[Benji]

Saturday was the first NRG Hardcore Gamer Starcraft 2 tourney (You'd have to be living under a rock to not know about this tourney) and whilst I am bored at work, I thought i'd give those that did not attend abit of an overview like I always do with Sydney LANs.

Firstly, we were told first thing that NRG has already confirmed and locked in another 4 Tournaments with even larger prize pools than this one. The next will be in August/September with 2 happening each year, so if you're a SC2 player in SEA (Hell even worldwide), you NEED to be at this event. Its one of the biggest events in the world, and there is no excuse not to be at the next one if you think you're a top player. Its events like these that tell us who the best SEA players are, not coming is basically admitting that you aren't that good.

Also, I believe Unstable can shed more information on this but next time there WILL be a live stream/onsite casting. There are 2 VIP rooms at the venue where casted players can play in, which I believe are relatively soundproof, so look to see your favourite SEA casters (Unstable/Benji) doing live casts from the event.

Placings!

(Note 7th-12th i am sketchy about, if someone can confirm, please do so!)

1st: ST_Ace - $8000 + NRG Computer (Valued around $3000-$4000 imo) + Gear
2nd: nGenLight - $2000 + Gear
3rd: aLtiaguz - $1000 + Gear
4th: Team Immunity YoonYJ
5th/6th: VTAzz
5th/6th: FXOFilthy
7th/8th: TAScarecrow
7th/8th: TARossi
9th-10th: TAdeth
9th-10th: TAhocus
11th-12th: nGenStarhunt
11th-12th: TASanchez

4th-10th recieved assorted gear, Including Corsair PSU's, Razer Starcraft 2 Gear, Logitech Keyboards and Other Assorted computer accessories. 10th Place recieved more of a prize than most events have for 1st!

Notable Upsets:
nGenBenji - Ok i'm just putting myself in here to annoy Del, I'm not good enough to win :P
FXOtgun - Despite avoiding myself, faced endless ZvZ, was knocked to the Losers bracket early and was finally eliminated by Sanchez and placed 12th-16th.
aLtPiG - Was knocked to the lower bracket by his teammate, iaguz and hit TAdeth and was eliminated I believe around 12th-16th
nGenMafia - Hit ST_Ace in round 2 and was knocked to the lower bracket early and was eliminated.

Not sure if you can call it an upset, but Light completely demolished the lower bracket. Most people overlook him as a top tier player, and were predicting YYJ, Filthy etc to take second (Ace was never going to lose :P). But Light went through Starhunter, Filthy, YYJ and iaguz to take second. In my opinion he is one of, if not the, best Protoss on SEA at the moment.

There has also been quite alot of talk about ST_Ace, so i'll keep this short. He dropped 3 games all tourney, a Baserace vs YYJ, a BO loss vs iaguz and a PvP vs Light who tricked him into thinking he went Blink Stalker (When he actually went 1 base Coll). He was the best player there, no doubt, BUT he isnt completely unbeatable.

Next NRG I guarantee there will be more than just ST_Ace there, I imagine a few more Koreans and even some American Pros will come, so if you guys want to take some of these sweet prizes home, you're going to need to train hard for it. Being good on SEA is no longer good enough, we need to be good on a world stage. If Australians don't place well in these tourneys, the tourneys will simply move overseas.

VODS:

You Tube

You Tube

Pictures:
Pictures!

Interviews:
Dox did some interviews, will link when they are online!

[Dox]

I'm just gonna be compiling all of my footage into one video, interviews included. I'm like 10% done so far, won't have much time to resume until the weekend.

[Benji]

Really? Breaking it down to 5 min videos would be easier to watch tho.

[SkyBreaker]

Sounds like it was an awesome event and especially looking forward to the videos from Dox! Good stuff guys, will see you all at the next one!

[Dox]

The audio quality isn't good enough to justify them as standalone videos (no mic), but if there's a demand for them, I could do it.
Either way, it's going to take me just as long to produce.

[Hocus]

Awesome event, a few placing corrections: rossi and scarecrow tied 7/8th, hocus 9th, deth 10th, sanchez starhunter tied 11th/12th i believe

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Dox

The audio quality isn't good enough to justify them as standalone videos (no mic), but if there's a demand for them, I could do it.
Either way, it's going to take me just as long to produce.

Honestly, as 1 video I won't sit and watch it all, but as many videos I will watch one when I have a few spare minutes.

[TAriiChard]

Quick question. Does anyone know the website that the team immunity guys were promoting?

[Dox]

"Oh, you mean esportsdaily.com.au?"
"Oh yes, esportsdaily.com.au!"
"I'll go to esportsdaily.com.au right now!"

