SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

**x5.Crescendo** · Sun, 20th-Dec-2015, 2:15 PM

Behind the Username is an interview series where I ask some questions of the people I meet in and around the SEA region and local tournaments.

Today I have a chat with Andrew '[x5] Namakaye' Gosney, member of Exile5's Starcraft academy and the Database + Operations Manager for the OSC.

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To get us started, how long have you been involved with Starcraft, and have you always played Protoss?

I first played StarCraft when I was a kid, playing games with my Dad and Brother, either against AI or me and brother against dad. At the time, me and my brother would get rekt by dad every time T_T. I never really got into BW properly though, and only really started playing StarCraft properly with the release of SC2.

Initially I played Terran, but switched between all 3 races for a bit before deciding on Protoss. I've had those moments where I want to play Zerg again, this season was a good example, but Protoss is the only race i even remotely understand so it's too hard to switch ;; Toss is a lot more fun now though so I'm happy.

How did you decide upon your username?

It came from my WoW days. I mained a Mage and stuck a few letters together to make a name. Because I was always playing the mage it kinda stuck, and being unique means I never have to deal with "Name already taken" messages :P

Why are mages good at writing? Because they know how to spell.

(I make no apologies for that.)

Now, you have a reputation for preferring Protoss macro strategies rather than early game shenanigans: has that always been the case? And where are you looking for inspiration as LotV begins to develop a metagame?

Puns are always the greatest form of humor. Nice job!

I don't think it's always been the case, biggest example would be the BW/inf era. Macro just wasn't viable so I basically just went immo/sentry every game (except Entombed, 3 base blink FTW). It's definitely my preferred way to play though. I have tried to mix it up occasionally though, like when I was having a lot of fun with Sangate.

As far as inspiration goes, Probe was probably one of the main leads, especially during the beta. Because we played archon I was able to learn a lot of builds from him and that gave me a good foundation. From then on, basically any pro Protoss is good inspiration. I've been enjoying State's stream a lot recently and watching herO is ALWAYS the best. herO #1

(**** you if you say something about Life now :P)

I would, except herO beat Life in the GSL pre-season

Instead, please describe your playstyle in ten words or less.

That's right boy :P

Make base, defence it

That's right - Rain on my parade. =p

A lot of us, whether in tournaments or on ladder, have games which stick in our memory as being more fun or entertaining than others. Do you have a war story or favourite match you'd like to share or brag about?

One of the main ones that sticks in my memory is a ladder game against Choya. At the time, I was quite a bit worse than I am now, so I was super worried. We spawned vertically on the left side of Whirlwind. I went for a 4 gate blink - try to get the cheap win - and it worked! First game off a known player ever and a Korean at that. Felt good mang.

I'd also like to brag about that time I took a single game off NXZ at QUT LAN. Blink stalkers good unit. What followed was 2 very 1 sided games to him, but it was worth :P

With all the games you've played, on ladder and in tournaments, who would you consider your greatest rival at the present time?

Hmm I don't think I've ever really had a "rival". I think the closest might be Schnitzel, we shit talk each other a lot and have traded a few games back and forth. Also, being Brisbane based means we play basically every LAN now so there's always chances for me to stomp his face in repeatedly.

I'd like to shift focus now somewhat away from playing the game to your time in the Oseanic Starcraft Championship series. Can you please share with us how and when you first joined the OSC?

Basically what happenned was I was starting to do a lot of liquipedia stuff, making and updating pages for SEAcraft/Master's Cup/Rising Stars etc. I was also helping out with admining SEAcrafts where needed. Eddie was a fan of this and, seeing as he was going on a holiday to Europe and needed some extra admins, me and Elu got brought on board at the start of this year. With the new site coming up, I look forward to where we're heading next year!

Could you share with us a bit more about what your role currently entails, and will it change much with the OSC's new site?

Basically when there's anything Liquipedia required, I'm the go-to guy for OSC. I also admin tournaments when the other guys are unavailable, such as Master's Cup when Eddie was away and the occasional FFN.

With the new site, I don't know if details have really been ironed out. I'm sure Eddie will let us all know who is doing what when he gets around to it.

On the topic of the OSC, this year's finals are coming up shortly. Taking a look at the current rankings, what are your thoughts on them? Any favourites or predictions for the grand finale this year?

It's really cool to see so many SEA players in the top 32. The participation bonus has really done it's job this year! It's especially awesome to see the new names that have shown up this year, like PSiArc, Azure and Seither doing so well (all Terran though, T confirmed imba?

)

Being LotV, the powerhouses ByuN and Solar are always a safe bet to win any tournament, although Solar has been showing some weakness recently. I'd love to see a SEA player pull a massive underdog run and take a few Korean scalps. Seither has been on fire recently so he might be the most likely to do this. Pet, guz and PiG are always favourites from SEA though and can take scalps of anyone on a good day.

Of the various partnered OCS tournaments, which do you get a chance to keep up with/enjoy the most?

It's always fun to follow Master's Cup (if I'm awake) and watching SEAcraft was fun, but now that it's on Wednesday I can't follow it anymore T_T

What is your favourite Starcraft 2 tournament format to play in and/or watch? (i.e Daily Cups, Single/Double Elim, GSL/WCS style ongoing group stage, round robin, etcetera?)

