[Dox]

Okay I'm a few days late with this one. It was really hard to find time to sit down and type, 'cos I was either at the venue, travelling or sleeping. I'll try to summarise the entire event via a series of small paragraphs.

After lining up at the event and collecting our passes, we all went back to the hotel to practice for a few hours. Even on the "shitty" hotel wifi, the ping was flawless. Nothing beats playing without lag. It feels like a whole different game.

With the exception of Rossi, we all took a nap from around 2:00PM till 4:00PM on game day. At 4:30PM, I rounded everyone up and we got ready to head over to the venue. Matches were scheduled to start at 5:00. We walked through the door and who do we see walking beside us? Flash, man. And on the other side of the door, there's HuK, sitting on the feature station playing some warm-up games. I get out my phone and start snapping pictures. This was the beginning of a very frantic and exciting journey as I started humbly slinking around the venue asking every pro I saw if they minded if I took a photo of them.

EG.HuK


EG.DeMusliM


MrBitter & Kennigit


SK.MC, QxG.TheSTC & FXO.Leenock


EG.iNcontroL


coL.qxc


EG.Machine vs JookTo


Liquid.Sheth


A familiar Kiwi appears!!


ROOT.ToD


Clutch with the opening ceremony


"I thought Aussies were cool... until I met him (Rossi)." - Naniwa


Words can't describe the passion of this crowd.


deth crushing face in Round 1


YoonYJ vs bbSiphon


By some trick of the lens, I look taller than everyone. I don't know how that happened...


Slasher


mOOnGLaDe, Liquid.Ret, EG.ThorZaiN, Liquid.HerO


This match wasn't broadcasted, but the crowd of spectators was huge! Grubby vs EG.IdrA


FXO.Leenock, ST.Bomber and TSL.Polt

So anyway. The bracket was delayed by an hour and a half. Normally people might complain. But consider this. MLG was operating with a skeleton crew - approximately 80% of their staff were unable to make it due to the Hurricanes in the east. Those who did attend, drove for several days to get there. It was a phenomenal effort, made even more spectacular when you consider the resources that were available to them. So anyway, the brackets were published. With 8 Australians and 1 Kiwi in a bracket of over 200+ people... the chances of two Australians being matched in round 1 were pretty slim, right? Wrong.

Station 7: Nv.Dox vs iM.tgun. Damn it.

I take five minutes to talk strategy with Dan. He suggests I go for a 1 Rax FE into double gas, double fac blue flame hellions. I decide that I'd be most comfortable executing this on a map like Ohana, where he'll be struggling to reinforce his 3rd base and Queen reinforcements won't be an option. I throw out some strategic vetos which inevitably result in him choosing Ohana as the first map. Excellent. Now I just need to hope I manage to Random Terran! The game loads. I randomed Zerg. But wait... the map speed is set to "Fast." We re-host the game on Fastest. I randomed Terran this time. Excellent.

I execute the build flawlessly. I manage to deny his scouting perfectly and hide my double factories. I sneak around the western side of the map - out of watch tower range - and slip into his 3rd base without a hitch. I take down every single Drone, before saccing the Hellions into his natural. A few more drones go down on the way. I send a Banshee into the main & the 3rd, taking down another ~12 drones. So far so good. He's down 30+ Drones and I'm looking okay. Sadly I wasn't sure when I was supposed to take my 3rd. Either way, it was far too late. I sat back and wondered how I was supposed to transition next. I had a "decent" Mech army and saw him throw down a 4th + 5th Hatchery. I started getting anxious, feeling compelled to attack before these bases complete. I move out with a 130 supply Mech army. My screen freezes. Everything goes black. I pause and contact the admins. My screen fixes itself - apparently my computer ran out of memory. Everything seems okay, and I resume the game. I only just realise now that I'm nowhere near 200 supply, and regret moving out. I'm too far out on the map to turn back now, and get destroyed by Roaches, Queens and Infestors. I decide that now is a good time to take my 3rd base. It's not. I get destroyed by the counter-attack and gg soon after.

