May 14: Second Interview with Mondragon
Few days ago, Mondragon lost against the strong Protoss player
Dreiven in two great matches. That is why he now had time again for an interview to tell us about his TSL predictions, his match against Dreiven and his future plans.
PokerStrategy
Hello again, Cristoph 'Mondragon' Semke! And thank you that you take the time for an interview on the 'day after'. Yesterday, your walk through the TSL came to an end when you lost 0-2 against the Polish Protoss player Dreiven. Can you tell us something about the games?
Mondragon
The first game was on Wuthering Heights which is a very very hard map for ZvP and I kinda screwed my muta attack since I did not pay enough attention and probably did a bad decision before to save my expansions although he only had one cannon in his main.
Probably I should have attacked and in the late game a zerg just cannot really stand a chance on this map I guess. At the second game on Othello he just played quite impressive though I guess my lack of paying attetion to those 12 sliding probes that passed my lurkers made him win the game in the end. Nonetheless he played very impressive both games and totally deserved to advance.
As a lot of people will look upon Wuthering Heights as just another map - can you explain where the difficulties for the Zerg lie in this map and why it favours Protoss?
A zerg does not have any satisfying build order on Wuthering.
On the one hand you are forced to go 9 pool to not get pylon'ed in due to the tiny entrance to your main but on the other hand you cannot really harass with a 9 pool against fast expansion since both the ways are too long for 9 pool harass and the Protoss can wall himself in pretty good.
And then you are already behind so much in terms of economy.
That means that you should actually go 12 hatch, but then again you're vulnerable against both a dual gate rush and against a pylon rush in your entrance followed up with cannons.
Besides of that, the ways from all expansions are way too long and very wide opened which makes it kind of easy for the Protoss to attack since Zerg cannot really defend himself with lurkers that easy on such a wide ground.
Interesting - and I guess such small details play a big role on high level. As you are being considered one of the best ZvP players around and a very good adapter to strategies and maps: do you think that the new maps now being played in TSL will have a major impact on the outcome? And if yes, which races or specific players will profit?
If they keep playing Wuthering Heights and Longinus I can assure you that a Zerg winning TSL is very, very unlikely, no matter how many Zergs are still in quarter finals. If one Zerg is capable of coming to the semi finals or finals it must be
But in general the map definitely favour Protoss for sure and since there is only one Terran left I'll stick to a Protoss winner for sure.
Your yesterday's opponent
Since PvP is kinda unpredictable it's very hard to predict who of the Protosses make it. I don't really can judge how goodBrat_OK really is, but it will be interesting to see him playing vs Dreiven. But I guess from Dreiven's half a Protoss will qualify for finals for sure and from the other half it depends on ParanOid's shape. He's the only hope to reach the final as a non-Protoss player in my opinion.
TSL won't take your precious time for playing and the tournament matches itself anymore. So what are your plans in the next months until StarCraft 2 may arrive - inside and outside of the battle.net?
In StarCraft I'll try to keep in shape for upcoming events such as WCG and smaller tourneys that might be hosted. And of course there is my studies and its upcoming exams in July / August which means a lot of studying again which will take most of the time.
As this is an aspect only a few of your fans will already know about: may we know the subject of your studies? Guess it could be economics, because there's micro and macro, too.
Hahahaha, how come you knew that ;) I'm studying business economics yes :P
A lot of the business nowaday moves towards the Internet. And in a way, with all your success, you already do a kind of business online. Are you ambitious in this area? I even heard rumours that you might be joining some eSports business project in the future.
It could be one way I might definitely choose after my studies to do something internet-related jobs. That's what I am interested in and I like to organise things etc. and I am really interested about doing some eSports projects besides of my studies if they don't take too much time.
That sounds hopeful for all StarCraft fans. Thank you for the interview and good luck especially for the WCG, where we all hope to see the best Mondragon ever stepping on the podium once again!
