Spoilers within! Find out what the winners of CSL Season 3 had to say about their hard-earned win. If you haven't seen the games yet, stop NOW and take a look at Day[9]'s amazing cast of these amazing games!

Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
Set 4
Set 5 Unavailable
Set 6
ACE

UCSD Coordinator and Set 1 Winner, Xeris_Xeris

Mr. Duran Parsi. I believe team Xeris just pulled an epically close 4-3 over Duke. How did you do it?

We worked really hard and put ourselves in a position to win the game, and Jaeyun was absolutely a hero against Nony in the ace match.

You played DukeNukem3D in the first set of the series. How confident were you walking into that set?

Well, I didn't get a chance to really practice... my grandmother died two days ago so I've been dealing with family stuff, and I even was planning on going to Iran for the funeral so I wasn't sure I would be able to come today... I felt less confident than I would normally be.

But, PvT is my best matchup so I just relied on my knowledge of the map / matchup and it played into my hands, although he deviated from what terrans normally do by taking his bridge expo early, I had to adjust.

Do you have any special celebrations planned for after this match?

Well, next weekend is the MSL finals party thing in San Diego - I guess there's no better place to celebrate than that... or we might go somewhere else maybe on Saturday or something... I dunno, but I'm about to go buy a bottle of wine and drink to our win , although I am home alone right now (thats not depressing at all)

Set 2 Winner, Xeris_Andrew

You defended a very aggressive ling all-in from a proxy hatchery in the center of Outsider.

Honestly I felt pretty lucky about that win, there were many little factors that tipped me into what he was doing. For instance, I wouldn't have even moved my overlord upwards if I didn't see those few lings going in that direction. Had it not been for that, I don't think I would've scouted that proxy hatch at all. Bo's hatchery placement was extremely clever though, I wonder why the creep wouldn't extend to the bottom half haha.

What was your initial reaction?

When I realized he was ling all-inning me, making sunks immediately came to mind. But I began panicking when I realized I made the wrong Outsider version! The creep was supposed to be closer to the ramp so that my first sunken would be in range to hit his lings. Luckily for me, he didn't attack until my 2nd sunk finished after waiting for the creep to extend...

At any time, did you feel like you were in danger of losing?

That time period of waiting for the creep to extend closer to the ramp and setting down my 2nd sunk was when I felt the most danger. If I lost at that time, I really wanted to request a re-game because I hosted the wrong version of Outsider haha.

Set 6 Winner, Xeris_JeeSu

How did you come to decide upon that particular strategy?

I decided to commit myself to an early ling rush, because I had not practiced enough for this finals. My opponent might have prepared a strategy I had not seen, therefore I could not risk losing. I could have played a more standard game, but my team needed the tying win when we were down 2-3. Despite all the trash talk about doing an all-in rush, winning for Luke and my team was more important to me.

After T.O.P. and Cheese unexpectedly lost their sets, did you feel pressured at all by your overall team's situation? (2-3)

Yes. I was hoping by the time I played, even if Jaeyun lost to Nony, that it would be 3-2 and I could end the series before we went to ace. However before I started my match, I felt a lot of pressure to get the W because I had faith that Jaeyun would win in the ace if I gave him another chance.

In this season, we've only seen three games from you in CSL. Can we expect more next season?

Unfortunately since next season will be starcraft2, I will most likely not be playing. Stacraft2 has too many changes from Starcraft1 that takes time to learn, practice, and master in order to get on a competitive level.

UCSD ACE Winner, Xeris_Jaeyun

You are a beast.

Jaeyun chose not to comment.

When lineups were revealed, how did you feel? Did it affect your practice time at all?

I had mixed feelings when I saw the lineups.. the main plan really was to get me away from NonY. But, at the same time I was really excited because, well.. who wouldn't be? to go head-to-head against one of the greatest foreign players on such a wide stage. At the time, I was determined to really practice and retrieve my B+ on iCCup in preparation for the match.. but unfortunately I couldn't practice at all. I had such a busy week with school and clubs and I didn't have a good feeling about winning either.

You lost in your first set against NonY, and by the 6th set, you must have known that you had to face him again in the ACE. How did you feel coming into the final set?

When I lost, the score was 1-3 with NonY waiting at ACE.. but Andrew and JeeSu really pulled out clutch wins and I promised them I'd bring home the win if they gave me the opportunity to play again. Going into the rematch, I was much more confident despite being rusty. I played much more calmly and confidently, visualizing in my head every move he could possibly make and luckily pulled out the win

I hope your teammates buy you dinner, or at least pop some champagne. Do you have any plans to celebrate tonight?

Ahah sadly I have to study tonight, this whole CSL thing took way too long. I'm proud that I won but at the same time embarrassed to be crowned nerd of nerds. No starcraft party for me.

Any last words?

Xeris: I just wanna say thanks to the whole UCSD team: David, Luke <3, Andrew, Andrew, Andy, William... Paul, Sheng, Jack, Eugene, Gordon, Jon, Peter and everyone else ! I'm glad that we were able to end BW with a win, and hopefully UCSD will continue with SC2 next year :D