"Psistorm is out there. Take precautions"
-Heartcutter
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| A smackdown from two greats | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 09/19/99 10:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 9, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Silent Strike: 6.7143 |   | The Pregame
I just finished losing a Case's ladder match to a skilled player by the name of Drake. I was minding my own business, trying to find another case's ladder opponent when I get a private message from Drake.
"You want to ally with me vs Crexis?" He asks.
"Sure" I reply.
"Ok, go join in IPX" he says.
I go and join game Crexis.
The Lost Temple
Silent Strike: random Terran top
Drake: random Zerg left
strat (Stratus): Protoss right
Crexis: random Terran bottom
"Let's bunker Crexis and then rush Stratus" Drake says.
Sure I reply.
I go with a 3 rax before gas build, good for getting a LOT of marines and good in teams. This lets the flimsy marines get free hits behind more durable units.
My order (all numbers are supply, when a rax finishes pump marines from it non-stop)
8 depot
11 rax
13 rax
14 depot
18 rax
22 depot
~25 refinery
Drake scouts with n overlord to see a Terran building and quickly retreats. I take a look at Drake's base to see him 9 pooling.
But what is this? 3 probes and 3 SCVs come to attack Drake, who has about 9 drones. Drake's unit control is up to par, as he forms to creep colonies and first attacks the probes and then the SCVs. This works fairly well because the SCVs won't respond to Crexis' probes taking damage. His pool didn't finish, so he couldn't morph sunkens and would have probably been better off without the creep colonies.
I send my only marine and an SCV down to Crexis' ramp, and offensive bunker him. Luckily, the bunker completed and gave me enough time to get another 2 marines into the bunker before Crexis charged the bunker with about 8 marines. I repaired the bunker with an SCV, and his marines starting melting into a pool of blood, one by one. He attacks the repairing SCV, kills it, and then realizes he is lost a lot of marines and retreats before they are all gone. In hindsight, I probably could have done some pretty good damage to Crexis, as I had 6 marines down at his ramp shortly after I knew he was down to 3. I probably could have ran my marines behind his mineral line and held position, killing many SCVs.
Oh well, a mistake is a mistake, but making mistakes isn't something you can afford to do a lot of when playing against players of this caliber. The next move is made by the Canadians. Stratus either did not set his chat to allies, or did the following just to "intimadate" us.
"3"
"2"
"1"
"GO!" says stratus, just before my full bunker and 4 free standing marines die in a failed attempt to hold Crexis ramp. Status' 6 zealots coupled with nearly a dozen marines from Crexis was simply too much.
I finish an academy at home, and put up a 4th barracks. Tech blows.
"You attack Status, I'll try to stop Crexis from sending help" says Drake.
This is where Status shows just how damn good he is. I have about 8 marines, 2 firebats, and 4 medics, and Status uses a loose zealot formation at his ramp. I charge first with my firebats, though with only 2 they do no major damage to the ~6 zealots on his ramp. As the marines try to follow, the zealots close the gap and cause pathing troubles for the marines.
Now, as Drake sends to zerglings to help, he immediately closes his ramp with zealots, instead of the loose formation that troubles ranged attacks, this closes formation isolates 1 on 1 matchups between zerglings and zealots. After the zerglings retreat, Status reverts back to the loose marine choking zealot formation. I charge and am forced to retreat once more. God damn Status you mean bastard, be human please!
I expand to my natural, put up a factory, a command center, and a 5th barracks at my main, while resetting my rallies to the path below my path as opposed to my ramp. I then scan Stratus to see a templar archives warping.
"OVERLORD NOW!!!" I tell (more like command eh?) Drake.
His slow overlord truts it's slow self to my the path to my base, but makes it before Stratus attacks with DTs.
Stratus attacks me with goons and templar. I see the templar incoming, and retreat all my infantry to my 2nd command center, hoping that his templar would storm a now empty area. No luck, I lose about half a dozen infantry to a storm, and another half a dozen infantry to another storm. I stim up and kill his goons with marines and medics.
It's all downhill from here. Crexis has set up 2 bunkers with turrets and tanks while Status attacked, and then they both doubled Drake. I still do not have siege, and so I am really vunerable now. However, they are "nice" and instead decide to attack Drake. He does his best with swarms of hydras, but cannot fend off the Canadian duo.
"gg" he says and then exits.
I hold off a massive attack of speedy zealots with a couple well placed matrixes on firebats and then die to a Crexan tank push.
"Good game" I say and then leave in Drake fashion.
Lessons learned
Don't delay tanks so much, they would have been invaulable in their ability to resist Crexis's push with my higher ground and saved many marines from templar.
There are good team strategies that I have yet to see. The "peon rush" is a good example.
Moral of the story
Stratus is just the man... I still can't believe how well he held off the double team.
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