Snowbound
[LoR]-Vega	Protoss	8 o'clock
[LoR]-Punisher	Terran	11 o'clock

Just as soon as Vega logged on and before we had a chance to even think of making a game, [LoR]-Punisher arrived in the channel. What an opportunity! I was going to be able to watch an Inner Clan Tourney match! Quickly, I asked for the two of them to wait so I could go clear some room for screenshots, did so, and returned with pen in hand. What follows is a report of Game 1 between [LoR]-Vega and [LoR]-Punisher.

I was giddy with excitement right from the start. I hadn't played in a while and this was awesome getting to talk to Vega and getting to see Punisher in action for the first time. I noted their respective starting races and spots (see above table) and since I was the proverbial 'observing Terran' I commenced to lifting off my CC and floating it to some obscure part of the map. I figured it would be a little slow at first being an island map, so I took advantage of the initial lull to start my own havoc and had each of my 4 SCV's begin a berzerker attack on one another until only 1 survived. Cruel, but it was fun hearing screams so early in the game! I then sent my only remaining SCV to put his nose in the corner of my 5 o'clock start spot as punishment for 'surviving' (I have yet to figure out how to kill off ALL of my SCV's :-( )

Now that my need for action was temporarily sated, I took a gander to see what the two LoR Clan opponents were up to. Both of them went early gas (go figure, islands, duh) and while the Protoss were opting for the early shuttle to scout with, the Terran opted with a 'not-quite-so-orthodox' Engineering Bay and Wraith scout tandem.

The E-bay floats itself and is happily (and slowly) scouting stuff out, while the Wraith and Shuttle soon deliver information reports as to the threatening hostile forces main base locations. And with enemy locations now known to both parties it is not long before an initial attack commences.

Vega has decided to load up two of his Reavers and head on up to see what kind of trouble he could cause. What trouble indeed! The shuttle was pretty much unmolested upon entering the Terran encampment and successfully unloaded both Reavers right smack-dab in the middle of a ton of SCV's happily mining away. The SCV's of Punisher started yelling and screaming and pretty much running around like chickens with their heads cut off upon seeing the two hungry Reavers in such close proximity. Due to a relatively close building placement, the retreat path of the SCV's to get out of range was a very narrow path. Not that it would've helped much as the Reavers were quick to start delivering scarabs and absolutley decimated the 'peon' force. Only about 5-6 SCV's were able to escape and it looked to me like they were not too happy about all their fellow workers who just got blown to itty bitty peices. As consolation (or about as close as you can get when you just lose 95% of your hard-working little resource gathering dudes) Punisher did have the smarts to have two turrets covering his min line and was successful in destroying the shuttle (AFTER it had dropped off its payload). This allowed for his Wraiths to come in and kill the 'mean, nasty, scarab-toting, metallic giant slugs'. And after those were destroyed he quickly sent the Wraiths to try a counter of his own.

The Wraiths headed out to Vega's 'totally unruly and much-in-need-of-a-whoopass' Protoss base and started blowing away Probes left and right, um, then left and right again. Vega kinda figured a counter was coming, but only had 1 cannon up when the Wraiths got there and it was not really in the best spot. He quickly started warping in 2 more cannons and brought in a Dragoon or two and an Observer. The counter manuever was good, but paled in comparison to all the SCV's that were lost (damn scarabs! my speakers are still reeling from all the screams of agony of all those poor workers!).

Punisher was lucky enough to already have another CC at 10 o'clock position. I see both CC's blinking furiously with the hopes of a speedy recovery. I also see that Vega is trying to take advantage of the 'Reavers=SCV's go boom' attack and shuttles out a probe to-- wait, is that...WHAT?! *sigh* The sacred ground that I started at (as Terran) is now seeing the probe begin warping in pylons and a Nexus (how dare he?). My lone SCV can only watch (I dare not break my observer role- damn!) as the robotic probe goes about his dastardly deeds. But, wait! Aha! Punisher has just completed scans around the map and has seen the expansion attempt. My lone Deion sheds an emotional tear of joy as a pack of Wraiths swoop down and totally wreck the entire site. Hurrah!

Um, for those of you who are really dense, I have totally sided with the Terran cause. This is mostly due to the fact that I did not succeed in killing all my SCV's and I still have 1 to toy around with. He is damaged, but alive, and he has watched his yellow brethren in their struggles and feels their pain. Not to mention the fact that everyone knows Protoss are gay! :-)

Hmm, let's see... Punisher has an expansion at 10 o'clock and his main at 11 o'clock (both running at about equal SCV's due to the total destruction of his main ones earlier). Vega has no expansion, but is keeping an eye on things with about 3 Observers who are patrolling the map. The pack of Wraiths that so valiantly thwarted the expansion attempt are patroling, too. Shuttles have been pumping out of the Protoss base, as have goons, and Vega has decided to load up 2 shuttles with 2 goons each.

In a very weird move (I thought), he drops 2 goons on the right side of the Terran main- a lone patroling marine is immediatley turned to electric grisle by the advancing goon's plasma. And he drops the other 2 goons at the Terran expansion. A pack of Wraiths were immediately informed of the goons at the main by that brave scout marine and dispatched of those goons fairly quickly. Of course, they had to high-tail it right back over to the expansion to take care of the other two, which they did. Like I said, a weird manuever- told you Protoss were gay!

