I quit playing many times because I had so much trouble with playing from Brazil and I just gave up playing out of frustration. But when the WCG 2007 qualifier came out, I just decided to practice a bit and try to qualify.

What happened on the Brazilian qualifiers? PaTo was the favorite to qualify but he wasn’t able to. How are you able to get that far and how much did you practice prior to the qualifier?

I played a lot of custom games with Kowi from Delta. Also with k1ck-ICE who took 2^nd place in Brazil. I focused pretty much on Night Elf mirror to beat PaTo, and trained a lot with ICE. I basically expected ICE to beat PaTo. And in the finals I met ICE and I knew I had a chance to qualify. Training with him made my Elf mirror stronger and his too, and we both were able to defeat PaTo.

How did you practice prior to the WCG Grand Finals?

After the WCG finals in Brazil, I tried to get someone to practice with me but couldn’t get any custom games pretty much because I’ve been retired for a long time and no one remembered me at all. So it was very hard to get practice in custom games. Since then, I’ve lost my motivation and didn’t play for almost 3 weeks – no ladder, no custom games. I only played the day before the tournament in the WCG practice area with Kowi and played ladder on Asia server.

What did you think of your group in WCG? Did you think you have a chance of going far?

I knew that winning against Fly100% would be very hard, so I focused on other games. The guy milos-montenegro was a very good player, and I almost lost to him, if I did I would’ve been knocked out. The Kumai guy was not a bad player too. But I could manage to qualify if I beat Sauron, which was the most important match for me. Then I qualified, I would meet ToD. Like everyone, I thought I had zero chance of beating him.

What can you say about your games against ToD?

I lost first game on Turtle Rock close spawn… I was like “aww, now after this game I would just mass huntress and see how far I can get with that.” And suddenly I beat him, and I tried it again and it worked again.

I knew if I went usual strategies, ToD can beat me very easily because he trained against many great players with the usual strategies. So I need to make something new to beat him and try to surprise him, so I massed huntresses and Priestess of the Moon because I knew he was probably going to expand. I don’t want to play against Tanks because it’s very boring and it’s very hard to beat tanks. I just tried my base to rush him and don’t do a late game and just finish it early. After losing the first game, I’ll try something crazy since I can’t beat him.

You chose the Warden first on your first game on Turtle Rock. Why did you choose this hero? What would you have done if you didn’t lose so quickly?

After using the Tinker first in 2005, people just learned how to counter is very easily. So I started using the Warden. I don’t like the Demon Hunter against a Human player much because I think it’s very boring. So I went Warden, its an old strategy of mine, which used to work very well in the past. It’s basically a solo Warden to get a high level, going Archers, Dryads then Bears. Then taking both Shadow Strike and Fan of Knives.

What do you think about your game on Terenas Stand against ToD?

I think on Terenas Stand and he saw Priestess of the Moon, he just tried to tower rush me badly. I knew I could stop the Tower Rush very easily when I saw him coming with the rush. I was like, well… I have a good chance now in this game because I’m going to stop it and rush him and he won’t be able to stop it. He probably didn’t know how to counter PotM and that was the point to win.

When I saw him coming with the rush, I cancelled my Huntresses and made Archers instead. I guess he decided to tower rush me because Huntresses can’t stop the rush, but I managed to get enough units to stop it.

When I saw him expanding, I knew ToD that was a very good player and it would be very hard to stop the expand. I didn’t feel like I had good chances to win but I still tried my best. I knew even with a great advantage, I knew he can still make a comeback and focused on the game 100% and tried my best to stop the expand. But I couldn’t stop the expand, but I was able to stop him with tier 2 push with Ballistas. The Ballistas with Vorpal Blades upgrades have a great damage even against units which helped  a lot.

What did you think about your game on Twisted Meadows? ToD already knew of your “secret strategy” and wouldn’t be surprised of PotM with Mass Huntresses. Why do you think you still won?

I knew ToD would probably try to expand again so I was gonna try to rush him, because like I said before I don’t like playing against tanks. So I just want to PotM again to rush and push him early… anything not to fight tanks. I kept delaying him and pushing him, picking his units off and things like that.

How come you beat ToD but not XyligaN right after?

After ToD lost to me, I think they might have talked together or XyligaN found out what I did and thought of the perfect counter to my strategy. XyligaN did the perfect counter – he went to tier 3, knights, mortars and casters. And I lost pretty badly, he won without any problems.

Levin and I has always used PotM in Night Elf mirror. And I don’t know, maybe we feel more confident massing Huntresses. I did my strategy because I am retired, and it’s harder to use the Demon Hunter because you need more micro and be on your prime – be very confident and very active player. PotM with mass Huntress is easier! So like I’m retired now, rather do something easier and just try my luck.