Goetl0rdz Post MLG Anaheim and Personal Blog~

I’m probably going to piss someone off with the formatting/content here, but I’m going to begin with bitching about day 1 before I talk about anything else. Day 1 as a player was an absolute nightmare. Many of us arrived anywhere from 10am-12pm Friday at the venue, and I don’t believe we actually played until at least 6pm. Numerous Goetl0rdz had byes for round 1 and didn’t start playing until a much later point (probably like 8 or 9pm). The first few matches were pretty terrifying because of the delays as everyone was quite exhausted and really pissed off. Atop that, MLG had made claims that the “internet wasn’t working or had issues” which may/may not have been the case. Personally, I had played numerous custom games to warm up that day with no lag issues. Of course that may have changed sometime after I had been on a PC. Besides the delays, the lack of coverage of the open bracket day 1 (and onward) definitely added some irritation in general to the experience. To MLG’s credit, Day 2 and Day 3 went much smoother and rounds just blew by in quite a spectacular speed. They definitely got their shit together and fixed whatever weird internet/timing issues they had so that the event ended without too many ailments.

Brackets and results time! This part I’m just discussing some of the brackets/matches. Sorry if they aren’t super detailed, as I was busy playing and missed many matches due to this. I also have a god awful memory and all the Starcraft matches this weekend are a foggy-fatigued blur of rainbow colours.
I also wish I had pictures but my phone decided to die!

We’ll start with Siphonn and here is his bracket:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Winners'_Bracket#Bracket_1
Poor guy got creamyturtle first round and was definitely doomed round 1. Fortunately there was a no show and he got to play Hyun round two. I personally didn’t get to see the games but he went down 0-2 in a couple of good games apparently. In the lower bracket Siphonn went on quite a good run (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Losers%27_Bracket#Bracket_3) going through DarehMeyod, ttSeedSiegemode and eventually falling to ROOTVibe in the Round of 5 0-2.
Next up in the same winners bracket is Sarovati.
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Winners'_Bracket#Bracket_1

Sarovati went on a SICK run and was given practically no mention anywhere. He beat GravKreos 2-1 in Round 2 and the went on to 2-0 StatePrime in Round 3. Pretty huge victories for Sarovati right there which should be super awesome for him. It’s a shame no one noticed. After that, Hyun took Sarovati out and he went to the lower bracket to continue his run. Saro beat IvDPhog 2-1 in Round 6 with some ggs and then went on to lose to Harstem in a few really intense PvPs. Probably someone (feardragon..? ) may have pictures of this series as it was quite crazy and had a gigantic crowd gathered around for it. By far this bo3 was one of the more entertaining series I watched at the tournament. If the replays are somewhere, I’d love if MLG put them out :o

Below them in bracket 1 was myself and Bails. We’ll discuss Baileys run first.
He 2-0ed me in the Round of 3 then went on to lose to Revival 2-0. He then went into the losers bracket and beat Jimrising 2-1 in a fun series that ended up in phx vs corruptor muta on overgrowth. The series was kind of close, but Bails looked like he won game 3 pretty convincingly from what I could tell. Bails then fought Guitarcheese in the Round of 7 and gave a good effort but lost 2-0. Guitarcheese looked REALLY good this tournament in the open bracket. He fell to Bomber; yet I’d imagine in pretty decent games. All three of these guys (bomber,bails and guitarcheese) are sick gud and in particular I think guitarcheese/bails both deserved way more attention this tournament based on how well they played some of their matches. I hope if MLG hosts another tournament that they at least try to foster and promote some of the foreign talent in their open brackets.

My run was pretty ok (I’m quite pleased about it at least). I won my first round vs myiPengwin 2-0 and lost to Bails 0-2. In the lower bracket I beat coLMidday 2-0, |CG|Warren 2-1 and lost to BinskiLight 1-2 in the round of 6 with a pretty good series. Binski went on to play Oz and lost 2-0; yet put up a pretty good fight. He decided to proxy 11/11 reaper with proxy factory and almost took a game off Oz. Terran cheese is pretty stronk. Actually in my bracket I was a bit surprised with how far I went. I was really concerned with playing Midday in round 5 losers. We were teammates for a period during my 8 month stay with complexity Academy. I know from experience that he’s a crazy hard working individual who will stop at nothing to improve. He demonstrated that hard work by beating the Korean GM Gamja in the upper brackets 2-1. Knowing this, it was actually pretty intimidating to play Midday and I thought I was likely going to lose the series vs him – and was very surprised I won. Nevertheless his upper bracket result really does demonstrate he has a lot of potential and will continue to improve. In a way, I kind of cherish my past experience on complexity academy as I got to meet really hard working individuals like him and qxc (and also people like Gage). Undoubtedly Midday will put out some really good results in the future. People should watch out for him at another major event.
In bracket 2 we had our resident Goetl0rdz Terran “Elhaym” make a run through the bracket. He fell early to Stardust in round 2 in some ggs and then went through numerous opponents in the lower bracket – narrowly losing to Phog 2-1 in the round of 5. Sarovati went on to beat Phog. Yet a Goetl0rdz Round of 6 didn’t happen unfortunately. Ggs to Phog as well as I think both him and elhaym are heavily underrated and need more opportunities to demonstrate themselves.
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Winners'_Bracket#Bracket_2
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Losers'_Bracket#Bracket_2
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Losers'_Bracket#Bracket_2

