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Introduction

Hello, and welcome to another of my BattleReports. Allow me to explain what the hell is going on here. It all started on a hot day in June. I had just finished a long, excruciating day of work at my summer job as a peon for the local high school’s technology supervisor. The temperature was around 98°, the humidity was damn near 100%, and I had spent the day hauling computers up and down steps all day long. Let me tell you, after a while that really wears a guy out. Since there was no air conditioning, I was covered in a thick film of sweat; my shirt clung to my back. I wanted to die. Naturally, I was in just about the pissiest mood I have ever been in my life. You know how that is, when you’re tired and hot and sweaty and you just want to be in a cold shower RIGHT NOW. The water fountains at the school all tasted like shit, as well, so I was parched. Anyway, I was all set to go home and punch some walls or dare a family member to pick a fight with me. Let me stress that I was really pissy.

In my car, I fumbled through the huge pile of pennies, finding exactly one dollar in nickles and dimes--just enough to buy a 20-ounce bottle of pop from the machine. I felt a little better. I turned the air conditioner up to the maximum and pointed all the vents to my face. I felt a little better. I bought my pop and almost passed out from the pleasure of taking a sip. I felt a lot better. As I drove home, a cute little 5-year old girl smiled at me and gave me a big wave, even though we didn’t know each other. I smiled and waved back, feeling a little better. While waiting for the cross-traffic at a stop sign, I though wouldn’t it be funny if I saw a dog turd with a footprint in it. By that time I was pretty much cheered up, and that is when I got the idea for these BattleReports.

Up to this point, all of my previous BattleReports had always been 1vs1 games in which I was a player. I decided to get away from that and try something new, so I wondered about 2vs2 games. I wanted to do more that just a standard single game, though. Eventually I got the idea that I could watch a series of 2vs2 games, and focus more on the teamwork of the players, rather than the actual game.

My master plan was this: find four players of approximately the same skill level. Four players mean that there are three possible team combinations. There would be three games, all on the same map, and partners would rotate after each game while I observed their teamwork. Knowing that BattleReports.com contributors Fox^1 and ::nobody:: often play together, I figured that seeing them in a 2vs2 would be rather interesting. So they were my basis. I wanted two more people of roughly the same skill level as Fox^1 and ::nobody::. Eventually I e-mailed the following people: Fox^1, ::nobody::, Bane, and Drefsab. To my insane delight, all four answered with agreement to participate in the games! Let me tell you, the number of wadded-up Kleenexes under my bed doubled that night.

Unfortunately, things don’t always work out the way you want them to. Due to server splits and other problems, I was unable to use the same four players for each game. However, I do feel that this was not a major problem, as I am satisfied with the results of these games. This is the first of them.

So, without further ado, I present:

Starring:

With two very special surprise guests:

Each of these games were played on the map RoseWood. It is a 128x128 five player map in the BroodWar folder. As you can see, each starting position is given a natural, but it is on an elevated plateau. Hopefully this would require at least some form of teching. Oh yeah, the starting positions and the naturals are the only places you can find gas. Anyway, the center of the map has two mineral-only expansions that are surrounded by some rough, choppy land, complete with trees. Yessir, the middle of the map is a bit crowded thanks to the weird elevation. In addition, there are five mineral-only island expansion sites. Get to know this map because it will be in the next two BattleReports as well.

I’m not going to bore you with the problems we had organizing these games. The server splits were brutal, and often we found ourselves separated. While waiting for everyone to either show up or relog, Drefsab (using the name E-Minor) sang himself a birthday song and made several comments to me which basically consisted of “Take a picture of my profile!” “Did you take a picture of my profile?” and “Why aren’t you taking a picture of my profile right now?” OK! Sheesh! Here it is:

Eventually, through the confusion four of us got into the game waiting room: Me, Fox^1, Bane{Hero}, and E-Minor. We were one short. Fox^1 quickly ducked back into Clan ~nohunters to round up another player. I was initially disappointed that the four original players weren’t all here, but then Fox^1 promptly returned with none other than:



Dr. Zchivago!

