Jens "Snute" Aasgaard is a retired StarCraft player from Norway who played Zerg for Team Liquid.

Snute is known for developing a ZvP strategy for maps with easily accessible gold bases.[1] With it, Snute attempts to punish greedy Protoss players who FFE while blocking Snute's natural with a Pylon. Instead of immediately focusing on the Pylon, Snute will often take his third and/or middle or gold base and proceed to heavily punish his opponents with Baneling busts.

Biography [ edit ]

Snute was born in Oppegård, Norway on July 28, 1990. Competitive by nature, Snute and his classmates in elementary school would hold StarCraft: Brood War tournaments. However, they lost interest after a while[2] and Snute quit playing Brood War after a couple of years.[3] He was bitten by the competitive (jitter-) bug again in 2002[4] when his older brother got a dance mat for the PlayStation and he developed a competitive mindset for dance games. Able to perform 10 steps a second,[5] he would go on to become the Norwegian champion of Dance Dance Revolution in 2004,[6] and was featured in several Norwegian newspapers. He continued with DDR as a hobby and for workouts until he moved from Norway and no longer had access to the equipment.[Citation needed]

Snute also aspired to become a professional pianist. His whole family played some instrument or another and Snute was very dedicated in becoming a good piano player. But he felt that there "seem[ed] to be things that couldn't be understood or mastered" even with amazing teachers and hours and hours of practice. Falling behind his younger peers and doubting his own ability, Snute was rejected from his preferred school and eventually lost his passion for the piano.[7]

Snute joined Team Gamersleague in late 2010 while playing SC2 as a hobby and, in 2011, started studying Music Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim with the goal of becoming a "renown[ed] trance producer".[8] While in University, he felt that dedication was necessary in order to do well professionally in the field of music technology and that it "cannot be half-assed." Feeling the same way about StarCraft II, he decided had to choose between the two and, in 2012, he chose StarCraft, becoming a full-time progamer.[9]

As a part of Team Gamersleague, Snute improved dramatically, culminating with a Homestory Cup VI win at the end of 2012. In the beginning of 2013, he was picked up by Team Liquid and with them, he began a lifestyle of traveling to events, competing and training hard.

Team Gamersleague [ edit ]

Snute got a taste of competitive StarCraft when he traveled to South Korea a little before the release of StarCraft II. Although he had earlier quit Brood War, he did play some iCCup there. He "got smashed left and right and some korean BM'd [him] with a simple line: "You need effort". After that trip to Korea [he] got a bit of [his] competitive drive back".[10] Snute started playing StarCraft II in the beta, but didn't have time to get really good at it, because of him being busy with real life. Despite that, he got invited to Team Gamersleague in late 2010,[Citation needed] and that's where his progaming adventure started for real.

2v2 with RiChY [ edit ]

With Team Gamersleague, Snute and RiChY made up one of their 2v2 teams, called Gamersleague Moose Destroyers. He and RiChY did also play 2v2 in a friendly NationWar cup in November 2010, and they were the only ones apart from Kare who managed to beat any of the Poles.[11]

Despite their limited experience as a team, they came second as Moose Destroyers in ESL 2on2 Tuesdays #25, beating Just like a kebab, with viPro and Arne in January 2011.[12] They placed second again in 4Players League 2v2 Cup where they fought convincingly all the way to the finals where their limited experience as a team had to yield to DieStar and Stephano's play.[13]

Late January, Snute and RiChY lost to Aristeo and Cubert of Team Empire in the Ro8 of SC II Team Action # 2008/08,[14] but they got a rematch in early February, beating the two Russians and securing a 3rd place in Caseking 2on2 Cup #1. Their first win came a couple of days later, when they placed first in a 2v2 cup organized by LowLandLions.[15] From there on out, they regularly took 1st place in tournaments, although not exclusively; Team Empire managed to beat them in the next Caseking cup, taking first place and leaving the second to Snute and RiChY yet again.[16]

