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Introduction

This report is on the second match between X’Ds~Grrrr… and October for the i2e2 SC.org championship. Both players had fought their way through a field of excellent competitors to reach this point. $2.5k in USD was on the line. These players had faced each other once before for a Korean championship where the first prize was ten times that amount, and October had come out ahead. Grrrr had expressed his satisfaction that he would get another shot at October in competition, this time on standard Blizzard maps. The first match had been won by Grrrr, on his chosen map of Polaris Prime. This left the map selection in October’s hands for this match, and he chose Lost Temple:

October chose to play as aqua zerg, starting in the right. Grrrr went random and drew yellow protoss in the bottom. Due to the large number of observers, YourRoleModel chose red terran and then floated his command center and destroyed his SCVs to prevent interference in the match.Grrrr gave a few directions to the observers about what not to do =].

Bring it on!

October started with a build order designed to allow him early offensive capability, choosing to make a spawning pool, then an overlord, followed by a second hatchery. As soon as the spawning pool finished forming, October created four zerglings, quickly followed by two more as soon as larvae were available. Grrrr chose to go with a standard protoss build, dual gateways, feeling safe from the early threat of a six pool by his choice of random. His initial scouting probe was a little later than usual, keeping his race a secret from his opponent as long as possible.

When the scouting probe approached the entrance to October’s base, the first four zerglings turned around from their scouting mission and followed it back to the entrance, stopping at the choke to the zerg natural to block it in. Intent on denying Grrrr the chance to examine his base, October positioned his next two zerglings blocking the ramp. Grrrr attempted to bait the zerglings with a hit and run, and successfully got both of them to follow the probe, but before he could maneuver the probe up the ramp another four zerglings moving from October’s main joined the party and no amount of maneuvering could save the probe. Still, the amount of zerglings told Grrrr that his opponent was using all his larvae in making zerglings, hoping for a quick victory rather than preparing for a power game.

October commenced his initial assault on Grrrr’s base with his ten zerglings, expanding to his natural just as his troops reached the protoss base. Grrrr had three zealots to defend with, but didn’t manage to defend his ramp in time, being caught with his zealots slightly out of position. After a moment of skirmishing which left two zerglings dead, and a zealot heavily wounded, Grrrr realized he wasn’t going to be able to defend cost effectively and withdrew his zealots back towards his gateways, pulling three probes off mineral gathering to help his zealots defend. October used the superior speed of his troops to circle around the defending zealots and attack straight into the working probes. Unfortunately for him, you don’t want to put zerglings up against probes microed by Grrrr. Two probes died before the rest of the probes managed to dispatch the threat with the help of the late arriving zealots.

Reprisal

October wasn’t going to let himself be set back by the loss of a few zerglings. He placed his fourth hatch at the entrance to his natural, preparing himself for some serious macro once it came online. Grrrr took this time to make his move. He had been continually making zealots from both gateways, and he had not lost any during the first fight.

This let him attack with a force of six zealots less than a minute after he had held off October’s attack. October initially had six zerglings in position to counter the zealots, but a 1:1 zergling to zealot ratio isn’t going to win the zerg player any fights. After losing two zerglings he withdrew the remainder to the drones working at the natural. Six more zerglings came down the ramp to play, and the four at the natural along with three drones attacked in a perfectly timed maneuver to simultaneously hit the zealots. This force was enough to kill one of the zealots, but two more zealots ran in to reinforce as the battle was joined. Grrrr finished the opposing forces with no more losses and began to demolish the hatchery at the natural. One more zealot rolled into the party as two zerglings attacked in a futile effort to buy time, but the fight for the zerg natural was over. Grrrr’s zealots finished demolishing the natural’s hatcheries with no more interference.

The initiative had moved firmly into Grrrr’s control. He moved his forces up the zerg ramp when he had ten zealots, and grouped them into an attacking formation. October met this assault with fourteen zerglings as he tried to morph two creep colonies into sunkens. The forces played tag for a bit, neither side wishing to be decisively engaged. October needed to buy time for his sunkens to come on line, and Grrrr didn’t want to be caught at ground zero when the sunkens did come on line. Back at his main Grrrr warped in a cybernetics core, and a pylon at the zerg natural as well as one above the ramp. Both sides were content to wait for a bit as October built up his zergling forces and proceeded to get a lair. Grrrr began the reaver tech tree at his main. Grrrr also warped in a shield battery at the pylon in the zerg natural.

Is this “zergling blood 4.73”?

Grrrr finally made his move when he had fourteen zealots available. October had twenty zerglings and three sunken colonies to defend. When the protoss forces hit, October quickly pulled his twelve drones off of mining and used them in conjunction with his conventional troops. Only one zealot had fallen when the first sunken colony went down, and nine zerglings had been destroyed. The fight continued with the sunkens finally taking their toll on the zealots. With a few zealots dying in quick succession the zerg defenders regained a parity of force only four zealots were left when the second sunken died, facing five zerglings and six drones. Grrrr, rather than waste his forces on a battle they would not be cost effective in, withdrew his three remaining zealots to the shield battery he had created and replenished their shields. Both forces received reinforcements a few seconds later, Grrrr’s forces having been on the move from his base. October destroyed the pylon on top of the ramp with nine zerglings, but ran them back to his base rather than face the five zealots Grrrr countered with.

October knew he was in desperate condition. The only thing that could save him was taking a large risk, and he did so. Rather than produce more zerglings to try and win a nearly hopeless ground battle, he stopped zergling production, counting on his sunken to keep him safe from the zealot threat for a moment, and began a spire. Grrrr was not being shy about tech himself, his robotics support bay was warped in, and a shuttle already in the air. Almost as if he could read his opponent’s mind, Grrrr had begun the production of dragoons in favor of zealots just before the spire started morphing. The first two dragoons got a bonus that October could ill afford to give up, killing an overlord that had been keeping tabs on Grrrr’s troop movement by hovering above his natural. October brought his zerglings out to see if he could overwhelm the zealot force guarding the entrance to his main, only to find that Grrrr now had more zealots than he had zerglings. He wisely chose to retreat rather than engage.

Endgame

The game was nearing to a close. Grrrr’s reaver was loaded into the shuttle and ferried to the zerg main, where it started taking free shots at a newly morphed sunken. Once the first sunken was down to less than a twenty hit points, Grrrr pulled back the reaver to conserve scarabs and save a few minerals and let a dragoon finish it in one shot. The nine zerglings bravely engaged the nine zealots and four dragoons Grrrr was escorting his reaver with, but they fell pretty short of the mark as you can imagine, especially after a scarab got lobbed in the middle of them. October’s first muta hatched just after he exchanged “GG’s” with Grrrr and exited the match.

With the results of this match, Grrrr won the $2.5k for the SC.org 1v1 invitational championship first prize! Congratulations to Grrrr on his victory and to both Grrrr and October for being such great sportsmen and having a hard fought game. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoyed the report! =]

Mark4