[Dingobloo]

The Return

The Australian Cyber League is back in Queensland for it's first Championship Event of the year. A change in game, A strong open bracket and the continual ebb and flow of player motivation makes uncertainty almost certain, but make no mistake, the climb to the top is as steep as the inevitable descent so bust out your big header text and dust off your keyboards, it's time for ACL.

13th April, 2013 2:30pm AEST

The Groups


Group A:

Arguably the weakest group, Group A is also likely the group of choice for any strong open bracket competitor. That said, it should be considered an upset if Petraeus does not make it out of the group given the New Zealand young gun's recent performances and continued improvement. Hut can definitely hold his own in this group but might have trouble with some of the players who are likely to come through the open bracket and he has yet to have a big ACL LAN performance. Kez and Alpha round out the group as the lower seeds looking to make a impression.



Group B:

Two known quantities and two big question marks hang over this group. On the high end, mOOnGLaDe is the best and most consistent Australian player at home and overseas. He looks no less fearsome in Heart of the Swarm and should be a lock at #1 in this group. Ninja likewise continues to perform well, rarely losing to players outside of the top 5 in the region and should have a good shot at the #2 position. Light would have been an easy choice for a 2nd place contender in this group in the past but a potential race switch and a desire to take the game more casually leave questions about his preparedness going into this tournament. Jambi on the other hand, as the low seeded beneficiary of a few walk overs in the qualifier round should have no pressure on his shoulders in his ACL debut.


Group C:

Nomad and MegaFonzi both had great performances in the qualifiers, Nomad for his consistent middle placings and MegaFonzi for his deep finish in qualifier #1. Unfortunately they've been thrown to the wolves a little here, with 2012 WCS Australia Champion PiG and consistent strong performer tgun in the mix. There is always the possibility that an open bracket finisher could choose this group if they were particularly strong vs Z and confident vs P but it will be an uphill battle.


Group D:

Turn back all ye who enter here, you will find only death. MaFia, KingKong and iaguz are all genuine chances to get out of this group and I can't see anyone from the open bracket choosing this as their first preference, it has the highest average skill level and is subsequently the most difficult to call. Fenner while no slouch, might have made a good run out of another group but finds himself at the bottom of the pile here, with the exception of whichever poor soul ends up in this group from the open bracket.

The Open

An interesting anomaly with the current ACL format is that while seeding and some randomization determine group placement for the players who participated in the qualifiers, the high placing open bracket participants get to choose their groups in the order they finished. This may have resulted in a surprising list of open bracket contenders including the NV trio of deth, Rossi and Jazbas along with a few other SC2SEA tournament regulars like NZX, Stallion and even the surprisingly strong addition of the German tourist Teddy taking on a field of hopefuls. While they're all confident they will be able to claim the top spots they'll be at the mercy of the random draw if they want to avoid knocking each other out and who knows who could show up on the day.

The Stream

ACLPro SC2 on Twitch.tv

The Schedule



Learn More:

ACL Brisbane Landing Page
ACL 2013 Season 1 on Liquipedia
ACL Brisbane Community Information on SC2SEA