With him and his team BossClub winning this season of the FragBet League, he's clearly on a winning streak. We present to you:
Strelok!




Hi Strelok! We don’t know that much about you so why don’t you start by telling us a little about yourself?
- My name is Eugin, I live in Dnipropetrovsk and I'm a student. I'm 21 years old.

What do you do when you're not playing Starcraft?
- I'm a fan of football. My favourite team is Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk of course, and national team of Ukraine. I also play football myself. On my free time, I like to rest on the country side with my friends, near the river. That's great :)

So how did you find Starcraft? When did you play it the first time and what made you start playing it seriously?
- Nothing special, like many other guys. 4vs4 at LAN with friends and beer. :) I just liked the game. I never thought about playing seriously at that time.

When you started playing online, were there any special player or players who you looked up to? Do you have anyone to look up to now?
- Boxer maybe... I don’t really remember. Now I don’t have anyone who I looking up to, I'm trying to make my original style, but of course I’m watching demos.

And your family and friends? Any of them play and what does the ones who doesn’t play think about it?
- My friends know I'm playing, but we never speak about Starcraft, we have enough topics without it. I can't say my parents like that I'm playing so much, but they don’t pressure me about it.

What made you realize that you were good at Starcraft? When was it?
- Maybe it was at my first WCG. I had only played for half a year, but managed to take the second place in the regional qualifications. I lost only to Topick, but managed to win some good players, which played 3-4 years already. It was really big surprise and I realized that I have some potential.

How would you describe yourself as a gamer? What is it that makes you such a good player?
- Koreans would answer: "Practice, practice, practice", but I think they say so, just to not share their secrets :) I won't share them either.

Too bad ;) For how long do you think that Starcraft will be as popular as it is outside Korea? Will people move on to Starcraft II when it releases?
- Honestly I don’t know. But I'm sure that Starcraft II will appear only after it looses progaming status in Korea, too many players hold contracts. And yes I think Starcraft II will give more newcomers to Starcraft. Now there are few, because there are too many games with better graphics, etc.

And while we're talking about Korea, do you have any special Korean player you like? You mentioned Boxer before, or is it someone else?
- I can't say I like Boxers style. But I respect him for playing with head, not with hands only.

And which Korean player has the style that impresses you? Any other player, maybe outside Korea?
- All sk_t1 Terrans play rather nicely :) but I can't say any Korean impresses me greatly. Outside Korea? Androide of course :)


And about Ukraine, what is the main reason for the Ukrainian domination in the gaming scene lately? White-Ra doing very good in WCG and you doing very well in various leagues. Also the WC3 player SK.HoT taking the bronze medal in this year's WCG.
- Ukraine still hasn’t shown its full power. We have just not been given opportunity to do that yet... For example in last ASUS near 8 Ukrainian players came to Russia to participate and they managed to win almost all disciplines! For example Ra alone came and won all Russians in SC. But in WCG we are given 1, maximum 2 places for final... It's awful.

So you think you have more to give? Who would you say is the best player in Ukraine today?
- Of course. I think WC3 Hot, but many gamers can name Fifa Walkman.

And in Starcraft?
- Hard to say :)

When you enter a tournament or any big match, do you ever think “Ah, this will be an easy win!”? Do you ever see yourself as one of the favourites?
- I play seriously only when I feel it's important. I mean LAN's, big tournaments or important ladder clan wars, I do not speak about practice games, there I'm 100% serious. In most fun clan wars and for-fun games I don't play serious.

Do you ever get nervous before a game? How do you deal with it? How do you prepare for an important game? Do you play more, watch replays?
- Sure! My nerves aren't made of steel! In LANs I often feel very nervous. In b-net only when I first time play very well-known player, I remember felt very nervous when I played FiSheYe, Gundam, iloveoOv. Then I just try to relax :) I do not have any special methods. I did all that before but it never helped, even became worse so now I don't do it.

Ok, do you think you play better or worse on offline-events? Do you play worse because of the nervousness?
- Everyone plays better on LAN, because there is low ping I think :) I'm same as all :) Sometimes I play worse but some people are much more nervous! For example White-Ra.