Shewbert went quite far even on minimal practice. He lost to Binski as well 2-1 in winners and then went through the losers crushing nerds left right and centre. Imo his hair carried him through the tournament. Dude has some nice hair. Tilea also no showed vs him in Round of 4 (perhaps due to his hair? Not sure what happened here). Shew then lost to Pilipili in the Round of 5 2-1. Pili is a pretty good high GM NA player who just attended his first MLG. He’s a super nice kid and is very good at playing aggressive all mu. Perhaps he’s someone to watch out for in the future? Protoss aggression is pretttttty good

Reborn had a crazy run in lower bracket 5 after losing to Keen in the upper bracket. On day 2 he went 8-0, beating a few randoms then Nony 2-0 and Aiur 2-0. He lost to Choya 2-0 but put up a really good fight. Reborn is my bro he is literally a god at PvZ and has helped me in the mu so immensely. His run definitely didn’t go unnoticed as I think he was offered an interview with Blizzard following it. He went all the way to round 8 in spectacular fashion. His run was great and is something to be super proud about!

Our last three members Cav/Lasie/Feardragon were basically spectating and just trying to watch as many games as possible/hangout a lot too. The sheer number of the games in the open bracket was really overwhelming. There was absolutely no way as a player that I’d be able to play and catch all the great matches I’d have liked to. Maybe Feardragon can provide some nice written insight into a few series that I’ve listed (as he probably watched nearly all of them – somehow).
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Winners'_Bracket#Bracket_4
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_MLG_Anaheim/Open_Losers'_Bracket#Bracket_5

Outside of Goetlordz, I’d just like to mention Silkys run. What a boss. Nick had a great run after having been sick for 1 month prior to the event and had gone in on practically no practice. He took out Serenity (who was top 5 GM NA recently) in a really impressive series. Hopefully you stay healthy buddy b/c with practice I think you could do REALLY well at a future major event.

Outside of playing, I got to meet a ton of people that I’ve either interacted with on past teams, ladder or in some way related to SC2. In particular the event served as a meet up with almost all the Clarity Gaming players/staff. I never really commented about the break up of the organisation but would like to say that it’s occurrence was really unexpected, sudden and a huge morale hurter. Prior to MLG my practice time really suffered partly due to a lack of motivation following the breakup. The remaining lack of motivation also resulted from me graduating in May and having been accepted into my second degree starting in September. Likely I’ll have to stop playing Starcraft at the start of this program, as there’s not going to be a lot of time for me to practice with the schedule required of me. My previous degree in the past year was a lot more lax as I had a ton of elective credits (and even then I still had a LOT of trouble getting practice time or even making tournaments). In general knowing that I may not be able to play regularly come a few months is pretty depressing in a way. Starcrafts been a pretty big part of my life in the past few years and served as an outlet for me in so many ways (competition, distraction, time-consumer etc). It’s kind of weird knowing I’m not going to be able to commit time like I used to be able to. Probably my skill level will also drop (as it already has). Even with all that in mind, I still had fun at the event and made a run that I feel pretty good about. It was also really great meeting everyone that I interacted with at the event. Apparently I even have 1 fan ( I WILL REMEMBER YOU!); this was super awesome and unexpected since I’m not particularly notable.

I also said hi to Schneider and he thinks I go mass air every game no matter what. Don’t tell him guys but the rest of the summer is going to be me immortal all-inning him on ladder on a barcode. :D (ofc jk.. maybe?)

Not really planning to edit this much at all and will be posted asap when I have internet. Any questions/comments post belowwwwww~

OH also, thanks a lot to Kontinue and his family for hosting me and Elhaym. We stayed like 40min from the convention centre and drove each day to the event. The trip for us was super fun as we got to see a fair bit of the area! I also got to experience in and out a number of times. I’m amazed that I can order a burger wrapped in lettuce. It tastes so good and it helps to keep my model figure. Too bad they don’t serve something like strawberry beer there. My life would then be complete.

https://twitter.com/CavLikesSC2
https://twitter.com/nofluffshew
https://twitter.com/elhaymn
https://twitter.com/aLeereborn
https://twitter.com/feardragon64
https://twitter.com/IvDPhog
https://twitter.com/EliGEtk
https://twitter.com/DeimosBails
https://twitter.com/cSaroVati
https://twitter.com/Poo_sc2
https://twitter.com/SiphonnSc2
https://twitter.com/coL_Midday
https://twitter.com/soLSilky
https://twitter.com/soLGuitarcheese

Hopefully I didn't forget anyone I mentioned in the post.. if I did sorry