There are quite a few Dragoons in the Protoss main, along with shuttles to move them. Dragoons load up and head to the immediate right location, which is a mineral only expansion in the ~lower/middle part of the map. A probe or two was brought over in the troop movement and a second expansion attempt is started by the 'evil, weird-attack, gay' Protoss. This expansion is again scanned pretty quickly by Punisher (he is making good use of his Comsat! I hear it so often, I don't think it is ever past 100 energy), but I don't think his wraiths are gonna be able to quash this attempt.

With dragoons at his expansion, Vega sees an opportunity. The Terran expansion is reachable by ground by those goons. An observer tags along with the goons and approach the expansion at 10 o'clock from a southerly direction. Plasma balls begin to fall into the expansion from the elevated land formation and wraiths are quick to intercept the clumsiest (therefore stupidest---wait---I mean gayest!) unit in the game. The goons are the more powerful here, armed with the presence of the obs. But that tenacious Terran leader Punisher is quick to hear the emergent calls for a 'scan' from his wraiths. The wraiths terrorize the observer and start hitting the goons with a vengeance. The goons know they can't stay around (this surprises me as goons are notoriously stupid when it comes to knowing where to go, I guess Vega feeds them special 'smart juice' or something) and they move south back towards the expansion.

Go! Go! Move!! What the hell are they doing? The damn wraiths are not pursuing! Argh! My little red SCV is trying to use telepathy to tell them to pursue...ugh, to no avail it looks as though shyness is the way to go. :-(

It appears that there is a method to the Terran madness. I see a Covert Ops blinking away, one Nuke Silo at the expansion and one being added on to a CC at the main (more on this in a minute, promise).

Both have 1 expansion now, although Vega's is a mineral only and his main is totally mined out. Goons and wraiths are making up the bulk of each sides troops. Finally, the goons begin to move again. It looks like another expansion attempt down to MY sacred ground again! Oh wait, the goons are just milling about the map stupidly (or not so stupidly, they are succeeding in intelligence reports to their evil Protoss leader that Punisher has not ordered up another expansion, yet.

At last I see a Ghost on its way toward the enemy main. The first nuke is a success, but only in the fact that it landed.
Units killed = 1 probe
Buildings razed = none (hurt a bunch)
and the damn ghost and the ship it rode in on were both lost!
Ok, ok, I take it back... it was not a success.

Protoss begin to spread out all over the damn place starting with a new expansion at 4 o'clock. Hmmm, I see a ghost in the middle of the map. He is siting in a Nuke at the only mineral mining expansion!
"Nuclear Launch Detected!"
Vega is scrambling around his main looking for the ghost! Kaboom! Every last one of those little mining probes are vaporized into little cool little blue-cloud explosions. Nice Nuke! There is not a single probe mining at this point in time!

Unfortunately, the Terran are not fully agressive enough to take full advantage of the situation. I am looking all around for units, but it seems as though Punisher has really sunk everything into his ghosts and nukes. I see observers EVERYWHERE now. Not good. A little bit of time passes and somewhere around 8 ghosts get plasma-balled to death during this time. Finally, with the help of a few diversions and some well placed lockdowns on observers, Punisher is able to squeeze a ghost into range of the mineral only expansion again. Again, he kills all the probes there, and more importantly, razes the pylons and Nexus. Alas, there are a few more Protoss expansions now, so it really wasn't the blow it could have been.

Punisher has another trick up his sleeve though, even though the damn 'think-they-are-zerg' Protoss are rebuilding the dead min-only expansion. There are a few more tenacious bouts involving ghosts, goons, transports, SV's, more goons and obs, but somehow Punisher is able to secure a ghost up the ramp of the only solidly-mining 'toss expansion right in the middle of the map. What happens here is a very effective back-to-back nuke of the Nexus. All the probes die on the first nuke, and the whole expansion dies on the second. Grrr, of course, the ghost doesn't make it out alive. He is found by the observers and forced to unwillingly suck down about 42 flavors of plasma. Go figure. Here are the shots of damage from the only ghost to get more than 1 nuke off:

Nothing is really resolved, even though my lone SCV is feeling some of that radiation. The whole freakin' map is glowing green! But, Punisher has not been able to break out and expand. The Protoss of Vega pretty much have all the nodes. As impressive as all that nuking was, it is only a matter of time now. Uh, oh... looks like time is up and 'now' is here.

Vega begins a line of goons marching up to the only Terran expansion, which is also the only means of income for them. There are tanks present, along with wraiths and a Science Vessel, but the goons are upgraded and there are too many observers tagging along.

Oh no! The goons are breaking up the expansion and now I see about 6 shuttles loading up with MORE goons. Ugh. The 50 million observers cluttering up the map let the shuttles know where to go and promptly unload their cargo at the Terran main.

Damage was done by both teams, but the Protoss commanded by [LoR]-Vega is obviously triumphant. GG's are soon exchanged (much to my lone SCV's chagrin! -- damn the Toss!). Argh! We all leave the game. I have lots more pics of goons ripping up the Terran base. To those of you who love the goons, sorry. And to those of you who are tired of seeing them, Hell yea! 'bout time you don't have to see tons of em!

Vega is declared winner of Game 1. It was a short and very exciting game. Now that I am out of it, I can go back to 'race neutrality' and pick my Unit of the Game awardee. Even though I am race neutral, I never pick a Dragoon... And I would pick a ghost, but only one survived long enough to fire more than one Nuke!

With all that in mind I declare my lone SCV- The one that survived the FIRST bloodshed and the one who watched his homeland desecrated by mean and nasty Protoss, and is fighting off radiation sickness is the Unit of da Game! Go Deion!

Good game to both players, thanks for letting me watch, and hope to see you again!