SK-Gaming suffered quite a defeat here in Los Angeles after having a tough time working out communication issues between Serennia and Swarm. They managed to beat both GotGame East and Finding Serennia 3 to 0, only to lose 0 to 3 to Nihilum Plasma. Because of a three way tie in their group, SK-Gaming along with their three tied teams were forced to play a relegation match to determine who would move on. SK faced Pandemic Blue where SK was completely shut out 0 to 3.

Swarm was unable to take losing. He turned on his teammates, even going so far as to stand up before the match was even over. When Serennia asked him why he did that, a huge argument ensued. Swarm stood there screaming obscenities and telling his team how terrible they, while Serennia just tried to calm him down and remind him that their sponsors are not going to be happy to hear about his melt down.

In the end, they seemed to have at least resolved their differences, but the question remains if this squad will be competing together of if they will be going their separate ways. It won't be surprising to see a news post sometime soon about SK dropping them.

SK-Gaming had originally intended for Neilyo's team to attend the Los Angeles event. Was it a last minute decision to send your squad instead?

The original plan was for Neilyo to attend this event and we were supposed to go to MLG Dallas. Unfortunately, Neilyo had a health condition that prevented him from attending here, so they decided to send the European SK team to the Los Angeles event and keep us in Dallas. Then, apparently, someone on the European squad couldn't get a visa in time to travel to LA, so they scrapped Dallas and sent us out here to LA. It was pretty much as last minute as you could get with a situation like this.

Since it turns out it was a last minute event, how well prepared were you for this event? Were your two team mates ready for this?

Honestly, we had prepared for a lot more American teams that European teams. Although there are less WLD teams here, we never really had problems aside from Nihilum. We lost to Pandemic, but that is a different story. Looking back, we practiced more for a Dallas type event with American teams, comps and play styles...don't want to blame it on anything else.

There has been a fair bit of criticism that you perform on a completely different level online as compared to when you attend a LAN event. Some people say it's "LAN jitters", some say it's a poor performance from you. If you could speak candidly to those critics, how would you respond?

I thought I did alright today, especially with the focus frame that they added that made it considerably easier to predict incoming CC and bursts. Previously, on Druid, I'm not going to say that I'm the greatest...but I feel that I did what I needed to do. We were just hindered by the lack of versatility of our old comp when I played with Neilyo and Glorin. I feel at this tournament, we did, or I did rather, everything within my capability. My Druid did too, but as far as the Pandemic loss goes, I think it can largely be attributed to Swarms breakdown. I just felt like there wasn't much coordination after that.

Would you attribute the majority of your problems today to your communication failure with Swarm, or was there some other factor that was preventing you from clinching a few more victories?

He's [Swarm] really quick to criticize, and although I'm the same way, I'm usually more rational about it than he has been. As far as the series with Nihilum, he kept trying to suggest that I swap to their Druid more often. Even though that is more priority, obviously sometimes it just is not possible. He doesn't see the whole picture, especially from my perspective in regards to what I can and can't do and he expects me to do things I'm unable to do. I won't say it's all on his shoulders and all because of his behavior, but I think that was a huge motivating factor behind it.

What the future of your US squad? Any events that you're looking forward to?

They [SK] were thinking of sending us to ESL Montreal and I think that we still have a good chance for that, if one of two things happens. First if Swarm can mature as a person and be more constructive with the team, especially less lashing out...or we find a capable replacement. Ideally, I'd like to find someone that can perform the roles that he did, especially his Priest and Warlock positions, because we all know how silly the WLD comp can be. The interesting part will be that Montreal might be played with the 3.0 patch, which will change quite a bit of things regarding the PvP aspect of the game. I'm not even sure that WLD will be the best anymore, but I'll probably have to look at all of the talent trees and try to theorycraft something and hope that SK will have faith and try to send us again.

Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us. Any last shout outs or thank yous?

I'd like to thank SK for sending us here. They've been a great sponsor, they honestly do have some of the best management. I'd like to that Tim, Gosey, Andreas, everyone that's helped us. Shout outs to my guild back on Korgath, Drama. And Tigerlady too! Thanks.

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