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My ACL and GESC experience - brought to you by Gigabyte Notebooks - Part 2
 

Continuing from my previous blog...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSByjqMGtaU
^music!

Day 2 - ACL Sunday

We arrived at the ACL venue right on 9am this morning. This time we went healthy, we were eating Mcdonalds bacon and egg muffins. Lol by this time our bodies were starting to suffer from the perpetual junk but we pressed on!


yang sharing the love


Streamteam legends!

I managed to win all my games in groups from this stage. Highlights included iaguz building his first barracks INSIDE my base on Daybreak and my overlord catching a glimpse of it haha! Also playing Ruined's scary mech play where luckily I remembered my golden rule vs him which I won't share so I don't handicap his tournament performances .


Me and Iaguz playing

When the bracket came out I was kind of annoyed at first seeing I got Targa first, then most likely Moonglade, and then Mafia in the upper finals if I made it past these two. Then I realised "I need to beat all the best players to win anyway, better play them now then later. It's about time I get a bracket that doesn't pull any punches". So I hopped into my first game with Targa. I 10 pooled and won. In the next game he did a standard fast 3rd play and I managed to deny it while taking a slower 3rd myself + more drones and just got a steady macro lead which slowly transitioned into a macro win in roach-festor wars. This was a big confidence booster to 2-0 the guy who'd won the $2500 1st prize the day before. I then found out Light managed to beat Glade 2-0 with 2 base timing attacks! Woah was I excited! I finally get to play my favourite matchup in a SEA tournament! The bracket suddenly looked a lot easier as I didn't consider Light too big a threat because ZvP is my favourite matchup and I know he is very busy with work so assumed he wouldn't be in practice.


Me and Glade about to play

1 hour later after I bitched about my table wobbling and slowed down the stream and the whole days proceedings I was having Light's 2-base collossus timing rip my face off. I had $2K minerals in the bank and no gas, and no larvae, Oh god. What went wrong? I realised his phenix harass forced my overlords to huddle over my mineral lines and I thought I had way less drones then I actually had! I could have grabbed 2 more gases and got a 4th queen injecting my macro hatch. Also I could have engaged halfway across the map instead of right outside my 3rd. The next game he hit me again with an immortal timing and I died. I was pissed I had just screwed up in ZvP. Light executed very well but I knew there were small mistakes I'd made and it wouldn't happen again.


Caster Maynarde and retiring Protoss NvPinder commentating

I dropped to the lower bracket where I played Tgun and managed to 2-0 him with a comeback in a game where my roach-bane allin failed but I managed to utilise hydras to equalise and go on to win. I then played Glade on stage and managed to 2-0 him with the aid of some lag co-inciding with my targabanes and some solid roach play in game 2. From here I played Light and I managed to 2-0 him too holding his two-base timings this time. In game one I actually went straight into speedbanes after spotting his fast robo and used a roachling ambush to waste FF. However Light wasn't watching and a move meant to waste FF ended up killing all his immortals and sentries and effectively winning me the game. G2 I noticed he grabbed the 2 gas at his natural at 5:00, so they were probably his first 2 gases to be so early. I moved my overlords into his main and actually managed to get vision on both geysers that weren't taken without him realising, verifying he was doing a 7-9 gate +1 zealot-stalker all-in. From here it was somewhat straightforward to victory despite his epic FF defense.

Then onto the finals. I played Mafia and I won 2-1. 2-1. I won ACL Melbourne taking the $1000 and my first "big" win!

Haha that was a short explanation wasn't it? Ok so I don't really want to keep going through these games bit by bit because as the tournament progressed it was obviously more and more exciting for me. What I do want to describe is the feelings.

Basically by halfway through day 2 I was starting to crack open the V bottles and nibbling on chocolate and Dippa's treats he kept passing out to keep my energy up. By now my body was pretty much rebelling at how I was treating it but I managed to keep that shit under wraps for the time being. I ate half a steak sandwich Dot bought me from a cafe which gave me some decent proper food energy. Thef short-burning fuel I kept consuming was somewhat metaphorical for my approach to ACL mentally in that I tried to carry my momentum from the first series against Targa through the entire thing. Losing to Light put a small dent in my confidence but I focused on taking it in my stride and saying, Ok. I just lost a game, it happens. This is SCII, you can't always win. More GG more Skill. You have to lose to learn. All that good stuff! So I went into my series with Tgun confident in doing what I knew was good play and I managed to play very smooth games. Similarly against Moonglade I played with confidence and it worked. I took the risk of Targa-banes because I knew I had to mix it up and stay unreliable. I had to take risks to get some easy wins or I'd tire myself out. This approach was working amazingly and even when I played super standard defensive openers against Light I scouted fantastically and won. Then came the series vs Mafia.


About to start the finals


iMMafia

Let me start by saying Mafia is actually just insanely good. All these other guys I'm mentioning are strong players too. However Mafia isn't afraid to throw out crazy greedy or crazy aggressive builds and has a really good ability to choose which is best. Added to his great mechanics and build order precision and he's a bloody tough opponent. Also it was only a few weeks previously when he attained the coveted GM ranking on Korean ladder. He had beaten players like MarineKingPrime on ladder and was winning many, many tournaments.I was here to win though. I went to win the day before at GESC and I fucked up. So was I really playing to win? I don't think so. Otherwise I would have played better. But here, at ACL I was there to win and that was it. I knew that over thinking ZvZ would be a weakness so as I said in my pre-finals interview. "ZvZ is retarded, so I'm going to go full retard, and I'm going to win". I went in completely unafraid and threw out a 10p game 1 against mafia's pool-first. I was completely crushed, he reacted perfectly. I smiled, shook it off, and did my next build. It worked. I went in g3 not afraid of losing or winning but just playing my game, and playing to win. It worked and I won.


