[JoFritzMD]

To echo what everyone else said, great event. I enjoyed most of it (even though it finished so late every day and I was exhausted and just collapsed into bed every night when i got home) and am definitely planning on making the trip down to melbourne for that one when it happens.

It was great meeting all of the Brisbane and Melbourne people and putting faces to names. For some reason before this event I thought Infeza looked similar to Pinder. :S
Getting to know people like crackhands (he single handedly made me want to BM on ladder 10x more then I do now), Chad (sexiest wog I've ever seen), deth (he didn't want to kill me which made me happy), Yang (who i'm definitely going to force some free coaching out of ), and about every other person (who i'm too lazy to write their names out for) was pretty fun and I definitely will be looking forward to seeing everyone again at the next event.

A big thankyou to everyone who actually made this event possible. I have no idea who everyone was who helped out but i'm personally amazed that the event actually finished that night (thank god SEA isn't T dominated ).

+ [Mind = Blown] +

Originally Posted by Dox

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I'll be replying to all the posts on this page when I wake up in a few hours.

Dox sleep posting O_o

[NDG.Stitch]

As a viewer on the stream, I have to say I was really entertained with the casting that Maynarde and others who hopped in stream did. I thought it was great that the production had a lot of Live Cameras around the event for viewers on stream that can't attend. It really gave me the whole atmosphere of how ACL went, only thing is maybe while the cameraman walks around zooming into people and focusing on some players, maybe he can carry a mic around and talk? It felt like it would've been even better like that.

But for sure, biggest event for SEA and of course Australia as of yet. Really really really well done! I think as a spectator really got to give it up to Maynarde for making me laugh and entertained throughout the day.

Ah, and another thing. Interviewing players was great. I loved how most of the matches were interviewed and it was nice to hear some people you'd never really hear much from!

Thanks for the great show ACL!

Quick Comments

PiG:

[VB_Blake]

congrats winners! were some sick games i really enjoyed watching

[syfMiley]

Ninja and West going big this weekend!

Quick Comments

inFeZa:

[ACL VaNzR]

Just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to the community for coming down to this event and watching at home!!

Time Delays
A mixture of player time wasting combined with communication between the tournament runners & stream team caused unfavourable delays. Next events will see 1-2 additional 'enforcer referees' recruited to ensure this NEVER occurs again. We will not be lenient on laddering and/or time wasting (especially in the middle of series).


Updated Brackets.
We have a staff member whose only job is to ensure brackets are updated and use social media. Unfortunately Dox uses prehistoric excel sheets for tournament which made it harder to update easily . We will force Dox to go to the dark side and use a web friendly (instant update) version rather than his excel doc in future.

Is there a playlist for music used?
Yes. Was only 97 songs. Sorry to those who were forced to listen to them on loop. Will increase that for next time. Contact me if you want the actual list.

Additional Improvements
- More xG Light on stream and interviews

Quick Comments

	Asrathiel:	♥ you rock ♥
	Maynarde:	Sundance DiVanzetti
	x5_dot:	superb work ACL!
	PiG:
	TAEdgE:	hot
	neon:
	LiviBee:
	ausproleague:	:)
	nirvAnA:
	NOM:	Dox is such an ancient mango dragon. :P
	Dox:	you're just jelly cos my spreadsheet bl0ws ur m1nd~~~~~~~
	JoFritzMD:	I NEED MORE OF LIGHTS SEXY BODY!!

[TargA]

Originally Posted by EveTechtron

Everyone watch out for the "Westly Build + Targa Build" tearing sea ladder up.

bitches need to stop blind countering or using my strategies, its mine. However I am gonna play the shit out of the Westley build !

Quick Comments

neon:

hahahahaha

[TAEdgE]

Fantastic event to watch. Caught it all from start to finish. Very impressed by how it was run. Loved the views of the place and the guest commentators. Congrats to GLaDe and all who played. It is destination: Melbourne though for Carnage and we will be there to tear shit up!

[[TA]LoSt]

Might as well give my 2c on the event and everything like everyone else.

