Game one: Gunface

When the game started Kev greeted Stratus with a good manner "Nice to meet you." Stratus responded by saying that it wasn't gonna be a pretty meeting. Kev then asked "what is mean not pretty?" After dropping a few comments on Kev's koreaness I got to paying attention to the build orders. Stratus sent his fifth drone to search for Kev and pooled at nine control. The scouting drone found Kev right away and started harrassing a depot-building SCV. "You rusher?" Kev asked. The SCV finished building the supply depot soon after and started on a barracks. Satisfied with his bitch tactics, Stratus sent the drone into a corner of Kev's plateau for later. Meanwhile, six zerglings were already on their way as fast as their scrawny little legs could carry them. If you're a fan of hiding worker units on your enemy's plateau like me, you know that the top spot on lost temple's the hardest place to do it, because it's so small.

Kev sent an SCV to chase out the drone, but Stratus was on top of things, and managed to keep it alive as he sent his zerglings up Kev's ramp, past the SCVs and marines, and into the heart of his enemy's base. Kev was probably swearing to himself here, because he made a little mistake with the SCVs at the top of his ramp. They were supposed to block so the marine could take free shots on the lings, but SCVs have minds of their own sometimes, so it didn't work so well. Fresh marines mixed with SCVs managed to kill the initial lings and that bastardly drone, but more were on their way, and Stratus added another hatchery at his main. The next few lings ran around Kev's base killing marines one at a time as they popped out of the barracks. Just in case you don't know, zerglings can take on an equal amount of marines in small numbers (three or less), and this is the weakness Stratus was abusing in this fight. By making sure the marine count stayed low, he could keep on making zerglings and never have to switch up to hydras or lurkers. In the next screen shot you can see that Kev built his barracks far enough apart that Stratus could take the marines on one at a time as they came out.

Sick of the zerglings running in and hitting his weak spots, Kev decided to set up a bunker behind his barracks and close to his CC for defense. At the same time, Stratus built a third hatchery inside Kev's base. Because Stratus's attacks on the marines had been so effective, he was able to save up two little groups of about eight lings compared to Kev's five or so marines (I say five or so because the number kept changing as Stratus kept charging in, hitting a marine or two, and running back out). Because the marine numbers were so low compared to the lings, Kev was pinned to his bunker as he raced to siege tanks. The hatch finished, and Stratus began immediately morphing deadly anti-marine sunken colonies.

From here Stratus moved in the sunkens further and further into Kev's base. Just when it looked like everything was over, though, a siege tank popped out , ready to lay waste to the pathetic sunkens! Oh wait, though, Stratus had enough lings to run in and kill it just as a sunken morphed close enough to hit the bunker. Good try Kev.

A few things to note: Kev knew that the hatchery was there, but couldn't attack it because Stratus had him vastly out numbered due to his zergling micro. Also, this was the fourth time I watched Kev play terran vs zerg. Twice he did a fast, game-winning cliff drop, and the other two times he died to an offensive hatchery. The other time I saw this happen to him was vs. Montaro, except monty did it a little differently -- he made the hatch in a corner where Kev didn't see it morphing. The thing I like about Stratus's version is it's not really a cheesy move.. it takes skill to handle the lings, and you don't have to be lucky with your hatchery if you're good. Anyway, Stratus posted this strat recently on tao, you can go read the exact order here. Oh yeah, a difference in this game from the original order is that Stratus had to put down the second hatchery at his main and the third in Kev's base rather than the other way around because he lost the first drone in his initial rush. Anyway, on to game two..

Game two: Can't buy a thrill

The players gave me vision, Kev was terran, Stratus was zerg, yadda yadda. For this game, Stratus's build was made to get him some fast lurkers. After getting shut down by a rush last game, Kev decided he'd put on the pressure early on and sent his first two marines at Stratus, with an SCV leading the way. His plan was probably to put down a bunker beside Stratus's expansion hatchery, but because Stratus didn't have an expansion hatchery, things didn't go so well. Two zerglings chased off the bunker team and kev was forced to go back home and get ready to hold off the lurker rush.

