Esports Report for Good Game: ACL Pro Sydney 2014

This latest report covering ACLPro – the Australian Cyber League’s huge Sydney 2014 event was submitted as both a long and short version.  With plenty to cover over five games, the hope was to include a bit of the journey of the key combatants.  There wasn’t enough room for it this time around, so enjoy a little more detail in the report below, including links to the full stream replays.

You can view the report as aired by Good Game tonight, here.

Long Form

ACL Sydney was held at the Australian Technology Park, hosting a larger roster of competitions across five games, including some international qualifiers.

FIFA
Footage:
http://www.twitch.tv/aclpro/b/549289195
Muzza255 in blue, Prodigy_V in white
Timecodes: 25min match highlights (goal replays)

Copy:
Added to the schedule with the sweetener of a trip to France for the Esports World Cup (ESWC) Championships, the final came down to event favourite Muzza255 and Prodigy_V. Both chose Real Madrid letting individual playstyle decide the bout and it was Prodigy’s aggressive attacking game, winning 2-0 that earned him a trip to Paris.

COD Ghosts
http://tv.majorleaguegaming.com/channel/acl

Avant Garde had to make some big plays to get the monkey of their back by defeating Team Immunity, stepping up from their defeat at COD Championships to face Team Storm in the grand finals. The young team, with one of their members being only 13 – caused a huge upset and winning 5-2

LOL
http://www.twitch.tv/aclprolol/b/549290645

Immunity met Ex Dreamers or ExD

Immunity’s LOL team kept the pressure on EX Dreamers with expert team fighting skills. EXD never gave up, aiming for some late game carries but Immunity weren’t to be denied, achieving a qualifying spot for the Oceana finals next to the already qualified Team Legacy.
Starcraft 2 SC2 –
The SC2 event saw an epic Open bracket break down the best players into group stages, the best of which were seeded
into the Championship Bracket.

http://aclsyd14.challonge.com/SCZCB
http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2/b/549348968

Weathering a solid comeback in winners finals from from Iaguz, KingKong and his dominant Zerg army booked another Grand Final. Not to be denied, Iaguz battled past the Protoss player Pigeon who overpowered Pezz and set up a rematch for his Terran army with KingKong. With a powerful economy, KingKong flooded the map with Zerg to follow his Brisbane win with a 4-0 victory proving himself head and shoulders over the competition.

Both KingKong and Iaguz qualified for the next World Championship Series
SMASH Bros
http://www.twitch.tv/aclpro2/b/549347811
Timecode
52 min

Battle Arena Melbourne Melee champion Dekar disposed of another leader in the smash scene Caotic 3-0 in a commanding
semi final, before setting up a berth in the grand final after defeating Sydney’s Tedeth. Tedeth put a stop to Caotic’s comeback through the losers bracket to face Dekar in the grand finals. Dekar’s dominance of the ledge game saw him put aside Captain Falcon to use Marth to take out Tedeth’s Fox and win the event undefeated.

losers semi: cao vs splice, cao wins 3-0 (peach)
winners final: dekar vs Tedeth (syd) dekar wins 3-1
losers semi caotic vs syke (QLD)
losers final caotic vs tedeth

—– SHORTENED version —-

—- COPY —

ACL Sydney was held at the Australian Technology Park, hosting a larger roster of competitions across five games, including some prestigious qualifiers.

FIFA
Footage:
http://www.twitch.tv/aclpro/b/549289195
Muzza255 in blue, Prodigy_V in white
Timecodes:
2.25 players side by side
25min match highlights (goal replays)
Copy:
The FIFA final came down to event favourite Muzza255 and Prodigy_V, whose aggressive attacking game, saw him go undefeated in the tournament. He’s earned a trip to Paris at the Esports World Cup (ESWC) Championships, to play for Australia.
COD Ghosts
http://tv.majorleaguegaming.com/channel/acl
No timecode – can only play through! Planned for this and requested footage will update if able to obtain.