[Dox]

Originally Posted by Benji

Honestly, as 1 video I won't sit and watch it all, but as many videos I will watch one when I have a few spare minutes.

It's only going to be like 10 minutes. :P

[TAriiChard]

Originally Posted by Dox

"Oh, you mean esportsdaily.com.au?"
"Oh yes, esportsdaily.com.au!"
"I'll go to esportsdaily.com.au right now!"

LOL thanks Dox. And good epic games with you at the lan. GG!

[ETL.Santi]

Benji I like your stuff but you need to post a pic of Ace asap destroying noobs.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Dox

It's only going to be like 10 minutes. :P

You said you had over 2 hours of footage in the other thread?

[ETL.Santi]

Originally Posted by Starcraftmazter

Why was Ace present at the tourney? Kind of a cocktease to have such high prize money for an Australian tournament, yet have to play a top Korean pro gamer to get it. I'd much rather it go to Light or whoever else topped the tournament from Australia.


inb4 bullshit justifications.

[deL]

Originally Posted by Starcraftmazter

Why was Ace present at the tourney? Kind of a cocktease to have such high prize money for an Australian tournament, yet have to play a top Korean pro gamer to get it. I'd much rather it go to Light or whoever else topped the tournament from Australia.


inb4 bullshit justifications.

Why do second rate players who wouldn't crack the world top 200 deserve $8000 just because they have to travel overseas to get here? The sponsors like the extra coverage and without it the prizepool would probably not be so high.

[Dox]

It was a great experience for him, and all of us. Don't hate.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Starcraftmazter

Why was Ace present at the tourney? Kind of a cocktease to have such high prize money for an Australian tournament, yet have to play a top Korean pro gamer to get it. I'd much rather it go to Light or whoever else topped the tournament from Australia.


inb4 bullshit justifications.

Without shit like this, we become the most unskilled, lazy server around. Having Ace come in and show us how far behind we are skillwise will only motivate us to get better.

Also, Noone in the Prize placings, heck probably noone at the tournament is dirty about the fact that he came and won. It isnt an Australian tournament, its a Starcraft 2 tournament, and just like a EU player just won MLG (which noone is up in arms about), a Korean won a Australian hosted tournament, and power to him.

[iM tgun]

Originally Posted by Benji

Without shit like this, we become the most unskilled, lazy server around. Having Ace come in and show us how far behind we are skillwise will only motivate us to get better.

Also, Noone in the Prize placings, heck probably noone at the tournament is dirty about the fact that he came and won. It isnt an Australian tournament, its a Starcraft 2 tournament, and just like a EU player just won MLG (which noone is up in arms about), a Korean won a Australian hosted tournament, and power to him.

I was only dirty that I didn't get to play him.

[ROOT`iaguz]

Because I think the organisers wanted to create their own MLG/Dreamhack/Assembly style event. The thing is, they don't fully know wtf they are doing, so whilst they have money (which is cool), they haven't really embedded themselves properly into the greater international e-sports scene. I think they were only able to contact team Startale who deployed Ace to Australia, who basically owned everyone with his gosu skills.

At the end of the day, there's no real reason why Australians cannot get good enough at starcraft. It's not latency, you can manage that. So what should be the big deal about people who are better then us coming to our shores to beat us at starcraft? Yeah, i kinda agree, I would like money too, but comps this size will never work if it's purely an Australian thing. There's just not enough of us to justify it's expenditure imo.

So it's a choice. have big events which attract foreign attention and have good prizes and suck at it cuz you suck at starcraft two, or have nothing much larger then a local lan with a 500-ish prize pool, at most.

I'm with the former, honestly.

[deL]

I already got some expressions of interest from other big teams for the next one, but it depends on the prizepool. We have to pressure them to make smaller cash prizes go down to top 8 or 16 though so that the local talent is still rewarded. Also do what you can to make the event feasible for the sponsors and hosts!

[Benji]

Added a VOD

[TAhackdZ]

Definatly gonna have to fly down t oSydney for the next one of these. I've got a snowballs chance in hell at winning, but damn. Just getting to come and play against some of the best in the world would be awesome.

So jelly I couldn't make it to this last one.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Benji

Added a VOD

In fairness to Ace, at 5 min 27 seconds of that vod (just after 6minutes game time), Ace's computer froze for about 2-3 seconds as he walked up the ramp (I was standing behind him watching). That is the explanation the apparent error.

I am not offering an opinion as to how this affected the outcome of the game. This is the only time I saw Ace express any outward sign of irritation the entire tournament, although to his credit like a true sportsman he did not even raise it after the game concluded but just went straight on to his next game. For me this only increased the respect I have for him as a player.