I had an absolute blast. If I flew down and didn't even play I still would've had a great time and enjoyed myself; good times and lots of laughs were had. The more of these I go to the more people I meet and the better it gets, being able to walk from one side of the room to another and having 5 conversations with different people on the way. Had a great time shit talking with Kez, LOADS of laughs with Champi (seriously, I don't think there was a moment we weren't laughing about something stupid) and meeting all the Sydney TA boys that I've spoken to online for years.

I must say a big shout out to HuT. As much as things between us had been sorted online and just brushed away as nothing, there had been bad blood between us and it was a bit awkward for both of us not introducing ourselves to each other etc. However, he came up and sat next to me to watch me vs Fenner and gave me someone to discuss the games, really helpful.. Thanks man. ^_^

The production crew work their asses off to get everything done and it's so hard to manage something this big effectively, but they're getting there. Practice makes perfect and they're damn close!

Can't wait for Melbourne.

EDIT: And the footage! Can't wait to see it!

Quick Comments

TAEdgE:

[UHF]

What a great weekend of entertainment. I managed to catch a fair bit of the stream on Saturday, and did a 9am-1am stint (couldn't make it to the finals!) on Sunday.

Pretty fantastic quality overall! The production was great and from what I could see the venue looked great. You could tell that both the staff and players put a lot of prepation into this event. The level of play was really high, with a lot of meta-gaming and new strategies being thrown around. I was really impressed the the final group of players that, whilst probably suffering exhaustion, put out some really good games right until the end.

Even though it probably doesn't mean so much coming from me, thanks to all those involved as it was really enjoyable to watch.

Some notes from the stream side (just nitpicking)

- Lengthy periods between games, especially on Saturday. Sunday afternoon was great as they really punched through those games. (Understandably it's hard to get players organised, keep the brackets flowing & keep the stream satisfied)
- Casters probably don't need to introduce themselves so often
- Interviews were great, but some of the more impromptu ones got really awkward (some of the players didn't know how to answer the questions)
- Knowing whats going on! At times we didn't really know what was going on and when. Sometimes soon meant 2 minutes, other times it was 30+ minutes.

I'm really looking forward to the next one, and would love to attend in person (even if I wouldn't know a single person there)

Quick Comments

JoFritzMD:

Just start talking to people. That's how I got to know people ^_^

[x5_dot]

Forget the players, games and organisers, best part of ACL Sydney were the Lovesacs! Will not come to another ACL unless I am guaranteed one to sleep on when I've been there for over 12+ hours :P

Quick Comments

	Asrathiel:	Yah those things were comfy. I like the round one best :P
	iM yang:	was cool you stayed so long dot! ^^
	PiG:
	NOM:	lovesac>chair. hope they have heaps more at the Melbourne

[Dox]

Originally Posted by PiG

*Even fraglabs bearded support guy was very nice and helpful. Not his fault the laptops were having really bad framerates.

James was really apologetic for this; sadly ACL Sydney landed at an extremely unfortunate time for them. They are only days away from launching their new range of 380 models, so their best gear isn't available at the moment. The laptops we had this weekend were only running ~340's and although they performed adequately during testing, it obviously became a bit of an issue when 200/200 armies were clashing and there was a lot of animation like creep, fungals, etc on the screen at once. We can't apologise for this enough - you can be sure it won't happen again.

Originally Posted by PiG

*the Asus pcs had alot of troubles, shame they spent more time maintaining the display pcs then providing any fixes for these ones.

I need to speak with the rest of the team to identify exactly what the deal was with these. We had 3 of them DOA before the event even began, with several more falling apart throughout the event. Such a shame.

Originally Posted by PiG

4th place = no money, and always forgotten.

I don't think anyone will forget Ninja's performance this weekend. Alongside Myuu and delete, these guys really tore it up!

Originally Posted by PiG

Ninja would have come top 2 if it the tournament finished earlier in the day

This is the part where I elaborate on all of our shortcomings. I haven't read any further in the thread yet, so for all I know, someone may have already addressed this over the next page or two. Fingers crossed...