Which player is the one you play most with? Perhaps White-Ra? And when you play online, where do you play?
- I rather have many training opponents, but yes probably White-Ra and Bruce. I'm an Europe user. It lags less then others for me.

You play Terran, why do you think that's the race for you? Do you play any other races? Why do you think only the Terrans win tournaments like WCG?
- When I just started, I tried all races, but the Terran looked like the harder and the most interesting race to me, so once I started Terran I never changed again. I once read a very interesting article written by the Russian theoretic Wic. He wrote that it all lies in psychology, even when people select race. Terrans are selected by ambitious people, "hunters". Zergs are selected by "sacrifices" and Protosses by "dreamers". I think this idea has some sense :)

Sounds interesting :) What about maps, which map do you like the most? Do you prefer the old, basic ones or do you like the new ones better? Island or ground-based?
- I do not have any map I like most; I think it all depends on how much you play on each map the last weeks.

Over to something entirely different, your clan: BOSSClub. You just won the FragBet League, defeating ToT in the Grand Final. Do you rate your team as the best in the scene now, if not, what is it that you lack?
- Our team is only 3-4 months old, even if we count AFM stage (I mean AFM stage when I, White-Ra, Shaman and the other guys were invited). To be considered as top 1 team we need at least one, may be two years. Now I think our reputation is near top 3, after ToT and mYm. But we rose very highly in very short terms, so I'm a little bit worried that falling can damage us greatly...

What do you think about the switch?
- I think that our results can answer instead of me. We show great results in all leagues, and I think we will make the triple win with BWCL, WGT-CL and FBL. So the switch was successful.

Did you think that you’d win in the beginning of the season? Which team did you think was going to be the hardest opponent?
- I was sure we'll make top-3. I didn't want to face mYm most in playoffs, because if they come with their best squad, they’re undefeatable.

Do you think you were the most valuable player in the league or would you say someone else should get that title?
- Yes, I performed well in playoffs, but our entire team can be called most valuable players: White-Ra made two all-kills in group stage, SataNik made the fantastic return from 0-3 to 4-3 with LRM, Shaman made the win against [S2].

So which round was the hardest one? Who did you meet and what made that team the one worth being remembered as the best opponent?
- I can't say one round but the one team worth remembering was of course the match vs. LRM. We needed to win against them to take the second place. It was last game of the group stage and we started from 0-3. SataNik made really fantastic comeback and won with 4-3.

Yeah that's quite a comeback! Were there any special players you looked forward to meet?
- I played them all before, so I think not... maybe I only wanted to win against Mondragon at last, because I lost to him in both EuroCup and Sandlot.

Will you take part in the ASUS Autumn 2006 tournament? If so, what do you think of your chances?
- It depends mostly on how fast FBL stuff will pay money to Bartar for our win. Bartar said he will divide money between players and I'm going to travel to ASUS on that money. This will be my first ASUS, so I doubt I will do very well. I will be absolutely satisfied with ending up in the top-3 players.

And are there any other big leagues or tournaments we'll see you participating in sometime soon?
- I doubt so. The end the December is the time of exams in University. Now I practice for ASUS and after that study will take most of my time. At least I plan like that. :)

Alright, as the big finish of this interview GosuGamers new recruit GG-Simon really wants to know what you eat before an important game
- I try not to eat at all. Because if your stomach is full, you think slow, move slow, do everything slow. It was said already by Conan Doyle through his character Sherlock Holmes. If it's long tournament, a very long one I eat a big meal 2-3 hours and after that don't eat until the tournament ended.

Well thank you very much for the interview and good luck in the ASUS tournament. I bet you’ll make it as top-3! The last words are yours!
- I want to send greeting to all people I know. Special greetings for my Dnipropetrovsk Starcraft friends Blade and Hannigan: "Hey, how are you guys?!"

Replays


In the end of August this summer Strelok published a replay package with 9 replays. We updated the package with some new replays, so if you want to know the secrets of Streloks playing skills download it

here

and watch!