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Hey all, so over the weekend I attended my very first ACL. It was located at The Edge, it was a nice venue, a little small and very hot, haha, but nonetheless a great space to watch some amazing games and meet some amazing people.

The first day for me personally didn't go well, I missed my train, walked about 10 mins in the wrong direction, then checked with my GPS and started moving the right way, funny haha. The location was really nice, right next to the river and the buildings are so beautiful in that area, it was truly a beautiful sight to see.

As i got to the venue, I saw a few familiar faces, mainly because of streams. I felt very nervous and stayed outside, until I heard DoMo and the guys I knew wouldn't be arriving for another 2 hours, crazy I know. So I reached out on sc2sea for where the sc2 players were, as I could only see COD players, Alpha messaged back saying they were upstairs as DG.WoLF had rocked up, he introduced himself and we both walked up.

Again I saw familiar faces and sat down in the corner as to avoid people, I'm not really strong in the social aspect of my life, so I find it nerve racking trying to introduce myself to people. As I saw DoMo, Wally, Law and Phoenix come up the stairs I felt a little relieved that finally someone I knew had shown up.

Mind you, ChadMann was already there and set himself up at a keyboard, I didn't recognise him honestly, but I think him and most others knew who I was.

As the day progressed I still remained pretty solitude and felt a little intimidated to be quite honest about the company I had shared, HuT, Petrify and Kez (holy crap he's tall).

A short time later PiG had arrived, he had noticed me fairly quickly and took his time to say hi and I felt kind of relevant, someone as skilled and well known as him recognising me from our coaching sessions (Skype DP).

It was now pushing towards about 2pm at this stage and ChadMann went to his car and got some cool razor gear for the guys and gave me a small razor pack which I thought was pretty cool, shortly later though, I had felt the need to go home, so I picked up my stuff and headed on out, while good stuff had happened, I still felt nervous and anxious, being in a room with people who may have noticed me, who may have even liked having me there, I still felt as if I didn't belong, this was not their fault, it's how I have been for awhile.

I got home, my parents were fairly disappointed that I wasn't at the event I was looking forward to going to and they could see I had struggled to try and talk to everyone and hadn't gotten any of my goals for the event, those being photos with PiG, NXZ, Petrify and Kez as well as getting my keyboard signed from PiG.

That afternoon/night I streamed for a few hours and DoMo asked me to come back tomorrow and I could just chill with them and just mellow out a bit. So I agreed.

Now onto today, I got my train on time, it took a short run and then a jog up some stairs, but I managed to get to it this time. Day was going better already, as I got into the venue, Val, Schnitzel and a few others were already there.

As DoMo and the gang got there, talked with them for awhile and watched some great games, most notably the series between Law and Val, was an epic back and forth in the first with Val coming out on top, then Law let it go for the second game, got a great lead then played a bit passive for awhile, eventually winning the game, by this point Law's confidence must have risen greatly as the third game, you could really see Law in his stride against Val's lovely mech style. This of course ended the series 2-1 in favour of Law meaning he was able to advance to the championship bracket.

Another great game we got to watch was Wally's epic series verse NXZ, honestly the replays for that should be loaded up if someone has them, they were epic and the bane hits were real Wally's reaction's though throughout the 2 days during my time there were priceless, notably his 2-0 I think it was and he just throws his headphones down, as if to say, #EZ #REKT

DoMo, Phoenix and I went and grabbed some lunch and had some nice chats and such, was really good spending some time with really quality blokes.

I then built up some courage as the day progressed even further, first getting my snap with NXZ, then with the SLCN guys (Kez and Petrify) and then finally with PiG. (Ill get these uploaded tomorrow and post them in)

So all in all, I wish I had of stayed the first day and just chilled with the guys some more, there's a real sense of love of the game between the people that attended the event and I'm so glad I had DoMo to convince me to comeback for day 2, I really want to say thanks to a few special people:

DoMo: Despite everything dude, you have always shown support for me, regardless of the situation, you will tell me how it is and get things going well for me again and I really do appreciate having you there dude

Wally: Hey man, even through everything, the bm, the Snx chats and all, I found that you are actually a pretty decent guy, so I'm glad I met you in person, so chilled and so much knowledge about the game as well as things outside of it.

Phoenix: This guy, not sure man, he is tall, but really chilled and I am really glad I got to meet him, hear about the game from someone with so much knowledge again, was epic chats to and from subway, haha.

NXZ, Petrify, Kez and PiG: You guys share your paragraph, you 4 are brilliant, so humble and so much love for the game, the effort you put into is something I strive for. I really am glad I managed to get photos with all 4 of you after I felt so beneath you. My reputation and you still said yeah sure man, really made it so much better being at the event and hope to see more of you all in the future.

CHADMANN: To this man, I owe so much more then a paragraph, you urge me to keep going when things seem rough, the support you give me is ridiculous even with the rebuilding of a team and still wanting to help with advice etc, means the absolute world to me, so to you a very very big thank you, keep doing what your doing.

So in closing I would like to say, Thank you to all those players who attended the event, your play was impressive, regardless of the sets you won and lost. Thank you to the ACL staff for running the event and supporting the scene, you are doing well and I believe the community thanks you as well. I would really encourage those who haven't attended a LAN event whether it be ACL or not to go along, make some friends and make some great experiences, I know that this weekend will more then likely be my highlight of the year.

Cheers for reading

http://imgur.com/Qv5EEYm,QJRLiwz,MKB...U9tMeP,u36ejMq