[Baldie]

Written by Baldie

It's 8.30am on a Brisbane Saturday morning and gamers eagerly wait to enter the Mercure Hotel for a weekend of gaming. Pro Players start to make their way into the venue receiving their special pro zone passes as general players register for the open bracket. Signups close at 10.30am and the weekend is decided. Starcraft 2 would see 16 pre-seeded pros await their remaining 8 opponents in a 36 man open bracket. Game on.

There were lots of changes to Plantronics ACL Brisbane, the first of three seasons on the 2013 circuit. This event saw the implementation of two sets on stage, noise cancelling headphones and player cam TVs on either end of the stage. Not to forget the brand new Pro Zone and retreat area for the top 16 Starcraft 2 pros to utilize.

The day starts with a double elimination open bracket. This was sure to be one of the fiercest open brackets with names such as Nv.Rossi, Nv.Deth, Nv.JazBas along with New Zealand Protoss player xGKing.Stallion fighting amongst the pack. There was also a special guest from Germany called Teddy who messaged ACL staff expressing interest to play. As a backpacker he had no mouse or keyboard so was allowed to borrow equipment from Staff. We had no idea how well this man was about to play!

The first game on stream would be none other than Rossi, a Terran powerhouse, against Myth.ZenAku, a rising Protoss player. There was no doubt in a lot of people's minds that Rossi was the favourite in this best of 3, however ZenAku had a point to prove. Taking the first game, ZanAku looked strong to take the set however Rossi rallied taking back-to-back wins to take the set 2-1. Rossi remained on stage to then take on his round 2 opponent; Av.Pezz, another strong Protoss player. This time Rossi was unable to deliver the goods and was knocked to the lower brackets with a 0-2 defeat.

Rossi would then spend the remainder of the day fighting his way through lower brackets. He became one of the great Day 1 stories of the tournament not dropping a single map while in the lower bracket until the finals! To put that in perspective he went into the open bracket finals with a map score of 20-4! Speaking of open bracket finals, Rossi's opponent would be his teammate Nv.JazBas who remained in the winners bracket with a map score of 10-2. Both players decided they best save their energy for pool play and made a gentleman's agreement to split the open bracket winnings between each other and move into separate groups.

Open Bracket Top 8 with selected pool:
1. Nv. JazBas - A
2. Nv.Rossi - C
3. Teddy - A
4. Av.NXZ - C
5. Azz - B
6. FvR.Shockwave - B
7. SLCN.Petrify - D
8. Nv.Deth - D

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