Relegation matches | Row of 16 | Row of 12 | Quarterfinals | Semifinals & Grandfinal

Reportage Part 1 | Reportage Part 2 | Reportage Part 2 | Final Thoughts

 Lucca is old city in Toscany region founded by Etruscans 300 B.C and conquered by Romas where Caesar signed "First Triumvirate" with Pompey and Crassus. Later on it became capital of Toscany controlled by Langobards and after short hostage of mercenaries it was sold to John of Luxembourg and managed by Charles the Fourth. City was second biggest city state in Italy and liberated by Napoleon Bonaparte and became self sustained republic. Lucca is known for its production of silk and it was born place of musitians and composers Luigi Boccherini and Giacomo Puccini as well as pope Lucius III.

Well, we are talking about some serious fckn history bois and grylz!

Lucca have 89 000 residents but I believe that number was exceeded wastly during Lucca Comics & Games, one of biggest Comics festivals in Europe. Whole old city was packed by crowds flowing all directions, and I was kind of glad, that I can lay my bones in Church of San Romano, that was main stage for Italian Esport Open hold by ESL.

Besides Quake Champions and LAN finals of Quake Pro League, ESL National Championship in League of Legends were part of the happenings as well as other minor competition in Mobile games.

Because living in Lucca was during event absurdly expensive, I took liberty to spend my time in Viareggio, beautifull town on the seeside 30 minutes away from Lucca and took my rented cinquecento for the ride!

20 players of Quake Pro League and 4 Challengers made their way (95,83% by plane :) to Lucca for Stage 1 finals, and because of that we were able to meet and chat with TOP players of the world in Quake Champions.

Before official program even started on Saturday, every player had access to backstage where they can practise, set up theirs settings and everything they needed to play theirs matches. All data were stored at SSD Disks to be used later on every single PC both backstage and on stage itself.

Great thing about ESL Italia production was, that most of the personel were consisted of Quake players, fans and legends. Huge shoutout to  Dogemist and  Polterizer tying to make players as comfortable, as possible. My very special thanks are directed to  Maurizio, that took care of me like I was family.

During Friday afternoon, mostly Challengers were preparing at backstage that was located at sacristy of church, with  Alexei "cYpheR" Yanushevsky and  Kirril "cnz" Golubjov in front row.

American expedition lead by  FortyLions joined players shorty with Quake Champions community ambassador  Joshua "Tokyopunchout" Boyle and the man, the myth, the legend  John "ZeRo4" Hill.

At that point preparations for payers of Quake Pro League joining Americas relegation matches  Paul "sib" Titkov and  Branden "Br1ck" Gwyn could started as well as setup of   Michael "dooi" Dewey, one of Americas Challengers. 

Later on, UK delegation arrived with  Ryan "Ketchup" Neal,  Gereth "GaRpY" Marshall and other "Myztro bois". I have also spend some time checking press area, that was located at presbytery of church.

Friday Night was in sign of starting Blizzcon and while Quake players were patiently preparing themselves for upcoming matches on Saturday in front of San Romano several cosplayers finished their preparation for live broadcast of event mentioned above.

 FULL GALLERY
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