1) The Saturday delay. Long story short: we picked up a whole new array of equipment for the stream, granting us a whole new plateau of animation capabilities. Like, GSL quality stuff. We were really excited about showcasing this for ACL Sydney. But unfortunately one of the most vital pieces of equipment was no longer functioning, despite our tests the night beforehand. So this forced us to completely scrap the stream configuration and come up with something entirely different with what we could scrap together. The stream team are absolute magicians. So anyway, this took us until nearly 12:00PM to get up and running, when we were hoping to kick off at 10:30. But the real kicker was that it had not only delayed the tournament, but the entire schedule. Our registrations and payments were delayed by an hour, the opening ceremony was nearly an hour late. The whole thing just snowballed and we were on the backfoot before we'd even begun.

2) The Open Bracket. There's no clearer way to say this: I messed up. 100% me. I didn't manage the players efficiently enough, which resulted in people (yet again) taking eachothers PC's, or sitting around laddering after their matches instead of freeing up the computers for others to play. Some people had to wait over 2 hours for a computer to be made available whilst others were playing micro trainers and whatnot. Also, you might recall I said we were going to have lanyards & nametags for ACL Sydney. I left the order too late and they didn't arrive in time, so again I found myself chasing up 20+ people I wasn't familiar with. Most of the time, it would only be 5 or 10 minutes before they wandered over to the desk to see if their match was ready, but those minutes really start to add up when they're happening half a dozen times per round. I'm gonna start a few new paragraphs for my own tangents before I continue responding to posts.

2b) Some comments will inevitably be made that holding games for the stream was a detriment. It wasn't. At no point throughout the event was the bracket delayed due to streamed matches. I managed this particular aspect of the event with extreme efficiency. The problem was, however, is that although we would schedule matches, the casting desk had absolutely no direction. So more often than not, we had both players and the commentators sitting in the game lobby for 15+ minutes waiting for a green light to proceed. This didn't even occur to me until half way through day 2. So in future events, I'm going to look at having the admin desk relocated right next to the commentary desk, so that I can play more of a director role to the stream team. Furthermore, we'll capitalise on this to bring results directly from the admin desk to the stream viewers between matches.

2c) One of our biggest sources of delays was one that could only be identified in retrospect. Our production team was itching to deliver so much premier content on day 1 that it really had an impact on our turnaround. We had pre-game interviews, post-game interviews, we had players seated at a feature station so we could provide a quality cinematic experience. This is all great stuff, but we should not have done this on Saturday. In future, we'll just be churning out Open Bracket matches as fast as possible. We'll move players around as little as possible (you still need to take your allocated seats though) and the stream won't wait for anything. We'll bring all that great production over to Sunday and allow the Group Stages / Championship Bracket to absorb those luxuries. Anyone reading this will be thinking, "Well duh, that's common sense." But as I said, we had so many wonderful production resources available to us that it was just lost amongst the commotion. I still stand by the opinion that ACL's production is second to none. We just need better direction. I really hope to provide this at ACL Melbourne.

2d) In future I'm going to be delegating results to Linc (Norksman). I'm sure many of you witnessed my frustration as I was interrupted by questions and requests whilst in the middle of entering results, only to have to chase you down and clarify the score. This is no-one's fault but mine - I insisted on juggling too much. I'm happy for you guys to ask questions and I apologise for constantly holding up my hand and asking you to wait whilst I sat around chasing my tail. I'm not used to having assistants to help out, so I'll manage these resources better in future. Having said that, this weekend would not have been possible without Linc. He was an invaluable resource, and I'm actually scared to think how distastrous things would have been if I hadn't brought him on board.

