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I want to preface this by saying I fully expect this to be a massive wall of text, so I will try to include pictures where possible. Credit will be given to anyone who I borrow pictures from for this blog (I didn't take many pictures this ACL ;; )

Friday 4th

Friday started off like all good days should, with me waking up. I hear waking up is a pretty good unit. Apparently I'm not too good at it recently. I packed my clothes and other items for my trip and headed off the the airport in preparation for my 10:40 flight. After getting stuck talking to a Save the Children advertiser for like 20 mins, I finally got to the gate and met up with Schnitzel, Ryan and Azure. Me, Ryan and Schnitzel were all on the same flight, and Craig was flying out ~20 mins earlier, so we had some time to chat before boarding (Burrowed banes anyone? ). The flight happened, that part isn't important. After arriving at the airport, we headed down to baggage claim and Ryan got a call from the one and only Pox "Tony" Netdeckingtryhard, who was also at the terminal. We spent some time waiting for Law before heading out (12:30 arrival hey?)

After a ridiculously expensive 20 minute bus ride from the airport to Southern Cross station, we walked across the city to MC internet cafe (this took a while, but we got to see that Melbourne city just looks like Brisbane city, so yeah things and stuff). At MC, Davdav, Uncle Ben, Metalcore and Redemption were playing some SC2, so we waited for them to finish their games and headed out to get some dumplings to satisfy David's cravings. As our tour guide, Pox took us down towards Chinatown, where we found a place that was initially pretty squishy, but after having a 2nd table attached we were more comfortable. While the dumplings were amazing, and the talk was great, the main attraction was taking cheeky David pics. Hopefully the others add their pics in the comments so I don't look TOO stalkerish.


David hiding from the camera.


Hoods good unit.

After dumplings, it was time to head out in search of drinks, as Ryan was pretty adamant about how thirsty he was. Law and Pox got smoothie thingies while half the group went down to Maccas to get Cokes or something. Upon returning to MC, we split off into different sections of the cafe, with half jumping on PCs, while Ryan retold stories of Law's girl troubles. Just remember Lawrence, I'm cheering for you to get the girl . We eventually went into the corner to watch the guys play, with NXZ proving once and for all that zoom in micro is best micro. This time also began the 1:12 (never even seen a 1:13) joke.Later i the day, Elusory, Nem and her family came into the net cafe, and can I say Nem's kids are absolutely adorable. Shoutout to Andy who was super engaged with the games going on and for chatting to Ed during his games.

As time went on, Nem had to leave, and so did me and Schnitzel. I asked Ed where the station was and he told me to go left, the right and the station would be on the left. After walking for a bit, we crossed the street, turned around and saw the station - on the right - Ed lied to us, so heartbroken We caught a train to Watsonia station and walked down to our accommodation. We got out key and went into the room, instantly turning on the TV, and talked about plans for the rest of the night. In the end, we decided just to watch TV and sleep and have breakfast early instead of finding a place to eat.

Saturday 5th

Breakfast was amazing, I got a Full English Breakfast, the bacon, eggs, sausages, toast, baked beans etc. were so great. After breakfast, we went back into the room to wait for uJeanZ to pick us up and take us to La Trobe.

For those of you who were there, you would know we were a *little* late. Can I just say, **** La Trobe uni, such minimal signage and so easy to get lost. We tried to follow a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing, but it turns out he was going a completely different direction. RIP. Thankfully we saw Elison in our wanders and he pointed us in the right direction (we were nearby anyway as it turns out). I checked in for open bracket and started wandering around saying hi to people. Got to meet Arrival for the first time IRL. Hair good unit. Got a hug from Jessie and sat around with Ryan, Jessie and whoever else decided to come and sit with us. Baldie called us over to do housekeeping things and I jumped on a computer to start my matches.

Now onto the SC2. I know, this took forever to get to, but like I said, wall of text. My first opponent was mGG.Fender. Chase sort of introduced us to each other and I sat there for a bit waiting for Fender to work out how groups worked :P







My next match was against my friend and Jessie's bae Redemption. Considering the decisions that went on in Series 1, I wasn't very confident, but went into it knowing I had a pretty good record against Ed in the games we had played a couple months before. Win or lose though, it was gunna be bittersweet. I really didn't want either of us to drop down to the lower bracket.







My next series was against Kez. This was definitely one of my favorite series I played over the weekend. Despite the fact Kez doesn't really play SC2 anymore, he's still quite good at this game (which he showed at ACL Sydney by beating Alopex).







