SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

EDIT: Added photos.
EDIT2: Here's the VOD of the epic CTF Slums match (1 hour 39 minute mark)

Haven't submitted a blog here for a long time. I don't really have anything interesting to share. But I do want to write about a few things since there are people who missed out.

Firstly, ACL had a record turn-out. Off the top of my head, Call of Duty saw over 21 teams competing, and SC2 had 60 or so in the Open Bracket alone (Not to mention the addition of LoL which took the main stage). This is good and bad for different reasons. Growth is good! But unfortunately this means we'll probably see ACL return to Bundoora next year, as their 2 biggest turnouts have been at this venue and they'll be keen to stick with it. It's a bloody nightmare to get to, but Melbourne doesn't have much else to offer unfortunately. I think this goes to show that we were extremely spoiled with the Brisbane CBD location.


For me, one of the most exciting parts was also one of the most sad parts. The absence of veterans like Mafia, tgun and Light was heartfelt. But this also paved way for a lot of new blood to make names for themselves. We're in that "reboot" phase of competitive gaming where old generations fold and new ones step up. I've seen it happen a few times since Brood War and WarCraft 3. It's a natural stage of eSports. People start to worry that the game is dying, but it's healthy. It promotes growth and diversity.

The first thing I noticed when I walked through the doors on Saturday morning was the wide array of sponsored apparel. For the first time in Australian eSports, we're seeing a higher ratio of brand representation. This speaks volumes for the health of our growth in the last year. 12 months ago we were at ACL Sydney and off the top of my head, the only people wearing specifically branded gear were Xeria and Mindfreak. (The Nv guys were only wearing generic Gamecom shirts and the Carnage guys were wearing generic Razer shirts)

Here we are now and we've got so much more. It's a baby step, but it's still a step closer to what I saw when I first stepped through the door at MLG last year.


So anyway, for me, this was my first time competing at an ACL event. I went into the open bracket expecting to lose 0-4, and told everyone I'd be happy with winning just 1 map. The bracket was generated and I was delighted! There were a few names I recognised, and none of them I was particularly concerned about. But then HuT mentioned that I was in his bracket. And then I looked forward and realised he'd been seeded to the 2nd round. Fark.

My first round opponent arrived. A GM Terran. I played few dozen practice games this week and I knew my ZvT was really sub-par. Actually, my Zerg in general was pretty terrible. I'd be very surprised if my win-rate was above 15% with Zerg.


We went through the veto process and as always, anyone who has witnessed my mentality will always be baffled. I tend to eliminate the most common maps and play a lot of unorthodox maps. I roll the dice and hope to spawn a very specific match-up, allowing me to execute a very specific build for the circumstance. The first map was Derelict Watcher. This is my favourite map in the pool right now. It's hard for me to explain why. I always control the watch towers and it's very easy to identify & deflect drops. The two paths in the center of the map are narrow and with an observer there; there aren't many opportunities for sneak attacks. The small distance between the 2nd and 3rd allows me to play greedy and secure an early economy lead with units like Tanks and Colossi.

So anyway. I spawned Terran. Excellent. He opened up with a Reaper expand. I opened up with a Reactor Reaper expand. His Reaper arrived just as my two popped out. I chased him away and he escaped with 5 HP. I went straight to his base and managed to kill the SCV building his CC at 99%. Jumped into the main and did a fair amount of harassment before he was able to shoo me away. My Factory inherited the Reactor and I had a Bunker with 4 Marines protecting my expansion. I produced two mines at a time from my Factory and placed two in the center paths, 1 at each of his 3rd base options, and 2 on the northern/southern perimeters of the map. I reinforced these mines with a Missile Turret, meaning that any drops travelling the map would be killed before he had a chance to react, and any ground pushes would be identified/softened along the way.

