EB Expo 2011 was truly a sight to be seen, the people, the massiveness of the event itself and the overall atmosphere really just allowed us to realize how real everything is, and how big a deal it will be if we were to come out on top and win this event. From three months back when I had just an idea of putting a team together with WCG as just a dream for us, an unattainable goal, to beating the best in Australia and qualifying for worlds in Korea has truly been a remarkable journey, and one that is just beginning to say the least!

The organization of the event itself had left much to be desired with last minute flights and accommodation for all teams, SQL having none as we are ‘local’ so team mates were bunking at each other’s houses just to make it to the event at all! Unfortunately shirts not arriving by mail in time so we looked like odd ones out wearing casual while everybody else had matching team shirts! Aside from all organizational flaws it was an amazing two days, amazing experience and three of the most intense games we have ever played as a team.

All games in the finals were Single Elimination Best of One’s, definitely not what we expected and some may say unfair for the losing teams, but none the less this added to the intensity of the entire thing, it was A-Game or NO game.
Round 1 in the finals saw us against team inertia, allowed in from Sydney as a team that placed third when ArcMSI disbanded, they were most definitely having the odds against them, and this proved true when we pulled together exceptionally to demolish them in a game under 30 minutes, having been on top from the start and without looking back we gained an exceptional gold lead and just rushed their base, killing them and everything they had winning convincingly.

After a promising first game we were placed against team LoLA, a well renowned LoL team and a team we knew absolutely nothing about, so we were naturally worried as to what we will expect or what will happen from the get go. But as we started the game with everything on the line, we played a game like no other, everybody doing their job flawlessly. Our game was so rock solid that they could find no way to break through our defence, offense, or map control.

We slowly but surely assured our victory, acquiring dragons, kills, and towers to the point where we could easily team fight without question, initiating under their base towers without worry and steamrolling our way through the rest of game two, cementing our birth into the grand final.
The grand final, the match who decided who was going to Korea, who was to verse the top international teams from around the world. It was a very intense game from start to finish. In short:

First game picks
Fray - Udyr, Ryze, rumble, Cait, Rammus

SQL - Akali, GP, Cassiopeia, Trist, Sona

Game began with no invades, about 6-7 minutes in domo on udyr attempted to counter jungle estonian on GP at top double golems, which for some reason domo flashed for GP, gp ate oranges and flashed out to top lane, Akali came over and was an easy first blood.

From there on and with Akali with first blood, blue buff and 6 minute gunblade, obbie on rumble was struggling hard, with Akali killing him another 1-2 times under his tower. Bottom lane got an early kill on cait, which gave them a slight advantage. From there on, SQL had entire map control with a fed Akali being a real terror. Fray really couldn't do much about it, so as SQL went to baron around 32 minute mark, ryze and cait pushed bottom lane second turret, in which Akali had tped back and 1 v 2’d both of them like a boss. As the game went on SQL continued to push killing all 3 inhibitors, then got a second baron which then dale never fails on Akali picked up an official penta kill, ending the game.

Game one to SQL.

Second game:
Fray - irelia, tristana, leesin, cait, malphite.

SQL - Renek, kennen, nocturne, sona, kog.

The second game started in the favour of Fray, being a very aggressive team taking to the bottom lane of SQL was easy work for them having ap tristana to burst and run in 1 swift motion, they took early dragon control and continued their attempts at ganking securing a minor lead over SQL. The countless gank attempts began to punish them as rusty continued to push mid lane securing an early tower. Bot lane began to push back into its strength with kog maw proving to become a lot to handle for Fray. Most skirmishes turned into SQL’s favour, gaining small positive kill tradeoffs around 2-3 to SQL and 1-2 to fray, SQL always having one more.

