The Thursday before ACL was also my birthday, so to be flying out that night was going to be really hectic as I was really busy! 11.55pm came along out of no where and I was on a plane to sydney for ACL! I arrived in Sydney at 6am with no sleep, then waited for Josh (aka Runamok) to get into the airport so we can both catch the train to our hotel.
As we got to the hotel we settled in for a bit then we went and headed of to City Hunter to go practice some games, I only practiced for a hour or so as I was really tired and couldnt function well at all. After City Hunter I asked josh if he wanted to go help set up ACL and he agreed, so we jumped in and helped set up the SC2 area. We finished helping out around 9pm and went home to go to sleep as we had a 7am wake up. (Thanks to ACL team for the Subway / cookies )
Day 1: Arriving at the venue 10minutes early and having to sit outside was horrible it was sooooo cold. After we got let in I went straight onto a computer to warm up for a few hours before the event. 11am came around and brackets were out, I had the
"Easier" Bracket which made me happy but I also knew that it wasnt going to be easy to make it out.
Before my first games I had Josh (Runamok) help calm me down and get me in the zone because in the past I have never won a series in Sydney or the east coast of Australia. My first Opponent was Eddie (Deviant) and I was worried as he had beaten me before 2-1 on a online tournament, so having josh calm me down and focus was really good for me going into the match. We vetoed and played I used my dts to take came 1 as I caught him out of position, game 2 I open oracle and got enough damage done that he had to go all in and I held and won 2-0!
After this i was so happy went and high 5'ed everyone, knowing that I had finally broken my previous 0-2 0-2 streaks. Match 2 was against Yours On stage, which was an awesome experience and to have a crowd cheer for you and casters to cast your game was awesome. Yours gave me a good run for my money almost beating me in game 1, defending my 8 gate but I came back to immortal sentry follow up to take game 1. Game 2 I decided to try the same build again an Immortal sentried on over growth and just had to much and won 2-0!
After i had won I packed up after my interview and then an ACL admin came up to me again and said I’m playing on stage again! Woah I was so happy to be playing on stage as that exposure is very good. My next opponent was vivid another Zerg player from the SCS community. Game 1 I think was merry go round and again I 8 gated as I really like to 2 base all in haha. As I attacked into his 3rd he had no hydras and I thought to myself, Yes! 2nd map I dont really remember but he played very well in both matches and also gave me a good run for my money, I took the 2nd game and won again 2-0! I was on a map score of 6-0 and was also into groups! after beating vivid I was extremely happy as I thought I would never get into groups.
Winners final I had to play South, a protoss if i won here I would 100% have a top 2 seed into groups. Going into the games I had Eddie and josh both help calm me down and focus on playing against south. Going into game 1 we both macroed out I had dts he had robo macro, as it got to late game the lasers were out Collosus vs Collosus, I caught him out in 1 big engagement and I pushed to win from there, game 2 was on king sejong again it went to a macro game and collosus vs collosus but i made a massive mistake, Bard has a rule in PvP from WoL which is never OVER probe, unfortunately I made 70 - 80 probes. We fought Collosus vs Collosus and he just had too much army supply and took game 2. Game 3 was on over growth I opened blink stalkers as I saw he went phoenix, this game was very close and he pushed me with a 2 base immortal sentry, fortunately I had dts to hold off his army as he had no obs. I pushed him back and knew I had a good lead having blink immortals and dts so I took a 3rd. Since I had no probes because of his phoenix I decided to pressure his 3rd ( The gold base) and took a really bad fight and allmost lost . But I pulled back, regrouped and fought again and just had way to much and over powered him! I took the series 2-1! Yay! im into top 2 of open bracket of a score 8-1.
Day 2: I was thinking about my group B all the night before and the morning, i was sitting there thinking who I need to beat and what scores etc to get to get top 2 in my group. I went into my group against Petrify, Probe, Kez, Schnitzel and South, a mostly pvp group but had its zergs, Game 1 was vs Kez and it was a close match so close that I allmost lost if i didnt snipe his overseers he went roach ling into roach ling hydra and just kept the pressure on me trading well, then following up with mutas which caught me off guard. I defended as best I could and tried to just kill all the mutas, I lost all my collosus so it was immortal sentry stalker zealot vs roach ling hydra muta. I took the fight and was blinking very well and just defended, I got 2 collosus out for the final battle were he had roach hydra corrupter and i defended and pushed and won game 1! game 2 was on merry go round were i 8 gate all inned him and i just had to much and crushed his roach ling army to take the series 2-0!
