NightEnD talks DreamHack: 'I did way, way too many mistakes'

GosuGamers talks to Silviu "NightEnD" Lazar of Team Fnatic after the bronze finish at DreamHack Sapphire AMD tournament at DreamHack Winter 2011.

First off, congratulations to the fourth place! You said in our pre-DreamHack interview that you didn't see 2011 as a good year. Capping it off with a 3-4th place at DreamHack, would you say you can be happy with the year? How are your overall feelings after such a success?

- Haha thanks, well, yes, even with this place at DreamHack I still don't think I had a good year at all, but now I can say that I had a decent one. I'm not really happy, I'm more glad that I could finish at least top 4. I will try my best for next year to get much better results.



You started off with a 2-1 win in the first group stage, defeating NaRa and Osho but losing to PuMa. How did you experience the first group stage? How did you plan your play style when playing against an unknown player like NaRa?

- The first I didn't play too well because I was a bit tired. As for NaRa, I think he played pretty well.

You said that PvP was a bit random in our previous interview, but you did play 10 PvP games and won 7 of them. Could you talk through your thoughts about that matchup? What do you see as the key points to victory?

- I would say that I won 6 of those 7 games because both me and my opponent played safe but I had the better micro macro strategy. As for the seventh game, second game versus MaNa on Tal'Darim Altar, I would say that it was maybe a bit of luck because I took a risk to go 3-gate forge expo. Maybe not that big of a risk, but it paid off and I won. The other three games, well, I lost to an all-in 4-gate warp strategy in one and the last two that I lost were versus Titan where in the second game he just played better, that's why. In the third game he took a big risk by going one-gate expo into 4-gate and he won. I wouldn't lose to this strategy if I would play again. But due to some of games like the ones versus MaNa on Tal'Darim and versus Titan on Antiga, I still think Protoss mirror is still random. If both players play safe and play a micro macro game then PvP is good.

It seems like you play a bit shaky in early and mid game but you play extraordinary in late game. Have you pondered why that is? Do you agree with that?

- I do agree, yes, and that is because what I love the most is to play a micro macro game. I don't like to cheese or all-in and in early game there is still much room for random wins because I can't scout and I dont know exactly what to expect. And somtimes I lose but as time goes by I will perfect my early mid game and if you were to beat me you will only do so if you are better - not with cheeses, all-ins or so. It's the fact that I don't want to focus on the early game. I would like to fight with my opponent in all 3 stages - early, mid, late - but in the early and mid either I'm all-in and win or either I'm all-in and lose. I don't like those two options. I'm trying to find a way to be more aggressive in early and mid game without being needed to finish the game, but just to do damage. At the moment I have found a way of being aggressive in all three stages but only against Zerg. But sadly I only played against one zerg at DreamHack, Osho. I also think the strategy is pretty good considering I have won most of my games with it on the ladder which includes three or four won games versus Stephano and 1-1 versus IdrA.

You came in to the semi finals as the underdog, what were your thoughts going up against PuMa again after losing to him in the first group stage? What did you take with you from the first encounter?

- When I woke up and saw the bracket I thought that if I advance to the semi fianls I am most likely to play PuMa and I felt confident. But as time flew by I only got more tired and tired. If I would not have slept at ToD's hotel room one hour before playing Naama I would probably have lost. The next time when I go up against PuMa I will feel just as confident as always because I do think I can beat him. At DreamHack I lost because I was tired. At the semi finals I was almost exhausted. I had a headache for like three hours even if I took three pills.

You say you were tired. How come? Did you find the schedule too tough?

- Well, yes, mostly because my last game in the group stage didn't finish until around 01:00. I was at the hotel at around 02:00 and then went to bed 30 minutes later. Then I woke up at 08:00 because I had to play SaSe at 10:00. I don't understand why they put me to play first in the morning when I played last the day before. I did tell them that, and they said that they will take it into consideration for the next event.



There have been a lot of talks about how tournament organizations treat players. How was the player experience at DreamHack? Anything else aside from the late schedules that you want to talk about?

- From my experiences I would say this was the only bad part, except for the heart beat montitor. I did not like it because I was forced to wear it. I found it kind of annoying. I simply did not like the feel, that's all. Wearing something you don't like makes you feel a bit uncomfortable. Aside from those two things everything was good.

Tell us about the experience on the main stage. What was it like getting cheered on by a crowd at an ice hockey stage?

- I can only say that it was a nice experience and I want to thank to all who cheered for me. I was not nervous at all, almost, even though I had a high heart rate. My heart beats pretty fast all of the time!

Would you say it is the biggest you have done in your career as a gamer? Looking back at your WarCraft 3 career, can you relate this experience to anything else?

- No, I don't think I can relate with any other experience I had that was better. This is by far the best one, yes.

Looking back at your overall semi final match with PuMa, what would you say cost you the victory? Do you see any crucial mistakes?

- Haha, well, I did way, way too many mistakes because as I said before, I was too tired so I simply could not focus.

What about that first game with that bunker rush. When he attacked with the bio/ghost army, what could you have done better?

- I don't understand why I did not split my sentries, I really don't. As I said, and I don't want anyone to take it as an excuse for my loss, but I was tired, way to tired. I couldn't focus, I had to sleep.

In the second game, you played extremely well. You both more or less got your deathballs up, but your unit composition was very optimal. What were your thoughts on the second game?

- Well in that game, even if I won it, I made many mistakes. Like, I didn't split my army correctly, I lost both forges because I had no units there. I was losing Colossi all over the map because my rally point was on the middle of the map. Most are tempted to say that I made those mistakes because I was nervous , but I am very calm overall, I don't get nervous. So again, it was the lack of sleep.

But you came back, and PuMa failed to lay EMPs on your templars in the big fight. Must have felt good?

- I did micro the high templars back and forth, it felt good, yeah.

PuMa then went for the 1/1/1 build in the third game which caused you some problems. What do you think is essential to hold that build as Protoss?

- I think I should have played it differently. I think I needed to do more damage to his economy in the early game and get more units up than him. It's bad to go Colossus against that.

So for a Protoss player who keeps getting beaten by this on ladder, what would your advice be?

- My advice would be to go Stargate 3-gate and then robo for observer. This is a blind counter for 1-1-1, and it works really good. But you can only do it if you expect your opponent to do this noob 1-1-1 build.



10 out of the players that made it through to Round of 16 were Protoss players. Do you think the Protoss domination was a fluke for this tournament, or do you see a specific reason to it? Would you say the other races had a lesser experienced/skilled lineup?

- Yes, I think this hapened only because the Protoss players were better, not because the race is better. Some will say that Protoss is the best race, now that HerO won versus PuMa in the final. But I still think Terran has a slight advantage over Protoss. If this advantage would not have existed, I think the score in the final would have been 4-1 for HerO.

What are your plans for the rest of the year? Any more events you plan to attend?

- For December I will just train and stream as much as I can. My next event will be the HomeStory Cup 4, in January.

The best of luck to you with the training and in the Homestory cup! Any last words?

Thanks for the interview and I wanna thank to all my fans who are cheering for me. Thank you very much :) Also I wanna send thank to mTw for picking me up when I was a no name player, to Jaco "Lloth" van Dijk and paisy for all theiry help and trust during my times with them at Praetorianii. Now I wanna thank to my team Fnatic to everyone who works for fnatic and to my sponsors MSI, Steelseries, Eizo, Raidcall and Gunnar. I wish you all a nice holiday and a happy new year.