Snute and RiChY had great success and won a series of tournaments. Their crowning achievement, though, was winning REDBYTE LAN 2v2 Tournament in March 2011 in Italy, their first international win and their fifth live event win in a row.[17] The two continued to compete in 2v2 tournaments, getting gold in ESL Tuesdays roundup #36 and #37, silver in 4players Team Action Cup #38 and gold in CaseKing 2on2 Cup #1 Season 4.[18] Although, as Snute's play improved, he spent more time on 1v1 and less on 2v2 he would still play as Moose Destroyers every now and then.[19]

Towards his first major victory (Nov 2010 - June 2011) [ edit ]

Snute did not only compete in 2v2's with RiChY, but he also competed in 1v1 tournaments as well and this is where his main focus was at.[20] In November 2010, he qualified for Lefdal Cup #3[21] as well as NEB Gaming Grand Finale.[22] The NEB Gaming Grand Finale took place in November, in which Snute started off by beating meltzy 2-1, but got knocked down to losers' bracket with a 2-0 by Kare, who ultimately won the tournament. There, he faced TargA, who beat him out of the tournament with another 2-0.[23] In Lefdal Cup #3 in December, he fared slightly better, again being sent down to the losers' bracket by Kare in the quarterfinals, but advancing from there this time, beating skruffy, but losing to Panda in a Bo3 involving a proxy Hatchery from Snute.[24]

Come 2011, Snute placed second in the qualifiers for GosuGamers' National Challenger Cup #1 January, beating HydraFucaz in the semifinals, but losing 2-0 to Satiini in the finals of the qualifiers after a very close first match in which Snute got an early economic lead, but lost to some strategically place Siege Tanks and a second game in which Satiini forced Snute into a defensive position he could not come out of. In February, Snute got his first tournament win, placing first in HadeLAN 2011, ahead of Fury.[25] He also played in a series of NationWars, representing Norway.

In March, Snute came third in SCVCup, losing to BlinG in the semifinals. At this point, he was focusing most of his time on 1v1, although he and RiChY intended to play in more 2v2 tournaments as well. Snute's main goal was to improve and he took his training very seriously, analyzing replays of his losses and keeping many lists of things to improve in, and an overview of his progression.[26] Thus, after SCVCup, he comfortably stated: "I am confident in the way I am improving, so confidence itself isn't an issue for me at this point."[27] That confidence proved well-founded as a couple of days later, Snute won GameCage LAN, a local LAN with a 2000 NOK first prize, without losing a single round.[28]

With the launch of Grandmaster League in April 2011, Snute was one of the first six Norwegians in Grandmaster, along with Chi, Kare, Seriously, Uniden and BiOhAzArD. Snute's first major tournament was The Gathering Easter 2011 in April. He was one out of 11 invites and he got through the group play with a 3-0 record. He then defeated Bischu 2-0, but lost 2-0 to the Swedish Terran Mover in the quarterfinals. A month later he qualified for Gamer's Paradise, a tournament with several online qualifiers and public, free offline finals at Oslo Central Station in June.

After having qualified for Gamer's Paradise, Snute had to advance through the final 64-man bracket in order to get to the offline finals at Oslo Central Station, and that he did. In the finals he met his teammate, Knutzi, and managed to beat him 4-1, becoming the champion in one of the biggest national SC2 tournaments in Norway to date at that point, taking home 10 000 NOK and a gaming rig which finally got his streaming started. After the finals, Snute was asked if he thought it would be possible to live off progaming in Norway. Snute answered (in Norwegian): "I think it's highly likely possible to live off [progaming] in Norway, too, if you try hard enough. But the road is long and you'd have to be incredibly dedicated to StarCraft in order to get there. It's not for wussies."[29] Snute could not have known how accurately he was describing the next years of his life.

