL: I didn't expect to reach this round when I first signed up for this tournament, but around Christmas things changed a bit with my playstyle and I could feel some kind of tiny improvements, especially when it comes to map awareness and strategies adapting to it. Take game 1 vs Chris as an example where I walled all his forward gold and just waited it out until he ran out of all extra golds. It's also noticeable in my recent Arabia games I think. After that I kinda got a feeling that maybe I could actually reach quite far in this tourney, and it doesn't hurt to try.
After all the rounds I still think Edie was my hardest opponent due to his playstyle countering mine pretty good. He's also smart in his Arena play and I'm pretty stupid so that had a good impact as well.
slam made a bit of a mess of the pick/ban process in his series vs you and he wasn't the only one who felt he chose wrong. Do you feel the challenge of picking the right civilization is a big one?
MbL: After thinking for a few minutes it was pretty clear to me that I wanted to give slam Franks because of their limited unit choices and bad monks etc. It's also hard to be the one giving a civilization away first because the other can choose whatever counter he likes. Not sure why he gave me Turks, if I were in his shoes I would probably give myself Vikings.
Who do you feel is the biggest challenge you have to overcome to make the upper bracket final an all Norwegian affair and face countryman TheViper? Can you, him, or anybody else stop Lojza from taking the title?
MbL: I take one round at a time and we'll see what happens. I don't want Lojza to win so I hope someone will stop him, but I have no clue who... Anything could happen.