Kev set up an engineering bay and a bunker turret combo at his ramp just as the lurkers morphed. Note that Stratus morphed the lurkers on his ramp to block just in case Kev had such perfect timing that he knew exactly when he could run in with some marines and kill drones while his opponent had no attack units. The lurkers finished and scurried across the map to Kev's ramp. The bunker and turret were set up on the high ground, and Stratus's lurkers couldn't see the bunker to hit it. To overcome this problem, Stratus had an overlord hanging out nearby to spot for 'em. His plan was to use the lurker's superiour range to take out the bunker and then move on to the SCV line. What happenned was pretty ugly. The overlord, the oh-so-important overlord, wandered in a bit too much and got shot down by the turret. So much for his plan. Also, he burrowed a lurker a bit too close and it got bagged by the marines in the bunker. Kev knew that the lurkers wouldn't be too much trouble at the front of his base now, so he ran marines along the edge of his plateau to watch for a lurker elevator just in case.

Now that the lurker rush was pretty much doomed, Stratus threw micro out the window and charged the bunkers. One lurker that was almost dead bit it here, another got blocked by the SCVs within bunker range and died, and the last one made it and charged into the SCV line. As the lurker burrowed itself and started attacking the incomplete comsat, a tank rolled out. A scan swept across the burrowed lurker and it died after taking a mouth full of marines with it. While he was attacking, Stratus expanded, and was now putting a sunken at his natural. Also, he started a spire on the edge of his creep in his main.

Kev's plan was to go for a fast drop, so he set up a starport and got a dropship ASAP. After a scan which revealed mutalisks hanging out near the prime drop spot, Kev decided instead to keep teching to science vessels and put down an expansion at his natural. At the same time, he sent out marines and medics, a tank, and some SCVs to bunker Stratus in. The tank started pummelling away on the sunken colonies, but a horde of mutalisks managed to charge in, kill it, and escape before taking many hits.

To keep the science vessel count low, Stratus morphed a few scourge and managed to take down two SVs. In another good show of harrassment, he managed to get a group of mutalisks behind Kev's expansion mineral line and take out most of the SCVs. While he was flying in and out of Kev's base killing things, Stratus saw that Kev had added another two starports bringing the total to three. This meant that hydralisks and fast overlords would soon be needed. Another thing he didn't see is that Kev had put two barracks at the top spot in preparation for another expansion. After a few minutes, Kev managed to get out enough science vessels, wraiths, and marines that Stratus's mutas weren't too effective anymore. He predicted this, though, and was already teching to the next step: Guardians and scourge.

In the screenshot, you can see the last guardian dying to wraiths. The problem was that at this point Stratus had invested so much gas into the initial mutalisks, and didn't have enough to make more than three guards. After two irradiates and the wraiths struck, Stratus just didn't have enough guys.

Still though, he wasn't finished yet. I glanced at his base and was happy to see a defiler mound and a bunch of zerglings. A few moments, he struck the bunker outside of his town. Two dark swarms, and a handfull of cracklings later, it was completely demolished.

Without wasting any time, Stratus moved his force out to Kev's main and dropped some more dark swarms. The zerglings charged in, but Kev had a chance to make a few firebats, which decimated the ling threat. Unphased, Stratus directed the next lings at Kev's expansion at the top spot, but was a little late. A few firebats were eagerly awaiting the little critters and toasted 'em pretty bad.

Stratus had tried just about all the powerful moves a zerg player can use against a terran, but hadn't done enough damage to swing the game in his favour. After he rallied his guys together at Stratus's front door, he moved in and decimated the base.

Here is where you can find the lurker rush Stratus used in this game.

Game three: The fez

All righty, one final, tie-breaking game! This one was a gem. Here's what happened: Stratus followed the build order in the second link I put up for the delayed lurker rush. They were at the close spots on temple, Stratus at the top and Kev on the right. Stratus took his initial six lings, which Kev saw coming, and attacked. Kev's defensive setup was this: Two SCVs on his ramp with marines behind them. Er, wait, that's two STUPID SCVs on his ramp. They both got scared or something and ran out of the way of the lings, letting them get through and kill the marines. Then Kev surrendered, and Stratus said something like "Those weren't supposed to kill him."

Anyway, I feel pretty dumb because I forgot how well a nine pool could work against the terran. It makes me think of my first days on the ladder, almost a year ago, when I did a stupid eight pool build in every matchup. In that run at the ladder I ended up going 7-1 and having a 1137 rating, though. Funny that I forgot how well rushing can work. Anyway, hope this report helps your game a bit. It won't really help mine because I don't play the terran and zerg races anymore. I play the trashy white boy smoking Marlboros and drinking a bottle of fourty-proof rum outside the salvation army now.