Local LANs, weekly cups and first international tournaments (June 2011 - December 2011) [ edit ]

In October 2011, Snute participated in The Convention 2011, a LAN that doubled as the qualifier for ESWC.[30] It turned out be an intense fight between Snute and Kare: They met in the semi-finals of the winners' bracket after having 2-0'ed two competitors each in order to get there. Then, Snute defeated Kare 2-1, knocking him down to the losers' bracket and proceeding to the finals. In the finals, though, Kare had fought through the losers' bracket to make a stab at Snute again and defeated Snute 3-2. However, being a double elimination bracket, Snute got another shot at the title and came back with a 3-2 victory of his own, securing his trip to Paris as Norway's representative at ESWC as well as 7500 NOK.[31][32]

Immediately after The Convention 2011, Snute made his way to the train (which was replaced by a bus instead) to get to PolarParty 20. There he did not drop a single match in the 19-man tournament until the finals where he won 3-1 against his teammate ChakrA and secured 20 000 NOK which would go towards "a water boiler, some tea, new socks and boxer shorts".[33]

A few days later, Snute participated in ByLAN 2011, a LAN that served as the qualifier for WCG 2011. There, he only dropped one map the entire series, beating both Skruffy and Chi in order to become Norway's representative at WCG in South Korea later that year.[34]

In ESWC 2011, Snute got placed in a group with Nerchio, Axslav, Strelok, MoMaN and ZhevZ. He managed to beat ZhevZ 2-0 and MoMaN 2-1, but lost 2-1 to Nerchio and 2-0 to Strelok and Axslav, ultimately being eliminated in the group stage. In a post-game interview, he explained that he felt he should have had a good chance, but that he didn't perform his best and that he was still a little tired from traveling. During ESWC, his mindset changed though. As he was earlier having goals of reaching Top 16 in such international tournaments (WCG specifically), he talked to SjoW during the event and learned that one should always aim for the first place. When asked what in the post-game interview about his goals for the next international tournament, WCG 2011, he explained how his mindset had changed and that "I'm going to aim for the first. [...] My goal for Korea is simply to win the entire thing. I don't think there's any other goal you can have as a progamer."[35]

In November, it was clear that international eyes were on Snute and he got invited to Kings of Tin, a show by djWHEAT and by SC2.no, he was now described as "The Norwegian SC2 superstar of ESWC and WCG".[36] During this time, he had also been playing in a host of weekly cups, beating players such as viOlet and DIMAGA.

In South Korea, Snute was placed in a group with 5 others, in which he beat breek, Ptak, MorroW and Gorky, only losing to HuK and thus advancing from his group onto the play-offs. In the first round of the single elimination playoffs, though, he met XiGua, who would ultimately take 2nd place, and got eliminated 2-0 and thus was out of the tournament altogether. Afterwards he would identify his mistake as having droned too much, even though it was a mistake he was watching out for, based on his experience having watched his own replays whenever he lost.[37] However, again it would prove that he had been noticed by the international community and he got to play a showmatch against F91, which he won and which was casted by RotterdaM and Wolf.[38] Confirming that he was noticed despite his lack of international results, he was awarded a "Player to watch" alongside TitaN and Apocalypse in TL.net's "2011 in Review" article.[39]

Going full-time pro (Jan 2012 - June 2012) [ edit ]

Around new years' 2011-2012, Snute decided to become a full-time pro in StarCraft II. In an interview shortly after, he stated "Something along the lines of the Korean approach would suit me well. Practicing 12 hours a day would not be an issue for me and I know that with fewer things to focus on in real life, I will be able to focus better and become happier", "I have thought several times in the past that I couldn't become better, but every time I proved myself wrong" and "when I was at WCG I promised a Korean friend of mine that I would beat MVP next year, so that's obviously goal number one. Goal number two is to become the best foreign Zerg, and the ultimate goal is to become the best player in the world. There is no other mindset."[40] This move was picked up on by one of Norway's radio stations, P3, who did an interview with him about his progamer life.[41] After he decided to go pro, Snute started publishing his "Snute Monthly Report" on Facebook, a series of graphs showing his win and loss percentages over time as well as important tournament placings.[42]

Late January, Snute qualified for Nemean LAN without dropping a single map and two days later, he participated in SCAN Invitational 3, an 8-man invitational, but he lost 2-0 to Grubby in the first round and got eliminated right away.

