Yet another BR attempt... sigh...

Idle as usual, I was looking for cool people to watch play or to play with in good ol' NoHunters, when Cathy enters the channel. Woohoo! She is followed shortly by ReKruL (Lurker backwards), and they start spamming the channel for a 2v2. Immediately I answer 'I watch!'. I watched 2 games with Cathy earlier today, so she appointed me the official observer of the game. (orky)~hilbs! aka HilbsTheZealot walked in with Zodi! and were also spamming for a game. Cathy hosted the i2e2 version of Lost Temple. She started booting all the other observers "observers have no rights", and i winced as I was afraid she would soon boot me. But, to my pleasure, she did not, so the countdown began and the game started.

Well, here I am, on the most overplayed NH map of all time... The Lost Temple... oh well. Considering the game was full of people I consider 'gosu', I decided to start taking notes for this BR.

Let's take a look at the players:

Cathy warped in as protoss at the 3:00 position as the color teal. I had heard Cathy was a good player before, but never had the chance to play with or against her. This had been the third game I had seen her play today, and she had seemed pretty good.

RekRuL , who shall be known as lurker throughout the report, is a regular in NoHunters. Great gamer. Comes in with brown zerg at 12:00.

Zodi! well, I'll be frank. I have no clue who this guy is. This is the first time I've seen him in NH. Hilbs seems to know him, says he's pretty good, and partners with him often. Eh, kinda shady. He comes in as red terran at 6:00.

Hilbs, one of the gayest people I know. Long time NoHunters regular. Also known as HilbsTheZealot. Have had the honor of playing and being beaten by him. Lands his CC of orange color at 9:00.

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Great, now that we're all familiar with each other, let's start with the build orders. Both terran double rax, and get slow gas. Cathy double gates and gets quick gas. She is aiming to tech to temps. Lurker gets hatch on ramp at 13, pool on 14, and quick gas for speed tech as well. Once the hatchery is up, he puts two sunkens for defense.

The two terrans get gas and start an academy about the same time as rek gets a hydra den and cathy gets a cyber core up.Cathy techs straight to templar archives, the natural defense against terrans, starts a 3rd gateway and gets scanned. Hilbs, whose academy finished about 30 seconds before Zodi's, wants to double team on Cathy. Zodi agrees but is delayed by his lack of a medic.

This gives Cathy time to get some templars to deal with the intruders. The first two things that pop out of Cathy's gateways are high temps, but Cathy doesn't have enough energy to fry as the double team from the two terrans, in the form of about 18 marines, 2 bats, and a few medics, comes. From the third gate, a templar of the darker kind appears, and swipes away at the unsuspecting infantry, stopping the rush with the help of a control group of Lurk's hydras, but not until Cathy's defending 3 zealots and about a 6-pack of peons are blown away. Whew, and I thought it was already over. Thank God Cathy proved me wrong.

Past the rush...

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During the early rush, Lurk finds it opportune to expand to his natural, and Zodi builds a command center on his ramp to float to his natural. Because of the threat of DTs, both terrans construct an engineering bay and put up a turret at their choke. Zodi also puts up 2 tanks on his ramp, and from the looks of it, is going for the Deep Six method. (For those unfamiliar with the term, Deep Six is a method used by terran when dealing with multiple races. It consists of a number of barracks, six usually, two factories, and a science facility with covert ops for nukes.)Thanks to Pha']['-man~pk for clarifying that for me =].

After a short build-up by the non-terrans, Lurk sets up a camp of zerg forces outside Hilbs's base, which still lacks tanks and a natural expansion. Cathy also takes her natural, leaving Hilbs the only one who hasn't taken it, which would prove costly later in the game. After seeing the encampment, Zodi bring some help to Hilbs, consisting of two tanks, and some assorted marines, medics, and firebats. Unfortunately for him, his troops were walking in the awesome straight line formation and ran straight into Cathy's zealots, which were also coming for a bit of the action. Hilbs's M&M&F army got rid of the zerg army with minimal losses due to the aid of higher ground, but not before Cathy lands a nice storm, sending several of Hilbs's forces to the death.