I used a single Banshee to pick up a few kills in the main base and deny as much gas as possible. Did a bit of scouting too, while keeping an eye on his Stim timing & upgrades. My Banshee killed the SCV building his 3rd CC at 99%. Dat luck. Rossi will hate me for admitting this, but since Siege Mode no longer requires research, I always find myself with a bit of spare gas sitting around at this stage of the game, so I put it into the Caduceus Reactor upgrade. Yep. The Medivac one. This yields two bonuses for me. If they scout the Starport and see the Tech Lab glowing, they're gonna assume I'm getting cloak. This can provoke a few responses. Additional turrets, pooling energy for Scans, that sort of thing. I only make one Banshee, and it comes so late that it's never worth picking up Cloak. It also means that when I DO start making Medivacs, I can be a little more liberal with my Stims. I know it's dumb, and I know you're laughing right now. But I've managed to weave it into my build at the moment and it works. I'll find somewhere else for the gas to go eventually. For now I'm satisfied with it.

I constructed my 3rd and it was time to really start cranking out the Tank/Marine production. I watched him fumble around as he tried to deal with my annoying mines at each of his 3rd locations, and my Turret/Mine combos on the map borders prevented some drops.

I saw his army move out across the map and Sieged my tanks in a good spot at my natural ramp. He couldn't approach either of my ramps without taking heavy losses, so I knew it was time to circumvent his push with a double drop and take out a base. Unfortunately he did something unexpected. He managed to rush his Marines up my 3rd ramp and snipe my 3rd Orbital. This was going to throw a huge spanner in my momentum, so I knew I had to do more than just even up our bases. I needed to reduce him to 1 base. My double drop arrived at his natural just as he parked himself outside my ramp. I killed a ton of SCV's and watched as his army turned tail and started heading home. I immediately sent out a group of 16 Marines via the northern watch tower to circumvent his army and snipe the 3rd. He arrived home to defend, but I managed to snipe the CC. I picked up and flew towards the main and he followed. My 2nd force on the ground managed to snipe his 3rd and he was forced to tap out. Phew.

Game 2, he chose Whirlwind. Oh god. I knew this was an instant loss if I randomed Zerg, and I wasn't feeling so comfortable with Terran either. I prayed for Protoss and celebrated as soon as the load screen disappeared. PvT on Whirlwind. My favourite.

My PvT is so damn greedy. I open with a really late Gateway, like 14. I know if you're gonna get your Gate that late, you might as well just Nexus first. But I wasn't sure if he was trying to meta me with some 11/11, so I played it safe. Scouted the watch tower. No proxy rax. Phew. Chrono boosted out a Stalker and a Moco and started harassing Marines at his ramp. Couldn't get there in time to stop the Bunker from getting up, but I applied enough pressure to keep him on the defensive. This gave me the freedom to saturate two bases very quickly and tech to Colossi without any dramas. His first push finally moved across the map and by the time he arrived, I managed to deflect him with 2 Colossi and a Time Warp. He also tried a simultaneous triple drop in my main, but I had an Observer sitting in the sky between our bases and had plenty of stalkers in position to deflect.

I started applying pressure with my 3 Colossi and Stalkers whilst immediately taking a 3rd and teching to Storm. I throw down another 7 gates (10 total) and banking a lot of gas. Chrono boosted upgrades from 2 forges. He suffers a lot of casualties due to the Time Warp / Colossi combo, but eventually manages to deflect me - saving his natural expansion. I managed to snipe 6-8 Vikings during our scuffles before returning home and preparing my new Templar army for the big engagement. He arrives on my doorstep with a large bio force and a decent number of vikings. I catch him off guard with Feedbacks and manage to take down 6 of his 8 Medivacs. He begins to retreat immediately and I chase him all the way home with aggressive Blinks, focusing on Vikings and Medivacs. By the time I reach his doorstep doesn't have much to protect him from the Storm/Colossi combo and he taps out. Flawless game, went exactly as planned.

