Last weekend, he shocked the Starcraft world by winning the WCG USA finals. After his victory, the forums were booming. Both tournament onlookers and even the competitors mentioned that they have never seen Geoff "ToT)iNcontroL(" Robinson play this well.

Even a week after the tournament, the winner is still ecstatic about his win. However, he is still aware that the games of his life will be played next month in his hometown of Seattle for the World Cyber Games grand finals.

First of all congratulations on your first major offline victory! How did you feel after seeing that "GG" coming from Nyoken in your last game of the tournament?

Thanks :) It felt amazing. I threw my headphones off and breathed a giant sigh of relief. Knowing you have a great chance at winning something as big as this brings all kinds of mental obstacles that I was finally relieved of when those infamous two letters bleeped on the screen.


Are you excited about being able to represent your home city at the World Cyber Games finals? Are your friends and family planning to come and cheer you on?

It is kind of funny. When I tell people I am going to world finals in Seattle they nod their head. When I tell them last year it was in Monza Italy and Seoul Korea the year before they laugh. I am excited to play in the world finals. My family plans on trying to make a stop and seeing the fruit of my labor in action. They are all very happy for me, more than I expected. My grandma almost cried and my mom screamed when I told her I won.


You're relatively new to playing Starcraft in a LAN environment. Did you get nervous at any point in the tournament? Do you feel that your confidence rose after you moved onto double elimination play?

People always say that about me, "You dont have much LAN experience.." I played in the Seattle offline prelim in 04 and won everyone including (at the time) a very skilled LJT. Since then lans have not been a very big deal for me in terms of nerves. I love the environment and I love showing off my skills in person. Also each lan substantiates the "real" aspect of a bw player. People are looked down upon when they dont attend lans, but
glorified when they do well at one. I am always excited to meet my own expectations or even exceed them at a lan. As for the double elimination, at that point I had beaten Skew 4-0 and knew he was one of if not the number 1 threat. My confidence could not have been higher, but as a former (kinda current) athlete I know to never look over the horizon. I had to remind myself to focus on each player and act as if my tourney life was on the line each time.


Let's talk about some of your matches in group play. You were able to take down eVaDe rather convincingly in your first series on stage. Were you nervous about playing on stage? Would you have rather just played the match in the normal tournament area instead?

I was not nervous at all. I loved being in the limelight but I was panicky when I realized that not bringing my own gear was going to perceivably lose me the tourney. I played with a bulky keyboard and a odd mouse vs Evade and it showed.. my late game management was horrible and my ability to micro was almost non existant. I was fortunate to get a player who was out of practice for the first round.


Your next series against NonY did not turn out so well for you. How confident were you coming into this match? Is there anything that you wish you could have done instead to win the games that you lost?

My games versus Nony were very bad. I was trying to do too much and was a bit psyched out before I played him. Previous to the tourney I had viewed Nony as my biggest threat in the group. He plays very solid and a style that is hard for me to overrun. As for specifics, I wish I hadnt made 3 drones when he was trying a zeal rush.. had I made lings that game may have turned out differently. But as is evident with results, all things happened the way they did for a reason :)


In your third match of the group stages you went up against LzGaMeR. He's a zerg user, but decided to go protoss against you. Were you surprised that he had picked protoss against you? Had you been training against Zerg at all to prepare for him?

I was shocked. I had seen him PvZ in the past but thought that was something he did in rather unserious circumstances. I came to find out he had trained PvZ quite a lot and was prepared fairly well. The games were tougher because I had no idea what to expect, FE, Cheese or standard.. and it cost me a game and almost the series with how close this lack of knowledge made it. And yes I had been preparing a bit for ZvZ.


In the first game you were defeated on Gaia, a map that you picked from my understanding. What were you feeling going into the second game? Did his skill with Protoss surprise you or did you expect him to play like he did?

I chose gaia because I thought as far as ZvZ maps go that was the one I would most likely win vs him. But when he chose protoss and I got the 7 spot, I knew I was in for a battle. Going into the second game I was calm and knew what I had to do. I don't lose on Peaks and his ability to cheese there was going to be hampered. I played safe and standard, he did the same. I ran him over and had a chance to win the series. His skill with protoss didn't surprise me. He plays a lot of off race so I knew that he would play around the level he did.


You mentioned in a post on TeamLiquid.net that you had no business winning the third game. After the early pressure and containment from the Protoss, were you thinking about the possibility of losing the series?

I went from comfortable to scared in that game. I didnt think the containment would be such a big deal but it ended up being a very big deal. He had an expansion advantage on me and was teched just fine despite his later gas. I said I had "no business winning that game" because the advantage was insurmountable. My music died down at one point and I heard IdrA say to Skew "He has no chance." It was nice to surprise everyone :)


Your last game was set to be against Alex "Skew[Media]" Brola, a player known for his very strong play against Zerg. How confident going into this match?

Skew and I are pretty good friends. We clash often in tourneys or just practice games and I actually win a fair amount of the games. Alex at WCG called me the "anti-skew" which actually I can understand. Our styles just clash and I am actually fairly effective against him. Additionally, he has a reputation of playing poorly at lans. So going into the tourney I was confident. But when Alex started rolling everyone fairly easy and faced me with his 3-0 record I knew I was in for a battle. The games favored me and I was able to secure fairly fast and convincing wins. Those games really launched me into believing I could win this thing.


This win would move you into a tiebreaker where two out of the three players would advance out of the group. You shocked many by going 4-0 and coming out on top of Group A. Were you surprised yourself that you were able to accomplish this impressive achievement?

I was shocked. The tie-breaker was intense and it was late, the park had closed and all players / audience had been asked to leave. It was a private blood bath for the 3 of us and a few admins/onlookers. We were exhausted and stressed so the atmosphere was electric. After the dust settled I think the right players made it out of the group, but me as #1? I was shocked like I said.