Just Who is Jamellan?
Of all the reporters who have graced this site with their presence, Jamellan is truly an original. He's most famous for his ability to make Starcraft screenshots absurdly funny by drawing on them with MS Paint. However, his presence at this site has been consistently hilarious no matter what he's tried. So tonight we find out what makes Jamellan tick and more importantly, can he win in his Rook's Corner battlereport?
I Know What You Did Last Night
Well, the first thing I had to do was find Jamellan a worthy opponent. It was early evening in Nohunters Land and not many people were online. Yet I needed to find a well known BR.com regular in order to give credence to Jamellan's Starcraft skills.
A player named Apathy started asking for a 1vs1 and I  asked Jamellan if this player would be acceptable. He decided to give it a shot. However, once the game was created, Apathy said that his pizza had arrived and asked to obs. I promptly booted him. I then Whois'd the channel and who should show up on the list but The..Scarab, a loud, sometimes incoherent reporter / commenter / forum regular. I vaguely remembered him beating me once and quickly messaged him to join the game. After a quick explanation of what was going on, I started the game. The map was Rivalry, a notorious "Lost Temple" clone of Jamellan's choosing.
Jamellan ends up with Terran while Scarab draws Protoss. Both players start with conservative builds going with 2 barracks and 2 gateways respectively. As the game progresses, the players chatter about game speed and other issues.
Opening Moves
Both players scout each other relatively early. Scarab's probe tries to kill the SCV building Jamellan's second barracks, but Jamellan manages to chase off the probe with an SCV and a marine from his first barracks.
Meanwhile, Jamellan's SCV finds Scarab's budding protoss base and he expresses his displeasure with the snake eyes that the dice of fate have rolled him.
The two peons make themselves comfortable at the bottoms of their opponents ramps. However, while Scarab's probe kicks back and plays tic-tac-toe with itself in the sand,  Jamellan's SCV shows just how productive he can be by starting a bunker in the valley below Scarab's main. As the SCV starts work on the bunker, Jamellan sends 3 marines down the ramp. 1 marine gets the duty of chasing the camping probe off to the south, while the other two marines head west towards the bunker. Scarab has two zealots on hold at the top of his ramp as if awaiting a mass zergling attack and the marines arrive at the bunker with no incident. Two more marines arrive on the scene shortly after the first two and Scarab chooses this moment to venture down the ramp. His zealots are greeted with lead from the marine encampment and their shields shimmer as they turn tail and run back the way they came.
Meanwhile, inside their mains, the player's techs of choice begin to slowly take shape. Scarab continues to produce zealots out of two gates while building a Cybernetics Core and a Robotic Facility. By the time the Robo Facility completes its warp, Scarab's zealot count is up to 8.
Meanwhile, I am puzzled at Jamellan's choice of strategy. He isn't teching very fast at all  and he elects to construct an Academy and an Engineering Bay while instructing his SCV to build a second bunker in the valley outside of Scarab's main. He sends more marines over to compliment this second addition.
And so, we have a stand off. 8 zealots at the top of the ramp, 8 marines with two bunkers at the bottom of the ramp. However, as all good Starcraft players know, in Starcraft, stand offs don't last. There is always some way to break through and Jamellan and Scarab both utilize the same basic strategy to do so. Range... in the form of reavers and tanks. Scarab is just a bit quicker though and his Robotics Support Bay is warping in at about the same time that Jamellan is starting construction on his Factory.
Moments later, the first key moment in the game arises. Scarab's first reaver pops out of his Robotics Facility while Jamellan's factory still has 165 hitpoints to go before completion. Jamellan's base defense consists of 6 marines and 2 medics at his ramp. His SCV line is defenseless. If Jamellan knew how dire his situation was at that moment, he very well may have sent up a prayer to the Happy God to save him.
Blaze of Glory
If Jamellan did pray to the "Happy God", his prayer was answered... at least, momentarily. Instead of launching an assault on Jamellan's main with a reaver and 2 zealots as I expected, Scarab elects to wait for a second reaver to come forth from his Robotics Facility. This not only gives Jamellan time to finish his factory, but he also gets the opportunity to erect a couple of very important defense structures.
By the time the second reaver warps in from Aiur, Jamellan's siege research has completed and his first tank has been produced from hard working factory employees. However, instead of setting up a base defense for the impending drop, Jamellan sends almost all his infantry and his only tank to the front where his two bunkers are situated. Only 2 marines and 2 firebats are left behind. As the orange stream of Jamellan's troops move westward across the land that separates the two mains, Scarab's shuttle flies to the northernmost section of the map where he plans to sneak into Jamellan's main over the water that separates the two bases. Let's take a look at the situation.
Turret placement doesn't get any better than that folks. But can those two turrets stop the certain doom that Scarab's shuttle contains? He flies the shuttle to the very top  edge of the map and then heads east toward Jamellan's main. As the shuttle nears the turret on the middle land mass, I at first thought that the shuttle would be out of range. But Scarab couldn't be so lucky and first 1, then 2, then 3, and finally 4 missles plant themselves directly into the shields of the defenseless shuttle. But Scarab bravely flies on, not hesitating for even a second. He feels confident now that he is out of range and his shieldless shuttle still has 63 hitpoints to spare. He adjusts his trajectory heading directly for Jamellan's SCV line.
I hope he was wearing a diaper when his shuttle ran smack into Jamellan's second turret because he must've pissed his pants when another barrage of surface-to-air missiles started smashing into his shuttle's hull. Yet, he shows good reflexes and veers his shuttle 180 degrees, moving it just out of turret range with only 25 hitpoints to spare. And now at last, it appeared that he would have his vindication.
But it was at that very moment that the two marines Jamellan had left behind for defense arrive on the scene stimmed and ready for action. Before either reaver has a chance to drop, a volley of bullets put the shuttle's already critical systems beyond the point of no return and it is shot down in a blaze of glory.
Scarab's reaction is predictable, but funny all the same.
Putting the Hurt On
And now that both of Scarab's reavers are dead, our hero Jamellan now is presented with the golden opportunity to come out triumphant in his Rook's Corner Report. He has 1 tank, 14 marines, and 2 medics sitting in the valley below Scarab's main base. His only obstacle is the 8 zealots standing guard at the top of the ramp.
 But Jamellan shows no fear and fires up his comsat station. The zealots standing guard look up in wonder at the pretty blue sparkles that appear over their heads. However, the wonder turns to rage as an acrlite shell lands in their midst blasting painfully at the shields that surround them.  Perhaps if they'd kept their tempers in check, they could have survived the terran assault, but instead, they charge down the ramp at the terran contingent in a blind fury.
They fought hard, but their only reward is a trip back to Aiur as Jamellan's troops lay waste to them without batting an eye. The two bunkers made all the difference and Jamellan's troops do not suffers very light casualties. There is nothing standing in the way of Jamellan's terran force now and he rolls up the ramp and sets up shop just outside Scarab's main.
Once up the ramp, there's no stopping Jamellan as a continuous stream of tanks and infantry are rallied to Scarab's main from his own. He methodically pushes through everything that Scarab throws at him including a couple of desparation DTs and 3 more reavers (one at a time).
Scarab is trapped inside his main with no escape route. Faced with the prospect of total annihilation, Scarab instead withdraws from the match leaving behind the crumbling remains of a once proud Protoss base and a victorious battlereporter named Jamellan.
The Scores
But wait, there's more!
A great game played by Jamellan, but it's not over. Check out Jamellan's thoughts on the game, his life, and battlereporting in general in an exclusive Rook's Corner Interview. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll ask for seconds and thirds.
Until next time,
Drefsab
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