Copy:
Avant Garde had to make some big plays to get the monkey of their back by defeating Team Immunity, stepping up from their defeat at COD Championships to face Team Storm in the grand finals. The young team, with one of their members being only 13 – caused a huge upset and winning 5-2

LOL
http://www.twitch.tv/aclprolol/b/549290645
GF start 2:25
2:47 – big exchange, excited commentary.

Copy:
Immunity’s LOL team kept the pressure on EX Dreamers throughout the grand final with expert team fighting skills winning a qualifying spot for the Oceana finals next to the already qualified Team Legacy.
SC2 –
http://aclsyd14.challonge.com/SCZCB
http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2/b/549348968
Timecode: 2:22

Copy:

Weathering a solid comeback from lower bracket by Terran Iaguz, KingKong flooded the map with Zerg to follow his Brisbane win with a 4-0 victory proving himself head and shoulders over the competition. Each of the top two players qualified for the next SC2 World Championship Series

Super SMASH Bros
http://www.twitch.tv/aclpro2/b/549347811
Timecode
52 min

Copy
Melee champion from the recent Battle Arena Melbourne, Dekar’s dominance of the ledge game saw him put aside Captain Falcon to use Marth in the grand final against Sydney’s Tedeth and his StarFox and win the event undefeated.

Esports Report for Good Game: Battle Arena Melbourne 2014

This report covered the event I help run for CouchWarriors, Battle Arena Melbourne. It was a big success, with higher prereg and the biggest attendance of all fighting game events for the last two years. The full text of the report is below.

Good Game aired the report on May 27th, and you can view the News Segment featuring the report Here

The Report

One of the largest national Fighting game events, Battle Arena Melbourne, saw hundreds of players converge to compete in more than 10 games for the iconic BAM boxing glove trophy and over 10,000 in cash and prizes.

As the first Australian event in the Capcom Pro Tour, competition was fierce, but community minded organisers Couchwarriors also catered for new players with a Free to enter New Challengers tournament. Pleasing the crowd with impressive skills, the final between Anzel and Shoki saw Anzel walking away with his very own BAM exclusive arcade stick. It featured art by special guest, Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz of Udon comics fame. (Official Street Fighter comic artist.)

Another special guest was Mick Gordon, sound designer and composer oF Killer Instinct. He shared insights on the game’s development, and even stuck around to play casuals with the players. In an amazing final, the KI winner was Darth Wishh in his very first tournament.

Among the other winners, we saw Sydney’s Myke reclaim the Virtua Fighter throne from two time winner AlexMD, while Tones went back to back in Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate, Melbourne mainstay Rame took out Tekken Tag Tournament 2, a close Adelaide-Sydney Final saw n-megabytes dominate Injustice and in an amazing skills showcase, Brisbane’s Baxter took first place in both King oF Fighters 13 AND Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3.

There was a huge crowd For Smash Bros across Brawl, Melee and the custom Project M. The amazing growth in the Smash community saw over 70 people compete just in Melee singles with Dekar walking out the champion.

Finally, vying for a trip to Singapore to compete in the South East Asia Majors, the final oF the 80-player Street Fighter 4 event was SL|Sol over DB|Toxy, who had won the 3rd strike tournament earlier. His beast mode Akuma wasn’t enough to overcome Sol’s Cammy to take out the top prize at the 6th Annual event.