Lurk decides to test Zodi's defenses with a control group of hydras, but Zodi's tanks and infantry held them off easily with no losses. Zodi seems to control the metal of the two terrans, and Hilbs is using mainly infantry as his attack force. Lurk is using mainly hydras, and Cathy uses the combination of templars and zealots. Hilbs still hasn't taken his natural, which will definitely cost him.

Let's tech..

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All teams commence a large build-up. Lurk starts morphing a queen's nest and a spire as soon as speed upgrades for his overlords are done. He starts his hive once his nest is finished. The terran team decides to hit the zerg, mainly because they don't want to see him build up. Zodi, however, brings a dropship to Cathy's natural. He sets up two turrets, a bunker, and a tank to turbonewbie the natural.

How Annoying
In retaliation, Lurk sends his army of about 12 lurks and 25 hydras to Hilbs's base, but due to tanks on the ledge, a few scans, and some good micro, the zerg is forced to retreat. The terrans continue with their plan to hit the zerg however... Lurk proudly announces that he controls the sole unit that can destroy both terrans.

The two terrans meet in the middle just as the Greater Spire, which Lurk had been teching to, completes. He morphs his 6 mutas into guardians and they finish their metamorphosis just in the nick of time.

The terrans are overwhelmed by the guardians as well as adrenal'ed lings and hydras. Cathy also lands a few storms from her two templars overlooking her natural expansion. Both terrans, even with irradiate are no match for the Zerg Force.



During the battle (or perhaps I was too blind to notice it earlier), Hilbs FINALLY builds a command center at his natural, and Cathy also rids herself of that pesky cliffing. Although Hilbs has finally caught up to the others in getting his natural, about 5 minutes of economy is lost as Hilbs builds his command center at the last minute, leaving his SCVs with nothing to do but talk amongst themselves.

Another build up occurs, and everyone takes time to get their economy in check. Cathy and Hilbs get their naturals flowing, and Zodi floats a CC to the island while Lurk takes his mineral-only natural.

The two terrans decide to hit the toss this time, and meet at the Temple. However, they run smack-dab into Rek's troops which had been waiting there all the while. The terran's metal is taken down until Zodi's infantry finally walks in(Terrans aren't speed demons), leaving a pool of zerg blood by the temple. Not wanting to wait to be attacked, the two non-terrans decide to hit them at the temple. Cathy attacks with her zealots/goons/temps while Lurk uses his guards. Luckily for the terrans, Hilbs had been getting wraiths all this time and puts them to good use by destroying the guardians with the aid of irradiate. Cathy's well used storms and Lurk's guardians eventually halt the attack.



Are the non-Terrans going to attack?

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Seeing as their enemy grabbed his natural, Zodi decides to take his as well, and Hilbs, the late one as usual, grabs his last =P. There is another build up of forces, and Lurk decides to take the upper left isle, while Cathy drops 3 zealots and a DT at Zodi's isle, destroying his expansion, warping in a nexus soon after.



Hilbs's and Rek's forces met first in the offensive against the zerg. Hilbs moved in with tanks, wraiths, vultures, and an SCV for turrets. The zerg army, composing of lings, hydras, and guardians, mowed through the terran with little ease. Cloaked wraiths claimed the lives of a few guardians until an overlord came and the support hydras blew those paper planes from the sky.



The Non-Terrans now have both isles, Cathy fortifying hers with 3 cannons, and, being up in economy, decide to commit to their second attack of the game, Hilbs being the lucky victim once again. Zealots, goons, and templars from Cathy, and Guardians accompanied with Hydras and lings from Lurk approached Hilbs's natural expansion. Spider mines took out the speedy lings easily, and wraiths began taking the guardians out. The wraiths remained undetected through the entire battle, and along with irradiate from Zodi's 109029093490 or so SVs, the guardian threat was eliminated, duh. The wraiths began pecking away at Cathy's ground forces, doing close to nothing. All of a sudden, the clear ring of 'Nuclear Launch Detected' rang through my speakers. I quickly scanned the mini-map of red's ghost, a red dot on Cathy's natural's cliff. In 10 seconds, the natural was eliminated... over 30 peons lay dead... err.. explodified. The attack on Hilbs was going well, piercing his defense all the way to his natural, until Zodi finally got on the move to help his partner. The attack was repelled, but Lurk kept the pressure on. Another nuke ended Cathy's natural, but she returned fire by psi raiding Hilbs's natural. She compensates her lack of money by taking her mineral only natural. Lurk finally falls back, satisfied with the damage dealt to Hilbs.