My next opponent is HuT. ****. I have 2 or so hours to kill before we play, and I've already accepted that I'm not gonna be able to touch him. He's on a whole new level. He veto's the two maps I wanted to play. We start out on Neo Planet S. Ugh. I random Protoss. Probably the best race I could have asked for on this map. But with my 3rd so far away, I know I'm gonna be playing a very defensive game. Rossi's advice was, "If you get Protoss, don't ever leave your base. Just stay alive and build up a death murder ball." Easy, right? Nope. I had already psyched myself out. I went from playing a beautiful PvT on Whirlwind to getting Supply Capped twice per minute, sitting on 3 gates for the whole game and never having my army in the right place at the right time. HuT tore me apart. I had an Observer parked outside his natural for the entire game and it terrified me how strong his production was. If I watched the replay, I'm pretty sure his supply would have doubled mine beyond the 6 minute mark. The only thing I did (too) well this game was make Probes. I had like 35 on each base, hahaha! Oh dear.

Game 2. Whirlwind again. Please, please give me Protoss. Nope. Zerg. I accept that it's going to be an immediate loss. I've never successfully managed to take a 3rd against Terran on this map, letalone a 4th. I do the most predictable thing and go for the Roach/Bane All-in. Problem is, I've never tried it before. I don't really do all-in's. I drone a little too hard and find myself with 2 fully saturated bases and 1500 minerals when I finally go for the attack. I arrive a whole minute too late and he already has 5-7 Bunkers up. I managed to take down all the Bunkers with some perfect Baneling hits, but unfortunately I only had like half a dozen Roaches. Those extra ~10 Drones should have been Roaches, damn it. He holds the attack and it's all downhill from there. I managed to deflect quite a few attacks but he denies my 3rd/4th for the entire game. Eventually he steamrolls me. It was a hard lesson in how to get owned, haha. Despite failing miserably in the 2nd game, I was happy with how I played. My micro/macro were both strong and I didn't spend the whole game supply capped. The first game was embarrassing; I killed myself. The 2nd game felt good knowing that I was completely outplayed.

I dropped to the lower bracket and I'm up against old mate MiLes. We're going through the veto process and suddenly we discover that it's Best of 1. Oh jesus. This pretty much means that if I Random Zerg, I'm out.

I randomed Protoss. Phew. And we're on Derelict. Nice. The game played out very similarly to the Whirlwind game. I'd finally overcome my nerves and the feeling of hopelessness that comes with facing HuT. Confidence restored, I played another beautiful PvT game and managed to land the perfect Storms & Feedbacks needed to emerge victorious.

My next opponent was another GM Terran, from Tasmania! I randomed Zerg. In best of 1. On Derelict. ****. I don't remember much about it. I remember he was very aggressive, and very good at expanding. He managed to constantly snipe all my Overlords on the outside of the map, denying drop vision. He kept my creep spread on my side of the map. He constantly forced me to trade Banelings to keep bases alive, meaning I could never invest my Larvae/money towards actual units. As the game went on, I struggled more and more to hold a 3rd/4th base. My money was dwindling, and my gas was idle. I decided to invest everything into Infestors and hope for the best. In some unfortunate lag spikes I managed to lose about 15 Infestors to a small group of 3-4 Marauders, but I'm pretty sure the game was well over by that point. I was really disappointed by my Zerg play and cursed myself for not picking Protoss. I was out.

I watched over the shoulder of [ecKo] Probe as he avenged me with some solid PvT. I watched the entire game unfold pretty much how I expected it would have if I randomed Protoss. I was a bit butthurt at the sudden change to a Bo1 bracket. Bo1 is a Random player's nightmare. But hey, the schedule needed a kick in the ass so sacrifices had to be made. I was only 1 more match away from making it to the group stages, and man that would have been a good feeling!

