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Well i thought i would write up a Blog because well i just don't post anything. Just a word of warning though, i have a bad memory so this may not be 100% accurate.

Anyhow we booked for ACL Sydney quite a while ago because we thought it would be good to drive the short ~300km distance from Canberra to catch up with everyone.
Eventually Lardols convinced me to compete in the SC2 open bracket and we both agreed thought that it was best to get some games in at ACL so that i wouldn't be antsy watching all the others duke it out. With this in mind i signed up for the GPDL S2 and then started to play SC2 again about 2 weeks before ACL Sydney because i wanted to play in the open bracket but i didn't wan't to get annihilated.


Friday 18 July
So the Friday started out like many other days for me, I went to work on minimal sleep and tried to be helpful in my zombie like state. It got to a point at work where there was nothing i could do except stare at a wall so i left an hour earlier than i already agreed to with my team leader. After finishing work at 12pm i went home and basically did nothing with the exception of giving the inside of both cars a clean. 3pm rolled around and all 4 kids were gone for the weekend but Soundwave wasn't ready and i hadn't finish cleaning the car.

After the car was cleaned we locked up the house we then drove to pick up Soundwave. That 5 minute drive didn't sit well with Lardols stomach but we told Pox we would pick him up in 36 minutes and 42 seconds. After getting Soundwave we then started to head out to pick up Pox but 5 minutes down the road we had to pull over at a servo so lardols could empty that stomach of hers.
It wasn't long however until we hit the road again after soundwave got a 4pack of redbull and I purchased a discounted meat pie for lardols.

We eventually got to Pox's cardboard box and told him we had been waiting from the 36:42 mark but in reality we were 15 minutes late. After Pox got in the car we started our journey.

I drove the whole way to our hotel in Sydney as Lardols still didnt feel well. We got to the hotel and checked in whilst Pox headed towards his accommodation. Soundwave stuck with us for a bit for Chowmudda to come pick him up.
Eventually we noticed NXZ and his father walking across the road and discovered they were staying at the same hotel as Lardols and myself. We soon learnt that they had just arrived and couldnt get into the room they were staying in because the people they were bunking with weren't there.
By this time Chowmudda had picked up soundwave and we were keen for some chinese but wanted to hang around to find out what NXZ was doing. Lardols being the angel she is offered NXZ one of our room keys so that those Queenslanders could get out of the cold which eventually they accepted then we were off to find some dinner.

Google found closest Chinese restaurants and we decided on the Golden Fang so we got to walking. When we arrived at the Golden Fang we thought that it was the dodgiest place but we were way too hungry to care and inside we went. We ordered some fried rice, beef in black bean sauce and sweet & sour pork and HOLY DROP BEARS WAS IT DELICIOUS. No bull it is probably the best chinese take out i have ever eaten.

Saturday 19 July
Typical morning things followed by us packing our gear and going downstairs to check out/in (we originally only booked and paid for Saturday then later extended to Sunday but only one room was left). The manager had to figure out which room to put us in so we didn't check out, Instead with direction to the nearest cafe from the manager we went and had breakfast.
We got to the hipster cafe had breakfast then went back to the hotel for the manager to put us back in the same room so we had to carry our bags back up to the room...

We then got lazy and caught a taxi a whole 5 minutes to ACL so that we didn't spill the baked goods over onto the pretty icing.
Inside we went and put our gear down. We greeted the people we knew, checked in for the open bracket and got to the socialising. Eventually Lardols pulled out the delicious Caramel slice, Chocolate and vanilla oreo cupcakes as well as the Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes with Raro Icing (Thank you Spartaz for the Raro) then off we went sharing to the SC2 boys upstairs waiting for the open brackets to be finalized.

The Brackets were generated and I searched for who i would be playing in Open Bracket A (Bracket Here) even though i didnt expect to make it past the first rounds because A) i'm Diamond/Bad and B) I had only 2 weeks practice.

