Grzegorz 'MaNa' Komincz works hard and he gets results. Unlike most 18 year olds at school MaNa has the added responsibility of being arguably the best Protoss in Europe. In the past 5 hours Mana has won 7 ladder games against GM opponents and as I write this he just finished playing a full BO7 with Empire Kas that he won 6-1. Not bad on a school night eh?

If you don't pay much attention to MaNa then you need to start doing so, he has established himself as a serious contender to any tournament he goes to and he is not going to stop there. It is only a matter of time before he starts consistently beating the worlds best. Now lets find out a little bit more from the person himself, lets hope he isn't bad manner.

EU players will know you from the top 8 of GM ladder pretty much all the time, but introduce yourself for everyone.

MaNa: My name is Grzegorz Komincz, I am 18 years old, currently living in Połczyn-Zdrój in northern Poland. I am student of the last year of highschool, preparing for my final exams.

Your view on ladder surprised me when we first talked, remind us what you think of ladder.

MaNa: Ladder is easy, all you have to do is defend the all ins of your opponents and then you can become number one!

How do you feel about the balance of Starcraft at the moment?

MaNa: I feel like the balance is alright right now, as we can see, Blizzard didn't change anything for a long time so they also think it is balanced at the moment. There are a couple of things I am worried about, but these are mostly my own problems, which can be solved by practice.

With Heart of the Swarm coming up, would you rather Blizzard left Starcraft alone and didn’t add units or are you welcoming the change?

MaNa: I can't wait for new units; this is what we really need to change the game. We know the example of SC and SC:BW, we couldn't imagine playing Brood War after playing it for couple of months, because of things that we understood when brood war came out.

You watch a lot of movies; describe your Starcraft playing style with a movie title.

MaNa: Forrest Gump. Never surrender.

Many players are travelling to Korea to become the best; do you think you can be the best without going to Korea at some point?

MaNa: Maybe, if I had practice partners willing to work with me I might become the best. You have to understand, that people in Korea work twice as hard as us (I think I can say us, as a gamers) and they play with people most probably better than here so they develop faster. The time will make Koreans even stronger, than now.

Your stream is very popular when you find the time to stream, what is the best part of streaming?

MaNa: I think the best part of streaming is when you have around ~3k viewers and all of them support you that much, that you want continue to stream as long as possible. I love the moment, when after an exhausting but won game all of the people in chat are like "MANAAAAAAAA YOU DA BEST" etc. I totally love and appreciate it, thanks!

You came second in the ESWC last year, would you say that is your biggest achievement?

MaNa: Yes, I think I can say that is my biggest achievement so far, but I think it was luck based, because I had 3 PvP’s in the road to the finals, and we know, that PvP is a pretty luck based match up.

The EU scene is consistently providing rather large online tournaments; do you prefer offline or online tournaments? What are the pros and cons of both?

MaNa: Hmm, it's hard to say. I prefer offline tournaments with a huge prize, where you can meet all players and talk to each other, I think it makes you better player way faster than playing online tournaments. The pros of playing online are that you don't have to waste lots of days for travel and they don't make you feel tired at all. You sit at your home and relax after won tournament. Still, I prefer offline tournaments, the competition is way higher :).

Do you pay attention to the scene outside of EU much?

MaNa: Not too much, I like to watch GSL whenever Protoss players play, but I am not really focused on the other scenes.

Who is the hardest opponent you have ever played against?

MaNa: I would say Nerchio and Stephano, I think it's because I am pretty bad against Zerg, and they know my style very well, what makes them feel comfortable when playing against me.

If you could transfer the level of skill you have with Protoss to another race would you swap race?

MaNa: No, I am true Protoss, and my life is for Aiur, I would never betray them.

What is next for Mana? Inside and outside of Starcraft.

MaNa: Outside Starcraft, I want to finish my school with good results, and then we will see. Inside Starcraft, I feel motivated to become better player and win at least one big competition in 2012, that's my goal so far.

I will let you sign this off with any shout outs or last words you have, thanks for your time Mana.

MaNa: Thanks for the interview. Shoutouts to the Starcraft 2 community, epic huge thanks for your support to my person, I appreciate your work a lot and I hope you will support me even when I am not giving you expecting results. Thanks to my team mousesports and our sponsors as well (GEIL, MEDION, Razer, INTEL, Thortech and Sansibar) !

You can support MaNa at these places :

Facebook

Twitter

MaNa's Stream

Please feel free to follow and ask me questions @stevefarrant.