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Arena LAN Recap!
 

On the 8th September I, and 3 other Exile 5 members, attended the ARENA LAN in Adelaide. Bard, NotoriouS, Phoenix and I headed in to represent the Exile5 name for the day. Bard and NotoriouS were ready to compete for the day, while Phoenix and I were behind them to cheer them on. This was the 6th Starcraft 2 event held by the internet cafe, and it was my first, so I went in very excited. The result was as some people expected, though before the event a lot of name were being thrown around as potential winner. EdgE took out Satu first in the winners bracket, and then again in the grand final 2-1 after Satu had fought past FighT in the losers bracket. It was a close set of game but ultimately EdgE came out with the victory.


The day for me started when I got there and sat behind Bard as he began tackling the monster bracket of Qualifier #1 for the EB Expo Starcraft 2 Tournament in October. Losing 2-1 in the first round to RiiChard, Bard had a huge task ahead of him to snatch a qualifier spot. Only the top 8 would qualify, so Bard was forced to fight through 6 gruelling rounds in the lower bracket to qualify. Fortune went his way though, as he was awarded 2 walkovers due to players not showing up in his first 2 lower rounds. 2-0 victories against BiGbiRd, Syntox and Schnitzel brought him to the final round before he would earn a qualifier spot, put up against Brood War legend Legionnaire. Bard steadied his nerves and executed a build recommended to him by another S.A Protoss, TASpider. A 4gate! In both games Bard was able to drop a pylon in sneaky locations and proceeded to micro his way to victory and qualify for the EB Expo with a 2-0


Being the first LAN I’d woken up to go to, I just sat and watched the games and talked with people, playing games in the downtime before another Exile5 match was underway.

As it was the first I had actually attended, nobody knew who I was. I was sitting next to a person who I am good friends with online, Baldie, and was chatting with him for about 20minutes. After telling him that we had played before and describing the games when he said he didn’t remember it and asked who I was. “I’m Potthead,” I replied. “What? Mind blown!” he said back and then went on to tell people around him that I was Potthead.

Sitting near Adelaide champion EdgE, I was watching his games with Bard for a long time. EdgE and Bard got talking about Exile5 and after a short conversation EdgE asked if Potthead was here. From right next to him I said, “Yeah I’m right here.” “Oh you’re Potthead, I wondered if it was you,” he said.

What upstanding blokes Baldie and EdgE are to not even know who I am! Hopefully next time I can socialise a bit more and people won’t be surprised to find out it’s me. For my first LAN, I had an amazing time and will definitely be heading in to more in the future, as it was a valuable experience. Perhaps I’ll even play in the next one!

Phoenix had a shot at the bracket but unfortunately fell 2-0 to a masters terran called Kreamy, then 2-0 to NotoriouS in the lower bracket. Phoenix says, “My eyes never left the screens of Bard and NotoriouS as they played through over 45 games between them. Getting to meet some of the South Australian SC2 personalities was an added bonus and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching South Australia’s best competing for the glory of the Adelaide crown.”

NotoriouS first took out a platinum terran called Defect and then was knocked down to the lower bracket by teammate Bard, then after taking out Phoenix he was suffered a narrow 2-1 loss to zerg player Raithen.


Bard, after first qualifying for a place in the EB Expo Tournament in October, took out NotoriouS in his first match of the day, then knocked Spider8 to the lower bracket before being knocked down himself in a close 2-1 series to eventual winner EdgE. In the lower bracket, Bard 2-0’d Tazerenix in a PvP. A 2-1 loss in the next round to FighT ended his day, but with a good result of 4th, he had improved on his last placing of 6th.

For the rest of the day the Exile5 boys were spectators, catching the final few series and socialising with the other players. Overall, it was a successful and productive day for the Adelaide-based Starcraft 2 guys and they look forward to the next one.

Huge thanks to FlashFlamga for driving me there and back and making it easier for me to attend this! Also to Marc(Frequency) and Thanh from Arena for putting these on.