So moving on in the bracket, I had yet another Zerg in the form of Osiris. Now I hadn't really seen Osiris play before, nor played against him, so I went in not really knowing what to expect. Obviously the best thing to do here is just play it standard so I went into this just playing my safe standard game.







So now I move onto the roughest match of my ACL run. A teamkill for groups against Arrival. Me and Steben both had traded some games in both Fight for the Flights this year, so I didn't know what outcome to expect. I knew some of the things he liked to do, so I always had those in the back of my mind going in.









Sunday 6th

Today started off less comfortably. We didn't have breakfast because the inn didn't offer it until later, and seeing as we had to be there before 9 and we had to walk on this day (Father's day ruined our chances of getting another lift with oojeany) we left at ~7:30 to allow time for getting lost (just in case). After a few stops to check we were heading the right direction and heading up a hill (I didn't know this was a thing. I regretted my life during those minutes. **** me), we finally arrived at La Trobe. These next few minutes proved why I try to get lifts everywhere. Even after being there all day the previous day, I still had NO clue how this stupid uni worked and we spent ages wandering around under my directions trying to find an alternate route into Union Hall. If you go to ACL with me, never let me navigate. Let it be known.

So we finally arrived after much berating from Schnitzel and Baldie got us set up on some PCs. I heard that poor little Davdav was sick and painfully noted it on the Liquipedia page. I knew Probe and Azure were now through from Group D so when they came over to chat I made sure to let them know in case they hadn't heard the news yet. After some time of sitting around I got into my first match against Crimson.







After taking a break to reset and watch the stage match going on at the time for a moment, I went into my next series against NXZ. Ryan is a player I know well, having talked with and played against him at Brisbane LANs, and of course spending a fair amount of time with him over the weekend. I knew from my previous experiences both playing him and watching him that I was definitely the huge underdog.







The next match I played was against long time power player Pezz, but before starting I took the time to watch the end of Yours v Dragonite. unfortuinately, this match wasn't streamed, but it definitely should have been. This game 3 was intense. When I started watching, Cam had a bunch of extractors around the map, a corruptor pack, some roaches, a group of lings and very little else. Dragonite had a few nexii scattered around and a small group of phoenix, but a superior ground army. Cam was going around killing the outlying buildings while denying the phoenix from picking off stray units, while Dragonite was just microing phoenix and trying to find the outlying extractors with hallucs. One thing lead to another and eventually Dragonite felt it was time for him to make the GG push. He ran everything at an extractor on the other side of the map, while Cam charged the nexus. What Dragonite didn't know was that Cam had 3 larvae on the opposite side of the map from the extractor Dragonite was after and he was able to morph a drone, make another extractor and take the series. It was a SICK finale to the series and was DEFINATELY worth the watch.

Now, everyone knows Pezz from his results around 2014, where he got his highest placing in an ACL and was regarded as the best protoss in Australia or SEA, depending on who you asked. I knew he had been playing again, so this was going to be rough.







My final series was against RunaMoK, but as our group was already decided (With NXZ and Pezz advancing) we didn't need to play, which I felt was a good thing as I didn't want to play another teammate over the weekend. I feel sorry to Crimson who would have advanced had I just beaten Pezz, which was definitely within the realms of possibility I feel. Overall I wasn't happy with my games on Day 2, but my opponents played really well and all of them deserved the wins.

After I had finished my games, me and the other x5 academy guys jumped in Steben's car and went out to get some lunch at this awesome kebab shop. I have to say, it was definitely nice and filling. None of us finished the chips we bought with the kebabs.

Now for the fun part of the day. I spent the rest of the day just watching games, updating Liquipedia and creating cheerfuls. After returning from lunch, the bracket stage was already beginning, and on stage they had a ZvT between NXZ and deth. Obviously my biases took over and I wanted to see Probe play his PvP and was cheering him on while trying to get some looks at the series going on on stage. After Probe took his match, I sat down in front of the stage and watched the rest of the ZvT series. This match was also worth a watch, as Game 2 was such a close battle, with Ryan constantly battling against the filthy mech/turret forces of deth. After some good and bad trades for both sides, Ryan eventually took it and it was a really sick game to witness.

The next stage match was NXZ v Alopex, a ZvZ. Being a bit sick of ZvZ, I prefered to watch the other games going on around the place, and seeing as I had set up next to Law, watched the Law v Probe series. This was SUCH a tense series for everyone watching. Law took the first game pretty handily, but Probe, through the power of the Kingston head, managed to swing the series back around, and took the 2-1, putting him in the finals. Law is a nice dude and I was sad for him to be sent down to the lower bracket, but I was super stoked for Probe to be in the finals.