AP tristana had some mean burst, catching sona out numerous times, but with noc and renek jumping straight onto the carries, and kennen just holding tristana down and protecting the kog maw, there wasn’t much fray could of done. A few mistakes towards the end by SQL could have cost the game, a push to bottom lane was heavily countered by fray, but they were not in the position to really bring back the game.
From there, winning the game became clockwork, with the excitement kicking in everybody was screaming at every positive outcome to every event in the game. Spectators were on the edge of their seats watching our every move as we upset the #1 team in Australia.
SQL- 2 Defeat Fray- 0

MVP goes to Dale Never Fails for his stellar akali performance.

Well done to both teams, Alot of players and teams had no hope for SQL, but the underdogs took the trophy at the end of the day which is all that matters!

Shoutouts to scream for the third game write-up, MF, cC and all those who competed for the fun times that will not be forgotten. Also a big thanks to SQL and Tt eSPORTS.
We will do SQL and Australian gaming proud in Korea in December!

The SQL LoL team has had a big day at the EB Games Expo / WCG National Final. The boys started off strong defeating inertia in a single elimination bracket. Next up they had Team LoLa, where the guys held strong and eliminated them 1-0 which sent them into the grand final.

The number one see Frenetic Array had a bye first round and met Mindfreak in the semis, beating them 1-0 and knocking them out of the race for the title.

It comes down to Sequential Gaming Vs Frenetic Array to see who will be representing Australia at WCG to be played tomorrow. We wish the guys the best of luck and hope they can come away with an upset win!

Sequential Gaming is entering the LoL scene by bringing on the side formerly known as HyM. HyM qualified for the WCG event at the EB games expo after taking out the QLD Qualifiers. The team has gone from strength to strength even though they are relatively new in the LoL scene. The is made up of,

• Zack ‘RustyBallBags’ Pye (c)
• James ‘Denian’ Goddard
• Henry ‘Estonian Power’ Vinkmann
• Dale ‘Dale never fails’ Roy
• Thomas ‘Gindenwo’ Erben
• Robert ‘Surrell’ Russell
Rusty commented on the move “We are very excited to be making the move to Sequential. We felt the move to Sequential came at the right time for us as we grow as a team, SQL will help us reach our full potential.”
Here at SQL we look forward to working with the team well into the future and wish them the best of luck at the EB Games Expo!

This is my first post with Sequential! I'm Klassic and I'm SQL's new content manager. Very glad to be a part of this fantastic organisation and I hope to contribute mainly though keeping gaming news flowing on the website! Hooray!

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League of Legends followers will be excited to see a new champion, Xerath, as well as some new skins for Caitlyn and Brand.



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Australia on the world scale? As we all know, Australia is a large competitive platform for a lot of games, and some smaller competitive games are getting some coverage, and our Australian players are being featured! CommunityFortress, a US website that promotes competitive Team Fortress 2, featured Nano from the Australian team Dial / Up in their August video! Check it out!



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CyberGamer has officially wrapped up its first season of StarCraft 2, in both 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 formats. Season 2 is looking good with some new admins.

At the same time, CG's second Black Ops season is up and running now with a chosen ProMod (thanks Koil you amazing boy). With over 100 active teams registered in the ladder, we're finally starting to see some action, with Frenetic Array once again the favorites for this season.

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That's all from me today, will be keeping you updated!

Blake got the chance to have a chat to Mick Jenkins founder 4Seasons Gaming, home of Quake and the driving force behind the quake scene in Australia here is what he had to say.


SQL.Tt blaKe: Firstly Mick could you give us a small introduction of yourself and your involvement in the Quake community?

Mick05: Well my name is Michael Jenkins (23), lived in Adelaide my whole life, finished a double degree at University: Bach of Comp Science and Multimedia Arts. My involvement in the Quake community is pretty large when you compare to other communities I suppose. I run the games community website and help with tournament production.

SQL.Tt blaKe: With no financial benefit to yourself, what drives you to provide a home for the Australian quake players?

Mick05: Although there isn't really any financial benefit I can say the work itself does come with other types of appreciation. As for what drives me, I just enjoy watching new faces come into the game and interact with the old faces. The community setup was a challenge I had always wanted to take on since when I started playing computer games. The haters drive me a bit as well.