In February, Snute went to IEM Sao Paulo. Originally, he had not qualified for it, having lost to biGs in the decisive round. However, due to two South Koreans canceling their participation, he got to go after all. Snute showed great confidence prior to the tournament, saying that he was confident against sLivko and Fenix, but unsure about Ret,[43] and in a pre-game interview, the interviewer MrBitter told him that Snute's was the most requested interview.[44] However, Snute only managed to win against DakkoN, losing 2-1 to sLivko and 2-0 to Ret, being eliminated from the tournament at the group stage.

Late February, Snute went to the local Norwegian Nemean LAN instead of ASUS ROG Winter 2012 at Assembly, citing an easier accessible prize pool as the main reason. He based his choice on financial necessity - needing the cash prize to be able to participate in more prestigious foreign tournaments in the future. At Nemean LAN, he didn't drop a single map, including a 4-0 win against his old rival Kare, against whom he really enjoys playing, in the finals. This overwhelming victory was perhaps thanks to, as Snute said in a post-game interview, the fact that he was close to his A-game, evidenced after just the first match, being really tired after having dealt with everything all over the map (but also having been awake for almost 24 hours at that point, which he said might actually help his game, getting him easier into "the zone").[45][46] Snute could take a well-deserved nap and take home 20 000 NOK.

In March, Snute was invited to play in One Nation of Gamers i2 Starcraft 2 Invitational, being one of three players voted in by a TL.net community poll. He was placed in group A, where he went 6-1 in map score, beating Kas and Killer 2-0 and Boyo 2-1. He was then placed in the bottom part of the bracket, where he started off 2-0'ing NightEnD and TitaN and moved on to win against Sheth 3-2 to make it to the finals. There, he had a rematch against the South Korean Complexity player Killer, and beat him again, with a score of 4-3. As it was his popularity in the community poll which enabled him to play the tournament, he was dubbed "The People's Champion".[47] The tournament showed how Snute had developed his own style with his teammates, punishing his opponents for blindly following the standard metagame and he used a lot of sniping in order to do so. He had also prepared very well, watching his opponents' replays before the tournament and analyzing their styles.[48] Snute also won 4PL Monthly Finals at this time, taking down players such as Phoenix, Symbol, Bly and HyuN 2-0 in the finals.

In April, Snute participated in The Gathering 2012. His main concern before the tournament was that he couldn't prepare for it in the same way as he prepared for One Nation of Gamers i2 Starcraft 2 Invitational, by watching replays and analyzing his opponents.[49] He started off in a group with BiOhAzArD and mantraz, to whom he didn't drop a single map and got placed with TitaN, IMBADUDE and HappyZerg in the next group. He made some mistakes, but managed to advance from the group with a 2-1 score, having lost to SlaViK, but beaten the two others. In the first round of the playoffs, he lost 2-1 to Turuk, however. Turuk played mech and that was one of Snute's great weaknesses. He said in a post-game interview that he had been putting off improving on it for too long and that he was glad that he was beaten by it, because he learned a lot from it.[50]

Later in April, Snute participated in DreamHack Stockholm. He was placed in a group with only him and Jimpo, of which both advanced; Snute with a 2-1 in maps record. In the next group, however, he faced hard competition, losing 2-1 to TLO and MaNa and only beating MoSiE 2-0. It was not enough to advance, however, and he was eliminated from the tournament in the second group stage.

In May, Snute took the final step in adopting the progaming life, as he announced that he would be moving to Ministry of Win, a new gaming house in Poland. There, he would get back to streaming more, in higher quality and he would enjoy the progaming life with other progamers, helping each other out and improving together.[51] First, though, he got invited to RaidCall Invitational 3, but he lost 2-1 to Kas, who later took 2nd place overall, in the first round and was eliminated right away.