After that, I settled back into the manager role and ran around the desolate Bundoora university trying to find food for the guys. This venue is such a pain in the ass. It's hard to get to. There's not a lot of decent accommodation around. There's no food for miles. Ugh. There was this one Indian place which REALLY looked after us though. We ordered enough food for 6 people, with drinks and Samosa's and all sorts of stuff and they only charged like $30. They gave us the Samosa's for free and the curries were delicious. We went back there the next day and they were delighted to see us again, so they gave us free upgrades from small to large meals and gave us heaps of freebies again. Champs.

I spent the rest of the weekend bouncing back and forth between watching the SC2 guys and the COD guys. Rossi and JazBas were sitting side by side for most of the weekend and it was an absolute joy watching their journey through the Open Bracket. So many epic games and unforgettable moments. I know Rossi managed to preserve most of his replays, so I think I'll be looking to feed them out to some casters who would like to cover them!


At one point I overheard some LoL players walking past mOOnGLaDe while he had a huge crowd watching behind him, and they were like, "hurr hurr hurr, thtarrrrcraaaaaaapppthhhh. durrrrrrr" It was really disappointing because I've never heard LoL players insinuate that SC2 is a game for idiots before. I've never heard a LoL player say anything about about SC2, actually. This is something that happened all the time between Counter-Strike and WarCraft 3 back in the day. No need for rivalries between games.

The COD team managed to roll through the group stages and then straight to the Championship Bracket Finals without dropping a series. Then they faced Team Immunity. Immunity are the juggernauts of Australian Call of Duty. They don't lose, ever. And they win very convincingly. So convincingly that they've started getting really bored. They managed to stomp Nv pretty hard in the WB finals, so down we went to the LB finals.


We had pretty much accepted that we'd be playing off against Avant Garde (formerly Cruelty Incarnate) in the lower bracket to determine who would have the wonderful opportunity to get stomped by Immunity again in the grand finals. We watched as Avant took down pX Uprising 3-1 and then as an unexpected twist, a freshly constructed team of individuals from varied backgrounds (Capital Punishment) managed to cause an upset on the other side of the lower bracket. They took down CDG 3-1. And another upset. They took down Insurgency 3-1. What the? But now it was time for them to play against Avant. They beat Avant 3-1. Okay. Whoah. These guys were on a roll, taking down 3 of the strongest teams in a row. Now it was our turn. We lost the first Hardpoint map with a reasonable deficit. They were playing a very aggressive SMG-heavy style, relying on fast pace and quick kills to break Hardpoints and hold them. I was confident this approach wouldn't work in an SnD environment. But they cleaned us up on SnD as well - almost flawlessly. Then it came down to the CTF. We managed to get a 2-1 lead. Phew. 45 seconds to go. They cap a 2nd flag, and it's a draw. We go to overtime and they manage to steamroll us with 1 strong push all the way to the flag, scoring them a 45 second cap. We couldn't match their pace and went down, eliminated at 3rd place.


By this stage, the SC2 had finished with iaguz taking victory over Petraeus on the stage. The Star Station game was beautiful, definitely my favourite game from the weekend. The constant surprise among the audience at iaguz' supply lead throughout the series was a strong theme. After the SC2 finished, everyone bailed to hit up Korean BBQ and drinks. No-one else stuck around to watch the CoD finals, sadly.


And man, did they miss out.

I was tempted to leave, too. EVERYONE congregated in a smug atmosphere, confident that Immunity would put an end to the incredible momentum the CP boys had maintained throughout the last few hours. They'd taken out the top 5 teams in the country and their confidence was through the roof. I accepted that it was going to be a quick 3-0 steamroll with iM taking another victory.

You can imagine my surprise when CP DESTROYED Immunity on the first map, taking a 250-30 Hardpoint win. iM got smashed harder than we did! The crowd went insane. The room was electric - people were standing on chairs and cheering. The rag-tag underdogs had come out of nowhere and accomplished an unprecedented feat. They proved that gods can bleed.

