[VaNzR]

ACL’s Online Round 3 was without doubt the most exciting online round of the 2010 season. With Fray practising for MLG in America, the competition was left wide open for top spot. An increasing number of new and ‘unknown’ teams shined, causing upsets and forcing early departures for some more established players. There were many continued series, ties and tiebreakers, 3-2 series scores and countless 3-2 or 5-4 CTF wins. To sum up, this event was CLOSE and TIGHTLY CONTESTED.

The final team count was an impressive 35 teams, so let’s break it down day by day.


Friday – Open Pool Play

The weekend kicked off Friday with Open Pool Play. This sees brand new teams, perhaps trying their hand at competitive Halo 3 for the first time, and established seeds (from 9-35) battle for a chance to proceed to Open Double Elimination, and possibly beyond.

Usually this stage of the competition has the most dramas, with maximum forfeits and most time delays. This time I can say proudly, was the smoothest part of the entire competition! With minimal forfeits, no delays and no arguments, Open Pool Play was wrapped up and done by 11pm, just less than 4 hours. A big thank you to all those that helped it run so smoothly.

In an ACL first, there was a 4-way tie for 16th place. 4Play, BnT, TbR and ZeroBad were eligible for tiebreakers for the LAST spot in the Open Double Elimination and a chance to progress. Those caught off guard missed their opportunity to contest (remember that the website is the hub for all communications for R3) and eventually we saw 4Play take the last spot.


So, ten teams were knocked out early, finishing 25th – 35th overall.

25th. Bag Em n Tag Em
26th. TbR
27th. Zer0Bad
28th. Surrounded By Hype
29th. Cheese n Rice
30th. Team DFA
31st. You Be Trippin
33rd. Psychotic
33rd. Isolation
35th. xTS
35th. Team MDB

Unfortunate, but a good effort by newcomers to the ACL community. Hope we see them again at ACL Sydney or the next Online Round.

After fighting for a solid seed Friday night and some tiebreakers early Saturday, the final seedings for Open Double Elimination were set, with Dark Lord’s Break the Line finishing best, and TT finishing second.

1st. Break the Line
2nd. TT
3rd. Adrenaline
4th. RAW
5th. All that Remains
6th. Garbys Squad
7th. B.A.S.
8th. Prototype
9th. Above all else
10th. BAMF
11th. After Effect
12th. TMU
13th. Team Feared
14th. Entity
15th. Apocolypse Now
16th. 4Play

Full Open Pool Play Results in this Excel Doc Here


Saturday – Open Double Elimination

Saturday saw an upset nobody could’ve seen coming. A surprising defeat; much hyped RAW taken down by B.A.S in a tight 3-2-1 series. The final game was a close 50-49 TS Amp game. Somedude earned MVP finishing with 20 kills. The match up knocked RAW out of the loser’s bracket and out of the competition for good with an overall 20th place finish.

It seemed as though after B.A.S shut down RAW their momentum would make them a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, After Effect shut them down winning 3-2.

TT, second seed, were knocked down to the loser’s bracket early by BAMF after a disappointing 3-1 series, but that didn’t slow them down. They cruised through the loser’s bracket, knocking out solid teams Adrenaline and All that Remains to a guaranteed second place Open finish.

The highlight of the Open Double Elimination? Break the Line not losing a series throughout the whole Open Bracket, and taking first from TT 3-0. The question was how far would this team go?

Eight teams were out and couldn’t proceed to the Pro Double Elimination on Sunday, finishing 9th-16th in Open.

9th. Above All Else
10th. TMU
11th. Garby's Squadron
12th. RAW
13th. Feared
14th. Entity
15th. Apocaplypse Now
16th. 4Play

Disappointing, but respect earned for making it as far as they did. Eight teams generated hype surrounding them as their finish qualified them for Pro Double Elimination.

1st. Break The Line
2nd. TT
3rd. Adrenaline
4th. BAMF
5th. All That Remains
6th. After Effect
7th. Prototype
8th. B.A.S.

See the full Open Double Elimination Bracket Here


Saturday – Pro Pool Play

Saturday Pro Pool was off to a disappointing start. Highly predicted team Matrix Gaming were forced to pull out, bumping ninth seeded Initial Concept into Pro Pool Play.

Second Nature was the highlight of Saturday’s Pro Pool Play, finishing first. BreakEven also shocked teams with a second seed, bringing their aggressive LAN playstyle in full force to Xbox Live. Surprisingly, a fifth seed finish for No Remorse, due to missing two rounds of pro pool play.

The pro seeds were set after a day of gaming.

