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This hasn't been edited, just what I've written up over the night, part 2 will be released whenever It's finished.

EB Expo Blog

My EB Expo "Weekend" started a day earlier than everyone -- we (myself and Pamela) picked up Petraeus from Parramatta station at around 7:30 -- it was actually quite weird, my girlfriend spotted him before I did, yet she's never seen him. All she had was my description of "He looks kind of like me, only slightly shorter and more New Zealander". After tailing him out of the station for three or so minutes (because I'd never met him in real life, so I wasn't too keen on asking a random stranger if he was "Petraeus"..) he turned around with a smile on his face and we proceeded back to my house.

When we got back to my house, I set Petraeus up on my PC (I can't practice the night before a tournament: it's simply a nerve and mentality issue..) and took pictures of him while he fought off a variety of cheese.. and boy was it cheese. 3 pylon blocks, proxy 2rax, etc.. it was awful. Eventually, he headed off to bed at roughly 11pm Sydney time (his body clock telling him it was 1 or 2 am, I forget..) and I played a game of LoL in an attempt to calm my nerves.

Didn't really help, still didn't get to sleep until 1am.

The next day, we were up bright (woke up at 8) and early to get to the venue at 9;30 AM, because if you weren't there, you'd be disqualified for killing E-Sports and delaying the tournament! Yet we arrived at 9;30 and were subject to a myraid of venue issues that.. really, didn't surprise a single person. Most people expected the actual tournament to start anywhere between 12:00 and 2:00, so we were all really relaxed.

The one downside, however, was we didn't even have lan. Damnit, I was looking forward to getting everyone to play Counter-Strike while we waited. Oh well. A little exploring of the area (I didn't realise I could just walk into the main area, we were told we wouldn't be allowedw in there) that the tournament was in revealed there was street fighter, fifa, shootmania, etc.. all around, but I opted to just relax and talk to everyone.

Eventually, we had both a working network and internet! However, we were struck with unbearable lag, so no games were played -- after all, no-one wants to play in 500 ping. It's one of the most frustrating things in the world. So, the wait continued, as we trolled each-other on SEA ladder (and at one stage I played Mafia in a PvT during which Iaguz ninja f10-n'd me while I was winning T_T;. After a while (around 12, I believe, but my memory is hazy) we started playing some games and the power then went out. I think Jazbas and Myuu were 1-1, and that's all I knew was played.

So, powers out. Iaguz and I left and got some subway for lunch, because screw standing around for so long with nothing to do. We came back, power was back on! Time to play!

Except the power went out. Again. Welp.

So, powers out again, still nothing to do. So, we waste some more time while the power is repaired (it wasn't only our games being delayed, Gears of War was also delayed and maybe more). Eventually, power comes back on and I start my games vs Azz - finally! I won the first game after holding on some fast warp prism agression into 7gate + immortal timing, and then came the second game..

We get well into the second game (roughly 18 minutes in) where Azz is pressuring me extremely hard with an 8gate allin. He had no 3rd, no robo or tech behind it -- he had roughly 140 supply with a reasonably large bank vs my 180 supply of roach/ling with burrow. I had a ~3/4 area surround and had just baited out a large amount of forcefields, burrowed all my units and the net starts to disconnect.

No worries, we'll just wait it out. Eventually my client comes back, I instantly pause and we wait for a few minutes.. but it continues. We were left with the unfortunate choice of replaying the game (after we restart the 4g stick our row of computers were running off) or playing it out (with insane lag -- I didn't fancy my chances). I told Norksman that I was okay with whatever Azz decided and went back to blasting music, before Azz left the game, signalling we'd restart.

Well, that sucked, but I was ok with it -- at the end of the day, I very well could've still lost the game. I had no infestor energy (but had infestors on the way) and my upgrades were much worse, so it wasn't the end of the world. Just had to fix my head (being kicked out of a game unceremoniously at 18 minutes is rattling, no matter how it goes.

So, I went for a walk to get my new Steelseries gear - after all, the net was going to take a while to fix. When I came back, Azz was ready and we jumped into the regame. I scouted with my 10th drone, because it's Azz and I've been cheesed by him before. I get to his base, there's absolutely nothing there and I scout around my main, natural and see nothing. What's going on?

Turns out he 2gated in the one corner of my base I didn't scout. So, I laughed. I couldn't blame him: he got beat in game 1, game 2 wasn't looking very great, and a player like Azz is the type who studiest his opponent and prepares a build based on the map, so he'd shown his hand -- in retrospect, it's a smart decision to do, and it worked.

Game 3 went perfectly to plan, however. I scouted that he was going for the ever-present Immortal Sentry build on metropolis that Protoss seem to love, and executed an old strategy of mine -- fast upgrade mass ling into infestor. I caught his sentries out of position (8 sentries for a large amount of lings is a good trade, regardless of how many lings) and then killed his main army with my reinforcements, before Sauron Zerging him to death. First round over and Pet had (predictably) proceeded, so all was going to plan.

I guess I'll note here that the playing conditions definitely weren't optimal: I couldn't use half my desk (it was warped to the point that moving my mouse up that high would result in it not even responding..) and it was extremely loud, as well as the players area being accessible to guests (at one stage, a very young child played his very first game of Starcraft on Ninja's NA account. Needless to say, he did lose..). Again, nothing unexpected, but it definitely wasn't very nice..

So, round 2 vs Petraeus -- after seeing the brackets, I knew this was very likely to happen, but it didn't make it any easier. Him staying at my place made this a lose lose almost, as whoever lost was going to be (somewhat) unhappy. He went on to beat me 2-0 pretty easily (I played poorly, he played quite well), but there was something worth noting (luckily it didnt affect the outcome of the game). Towards the end of game two, a light was shining directly in my face -- not sure if it was a laser pointer or the actual venue lights, but it was easily the most distracting thing I've encountered - yet another reason why you don't want to have your tournament played in an area where you have very little control over the surroundings.