Now moving into the winner's bracket finals, I was SO torn. On one hand, I had Brisbane monster NXZ, who I had talked to and played at numerous LANs up north here, and on the other hand I had Probe, a fellow brotoss and super dongerfriend. It would seem that in the end, the dongerhood prevailed, and I found myself cheering ecstatically for Probe. I even declared myself his coach, much to his horror, while he was setting up (Accept it dongerfriend, you are mine now :P). Thankfully, this series did NOT disappoint in any ways. If you haven't already, or just love amazing ZvP, check out the VOD if you can. Game 1 saw Probe going down to the might of the filthy buggies. Game 2 however saw Probe pulling out a SICK blink all-in off 2 base on Iron Fortress, something no one was expecting, least of all NXZ. Having forced the decider, Probe went in playing pretty standard, with NXZ preparing his roach/ling/infestor army he had used against me. Probe however, being a significantly better player than I, took the fight to Ryan, going hard off 3 bases with blink. The attack started before the infestors were ready, and Probe was already starting to take amazing trades. The infestors finished, but there wasn't enough support for them and Probe managed to break through. He pushed hard into Ryan's third base and managed to clinch the series! **** I WAS SO HAPPY!


A cheerful I made for Probe.

After this series, I went over to my PC to find Law still playing deth. #mech. This series was so intense ACL set up a camera so the stream could see the game, something I feel they probably could have done sooner to reduce downtime on the stream tbh. Law was trading so well, using a really nicely controlled Queen Ultra Viper composition to pick apart tanks and air units alike. This went on for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. Once it was finally over, there was a lot of people congratulating Law on his amazing win.


The moment Law won. (Credit ACL stream)

The next series to get attention was up on stage. As there was only 1 match top be played at a time, everyone moved across the the stage seating and got hyped for some sick amazing sexy PvZ. First up was Blysk v Law. Now the crowd favourite was DEFINITELY Law, but being a protoss and knowing that Blysk was a sick good player, I feel like I might have swayed more towards the protoss side here. Game 2 was probably the highlight of this series. I won't spoil it, I recommend you watch it, you won't be disappointed. I actually recommend this whole series, but Game 2 really stood out.


Some people's feelings summed up in 1 word. (Credit ACL stream, cheerful by Ice)

The next series was another exciting one, with Blysk going up against NXZ. This series was my most neutral one. I didn't really care who won, I just wanted some amazing games and for a sick as finals.


The cheerfuls are strong with this match. (Credit ACL stream, cheerfuls by (L-R) Ice, Elusory and me)

This was a super close series and both players played super well, but in the end Blysk ended up taking the match. I have to say,I was SUPER excited for PvP. Knowing Probe was starting with a 1-0 lead made me start fantasizing, what if Probe actually did it. How can I celebrate with him. Life is hard man. How does one contain these thoughts?!?!


I couldn't help myself. (Credit ACL stream)


Probe shows off my cheerful before the finals. (Credit ACL stream)

The finals start, with map 1 being on Terraform. Terraform is definitely a map worth praise, which outside of ZvMech, is quite the exciting map. Blysk decided to start off this game standard, but Probe had other ideas. He sent out a probe on 6, straight to Blysk's third base.


The cheeky probe. (Credit ACL stream)

He threw down a Pylon on 10 and a single gateway immediately after the pylon completed. He pumped out 2 zealots before moving into stalker production, eventually progressing into 3 gates and pressing hard with stalkers. Blysk tried to hold in time to get a dark shrine up, but the push from Probe was too strong, and Probe took Game 1. My dreams were slowly coming true! 1 more game and Probe would have done it! HYPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!


After Game 1, the cheerful game is strong. (Credit ACL stream, cheerfuls by (L-R) Schnitzel, can't remember, Lara? and me

Game 2 ended up being on Iron Fortress. This game was a good example of why #probecurse is a thing. Probe scouted Blysk last on a 4 player map - not surprising really. Blysk, having the advantage of not being Probe, managed to scout the correct direction. Both players opened up with mirror builds, going for the 2 gate stalker opener. Blysk then decided to take revenge for last game and whipped out the cheddar, proxying a stargate above Probe's natural. the oracle flies in, but the mothership core is ready and the oracle panics and flys into the corner. An easy pick off for Probe.