1. 2N
2. bE
3. TSW
4. AaO
5. nR
6. Diversity
7. iC
8. OHHD

Full Pro Pool Play Results in Excel doc Here


Sunday – Pro Double Elimination

This was it. Sunday was go hard or go home. Winners Round 1 was underway and the momentum of top open teams Break the Line and TT remained as they knocked their early pro match ups OHHD and iC into Loser’s.

Second Nature (2N), the top pro seed, were off to a shaky start and were upset in Winners Round 2 by top open seed Break the Line in a tight 3-2 match up.

Highly predicted No Remorse (nR) were off to a good start winning matchups through the Winners Bracket and knocking top open seed Break the Line into Loser’s. In a fight for guaranteed top 2, Sidewinder (TSW), third seed, stopped their run in Winners Round 4 knocking them into Loser’s.

TT and BreakEven matched up in Winners Round 2, eventually resulting in a crushing 3-0 defeat in bE’s favour. But once again TT refused to give in. Much hyped pro team Adrenaline were knocked out by TT 3-0 in Loser’s Round 3. Sadly, TT’s run was ended by top open team Break the Line in a 3-0 defeat, and finishing a very respectable 6th overall.

2N’s days seemed numbered when a match up with After Effect in Loser’s Round 2 went to game 5. 2N showed some hope and eventually pulled through and continued through their next match up against All That Remains 3-1. All That Remains finished 7th overall.

bE and 2N, teams with history on lan and online, and first and second pro seed, matched up in Loser’s Round 4. 2N was off to a great start taking Game 1 CTF Onslaught 5-4, and Dark racking up an impressive 41 assists. However, it was bE’s day as they took down 2N 3-1 overall. 2N finished 5th overall.

Loser’s semi finals saw bE take down Break the Line in shocking 3-0 fashion. Game 3 was an amazing 250-49 win on Oddball Guardian. Break the Line finished a very impressive 4th overall.

It came down to the top three, with bE and nR playing in the Loser’s finals. bE took game 1 in a close CTF Narrows winning 3-2. nR fought back taking Game 2 and Game 3. Game 4 CTF Onslaught was a tie 4-4. bE took Game 5, TS Pit, 50-44 with Biscuit finishing with an impressive 19 kills. It came down to Game 6, TS Amp. nR pulled through 50-38, and securing a top two finish. bE finished an incredible 3rd overall.

After three days of intense competition it was down to the final two: TSW and nR. The best New Zealand had to offer versus one of Australia’s best. TSW started with a 3-2 advantage in best of 11 series due to their earlier match up.

The finals started off with CTF Onslaught and nR taking it 5-3, tieing the series up 3-3. Ripped earned MVP with an impressive +15 K/D spread. TSW then took the lead winning TS Heretic in an outstanding 50-28, with Bald going +8. TSW took Game 8 Construct KOTH 250-228. It seemed the finals nails were being put into the coffin then when TSW closed it out taking Game 9 CTF Narrows 3-1. The final series score was 6-3.

For the the first time ever a team from New Zealand took first place in an online ACL competition. Congratulations to Jambun, Kurtiz, Bald, and Heil. It seems TSW have sorted out any line-up ‘woes’ and the potential for a Brisbane Finals return would shake up some Australian teams.

See the full Pro Double Elimination Bracket Here


Final ACL Online Round 3 Placings

1st. Team Sidewinder
2nd. No Remorse
3rd. Break Even
4th. Break The Line
5th. Second Nature
6th. TT
7th. All That Remains
8th. Adrenaline
9th. Prototype
10th. BAMF
11th. OHHD
12th. After Effect
13th. Initial Concept
14th. Against all Odds
15th. B.A.S.
16th. Diversity
17th. Above All Else
18th. TMU
19th. Garby's Squadron
20th. RAW
21st. Feared
22nd. Entity
23rd. Apocalypse Now
24th. 4 Play
25th. Bag Em n Tag Em
26th. TbR
27th. Zer0Bad
28th. Surrounded By Hype
29th. Cheese n Rice
30th. Team DFA
31st. You Be Trippin
33rd. Psychotic
33rd. Isolation
35th. xTS
35th. Team MDB


Thank You

Thanks to all who competed and helped to make one of the smoothest running online competitions yet! All of your support is greatly appreciated and I can see we've made leaps and bounds since the start of the season. Congratulations to those who placed well and consolations to those who will come back fighting next time!

See you in Sydney

[VaNzR]

Big props to Direct for writing a good 70% of this. I was able to pry him away from Red Dead Redemption while I finished off the tournament. I just filled in the gaps for him from someone who saw all the action unfold.

Thanks guys. I'm now going to delete the R3 Master thread and move any posts from there.

[VaNzR]

Hoff: Vanzo. You are truly amazing. I didn't even play in this comp but thankyou for everything you do for the community and everything involved.