I'll try my best ;) Thanks for the interview
May 13: The winners of coaching hours
Yesterday we drew the two winners of coaching hours by lot amongst the 72 contestants:
Caiyr
Marine21
You will be contacted within the next few days!
All Replays available – already 2 hours of coaching to win!
Today the ladder phase of TSL ended, and so we uploaded all remaining replays of Mondragon. Now all of his 128 games in the TSL ladder are available here, including the last 17 replays against the strong
Additionally, yesterday the 50th player registered on PokerStrategy to win an hour of personal coaching with
So tell your friends to increase the prize pool and your chances to win training with one of the world's best Zerg players!
Win personal training with ToT)Mondragon(!
The great success of this small replay site once again shows the status
But we want to offer even Mondragon to the StarCraft players! Now you can win exclusive coaching / training hours with one of the greatest players outside of korea and probably one of the best ZvP players all-time.
What do I need to do to win training with Mondragon?
1. Join PokerStrategy and enter the nickname Mondragon in the field "refferred by" (see image to the right).
2. Validate your account.
3. Do all that between April 13th and 31st – and you're in the lottery!
What & how can I win?
One hour of personal training is guaranteed – even if you are the only one participating.
For every 50 people that register while giving Mondragon's nickname you can win an additional hour of coaching – up to 10 hours of coaching total!
So if you tell other players, you may even increase your chances to win.
On May 1st, the winners will be chosen by chance. In the days after, we will contact the winners through the mail they registered with. The personal training with Mondragon will be arranged so it fits your and Mondragon's schedule.
Earn even more with bringing your friends to PokerStrategy
Once you've registered to take part in this lottery, you may even win more! If you bring friends and they enter your nickname instead of Mondragon's, you may recieve up to $100 per friend you brought!
More information about the PokerStrategy Tell-A-Friend system
About PokerStrategy
PokerStrategy is the poker school & community from and for StarCraft players.
Back in 2005, the former German national team captain
Since then, we have been doing our best to offer you the best poker school worldwide – nowadays in more than a dozen different languages! Thanks to our unique business model we can offer you our high quality poker education for free.
Our goal is to make our members the best poker players around and to form an open, friendly and supportive poker community.
Amongst many others, we are proud that we helped famous StarCraft players like
Learn more about PokerStrategy or get started right away.
About Mondragon
Here on this page, you will read interviews and be able to download all replays of his games in the TSL. Check back for daily updates on his newest replays!
Interview #1 – April 08
In our first interview with Mondragon, he tells us about the future of ToT in StarCraft 2, about 2on2 not getting enough recognition in the community, and about TSL and his expectations.
Okay Mondragon, as the replays we offer here are from the Team Liquid StarLeague: Can you tell us a little about this league and why you decided to play it?
ToT)Mondragon(
The TeamLiquid StarLeague is the biggest online tournament that has ever hosted in the foreign community. With a total cashpool of 10.000$ it is for sure one of the most valuable tournaments that has ever taken place in BroodWar. Thus it is obvious that such an amount of money motivates you to play it and try to give your best at all times.
And do you think that you are currently in the shape to win the TSL? Who will be your biggest opponents?
ToT)Mondragon(
I'm very active so far thus I definitely have chances to win it, though there are a lot other players that are in shape as well and got a shot at winning it as well. In general my biggest opponents are Terran players, though there are some Protoss player I do not want to play against too early in the final brackets.
This could be interpreted that you are pretty self-confident regarding ZvZ – and after your beat Savior at the WCG, one could think it is your best matchup. So no Zerg worries you?
ToT)Mondragon(
No, Zerg vs Protoss is definitely my best matchup by far. Against Zerg i am pretty confident though because I can switch to Protoss against Zerg if the map favours Protoss since my Protoss is kind of good against Zerg as well in my opinion :P I've used Protoss a lot against Zerg in important matches lately and it went quite well. But for sure I will not underestimate any opponent.
As we are on the matchup topic and there might be impatient readers: Can you suggest us a replay for each matchup from the early stages of TSL?
