So as many of you may know, this weekend Brisbane was home to one of Australia's biggest competitive Starcraft 2 tournaments, and I had the pleasure of not only attending but competing in it. Although due to the fact i had no way to get to the event on the second day i am stuck watching the stream, and suffering through that bloody Plantronics ad over and over. But enough about that I feel as though since this was my first ACL event it would be cool to kinda write a blog about it.
So basically the day started with me getting up around 6 to get ready and make the one hour drive to the city to make it in time for the 8:30 where the doors where meant to open, i got their at around 8:40 thinking i might be a tad late. Jeez i was wrong im pretty sure out of everyone standing in the lobby i was the only Starcraft player, I was almost certain that i was in the wrong place and that the Starcraft even was somewhere else. But then as the doors opened and we where lead to our respective zone kinda things i realized that i was in the right place and i could have slept in for another hour and still been fine. But at least i got to warm up a heap and hog one of the computers for a solid hour. Basically my goal for this tournament was to make groups, I knew this may not be the most realistic goal but i felt that if the bracket gods where kind to me I had a fighting chance.
I think the half an hour we had to wait for the brackets to be drawn without being able to play any games was the worst part of the tournament i was shitting myself, but finally when they where drawn i was so-so if i manged to win the first match i would have to play the winner of Rossi and Pezz either way things weren't looking good. But i had to focus on the match at hand my first round was against Armi a GM Protoss and i was feeling quite confident my ZvP was really strong and i felt like i could win. But confidence got the best of me and after one of the longest tournament games of my life i lost the first map. But i stayed confident and with a nice Eros Build on Daybreak and a nice Roach, Hydra and Corrupter, I manged to pull off a nice 2-1 victory. As a little side note Armi had to be one of the most mannered blokes ive spoken to at a Lan i mean straight after the games we had a cool conversation about the ZvP meta etc and it was stuff like this that makes me love the Australia Starcraft scene most people are super friendly and are willing to just have a chat whenever.
So coming off that victory, i pulled up a chair and watched Rossi verse Pezz on the mainstage i was nervous i mean my ZvT was awful and Pezz was a really solid player. So after seeing him 2-0 Rossi i get even more nervous i mean i was about to play someone who just 2-0'd Rossi who was an extremely strong player and one of the best Terrans in australia. But i would like to thank Lemminks who gave me some motivational words along the lines of "I hoped you enjoyed your time in the Winners Bracket" after those inspirational words I sat down and managed to 2-0 Pezz I really wish that the matches where really really cool and something amazing to write about but truth be told they weren't game one he did some one base early pressure and did some much damage the only way i could win was to bane bust so i did and i managed to win, Second game i just did a Road,Hydra and Corrupter push. So basically i was ecstatic i mean i just 2-0'd Pezz i was so happy with myself i couldn't believe it.
But that excitement didn't last long, i was disappointed to find out i had to play teddy next i mean not only is my ZvT awful but teddy is also really really good. So i went it and tried my best but it wasn't enough and i lost 0-2 and was dropped down to the losers bracket, from their i quickly observed the brackets and come to the realisation that i would have to player the winner of stallion and deth. That was not good i was banking everything on stallion winning and then me beating him to get into groups, I knew if deth won i wouldn't stand a chance. But fate has a funny way of saying **** you and deth beat stallion 2-0, again my games against deth weren't anything special first game i 5 drone rushed him because i thought maybe something dumb like that might catch him off guard but that kinda fell through with the fact A Deth's micro is way better than mine and B i forgot to change the mouse sensitivity and couldn't micro for shit. Second match I tried a cute little speed bane timing but i kinda played bad because of my nerves and threw that game going down 0-2. All in all it was a good day i was a tad bummed i came so close to groups and just missed out and also kinda bummed that i didn't get a chance to chat to any of the pro's i was fanboying a tad over the fact that Tgun and Pig where their since their the reason im playing zerg. But all this served as motivation I'm gonna be practicing hard and hope to see everyone again at ACL Melbourne and hope to do better next time and maybe get to groups.
Thanks everyone for bearing with my wall of text but i couldn't really shorten it because i felt like it took away from the story basically
TLDR ACL was cool, i thought i played well but just fell short of groups and i cant wait for the next ACL event
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