Game 2 - Daybreak. I random Protoss. After safely securing my FFE, I scout tgun's 3rd. He chooses not to chase my Probe. I approach the natural... and he moves his Queen away. Convenient. I glide right on up into the main base and he lets me see everything. I see a Roach Warren go down. Far too convenient. I let the Probe die, and I start preparing my favourite counter to Ling/Infestor. Surely he was only showing me that Roach Warren to trick me into making Immortals, right? Well, I'm not gonna fall for that. I warp in a bunch of Templar, score myself some +2 Chargelots and get ready to move out. My Observer flies over his Lings attacking the rocks in the middle. I smile to myself. I'm going to destroy this army. But then my Observer flies a little bit further. And I see Roaches. ****. He wasn't faking. I just metagamed myself. I panic and Chrono boost out a Warp Prism, and fly it over my 3rd base. I know for a fact he's gonna have a Zergling there, so I hope he see's my Warp Prism as it "clumsily" flies over his Zergling, and sends his army home to defend against a drop that isn't coming. I need to buy time for more Immortals. Unfortunately it wasn't enough time. His huge Zergling/Roach army arrives and crushes my measly Chargelot/Templar army. My Psi Storms barely scratch the surface of his Roaches and I'm forced to gg out in a very quick and shallow series. I shake his hand and wish him luck in the next round against MinChul.

tgun vs SK.MC

I follow the successes of all my fellow Australians as they make it through the next 3-4 rounds uncontested. Some of them begin to lose their matches and fall to the lower bracket, which continues the following day. I spent quite a bit of time socialising with iNcontroL & Kennigit. Both of them were super friendly and happy to chat with the Australians. Yoon is feeling really sick, and goes back to the hotel after his matches. The rest of us go out for dinner... I can't remember where. It's all a blur now, hehe.

Day 2. It's time to play my next round. I'm up against Flo, from Quantic. In the 20 or so practice games I played the night before, I was acutely aware that my Protoss was really underwhelming on this day. I'm not sure why, but things just weren't working out. My builds were all out of sync. Timings were way off. Was forgetting upgrades. Microing poorly. My Zerg and Terran were the strong races on day 2, and I said to everyone, "If I random Protoss, I'm gonna lose without a doubt."

Game starts. I random Protoss on Entombed Valley. Within 10 minutes I've already lost a Nexus and I'm making mistakes all over the place. By the 15 minute mark, she's managed to deny my 3rd for so long that I've got no chance of catching up. I stay in the game and play the Feedback vs EMP game for a while before she crushes me out of the game.

Now it's time for Daybreak. I random Terran. Okay, this is better. There's no real way I can describe this game, besides saying it was a 35 minute match of Tank+Marine vs Tank+Marine where the two of us were constantly engaging eachother with 3+ armies in all different locations of the map throughout the entire game. Eventually my multitasking slipped and a failed drop allowed her to pull miles ahead. Suddenly the game was 2 bases vs 4 and my tank count couldn't compare. It was a really intense and enjoyable game which resulted in me being eliminated from MLG 0-2. I shook her hand and thanked her for a really fun TvT. Probably one of the most entertaining and taxing ones I've ever played.

QxG.Flo

Now that I'm out of the event, I head over to watch Andy play his first series of the tournament. Against none other than SK.MC.

mOOnGLaDe vs SK.MC with EG.IdrA playing QxG.Apocolypse beside him

Game 1. Cloud Kingdom. MC goes for the Sentry/Immortal all-in. Andy spends a good 5 minutes baiting Forcefields, picking off proxy Pylons and bolstering his army. Eventually MC gets fed up with the dance and goes for the push, with a Warp Prism floating above. Andy executes a beautiful flank and handily crushes MC's army. Two minutes later, MC's base is overrun and types gg.

