The Ladder Season 3 finals for Kane's Wrath and Red Alert 3 are being held in a few days time at our CommandCOM event being held in Cologne, Germany! 100 of your top community leaders will be there to witness the event live, and will be posting about it on our CommandCOM Blog Website. Be sure to check this site as often as possible over the next few days for exclusive C&C4 info and more!

Ladder Season 3 referee, and E-Sport helper Methuselah had a chance to interview Khufu, an expert in Kane's Wrath and Red Alert 3, who usually paves his way to the end of every Ladder Season tournament. What happened to Khufu this season? What does he think about the upcoming finale to Ladder Season 3? Read on to learn more!

 

Methuselah: Tell us what has been going on in your life of late?

Khufu: My life right now is super hectic. Balancing tons of work with preparation for the upcoming university and a woman on top of it is really tough. Thank God that my pwnage multi-tasking skills work in more than just C&C!

 

Methuselah: How was your immersion in Mexico? How long were you there, did you accomplish what you’d hoped to?

Khufu: I went to Mexico as a participant in a 10 week study abroad program at a University in Cuernavaca. The time there was really amazing as Mexico is a culturally rich country with lots of ancient architecture and other tourist attractions. I studied Spanish and Mexican history while I was there and I feel that I learned a lot. I did not accomplish one of my main goals there though, which was to compete in Ladder Season 3.

 

Methuselah: Have you had a chance to play any Red Alert 3 or Kane’s Wrath since your return? What are your thoughts on C&C4?

Khufu: The day after I got home I dropped everything I was doing and fired up the hamachi channel and jumped on for 2-3 hours and got some games in with some good friends. It feels good again to be back in the states on my own computer instead of the comps at the cyber café in Mexico that were god awfully slow. As for C&C4, it looks cool to me. Based on the trailers and the additional stuff I’ve seen about it, I definitely plan on purchasing a copy of it for myself and think most C&C fans will as well.

 

Methuselah: Why were you not able to compete in the Season Ending Tournament of Ladder Season 3? You qualified for both games correct?

Khufu: God striking me with lightening and having a car hit me would have been preferable to what I went through prior to the first weekend of the tournament. I’ll keep this very short, but basically all of the bad karma I’ve built up over my life hit me within 7 days. I sprained an ankle in a football game putting me on crutches for 2 weeks, got my finger closed in a autobus window which then needed stitches, got 2nd degree sunburns all over my torso, very nearly drown due a very strong undertow in the ocean, and then ingested a parasite which gave me violent diarrhea for the next 12 days. All of these things combined were just too overwhelming and I could hardly even function much play in a competition. All I know that if God wants me out of the next C&C tournament, he’s going to have to kick it up a notch because my disaster resistance level has ranked up to veteran.

 

Methuselah: In light of your status as a double qualifier you have a unique insight into Ladder Season 3. What are your thoughts on how the tournaments went? Let’s start with Red Alert 3.

Khufu: Well I think the people who qualified in both games had a distinct advantage from the start. They knew that if they lost in one game they had the other one they could fully concentrate on it. Because of this reason I believe that both Dynamic and Technique had almost no problem with nerves which I imagine seriously inflicted some of the other competitors. Looking at the top 8 of the RA3 tournament I wouldn’t have picked either Dynamic or Technique to make top 2. It seems to me that some of the better players got knocked out by people they could usually beat. Still the skill gap between the final 8 Red Alert 3 players wasn’t really that big so it was anyone’s game and Dynamic and Technique just happened to land on top. I have to say though, I was really routing for Zero to get top 2, better luck next time m8!

 

Methuselah: How about Kane’s Wrath?

Khufu: Well going into the playoffs I stated that I thought the top 4 players in order of strength were: Dackel, Dynamic, Technique, and then Voddy. Dackel is just so strong the only person that could have knocked him out was Dynamic. I think Dackel is a little better in terms of overall skill, but Dackel and Dynamic practice together all the time so they know how each others playstyle and can predict each other’s movements pretty well. When I saw the final 8 bracket, I immediately knew that Technique would be winning the top part, and the winner of Dackel and Dynamic would win the bottom part. The finals should be very evenly matched and interesting to watch.

 

Methuselah: Where you surprised that both finalists played in both Red Alert 3 and Kane's Wrath? Going in I would have seen that as a hindrance not an advantage. Was that a poor perception on my part and if so why?

Khufu: Well when you play both games you have a certain comfort level because if you lose one game you can fall back on the other, but realistically speaking playing both games gives you a big disadvantage against your opponents. Your opponents only have one game to master and can get a firm grasp on it, all the tricks and strategies etc. A person playing both games has to split his time between the games, and it is much harder to switch back and forth than it may appear. How Technique and Dynamic managed to BOTH do so successfully is very impressive. They both have my admiration.

 

Methuselah: How do you handicap the finals? Any predictions based on your pretty extensive experience with both Technique and Dynamic?

Khufu: Well I have spent hundreds of hours, if not more, playing with both players over the years. In my opinion, Dynamic has always been the stronger player overall. He has a natural knack of making the correct decisions in clutch situations even without much practice. My pick to win Red Alert 3 would definitely be Dynamic because he has played much more of it than Technique has and Technique really doesn’t like Red Alert 3. Still I imagine that Technique will have something tricky up his sleeve that he will try and surprise Dynamic with. It’s a tough call because both players have that major tournament experience, the ability and stamina for extreme training, and the natural skill and reflexes necessary. If one of them has an off day I think the other one could capitalize very quickly and win all the matches. When it comes to Kane's Wrath, I would give the odds of 50/50 for both players. Historically Dynamic wins more than Technique at KW, but Technique loves the game and has played it a lot more recently than dynamic has. I’m expecting Technique to really try and abuse the OP here, a little more so than Dynamic. As always in a KW tournament there’s always a chance that race poker will play a factor here which is very disappointing to me because a competitor can play better his opponent and still lose the game if you guess wrong in the pre-game race poker matchups, but hopefully the competitors can come to an arrangement that is suitable for both of them so the game can be decided by their skills. My picks again real quick: RA3 for Dynamic, and 50/50 for both players in KW. Expect the games to be close and hard fought.

 

Methuselah: What is next for you? Both online and real life.

Khufu: Well I am preparing for my last semester of my undergraduate studies starting in two weeks and then after that I will start my graduate studies (an MBA, for a total of 6 years at the university). I have lots of responsibilities, classes, and a girlfriend; but I will always find time to play some C&C now and then. When I told my girlfriend that I playing C&C professionally she said, “well babe, if you make money at it and you have fun doing it by all means play as much as you want.” (Are you beginning to realize why I love this girl?) I plan on playing in all of the major C&C tournaments in the future (Hopefully WCG 2010 HINT HINT>) and I’m looking forward to playing C&C4 competitively as well.

 

Thanks guys!