2e) Two way streets. I'm going to pre-face by highlighting a conversation I had with MaFia on Sunday afternoon. This tournament format and atmosphere is a very new thing to many Australian gamers. Over time, the expectations of the admins and the players will become mutually familiar. We'll have a better understanding of how the event is intended to operate and things will naturally smooth themselves out. So I don't necessarily feel that any changes are necessary in this department. But I still think it's important that I highlight a few key areas where the players can "help me help you." Firstly, you MUST take your assigned seat. If it's not available, please notify us. Don't just grab the next closest one. Our entire schedule balances delicately on top of knowing who is playing who and when. As soon as you start playing a match, we've already allocated who is going to be playing on your PC once you're done. Sometimes that person will be you, but in the early stages, it's more than likely going to be someone else. This is just a limitation of resources, and will improve over time. But it's critical that you respect the admins and your fellow players in this regard. If you experienced frustration over having to wait for a computer this weekend, consider that someone else may have been in the exact same situation whilst you were laddering. Furthermore, we had spectators using computers again. It was actually the same people I had to repeatedly ask to get off computers at ACL Gold Coast. You cannot imagine my disappointment. These computers are here for tournament purposes only. Not for you to update Facebook or chat on SC2SEA. The next thing I want to highlight is results. You MUST report these results to the admin desk immediately after your match is complete. I know it's nice to stand around and talk about your games with your friends/opponent after it's over, and we all get pretty wrapped up in it. But we need your results as a priority. More often than not, we were chasing results rather than having them brought to us. And we'd be sourcing them second-hand from spectators or match history. I'm not gonna lie, we lost more than 2 hours this weekend just chasing down results. And finally, the last thing I need to highlight. When your match is announced, you're under an obligation to start it within 5-10 minutes. I respect that sometimes it takes 5 minutes to set up your equipment and get all of your settings right. But you don't need to play 15 minutes of micro trainer before every match. And as much as I appreciate the social aspect of the event - it's honestly the best part - when you're finishing veto'ing maps with your opponent, don't stand around chatting for 10 minutes before taking your seats. You need to start the game immediately. On that note, try to manage the vetos a little faster if possible. I extended an olive branch this weekend by removing the "pre-determined map" from the Group Stages, only to lose precious hours in the long run. Now I know this paragraph seems terribly negative, so I'm gonna retreat back to my original statement before closing out - I honestly feel that all of this is just growing pains, as players familiarise themselves with this sort of large-scale atmosphere. The more ACL's you attend, the more natural this entire process will feel, and we'll be smooth sailing in no time.


3) Tiny nitpick. We had labeled computers for the players by hanging numbered banners from each chair. Not only did I see spectators taking these chairs away from the playing area so they could gather around their friends - but they tore the numbers off too! Please consider the impact of your actions.

Originally Posted by PiG

2) Teammates forced to play first in group play when possible to avoid thrown matches, this wasn't an issue in this tournament but could be in future.

This will definitely be enforced in future. I was disappointed to hear this being abused over the weekend.

Originally Posted by PiG

3) SC2 viewing area like on the 2nd day, set up on the first day, with volume just high enough so the audience can hear it. Makes live spetating experience much nicer.

Agreed. We're still a new title to ACL and our resources are limited, but just like MLG - I can assure you we'll be the flagship title in no time. I'll try to make sure this happens for Melbourne.

Originally Posted by PiG

4) Terrans and protoss train harder and make it out of groups you bastards.

Heck yes.

In closing, I'm absolutely ashamed that we went 5 hours overtime for this event. We budgeted for a much larger number of participants in the open bracket and were prepared to manage it. Due to an array of small issues, everything snowballed into one of the most painfully long events of all time. I can't apologise enough. Never again, you have my word. This post has become quite the essay already, so I'm gonna hit submit before I start reading the rest of the thread. I'll try to be concise.

Quick Comments

	Maynarde:	You are an amazing human being, post is a must read for future ACL attendants
	TCPLemminks:	You're terrible :P, in all seriousness you had a lot on your plate. Depending on when Melbourne is I would love to help you chase down players and such. I'll even buy a cattle prod.
	TAEdgE:
	Baldie:	So much love for you <3
	neon:	Only a dragon could do all those things at once.
	ausproleague:	Well put
	TASlowHands:	The event still rocked dox! Im sure Melbourne will be incredible with the experience you guys gained
	ACL Beware:
	Asrathiel:	♥ ♥ ♥
	x5_dot:
	Sunset:
	Cordance:	Awesome effets its good to have the post event wrap up to improve.
	xGKingdelete:

[mOOnGLaDe]

ACL Sydney was an amazing event to be a part of! Even though it might of went a bit too late :P everyone was in the same boat, so it's hard to complain competitor wise.

Even though the top 8 was zerg i feel it was really enjoyable games! And i'm glad i got to battle the norwegian big boss targa in the finals and take on the strategy that got me when we fought in brisbane, though we both looked like we were going to die irl at almost 3am after it >o<

Must say more lovesacs at the event would be great, they are so damn comfy!