SQL.Tt blaKe: As many people are aware, you are the driving force in the Australian quake scene. Would you be able to run us through any current or future Quake Live tournaments that you have planned or that are in the making?

Mick05: A lot of the current community are on top of me for a LAN tournament. I have run a couple through-out my years some standalone and some combined with other organisations. The direct problem with this recent lust is the location, makes it hard for me to organise a standalone BYOC held in another State.

So I will have to start branching out to setup this. I would like it to be both team and duel orientated. As for overseas competitions, my eyes are pretty set on DreamHack Winter in Sweden. Although I can't really tell you what is going to be happening until they further announce the competition details.

SQL.Tt blaKe: With QuakeLive being dropped by Intel Extreme Masters organisers how do you feel the games current competitive scene stands internationally?

Mick05: Eh. I mean after travelling to the IEM the only fun I found from the competition was the hype that came from it. The tournament wasn't really all that Quake focused more Money focused. A lot of people, or trolls, would like to harp on about the games death because of this but I hardly doubt one tournament can hold up a game like people suggest.

We are all still playing it now, DreamHack is doing a great job keeping the game going but even if DreamHack were to drop the game I could still foresee something new springing a long. As far as I am aware the European scene is starting to build from the Amateur level which is good to see, it's basically what I did when I started. After the amateurs get good enough the pro's will come back to play.

SQL.Tt blaKe: Due to quake being such a hard game to master and new faces rarely seen in the major tournaments do you see this as a major factor in it being replaced by League of Legends at IEM?

Mick05: Haha, really good question. One that I haven't really had to answer before but I have thought about from time to time. Well I suppose I will put the question to anybody reading this, when a team or teams dominate a game or a tournament for an extra-long time does this mean the game or tournament dies? I have played inside a community where I have seen a couple of teams dominate the scene and then people lose interest etc.

But I think there were more underlying problems that made the game or said community come to an end. We are humans, and as humans we have a competitive nature. I suppose it's only a matter of time before the older guys get too old or tired of the game leaving room for new faces or younger players to take over. Nothing lasts forever, games or reigns. So in saying this, no I just think LoL is a new game and has a very large player base.

SQL.Tt blaKe: You mentioned DreamHack earlier and with it (Dreamhack Winter)being the next major tournament is there any chance that Australia will once again be represented internationally?

Mick05 says: There has been some discussion revolving around this competition and whether or not it will be team based rather than duel based. I have already put my point to the event organisers and tournament personnel that it is highly unlikely we will be traveling to the event were they to only run a team tournament. If in the case they do run both duel and team, then there is a very high chance we will fly some players over. Who or how many, I cannot give you this answer because I do not know it myself.

SQL.Tt blaKe: We have seen the likes of dandaking, zlr and ventz compete overseas with mixed results. How do you think these guys compare to the top international players and are there any up and coming Aussies that could potentially compete overseas?

Mick05: In all honesty Dan has been the only one to really impact the scene. IEM was tough for him and he played with what was given and made it work. With enough practice he could really hit a close quarter’s finish. Ventz and Zealor had their taste of international competition and as far as I know they are both ready to get straight back into it. I believe they both need perhaps a bit longer boot camping or practicing before an event over there to really be able to learn the European playing styles.

As for up and coming there are a few guys whom with enough practice could take it overseas, at least for the experience. Fraze has obviously shown the most potential outside those three, and he is very interested to travel to DreamHack but unsure if he would risk embarrassing himself in the duel competition. At least with DreamHack you can practice even if you are not playing in the competition, which is I think what he would like to do. Once again it depends on the tournament format, players invited, player limit etc.

SQL.Tt blaKe: From Sequential Gaming we would like to thank you for spending some time talking to us and to wrap things up, some might not know that you yourself are in fact a fairly decent quaker. How's your game traveling at the moment?
Mick 05: Best in AU!
Thanks for the interview guys!