ACL Sydney 2015 Wrap-Up

On June 27th to 28th, the Australian Cyber League‘s second live event of the season was held in Sydney, New South Wales. The event hosted competitions for 4 major titles across both PC and Xbox One.

This live event marked the introduction of Counterstrike: Global Offensive to the ACL pro circuit. Being invite-only, the CS:GO teams had previously needed to compete in an online tournament to qualify. Of the many established teams in attendance, team Renegades was the standout squad. After breezing through pool play, Renegades took out the second-day championship bracket without dropping a single map the entire weekend.

On the Starcraft II front, 40 players came to compete for the title and the prize pool. First place went to player Pigeon. After an early loss to MightyKiwi, Pigeon smashed through the loser’s bracket rounds to earn a place in the championship playoffs. With an undefeated run through the second day of the competition, Pigeon took first place, winning the grand final 2-1 against NXZ.

Main console title Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare saw 16 teams in attendance. Fan-favourite team Plantronics.Mindfreak took out first place as usual, despite an early upset in the first-day pro pool bracket after being defeated 3-0 by Avant-Garde. Second place was awarded to Trident eSports. After winning an intense series against Avant-Garde 6-4, Trident advanced to the grand final continuation series against Mindfreak. The grand final score was 6-2, Mindfreak’s way.

Halo 2: Anniversary was the second console title at Sydney. After completing their pool play matches on day one, teams were to compete in a double elimination bracket to determine the overall winner. Team Best Friends took out first place and the $800 prize after a nearly flawless run through pool play and a few hard-fought victories in the double elimination bracket.

The tournament brackets for CS:GO, Call of Duty and Halo can be found here, and for Starcraft II here. Courtesy of Doesplay, the statistics for the Call of Duty event can be found here. Congratulations to the winners of ACL Sydney!