With enough players, we finally started the game. Before I begin, look at the scrollbar to the right. See how low it is? Yes, that is how much you had to read before I finally got to the actual game. Heh. So FU readers! :D

Here is the matchup:

Fox^1 (Protoss) and Bane{Hero} (Zerg)

vs.

Dr.Zchivago (Protoss) and E-Minor (Zerg).

Say this over and over to yourself one hundred times, so you will remember. Here are the starting postions:

Both Zerg players immediately sent out their Overlords to scout while the Protoss players concentrate on their early game builds. E-Minor first builds a Spawning Pool while keeping his Drone production going. Fox^1 and Dr.Zchivago concentrate on each getting a pylon up, while Bane{Hero} seems to be hoarding his minerals. At this point, the first words of the game are spoken by Dr.Zchivago:

He is, of course, referring to a Wall-in. Now this is interesting. If you remember the teams, you know that there are no Terrans in this game. The only Command Center on the map is mine, and I am an observer. Maybe E-Minor saw that before the game started and confused me with a player. At any rate, this makes an interesting situation. Since they think that there is at least one Terran opponent, the first adversary that Dr. Zchivago and E-Minor scout is going to be the one attacked, and they will assume that the other, unseen rival is the Terran. What will happen??

Dr. Zchivago, having no reason to disagree with E-Minor, answers him while the first Gateway warps in. At this point he also sends a scouting Probe to gather information. Both teams quiet down and focus on their early game chores.

Eventually, a scouting Probe from Fox^1 wanders onto E-Minor’s creep, becoming the first person in the game to find an opponent. The Probe sees a Spawning Pool, and a new Hatchery coming in, but no Zerglings. It scuttles away and exits the base, continuing his scouting route, just before some eggs pop open to reveal brand-new Zerglings.

While this is happening, Bane{Hero} informs his partner that the map was not what he thought.

Suddenly, Bane{Hero} has an unwelcome guest in his base. A probe belonging to Dr.Zchivago has discovered the brown Zerg’s home, and announces it to his partner. Dr. Zchivago can see that Bane{Hero} is morphing another Hatchery, and has just started a Spawning Pool. Uh-oh. The Probe exits the base, but hangs around the bottom of the ramp, keeping an eye on the place.

With this information provided by Dr.Zchivago, E-Minor responds by saying “Attack Zerg then?” At this point, he has about ten Zerglings while Dr. Zchivago has a second Gateway nearly finished. Dr.Zchivago, however, does not answer his partner.

A short time passes where no one speaks. Bane{Hero} now has his second Hatchery nearly finished, a Spawning Pool coming at 589/750, and an extractor morphing. His scouting brown Overlord finally comes across Dr.Zchivago’s main, and sees two Gateways but no gas. Bane{Hero}also knows that Dr. Zchivago was also the one who scouted him earlier, seeing the complete lack of a Spawning Pool. Uh-oh. This is the defining point of the game.

E-Minor’s scouting yellow Overlord finds and spies on Fox^1’s main from over the cliff of the natural. Fox^1 has two Gateways and is making Zealots. I think that it’s safe to say that Dr. Zchivago and E-Minor have realized they are not facing a Terran opponent.

Suddenly, E-Minor issues the command to attack, sending his twelve or so slow Zerglings to Bane{Hero}’s main. Dr.Zchivago was quick to reply and sends three Zealots to help. The teammates run up Bane{Hero}’s ramp and, impressively, wait for each other to assemble without a word of communication. The white probe that had been sitting outside of Bane{Hero}’s base came along, too. When they are situated properly, the dozen yellow Zerglings and three white Zealots run into Bane{Hero}’s base.

The attack force is met with resistance from not 4, not 5, but SIX Zerglings. Needless to say, Bane{Hero} is in deep shit and his base begins to fall very quickly. After Bane{Hero} finally issues a plea for help, Fox^1 sees what is going on and sends what he can, which is three or four Zealots. It isn’t nearly enough, and Bane{Hero} is finished.

