You watched as he ascended the ranks of the NA qualifier to take the server's tournament seed. Hear what our NA champion Mankeyz has to say about his tournament pickup, his success rate with the 4-Gate at high level ladder, and why players like Idra should steer clear of his path in the future.
Congratulations on picking up your seed.
Thanks. I mean we all knew it was mine before the day started. But yes, now it’s official.
In Game 1 on Shakuras we saw you use your scouting probe to proxy a 4Gate against Hashe with the idle base. Was this opening premeditated? Or more of a spur of the moment decision?
That was a premeditated build I've used on Scrap Station. I thought I'd try it out here.
So that was the first time you’ve actually executed it against a Terran on Shakuras, let alone a high stakes game?
I’ve done this build every night of my life, and in my dreams while I’m asleep, so in reality he never had a chance of stopping it.
Have you been keeping up with GSL 3? MC’s sweep in the finals?
Course, I wouldn’t miss a protaus baus like MC for the world. He’s easily the best player in the world, and all of us protaus aspire to be as good as him. Or all players on all races for that matter.
Well we saw, when you opened with your 4Gate, that your warping pylon—the one players place outside their opponent’s base to reinforce their attacks—was not placed a little ways away from your front lines out of sight so that it’s protected as most players do, but instead placed aggressively within range of Hashe's ramp, even more so in such a way that it can warp directly into the high ground. I’ve been noticing a lot of Protoss players using more aggressive builds like these to open against Terrans in the ladder post MC. Has his style of aggressive timing—his anti-bunker tactics, pure gateway attacks—greatly influenced your style of play recently?
First off: While I enjoy his aggro play greatly, I haven’t taken the time yet to really incorporate his style into my game yet. When I play, I’m under the assumption that I have no skill, so finishing the game quickly has always been a priority of mine, therefore I’ve made my builds to finish off my opponents quickly. Also [about] the pylon—I place a backup warp pylon a safe distance from my opponent’s base, and then with the next, I put it so I have just a bit above the hill where I can warp zealots up to flank their bunkers and reinforce faster once I bring the fight to them.
Going into Game 2 on Lost Temple you opened with Pylon-Nexus. This seems very risky to me for obvious reasons. Is that how you’re comfortable opening in cross positions vs Terran on that map? Did you perhaps open with a defensive build in this series against Hashe in particular because you thought it would throw him having opened your first game with immediate aggression?
I thought I was playing Zerg so I did the standard 16 fast expand, and then realized I was actually playing Protoss, so I decided I’d roll with it and pretend my workers were drones and fight with them. It turned out well that he was far away, as all Zergs know fast expanding on close base positions is dangerous.
You quoted yourself in the series as being a 4Gater. For our Protoss players out there: At your level of play, have you found that even to this day the 4-Gate opening is still strong? Do you tend to reap a disproportionate amount of success with it against the opponents you see on the ladder?
When you have no skill it’s a great build, and yes, even at my level, you can see I still have great success with it. Id only urge caution when people know you are 4-Gating—then a variation of build orders can catch your opponents off guard and give you an advantage.
Are you looking to make a name for yourself within the community? Or are you just into the “casual competitive player” mode not looking to go pro?
I’m in it to win it. Smart players like Idra dive out of the way to avoid getting beat by someone like me, so it’s only a matter of time before I win a GSL.
Is there anything you’d like to say to the viewers who have been following you throughout the day?
I’d like to give a shout out to my new team, BLAST, and I’d like the fans to know if you want to see some entertaining games, look no further than Mankeyz.