The 2nd map started. SnD Meltdown. CP took a quick 3-0 lead. iM brought it back 2-3. And then CP just went crazy and took the rest of the map convincingly. CP was now 2-0 in this best of 5. The 3rd map was CTF Slums. And holy shit it was the most epic game of ANYthing I've ever seen.

In the first half of the map, iM & CP were tied at 1-1. In the second half, iM picked up a 2nd flag and held the lead for most of the map. CP managed to make some huge plays and destroy the entire iM lineup within seconds, clearing a path for a clean flag run. It was tied 2-2. They were going into overtime.

4 minutes into overtime, and no-one had captured a flag. Suddenly no-one was trying to run flags anymore. They were just playing cautiously and trying to build scorestreaks. Capping a flag after 4 minutes in overtime is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot. So they decided to go into the Sudden Death round. This means the first flag captured wins the map.

Several minutes into the match, no-one has managed to budge. Both teams are evenly matched. Suddenly, CP gets the opening they need. A well placed Lightning Strike takes down 2 of the iM guys, and the other 2 are gunned down quickly. It looks like CP is gonna take the win. They're running the flag and literally seconds away from the capture. Fighta from iM throws down a Concussion Grenade, slowing the Flag Carrier to a halt and giving him time to line up a cross-map kill with his Sub Machine Gun. The CP flag carrier literally dies 1 step away from the flag. His teammate sprints in and grabs the flag. He manages to make it half a step before Fighta takes him down, too. A 3rd teammate arrives and it looks like it's over. Fighta lands the kill. Both flags are literally overlapping. You could not get ANY closer to the flag without actually capturing it. Fighta returns the flag after his triple defense, turns the game around and iM manages to take a quick cap - securing themselves the 3rd map.


From here, the CP momentum started to lose traction. iM played the biggest game of their career and managed to pull it back to a 3-2 victory, taking out 1st place. But my god, CP earned themselves some tremendous respect for showing the most monumental game in Australian COD history (and maybe even Australian eSports). The crowd was only 50 or so people but they had the energy of an MLG crowd.


It was definitely a moment I'll never forget, and my only regret is that I couldn't share it with more people. There were no SC2 or LoL fans there. And although you may not play, enjoy or understand the game, it was a moment that any gaming fan can set aside their preferences to enjoy.

In future, I encourage you guys to stick around and check out the grand finals of these other games. You'll be able to appreciate the intensity and skill showcased by these great players (not to mention the huge upsets over in the LoL as well!). It was a big weekend for upsets and underdogs.

After the event, we helped pack up the venue and waited an hour for a maxi taxi so I could get the CoD guys back to their hotel. We were like 2 hours late for the K-BBQ in the city so we didn't bother. Our maxi taxi never arrived. Instead we had a regular taxi arrive after waiting 90 minutes. I asked him to call one of his buddies and have him come pick myself & my gf up, while the CoD guys get a ride back to the hotel with him. He told us to call our own bloody cab, and the CoD guys refused to give him any money. They told him to piss off and we'd just walk instead. Haha, good on 'em.


We had a good bonding session over terrible food (McDonalds) and it was nice being able to share the same experiences with people who play a completely different game/platform. It was awesome seeing the COD & SC2 guys mingling throughout the weekend, and whenever the COD guys were playing on stage they even used names like "Nv PuZZGLaDe", "Nv Paraa Rossi" and "Nv ClawJaz". So cool to see.

I guess the main objective of all this is to remind people that we're all eSports fans with similar passions. We should get involved with eachother more often.

Shout out to Mayo and Baldie for looking after my phone & 3DS over the weekend while they were charging. I was so scared they'd be stolen. And shout out to Elimzke - it was a nice surprise to see someone wearing an Nv hoodie when I arrived at the airport.

It was wonderful to see everyone again and although the rest of the world keeps trying to tell us that this game is dead/dying, let this serve as a reminder that we do have our own pockets of growth and success. I hope to see the attendance continue to rise in Sydney.