Losemann: "It's not about getting the huge advantage. It's about the players' skills..."

When did you start managing, and when did you start managing MYM?

Well I started managing in Starcraft times already, since my skill was never enough to compete at the highest level. Sure with some training I can beat some guys, but never most of them. And also I didn't want to invest so much time in playing. I started managing in some small clans and changed to my first big German team - Firestalker, which was pretty successful that time. After some problems I joined Immortal 7eam and some of us joined up with fourvisions after a year.

fourvisions.wc3 became redcode.wc3 and then after having troubles again in the semi pro area (it's normal there) I had the chance to join MYM. I have known the MYM guys for quite a long time. I remember the finals in Cologne when Storm was there and I shared my room with Tazz and NoHopeAtAll, that was my first finals and they brought me to where I am. Elroy left MYM in favour of fnatic and Nordahl needed help, so Army asked me to join MYM, it was pretty perfect timing, first I didn't want to leave my friends, but it was clear that this is a one time chance. So in the end I took it and I am really happy that I did so. I think one reason for me being in the MYM.wc3 is that I managed to bring a team from nothing to the NGL-Two, which was a good achievement that time.

Describe how you prepare lineups for WC3L.

WC3L is easy, since you don't need a plan for that. We would all join into a conversation in MSN and try to get the best and worst case scenarios. I am happy that Grubby is now on the team as he knows a lot about the other teams, and also Nordahl has a great knowledge about the teams and history.

The players will choose maps and we talk about changing them in favour of other players. We try to avoid the bad matchups and try to counter the opponent with single maps. Sometimes it works out, sometimes you are not that lucky or the opponent was smarter. But there is also luck invovled over there.

In my eyes it's not about getting the huge advantage. Its about the players' skills, the races matter a bit of course, and also the maps, but the better gamer wins even on his not-so-good map.

Describe how you decide a starter for NGL. What goes into deciding how to plan in the middle of an NGL match?

Who goes first is about the decision at the start. Do we want to play risky and seed a good gamer first and go for the All Kill, or do we want to play safe and seed someone who will not gather so many points? Of course that changes during the season and the players' shape change too. But we decide that together and we try to find a way to win the opponents. Bad luck happens to us since that it didn't work out 2 times this season already, but we are trying to do better in the future. We always decide together.

In a perfect world, you hope your players could beat anyone, but as a manager, do you assess their skill compared to their opponents when planning in WC3L?

I always believe in the gamers and not only in those who are in the regular lineup. For example when Storm played versus Rotterdam, I tried to give him the best circumstances (host, time to play, not being the first game) and he did a 2-0. That paid off, we of course follow the shape bar going down and up and we try to integrate this into the planing, but that is nearly impossible, since the player can gather strength out of nowhere and start winning again.

Sometimes it can even be the weather that is changing and making the players tired and they can't play their best. A player losing 2-3 matches in a row doesn't mean he is really as bad as the community says. But as I said, a reason for a player "sucking" can be many reasons. But we push the players until the bad times are over and they mostly all come back to good shape. Look at Grubby and Lucifer, they are doing well. Moon was in a small slump and now he is doing better again too. It is pretty good to see that at the moment you see your player losing you can lose a lot of hair but it will grow back in the winning times. Why didn't Nordahl grow his hair back? (sorry, just kidding)

 

Do you think Storm can or will return to close to the shape he was in Season 9 when he was beating Sky and ToD?

Storm is practicing a lot and I expect him to step up more. In his recent WC3L game he showed a good performance, and also in AWL he played good where he beat really good gamers. I think he is coming back, the important thing is that he wants to come back and we try to give him the chance to do so.

How do you decide which players, and how many, to send to a tournament?

We managers decide that together with the management and try to find solutions. The management is the one who pays the flights and it is not cheap to send players all over the world.

Looking back at Season 12 of WC3L in the playoffs versus SK, would you plan any differently?

No, I would not change a thing. I like the team as it is. The only thing I would love to change is the rank in the end.

In the matchup of Xlord versus Susiria, was this what you wanted and it just ended wrong?

It is the XlorD aura, he is good in that matchup but so is Susiria. It is offline and sometimes things happen which you don't expect to happen. But that is the cool thing at offline finals since you can't plan everything there. Of course you can't plan those things in the online season too, but we try to make things run better and try to let such things not happen again. I feel sorry for Susi that he lost to XlorD, and he was really sad about this fact, but I am sure in future he will have time to take revenge for that game. Maybe not an important match like this, but still he will get the new chance to prove himself. He did really good in Berlin at the NGL Finals though.

 

Do you think you will put Moon against Soju in the future again?

Haha! Soju vs Moon is a nice match I remember Moon running around with a 9 HP Demon Hunter. But it's Turtle Rock, sometimes teams try to counter each other, since Soju is the Undead killer and Turtle Rock is an Undead map. That means such things can happen. I would match them so that it's an equal chance for both to win. Sometimes you can gamble with the current shape, sometimes it's a matter of countering each other.

Without giving away your planning, how do you stack up against Mouz? (Your WC3L 1st round playoff opponents)

We will try to give our best shot. We have the map choice so we have a little advantage in that. But it is also a matter that mouz is a tough opponent with gamers who are all really good. SaSe doing really good lately, ToD and Fly are really deciding factors and Happy is a Russian beast whom I really respect very much skillwise. We need to see and check how we can beat this team. And we are working on it.

If you could get any player (available or not) for your team, which player would it be and why?

Thats a decision which has to be carried as a team. But when I look around I see only a few gamers who would fit into the MYM lineup, a Human would be sexy though. But that's just hypothetical talk, so I can't say really names. A good Elf is also good for the team. Undead is already good in our stock; 2 Undeads is enough for a team. There are so many different aspects for a player to fit into MYM.

If you had Shy and Focus still on your roster, do you think you would have finished higher this season in WC3L?

Well we would have been more flexible, but I am not crying about that. They are happy in fnatic now (as they told me) and I like to see the players happy. Also the fact that I'm not that into the "what would have happened if..." things, we work with what we have and what we have at the moment is really good.

Of course I want us to do better during the online season, but I can't change the current situation anymore. But we can change the ending of this season, since this part of the story is still unwritten.

Okay a lighter question, be honest: Did you have fun shooting those WC3 Manager commercials?

Yes, it was a lot of fun doing those movies. We were in Copenhagen that time doing a boot camp and I was sleeping with the gamers in the same apartment, we really had a lot of fun there and we were doing those videos, only EvE didn't run, since he was wearing flip flops. I have to admit that these scenes were a lot of fun. If I would be asked to do it again, I would say "yes" immediately.

Any thanks or shout outs?
Thank you to the Management, the players, the news crew of MYM. Shout outs for my buddies from Sergej and also to my good friend Reis, who is doing a good job! Thanks to our sponsors Sennheiser, Razer, Intel and QPad. Grubby, Moon, Storm, Susiria, Lucifer, Ciara, Eve, Nordahl Faitin!