GosuGamers sponsors new StarCraft 2 team

GosuGamers was born as a Swedish community site supporting StarCraft: Brood War all the way back to 2002. For eight years, the community has grown and flourished and it's now time for the exciting new step of GosuGamers sponsoring a StarCraft 2 team.

Mattias "Naugrim" Ottosson - GosuGamers SC2 team player



Hi Naugrim! It's great to have you with us today. How does it feel to become a member of the very first GosuGamers professional StarCraft 2 team?



- Hello! It feels great indeed :) I'm so excited that I've been given the chance to play for the new GosuGamers professional SC2 team!



What sparked your interest to team up with GosuGamers? What do you think the future has in store for the team and yourself?



- I think that GosuGamers is already a very well established community and website. I've been a member on Gosugamers for years and I really like the friendly community we've become. Once I heard that GosuGamers were about to launch a SC2 team, and my previous contract soon ended, I just could not refuse when I was asked about joining the team. :) I'm going to work hard and play my very best in order to succed with my goals in SC2.



How would you describe your playing style?



- I'd say i'm a macro-based zerg player. I like dragging every game into the late game and outplay my opponent with good, solid management play. I'm not afraid of taking chances and try to end games when I think I can, be it early or late in the game though.



What do you think of the current balance in the game?



- I think it's pretty good. I'm looking forward to Heart of the Swarm update though, because I think that maybe 1 or 2 new units for every race would make the game much more interesting. I especially think Zerg need at least one more unit in order to create more variation. I feel that the zerg is too much focused on the roach in zvp, and once protoss gets +4 immortals, roaches are quite bad. I would appreciate being able to play around with different army compositions than the usual roach/hydra and Corruptor, if toss uses Colossi, into Hive and Brood lords. I won't talk about muta/ling because it just doesn't work if protoss scouts it and go for 2 stargate pheonixes. I'm fine with ZvT tho, I think it's a very fun match up, and quite well balanced.



What strategies in what match-ups do you think Zerg struggles with the most right now?



- I'd say that a banshee, for map control, into exp is a really good opening for TvZ, and then continue to tech into bio/mech as a mid/late game army, is the best way to play and I struggle the most with that. Tank/marine is just a sick solid army composition and very cost efficient, if your micro is good.



ZvP is the hardest zerg-related match up, in my opinion. I think the main reason is that you just can't go air versus toss. I'm just so happy when I tech mutas and my opponent don't react with pheonixes but with blink stalkers instead. It makes zerg predictable and that's obviously a very bad thing.



You were one of many Swedish players who received invitations to events in the StarCraft 2 beta, then you sort of drifted off from the limelight. How has your SC2 trip been so far?



- It's been good. I played a lot in the beginning of the beta, then I took a break during the later part of the summer, and since then I've not won many tournaments. I'm still being able to compete with the best, but I make too many silly mistakes versus players I'm not supposed to lose to. That's why I have not won many tournaments yet. I'll work hard to be as good as I can be in the future!



You have your former team mate ZpuX on the team as well. What difference does it make to join a newly created team with an already close friend?



- I think being close with someone when joining a new team is very important. I've always joined teams in the past where I had friends. It's good for the team spirit. I'm glad ZpuX is also joining the team :) He's an awesome guy and a very talented SC2 player.



With StarCraft 2 being out for a while now, we have seen the game evolve into a similar pattern for you being a mean Zerg players, as you were in Brood War. How does the game feel for you compared to your previous Brood War experience?



- I still think the game is too easy. I'm afraid that there won't be too much room for improvement, once we've played the game professionally for a few years. In Brood War, you could constantly improve because there was just so many aspects of your play that you could improve upon. I think the game is very fun though and by far the best RTS I've played, if you don't count Brood War, which is a game on another level of awesome, if you ask me. :D



We saw you at DreamHack Winter, where you unexpectedly lost in the BYOC qualifier. Tell us about what happened.



- Ah... I'm so disappointed with that. I played some 2k diamond protoss player on Scrap Station, and he 5 warp gate rushed me. I scouted it and decided, don't ask me why, that I would go 3 hatch masslings to counter it, instead of roach/ling/spine crawler to defend. I guess I was nervous, and it affected my decision making for the worse.



Your user handle Naugrim can translate as the Elvish name for the dwarves. Any history behind you taking that handle?



