Meet Your SC2ITL Playoff Teams - Love Your Girlfriend
Drama, controversy, pitchforks and anything else which goes with these words is what probably comes to your mind when you hear of Love Your Girlfriend. We're going to try and stay clear of this side of the team here because it's been discussed and battered to no end everywhere else.
When Love Your Girlfriend came into the SC2ITL they hosted a fairly interesting team, but during the group stages they became at least two times the team they were before by adding Tassadar and Genius as well as a few other Korean players to their roster. It was a tight race to the finish line as it looked like their Korean additions may have came just a little too late to secure their place in the playoffs.
They squeezed into third place in the end though - ending the Season with a 10-3 match score, the same as three other teams (Karnage, MaxFloPlay and Punchline ESC). LYGF had fortunately looked ahead and had not messed around in the latter stages of the league, fielding their Koreans early in every match to secure a highly positive map score, which is the reason they made it here in the end.
They drop into the lower side of the bracket to play against KnightS* Gaming in the RO16 and Alien Invasion in the RO8 if they manage to advance. It is not an easy path, though as their line-up has strengthened so much during the season they are definitely serious contenders for the title. It's not an easy path, if they make it past the powerhouse of Alien Invasion who will have Patience and Golden to pull them forward then they may even meet mYinsanity in the RO4. The lower half of the bracket really is a series of tough hurdles.
To see how they are feeling coming out of the groups and heading into the playoffs, FosTA (one of the LYGF Managers) took 5 minutes of his time to answer some questions.
Wardi : Well done on making it through Group A - the group of death - in third place! How do you feel about having made the playoffs?
FosTA : Thanks! I feel very excited to be able to play in the playoffs and see what the other teams are like other than group A. We had a hard time getting to third and I hope we can now win it.
Wardi : You unfortunately had to play against some of the strongest teams in the early weeks, before you added a significant force to your roster. Do you feel you could have done better than third place if you had your current roster at the start of the league?
FosTA : Going into the team league without the additions of our Koreans I always knew that we would make top 3 with mYinsanity and Cascade. My goal was go to 11-2 because I have felt that the mYi and cSc had a strong roster. Once we had acquired our new roster I feel that we could take the group with a 12-1 record. mYi would have been a tough match to face just because they have the strongest roster in the tam league. I know with our new roster we could take cSc, we only lost 4-3 to them before getting the Koreans.
Wardi : Going into the playoffs you are probably one of the favourite teams to make it to the finals and win - does this put any pressure on the team and what are your own expectations in the playoffs?
FosTA : The only pressure I have is making sure that I can achieve my goals of winning the team league. With the outside pressure I feel that it won’t bother us.
Wardi : If you make it to the RO4 you could have a rematch against either mYinsanity or Cascade - who would you rather play?
FosTA : I’d rather face Cascade because I know we would have an easier time beating them than mYi. I’m not saying that Cascade is a bad team; just I feel we can beat them over myi
Wardi : Though it has only been very recently that we have scene Love Your Girlfriend really become a part of the scene, you quickly became one of the most talked about teams for all of the wrong reasons. Has this affected the teams mentality at all?
FosTA : For me, as much as I hate to say it, it has. It is a lot harder to do what you love when everyone is down on you. Our players still play the best they can and I haven’t noticed a difference in their play for the worse with the drama that is going on.
Wardi : What are the goals of LYGF for 2014?
FosTA : LYGF’s goals for 2014 are to get a solid roster and compete in team leagues and win.
Wardi : How would you sum up your experience of the SC2ITL so far?
FosTA : Great! There are no fruit snacks to win but having such a long season (13 weeks) we have had a lot of fun playing against hard and easy teams.
Wardi : Best of luck in the playoffs, any final words?
FosTA : I’d like to thank SC2Improve for putting on such a great team league. Also like to thank all our players for putting such a great effort in each game we play. Thank you to our sponsors, ALTGG.com, Idea2Create, Sc2ReplayStats.com and Androidtvcanada.ca. Also like us on facebook.com/loveyourgirlfriend and follow us on twitter @LYGFsc2
Love Your Girlfriend - Group A - Position : 3rd - Wins : 10 - Losses : 3 - Map Wins : 48 - Map Losses : 16 - All-kills : 7