As the dust continues to settle after MLG Anaheim, 3^rd place finisher  Mike "Toes" Edwards of x6.WoW sits down to chat about the event, WoW as an eSport, their ‘cheesy’ comp and how he came up with his unique gaming alias.

First off, congratulations on your 3^rd place finish at MLG Anaheim last weekend. Is this a result you and the team are happy with or do you really feel you should have made it to the grand finals?

Toes: Thanks. We obviously wanted to be in the grand finals but overall we are actually really happy with our showing. We did extremely well in the round robin (going 7-0, though we had some insanely close matches) so we showed that we were able to hang with the 2nd and 1st place finishers. I do think we probably could have made it to at least 2nd, but after we lost the 2-3 series to Button Bashers, we weren't as "into it" as we would have liked to be against SK-EU. That coupled with some unfortunate map RNG brought us that 0-3 loss to give us 3rd. But once again, I think we had a fantastic showing, and I'm really happy with it.

After going 7-0 in the round robin stage, it appeared that you guys were on the road to gold. Is there any single thing you feel made your success run out (in the final BB and SK.EU matches)? In particular, how did you guys beat SK.EU 3-2 in round robin and then get beaten by them 0-3 in bracket play?

Toes: There wasn't any single thing. Our series against Button Bashers was down to the wire in round robin too, so losing to them 2-3 in bracket only meant that we made one more mistake than them, or they made one more little play that took them to the finals over us. As for SK.EU, it was a combination of a few things. First off, we got the worst possible map selection for the series and made some crucial mistakes that lost us the first match on Blade's Edge where I think we had the best shot at taking the round. If we had taken it, it could have taken us to a 4th and 5th round on more favorable maps.

Secondly, we went straight into that series after our first loss of the tournament, and though it normally doesn't happen to us, we were kind of down and just not as into it as we had been for every other match of the tournament. And lastly, I can't take anything away from SK.EU. They played amazing against us, and deserve their placing.

There is a lot of talk about the comp you guys run at events, some of it not so positive. Do you feel obligated to perform well given the viability of the shaman, hunter, and healer comp right now and what will you guys do if it gets nerfed (again)?

Toes: Haha, love this question. No, I don't feel obligated to perform well just because of my comp. I do recognize that our comp has a pretty hefty advantage against most of the comps in these tournaments, but I would feel just as obligated to do well if I were playing any other comp. I've learned to just ignore all the comments about our comp because all I really care about are tournament placings, not public opinion. If it gets nerfed to the point of not being worth playing, then we'll find the next thing to cheese people down with. We're good at that. :D

Do you think WoW is going to persist as being a top eSports title? We’ve already seen many top teams and players come and go and it seems roster changes occur in many teams after every event. With that in mind, how long do you think you are going to continue playing competitively?

Toes: Honestly, I don't know much about this stuff. I think WoW can persist as a top eSport title because of the huge player base, and I hope it does, because I'm not good at any other game. I'll keep playing competitively as long as my team thinks I'm worth keeping around, and as long as I feel like I'm good enough to keep playing. I'm not in this for the money, so even if the prize money went down or it started to die out as an eSport, I would keep playing.

In regards to World of Warcraft itself, what do you enjoy doing within the game besides playing arena (such as PvE, achievements, rep grinding, etc.)

Toes: Haha, this is going to be a short answer - nothing. I log on to play arena, and if I'm not playing arena, I just log off. I've never really done achievements or rep grinding, and I only ever PvE'd pre-BC just so I could get gear to go 1v4 people in Silithus. :)

With another MLG as well as a ESL event coming up for WoW in the near future, what is the teams plans for these events and can we expect any changes in the roster or your comp before then?

Toes: Well after our 3rd place finish in Anaheim, we plan on trying to prepare a little better for all the teams. We'll be practicing even more and trying out more new things. There are no roster change plans and as far as comps go, I'm going to keep that a secret. :)

One last thing Mike, the alias ‘Toes’ – how did you come up with it?

Toes: Lol, well when I started playing I had to come up with a name for my character so I decided to do that thing where you look around and pick the first thing you see and just type it in the box. But I think I chose too immediately because the first thing I saw was my undead mage's toes above the little name box.

Thanks a lot Toes for doing this interview! Also, if anyone has any particular questions they want to be asked in future interviews (with any of the x6.WoW players) feel free to post them in a comment below.