Fighting confidence (June 2012 - Oct 2012) [ edit ]

In June, Snute participated in the IPL 5 European Regional Qualifiers. He took down sLivko, ReaL, Kas and Happy, only losing one map (to Happy) and then he went on to advance in to the finals to face MaNa. In the finals, Snute defeated MaNa by a score of 2-0 and was able to take first place. His first-place finish qualified him for the IGN ProLeague Season 5. In a short interview after the finals, Snute said that he felt happy about the tournament, because he was able to beat many people with whom he had a friendly rivalry going on: sLivko had an upper hand on Snute in terms of important tournament wins, Kas had eliminated him from PLAY StarCraft 2 Invitational #3, and MaNa beat him at the previous DreamHack. Snute had his past few days at the Ministry of Win to thank, having focused on practice and builds.

Later in June, Snute competed at DreamHack Summer. He advanced from the first group stage, having beat Megashira and Zuth 2-0 and 2-1, respectively, and losing to Dragon 0-2. The next group posed a some more challenge, but he advanced from there, too, having beat White-Ra and SortOf 2-1, and losing 1-2 to Serral. In the third and final group stage, however, he had to yield to Brat_OK with an 0-2 loss and DIMAGA with a 1-2 loss. His 2-0 victory against Mini was not enough to bring him to the playoffs.

Meanwhile, his lifestyle had changed, moving from Norway to Ministry of Win. He started exercising properly, got more sunlight, adopted a better sleeping schedule and upped his training from 25-30 games a day to 40-50 or sometimes upwards of 55-60 games a day.[52]

In July, Snute got a sudden message that Kas would not be able to attend HomeStory Cup V due to visa issues and with only a few hours' notice, Snute got ready and flew to Germany.[53] He was placed in a group with MaNa, Destiny and Sleep and he beat Destiny 2-0, MaNa 2-1 and lost to Sleep 0-2. His personal highlight of the group was beating MaNa, because everything "came together in the 3rd game", as he used a build that he felt was perfect against what MaNa was doing. Snute also felt very confident, having beat MaNa 10-2 in practice games. The next group stage, however, didn't turn out as well, Snute losing 2-0 to both Nerchio and YongWha. He managed to beat BlinG 2-1, but that wasn't enough to advance and he was eliminated from the tournament.

Snute went to MLG Summer Arena, and in a pre-game interview, he uncharacteristically explained that his goal was just to win the first match. His mindset of "winning the entire thing" was changed becaues he didn't want to put too much pressure on himself.[54] In the tournament, his first game was against GanZi. He lost 0-2 and was sent straight to the losers' bracket where he faced First who beat him 2-1. Snute had to leave the tournament with only one map win. In an interview later, he explained that he was struggling with his mindset; having improved so much and having qualified for so many different tournaments, he had really high expectations of himself. "I started to put too much pressure on myself and it really completely devastated my performance, both at DreamHack Summer and the MLG Summer Arena". That mindset would haunt him when he later went to Sweden to qualify for WCS through the World Championship Series: Norway Nationals.[55] Although he had qualified for the national finals on his first try, only dropping a single map, he got knocked down to losers' bracket by Noticimus by a 0-2 loss after having beat MLP and WhistleR. In the losers bracket, Snute defeated zUP but was not able to gain any more victories after losing to TargA by a score of 0-2 and Snute took 4th place overall. A meager comfort, perhaps, was that the winner, Noticimus, was a fellow resident of Ministry of Win and teammate of Gamersleague and that he felt Snute was a great help in him winning the WCS Norwegian finals.[56]

Snute went to South Korea on vacation with some friends immediately after his failed attempt at qualifying for WCS, with the goal of fixing his broken mindset, find back to how to play for fun and practice a lot. After some days of being a pure tourist, he really got down to playing in LAN cafes and made it to Grandmaster rank 53 on the Korean ladder. Without any expectations and without any BM on the server, he could focus on the game and having fun and as a result of the trip, he afterwards felt he had got back to a proper mindset and that he "just [felt] fantastic".[57][58]

