On May 30-31, ACL held their first live pro-circuit event of 2015 in Brisbane, Queensland. Competitors from all over Australia and New Zealand came to compete in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Halo 2 Anniversary.
Fan-favourite team Plantronics.Mindfreak placed first in the Call of Duty event, continuing their reign of dominance in the ANZCoD community. The powerhouse team lost only three maps during the entire event. After cruising through pool play and the second day winner’s bracket, Mindfreak shut down challengers Trident eSports with a 6-0 sweep in the grand final. Trident themselves placed second overall. It should be noted that Trident did not lose a series until they faced Mindfreak in the semifinals.
In third place for Call of Duty was New Zealand team Uproar.iGnitionZ. If there was any doubt that a New Zealand team could compete against Australia’s best, iG put those doubts to rest. Uproar.iG swept both Plantronics.Nv and Incept 3-0 in the winner’s bracket. After being knocked into the loser’s bracket (not before taking a map from dominant team Mindfreak), Uproar.iG won a hard-fought series against TextBook Black. The New Zealand team then shut down Incept in a 6-0 continuation series before finally being eliminated by Trident eSports.
Up-and-coming team Incept deserves a mention here. If any proof was needed that this team can hang with the best, look no further than loser’s bracket round 4, when Incept eliminated established team AVANT.T1Dotters in a 3-1 series. Incept placed 4th overall.
Over at the Halo 2 Anniversary station, the teams in attendance were a mix of old talent and new. First place went to Citadel Gaming. After a shaky start in pool play, Citadel began the second-day elimination bracket with a 2-0 win before breezing their way into the semifinals. Citadel won 3-1 against Trident eSports before heading into the grand final in a continuation series with the same team. Trident and Citadel traded rounds, with Trident able to take another 3 maps in the series. Finally though they were shut down by Citadel, who took out the grand final 6-4. Trident eSports themselves deserve a mention for their consistent gameplay throughout pool play and the double elimination bracket.
The pool play and double elimination brackets from the event can be found here. Courtesy of Doesplay, all of the stats from the ACL Brisbane 2015 event can be found here. Congratulations to the winning teams!