Oh, one more thing, a little interview:

[Stratus] did you wanna talk or not?
[PretzelLogic] oh yeah, I was just talking to kev
[PretzelLogic] all right
[PretzelLogic] so..
[PretzelLogic] let's see.. I wanna talk about defilers
[Stratus] i needed ultras "_"
[Stratus] most people get so scared
[Stratus] they don't build firebats
[Stratus] ^^
[PretzelLogic] so I noticed your tech climb went lurker - muta
[Stratus] yeah
[PretzelLogic] now, do you do that every game the lurker fails
[PretzelLogic] ?
[Stratus] no, sometimes i go mass hydra
[Stratus] i also have quick guards
[Stratus] so i don't get mass muta
[PretzelLogic] where do you get the economy for mass hydra after a lurker rush?
[Stratus] just quick guards
[PretzelLogic] yeah, I'm a fan of the quick guardian
[Stratus] well the key is the lurker rush must of done a bitta damage
[PretzelLogic] oh I see
[PretzelLogic] to what, the SCV line?
[Stratus] i lost my ol cause i went back to my base, built a hatch and 3 drones
[Stratus] came back and it was dying
[Stratus] couldn't beleive it
[PretzelLogic] oh, shitty buzz
[Stratus] the key is too have tha overlord to spot
[Stratus] for the lurkers
[PretzelLogic] right
[Stratus] so you can keep him contained
[Stratus] and encrouch into his base
[Stratus] once i lost all 4 lurkers i thought iwas dead.
[Stratus] so
[Stratus] i said mutas will be the most versatile
[Stratus] i figured he would think i have lurkers still
[Stratus] so i kept a ling or two to stop him from scouting
[Stratus] so he wouldn't come in force yet
[Stratus] and i pumped mass drones
[Stratus] to make up for lost time
[PretzelLogic] right.. in retrospect should you have built less mutas and gone faster guards?
[Stratus] yeah i think that woulda been wise ;)
[PretzelLogic] now, those defilers.. I noticed no plague
[Stratus] i was hoping to stop him from expanding
[Stratus] and do a little damage..
[PretzelLogic] when do you use plague?
[PretzelLogic] yeah that's what I figured
[Stratus] well plague is expensive
[Stratus] its pretty worthwile
[Stratus] but
[Stratus] swarm is just great stuff...
[PretzelLogic] yeah it is
[Stratus] lurkers own in it, so do zerglins and ultras
[Stratus] i shoulda had a few lurkers for my attack on his base
[PretzelLogic] a few ultras woulda been pretty

[Stratus] his bats destroyled me
[PretzelLogic] yeah, that was too bad
[Stratus] usually like i said
[Stratus] most people haven't gone against swarm
[Stratus] they get all scared :)
[Stratus] my plan there was to kill his expand with the guards
[Stratus] and break out with swarm
[PretzelLogic] oh ok
[Stratus] i only did one of the two :)
[PretzelLogic] yeah
[PretzelLogic] kev mentioned that your strats wouldn't get you high on ladder because they suck vs map hackers
[PretzelLogic] any comment?
[Stratus] i guess
[Stratus] i don't do too well on ladder
[Stratus] right now... its cause i'm not playing too much
[Stratus] also these aren't my only strats
[Stratus] just neat ones i published
[Stratus] wanted to show them in effect
[Stratus] i think i got about 1300 last season
[PretzelLogic] I read an old interview with fuzzy the bear where he was talking about how you were a big random player
[Stratus] when i plaed with some friends
[Stratus] yeah i played random every game any map
[Stratus] they chose
[PretzelLogic] do you still?
[Stratus] i don't play only random
[Stratus] but i'll do anymap
[PretzelLogic] right
[Stratus] i play random sometimes
[PretzelLogic] and up there you said you got to 1300 playing with friends.. isn't that abuse?
[PretzelLogic] hehe
[PretzelLogic] jk
[Stratus] we played at his house
[Stratus] from his comp
[PretzelLogic] oh I see
[Stratus] against bnetters taking turns
[PretzelLogic] ok
[Stratus] was fun
[PretzelLogic] I thought you meant playing against friends of yours
[Stratus] nope

Anyway, yeah, swarm catches most people off guard. Too bad Kev's not "most people". Well played by both, fun stuff, thanks for letting me watch yadda yadda

wallaby