vs.

Sluggy had expressed a feeling of a general "I am not looking forward to this" attitude upon finding out he was slated to play the rather famous (or infamous, depending upon how you look at it) Maynard.  Though I have never seen Maynard in action, I have seen Sluggy's prowess in several games and know that Sluggy is not a slouch to say the least.  We will see how this match-up goes.

Round 1 games are a best of three on the predetermined map of lost Temple.  After a brief chit-chat and the turning away of a few other observer-wanna-bees, the games are hosted and we are off.

Game 1

Both contestants chose their races for Game 1.  Sluggy takes his zerg of choice and morphs in red at the 6:00 start.  Immediately, drones are sent to mining and morphing and the first overlord is sent to scout the nearby 9:00 main.  Maynard lands his yellow Command Center at 3:00, commences mining operations himself and then nonchalantly states his discomfort level for the game.  Heh, whether or not this bodes well for Sluggy or not we shall see.  =)

Build orders.  Well, build orders for both participants were very expediently and proficiently  put down.  Maynard put a depot down first then went with a simultaneous double Barracks.  The first SCV that finished a Barracks went on a scouting mission starting counterclockwise.  A Refinery is begun also.  Sluggy started with a Hatchery at his ramp, a Spawning Pool and an Extractor.  His scouting overlord is now turning for the 12:00 main.

Maynard gets offensive units first in the form of 2 marines.  These marines head out of the terran base and head towards 6:00.  The scouting SCV has reported no zerg presence at 12:00 and is almost to the 9:00 start.  The 2 marines stop outside of Sluggy's choke near the mineral only natural at 6:00.  Before they stopped there, 2 more marines are enroute to join them.  When all 4 marines are together outside the choke a lone scampering zergling is quickly shot in its tracks.

Seeing Maynard rallying so close to his base is quite unsettling for Sluggy.  A Hydralisk Den is present and a Lair is almost finished.  More zerglings are called forth to prevent a successful containment to be established.

Sluggy's first batch of about 8 zerglings is not very effective.  There are now 6 marines outside his choke and the marines use the natural cover of the mineral patch to force the zerglings to attack from a specific direction.  Impressive micro skills come forth as the small number of marines continue to face larger groups of zerglings.  Finally, the third group of zerglings is able to break the tenacious outpost.

Sluggy decides to push a little back and the surviving zerglings (5) scamper after the remnants of 2 marines back towards Maynard's main.  The zerglings chase the marines back up their own ramp, but turn around at the sight of a few more marines now with medic support.  Sluggy rallies his own force at the choke of his mineral only.

Yes, Maynard has an Academy and also has a ComSat Station to go with it.  A Factory is almost complete, too.  After scaring the little zerg force from coming up his ramp, Maynard decides to go forth with a group of M&M.  An SCV tags along with orders for a bunker I am sure.

Sluggy has his first 3 hydras out now backed up with more zerglings inside his base.  And good thing, too!  The 10 marine 2 medic force of Maynard has stumbled up the zergling control group at mineral only.  Sluggy tries to back his zerglings away to the west so he can come in behind the marine force, but the sounds of drugs being passed around by narcotic terrans is heard and the marines chase and decimate the zerglings.  At this moment 3 hydras of Sluggy's are morphed into lurker eggs right in the middle of his own ramp.

The lurkers are still morphing when the troop of marines make it to the ramp.  Eggs are a real bitch to take down, so the marines poise themselves and open stimmed fire as soon as the first one hatches.

However, 2 lurkers are able to burrow and force the marines to retreat.  A control group of zerglings are on the standby also, and Sluggy decides to "hunt and kill" the invading terrans.  What started out as a nice little foray by the zerg, turns into to total catastrophe.

The lurkers and zerglings came out to confront the marines.  The marines ran away while the lurkers burrowed.  The marines fired on the zerglings while the lurkers caught up.  The marines ran away while the lurkers burrowed.  The zerglings chased the marines and got fired upon.  The lurkers would un-burrow to catch up.  Quickly, there were no more zerglings and the lurkers got caught while scrambling around trying to burrow.

Marines lost:  1 or 2?

Zerg lost:  2 lurkers and 12 zerglings.

More importantly here, was no scan was needed to kill those lurkers.  The ComSat will be used...now.  Maynard charges his still healthy and remaining M&M troops back to Sluggy's ramp.  Two good scans, some kick-ass drugs, and a few reinforcements eliminate the lurkers at the top of the ramp and a good sized force of M&M are able to penetrate the zerg base.

Though
Sluggy is able to produce 12 more zerglings very quickly, the loss of his ramp lurkers and the fact that marines are now in his peon line ripping his drones to shreds, it is basically a lost cause.  The zerglings are fast to join their brethren drones and die in a burst of blood and guts.  With that, Sluggy offers Maynard a hearty "g g" and concedes the first game.

Game 1 notes:

• I am sure most of you already made your own notes and don't really need mine =)

Maynard: 1          SluggytheZealot: 0

Game 2

At the beginning of this game Maynard again chooses Terran and finds his teal Command Center placed at the 9:00 start.  A depot is begun followed by a Refinery and an SCV immediately goes to scout.  Another SCV starts construction of what will be a single depot/Barracks wall in a little back from his ramp.

Sluggy has left fate to decide his race and is awarded a purple Nexus of the mighty Protoss at the 6:00 start postition.  Following the fast scout of Maynard, the first probe to warp in a pylon is off to scout leaving a second one to begin warping a Gateway and an Assimilator soon followed by a Cybernetics Core.

