Hanging around channel "clan -x17" like usual, I search for 2 players screaming and cursing at eachother and yelling they could kill eachother in a 1v1...Of course I had no such luck like usual and settle for asking people to play...again :(. I asked a few people to play (them giving me their usual answer of "I'll only play if I get to play 1st~Tsunami"), but after all of the disappointments I was happy when X'Ds~SmAshe agreed to play in my battle report, and even more happy when I found someone that said he thought he could beat him :), :+:FateFul:+:.

I make the game and of course pick Lost Temple, my reason for this being that no one will blame their losing on not knowing the map. Although I know it can get kind of boring...but anyway. SmAshe as I later find out, only plays with Protoss so...you guessed it, he chose Protoss in this game. :+:FateFul:+: randoms and draws Protoss, so I find myself thinking "Cool, a no rush game...almost ensuring it will be battle report worthy...I hope."

Map: Lost Temple

X'Ds~SmAshe (chooses Protoss, 6 o'clock)

:+:FateFul:+: (randoms Protoss, 9 o'clock)

SmAshe has a slightly different build order from FateFul's, with SmAshe going with pylon then double gate, another pylon and then gas. FateFul with: pylon, gate, pylon, gas.

SmAshe, producing out of 2 gateways to FateFul's 1, builds up his zealots in preparation for a 6 zealot rush. He groups them up at the top of his ramp (he also has somewhere around a million probes mining). FateFul is also producing zealots and collecting them at the top of his ramp. When SmAshe gets his 6 zealots he sends them to attack his opponent's base. In the time that it takes them to get there FateFul had enough time to build up enough zealots to stop the oncoming attack. Once SmAshe gets to the top of the enemy's ramp he retreats after realizing he will never defeat the zealots.

After SmAshe retreats to his main, both players proceed to build up the tech tree and keep armies at the top of their ramps. FateFul gets another gateway, more pylons, a forge, and a robotics facility (later used to build reavers). SmAshe gets a lot more pylons andcontinues to build up a big army of dragoons and zealots (mainly dragoons).

These are pictures of both of the players armies that guard their main base at the top of their ramp. Neither player really had a particularly large defending force, but they worked nonetheless considering neither attacked.

Since SmAshe built more mass troops rather than tech, he gets the privilige of the first blood of the game. He sends an army of dragoons and zealots (lots of them) to attack FateFul's main base. Seeing the oncoming attack from the bottom of his ramp, he retreats back to the top of the ramp, and then back farther into his own base. To me, the game seemed to be over, but FateFul pulled out the tech he had been building and loaded 2 reavers into a shuttle to help support his army (which was being demolished).

The reavers were "the stars of the battle". They killed most of the goons single-handedly while the rest of the army acted as a blockade to protect them.

In the middle of the attack, when FateFul couldn't counter, SmAshe expanded to his natural and guarded it with the troops he produced during the battle. Since he was set back from the attack against him, FateFul took a little longer to expand. He did, however, manage to get his Nexus warping in while SmAshe's was still warping in.

After SmAshe had built up a reasonable amount of men, he expanded to his mineral only and moved his troops out a little bit in front of that expansion. While he did this, FateFul spread out his now gigantic army of dragoons and reavers all over the middle of the map.

At this point, FateFul had a larger army than SmAshe. This isn't really even my opinion, it's just a fact. FateFul had the same amount of goons as SmAshe, if not more, and in addition to that had reavers which he were transporting to the middle with shuttles. No one really initiated the next battle that took place. A goon that was aparently bored wandered into enemy territory and drew the enemy back to his own army. Of course, this made FateFul unaware of the battle taking place in the middle for a while. His reavers were sitting out of range from the battle until he moved them (after a lot of his goons were killed).

SmAshe's goons mauled over FateFul's army. Then I realized how much of an idiot I was being... I took a glance (finally) at the upgrades of each player. SmAshe was 2-2-2 and FateFul only had 1-0-1. So that was the secret of SmAsh owning every battle with an equal or less amount of men.

Of course SmAshe has the advantage in the game now, and he knows it too. He counters with the survivors of the recent battle, sending them right into FateFul's main base, who barely had anything to defend with after using his huge army already. Knowing the attack would be coming soon, he tried to build some photon cannons outside his natural, but the attack came before they could finish. All FateFul had to defend with were a few dragoons at first. SmAshe pushed into the base, destroying the natural expansion while constantly sending reinforcements from his base. While his expansion was being destroyed, FateFul took one last attempt and built a reaver and a couple dragoons for defense. Of course he wasn't mining any more minerals at his main, nor was he on any other place on the map.