Also Darcy - when we meet, romance will happen. You are truly Vanzo's right hand tournament man. Thankyou kind sir A LOT!

Kinetics: From an outsiders perspective it looks like the majority are content with the tournaments' proceedings. Congratulations to everyone who put in the effort to make it all happen, especially vanzo. Also, congrats to the competitors. Good to see new talent emerging!

Cheers boys

[THE NUGUNS]

Good tournament to watch and fill-in for.

I am very proud of the BAMF boys.

[AgentFoxMason]

Even though I only filled-in for AaE I still had a lot of fun. Great tournament, easily the best online round yet. I think as a whole the competition has become a lot more even since Online R2, which is great for this community. If all of the open teams keep practicing and putting in the effort I think Nationals will be insane

Thanks Vanz + all of the ACL staff. Props to Direct for a good recap of the event

[Peteh]

From my perspective, best online tournament EVZORZ!

all the teams we played were very challenging, the amount of quality in the circuit atm is off the charts. on top of that, every team were great sports and genuinly good guys (or girls... monk) had some awesome convos with TAE, AdR and PT boys (and girl... monk).

cheers to vanz and darcy + the mods for running this as smooth as it was, good poop.

also to direct for the bangin' write up, many loves.

CHEEEYAR!

[Weasel]

Nice write up. Thanks heaps to everyone who helped organise round three.

There were so many good games played throughout the weekend. Sydney Lan is going to be sick and theres going to be alot of competition for the top spots.

[Dark Lord NZ]

Awesome write up direct and Vanz, keep it up.

p.s someone interview sharpy, i really think he wants one lol

[Hopey]

Thanks vanzo and all the staff for a great tourny it was really intense and fun

Good games too all the teams, hope to play you at sydney or brisbane lan

BAMF showed the best sportsman ship by far, great bunch of blokes.

[Blainz]

THE NUGUNS, on 31 May 2010 - 12:00 PM, said:

Good tournament to watch and fill-in for.

I am very proud of the BAMF boys.

Thanks for filling in for us dude <3

[Banger]

Playing against B.A.M.F reminded me of why I play Halo.
Best series I've ever had.

[Trentmate]

i had a awsome weekend:)
to bad we got knocked
good fun vsing 2N

[Peteh]

Banger, on 31 May 2010 - 01:41 PM, said:

Playing against B.A.S reminded me of why I play Halo.
Best series I've ever had.

[Bald]

GG's to everyone that we played.

bE and nR you guys are awesome, really sorry the games were on NZ host,sucks how Kurtis kept stealing it. Btw bE, that was a nice 3v4 cap on narrows flag

Nice work Vanzr and co, awesome job running the comp.

now im a bEliever!

[somedude]

Was an awesome weekend. Congrats to Vanzr, Darcy and the rest of the people that help run these tournaments on making it such an amazing event.
Cheers to BAMF and RAW for the most exciting series' AUS.

I can't wait for Sydney.

[Heil]

Bald, on 31 May 2010 - 02:10 PM, said:

GG's to everyone that we played.

bE and nR you guys are awesome, really sorry the games were on NZ host,sucks how Kurtis kept stealing it. Btw bE, that was a nice 3v4 cap on narrows flag

Nice work Vanzr and co, awesome job running the comp.

now im a bEliever!

[Stealthy]

Well done to Vanzr and everyone else who made the comp run as smoothly as it did.

This was by far the best Online competition I've played in, every team Adrenaline played against showed kind sportsmanship and made the weekend a poop load of fun.

Thanks again for delivering an awesome weekend everyone.

[hoff]

VaNzR, on 31 May 2010 - 11:56 AM, said:

Hoff: Vanzo. You are truly amazing. I didn't even play in this comp but thankyou for everything you do for the community and everything involved.

Also Darcy - when we meet, romance will happen. You are truly Vanzo's right hand tournament man. Thankyou kind sir A LOT!

Kinetics: From an outsiders perspective it looks like the majority are content with the tournaments' proceedings. Congratulations to everyone who put in the effort to make it all happen, especially vanzo. Also, congrats to the competitors. Good to see new talent emerging!

Cheers boys

You would move that comment haha

[Haunted]

Stealthy, on 31 May 2010 - 02:24 PM, said:

Well done to Vanzr and everyone else who made the comp run as smoothly as it did.

This was by far the best Online competition I've played in, every team Adrenaline played against showed kind sportsmanship and made the weekend a poop load of fun.

Thanks again for delivering an awesome weekend everyone.

This

Again thanks everyone for making a great weekend, especially you Vanzr.

[Heners]

Extremely smoothly online tournament. Prop's to all tournament runners & whom helped out