In August, Snute played in the PokerStrategy.com League, a 9-man invitational round robin league (although only eight of them completed the tournament). After 70 games in 7 sets, 3 of which were wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, Snute took 3rd place overall with 40 points, one point behind Kas and six points behind the winner, LucifroN. Later in August, Snute player in another invitational, Campus Party Europe. In its group stages he beat Socke and iRa 2-0, but lost 0-2 to Strelok and had to play Tiebreaker games. In the tiebreakers, however, he managed to beat Strelok and with another win against Socke, he went on to the playoffs. His first round was against Ret and Snute beat him 2-0, facing SuperNova in the next round, which he lost 2-1. In the losers' bracket, Snute beat BabyKnight, and ForGG 2-1 and in the losers' finals, he beat HasuObs 3-0. Thus, it was time to face SuperNova once again. Coming from the winners' bracket, SuperNova already had a lead of 1-0 and with 3 additional wins against Snute's 1 win, SuperNova took the tournament with Snute placing second.

Snute participated at Battle at Ministry of Win and got placed in a group he felt was lucky,[59] because Nerchio and Sage were not in it, which in retrospect was a good assessment, as those two ended up taking first and second place, respectively. Snute got third, beating Gandi, Toto, The FreShOne, Tarson, uzer, Zylcu and Fuzer before losing 3-2 to Sage in the semi-finals. In September, Snute participated in NVIDIA Invitational #4, an 8-man invitational. He beat Satiini 3-0, but lost to HeRoMaRinE 1-3 and beat Strelok 3-0 for the third place overall. Snute also did a huge Bo69 series against BabyKnight, casted by Kaelaris, which lasted 13 hours and 18 minutes, with Snute winning with a score of 35-21.[60]

Come autumn vacation, it was time for all the Norwegian LANs again. Snute was initially meant to attend IEM in Guangzhou, China, but it was cancelled. Snute didn't take it too hard, because it meant that he would get to go to those Norwegian LANs instead.[61] He attended Sørlanet, which he won, beating TargA 4-1 in the finals[62] and possibly bLAN[63] while Enlightenment which he was planning on going to was cancelled.

Late October, Snute participated in the finals of Gamer's Paradise, the second iteration of the open tournament with a free, public finals, this time at Oslo City, a shopping mall in Oslo. Having qualified through one of the four open qualifiers and beat qualitY, Icho 2-0 and Noticimus 2-1 to get there, he faced off against Eiki in the public finals. He lost 2-3, but could still take home a lot of hardware prizes and 1000 NOK.[64][65] Snute also tried to qualify for the GSL World Championship, but was eliminated in the very first round by LucifroN.

It all coming together (June 2012 - Dec 2012) [ edit ]

In November, Snute participated in Acer StarCraft Challenge, for which he had qualified earlier. He beat ClouD 2-0 in the first round, but got knocked down to the losers' bracket by Sage in the second round. There, he beat monchi 2-1, ClouD once more, this time 2-1, though, then HasuObs 3-2 and went up against Sage in the finals. However, Sage still had the upper hand and he won 3-1 and Snute placed 2nd overall. A week later, Snute went to DreamHack Winter and qualified for the main tournament through the BYOC Qualifiers; a 128-man single-elimination bracket. Amongst others, he beat Naama and Naugrim in order to qualify. In the main tournament, Snute was placed in a group with five others, and he beat TheStC 2-0, fraer and Stephano 2-1 and lost to TaeJa and elfi 2-1 and 2-0, respectively. That was enough to place second in his group and advance to the playoffs. There, he beat TLO 3-1 in the Ro12, but got eliminated 3-0 in the quarterfinals by HerO, who eventually won the tournament.