Groups are a lot of fun, but a bitch to organise in SEA cause everyone works/studies. I'm also a fan of double elimination tournaments like the WCS and ACL qualifiers, it's really fun to see people make huge comebacks from the lower bracket after dropping down early.

Looking to the future, with Legacy of the Void still in the early stages of release, what are your thoughts on what you have seen of the new expansion thus far?

Like I said in the x5 interview a while ago, it is a lot more action packed now, making it a lot of fun, even if a bit frustrating. I'm mostly concerned about the maps that Blizzard are pushing. These maps should never have seen the light of day let alone been put into the ladder. Ulrena has the shortest rush distance EVER and free double golds is the dumbest thing since Habitation Station. Apart from that though I'm happy.

<--- Me

For a bit of fun: if there was anyone in the world you could challenge to a Best of X match, who would it be, and why? How many matches would you want to play?

I would love to play herO of course. Being able to talk to him and steal his replays from the series would be epic. I wouldn't mind a Bo21. Getting 11 replays to work with would be glorious!

I'd dare you to proxy-gate+probe-rush him =p

Would you share with us all a bit more about yourself outside of SC2? Favourite food, music, pastimes etc?

haha that would be glorious if it worked!

I always find it hard to pick favourites when it comes to food. I think of one thing, then think of something else delicious, and again and again and just end up hungry ;; I was eating chicken at the start of this interview so that's a thing.

Everyone knows I listen to K-Pop, but with Christmas time happening now, I love a good carol. One of my favourite events of the year is going to the nearby primary school for a carols run by the church. Good food and good music out on the oval is always a great night out.

When it comes to past times, I spend all my time on my PC, so I basically just play/watch games and watch youtube and stuff. I also play bridge, which I have mentioned at times before and go to competitions for that occasionally. Also, until this year, I was doing ten-pin bowling weekly. That was always a good bit of fun and I finished up with like a 170+ average. Hopefully one day we can get an x5 bowling match to put on the youtubes? (Dotpls?)

Feel free to link or name your favourite kpop songs and carols

Well for K-pop this has been a favourite of mine recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ31sMmytHU always a good one to start a k-pop session with.

A good carol to listen to is this remake of The First Noel by Hillsong Young and Free https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaQFcvrDQA I wasn't a fan the first time, but it really grew on me. It's also being used in like every carols performance now I swear lol.

And because it's currently so very hot, I'll throw this song into the mix in the name of Kpop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmjDyCF87dE

Would you please share with us some more info about your playing of bridge, and the competitions you attend?

Well at the moment I'm playing twice a week, on Wednesday night (why I can't watch SEAcraft) and Friday mornings. On Fridays I play with Dad, who was the one who got me into it in the first place.

For competitions, there's a few different levels to it. Sometimes I'll play in some just around Brisbane, usually just for a single Sunday. The main one each year though is the ANC, which is in a different state each year. I've been to Adelaide, Sydney and most recently Perth because of this competition. Basically for this one, the teams from each state fly out, usually on Saturday, to start play on Sunday. We play all day every day until Thursday with the finals on Friday. This year was the first time the Queensland youth team had made the finals since I joined the team, so it was super exciting. We lost, but had a great experience. I actually wrote an article about it for the club newsletter (because Dad is the editor), but it contains a lot of jargon, so I won't link it unless someone requests it i think.

I definitely do recommend it as a game though, it requires a lot of logical and strategic thinking so it's great for SC2 players. It's not very active though so people with shorter attention spans usually find it difficult unfortunately.

Please share the link, just in case anyone reading this is a closet bridge fan

http://www.northernsuburbs.bridgeaus...ember_2015.pdf Fine, because you requested :P It's on Page 6

On a personal note, is there a moment in time which you consider particularly important or formative for who you are as a player and person now?

Oh god this is a tough one.

Honestly, there's too many things that have shaped how I am now that I can't even make a list, let alone pick one. Even the small things like watching HSC right now will inevitably have a small impact on me, like I'm probably going to make a lot more adepts now.

Of course you are. I read reddit, so I am well versed on how broken adepts are

Finally, feel free to self-promote, give sponsors shout-outs, and drop some links here if you want folks to follow you on the various social media/streaming sites

Follow me on twitter @x5_Namakaye if you haven't already. Huge shout-out to Exile 5 for being such a supportive team, not only to me, but to everyone on the team, no matter what game they play and what role they have within the team. Special shout-outs to Nvidia and Razer, the title sponsors of our lovely team. #BuyRazer. Also extra special shoutout to you James friend for being awesome at interviews. Love reading them and finally glad to be in one.

It's been a pleasure! Thanks for taking the time to have a chat

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Namakaye does a lot of behind-the-scenes work, like a databasing ninja, so it was nice to be able to shed a bit of light on what he does in his spare time. Here's hoping 2016 sees more of him in OSC tournaments, and not just entering other people's results

(i.e don't be a lazy slacker, Nama

)

GLHF All!
~x5.Crescendo

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