The ACL staff as usual were friendly and helpful and i feel it ran very well despite delays, Dox as usual did a great job running the tournament!

Sorry if there is bad grammar i am half asleep!

See you all in melb!

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

hi seaking

[LiviBee]

Originally Posted by xGKingLight

Staff were friendly, hardworking (working around the clock). There should be name tags next time so it will be easier to show our appreciation for the staff, and for the players/staff to communicate more efficiently. We know who Dox and Vance are, but there were a few familiar faces whom I don't even know the names of, that were putting in a mighty effort the entire time.

Production was absolutely FAN-TAS-TIC. Maynarde & Co putting a terrific and lengthy effort definitely deserves props.

Organisation/scheduling was abit flimsy - I am slightly abit more critical about this as I happen to be the biggest victim of such(Tied first-place in group, no time for tiebreaker). But I do understand it was caused by unexpected events. However, ofcourse these things can be prevented in the future.

Dissappointed in my own play but the more experienced(I refuse to say better to keep the drama flowing) players got the better of me in some really crazy series. Also a little dissappointed for myself personally that I didn't get to play in any streamed games, or do any pre/post game interviews.

Was great to see everyone and meet a few new faces.

In terms of competition, MG still the man to beat, Ninja solidifying his place as most improved of 2012 so far and one of the few names capable of taking away MG's throne. Good to see Delete coming from the open bracket to rep Protoss, saw some great games with him vsing Pokerface - Protoss winning a base race against Mutas, WTF LOL? Top 8 Zerg was a little dissappointing, with the Terrans and Protosses barely missing out - definitely need to step it up! Although getting LAN would help, ALOT.

Despite all these great things, Iaguz stays European, rendering the entire event a big dissappointment.

We did an interview light!

[Dox]

Originally Posted by delete

Is there a playlist of the songs that were playing throughout?

I'll grab this for you tomorrow.

Originally Posted by TASlowHands

Special shoutout to Chad for looking after us all and moving us along when we caused a 'disturbance'

Actually this reminds me of something I left out in my last post. I'm sure it goes without saying, but please don't get drunk during the events. I'm all for after-parties and I'm always the first to laugh at peoples' embarassing inebriation adventures, but we actually got in a lot of shit for this. I had no idea people were drinking until they were already drunk and drinks were being spilled in the venue. I'm really sorry to sound like a buzzkill here - I know it was late and people were well overdue for it - but we have a professional standard and legal obligations to adhere to. Both were compromised this weekend.

Originally Posted by dippa

first day's delays was something like the moonstar's guide to tournament management (me + chadmann's set got delayed 4 times for other games to be streamed and then a 5th time so they could get pinder to cast it) but it's all cool since we had an awesome time

I was told that you had requested your match be streamed, I did everything I could to accommodate you. I really wanted to say, "No, we can't fit it into the schedule" but I wanted to give you guys some spotlight.

Originally Posted by NOM

i think the breaks in between streamed matches should have something like a list of players that are currently playing matches off stream, or a quick preview on the brackets.

Absolutely agree. I'm really excited to be getting more involved with the stream direction in future. I understand viewers expectations and I'll be striving to satisfy them.

Originally Posted by Cordance

give people times till next game as accurately as possible on the stream.

Shall do, thank you.

Originally Posted by xGKingLight

Organisation/scheduling was abit flimsy - I am slightly abit more critical about this as I happen to be the biggest victim of such(Tied first-place in group, no time for tiebreaker).

This was heartbreaking for me man, I really, really wanted to run tiebreaker matches but we were already so far behind schedule. I knew we couldn't pull it off but I just refused to accept that we'd have to settle for map scores or something lame like that. I promise we'll fix it up next time and we'll budget for tie breaker matches in our schedule.

Originally Posted by xGKingLight

Also a little dissappointed for myself personally that I didn't get to play in any streamed games, or do any pre/post game interviews.

omg I had no idea! We had a media panel ready and available throughout the whole event. If I knew I would have sent you over there immediately.

Originally Posted by xGKingLight

Despite all these great things, Iaguz stays European, rendering the entire event a big dissappointment.

HAHAHA

Originally Posted by TAScarecrow

It'd also be nice if the casters could mention other results and group standings more often during the casts.

