Welcome to the newest LinG production. This time I've gone back to "Old School" reporting. I wanted a tight game fought by gosu players, but since I'm not best friends with either [o]Mr.X or [GG99]Slayer my only option were the vast replays banks on the net. My apologizes to anyone who has already seen the replay, I guess that's just the risk you take when reporting a replay.
Enough chitchat, lets meet the players.

The Players:
Our first contestant for tonight's game is the ever popular Grrrr... He's probably the most respected player ever, and everybody knows him. Although he has won everything there is to win, the time he spends on the game is nowhere near as much as the Korean gosus. Still, he plays a fantastic game of protoss and will stomp all over most players.
The man facing the legend... Tactics... And for those of you who were wondering, those dots are a part of his name =( Except the fact that he has the same amount of dots after his name as Grrrr... I must admit my knowledge of him is little to none. All I know is that he plays protoss. (gogo research)

The Map:
Little surprise here, the battle was fought on "The new LT" with all minerals fixed, and natural positioned more "fair". Also the 6 O'clock spot had its gas moved to the west side of the nexus, making troop and peon movement much easier. The pro's prefer this map, but personally I think there ain't nuthin like the original ;-] Grrrr starts at 6 with chosen protoss while Tactics gets his own chosen toss at the 3 O'clock position.

Sum-up:

Grrrr does a pretty foolproof build, with the mandatory pylon at 8 and gates at 11 and 12 respectively. He continually adds pylons without stopping probe production, and is able to build a strong economy while having a few zealots ready to defend a rush.
Tactics is trying to catch his opponent off guard with a dual gate mass zeal strat. The whole point behind this (element of surprise) goes down the drain as Grrrr's scouting probe manages to stay clear of danger inside the base for several minutes and knows everything he is doing :(

Four minutes into the game and both players have started their gas gathering, with Grrrr being 30 seconds ahead. Only Grrrr is building a cycore at this time, but Tactics will follow soon. Even though his opponent knew his rushy build, Tactics decides to go ahead with his attack. His first three zealots speed their way to the 6 O'clock position. Upon arrival Grrrr only has two zealots of his own, and dance The Funky Toss Dance with Tactics while new units are being warped in. Tactics doesn't send his own reinforcements and he is forced to retreat as a goon and zealot pop out and chase them away.

Seeing how a rush isn't possible, Tactics starts his own cybercore. Now the builds begin to diverge, While Grrrr is going for the "usual" robofac tech, Tactics concentrates on the Templar route, while adding a forge and starting 1+ attack at the same time. Grrrr begins his observer tech and adds his own forge, choosing the same upgrade as his counterpart.

Two newly recruited dark templars are immediately sent towards Grrrr, but at that exact time, he receives his first observer, effectively killing one of the dark assassins and chasing the other off. In an amazing stroke of luck, this dark Templar stumbles upon a purple probe heading for the 9 main, follows it and kills it as the probe starts warping in a nexus. That's one less exp for Grrrr =]

Thinking Tactics had been slowed down by his costly tech (and indeed he was), Grrrr throws his force right up Tactics ramp. The numbers are heavily stacked in Grrrr's favor, with almost twice as many goons and an equal amount of zealots. Still, the high ground advantage plays a big part and with Tactics new speedy zealots blocking the ramp, Grrrr decides its not worth it.

Instead he falls back and takes his time to expand to his natural, placing several cannons for defense.Tactics proceeds to use Grrrr's failed attack to his advantage. He produces constant troops from three gateways, and before long, he equals Grrrr in unit count, and even control a few storm ready templars!
After a quick scout reveals the opponents new expansion, Tactics knows the time is ripe. Meanwhile, Grrrr positions his men a bit west of his mineral only, preparing to flank the awaited attack. Unfortunately, Tactics steers his army straight for that exact place, and faces Grrrr without having to deal with his numerous cannons. Two very precise storms immediately chops the shields off ten goons and Tactics' forces are able to cut them down easily. Grrrr retreats what he can to the relative safety of his cannons, but Tactics follows close behind, unleashing another storm on a pack of goons who stumble about in the tight valley. Hard fighting ensues, but eventually, new recruits and a massive cannon wall manages to halt Tactics' advance, and lets Grrrr tech to his own templars.

With his attack failing, Tactics decided to expand to his natural instead, while also adding a few more cannons on his already well-defended cliff. Moments later though, a single DT comes marching in, stops a warping cannon and trashes the expansion nexus before Tactics can summon his first observer. This DT proceeds to scout the map along with Tactics own DT.

Both players had a shuttle out by this time, and decided to drop eachothers cliffs at the exact same time. The two ships met up somewhere north of Grrrr's natural, and follows along nicely to Grrrr's cliff. While Tactics dropped two dragoons, a zealot and Templar came out of Grrrr's shuttle. A minor battle ensued on the cliff with Grrrr letting go of a well-placed storm to gain the victory. Just a few moments later, he dropped two templars on Tactics cliff, killing about twenty probes. Very sexy move by Grrrr since that natural was the only income Tactics had by now.

Grrrr knew he had done severe damage to his opponents economy, and consolidated his position by expanding to his mineral only. Moments later, Tactics tried a storm drop of his own, but a geniously placed pylon on his cliff gave Grrrr a few extra seconds to get his probes away, thus minimizing damage.

With Grrrr leading the mineral race, he was able to macro his little Canadian ass off, resulting in the setting below.

Even though Grrrr has exceptional hide-and-seek skills, his opponent doesn't come looking. Alas, Grrrr makes the offensive move by moving his men towards the middle. Without any recon at all, Tactics tries to regain control of the middle, not knowing Grrrr's army was already there, this leads to a confusing battle where most of Tactics' men move towards 12, north of one of the walls, while other parts of his army gets caught up in battles in front of his natural, and complete chaos ensues. Both players control five or so templars, and put them to good use, storming from behind the walls. Part of Grrrr's army move around the northern wall, and surrounds the poor orange troops, leading to swift death amongst Tactics' brave warriors, ending the skirmish in Grrrr's favor.
Sound confusing? Just look at the picture.

The battle is won with Grrrr still having about 20 units. Together with new reinforcements, they trample over Tactics base like a Hand Of God (tm) versus a dung beetle.

GG :-D

-ZerG~LinG