Match 2 was vs probe if I was to win this I would have a very very good chance of going through into Champ bracket. It was a very close series and I just won 2-1 after probe made a little mistake on game 3 which gave me the advantage. At this time I was feeling very good with a map score of 4-1. I just had to beat petrify, match 3 was vs petrify I didnt really want to play him straight after probe as they were most likely the 2 to make it out of the group but i had to.
Going into it Eddie was nice enough to sit by myside to help me focus and concentrate as the SLCN team sat by Petrify to help him win. Game 1 He 10 pooled me and I will say it here I am sorry for the pause when your lings got into my base but I really was lagging and since the slightest mistake could cost me the game I wanted to make sure I turned off my Pandora to fix it. After the 10 pool it went into a macro game he went roach ling hydra and I went collosus deathball, taking 4 bases and just having a better economic advantage I took game 1. Game 2 I went for a immortal sentry build on foxtrot and he went roach ling 2 base all in, I was caught with my pants down as he came through the back rocks! I honestly thought i was dead but with good positioning and forcefields I held of the roach ling agression and pushed with my 7 gate immortal sentry to take game 2! YES! I said to myself beating most likely the 2 strongest in my group and getting a score of 6-1! I knew I could make Championship bracket now.
Match 4 and 5 I vsed South and Schnitzel another pvp vs south and I just metagamed him knowing what he did earlier and took the series with a convincing 2-0, My final match was against schnitzel and i was a map score if 8-1 and if I was to win against him I would be first seed over probe, he got terran and as mannerd as he was he told me the race so thanks for that!, I opened a very early agression immortal stalkers sentry push and I just had to much and crushed his army, game 2 I opened dts and caught him without detection and he had to gg!
To go a score of 10-1 i was so happy! Also to be 2nd seed overall out of the top 8 made me even more happier, Champ bracket I was up against pezz probably 1 of the strongest protoss in sea atm, a pvp and it was on stage! This was going to be the biggest match out of the whole tournament for me because in my recent results vs him i've lost 0-2. Going into this I just focused on keeping calm and just playing my game. Game 1 I opened dts and got some good damage done and took it to the macro game, I had +3 attack to his +2 attack, so I moved in from his 4th area to get a massive concave and surround his army, this worked so I took game 1, Wowee I was so happy after that, Game 2 was probably the closest of the hole series and the crowd loved it, We went into a very late macro game back and forth I was behind for most of the game and I just defended to the best of my ability and I held on! he had a massive eco lead having 4 - 5 base and I barely having a 4th, the final attack came around and he just had to much bank and could warp in alot of zealots to reinforce and I lost, score is 1-1.
This is were it got crazy, I went for a proxy oracle and he went dt, he got some really good early damage done killing 5 - 8 probes and stopping me from mining. I have done that dt build alot of times so knowing the counter which is void rays I made 4 of them. I pretty much did a 1 base all in from there and pushed him back into his main base which let me take a natural and macro from there. I took the next fight at my base as he had to go all in or do damage, I allmost lost as I lost my detection (I swear that oracle wasn’t there!) and he had dts everywhere! Ahhh I was thinking, I recoverd and got a 3rd base and just barely holding each attack I pushed 3 base vs 2 base I had a massive eco advantage and army supply advantage, I pushed into his natural and almost lost again because of dts. I had to pull back to my 3rd where my cannons were, The final engagement he pushed into my 3rd having his archons at the front I killed them all pushed in with my own archons and crushed his army, The Final boss aka Dts (gosh I had bad observer controll) got killed off and he gg'ed! I was soooo dam happy at this stage I didnt care where I finished I just beat pezz in an amazing series so gg to him.
I just made Top 4 in Upper bracket and my next opponent was iaguz, I went out to the cafe and got a drink as I just had a crazy series and like 10 players came up to me and said congratz awesome series etc to me. I was really happy that a pvp could be that good, my series against iaguz was very quick and i just fell apart and played very poorly vs him, he took the series 2-0. ( also congratz to guz to get top 2 and get the seed!) I went back upstairs to play pigeon in pvp. His pvp is so strong, game 1 I macroed too hard vs him and lost to a timing push, game 2 I lost to his good micro against a proxy gate.
Finishing 5/6 overall the same as NXZ I was so proud, didnt even expect to make group bracket let alone Champ so to get that far and suprised alot of people im really happy.
I would like to also thank Josh Aka Runamok for booking the hotel with me and helping me get around sydney and just supporting me also through the event, without Josh I probably would have not gone to ACL so a massive thankyou to you and I hope you and I meet again sometime soon!