100% agree man. With the way we were setup, it was almost impossible for casters to have access to this information in real-time. We'll ensure that this isn't the case for future events.

Originally Posted by System

This is easy to do without the casters saying a word, something like what I did during Master's Cup, just have some text that you can update that scrolls of whatever saying updates and information.

Not to sound rude, but no, for an event of this scale, it requires a tremendous amount of work. Each individual has an array of tasks assigned to them and relaying results from the admin desk to the casting desk to produce some simple scrolling text would mean that another hidden production component is suffering.


Oh, I just discovered VaNzR's post on page 5. Ah well, some overlap.

Well, that's about it from me really. As always, it was a pleasure. I enjoyed seeing everyone again, and meeting some new people. We'll continue to improve.

Quick Comments

iMSystem:

Thanks for the reply :)

[Maynarde]

I walked away from ACL this weekend with several things;

• Faces to names and new friends - It was so good to meet so many of you and chat with familiar faces from ACL Gold Coast
• More live casting practice - I feel like there is a chance more things like this will make an adequate caster out of me yet
• Faith in ACL, it's staff and it's sponsors and a deep appreciation for all of them (especially after Dox and VaNzR's post) - Everyone is very professional and friendly, sure tempers can flare when there's a lot of pressure but in the end we all want the same thing and appreciate everyone's hard work and patience. I have 100 percent faith that ACL Pro in Melbourne will be even more amazing, also that production and organization will improve many fold with every event.
• A sore throat - Shout out to soothers for their fine product getting me through Sunday (and Raamon for the chai drink).
• Inspiration to play more and improve my game - There were some of the best games of SC2 I've ever seen on the weekend, and I dunno about you guys but seeing them didn't make me want to take a break from SC2 but rather play it more and practice more.

I feel it was an excellent experience, and re-iterate Dox's statement that the "growing pains" will pass and this will become a well oiled machine... And that SC2 will most definitely become it's crown jewel. The main stage will not be yours for long console boys

I truly hope that everyone who watched enjoyed ACL Pro Sydney, and that the level of interest by spectators and players only grows with each event.

Also, when in NSW do not stay at the Randwick Lodge. I slept approx. 6 hours total over the past 3 days. It's cheap and close to the venue, but I want to see roaches and fungal growth on the screen not in my bedroom D:

See you in Melbourne

Quick Comments

	Baldie:
	neon:	hahah
	Dox:	rofl <3
	TAEdgE:	Good to hear buddy <3
	x5_dot:	EWWW

[neon]

Awesome to see Dox/Vanzar taking responsibility and addressing the adoring public and competitors concerns so promptly and efficiently, very professional and hats off to you both!

Also don't forget to take the credit where it's due too! Big event, I had a great timejust in front of my PC watching it unfold, can only imagine being there.

I won't be able to attend Melbourne due to other holiday commitments however I shall get to one sometime, soon, can't wait.

[dippa]

I mentioned this a couple of times to some people, but I wonder if it would be possible at future events to have the production team, who go around producing vox pops and doing pre-game interviews and the like, take care of all that stuff in the background rather than doing it live.

So basically the matches would just churn out constantly like you suggest and the casters would jump into whatever games were available. Should there be any downtime, the interviews and so on could then be used as part of a B-roll to fill in for time.

I understand there wasn't the capability to do this at Sydney, but it seems like it would sync up well with the changed philosophy of having the casters/stream work around the tournament rather than emphasising the cast over the efficiency of the bracket. (This is in regards to the open bracket - obviously things are more different once group stages kick in.)

Originally Posted by Dox

I was told that you had requested your match be streamed, I did everything I could to accommodate you. I really wanted to say, "No, we can't fit it into the schedule" but I wanted to give you guys some spotlight.

I don't know who asked for the match to be streamed, but I can guarantee you the request didn't come from me. I didn't ask for Pinder to cast the match either, which added further delays since we had to wait for him to finish his match before we could play. I appreciate that you went out of your way to honour that, however (even if there appears to have been a miscommunication at some stage), considering all the shit that was going on around you.