Footage
URL/Suggested starting timecode for capture

* New Challengers final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527796061
27:20

* Killer Instinct Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527500631
34:20

Tekken Tag 2 Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527463586
26:16

Injustice Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527519170
32:30

Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527524991
Winner’s favourite moment @ 54:15 (crushing a wakeup kick to turn the momentum)

* VF5FS Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527807318
24:53

KOF13 Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527835594
32:16

3rd Strike Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527835594
4:24 (good comeback/combo)
* Marvel final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527835594
2:18:50

* SF4 Final
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527876009
12min30sec mark
Photos

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/14qiinw75unwzmg/AABBl5SiUf-jBHSEZbsb2ngTa#/

Jeffrey Chamba Cruz’ artwork used on the New Challengers Arcade Stick

Selected Additional Media

Full results post
http://couchwarriors.org/wp/bam6-2014-results/

New Game Plus also produced a half hour special with guest interviews, cosplay and included a lot of match footage:
http://newgameplus.tv/episodes/4610/new-game-plus-s03ebam_rainbow-edition/

Novede.com BAM6 News Report:

(great crowd reaction footage and images of the New Challengers winner)

Fourth Player Podcast from BAM6
http://thefourthplayer.com/project/ep-44-live-from-bam-6/

Mick Gordon Ask me Anything Pt 2
http://www.twitch.tv/newgameplustv/b/527495825

Esports Report for Good Game #4: ACLPro Sydney 2013

King Kong SC2 Winner at ACLpro Sydney 2013

It was great to be able to follow up my first report to Good Game, which was on the Australian Cyber League‘s Melbourne event, with the Sydney final, which took place on the 19th-20th of October. It was the final event in the ACLPro circuit for 2013. See more images at the ACL Facebook

I was pretty pleased with the copy, covering only three games gave me a bit more room in the minute approx of airtime to put across a bit more personality, a good fit for the GG tone and which played well in the news item. No long form this time, got a pretty good handle of what they were after and short form was all I needed for this one.

You can view the Good Game video here.  Below is my original report. As always, if there are any events of note that should be considered for coverage, let me know!

The Report:

The final event of the year for the Australian Cyber League Pro circuit was held in Sydney with a mixed open entry and invitational tournament for Call of Duty Black Ops, Starcraft 2 and League of Legends.
Players qualified through performances in season play and yearly points to earn the right to play off for the title of 2013 champion.

League of Legends saw ACL Melbourne’s finalists facing off once again as the new blood in Team NV, formerly Wobbly Bears, battled Team Immunity. Immunity came back after a losing the first game – an epic 50 minute grind – before closing out the championship 2-1.

Footage
http://www.twitch.tv/aclprolol/b/471816973
Match finish 1:27
Presentation 1:32
Call of Duty Black Ops Grand final battle between team TRIDENT and IMMUNITY was extremely tight with regular lead changes and a clutch killstreak from Immunity’s Naked held off the challengers.

Footage
http://www.twitch.tv/aclpro/b/471820953
Match concludes 1:04, presentations begin 1:10
57min Match turnaround; Around 1:01-04 final lead change and finish
Note-  3rd place : Team NV

Starcraft 2 
In a field full of strong players and upsets, the grand final matchup was between PIG, who knocked out the likes of Moonglade, and KingKong, a Korean student who convincingly schooled the competition in the way of the Zergling. A humble winner, he’ll spend his prize winnings on a car to get himself to uni.

Footage
http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2/b/471813644
Match ends 41min
Good hinge moment in game 37:30

Datapoints:

General Questions:
What is the overall prize pool?

League of Legends – $12,000 1st Place – $6,000.00 2nd Place – $3,000.00 3rd Place – $1,850.00 4th Place – $1,125.00
CoD: Black Ops 2 – $3,800 1st Place – $2,000.00 2nd Place – $1,000.00 3rd Place – $500.00 4th Place – $300.00
Starcraft 2 – $2,500 1st Place – $1,075.00 2nd Place – $550.00 3rd Place – $325.00 4th Place – $200.00 5th Place – $125.00 6th Place – $100.00 7th Place – $75.00 8th Place – $50.00

Sydney finals – what events and competitions have led to this? How did players qualify?

ACL runs on a points based system – a mixture of online qualifiers and previous major  events (Brisbane and Melbourne)
Players that have accrued enough points play off at the Sydney national championship finals