Wrong way buddy. (Credit ACL stream)

With blink finished and 3 gates up, Probe starts to put on the counter-pressure, while Blysk sends a probe out onto the map, making a hidden nexus in the top left. Probe sits down the bottom of the ramp and contains while expanding himself. Probe hadn't found the stargate, so Blysk was able to warp in some zealots to poke the natural, but this was easily deflected. Blysk having the faster robo moves into colossi, while Probe continues to produce immortals to catch up to Blysk's superior count. The first colossus pushes Probe away and Blysk takes his 3rd base in his natural while feigning an attack. Eventually, Probe finds the hidden nexus with a zealot and sends his stalkers up to take it down. Blysk takes this opportunity to push out and attack into Probe's natural, utterly devastating Probe's Army and forcing the GG. Blysk bringing himself back into the series with the score sitting at 2-1 to Probe.


The "oh shit" moment. (Credit ACL stream)

Game 3 was the most emotional game for me. Both players again mimicked each other's openings and went for the same safe opening as Game 2. Probe chose the tech route with a twilight council while Blysk chose to expand. A DT shrine shortly followed for Probe, but a Robo dropped down for Blysk.


The first major difference in the game. (Credit ACL stream)

This was my first nerd chill moment. Would Blysk take the safety v DT route and go obs first? Or would he take the safe against blink route and go immortal first? When the immortal started, I lost my shit. The DTs came in with the stalker pressure and slaughtered probes. The harvester count was even once again and Probe was moving into a warp prism for DT drops. Blysk was playing greedy and only made 1 observer, so DTs in the main did yet MORE damage and a DT in the natural kept Blysk running probes constantly. Probe had a nexus and a probe lead, but a push from Blysk took down the nexus, albeit losing a large chunk of units in the process.


Opps. (Credit ACL stream)

The game normalised when DTs did more damage, but Blysk got out a 2nd obs and added a cannon in his main. Probe had a whole upgrade lead on Blysk though, and I was getting ALL the nerd chills watching these 2 players head into the mid game. Probe was the one to take the third base first, with Blysk following suit shortly after, but not without a Probe DT sniping the probe before hand. I was getting SOOOOOOOOO hyped. Probe had leads everywhere except in worker and colossus counts. A cheeky push from Blysk gave me a heart attack, but the zealot warp in from behind took down the Colossi of Blysk. A bit of back and forth ensued, but Blysk was forced back.


Scary moment! That colossus lead :S (Credit ACL stream)


I was panicking until this moment. (Credit ACL stream)

Probe took this chance to add on a 2nd robo and replenish some archons and zealots, while Blysk started his +3 attack and shored his runby defenses. The vibro-pause came out and both players were setting up 4th bases. Suddenly, Blysk made a push for Probe's third base and Probe was out of position! Blysk ran in and took down the third nexus and recalled out, but left a large chunk of zealots behind.


The nexus goes down, but did he leave too much behind? (Credit ACL stream)

Probe killed all the stragglers and went for the push, up 50 army supply. I was getting SO EXCITED. THE ARMY WENT UP THE RAMP INTO BLYSKS 4TH. THE ARMIES ENGAGED. COLOSSI MASSACERED. THE GG WAS FORCED AND PROBE HAD DONE IT. PROBE WAS THE ACL CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.


The fight begins! (Credit ACL stream)


YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! (Credit ACL stream)


ACL faded out before our hug. (Credit ACL stream)

You only have to see the stream VOD to see how happy Probe was with this win. I kid you not I was shaking after this series and I didn't even play, I can't imagine how it must have felt for both players up on stage. I gave Probe a hi-5 and a hug, so happy with how he had played all weekend. The stream caught the hi-5 but faded out and missed the hug, RIP I chatted with a few people afterwards in my super excited and adrenaline fueled state. I also got a text from Schnitzel asking for an update, and after sending him the result he told me to give Probe a hug for him, which I kindly obliged.

So after some chat and some time for calming down, I headed out with Yours, Arrival, Dot and Metalcore to find a place for KBBQ. We drove around in the city for a bit trying to find somewhere to park and then longer trying to find a place to eat. Eventually, we settled for a place on Little La Trobe street (kinda fitting considering) and ordered some delicious 삼겹살 (pork belly). Turns out fray were dodgers and didn't bother to brave the shitty weather. I'll have you know I was out in the rain, in thongs (which i eventually removed so I didn't slip over and die or something) just for the juicy pork belly and it was 100% worth it. Harden up mofos.