I Would like to thank Eddie at the start of the day before I even got to the venue as Josh, we all walked from the same hotel so I asked him if he could stay with me and help keep me calm, so I could just focus on game by game. So a big thankyou to Eddie because without him I would of been in a bit of trouble having no one to help me focus on my games and his support through out the event was just awesome so yeah a big thankyou to eddie
Also a big thankyou to Fighto as my keyboard broke on day 2 before I even played a game and I was on a pretty big tilt and I asked if I could borrow his keyboard and he let me (I know a few others also offerd but i could only use certain keyboards) without your Lucky keyboard I would say I wouldnt have gone 10-1 in groups so thanks again, also tgun as i told him about this he just said i gotta borrow a mouse pad and just keep my chin up i cant help what i cant controll so a massive thanks to both these guys!
Thanks to ACL and Baldie also the other SC2 admin ETL.abbadonz you were cheering for me so a big thankyou to you guys because without you guys there wouldnt be a event like this.
Thanks to Blysk for taking me out to the Sydney opera house / the bridge I’ve been in Sydney 2x before and I’ve never been so thanks to Blysk for that on the Monday. Also a big thankyou to Bard for hanging out with me on Monday as I would have been bored shitless as having nothing to do as my flight was at 8pm and Blysk left at 11. We had a good laugh and had a great day, Lunch dates and dinner dates! hahaha but yeah thanks for that.
Thanks to all the support I got from the perth guys and livibee also my best mate in perth Stephen without you guys supporting me throughout the event i probably wouldnt have done as well as I did so a big thanks to you guys who supported me and who ever else did, also Khyron aka Andrew who has helped me since 2012 after he seen me in wcs who has stuck by me and helped me to improve and try his best to support me, also Chris who has done the same!
Thanks to Zephh for Letting me cast on stage with her and carrying me with the casting as I would never have felt comfortable without you, so thankyou for that! I had a great time, hope I wasn’t to bad. Also thanks to maynarde and Zephh for casting an awesome event and I would love to cast with both of them again.
Thanks To the SCS Guys for taking me out to Korean bbq and getting the best food they could from there was a great sunday night and if I ever go to future ACL’s I hope to see you guys there again!
Overall I would really like to thank everyone at the event, I have never felt so welcomed at an event before. I feel like I owe my success to everyone that helped me out and made me feel so positive.
P.s If anyone has any photos of me can you let me know Asap!
Was awesome to see you do well. I was cheering for you from the stream, as i was cheering for first of all terran aka Iaguz and then players i know from seacraft. So stoked to see you do so well in the lan there. Keep it up and win a seacraft now :P
Game 1 He 10 pooled me and I will say it here I am sorry for the pause when your lings got into my base but I really was lagging and since the slightest mistake could cost me the game I wanted to make sure I turned off my Pandora to fix it.
It's okay, well done on the performance, you played well! However here's some advice in the future:
1) If you are lagging, pause immediately, not when you realise that the slightest mistake could cost you the game as you see zerglings running into your main base.
2) Baldie told you, and everyone else, that running pandora/grooveshark or anything had a high chance of causing lag, don't run those programs when you know that if you are worried about the lag.
3). Say "pp" before you pause, or immediately after you pause, it's extremely frustrating as a player when you just hit the pause button as my lings hit your base without you even saying pp. To see the game pop up as paused with no message is really really frustrating.
I apologise for being quite angry about you pausing, but it is still hard for me to believe you were lagging when we were playing on the same network and I had pandora running also with 0 lag. I also learned I should have gotten up and gone to the admins immediately, rather than complaining after the series was over. Anyway, whats done is done, and well done for playing well!
It's okay, well done on the performance, you played well! However here's some advice in the future:
1) If you are lagging, pause immediately, not when you realise that the slightest mistake could cost you the game as you see zerglings running into your main base.
2) Baldie told you, and everyone else, that running pandora/grooveshark or anything had a high chance of causing lag, don't run those programs when you know that if you are worried about the lag.
3). Say "pp" before you pause, or immediately after you pause, it's extremely frustrating as a player when you just hit the pause button as my lings hit your base without you even saying pp. To see the game pop up as paused with no message is really really frustrating.
I apologise for being quite angry about you pausing, but it is still hard for me to believe you were lagging when we were playing on the same network and I had pandora running also with 0 lag. I also learned I should have gotten up and gone to the admins immediately, rather than complaining after the series was over. Anyway, whats done is done, and well done for playing well!
Thats all good I will try not to let that happen again and say pp, but yeah ggs
It was a pleasure to be there and help out where i could man, im really stoked by your performance and where you ended up placing so well done
I also hope this isnt going to be the last time we seen you at an ACL
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