FateFul realized the game was hopeless and conceded Game 1 of the series. Both players offered a "gg" and then left the game.

X'Ds~SmAshe VS. :+:FateFul:+: Game 2

:+:FateFul:+: really wanted a rematch with X'Ds~SmAshe after the game, which SmAshe agreed to. So, I figured make this a 2 game report (excluding the game they played where FateFul drew Terran which he isn't very gosu at =).

As I'm sure you remember, SmAshe only plays as Protoss so that was his chosen race from the beginning. FateFul chooses his race this time, and picks Zerg.


X'Ds~SmAshe (chooses Protoss, 12 o'clock)

:+:FateFul:+: (chooses Zerg, 9 o'clock)



This game seemed to me to have a better chance of it being a close game. FateFul seemed to be a good Zerg player, and against a Protoss SmAshe it seemed as if it would be close.
This game, as it seems in every other game, SmAshe builds: pylon, gateway, gateway, and then another pylon, followed by gas. FateFul gets a hatchery at his expansion followed by a spawning pool and another hatchery at his expansion.

The early expansion is easily found by a wandering probe of SmAshe's. The probe starts to attack the hatchery as a zealot is scrambled from SmAshe's base. After the first zealot gets there two more are sent out heading for the enemy base.

FateFul defends his expansion with newly produced zerglings. He chases the zealots away and then constructs a sunken colony above and between his two hatcheries.

Meanwhile, back at SmAshe's main base... He continues to build pylons and constructs a cybernetics core. He also continues to build zealots and places them at the top of his ramp. Those zealots prove to be of help when FateFul sends an army of zerglings to the bottom of his ramp. Before attacking he scouts with a single zerling to see how many zealots there are up there, and then decides to stay down at the bottom of the ramp and not attack.

FateFul decides to get an extractor in his main mineral gathering base, and a little while later builds a hydralisk den followed by an evolution chamber (he'd learned his upgrading lesson last game). SmAshe decides to take a templar kind of route and builds a Citadel of Adun.

After building his first Dark Templar, SmAshe sends it out to the bottom of his ramp where it finds the army of zerglings and newly made hydralisks just sitting there. It takes out about 8 zerglings before a non-upgraded overlord that was scouting the 3 o'clock main gets over to the battle ground. The DT is killed but not before it leaves it's share of blood on the map floor :(.

After this SmAshe brings his army of about 12 zealots, 1 goon, and 1 high templar down to the bottom of his ramp in preparations of expanding. Seeing that FateFul's army of hydralisks and zerglings are still outside his base, he uses a zealot to lure them into his own defending troops. He then psi storms a large group of them and finishes the rest off with his zealots.

Once that battle is over SmAshe builds 2 photon cannons to support his army of zealots and high templars. He also prepares to expand to the 3 o'clock main base by building a pylon at it's ramp.

FateFul sends an army of newly produced hydralisks to camp outside SmAshe's main base. He sends them in to attack then retreats over and over, trying not to give him any shots to psi storm his men or let the zealots get close to the hydras. He realizes how ever he is outpowered and retreats back to his own main base.

Almost instantaneously, the two players take another expansion. SmAshe takes the 3 o'clock main expansion where he had recently built a pylon, and FateFul takes 6 o'clock's natural.

Both players continue to build up their armies. FateFul constantly producing hydralisks and rallying them to the center of the map, and SmAshe building up zealots, high templars, and a few dragoons. He kept that army mainly guarding his main base.

SmAshe sends his army into the middle of the map and met up with FateFul's army of hydralisks. FateFul, after enduring a few well placed psi storms, realizes his army is dwindling down and retreats back to his mineral only expansion. There, he builds 4 sunkens bracing for SmAshe's army to follow him, but he doesn't. He also retreats his army back to his main base and builds up a little bit more.

At this point, SmAshe realizes that dominating the middle of the map would be important and sends his entire army there. And before too long, also realizes that he could overpower the defenses of FateFul. He sends his army in to attack the mineral only expansion which is guarded by: 5 sunken colonies, a large group of hydras, and zerglings. Psi storms took care of the hydralisks very easily. The zealots killed off the zerglings and the sunkens with the dragoons backing them up.

SmAshe takes out all of FateFul's defenses and drives into his main base, destroying all tech buildings and killing any hope of a comeback. FateFul concedes the second game of the series.
And the final scores for the second game...

I was planning on doing an interview with the players after the game..but SmAshe went off to play X_Mage_X (which I watched) but like a freakin moron deleted the screenshots. Anyway, they were both well-fought games by both players. Thanks to both of them for letting me watch and playing their best.

Winner of Games: X'Ds~SmAshe