Serral winning the WCS championship last year lit a fire in South Korea. It meant that it was time to not get complacent, time to get train harder than ever before, and get the WCS trophy back to South Korea where it belongs. Park "Dark" Ryung-woo, who was a finalist in the 2016 WCS Global Finals, lost against Byun "ByuN" Hyun-woo. Now it was Dark's redemption arc. He faced Riccardo "Reynor" Romiti, another foreigner who quickly become an elite player, in the grand finals and defeated him. Dark finally achieved the ultimate prize in StarCraft 2, a WCS championship. After being crowned the champion, he talked to the press on his performance and how difficult it was to face Reynor.

Congrats on winning the WCS Global Finals last night. After winning the championship, how does it feel now to call yourself a champion?

I feel really good right now and still excited about it. In fact, I could've won the WCS Global Finals 3 years ago, but it feels good to accomplish the championship now.


I want to ask you about Game 3 when you rushed Reynor. What was the logic behind that decision seeing as the other 3 games you beat him despite playing standard?

When playing against Reynor, I could see his demeanor on stage. From looking at his composure, I noticed that he was tense. I thought that if I could prepare this strat for the next game, I could win easily. I tried for the next couple of games, but he scouted my Overlord.

Who was your toughest challenge in this tournament?

I was rank 1 in the Korea server so I felt confident going into this. At the round of 16, I had to play well. After that, it moved on to the round of 8 and so forth. It's hard to say who the toughest challenge was.

This is the second straight year in the WCS Global Finals where a Western player is in the finals. What do you think of the growth of Western StarCraft and how close have they got in skill compared to Korean StarCraft?

Before, the players were not that great. But now, they're getting better and better, especially Zerg players. They always work hard and have good results.

Right now, Zerg is very good in this meta and overpowered since Infestor is good right now. The next patch will nerf Infestors. What are your thoughts on that?

From 2016, Zerg wasn't overpowered but I had good results that time. Everybody keeps saying it's not balanced but I did not think about it much. It's not all about what race is overpowered in this tournament. It's all about skill.

What are your thoughts about your match overall with Reynor? If you could give any advice to him, what would it be?

Actually, I don't want to give feedback to Reynor. In a few years, he's going to be a difficult player to face against. 

Serral, on the other hand, is mentally strong. However, I see weak points in Serral that's not strong in tournaments.

In due time, do you think Reynor will be a stronger player than Serral?

When I reviewed yesterday's matches, I thought Reynor was the stronger player out of the two, but not for the overall tournament. There are some points where each player is better than the other. Serral is great in making his opponents very nervous. He has a strong mental game and doesn't show any weaknesses.

If Serral made it to the finals, would there be any difference in preparation? There are not many tournaments out there, is there anything you want to say about the tournament schedule or the patches itself?

I want to meet Serral in the finals, but it didn't matter to me who I face in the finals. I prepared hard for this tournament so I think the results would've been the same, no matter if it were Serral or Reynor. 

Everybody keeps saying there's not much tournaments in the scene right now. For those that say that, there were still IEM tournaments for us. As far as balance, I want Blizzard to communicate with its players more. Since everyone says Zerg is OP, Blizzard should consult with players about it. 

Congrats on winning the championship. Are there any goals that you want to achieve next year?

I want to win all the tournaments.

At BlizzCon, Blizzard showed DeepMind in StarCraft 2. Dark, are you going to play against DeepMind?

I really want to meet AlphaStar. In any RTS game, the first thing players master is their mechanical skill. I want to show that it's not the case. I want to show that there are many strategies in StarCraft. There are things that machines cannot follow, especially in StarCraft.

Are there any players that you were scared of playing in this tournament?

Until yesterday, there were many players that scared me, especially Zerg players. Today, there are not any players that scare me.

Dark, you are always a confident player from GSL to the WCS Global Finals now. How did it feel when you lifted the trophy?

I worked very hard this season. At the tournament, I tried to remain poker-faced and didn't think much about it until I beat Reynor. After I won, I got so excited. It's hard to express my emotions.

After I won, everyone congratulated me. People say that ByuN is the only player that could compete against me. I want to say that this Dark is different from the Dark back then against ByuN. Right now, even ByuN cannot compete against me.

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