GGLastShadow. Photo by: MLG.comQ: Hi Nick, thanks for sitting with us today! You have a special announcement, tell us what it is!
- Hi! Well to put it simple, I'm going to be changing race to Zerg, but sticking with TvZ. :D
Q; Tell us about the move, what spruced the interest for you to switch to Zerg? Did Galaxy force you to play ZvZ with him?
- Well, realistically after coming to Korea, I began to despise Terran more and more. Truthfully I played mechanic if and when I could, in every match-up, because it was most similar to my sc1 mindset, and also just sc1 Terran in general. But then even mechanic started to have it's weird ways that I didn't agree with. Plus, initially when I came back, I had wanted to have been zerg, but it was insistant I play Terran for a myriad of reasons. Anyway, a few days ago I got into a huge argument with one of the zergs in the house about how to fight mech, and how I said he was doing everything wrong. etc etc. This turned into me playing Zerg vs some of the house's T members mechanic Terran, and having good success. Of course the zergs in house all helped me, most notably Galaxy. Anyway, playing zerg made my hands feel "alive" I guess, all my apm felt real, and not only that, but zerg in sc2, is exactly like Flash-style Terran in sc1, which is what my mindset wants.
Q: Explain more to our readers what you mean with Zerg feeling like Flash-style.
Well realistcally, Flash's mindset, and overall plan was basically "I'm going to do what I want to do, and if you don't slow me down you lose." Except it was all done with a defensive mindset, of achieving an "ultimate" army, whilst having the "ultimate" economy. Zerg is the same way. It is a common misconception that zerg must be the initial aggresser, they do not need to be aggressive, ever. They can play the same passive-aggressive/defensive way Flash did for the most part in TvP and sometimes TvZ(his mechanic). Additionally, zerg rewards the player with the better mechanics, the way Terran did in sc1. The race is the closest to what Terran was, if you play it in a defensive manner. Of course this doesn't mean that you should never be aggressive, or do aggressive builds, flash for instance had a plethora of timing attacks and other very all-in builds he used as well. But ultimately, his best and most solid style was his constant-defense where he just outmuscled his opponents with raw mechanics. This is what I believe zerg should be about.
GGLastShadow, SoulmanfOu and GGgalaxy. Photo by: Roy Kwan/GOSUGAMERS
Q: How come you'll continue playing Terran when you're up against Zergs? Are you not confident you'll rise enough to battle other zergs with their own medicine?
When I'm coaching or doing lessons, I always tell my students the failure of attacking when they have an advantage, without securing a larger advantage beforehand. The problem with ZvZ, is I do not want to put important matches on the line, in a battle of micro tournament. Where sometimes the AI will cause battles to go differently each time. There's a UMS(use-map settings game) on NA, that me and Gosi[Terran] (sixjax.Major) used to play called Cartoon Madness, basically it was like any other mass-unit game, and we would always collide with the same number of roaches, and yet sometimes it would be one-sided, others it would be close, and other times it would be one-sided for the other person. It was just ridiculous, and I can't even entertain the idea of having something like that happen in an important match. Whilst yes, superior micro should win you the game sometimes, but it shouldn't always 100% decide the game. A game comes to mind which would be Catz vs IdrA. There should be almost no circumstances where CatZ should even be able to contend with IdrA's mechanics, and yet because of funky unit control, and weird timings, it's allowed to happen. It's almost like PvP, it just disgusts me. Sometimes the worse player (even if not that much worse) can win way more, just because of weird things. TvZ takes that away from my worries, and also, since I only play mechanic, it gives me the same mindset/comfortable nature that Zerg does.
Q: We recently saw you play in Code A, what's next in tournament appearances for you?
- Just Code A I guess. The lag is unbearable to try and play on Europe, and the connection to the USA is somewhat bearable, but not enough to want to actively play in small-scale tournaments, unless multiple housemembers are also doing it, then it's kinda fun. Don't really know yet, maybe other tournaments, but just these for now :).
Q: Alright, best of luck with the new race, and let's hope you'll do well with your newfound love for Zerg!
- Thanks :D
We have uploaded a set of replays with LastShadow playing as Zerg. Click the link below to head over to our replay vault.
Fresh replays with infested LastShadow