Very quickly, the two opponents find each other.  Sluggy orders his first zealot to go harass the terran, while Maynard hides his scout in the northern portion of Sluggy's main.  The zealot Sluggy sent was not fast enough to beat the wall in and one lone marine successfully protects the terran base as 2 Factories begin construction.

Another Gateway is up at Sluggy's base and the first dragoon out joins forces with the zealot that was left at Maynard'sramp.  The dragoon kills the marine on guard and begins to help the zealot destroy the supply depot for entrance.  3 SCV's are brought up to repair and finally a tank shows up to provide the damage and range needed to hold the wall in.  On a good note, Sluggy found the hidden SCV trying to scout again, and killed it.

Maynard has 2 Factories each with a Machine Shop.  An Academy is secured and construction of an Engineering Bay begins in the southern portion of his base.  A few tanks have been placed along his high plateau ledge to cover a vast area around his 9:00 main.

Sluggy has chosen to expand to the 3:00 main and also has a Citadel of Adun and a new Robotics Facility at his base.  A small group of dragoons are stationed outside Maynard's choke near the mineral only of the 9:00 position.  Sluggy also stations a lone dragoon in the trench that divides the 9:00 and 6:00 positions for an early warning of sneaky terran maneuvers.

And warnings are needed!  Maynard has lifted his Barracks.  It floats precariously above the ramp and lets 2 tanks and 2vultures gather up in his choke.  These tanks and vultures waste no time, as soon as they are together they assault the small group of dragoons, kill almost all them and force them to retreat to the center of the map.  Maynard leaves a few units behind to make sure Sluggy doesn't flank his troops coming out and brings a tank down to the trench.

The dragoon Sluggy had placed in the trench is caught under fire by a high ground tank in Maynard's main.  With the addition of another tank in the trench itself, this dragoon is toast.  Not only that, but Maynard is setting up a dreaded tank push from the trench.  2 SCV's follow another tank down into the trench.  One begins construction of a supply depot to further prevent easy access, and the other erects a missile turret to provide detection.  Maynard is also now spotting with an E-Bay.

Sluggy's base is now under fire.  The first structure targeted is his Citadel of Adun.  Luckily, he was able to complete his Templar Archives and has been able to produce a few Dark Templar.  However, he has no High Templar and really has no way to break the entrenched tanks.  Sluggy expands to the 3:00 natural and begins to rebuild his tech and basic structures slowly at his "new main" at 3:00.

Maynard senses something is up since his tank trench is going on uncontested and sends an SCV to 3:00.  The SCV winds up splitting the two small groups of troops Sluggy has near the center of the map and reports back that Sluggy has indeed taken the both the main and natural at 3:00.  Sluggy warps in another Nexus at the 12:00 natural while Maynard sends a group of 4 fast vultures to the newly discovered operations of Sluggy.  The vultures mine the entrance choke to 3:00 and proceed up the ramp to kill what they can.

Sluggy is able to get his troops from the center to come and kill the vultures harassing his 3:00 base.  Luckily, before his Robotics Facility fell to tank fire he was able to get a much needed observer out of it.  The observer allows his troops to circumvent the mines placed by the vultures without much loss but Sluggy loses all his probes at 3:00 before he can rid the bikes.

Seeing his Nexus at his original base under fire, Sluggy drags all of his probes and splits them on the nodes at 3:00.  At this time Sluggy expands again warping in another Nexus at the vacant 12:00 start.  Maynard also expands to his own natural at 9:00 and another CC is landed at the 12:00 mineral only.

 

Mini-Map Update
	Maynard has 1 exp with 1 new one. Sluggy has 2 exp with 1 new one. Sluggy lost several tech structures and is rebuilding them at both the 3:00 and 12:00 mains.  His troop count is decent, but he cannot replenish quickly right now. Vehicles upgraded once for terran.  No upgrades on protoss.

Maynard opts to expand to his own mineral only at this time and Sluggy is trying to keep some semblance of order near the center of the map.  Both players realize the need to stop each other from expanding and they make maneuvers to try and stop the other.

What happens is that both players confront each other in the center of the map on the grounds of the temple.  Maynard brings tanks, vultures and support SCV's.  Sluggy is fielding ranged dragoons, zealots and dark templar.

Sluggy actually won this battle!  He had about 8 dragoons, 4 zealots, a dark templar and an observer in the area and defeated 5 tanks, 2 vultures and the support SCV's.  Feeling good about clearing the center, Sluggy proceeds to find the 12:00 mineral only and forces Maynard to lift off that CC.

However, about the time he is forcing one Maynard's CC to lift, Maynard has dropped a tank on the 3:00 natural ledge forcing that expansion to a halt.  A vulture has also escaped into the 12:00 natural expansion and is popping probes with grenade fire.  Sluggy has is troops split again in the middle and is met head on by a whole regiment of tanks coming out of Maynard's base.

Maynard sets up the tanks a little better this time and he decimates the split forces.  A force of 11 tanks, 1 vulture and support SCV's begin to head north.  Sluggy has one last trick up his sleeve and has produced high templar to accompany what was reinforcements to his now non-existent troops in the center.  The few dragoons and templar hold no match for the massive tanks.

More vultures join in and Maynard splits his group up.  Tanks go to 3:00 and vultures go to 12:00.  With dual assaults that he can't stop on his bases, Sluggy concedes Game 2.  "gg's" are exchanged and Maynard advances to Round 2 with a 2 game victory over SluggytheZealot.

I apologize for somewhat lackluster pics for Game 2.  I was a little more interested in the actual game than taking shots.  So, I guess to make up for it, I am adding an animated mini-map of the game.  It starts kinda fast but basically has the game.  Enjoy.

Dr.Zchivago