So we spent some time eating some delicious but spicy seafood stew thing and eventually Crescendo, Enak, Elusory and paperclip showed up! Yay for friends! Elusory ended up having to go without eating, but the other 3 stayed and enjoyed the same stuff we were having. Of course, all being KBBQ noobs, they needed a hand with... well... everything. We helped them to order and I ended up cooking their meat for them. All of it. Now you know why Enak called me Namachef in his blog. We spent the night chatting away and eventually paperclip had to go. Eventually, Pokemon showed up, and it was cool to meet you dude! I won't link the messages we've exchanged in FaDe chat since then, but rest assured the night was a pleasant one . After quite a bit of time had passed, we eventually decided it was time to pack up and head out. We went our various ways, with Pokemon, Enak and Crescendo all heading off together and Metalcore staying behind in the city. The other 4 of us went on our way home, dropping dot off and then dropping me off. By this time it was 1am and I was pretty tired. Needdless to say I slept well this night.

Monday 7th

Monday morning started earlier than I would have liked, as I had to check out before 10. Shoutout to the people who run the place I was staying at, as I was checking out I was asked how I went at ACL and how Schnitzel went. It was cool to see them interact with their customers on such a personal level. Originally the plan was to go shopping, but being exhausted and out of touch with the world, I just wanted to relax and play some games, so I went to MC again to relax, catch up on facebook etc. After being there for about an hour, MK, Pox, HuT, Crimson, MiLes and Eros showed up to play some before they had to leave. You would have heard about the BW match in other blogs, basically carriers are good.

After a while, everyone except Eros had to go and later on Elusory came in. He set up next to me and held right click down a bunch. (Literally what the **** Diablo, why is that a thing that is possible? EZ gaem confirmed) Crescendo also showed up after Eros had left and set up across from me, but at this point lag had forced me into a doto game. Elusory left shortly after, but not before getting some EZ legendaries (seriously what?). After catching up on 4 days of being non-existent, me and Crescendo headed down to the train station, where we both went to North Melbourne station, before I got off and went back in to go to Southern Cross. Melbourne, please explain why your city loop doesn't loop.

Anyways, I got to the airport and checked my bag in, but everything was closed. I wandered around a bit trying to find somewhere to eat and found a place at gate 22. here, I bought a doughnut, a flake and a bottle of lift. Then I spent the rest of my time sitting around watching dancing with the stars, which they were showing on a TV at my gate. The winner got a perfect score for the finals, so pretty EZ win. The biggest problem however, was that my plane was delayed. RIP me. I didn't get home until 1am, at which point I promptly slept.

Cheerfuls

I feel like this deserves its own section as this was one of the biggest highlights of the weekend. Huge shoutout the Elison who, despite not getting hold of the 2nd best thing in the world D O N G E R S (SC2 is #1 btw :P), he got the 3rd best thing in the world, and for that I thank you! Those of you at the event would have seen how much fun I had with these, making them for most of the stage matches on Sunday and placing them all over the place, nearly always having one on hand. Those of you on the stream would have seen me messing around with them and setting them on the stage. You also would have seen the cheerfuls pop up on camera after some of the matches. That was me folks. I am a comedic genius confirmed.



Overall thoughts

Overall ACL Melbourne was an amazing experience and I am so glad I get to be a part of such an amazing community and event once again. I want you guys at ACL to know just how much I love and appreciate what it is you guys do. You don't just make tournaments, you make friendships and cause emotions. You guys bring an entire community together for a weekend to do what it is they love and for this I am so thankful. Baldie you are a legend for running the SC2 side and I am so glad we have you in our scene. You and the other admins made the whole weekend such a pleasant experience!

To all the sponsors, of players, teams and events, you guys are champions. You put your money into this amazing scene and create so much for us. Not only do you sponsor the prizes, you provide players with flights, accommodation, an amazing viewing experience, cheerfuls, rocket league and MUCH more. Because of you guys, we have these events which we can all gather at and just hang out and have fun, while also sharing our passion for the game and show off our skills.

