'Should have won those ZvZ contests'

Right after DreamHack Summer 2012, we sat down with our quarter-finalist in the StarCraft 2 tournament, Artur 'Acer | Nerchio' Bloch,  and talked about his opinion of this event, his expectations going into his next offline event and his thoughts of the upcoming TSL #4.

Artur, we've just finished DreamHack. In the end, it was top 8 for you again. What do you think about the result?

Artur 'Acer | Nerchio' Bloch: I'm pretty disappointed that I lost to Stephano but top 8 is fine. Unfortunately, I didn't win money for this. Nevertheless, I'm satisfied with top 8.

Putting the results aside, are you happy with your performances in-game?

Acer | Nerchio: The games against Stephano and Naugrim were pretty bad by me, I should have won those ZvZ contests. Except that, it went pretty well.

We're going back home soon. The next offline event for you is coming in 2 weeks, the HomeStory Cup. What do you think?

Acer | Nerchio: I always pass the first two group stages at the HomeStory Cup so I guess this time it will be the same. I'm not sure what the line up is because they haven't released every player yet, but I think my shape right now should be enough to reach the top 8 again.

What do you think about the Koreans? I mean, many people expected them to perform well in Sweden, TaKe will definitely invite some of them to the HomeStory Cup. In the end we've seen no Korean in the semi-finals here in Jönköping. Do you think that the Europeans are slowly closing the gap?

Acer | Nerchio: I don't think so. I mean, we will have to see how the scene in Korea will develop. Since some Koreans start to move to Europe and we are not sure if more of them will travel to foreign tournaments or less because they will have more events in Korea. But at DreamHack, there were only like 3 or 4 Koreans. One of them, PuMa, is training outside of Korea. So, I think a few months will pass and then we will see how the scene has developed.

One question about DreamHack again: In the final it was MaNa against DiMaGa, there weren't many that expected them to reach that final. At the end, MaNa won the tournament. Did you think they could come that far?

Acer | Nerchio: No, not at all. It is a big surprise for me, as I was saying that DiMaGa is in bad shape and did not train a lot, so it is a great result for him. And talking about MaNa, he destroyed 4 or 5 Zergs in the tournament, and he is supposed to be really bad against Zergs, so the next tournaments will show how good he really is in PvZ. For now, it is a great result and congratulations to him!

You already passed TSL Qualfier, about a week ago. You did not take part in TSL #3, what are your expectations?

Acer | Nerchio: Since it is online, I should have a decent chance. But same as for Homestory Cup, the starting field is not completed until now, so it is hard to say how strong the line up will be. There will be a lot of Koreans, I guess, which will make it hard. It definitely depends on the bracket, but I would like to reach the semi-finals there.

In general, people say that you definitely prefer online tournaments and you've already told me that you like offline events, too, but it is the time it takes to arrive there and stuff that bothers you. What type of offline event do you like more, something like DreamHack, which is very large and has a lot of casual gamers around it or the HomeStory Cup where there are only pro-gamers so you can focus properly?

Acer | Nerchio: HomeStory was quite nice, DreamHack too, of course. I don't like IEM that much because there is like 5 days of playing not really many games, so there is not much to do. In general, I enjoy LANs but the waiting time between games is very annoying. But, I prefer online more because you have one game after another. I usually play worse after a large pause.

That's it. Thanks for your time and have a safe travel home.