ESFI World

"One of my favorite things I love about my job is that I can do everything I want and it depends on me, what I want to do, when I want to do it, so it's really cool," said Ukrainian, Dmytro "mTwDIMAGA" Filipchuk. The 25-year-old Zerg player made headlines last month at IEM Kiev where he placed second and earned himself $3,300 as well as the thrill of excelling on home soil.

Dmytro 'DIMAGA' Filipchuk

	Name	Dmytro Filipchuk
	Handle	DIMAGA
	Age	25
	Country	Ukraine
	Team	mTw
	Race	Zerg

Filipchuk described the Ukrainian StarCraft 2 community as "pretty good -- we're kind of a big family. We all know each other from Brood War... It's very nice meeting online and especially offline events." On whether or not he felt extra pressure playing in his home country, Filipchuk admitted, "I sometimes feel pressure when I know there is a lot of people cheering for me, but in game I need to focus only on the game."

After sweeping both Millennium's Feast (2-0) and coLqxc (2-0) and losing only to the current DreamHack champion, Liquid`HerO (1-2), Filipchuk placed first in his group stage (2-1). "I wasn't expecting to become top one in my group. I thought I was going to be second and HerO would be first, but your thoughts don't always become real life," Filipchuk said with a smile, "So, I was happy that one top Korean was eliminated from the tournament. Sorry, HerO!"

Left to right: Kas (3rd), MMA (1st) and DIMAGA (2nd) (Photo: ESL)

In the playoffs, Filipchuk was forced to play in a bracket against his own countrymen, White-Ra and EmpireKas. Already being down 0-2, DIMAGA overcame impossible odds and perservered, managing to come back to win 3-2 over RoXKISPomi in the quarterfinals. When asked about his comeback, he cited the fourth match on Dual Sight against Pomi as memorable: "I was losing 2-1, so if I lost that game, I would have been eliminated from the tournament, and that game was so close. Somehow again, I managed to out-micro Pomi and come back."

Filipchuk continued on to meet Kas, who had just won against fan-favorite White-Ra (3-2). Unlike his match with RoXKISPomi, the games went back and forth with no clear predictable winner in sight. DIMAGA once again had to fight to stay alive. Everyone always hopes for an epic final game in a series and this game was no exception during which Filipchuk managed to pull off what he described as, "an almost perfect game... Still, it was too close because of Shattered Temple and mules mining from gold mineral patches. Terran is really strong."

The lone remaining Ukranian moved on to faced SlayerSMMA in the grand finals. Since the beginning, MMA was a strong favorite to win the tournament. "He's one of the best Terrans on the planet, but at the beginning of our match, everything was good for me, especially in the first game when I won kind of easily," said Filipchuk, smiling again, "Don't know why but after that game, I started to get nervous, maybe because I just couldn't believe that I could beat him so easily. After that I made some bad decisions and misread the last game and lost the match (1-3). Sometimes it happens. I need to get more experience on-stage."

(Photo: ESL)

In reality, the experience he already has under his belt is nothing short of astounding. Filipchuk qualified as part of the World All-Stars Team sent to Korea to compete in the 2011 GSL World Championships, where he beat both STJuly and IMMvp before losing to IMNesTea in the ace match of the Korea vs. World matches. In the main tournament that followed, Filipchuk exacted revenge on NesTea by eliminating him in the round of sixteen (2-1), becoming the first player to defeat NesTea in a broadcasted ZvZ match and the only foreigner to defeat a Korean player in a best-of-three series in the main bracket.

Several months later, Filipchuk tore through Assembly Summer 2011 in Helsinki, Finland, beating renowned players such as Liquid`TLO (2-1), elfi (2-0), MillStephano (3-2), and mouzMaNa (3-2) to win the tournament.

Filipchuk averages around six to eight hours of gaming per day, often streaming his ladder matches and practicing custom games with his friends in order to prepare for imminent LAN events. When he's not playing StarCraft, he enjoys sports and tries to go to the gym several times a week. "But with all this travel," he laughed, "it's pretty hard."

(Photo: ESL)

So, what's next for Filipchuk? For starters, he will continue to play for mTw as he already re-signed his contract for 2012: "Being a part of mTw is really a pleasure and I have the best relationship with my management, so I'm really happy about this team."

His next big event will be the IEM Season IV World Championship, which will be taking place at CeBIT (an international computer expo) this coming March in Hanover, Germany. Though he decided not to participate in the MLG Winter Arena, he hopes to compete in other North American tournaments such as the IGN Pro League and other MLG events this summer.

On a closing note, Filipchuk expressed his gratitude for all of the people who watch and cheer for e-sports: "Thanks so much to you guys. Without you, we pro gamers are nothing. And also a big thanks to my team mTw and our sponsors."

To learn more about Dmytro "mTwDIMAGA" Filipchuk, follow his twitter account @mTwDIMAGA or visit the official website for mTw Mindfactory.

Emily "NyxRose" Tran

Emily Tran is a StarCraft 2 reporter for ESFI World. Follow her on Twitter at @NyxRose. » ESFI Profile   » Twitter