With the MLG Fall Championship in Dallas, and thus the 2012 MLG Season behind us now, we'd like to take a look back on our first major event as a team before we look forward to our next events. We had 5 players in attendance, and they each put up stellar performances in the Open Bracket, which we'd like to highlight for your pleasure. Hopefully you find their runs at MLG as exciting as we did!
For full MLG Dallas Results and Information, please refer to Liquipedia
Our first player, Kevin "KC" Camarta, came all the way from Edmonton, Canada to participate in the event, and make up the sole Terran representation from our team. Dallas marked KC's first (of many we hope) event outside of Canada, and his first Major LAN event.
Unfortunately, his Winner's Bracket run was cut quite short in OWR3 by MLG Raleigh's breakout player, and highest finishing foreign player, coL.Sasquatch. It also ended up being a fairly strange series, as the two players practice together quite often, but in the end Sasquatch's macro was too much for KC to keep at bay and he fell into the Lower Bracket.
After a quick victory in the Lower Bracket against his Terran opponent, KC hit another Zerg from Complexity, this time in the form of coL.Ryze. In what came down to an extremely close series, Ryze just barely managed to eke out a 2-1 victory vs KC with some superb infestor usage, and thus eliminated him from the tournament.
Our second player, Kevin "Siphonn" Bentz, comes from Philadelphia, PA. We were a little worried he might not be able to make it to the event thanks to Superstorm Sandy disrupting travel in his area, but in the end he was able to arrive safe and sound to help fly the Clarity banner at the event.
Out of all our players, Siphonn had arguably the hardest first round opponent, in Australia's Nv.YoonYJ. Siphonn was able to put up an extremely tough fight, taking the series to Game 3, but in the end was unable to hold up against his opponent's constant aggression. He fell early and began preparing for his Lower Bracket run the next day.
After waiting for his BYE in the first round, he went up against GM Protoss and Complexity Academy member EroSennin. Taking the series 2-0, Siphonn continued to stomp through the Lower Bracket until he encountered Erosennin's teammate who was anxious to get some revenge for him. Clarity vs Complexity would prove to be quite a common occurrence this weekend, and Siphonn unfortunately couldn't stop the Korean trained coL.TriMaster and was eliminated from the tournament at the hands of yet another Complexity Member.
The other half of our Protoss duo at the event, coming from the entire opposite end of the county (Irvine, California), Alex "Shew" Raymond is no stranger to MLG Events. Having attended every major MLG event in the 2012 Season, he came into this event with a lot of experience playing in the Open Bracket.
Shew had a very strong showing Friday in the Open Bracket, ending the day after his OWR4 victory over HeavensLighT. Saturday morning, however, he faced off against EG.HuK and was unable to compete against his Top 3 Control and his superior knowledge of the PvP matchup.
After falling to the Lower Bracket, Shew was immediately met with another Clarity vs Complexity match, and coL.TriMaster, fresh off his victory against teammate Siphonn, claimed his second Clarity head in stride.
Clarity's other Canadian representative at Dallas, Brian "Engyn" Nguyen was also in store for his first International Event. Coming from Calgary, he flew down on the same flight as teammate KC and they arrived late Thursday night with just enough time to spare to prep for the event.
Playing absolutely nothing but ZvZ in the Open Winner's Bracket would prove frustrating and exhausting to most, but Engyn was able to keep a good head on his shoulder and march through match after match with his superb control. Ending Friday still in Winner's Bracket like two of his teammates, he came into Saturday morning with a very tough ZvZ opponent on his plate. Unfortunately, Glon was able to take what I would say is the closest series I saw the entire weekend and send Engyn into the Lower Bracket.
Engyn was able to take a quick 2-0 against the Australian iM.tgun before he went up against Quantic's Korean Terran Apocalypse. Engyn was once again able to draw the series out to a very close Game 3, but was just barely unable to advance past his opponent.
Last, but certainly not least, comes our newest member. Coming all the way from South Korea, Man Hyeok "JookTo Jo, would also be attending his first MLG event, and first event outside of Korea. We were very excited to have him at the event with our team, and his remarkably goofy demeanor meshed nicely with our team atmosphere.
Starting off his event with a stellar Winner's Bracket run, like two of his other teammates, went to sleep Friday evening with a tough opponent awaiting him Saturday morning. After his extremely close 2-1 loss to Quantic's Golden(who would go on to advance into Pool Play), he fell into the Lower Bracket where he would continue his rampage.
Taking 3 more series in the Lower Bracket against strong players, JookTo was able to muscle his way into the coveted Championship Bracket.
After a tough series against fan favorite Grubby, including a very bizarre base trade, JookTo was unable to play the match he anticipated against Axiom'sCranK, and despite trying to delay as much as possible was awarded a walkover. His next opponent proved to be too much for him to handle, as EG.Suppy eliminated him in a close ZvZ series, and thus ended Clarity's MLG runs.
Despite all of our players getting eliminated at some point during the weekend, we're extremely proud not only of their actions in the game, and their success for themselves and the team, but also for how they conducted themselves in a very professional, friendly, and supportive manner during the weekend. We can't wait to get them all together for more major events in the future.
Kevin "KC" Camarta
Kevin "Siphonn" Bentz
Alex "Shew" Raymond
Brian "Engyn" Nguyen
Man Hyeok "JookTo" Jo
You can also check out the interview I did with Quantic Gaming as well regarding the future steps we plan to take here at Clarity.
With MLG Dallas behind us now, and our players having returned home safe and sound, it's time to look forward into what events they'll be attending next under the Clarity name.
Our Canadian trio: Engyn KC and SaroVati will be attending the King of the Prairies event in Saskatchewan, Canada on January 12th.
Siphonn and JookTo will be attending Power Overwhelming #7 in New Jersey, USA on November 11th
JookTo will also be attending Dreamhack Winter 2012 in Jonkoping, Sweden November 22nd-25th.
If you'd like to keep up with our players at these events and more you can follow the team on Twitter @Clarity_Gaming for updates!
You can also check out our website ClarityGaming.com
If you'd like to get to know the players a little better, take a look at the Pre-MLG Interviews we did with each of them as well!
We've got even more big stuff planned down the road, some of which I hint at in my interview with Quantic Gaming so make sure to check it out and stay tuned for future announcements! Thanks for reading!