At first i was meant to be playing some Vivid guy who after i asked around came to the conclusion that i still have no clue who he is.
But it wasn't meant to be, the brackets were rejigged because people like Eddie weren't included in any of the brackets so again i searched and this time found i was playing JunO.

Again i had no clue who my opponent was but eventually found JunO among some SCS boys. We introduced ourselves and got to talking which was a bad thing for him.
He made the mistake of thinking i was which is understandable I know :P and he told me how he hated playing players because he loses to stupid shit. I didn't want to ruin anything so i smiled and nodded because really, what is this standard play people talk about?

Because we were in open bracket A we couldn't actually play for a while sowe both went our seperate ways. Now here was vital, Jayboc being the cool guy he is (and my first tournament competitor at NRG lan many moons ago) told me about how JunO likes to go for a Roach/Ling 8 minute timing but i'll come back to that later.

I ventured around and came back upstairs to the open bracket B rounds and started to watch Pox's first match against kreamy. I was only able to catch the last hour and 15 minutes of that game though but it was quite enjoyable.
The game went for around 1:50:00 minutes and the admins were getting shitty. The game however was great with Pox hacking to 203/200 supply and getting upwards of 20K.
Noone wanted to make the first move and you could tell Pox was getting bored



Eventually the Admins stepped in and said either finish the game in the next 5 minutes or you both get a tie. With this Pox decided to finally push and with that the game was over, pox had come out victorious.

After watching some more games the time came for Juno and myself to play so vetos went and we got into it starting on King Sejon Station. Keeping what Jayboc told me in mind i went for a classic DJ build. I tried to macro better behind it this time so it was quite delayed.
I kept sacrificing lings to see what was happening and eventually spotted some a few lings and some roaches so i started to pump out roaches for myself.
As soon as my overlords saw JunO's Ling/Roach army moving out i threw down 3 spines in my natural, in a pretty line then moved out some roaches to snipe a few lings that were ahead of his army. Then the timing came and i had way more roaches than he did so after a few short engagements he backed off but stayed close to my base under my overlords with his army to prevent me from taking a third.

Then it happened...


All i could hear apart from the nydus popping was a loud laughter from down the other end of the SC2 computers before my roaches started to pop out into his main. The roaches got to quick work on sniping his queens and some drones before he GG'd making me take the lead 1-0.
At this point i also started to crack up laughing because i didnt expect to even take a map.

Soon into game 2 we went on Overgrowth.
This game i had every intention of trying to play normal by going hatch first but nooooo his 10 drone scout was being a pain and stopped me from expanding so i thought i would do some more diamond level plays.
I went straight into a slightly delayed 7 Roach rush which he never scouted and started to research burrow as soon as the queen finished. Across the map marched my army as he sent a few lings into my base and were intercepted along the way. He reacted by throwing down a spine at his natural but my roaches got there in time and cancelled it. I went to work on his army/base and lost one roach before i started my burrow micro. Unfortunately for me i changed burrow down to R before the game but forgot to change burrow up to R so it remained on U causing me some havoc. regardless of my on the burrowing ability i managed to kill his queen and some lings then snipe the spore he tried to make.
I kept massing roaches his way and almost lost all my drones to a ling run by but hey, Burrow. some roaches of my own cleaned up lings at home whilst i continued to push with my burrow roaches.
Eventually the pressure was to much and he was forced to GG yet again.

I took the game 2-0, fist pumped, got up and then just started to crack up laughing because i didnt expect to take a game let alone win a whole series, let alone with those strategies.
I went and shook JunO's hand then reported the win to the administrators.

After my win i went downstairs to the main stage and caught a couple of matches.

The time then came for my second game against Runamok. Now I didn't think i stood a chance in the world against this guy because i thought/think he is masters.
The first map was on Nimbus and i tried to play standard to begin with. He did some nice harass with reaper/hellion but mainly banshee and i tried to push with a 1-1 speed roach timing and did a bit of damage but he held my push.