Snute's last tournament for November was IPL5, for which Snute had qualified half a year earlier and which had been what he was working towards. He was seeded into the fourth round and started off by losing to viOLet 2-0. Later he explained that he wasn't enjoying the game and thus played bad because the game was unresponsive. Afterwards, he noticed that he had been playing in windowed mode and having switched to full-screen mode, he beat Life, at the time the previous GSL champion, by a score of 3-1. In the next round, however, it was Snute's first time playing in a booth on a main stage and he lost 2-1 to Bomber. Snute was the highest placing foreigner along with HuK and XiGua, in 13th to 16th place, but he was not satisfied with that because from his point of view, he was playing in a 24-man tournament, thanks to his high seed.[66]

In December, Snute participated in THOR Open 2012, having qualified for it in November. In the group stages, he was placed in a group with PoYo and Ourk, whom be beat 2-1 and VortiX who beat him 2-0. In the final bracket, Snute beat Nerchio 2-0 and in the finals he faced again. Although the two in a pre-game interview said that they were really close and that it could go either way, VortiX beat Snute 3-0 and Snute had to settle for second place.

Snute's last tournament for the year was Homestory Cup VI. In the 1st Group Stage he finished top of his group, 2-0 on matches and 4-0 on maps. His group included MC, Naama and Tarrantius. Snute started by taking an easy 2-0 over the Protoss, Tarrantius, who Snute knew was very nervous. Then he faced Naama, who he once again 2-0'd with ease, thanks to Snute knowing Naama's style very well. In Group Stage 2, his group consisted of Symbol, MaNa and DIMAGA. Snute went 2-0 against MaNa, who he felt wasn't very confident and then beat the Korean Zerg Symbol 2-0, which gave Snute an real confidence boost. Once again, he was top of his group, 2-0 on matches and 4-0 on maps. In an interview after the group stage, Snute said that his goal for 2013 was winning a major tournament and when he was asked why he couldn't do it there at HomeStory Cup, he laughed and (later) explained that he had been fighting the mindset of meeting expectations, which was the main reason he performed bad at Norwegian tournaments. He felt like the underdog and wouldn't let others' expectations get to him.[67]

In the Quarterfinals of Homestory Cup VI Snute faced Grubby, who many considered to be the favourite. Snute pulled out a surprise 3-0 win against Grubby, securing his place in the Semifinal. So far this tournament he hadn't dropped any maps, but that would change because he faced Stephano. Many people once again considered Stephano to be the favourite, and Snute was afraid that Stephano had him figured out, so he tried to change his style. That, however, didn't work out, so Snute went back to what he knew best and once again defied the initial expectations, winning 3-2 against Stephano, which was a personal victory, because Stephano had always crushed Snute when they met prior to DreamHack. The experience also taught Snute how powerful it could be not to be afraid of one's opponent. In the final he faced Symbol, who he had already beaten once in the 2nd Group stage. Before the games, Symbol told Snute that he hadn't been doing that well in ZvZ, which gave Snute another confidence boost. He thus crushed Symbol's cheesy ZvZ tactics, and it was only after a couple of wins against Symbol that Snute thought he might win HomeStory Cup. However, he told himself not to think about it and just play the game. Then, when he won the last match and won the tournament with a 4-0 score in the finals, he was filled with emotion as all the hard work had paid off and he had overcome all of his obstacles and finally made it to first place, after so many second places or losses against people he knew he should have been able to beat.[68]

In an interview after HomeStory Cup, Snute could explain how his "Snute Monthly Report" had been showing steady improvement throughout the year, but with a lot of variance in a single month and that his victory at HomeStory Cup had been the product of that steady improvement as well as being one of his above-average performances. He could also explain that in the last couple of months, his confidence had increased and that he just felt more confident than the other players. He also felt that he had some kind of edge against every single player, having beat all of them recently in earlier tournaments. Snute also summarized his work ethic, with his rigorous analyzing of his own losses: "Every time I get eliminated in an off-line event, it really hurts and I try extra hard to fix those mistakes. And the only reason I could 4-0 Symbol today was because VortiX 5-0'ed me in THOR Open. And I took every single experience from the THOR Open and it was in the back of my mind when I was playing these games. [...] All of the failures just add up to experience and that made me the player I am today".[69]