SK.MC types "gg" against mOOnGLaDe in Game 1

Game 2. Daybreak. Let's fast forward to 35 minutes. Andy has an unbeatable army of Infestors, Brood Lords and Corruptors. He has 5 bases. MC has 2. MC cannot possibly beat Andy in a fight. So he circumvents Andy's army and goes for the base race. Due to the time it takes Andy to get home, he loses 3 bases before he can force MC out. MC recalls to safety, whilst Andy is left defending one Hatchery. MC Vortexes Andy's army and dives the Hatch. Andy's eyes widen with terror as he realises his last building on the map is about to fall, whilst his army supply is still well over 150. With less than half a second to spare, he quickly morphs an Extractor, buying him time to build a replacement Hatchery nearby. All of the spectators gasp with surprise and I hear Liquid.Ret laughing with excitement next to me. The game continues for another 20 minutes as Andy deflects MC's attempts to take out his last Hatchery, but he has no way to safely move out and kill MC. Eventually MC sits back and passively accumulates enough Archons to engage Andy's army. He lands two perfect Vortexes, forcing Andy to GG before they've even worn off.

Game 3. Ohana. I had to dash away to use the bathroom at the start of this game. There was quite a queue, during which I was standing in line with EG.IdrA. I spoke to him a little bit about his win against Apocolypse, then we finally made it through the queue. The whole time I was trying not to smile whilst thinking to myself, "I'm peeing next to IdrA." Hehehe. I go back outside and I see Andy sitting comfortably with 3 bases, whilst moving across the map with a huge counter-force of Roaches, Lings & Infestors. He stomps MC's 3rd and forces him back into his natural. He overwhelms MC and floods his way to a 2-1 victory. Even though this game wasn't streamed, the spectators standing nearby lost their shit. They were cheering and clapping like crazy. And mannnnnnnnn was I proud. What an awesome accomplishment! Next up was HuK.

mOOnGLaDe vs EG.HuK on the main stage

You guys probably saw this one streamed live, so I don't need to describe the games. Let's just say this. Warp Prism + Zealots are a pain in the ass. Fortunately Andy handled it well. The crowd was absolutely insane after Andy won. Clutch scored us front-row seats for this one and we were sure to get the crowd on our side with plenty of cheering. Andy's victory was followed up by a cool interview on the stream, where Clutch went through our entire team with a series of questions. Feeling the energy of the crowd behind me as I complimented them on their passion was so wonderful. Nothing can describe how it feels to be amongst it.

Whilst all this was going on, YoonYJ had won the most intense series against coL.qxc. By now, you've all probably seen the deciding game 3 on Daybreak. You can't imagine the tension floating around those two as we all stood around biting our nails. It was electric.

YoonYJ vs coL.qxc

Unfortunately Rossi & Mafia had gone head to head in the 4th round as well, with Mafia emerging with a VERY strong 2-1 comeback after looking completely dead on Ohana!

Countryman vs countryman =[

After making it through to the group stages and dropping 0-2 to viOlet...

...it was now time for Andy to take on the best Terran in Sidney, Australia... ROOT.majOr!

mOOnGLaDe vs ROOT.majOr

Game 1. Ohana. Andy was betting on Mech. But majOr went Tank/Marine. Let me tell you this. And I don't want you to think I'm exaggerating. I've stood behind Flash. I've watched over the shoulder of Bomber, Rain and Life. I've sat next to MinChul. But NOTHING compares to the speed of majOr. It was like I had teleported back 12 years and I was seeing professional RTS for the first time, all over again. Seeing this guy operating at 400 APM at the 35 minute mark, multi tasking 3 armies and macroing like a monster was just terrifying. And there's something really special about watching this guy play. You can feel this aura of determination surrounding him. He's so deliberate with every action, and so intense with every decision. It's like his body is performing commands before his mind has even finished formulating them. I dare say, most Terrans would have lost this game. But due to his sheer speed and excellent skills of anticipation (predicting every move Andy would make before Andy had even thought about it), he was able to take the win.

Game 2. Daybreak. He went mech this time. Andy went pure Burrowed Roaches. Nothing else. After 30 minutes of crazy exchanges, Andy managed to take him out. I can't do this game any justice with my description. It just needs to be seen to be believed. Andy pulled him apart with beautiful decision making and positioning through and through.