Back at Fox^1’s base, the Probes are mining at double time. Fox^1 knows he has lost the luxury to tech, so he warps in another Gateway and begins massing Dragoons, all under the watchful eye of E-Minor's yellow Overlord.

Bane{Hero} is offered some friendly advice that does him absolutely jack squat now. At the same time, Fox^1 tries to sneak another Probe into E-Minor’s base, but it is easily destroyed by two sunken colonies located at the top of the ramp.

Just as Dr.Zchivago and E-Minor pull out of Bane{Hero}’s defeated base (generously leaving some buildings so that Bane{Hero} can remain in the game to watch), the brown cerebrate notices that there is a shiny warp rift directly under his Overlord, which is currently still parked in Dr.Zchivago’s base. The Overlord begins to fly away very slowly, but takes damage from the new cannon and is killed by two new Dragoons. If Bane{Hero} is dead, why does it matter that his Overlord was shot down? Because now Fox^1 no longer has free reconnaissance in Dr.Zchivago’s base:

Let’s look at the minimap at this point. If you look in Dr. Zchivago’s base, you might make out Bane{Hero}’s brown Overlord dying. It also might amuse you to see the almost complete lack of buildings in Bane{Hero}’s base. Now check out Fox^1. His medium size army is currently pushing northward, fighting Dr.Zchivago’s inferior number of Protoss units. He is receiving constant Dragoon reinforcements, which allow him to defeat the last of Dr.Zchivago’s nearby units. E-Minor is hoarding slow Zerglings in his base and has a Drone in the center of the map, about to begin a new Hatchery. You can also see E-Minor’s Overlord hanging over Fox^1’s base, spying. Right now, not a single player has any upgrades or expansions.

Fox^1 eventually kills the last of Dr.Zhivago’s containment force, and continues up the map towards Dr.Zchivago’s base, hoping to take him out. As the Dragoons continue northward, they pass very close to E-Minor’s single Drone, who wanted to make a Hatchery at the mineral expanion in the middle of the map. Will the Dragoons see it?

Yup. The helpless Drone dies.

E-Minor won’t take this sitting down, and throws a large army of slow Zerglings to the center of the map with the order to look for trouble. The Dragoons stand very close to the Zerglings, less than a screen away. Suddenly, one of the Dragoons opens fire and causes all the Zerglings to come running. What follows is a rather impressive bit of micro management from Fox^1. Dancing his Dragoons, he manages to whittle down E-Minor’s Zergling herd until E-Minor decides to cut his losses and get the Hell out of there (those Zerglings weren’t yellow for nothing).

The fact that E-Minor’s Zerglings were still slow really hurt him in that battle, and gave Fox^1 breathing room to manage his Dragoon army with few losses. Constant Dragoon reinforcements helped him, too.

Fox^1 continues up to Dr.Zchivago’s base, but is halted at the choke by new Zealots, Dragoons, and some cannons at the top of the ramp. To make matters worse, E-Minor sends some Zerglings to flank Fox^1’s troops. He is forced to pull back, and attempts to micro a victory again. Unfortunately, the number of enemies is too great and he is slowly, slowly forced back towards his own base. Along the way, Fox^1 stumbles across a new Hatchery E-Minor has started, in the center of the map. There is nothing Fox^1 can do about it as he unwillingly gets pushed back to his main. E-Minor unveils another unpleasant surprise: he now has Hydras to help fight.

By the time Fox^1 is pushed to within sight of the new Hatchery, E-Minor is pretty much the only one doing the pushing, as nearly all of Dr.Zhivago’s troops had been destroyed during the struggle. The masses of Hydras are enough, though, to force the purple Dragoons all the way to their own choke. Fox^1 initially takes a stand just at the mouth of the ramp, but then, in an excellent move, runs his Dragoons up the ramp to take advantage of the level difference. E-Minor doesn't have enough Hydras to force his way up the ramp, so he instead retreats them a short distance and uses them as a containment force.

There are two lines on the minimap because a few of Fox^1’s Dragoons seemed to lose their way and separated from the group. Either that, or he had the rally point set to Dr.Zchivago's base, and lost track of them during the micro war. The entire trip took at least five or six minutes of constant fighting and microing. Fox^1 did pretty much everything he could, but he was simply outnumbered.

Taking only a few seconds to recover, Fox^1 musters all his forces and makes another attempt to travel up the map, this time to E-Minor’s new expansion in the center. However, Dr.Zchivago makes his presence known, by dropping a single Reaver and Dragoon into Fox^1’s worker line. This is the final nail in the coffin, and with his enite army elsewhere, Fox^1 sadly concedes the game. Joey Lawrence was impressed.

Scores

Notes

• I think the deciding point of the game was when Bane{Hero} found Dr.Zchivago’s main (consisting of two gateways and NO gas), but did not react to the information. If he had plopped some sunken colonies down, pumped Zerglings, and asked Fox^1 for help, I think that he would have been able to survive the first attack. As it was, Bane{Hero} didn’t ask for help until the damage was irreversible.



• Dr. Zchivago and E-Minor had excellent communication. When Dr.Zchivago found Bane{Hero}, he immediately informed E-Minor. In contrast, neither Fox^1 nor Bane{Hero} notified their partner when either one found an opponent during scouting.



• In addition, E-Minor did an excellent job of coordinating the attacks. He took charge of the situation by creating a game plan, and Dr.Zchivago was quick to accommodate.



• Bane{Hero} learned an important lesson. To paraphrase Frank Drebin, “Getting caught while powering hurts. Sure, maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing, but it hurts.”



• Fox^1’s micro management was freakin amazing. He got as much out of his troops as possible. I really learned something from watching him. Just when his Dragoon count fell, more reinforcements would come. I think if he had been able to penetrate Dr.Zchivago’s base and mess up some Probes, he might have been able to pull something…

After the game, I asked the players a few questions about their performance. Since I’m a nice guy, I retyped the conversation so that you wouldn’t have to load more images. The first ten minutes of the conversation consisted of:

“Where’d Fox^1 go?”

“Who can hear me?”

“Fucking bnet.”

“Tell Bane to relog”

“Does dref see me?”

etc etc etc…

When we finally found each other, the four players were more than willing to answer my queries.

Spuzz: What do you think you did best as a team? Worst?

E-Minor: 2 man economy > 1 man economy

Fox^1’s: 2man macro > 1 man macro

E-Minor: Beating down Bane early
that’s what we did best

Bane{Hero}:Umm, I don’t think me and Fox count in this one
we didn’t work as a team cuz I wan’t there =]

Dr. Zchivago: Uh, we attacked Bane together well as best
and worst was not being in synch on Fox
but that was partly Fox’s fault
=P

E-Minor: Then me, losing all those lings before I had speed upgrade.

Fox^1’s: I didn’t kill both players after losing my partner
that was the worst
I don’t have a best
cause I lost
we lost

E-Minor: Fox, your goon micro was very good

Fox^1’s: BAH
not good enough

E-Minor: But your zealot micro was very bad

Fox^1’s: =[
eat my shorts

Spuzz: Was communication adequate?

E-Minor: Yeah, Dr.Z. said, kill zerg, and I said, ok, sending lings

Dr. Zchivago: Heheh

E-Minor: or something

Bane{Hero}: hehe

Fox^1’s: 1 sunken and lings =[
DOH

Bane{Hero}: I for some reason thought it was island for a while

Fox^1’s: bah

Spuzz: What was the turning point of the game? Like I need to ask.

Bane{Hero}: hehe

Fox^1’s: Should have attacked me!!!!!!!

Dr. Zchivago: We thought one was terran and didn’t think early kill was possible

E-Minor: And then Fox attacked with a bunch of Goons and I didn’t say shit out loud…I’m sorry Dr.Z, I shoulda said shit out loud

At this point, Bane{Hero} was sucked into the remorseless pit of despair that is Battle.net. A server split engulfed him into an endless oblivion. May he rest in peace. :(