Trust me, if I was told that the game couldn't have fit into the stream schedule it wouldn't have bothered me one iota - I wasn't feeling great after playing my second game and I've been to and helped run enough large tournaments to understand when you have to bite the bullet.

NB. Just spoke to Dox/Maynarde in chatbox and they said that the request came from either Chad or myself (what dox was told) and I feel like crap about this. I didn't ask, and I don't know if Chad did, but had I known I would have forced the game to be played earlier to save time. I feel like an arsehole now for holding back things. Sigh -_-;;

Originally Posted by Dox

2) The Open Bracket. There's no clearer way to say this: I messed up. 100% me.

I know you feel 100% responsible, but the truth of the matter was you worked your arse off, and the reality is you just didn't have enough help. You did everything you could possible with all the energy you had, and everyone is eternally grateful for that.

I've always been a firm believer in being strong and firm with players during tournaments. You're right that players will get to understand how things run over time, but the problem that I've always encountered is that players will always look to benefit themselves over the good of the tournament. If someone doesn't wander over and tell them to hurry the **** up, they're going to spend that extra 10-15 minutes ******* about just to feel a little bit more comfortable. It's in their best interests, after all, even if it's completely unreasonable.

What's needed is for a third admin to roam around and just be, forgive the phrase, a general **** (that's the c-word ladies) to players to make sure games start as fast as humanly possible. It will involve some yelling and a blunt hand, but at the end of the day everyone will learn that the instructions are to the benefit of everyone because it keeps things to schedule.

Keeping things to schedule is soooooooooooooo ******* important. It stops you guys, the organisers, from having to pay out of your own pocket to run overtime at the venue or facing even more dire scenarios (forcing players to play under sub-standard conditions to resolve games or changing formats mid-tournament to finish in time, both of which were thankfully avoided). It also frees up time so that scenarios where tiebreakers can't be resolved - like what happened with Light's group - doesn't occur, although the manner in which it was handled isn't unprecedented by any measure (IEM uses the same format AFAIK).

Production idea

The suggestion that the casters mention group stage results is pretty cool, but another thing that could also be really awesome is to have Livibee roam the playing area during matches and then cut to her (again, meshes in well with the idea if you have the stream roaming for games instead of holding back games for the casters) so she can give a quick live report of the match.

This could be expanded to other games as well and it'd give a nice little link between the different streams so that people who want to watch all of ACL have a general idea of what's going on in the other games (so they know if the main stream starts showing, say, FIFA, then they already know this player smashed his group and they have a basic idea of who's favoured etc).

Dox, you're awesome

What really has gone understated here under all the praise, suggestion and criticisms is the fact that you, Mr Reball, still maintained the energy to uphold the integrity of the tournament by not sacrificing the format, not scrapping the open bracket or doing a million other things to save time that would have damaged the spirit of the competition.

That's not hard - that's ******* gargantuan. The amount of effort to make that kind of call under the stress and fatigue you were under is enormous. The tournament was much better for it; shame about the ZvZvZvZ, but that's the players' fault.

The truth is you know where things need to be ironed out anyway and we know that you'll crack the whip and charm the right people to ensure what needs to happen happens. That's why we all trust you; that's why everyone wants to work with you and it's why everyone believes in you even more after this weekend - not less, but more, since we know you have the mindset, intelligence and capability to make it happen.

Honestly, you're ashamed by this? I'm ******* laughing - you should have seen some of the tournaments I've had to go to. I wouldn't even call this bad - delays aren't great, but the fact of the matter is that there were so many other worse scenarios that could have occurred and all of those were avoided, despite the concerns that many had. Other people would have sacrificed the quality of the event to avoid the worst. You didn't, and still pulled everything off. *******. Baller.

You're one of the best organisers I've ever had the pleasure to witness and play under. Don't feel bad dude - we can all help out a little bit more (and I feel like a massive **** for not doing so earlier).

Bring it on, Melbourne.

Quick Comments

	neon:
	TAEdgE:
	Baldie:
	Maynarde:
	Dox:
	iM yang:
	x5_dot:
	Flamga:
	xGKingdelete:

[iM tgun]

I have complaints, but they've already been covered (some pcs having bad frame issues, dropping out -- especially in the middle of a series is super frustrating, brackets running slowly), except one.

