[9]eVERLAST vs [Gi]Multifaith

[9]eVERLAST and [Gi]Multifaith, two Swedish top-notch StarCraft players, met on this fateful day(November 29th, 1999) to determine which one of them would advance to the next round of the i2e2 1v1 series tournament. Money and fame were the ultimate prize, and both knew that coming in second wouldn't be good enough.

After some initial troubles with map selection, I had to make a ruling on which maps would be played since there had been confusion on whether or not they would be allowed to choose maps. I decided that both players had intended no harm in missing their map selection deadlines, and confirmation from Hone seemed to enforce my ruling. The first map choice went to [Gi]Multifaith, who chose Dire Straights.

Prior to the game beginning, both players left their races as random. Multifaith left it as such, and drew Zerg in the lower right hand corner of the island map. [9]eVERLAST switched his random to Protoss at the last second, and started at the lower left hand corner.

[9]eVERLAST opted for a quick gas build, going pylon / assimilator / gateway / core, obviously he was teching up to something, most probably one or both of the Protoss island dominators; the Reaver and the Corsair. Indeed, [9]eVERLAST soon began warping in a Stargate, and the Robotics Facility with a complementary Robotics Support Bay were not far behind.

[Gi]Multifaith chose to go with an unorthodox early gas build, starting extractor / overlord / spawning pool / lair upgrade / 2nd hatchery. He was teching fast and hard, and rightfully so; he knew [9]eVERLAST was Protoss, and as Zerg he had to quickly tech to attempt to thwart the inevitable Corsairs that would be arriving shortly. He wisely chose to keep his overlords in his base rather than use them to scout, as he knew that [9]eVERLAST did not know what race he had received. I thought this was worth mentioning if only to show the amount of decisions top players make during something as seemingly simple as a 1 on 1 match.

[9]eVERLAST's first corsair found [Gi]Multifaith quickly, and managed to kill an overlord prior to being forced to retreat by a newly evolved spore colony. [Gi]Multifaith's Spire soon finished, and he began making Mutalisks with a few scourges for support. Soon the first battle of the game would begin, and end almost as abruptly.

[Gi]Multifaith sent approximately 6 Mutalisks to [9]eVERLAST's main, and using his scourges to intimidate the fewer Corsairs, he managed to down the shuttle that had been hovering ominously above the nexus. Score 1 for [Gi]Multifaith. However, having used his scourges to kill the shuttle, [Gi]Multifaith's Mutalisks were now easy pickings for the Corsairs that were quickly approaching them, and [Gi]Multifaith wisely decided to retreat, content to having destroyed a Shuttle.

Both players continued to produce air units, [9]eVERLAST pumping Corsairs and amassing about 6 or 7 of them, [Gi]Multifaith making approximately 10 Mutalisks and a few Scourges before the second battle would begin. [9]eVERLAST had managed to build another Shuttle, and had dropped 3 probes on different island expansion spots; middle left, top left, and top right. The middle left probe began to warp in a Nexus whilst the other 2 probes hid behind the mineral lines in order to avoid any passing recon units that might have appeared. [Gi]Multifaith had also researched Ventral Sacs for his Overlords, and sent one to the middle right expansion with a drone in its' belly whilst he prepared to scout out for any similar expansion attempts by [9]eVERLAST.

And find one he did! The battle was one of furious micro-management, with Mutalisks splitting apart to draw Corsair fire away from the group(thus avoiding splash damage), Scourges pounding into Corsairs, and Corsairs relentlessly firing ultra-fast bursts of whatever it is they shoot. The battle left both players' air fleets badly damaged. All that remained was this;

After the battle was over, [9]eVERLAST chose to expand again using his sneaky probes on the 2 top corner islands. He chose a rather unorthodox method of building his bases there, looky here;

At this point it appeared as if [9]eVERLAST had the upper hand. He controlled 4 bases to [Gi]Multifaith's 1 base, and 1 fledgling hatchery(which was quickly noticed by Corsairs, and a Reaver/Dragoon drop destroyed it shortly thereafter). However, the consequences of expanding multiple times without making adequate units would soon catch up with [9]eVERLAST...here is the current game status;

As if reading my thoughts of "why isn't [Gi]Multifaith attacking", he does. He had abandoned the production of Mutalisks and Scourges, realizing that inferior numbers of Corsairs still packed a larger punch, and that any air would be quickly slaughtered. Instead, [Gi]Multifaith had opted to research speed for his Overlords, and had begun producing Hydralisks and Zerglings instead. Soon enough, he had enough to hurt [9]eVERLAST, and using first 3 then 2 overlords, ferried units over the lower right hand corner of [9]eVERLAST's main island, hoping to remain out of sight. Unfortunately he was caught prematurely by [9]eVERLAST's patrolling Corsairs, who managed to down one Overlord prior to retreating from the growing mass of Hydras stationed on his island.

The attack looked damaging, but in reality the damage inflicted was minor and everything that was destroyed was quickly rebuilt. Nonetheless the Hydras managed to overpower [9]eVERLAST for a few moments, and it looked as if [Gi]Multifaith was back in the game.

Using the momentum of the attack to put himself back on par with [9]eVERLAST in resources, [Gi]Multifaith expanded to the double-mineral island to the left of his previously destroyed expansion. He also found [9]eVERLAST's top right hand expansion before it had adequate defenses, and destroyed it before [9]eVERLAST had properly recovered from [Gi]Multifaith's attack to his main.

[Gi]Multifaith's good fortune would end there(for the time being), as [9]eVERLAST had been spending his time building an impressive air fleet of Corsairs and Scouts, and a drop force of 3-4 Reavers and several Dragoons. This force would soon hit [Gi]Multifaith's relatively undefended main base.

[Gi]Multifaith decided that his main was a lost cause, and preparing for its loss he rebuilt his Spawning pool and Hydra den at his expansion, whilst sending an Overlord carrying a few drones to expand twice more; once on the second double-mineral island directly to the left of his current "main", and once to the small island to the SE of [9]eVERLAST's upper left hand expansion(which [Gi]Multifaith had yet to discover). [9]eVERLAST also expanded again, this time to the small island to the right of his main. Here is what it looked like;