ToT)Mondragon(
ZvP: There are many nice games since I've played it the most. The game against NonY is fine, as well as the game against TT1, but there are a lot more nice ZvP replays.
ZvT: Most likely the replays against Strelok
ZvZ: Definitely my ZvZ series against ChOseN. There were some great games.
[Note: as we fully trust his hints, some games against those players were the first to be uploaded!]
Reading about matchups in interviews, one could think that StarCraft is just about 1on1, TSL is just one of many examples. While 1on1 certainly is the most important discipline, you belonged to the few world-class players that regularily played 2on2.
What do you think about 1on1 compared to 2on2?
ToT)Mondragon(
Comparing 2on2 with 1on1 shows a huge difference between those two game types. Most 1on1 players don't really have a clue how to play a decent 2on2 game and vice versa. There are only a few players that really focused on playing 2on2 while not being that good at 1on1 (for example ToT)LJT(). 2on2 is way more about teamwork, game sense and understanding of both partners.
2on2 is played with far less units and micro of both team partners is way more important in 2on2 than in 1on1. In 1on1 you play with a lot of expansions and you can focus more on macro while in 2on2 you mostly play with lower economy and you have to master situation together with your team partner and both of them must always do the best in every possible situation, otherwise you are doomed to lose.
So considering what you said about 2on2, do you think that it is generally underrated in the view of the community or the top players? If so, what would you do to make it to a bigger success?
ToT)Mondragon(
Yeah, I think that 2on2 is not getting enough recognition in the community. Most individual tournaments or leagues are always 1on1 tournaments and there has never been a decent 2on2 league with cash prizes or something like that although 2on2 really takes many strategical things into account and it is very demanding as well.
I don't know if you can do anything to make 2on2 more public nowadays anymore, but only way to make it a bigger success is to host a 2on2 league with some decent prizes.
Okay after we brought the topic to the main issue of mondragon.pokerstrategy.com – you're uploading your replays here on a poker site's subdomain. Do you have any relations to this game that in terms of an online boom is younger than StarCraft itself?
ToT)Mondragon(
I've started poker some years ago because of PokerStrategy, but I've never made it to be a high stakes player, so I'm grinding the lower stakes and making some money with it which supports me for my university time. Though I've never had any real amibitions to be a professional poker player, I've only played it as a hobby and apparently I haven't invested as much time in poker as in StarCraft since StarCraft is way more fun, at least to me ;)
At this point I have to add an editorial statement: A large part of the team behind PokerStrategy are StarCraft enthusiasts as well and as such we can very well accept the last sentence. Even though Poker highly competes! Do you think that in the future, games like StarCraft might go into a direction like poker in terms of commercialisation? So will it be possible for the great players in StarCraft 2 to earn money in a way the poker pros will? Or will Elky & Rekrul win more in their poker careers than the future StarCraft2 pro gamers will?
ToT)Mondragon(
With the release of StarCraft 2 the esports scene will for sure grow and will be recognized more in the public like Poker is being recognized more in the public since quite some time, but successful poker players such as Elky, Rekrul, and many others will always earn more money by playing poker than a StarCraft 2 player will ever earn.
Speaking of StarCraft 2 - will your clan ToT and / or you personally play the sequel on a professional basis again?
ToT)Mondragon(
Considering the situation at the moment, I think that I will close ToT with the release of StarCraft 2 unfortunately.
Managing a clan and playing the game itself takes an incredible amount of time. Even tho it is fun to manage it but I've done it for several years already and I would like to relax a little bit more and concentrate on other aspects. I don't even know if I'm going to play StarCraft 2 competively. Lets see how I like StarCraft 2 and then the time will tell.
As there is no player on your skill level that ever was so loyal to a clan like you were, which made ToT the probably greatest international clan in the 10 years of StarCraft, this will certainly be a loss to the world wide community. So together with many others I hope that you will like StarCraft 2 very much. Thank you for the interview!
ToT)Mondragon(
Thank you too, I hope that everyone will enjoy the replays =)
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