My Piggy mascot cheering me on!

I was thinking I'd already won at this stage. In my mind I was playing well and 2-0ing repeatedly. This series sure I lost a build-order loss but I wasn't afraid to do risky builds anyway. I'd broken my 3rd place ACL curse already and now was just going to smash out some more ZvZ. G1 of the second series I did a lingbane allin. Mafia opened very safely and absolutely crushed it. I tried to macro from here utilising zergling harass to perpetually deny his 3rd and to try to sneak banes into his natural. Meanwhile going defensive hydras + nydus to try and make something happen with a magic defensive concave and a nydus-counter. I started to think Mafia wouldn't hit with his macro lead so I droned a little more and delayed my unit production 30s too long as his wave of roachfestor charged just before my 15 hydras popped and my concave crumbled before they reached the battle. The next game I have no memory of. All I remember is at one point Mayo shouting out to me to look behind me between the games and seeing the streamchat was up on the big screen with everyone spamming:



"¯\_(^(oo)^)_/¯ /̵͇̿̿/'̿̿ ̿ ̿̿ NOTORIOUS P-i-G"


This was a massive pick-me -up, it and the cheers of Dot, Mayo, TSC and everyone else really gave me the energy and confidence to keep my attitude going. I kept drinking V and running to pee between games and not allowing myself to just sit there. I kept my blood flowing, my momentum going and kept playing my best.

The final deciding game came and nerves entered my play a little as I stopped thinking about my build and more about the potential to win for once. This is dangerous in a Starcraft game because you should damn-well be focused on the game at hand. Luckily I snapped out of it. I recognised he was going mutas or rushing infestors with his super fast lair and 4 gases and decided to do something risky. 3 gas late lair, mass +1 roach attack. Taking lair and 3rd + drones behind it. I was halfway committed to it before I started to shit myself remembering that if his spine timing was spot on he could stop this and I'd be screwed. Oh well, I wasn't afraid! I started ling scouting his front and saw just 2 spines so I quickly moved out with my ball. he had about 10 spines building. Only 2-4 were finished when I arrived and his ramp was unblocked. With under 10s till his spines finished I darted up into the main base and started focusing down drones and queens. His drones ran to his natural so I focused down the spire knowing I'd crippled his economy and his tech. Meanwhile I was teching to hydras and securing my 3rd base. My roaches in his main finally died to the muta's tickling glaive-wurms, but I already had another squad finishing off his 3rd base and retreating across the map. I was now a base up, with a drone advantage and him with a redundant tech path I knew I had it in the bag and started to smile to myself. Eager to not let the game out of my grip I went aggressive with roach-hydra not giving him any time to consolidate his spine-festor comeback and finished him off with my 2nd wave as my infestors waddled up. I had done it!

I was overcome with awe at the feeling of joy rolling through me and the cheers from those supporting me. I fist pumped a few times and laughed to myself while running my hands through my hair trying to come to terms with what I'd just achieved. A "P.I.G, P.I.G" chant started up for a few seconds before dying off realising it was past 9pm and most of the spectators were on the live stream. Nonetheless it felt amazing and I was overjoyed and happy to have had such a confident and strong tournament run through every single one of the strongest Zergs in SEA, the top Protoss and some mighty fine Terran players.

On a random note about my determination at ACL which didn't show through at GESC. There's a funny cycle that occurs here where I only believe I played to win if I do win. And I only leave satisfied if I feel I played my absolute best trying to win. Which of course is only true if I actually win. So essentially it's a hard attitude I've slowly learnt I need to have to compete at a high level. Anything less just won't cut it. It's not good enough. You can't say "oh I tried my best" because you will just never win anything. If you didn't spend every free minute and hour practicing then no, you didn't try your best. I won't go insane and work myself to death but I feel this attitude is necessary to be a champion. And one day I want to be the champion at a big event outside of Australia so here's to working that goal.


Interview with Livibee

I haven't really mentioned Dot. But omg Dot was the most supportive and helpful girlfriend, coach and manager I've ever had at an event with me. She was constantly by my side talking over the games with me, reminding me to cover my weak spots and perform all my basic mechanics properly. She kept me focused, fed me, brought me water and basically was instrumental in giving me the mental and physical support I needed to win ACL. Thanks a lot Dot!

Also a huge shoutout to Mayo and Kiara for driving us around the whole weekend and letting us stay at their place!

Post-ACL

So what did I do in my week-long planned holiday following ACL? Well I fell sick with a horrible case of the FLU running through Melbourne at the time and was bedridden in our hotel for the rest of the week. I thought I was stuck having to watch Charmed reruns all day on the TV in our room. Then I remembered I had my Gigabyte P2532N laptop on me and thankfully was able to watch streams on wi-fi and episodes of 30 rock I had stored on the laptop. I even played some Starcraft campaign before tiring myself out with basic single player macro and falling asleep lol!



Also a big thanks to Dot for buying me Dr Pepper and peanut butter cups to aid my recovery .

Thanks for reading this mountain of a blog guys!


Look out for me at WCS Australia casted by HD, Painuser and Tastosis as well as local talent Maynarde on 10-12th August. Immediately following which I'll be flying to Cologne, Germany to compete in IEM Gamecom 15-20th August. Cheer me on as I compete!


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