Game 1

Introduction

Remember that short Zerg vs. Zerg [o]Mr.X had with =-psyduck-= ? Well =-psyduck-='s brother, the living legend :+:jolly:+:, had watched this and he didn't like what he saw. Needless to say, he was eager to fight for revenge! Ok...  don't take this seriously, :+:jolly:+: is cool he is not that type of guy, I made it up =[

Anyway the stage was set and I was once again the lucky observer that would tell the story...

Game started!

As ever the map was Lost Temple... :+:jolly:+: randomed and drew orange Protoss at 6, while [o]Mr.X started as teal Zerg at 3. Probably not happy with this situation, :+:jolly:+: tried to fool [o]Mr.X into thinking he was Terran. =]

[o]Mr.X initial build order - he morphed a Hatchery below his ramp at 12 control, then a Spawning Pool and an Extractor.

:+:jolly:+: started with a standard two gate opening. He sent his scouting probe counter clockwise so he found the Zerg base rather quickly and since [o]Mr.X saw his Probe, he immediately cancelled his Extractor and expanded to his natural afterwards.

Now :+:jolly:+: tried to put some pressure on, in order to force [o]Mr.X to stop powering and hatch some Zerglings instead . First he used his Probe to try to deny [o]Mr.X from building his expansion Hatchery, but the latter managed to build it after fooling the Probe with some Drone micro. Soon after :+:jolly:+:'s first Zealot arrived, but a Sunken Colony was already morphing, that's why the lonely warrior had to run away with the Probe following him.

Since [o]Mr.X saw the Zealot running away he decided to send his first 8 Zerglings to check out the Protoss base, but when they were in the middle of the map one of his Scouting Overlords finally made it to :+:jolly:+:'s natural and saw a bunch of Zealots that were gathering there, so the Zerglings made a quick U-turn and returned to 3's natural. Then [o]Mr.X built another Hatchery at the top of his ramp, so now he had 4 of them. As soon as :+:jolly:+: had 8 Zealots, he sent them northwards and started a Cybernetics Core. But since [o]Mr.X now had 2 Overlords at the Protoss base, he knew what was coming at him so he morphed two additional Sunken Colonies and ordered two Drones to join the defending Zerglings.

Yes, it was all in time. Those two Drones did a good job blocking the way of the Zealots and the new Sunkens came online, so :+:jolly:+: couldn't cause any damage and he lost a Zealot before running the rest away.

Now that all his efforts to stop the Zerg expand were unsuccessful, :+:jolly:+: used his Zealots to build a defense at his natural and he added two Cannons there as well while teching towards Templars.

He also killed one of [o]Mr.X's Overlords with his first Dragoon but the other Overlord remained close to the Protoss base and was used from time to time to check out what was going on there. Now it all calmed down a bit, with :+:jolly:+: setting up his own expand and [o]Mr.X building a 5-th Hatchery at his main and adding a Hydralisk Den. At the Protoss base a Templar Archives was finished and a third Gateway was added.

[o]Mr.X expanded to 12's natural, then he sent his first group of Hydras to the center of the map. :+:jolly:+: found that morphing Hatchery with a scouting Probe and seeing that, [o]Mr.X sent his Zerglings to kill the annoying scout. Then he proceeded to expand twice more to his mineral only and 12's mineral only!

This happened so fast... [o]Mr.X had four expands and a total of 8 Hatcheries already, compared to :+:jolly:+:'s single expand and 3 Gateways. It was time for :+:jolly:+: to do something, and he did... he sent a lone Dark Templar towards 12's natural, scaring away the Hydras that were sitting in the middle of the map. At home, :+:jolly:+: was building more Gateways now that his expand was online.

[o]Mr.X knew where the DT was going, so he immediately sent an Overlord north... it was a funny sight, the Overlord and the Dark Templar racing... The Overlord didn't have speed, but even if the DT arrived at 12's natural, all he could do before [o]Mr.X's Hydras and Overlord arrived was make the Hatchery bleed a bit... Then I felt kinda sorry about the poor cloaked guy, he was doomed because the Hydras were blocking his way, and he tried to hide as much as he could between the minerals but it was in vain indeed... =*[

Well at least :+:jolly:+: had seen [o]Mr.X expand at his mineral only, and he decided he had enough of it and he better act before the Zerg gets the whole map. He had 5 Gateways at that point and he was adding more whenever he had a surplus of minerals. So he moved out with 6-7 Dragoons, 8-9 Zealots and 2-3 High Templar. As he reached the center, 15 Hydras were waiting there. Now both started microing, first [o]Mr.X was able to dodge one or two storms without losing any Hydra, but then :+:jolly:+: placed two or three excellent storms that killed a mass of units... as the battle was going on, new Hydras were streaming across the map coming from 3 and 12 (they had just dealt with the DT at 12's natural, remember?).

(For best results hit refresh when you're done downloading everything)

It was amazing... and scary. The Hydras didn't bunch up as they usually do, [o]Mr.X was spreading them nicely and there were so many of them... They seemed to come from all directions and :+:jolly:+: couldn't do much about it. The Protoss forces were decimated, and 25(!) Hydra remained on the battlefield... [o]Mr.X didn't wait a lot for his reinforcements, he rather waited for 5 or so Hydras that were on the way to the center already and gathered his army in front of :+:jolly:+:'s natural. At home [o]Mr.X had just teched to lair and he was building a Queen's Nest. He didn't even have an Evolution Chamber, all the money he had he was investing in purely Hatcheries, Drones and more Hydras... :+:jolly:+: now had 7 Gateways but two weren't online yet. Well the 30 Hydras and some Zerglings charged into :+:jolly:+:'s natural and the 5 Zealots, 6 Dragoons, 2 Cannons and one lonely High Templar that were waiting there were no match for such numbers...

Time for the Scores... Notice the kill ratio, usually Zerg lose more units than Protoss even when they win, but that was not the case this time around... Looking at the resources as well, I think this was a game that [o]Mr.X was planning to decide by macro, but actually his great tactics and micro in the decisive battle ended it before all his expands were really working...

Lessons learned:

1. When you're playing [o]Mr.X and you see him expanding all over the place, that doesn't mean he has no army...

2. As Zerg vs. Protoss, try to keep your army spread out in the center of the map. That's where it belongs.

3. Zerg must micro too... dodge Psi Storms, spread your units, use every known trick do defend your early expand...

Observing [o]Mr.X and :+:jolly:+: play = 100 lessons learned and I'm too lazy as you know, so I'll stop now.

Game 2

BREEZE