Game 3. For some reason I'm drawing a blank on this one. I think it was on Entombed or something? Either way, Andy won it. I know majOr was a dick to me in the past, but I don't hold grudges. And man do I have respect for this guy. He has this spark of determination that I've never seen in anyone before. It's really fascinating.

By now, all of the other Australians had been eliminated. Most of them only one game short from the Group Stages. It was time for Andy to take on TSL's RevivaL. He wasn't feeling great about playing another ZvZ. He admitted it was his weakest matchup right now, and he wasn't feeling particularly good considering his 0-2 defeat at the hands of viOlet. I fetched a handful of salads and drinks for the team to eat, and with only 5 minutes to stuff his face with as much food as possible, Andy kicked off the match.

mOOnGLaDe vs TSL.RevivaL in the group stages

This was a really crazy ZvZ series. Andy played really well, really solid, and really smart to take a 2-1 victory over RevivaL.

Now it was time for him to face viOlet again to determine who would emerge from the group as the highest seed. And this time, it was on stage. Extended series, with a 0-2 deficit. Ouch.

The view from mOOnGLaDe's booth up on the stage


Clutch cheering on mOOnGLaDe as he takes on viOlet on the main stage. tgun photo bombing.

Again, you guys probably saw the broadcast, so I won't talk about the game. In the end, I believe Andy fell 1-2 (1-4), which meant he would go on to play ESC.Daisy in the 3rd round of the Championship bracket.

By now, all of us were tired and extremely weary. Unlike the day before where we started at 5:00PM, this day had begun at 10:00AM. And now it was 8:00PM. We all departed for the hotel where the iM guys were staying, and stopped to get some food.

As we started walking back to our hotel to get a nice big sleep, tgun received a message from Thundertoss. "GLaDe has to play his Championship Bracket tonight. At 11:00PM."
Well shit. The guy literally fell asleep at the dinner table, and now he was expected to play another match in 90 minutes.

We made our way back to the venue, with stinging, bloodshot eyes. Andy had 45 minutes to wait until his next game. He and I found a comfortable couch in the lobby and set our alarms to wake us up at 11:00PM. With roughly 25 minutes of sleep, we walked back into the venue where Andy was being ushered to the feature station. Unfortunately this is where his journey ended, losing 0-2 to a pair of Sentry/Immortal all-ins. It seems that fatigue got the best of him, as he forgot Zergling Speed, Roach Speed and Overlords on numerous occasions, allowing Daisy to secure the victory.

We all made our way back to the hotel for a long night of well-earned rest. Although none of the Australians made it through to Sunday, we were happy with the performance everyone put up, and we were looking forward to sleeping in & relaxing for another day of great games on the main stage.

We were ambushed by Gwin on our way out the door, and he asked us to come up to the presidential suite where he had set up a studio for Quantic. He asked us to sit down for some quick interviews with him, and although we were falling asleep standing up, we didn't want to pass up any opportunities to promote the SEA scene. Gwin had a pretty awesome setup going on, this guy knows his shit.

Once the interviews were over, we made our way back out towards our hotel. As we emerged from the elevator, Day9, MrBitter, JP McDaniels, Apollo & TotalBiscuit walked past. The only one who stopped to talk to us was TB, and Day9 gave Andy a quick fist-bump on his way past. I had a really good chat with TB and shared my genuine appreciation for him taking the time to speak with us. Unfortunately I wasn't able to meet Apollo or Day9 all weekend. That's the only time I saw them.

We made our way home and everyone slept for a good 7 or 8 hours. Except Yoon. He went out and had the most insane night of his life. That's another story for another time though.

My next blog: Sunday morning breakfast with Grubby, Interviews with ESFI, Team Liquid, Gamespot & CSN, the Grand Finals between Leenock & Life, the Afterparty and the journey home.

Quick Comments

	cRSenSei:	vintage rossi pick with the girls
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