Exile 5, you guys are amazing, I love being on the team and have done since the inception of the academy earlier this year. You guys are a great support both inside and outside of StarCraft. Change sucks, but change for the better is needed, and so I wish the best of luck once again to Cam. It was great being on a team with you and I hope you can achieve your goals in future! Shoutout especially to Dot, who not only takes amazing photos, but looks after us so well at these events. To the other guys: Arrival, Metalcore, Eugene, RunaMoK, Crescendo, it was amazing meeting you guys and seeing old faces again!

eCKo friends, you guys are amazing. I've been friends with a few of you even before the team existed. Probe, once again congratulations. I absolutely LOVE watching you play and it was great cheering you all weekend. Taking a game off you at ACL Sydney was a huge moment for me and seeing you tear through the group and bracket at Melbourne was such an amazing experience. I will cheer for you in every tournament you play in future! Schnitzel, pls top being bad. Pick a race dammit. Ed, was great seeing you again friend! Have a great love with Jessie. Azure, please rekt people at next Brisbane LAN. I hope to go full casual and disappoint you thoroughly once again. Jordan, one day we shall meet. Maybe one day you will stop being a casual and come to ACL instead of playing soccer. :P

To everyone in SLCN, you guys are so damn good at SC2 and so ridiculously friendly. Ryan I have spent so much time chatting with you at Brisbane LANs and it is always a pleasure to be around you. It was also great meeting people through you such as Law and MK. It was especially awesome seeing Law play his games against deth, a favourite series of mine from the weekend. I wish Wally could have come! Things would have been even better if you were around. I look forward to rekting you guys on Tuesday!

fray, the home of the legendary tour guide Pox, who's presence saved many from the struggles of travel. Chadmann, it was good to play rocket league with you. Hope to see you at a Brisbane LAN some time. Chase friend it was good to see you again. I look forward to carrying you repeatedly in CS:GO and rocket league. Jessie, why u no sR photo? Be a good leader and organise us pls. Seriously though it's always good seeing you and thanks for the advice you gave me over the weekend.

INSANO you are a legend. An amazing observer, sick as streamer and an awesome caster too. Also a pleasure to be around IRL. I love watching the games you observe and am so thankful to you for streaming the team league games. I look forward to your future observing and all the ace matches you will spoil!

Ice, it was great seeing you again. DynSL received a lot of shit in the past, but it's always a pleasure talking to you at these events! I loved the cheerfuls and will take good care of the #protossed one! I recommend you watch the Whinery Ep. 3 VOD if you want to see it again! #shamelessplug I'm glad you were supporting Blysk as much as you did. I wanted to support him too, but the matchups didn't allow me too as much as I wanted.

Singaporeans! You guys are SO awesome for coming all the way to Melbourne for SC2. Blysk, as I said before, I wanted to cheer more for you than I did. I look forward to seeing you at future ACLs (hopefully) and hope you enjoy your holiday! Elusory, so glad to meet you IRL. You do good work with OSC, FFN and Noodle Cup. Hopefully you can come to an ACL with Jordan and the Sesame Street Crew can be united! Nem, it was so cool to meet you. It was even cooler to see your family too! Your kids are absolutely adorable and I look forward to seeing them crush all our faces in a few years time. Please do come back! Maybe if ACL drops the 15+ rule you can bring the kids to the actual LAN, would be cool to expose them to this setting.

Kiwis, always a pleasure to see you guys from across the pond. Again, sorry to Ben who didn't make it out of groups cause I didn't beat Pezz. Davdav, this was my first time really interacting with you and it was a pleasure seeing you eat dumplings. If only I was there to see you eat nuggets, my weekend would have been complete. Sucked to hear you were so unwell on the Sunday, I would have loved to see you play some more. Enak, it was great chatting to you at dinner on Sunday, and I hope you enjoy your sheep and book from Elusory.

Finally, I just want to say how much I love this game. Not only is this such a fun game to watch and play, but it is such an amazing opportunity to meet such a variety of people from all over the world. Here in Australia and SEA, we have such a huge amount of passion in such a small scene and it is beautiful to see and be a part of. ACL Sydney was what really opened my eyes to just how beautiful this community is and ACL Melbourne really confirmed it to me. I just want you all to know that despite all the shit that happens, you guys are the best. I really look forward to seeing everyone again at future ACLs and watching you all play online in the SSTL and other online tournaments.

I think it's time I end this blog. To those of you who made it through the whole thing, thank you for reading, this was a real pleasure to write and really reignited some of the emotions i felt over the ACL weekend. If you skipped ahead, that's cool, but I do recommend going back and reading. A lot of my thoughts an emotion went into this, so I would definitely appreciate you taking the time. Once again, thank you all for an amazing weekend and please support the SSTL. I'm putting a lot of work into this league to make it succeed and really enjoyed watching Week 1.