I then followed up with some DJ play at his natural doing lots of damage with roaches and queens followed by a minimal amount of hydras. My army then pushed down the ramp into his main and he was forced to eventually GG giving me the 1-0 Lead.

By this time i was stoked. again i didnt event think i would take a map.

Game 2 was on Merry go round. Again i went for a 1-1 speed roach timing and he had some more great harass with reaper/hellion/banshee. I pushed out with a number of roaches which did some damage at his natural but again he held.
Again i followed up with which did quite damage in his main but he held after taking some damage.
Eventually as the game tracked on he tried pushing out against me but so did I with my roach/hydra composition. I went around his army without knowing, picked off some of his reinforcements then went to work on his base. He turned around and tried to come back to his base but couldn't push through my army.

A few more appeared and i was reinforcing in his base. eventually he was overpowered and GG'd giving me the 2-0 lead.

I stood up and cracked up laughing. Another set i thought i had no chance at. I went and had a quick chat with Runamok who looked at the replay which is when i learnt he also had a third base (what is scouting?).

After reporting the win i went down to the main stage and watched some games. I eventually came back up stairs to play my next opponent who if i beat would mean that i progress out of groups. This was a fantastic thought that went straight to my head and seeing that my opponent was mGGSouth i thought i may actually have a shot at progressing. With that being said i was basing my thought process on beating him at cancraft nearly 2 years prior and not winning against him since.

Well South and i got into the games and i played horribly. He knew that i liked the nydus and pointed it out in the chat of our first game before anything got underway. Well stupidly i thought i could pull it off and well South was quick to knock me down to the losers bracket with a 0-2 win over me.

Now here i was wondering, who the hell is Pigeon and well he tore me to pieces completely eliminating me from the tournament at that one round away from progressing. Thoughts of ACL Melbourne 2013 came back where i was also 1 set away from progressing out of the Open bracket.

Finally after being eliminated I lent my mouse pad to Pox because he didnt have one then I was able to watch the rest of the games without feeling the need to play. I watched some fantastic games and was loving Blysk's casting as well as the games i watched.

Eventually hunger overtook us so Lardols and myself left for dinner. We planned to go back to a restaurant near our hotel and walked from the technology park there but it turned out to be closed. Driven by hunger we headed towards darling harbour freezing cold as we walked.

(I was walking and my hands were shaking so much i couldnt get a clear photo)

We stopped at the stacks restaurant between the imax and the chinese gardens and proceeded to have another fantastic dinner. I ordered a twice cooked lamb shoulder and Lardols got the Porkbelly. we split the meals into two and shared. At some point after leaving ACL i asked Pox to hold onto the mousepad i lent him and forgot about so he grabbed a mouse pad before he left.

After Dinner Lardols and i continued into the harbour in the freezing cold to get some Lindt cafe because to us a trip to sydney is wasted if we dont go there. We got our ice creams and poured melted chocolate over the top and

After we composed ourselves we caught a taxi back to the hotel.

Sunday 20 July
Was an easier day. We checked out of the hotel and this time drove to the venue so we could leave from there. We got to the venue and watched Pox as well as others play on the main stage.
Once Pox got elimanted from the pro groups he qualified for through the open bracket i asked for my mousepad back only to be given the wrong type of goliathus. It turns out Pox also forgot the mousepad and asked an admin for the mousepad he had left.
I took the mousepad and talked to Todd about it who went backstage and got my mousepad (Goliathus strategy?) so we did a dodgy trade and i got my mousepad back

We chilled and watched more games on the main stage, went for a walk to the alexandria hotel for lunch which again was delicious i thought then we returned to ACL to watch more games.

Eventually it came time for the Iaguz v KingKong finals but considering we already watched kingkong win that set earlier in the day and it was meant to be a Bo7 we rounded up Soundwave and Pox and headed home. This time Lardols drove all the way back and we got home around 11pm.

All in All, i had a fantastic weekend and will need to practice for #AclAdelaide (Cmon Baldie).