I want to cast more ;P

Was an awesome weekend, especially to properly meet a few people that I hadn't had the chance to meet (and hug, yang!) before. I'm already 100% going to melbourne, that's for sure. Need to work on accommodation for that ^^'

Quick Comments

	Maynarde:	Great analytical caster
	Asrathiel:	More tgun casting = :D :D
	iM yang:	tgun hugs OP <3
	inFeZa:	you have amazing game knowledge and it was so intreguing to listen to you cast, definitely come to us at melb and we'll get you in!

[NvRossi]

It was so great to be part of yet another large scale event and ACL Sydney didn't disappoint regarding both the social and competitive aspects.

Competitively, this tournament showed how truly strong our scene is! As well as displaying the depth of skill that our players can showcase. I was very impressed with the overall skill level that was represented by all players and look forward to seeing how everyone continues to mature.

Socially, this event was amazing. The opportunity to interact socially regarding gaming is not something i have been able to enjoy (bein a closet nerd and all) and i relish the chances that are afforded to us through such an event as this. Prior to the event i was provided the amazing opportunity to train and participate at the ACL PRO Ausgaming House to which i initially turned down! However after finishing my exams on Tuesday(which i pumped, **** YEAH) i knew a solid 72 hours of non stop sc2 would get me back in shape and chased that offer back down. Participating at the ACL House was an amazing experience as i got to hang out with my old mate Pandan, the man himself Vanzr, the friendly pelican Moonglade, iaguz and a bunch of cool ACL dudes(inmaniac, matt, damo, brett, nuguns,) who turned out to be amazing blokes. It was a very insightful experience hanging out at the house as i really got to see how much effort these guys were putting in as well as insight into just how much groundwork these guys do prior to event, which i observed led to many sleepless nights as i know for a fact some these guys were at times running off 2 hours sleep a night. (THESE MOFO's ARE PASSIONATE AS **** ♥)

The Social aspect as the event was just as awesome and i was very happy to see so many people turn up to spectate as well as play! it was great to see so many recognizable faces and to meet so many new people! Being able to strike up a conversation with a group of sc2 peeps at any time in all corners of the venue was bloody awesome and i can't wait to experience it again. Was great meeting and chatting with you all.

Shoutouts and Notes

- On a personal note i was still very happy with how i played at the event and hope everybody enjoyed watching my games, specifically those with Targa and Mafia. You cannot be disappointed losing to players of this caliber, not to mention they are both good mates :P

- Just to repeat, big thanks to all the ACL Staff both at the house and at the event itself.

- Big thanks to Dox both as a manager as staff at the event! ( sorry for destroying your soul in street fighter too !! jokes jokes)

- Big gratz to Moonglade for taking it yet again. You are a great role model to look up to, practicing like a machine at the house, as well as just taking note of your resolve and determination to take out this event. Dam you are clutch!

- Big thanks to Maynarde for allowing me to cast with him in the finals. Was a very fun experience and i hope we made you laugh and enjoy the games as well as learn a thing or 2 from my gigantic brain.

- I became good friends with a group of COD phags that i met at the ACL house prior to the event! its awesome to note that every other gamer there including the fifa, Gears of war, COD and halo players all have significant respect for the sc2 players and many of them do play on the side as a result.

Can't think of anything else to say as its 2am, cheers peeps and gnight

Quick Comments

	Dox:	why does vega even take his claws off!?!?
	Maynarde:	Calzone filled with ZvZ analysis
	ACL Beware:	Aus Gaming House! Not ACL House! That being said, have my children you sexy man. Was great having you at the house.
	ACL VaNzR:	My favourite SC2 player! Sorry Andy ;)

[PiG]

Dox get some sleep and stop apologising! You did a stellar job and everyone was amazed at the prdouct that came of your hard work. I feel bad for my post cos you take it all to heart you beautiful, beautiful creature of esports. Take care of yourself and remember that as exciting as all this stuff is if you push yourself too hard you'll start being inefficient and potentially being overwhelmed.

My personal advice to you would be to take a little time to teach one or two of the other ACL staff or other volunteers how they can take a load off your shoulders. Melbourne is going to be even bigger and better and I want you alive and well at the end of it!

Quick Comments

nirvAnA: