Two Terrans Are Better Than One

Hi and welcome to my first BR, it was going to be my second but I got pressured into it by one of the players. The game was played on Sunday 18th, so I'm sorry it is released a little late, but I have no access to a computer on weeknights, except at work. I will try to write more and better ones in the future, my next is of a far better game, so please comment with tips and stuff but no flames thanx because they help NO-ONE at all! I’ve tried to make this report good even if the pictures don’t load, so please read on and enjoy.

I was in ~nohunters on the god-awful end of one of those server splits, the bane of my online-gaming life (or maybe NH was just empty), when ‘Final’Flare’ started spamming the remnants of the channel (5 of us) for a 2v2. I liked the looks of this, so asked to obs, and maybe BR it. I have played ‘Final’Flare’ before and he is ALWAYS going on about how he wants to be the star of a gosu BR (so why ask me?!?). So he went off on one insisting that I BR the game, which I was more than happy to do. We got on the map load up screen and I saw that one of the contestants didn’t have the map, so I ‘alt-tab’ed out and cleaned out my screen shots from the last time, and then I re-opened B.net. I was pleasantly surprised to see no other than CattleBruiser (not ~CattleBruiser~), Prodigy–X17 and -Knocks all jacked up and good to go, Let the game commence, keep it clean, no punches below the knees!!

Have I BR’ed before, hahahahahaha……… well, no actually, ah well =P

The map was Lost Temple, here’s a mini-map for the non-existent proportion of you who are asking "lost what… where did u lose it" WELL IF I KNEW WHERE I LOST IT, THEN IT WOULDN’T BE LOST…. FOOL! Erm….. Sorry.

Around this time the game starts, and ‘Final’Flare’ doesn’t cease to let it be known that he wants to be BR’d so I oblige him by noting the early build orders/strats. I was so busy getting the names written correctly that these may not be precise, (also I don’t know who randomed etc) but here goes:

Team Terran:

‘Final’Flare’ received the red Terran Dominion at the 9:00 position, and went for a 1-rax academy rush with a standard wall-in, then gas. He then went on to put a bunker IN his mineral line (not by it, IN it), I know, its weird but it could rule the world. He then went on to make numerous claims throughout the game about how he was going for wraiths, but I don't remember seeing one for the entire game (sorry if I'm wrong). His partner, -Knocks also received a Terran faction, this time a purple one at the 6:00 position (btw, purple is gosu and always wins), and went for a 2-rax at the mineral line, then gas and a bunker at the top of he ramp. Despite him being purple, I have decided that violet stands out better against a black background, This is for clarity purposes only, and is not a suggestion that -Knocks is any less of a men then the other contestants (although, he/she could have been a lady for all I know). Notice that both mains cover each other a bit so as to make mineral line harassment and drops a little awkward, a turret on each side of the chasm can effectively halt drops. Both went for early M+M before factory.

Team Terg:

On the far side of the Lost Temple, CattleBruiser ALSO received a Terran legion (well, 4 SCV’s and a cc, but hey), this one being blue at the 3:00 position, but I feel that this may be the Earth Directorate, or some cow beating faction at least. He went for the good old wall-in at his ramp BUT he used a depot and 2 rax…...! WTF?, someone do a normal wall-in plz. OK, well this is aggressive (lots of guys quicker), but also alerts your opponents to your unit choice (1 rax keeps them guessing). He then goes mad and adds ANOTHER rax and a small library with a pub downstairs behind the wall-in. Then he swears a bit when scouting reveals that he is vs a double Terran team (he does, honestly), and techs towards drop ships. Finally, his partner in the 12:00 position is Prodigy–X17. He was gifted with…… YES, not Terran, but he got thrown in at the deep end in an attempt to control the ravenous and smelly Zerg hoards at the top of he temple. His colour was white, but to make it stand out I’ve put his name in yellow in the text. These must have been out of Kerrigan’s control as she would never have teamed up with the Earth Directorate (or did she?), so we can credit all their actions to Prodigy–X17, and not that freaky woman who ::Slipknot:: (I think) claimed was hot a few days before. He went with an overlord at 8 or 9 and then a hatchery below his ramp to protect both his main and natural once he knew his neighbour was his partner. He then pooled and expanded to his natural (power whoar, but what else can zerg do?), and got a gas at both his main and natural, and a few lings for defense.

I honestly think that choosing Zerg in a 2v2 is tantamount to suicide if all players are even, because you need 2x resources of your opponents to stay dangerous in mid-game, but you can only realistically expand twice, and only once safely! However, I am always zerg in 2v2 because I think they are cute, I like to make things hard on myself and I am a bit of a one race not-such-a-wonder… Not good, sorry!

Early scouting was fairly uneventful except that team Terg hid a unit each behind -Knocks's natural minerals, a zergling murdered a red marine in the 9:00 natural before being disposed of (just) by his brother, and an SCV welded "Deon wuz ere" into the morphing hatchery below the 12:00 ramp. CattleBruiser and -Knocks added academys (academies?) and a factory each, Prodigy–X17 morphed a Hydra den and ‘Final’Flare’ added a factory and, err, some supply depots, and got M+M (medics own). All 3 Terrans added an engineering bay, and CattleBruiser got really paranoid of the 4-minute drop/wraiths and put 2 missile turrets above his mineral line (although ‘Final’Flare’ was teching to wraiths, he didn’t even have a starport yet).

Eventually, team Terran decided to meet in the middle for an attack, and grouped a lot of M+M and some, but their build-up was seen by a zurgling, who sacrificed his life to alert his cerebrate to the threat (noble little insect). This scared the hell out of Prodigy–X17, who proceeded to assume by their movement that they were coming for him, and not his partner. He started pumping all the units he could in a mad, frantic…er… frantic mad thing. He also adds another hatch around now. CattleBruiser has his drop-ships, and ferries 3-worth of M+M to his partners defences, which consist of hydras, sunkens and lings (and some creep….. very gooey). The strange thing is that I don’t think that team Terran had decided on their victim yet, although we all know that Terran infantry own zerg pretty hard so It was the obvious choice. However, had they hit CattleBruiser, they may have done considerably more damage with all his troops away from home! Scout more plz.

The meeting in the middle gave too much time for their opponents to prepare though, and when the order to charge began, the tanks led the way and promptly died very quickly (despite seiging). They were followed by the M+M of team Terran, the micro was severely lacking, or so it seemed. One of CattleBruiser's tanks on his cliff also provided some serious firepower for the defences, which held firm in the end. The attackers never pulled out, even when victory was looking unlikely, but more wastefully, once the marines were dead, the medics (about 7 of them) were just left to be slaughtered, this is a waste of around 350 minerals and 125 gas….. do you guys have that much to spare? Basically, what won it for team Terg was good teamwork of medics healing hydralisks in the end, we all know that hydras own marines, but healed hydras own healed marines too, this worked out perfectly for the blues and yellows.

This attack was mostly troops from -Knocks who had 3 raxes pumping infantry and a factory, teching up to science vessels while ‘Final’Flare’ had 2 raxes, his factory and…well, some supply depots. This victory for team Terg leaves them with not too many units, but CattleBruiser is getting a drop ready and, with a lair now, Prodigy–X17 is evolving the lurker aspect. In the Zerg valley, there are about 10 eggs sitting on the soil… Lurkers anyone? He also decides that his money whoaring should allow him to be airborne, so he morphs a spire and a shed load of mutalisks. At this point, CattleBruiser has an armoury and is beginning to make more tanks, but the team Terran are still quite infantry based. (-Knocks has a few tanks, but spent cash on vessel tech). Finally, we see the blue drop-ships travelling towards the centre of the map, and then onwards towards the bottom left corner. -Knocks has just taken his natural and so has almost all his troops there, the nearest are those in that bunker of his. He has teched to science vessels, wisely too, anticipating the lurker threat, but is still pumping mostly infantry (lurker food).

‘Final’Flare’ has some M+M and a Command Centre ready to float to….erm, well, it’s in the bottom of his base, so maybe to the island in the bottom left. Sadly, there is no such island there, ah well, we’ll have to see where that one goes (I guess bottom right, but why build it there, or why expand to there?). Prodigy–X17 sends a bunch of lurkers, with muta support, to the middle of the map, and then towards the natural of -Knocks, well it looks like he is the target. CattleBruiser’s 3 drop-ships hover over to the COMPLETELY UNDEFENDED mineral line and unload, all their M+M and commit the most atrocious SCV-acide ever witnessed anywhere. The M+M from -Knocks’ natural run up the ramp to engage, and fare not too well (because they are in a line, running into a pack) and they also leave the natural open for 10 or so lurkers, mutas and hydralisks of Prodigy–X17 to commit natural-ecide (ok, I’ll stop now). They then begin to push up the ramp and -Knocks looks to be history as all his troops are pulled into the underground lairs of the mutated hydralisks, and eaten with ketchup and onion rings. The bunker on the ramp didn’t last long to the mutas and lurkers, and the base was left vulnerable as a result. There’s no point in being able to detect the lurkers if you have no troops to kill them with……=/

-Knocks makes a cry for his partner to help, who obliges by counter attacking the Zerg, as he figures that they must be weak around now, so I look over to the ‘Final’Flare’s natural to see this MASSIVE force of M+M going to kick some insect abdomen, and am truly shocked as I see that I can fit the whole bunch in 1 screen shot in line formation WTF??????

Clearly ‘Final’Flare’ is going to use super gosu micro to overrun the 3 sunkens and troops at the bottom of Prodigy–X17’s ramp, and pull his small band on to victory. I decide that he is a micro man, not a macro man. Well, his band charge into the Zerg defences and….. get massacred, with no micro and a lot of laughing from me, ok, so no micro then, and no macro either… well, this is weird. Here’s a look at that mystery CC in ‘Final’Flare’s base:

Prodigy–X17 then takes both his and CattleBruiser’s mineral onlys (CattleBruiser has a million SCV’s at his natural, so he doesn’t seem to mind) in average zerg power-whoar style. Eventually all that -Knocks has are some floating buildings in his partner’s base, and both of his opponents are massing lings, mutas, tanks and M+M outside of the natural that ‘Final’Flare’ still HASN’T taken (although he IS putting the machine shop on his factory), and they proceed to siege up and shoot at the M+M who are not on hold and who quickly run to their deaths (CPU AI owns =P).

Then the most hilarious act of defiance I have ever seen ever in my life ever (ever) occurred, as ‘Final’Flare’ stimmed up 2 marines in his Natural and sent them headlong into the tanks and M+M of CattleBruiser outside his natural He overran them all and knocked both of his opponents out in 3 minutes…. Either that or they didn’t even get within range before being squashed like….erm, marines. At this point CattleBruiser has +1 attacks for his tanks and marines, and Prodigy–X17 has +1 carepace for his ground units and has a flock of mutas (and a billion hydras/lings) ready to initiate the final assault, which results in GG’s being exchanged by all parties.

The tanks inside ‘Final’Flare’ main are not enough to stop the huge numbers of zerg and the firepower of opposing siege tanks, and despite inflicting fairly heave casualties on the attackers, it was over before it really began. The mutas got the tanks that killed the hydras that shot the marines that raped the lings that bloodied he soil that hosted the battle that team Terg won …….

Now as neither of team Terran wanted to quit until their last buildings were destroyed, there was at least 5 minutes of Prodigy–X17 expanding to all the resource nodes he could find, and massing troops (from his 15ish hatcheries) until he maxxed out which is a shame because A) I had to wait for ages to get the scores, and B) This really messed up the end-game scores from what they were when GG’s were exchanged. The game ended with a lot of good humour from all and MORE requests for me to BR the game, and some mutas killing flying command centres, GG all, thanx.

And now finally the (very distorted) scores:

Well, ‘Final’Flare’, you are now the star of a BR, but I feel that going AFK halfway through or whatever you did may not make you look as good as in the previous game that we played together, sorry, but…!

And now the most ignored bit of the report;

Lessons learned:

1. The first team to double-rush may not always win, you need to co-ordinate attacks carefully in early game.

2. Scout more, if team Terran had scouted before their first strike, they would have seen that CattleBruiser was a much easier target.

3. Don’t be AFK when being battle reported.

4. When attacking a team, try to attack from 2 sides, and attempt to cripple their strongest player (a counter-attack by -Knocks could have been devastating, whereas ‘Final’Flare’ had insufficient troops to pull it off.

5. Deploy troops sensibly around your base, (not all at the expansions).

6. Eat more Chinese food, it rules =P

7. American spelling in HTML commands (centre or center) is no thanx 8*(

8. Don’t try getting It on with the prettiest girl in school (her boyfriend will be the football team captain, and a BIG meathead at that!).

The Team-player award goes to CattleBruiser for his defence of the zurg main; in the channel after the game, Prodigy–X17 praised him for the help against the early double rush. He had powered too hard, and was lucky of his team-mate’s help. The unluckiest person award goes to -Knocks, who seemed a lot better than this report reflects. He followed a sensible tech build for a 2v2, but was caught off-guard, while he was expanding (do it while you attack!), by a well planned double-team. The power whoaring award obviously goes to Prodigy–X17 for his 39425 expansions =P I’m sorry for anything that I missed, and remember, the scores are highly biased towards team Terg, especially towards Prodigy–X17. Thanx 4 reading all, hope u enjoyed it; I tried to keep it brief and exciting, please comment constructively and have fun.

Ling-erie