- Well, I was called "the dwarf" in my younger years, because I was very fantasy-dwarfish like :P short, a bit chubby and just acted like Gimli, from LotR, basically :P



What can the Naugrim and GosuGamers fans expect out of this new GosuGamers sponsored team in 2011?



- You can expect some serious kick ass action! I'll do my very best to play to the best of my ability for GosuGamers. If we one day would start playing clan Wars, you teams out there better beware! ;D



Any word for your fans out there?



- I'd like to thank everyone that cheers for me and I would like to ask for continued support! I also want to thank my parents for being very supportive and helpful, cheers guys!





Marko "marCoon" Karacic, GosuGamers SC2 team manager



Hello marCoon! It feels great to be able to present you to our readers as the Team GosuGamers manager. First, tell us a little about yourself and how you've come to be where you are today.



- Well, I am Marko "marCoon" Karacic and live in Munich, Germany.



I first started as a translator and event admin for the BWCL in '05 where I also managed the Premier League which was the first team league with money involved for foreign Brood War after a long time. I left the BWCL after some time and managed some smaller BW teams and tried to get back into shape at that point which didn't work out as good as I thought it would. I realized I wanted to have a job as an admin again so I decided to apply for the position as a Replay Manager at GosuGamers.net and got accepted after several talks to the guys responsible for adding new crew.



I started to do more for the Event part of the site at this point, basically going back to my roots and I really had fun doing that. Due to the awesome Crew believing in me back in the day I became the Event Team Leader and built a team mostly for the BroodWar part of our site which made the 2 seasons of GosuCup possible for our users.



When the Beta came out in StarCraft2 I decided we need to make one big tournament and so sc2.178.com and I decided that our sites should work together and make something big for the Community which lead to the Europe vs Asia Event, casted by Day[9] and Gretorp and had a prizepool of $1500 and about 10k viewers when the games were played. There were several other smaller tours we did when the game was released in which I wasn't as involved as much since I had a lot of stuff to do at that time and I struggled with the balance and motivation for both my Admin position and my normal life.



So being an Event Admin helped me in getting better at managing stuff in general and also getting to know a lot of the players and the people behind the curtains that are mostly doing the hardest job to bring the community the best possible outcome.



The premiere players of GosuGamers are two Swedish players, Tobias "ZpuX" Nilsson and Mattias "Naugrim" Ottosson. What inspired you to select these two players?



- First of all, the basic thought of the team is to get a good feeling between us and the players, which means the atmosphere needs to be as good as possible for both parties involved. So in the beginning I contacted players that I know, regarding their manners and general feeling towards me and the site. Those two were basically one of the first players I contacted and after several talks we decided that it could be good for them and good for us to work together. I chose them because they were good players back in the beta and back in Brood War days and they always have the potential to do great things if they get the support they need.



What do you think the future has in store for the team?



- What we are trying to achieve with this team is to build a solid basis to have one of the best foreign teams out there in which the players feel at home and love to play for GosuGamers and their community.



We will of course try to send our players to as many offline events as possible to get the most exposure for them as players and for us as their team.



When it comes to players that we will be adding in the future I of course can't get into details at this point but we're scouting all the time, but as I said before we won't add just any player to the roster but rather players that like to work with us and of course with the other members in the team.



Right now we're focusing more on selecting quality individual players but after some time and team development, I am sure we'll try to get into team leagues too, so people can actually root for the team as a whole.



What can the readers expect from this creation? Any special community treats you can announce?



- We'll try to get some unique content about the team out to the community like interviews, strategic tips, and replay packages and some other fun stuff that I am sure people will like. When it comes to the strategic tips, it will be more like guides for certain match ups and replay analysis. In the future, we hope to do some of the guides in video format.

An interview with Tobias "ZpuX" Nilsson is coming in the next couple of days. The adrenaline-seeker Zerg is currently off snowboarding.

Patrik “Raistlin” Hellstrand Hi. I'm no longer involved in GosuGamers. Follow me on @phellstrand on Instagram and Twitter, or drop me an email on [email protected]

GosuGamers is proud to announce the first two hand picked members of Team Gosugamers,and. Both players represent the true "Gosu" gamer who has superior gaming technique, good manners and sportsmanship. They are prepared for a great year of StarCraft 2 battle in 2011. GosuGamers.net - Team GosuGamers Page