May 25, 2008: TSL semifinal BRAT_OK vs Iefnaij

Teamliquid Star League (Razer TSL) became the most important online tournament in StarCraft outside Korea. TL made a great job finding the sponsor who could offer five thousand bucks for a winner and five thousand more for top-16. Combine this with a fair play granted by hack-free server ICCup and you get quite a number of newsposts readers and VODs downloaders. Even compared to Korean Pro scene.

After smashing favourite participant Mondragon with 2-0 score, Dreiven seemed to be unbeatable. But Russian Terran Brat_Ok proved impossible is nothing, 3-0'ing his opponent. Who is this terran? Where did he come from? What does his nickname means?

 

First thing is his nickname BRAT_OK. It's quite a task for a non-Russian to understand meaning... Seems to be something like "Ill-mannered child _ OK"... But this is not the case.

Bratok means nothing but a gangster. This word came to Russian language in 90's when USSR was dismissed, and it was very easy to find guns and stuff. Combine this with lack of education and you get a perfect combination for gangsters. All the gangsters were part of a their groups, and called themselves "bratva" (word is close to "brotherhood", but it's grammatically deformed). And a member of that brotherhood was a brother called himself "bratok".
There are two suffixes: OK and IK (which sound short: not like "ouk" or "okay", but just very short - "ok"/"eek"). Added to word they make the word mean ''little''. The right word (grammatically right) is BratIK - which means little/younger brother. But gangs deformed it with another suffix, and some time later we've got a new word with a new meaning.

Oh, and Brat's name is Pavel. It can be also be called as "Pakhan" (some deformed way, as previous words), which means the Godfather of Mafia.

So this is a clear pun in Russian.

Just before semifinals TL published an interview with Brat_Ok, where he speaks about his chances to win, his feeling of fame, his pratice system, his opponents, and not only!

What can you say about tournament coverage?

That's very close to Korean Pro scene. Great Job!

What do you think of fame?

Nice feeling. But I don't deserve it.

Seems like no one heard about you before TSL. Where have you been?

Russian Armed Forces.

Your best MU?

I think it's TvT

Your victories: Luck or Skill?

Definitely luck

Why do you have such a low APM?

I hate fake clicks. Means up to 90% of my clicks are needed to be done.

Why are Russian Terrans so good outside Korea?

Androide, EX, A2, Escape, yAn[S2]... They are just 31337. Nothing to add

Do you play with Ex, A2, Androide? What's the score?

Sorry, I do not count. And we could not play with Droide yet.

What should you do with $5k if you won?

I would buy two bikes: for me and my friend.

What's the answer of life?

Being eighty you can say your life is important.

Your chances to win TSL?

Above zero.

After the full interview was published, everyone mentioned how modest Brat_Ok is.
Best of luck, Pavel.