[nGenLight]

^ Yeah I was a little confused about what happened there during that moment. If there was no spike the game may have gone quite differently. Hearing about this solidifies my respect for him too!

To my defense though, I felt that I didn't play with half the skill level/confidence/adrenaline that I faced my Terran opponents earlier because I was starstrucked that I am actually vsing Ace and I was so tired after playing like 50 games. Example such as doing a 12-scout in a 2-player map on game 2 against his proxy gates and only making 24 probes with a phoenix build in game 4 are errors I normally do not make.

Nontheless, he blew me away with superior micro/sense and mindgaming, compeltely outclassing me! He is seriously at another level and it was an honour to play him!

[Dox]

All of your games were stellar to watch Light, give yourself some credit.
The iaguz series alone was worth the whole trip.

[ToRDjvillian]

Get one hd in Australia to broadcast it
They have crap ratings and do sport maybe this could benefit them and kick off e sports in aus.
Just convince them of the amount of revenue they could get from computer advertisements.

[ROOT`iaguz]

Hehe, I remember during that 5th game vs light, when I hit him with those units, I saw none of his units my first thought was "oh ****, he's pressuring me right now! this is awkward..."

Turns out it was a 2 gate expo instead. Hmm, unexpected. At least I got some probes!

[Dox]

To further reinforce how awesome it was to have Ace along, articles like this on global eSports sites never would have existed if Ace didn't attend. It's minor exposure, but it's better than nothing. (Congrats on Light and iaguz getting your names out there, even if they're not quoted as "high profile".)

[nGenLight]

Oh yes definitely, I felt like I overachieved in getting to the finals (though I was confident the entire way), but I definitely felt that I could have played better games in the finals if I wasn't so starstruck/tired. Ace was definitely beatable, just very very unlikely to do. & despite all my confidence before the finals I felt that I have conceded before the finals even began. I felt like someone like Azz or YYJ with more mental preparation would have probably fared better than me, but hey, it wasn't like I threw the games, just lost bizarrely at PvP mindgames that I usually feel much more comfortable with.

[joeltee]

lol so many spoilers in this vid.

From the things you say we all know what's going to happen way before it does.

Not trying to be a dick, just sayin.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by joeltee

lol so many spoilers in this vid.

From the things you say we all know what's going to happen way before it does.

Not trying to be a dick, just sayin.

Fair tradeoff to get more of an insight into the players decision making imo. If you want someone to simply tell you what you're seeing, theres plenty of bronze level casters around.

[Dox]

Updated the Winner Bracket, InTime have posted a copy on their website.


(Click to Enlarge)

Won't get around to doing the Loser Bracket for a while since my computer is dead.

[deL]

If you like you can send the LB results to me and I'll do it.

[ToRDjvillian]

Does anyone know if the qualifiers for the next tournament will be single elimination or round robin like last time?
I'm happy to drive up from Canberra to get my ass kicked again but only if I get more than one game.

The first qualifier helped me to improve so much as to get me from the silver league I was in at the time to the platinum I achieved a few weeks after

[Fourby]

I have an NRG monsoon.

It was worth 1900 around April.
Just a little fact

[PiG]

Originally Posted by Djvillian

Does anyone know if the qualifiers for the next tournament will be single elimination or round robin like last time?
I'm happy to drive up from Canberra to get my ass kicked again but only if I get more than one game.

The first qualifier helped me to improve so much as to get me from the silver league I was in at the time to the platinum I achieved a few weeks after

Yeah I hope it's a similar qualifying format. Is there any word on a set date for the next event?

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Djvillian

Does anyone know if the qualifiers for the next tournament will be single elimination or round robin like last time?
I'm happy to drive up from Canberra to get my ass kicked again but only if I get more than one game.

The first qualifier helped me to improve so much as to get me from the silver league I was in at the time to the platinum I achieved a few weeks after

If you drive up, I'll definitely go too for more than one game... we should totally make up some ToR shirts or something so we can look totally pro... :P

[ToRDjvillian]

Originally Posted by PiG

Yeah I hope it's a similar qualifying format. Is there any word on a set date for the next event?

Other than benji stating it will be august/september the NRG hardcore gaming Facebook Page has posted a status update a couple of days ago:

"NRG competition coming to atomic magazine and http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/ really soon!
Keep your eyes peeled!"

I've been checking daily if not every few hours but nothing yet.

[NvRossi]

after talking with intime i don't believe there will be a NRG this year, i may have misunderstood but i believe next year there will be some big things to come.