Signing with Team Liquid (Jan 2013 - Present) [ edit ]

January 10, it was announced that Snute had joined Team Liquid. Team Liquid's CEO, Nazgul, stated that Snute was perfect for Team Liquid, saying "Snute lives up to what I want my players to stand for. He's extremely down to earth, thoughtful, and caring about his fans. He also cares a lot about his position as a professional gamer, and tries to present himself and his industry in a positive manner." They were also eager to send him to Korea to train there and possibly have him play in Proleague.[70] His first appearance as Liquid player was IEM Season VII - Katowice.

Heart of the Swarm [ edit ]

In May he had travelled to Korea for practice and was used by EG-TL in their ProLeague Round 5 match against Free from Woongjin Stars. He lost the game and afterwards posted on reddit:

Better luck next time! I'm sorry I couldn't win but I'm happy that I was there to try. I'm obviously not satisfied with my performance and the huge mistakes and I can understand that many of you might be negatively disappointed. It's not exactly easy either in many different ways - I'll do my best to not get nervous/booth issues in the future. It's easy to write on reddit every time a foreigner's messing up badly but at the end of the day the only thing you can do to prevent such cases is to be there fighting and doing a better job yourself. I wish for better personal performances in tournaments and not just in practice. I trust in Head Coach Park's decisions, I'm confident personally and thankful for the opportunity I got today. Thank you for cheering for EG-TL in Proleague, we're all doing our very best! Thank you for cheering for EG-TL in Proleague, we're all doing our very best! Jens "Snute" Aasgaard ( Make us Proud Snute! from r/Starcraft)

Trivia [ edit ]

He cannot remember the origin of his nick Snute; he probably chose it sometime in the 1990s when he was still younger than 10 years old. [71]

Was the 2004 Norwegian champion in Dance Dance Revolution. [72]

Had an international winrate of 57.26% in 2012 according to TLPD (205 wins - 153 losses). [73]

Had an international winrate in 2013 of 65% (117 wins - 63 losses). [74]

Currently has a HotS Global win-rate of 61.06%(276 wins 176 losses). [75]

The second player to be a back to back HomeStory Cup finalist.

Makes music (Trance/House). (Snute's soundcloud)

Revealed when Team Liquid launched its Super Smash Bros. Melee team including Ken and KoreanDJ that he plays Smash as Yoshi and especially played extensively at a high level in 2002.[76]

Achievements [ edit ]

Team Achievements

Championships [ edit ]

VODs [ edit ]

Casted Games [ edit ]

Lessons about Snute's Builds [ edit ]

First Person View Match VODS [ edit ]

Interviews [ edit ]

2017 [ edit ]

2015 [ edit ]

2014 [ edit ]

2013 [ edit ]

2012 [ edit ]

2011 [ edit ]

Guest appearances in shows [ edit ]

Articles [ edit ]

Snute's Sacrifices - The story of Snute's SC2 career, from 2010 to early 2013. By Thorin of Team Acer.

Replay Packs [ edit ]

Gallery [ edit ]

Statistics [ edit ]

Matchup Statistics

vs vs vs vs Total Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% as 0 - 2 0 % 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 2 0 % as 896 - 496 64.4 % 858 - 553 60.8 % 1207 - 779 60.8 % 20 - 2 90.9 % 2981 - 1830 62 % as 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 3 0 % 0 - 3 0 %

Earnings Statistics

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Medal Statistics

Tier Total Premier 2 6 6 14 Major 10 6 7 23 Minor 19 15 12 46 Monthly 19 15 11 45 Weekly 87 54 20 161 Daily 17 17 12 46 Show Match 10 9 0 19 Total 164 122 68 354