Great irradiating Zodi

In with the late game...

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There is a long pause and another nuke hits, this time Cathy's isle, taking out all of her cannons. Lurk sends 4 mutas and kills Zodi's ghost, which, due to its cocky attitude, did not find it appropriate to cloak.

All players take another build-up, and Zodi decides to go all out infantry, sending a whole battalion of M&M to the temple, accompanied by a half-dozen SVs. They are met by Lurk's adrenal'ed lings and hydras. They easily beat them. Orange brings his assorted infantry along with some metal in the form of wraiths, goliaths and tanks. They first hit Cathy's mineral only natural, leaving her with only her island, which was still in the recovery phase of Zodi's nuke.



They left most of their metal behind and split into two groups of infantry, one hitting Lurk's main, and a significantly smaller one hitting his mineral-only natural. Lurk's mineral-only fell easily to stimmed marines, but the terran's attack on his main did not fare as well. The marines ran smack dab into 6 guardians. 30 seconds and two psi storms later, the pack was wasted. Lurk ran his remaining troops to save his mineral only, destroying the marines that remained there. Zodi sent some more troops accompanied by his once-idle metal to hit Lurk's forces, but they were beaten due to superior numbers. All players took a break to decide what to do. I got an Advil.



The End is Near...

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At this time, everyone was almost dry on money. The Non-Terrans had the isles only, and the Terrans only had their mineral only naturals. Zodi's mineral only was almost dry, and told Hilbs that he was nearly out of money. Cathy and Rek decide to put up a small offensive against Hilbs, but it is defended through the aid of Zodi. The terrans decide to attack the zerg again, their army consisting of mainly infantry. Cathy, however, announces that she only has gas, and has a large amount of gas. She lands a few successful storms and the attack is once again prevented.

Zodi is now officially out of money and he informs Hilbs of this. His SCVs hold a meeting and he decides he¡¦s going to have to use each unit cost-effectively.

Cathy believes that she has no money either, at least no minerals. But her once dormant natural and isle are put to use again. She has so much surplus that she goes on a templar rampage, and no, those aren't hallucinations.

Hilbs's economy is once again put at a halt when Cathy does a psi raid, ending the lives of all the SCVs working at his mineral only natural. The end is near for Hilbs when Lurk brings in adrenal lings to overtake Hilbs's metal, slowly yet effectively mowing him down till his base is destroyed, even with the help of Zodi.

Hilbs being eliminated, Zodi nukes Cathy's isle, this time cloaking the ghost, and takes the isle, his only source of money. He then remarked "I nuked him", which I corrected by telling him she was a she. He then replied:

A quick drop on the isle puts Zodi at a standstill, and he can do nothing but watch himself die. GG's are exchanged, and all remark that the game was one of the best they've played. And now, for you people who have patiently read through the whole BR, here is what you've been waiting for, what all BR readers love to see... successful nukes and storms.... sweeeet

What does more DAMAGE?

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OR



You decide.
Lessons Learned:

• Deep Six is probably the best tactic to do as terran on a 2v2. You can easily switch between metal for terran/toss or infantry for zerg.
  
  
• Quick teching can save your life. In this game, quick teching turned out to beat quick rushing.
  
  
• Don't let your opponents expand. In the end, the person with the most resources won.
  
  
• Rush doesn't get you anywhere.
  
  
• Never tell Hilbs you're writing a BR, he'll annoy you to hell.
  
  
• Same with Rek
  
  
• Games where everyone runs outta money on LT are long and tedious, but often good, games.
  
  
• To all you BR hungry people, don't hunt for a gg to BR, wait till one comes. Usually the best games last longer than 45 minutes, and they have gosu people like cathy/hilbs/Rek in em. Try not to spam NH 'Anyone wanna 1v1 and I BR?', it gets annoying.
  
  
• Never post a BR after [FLS]Prozerran's, as I did. Its just plain dumb. I do not expect more than 5 comments on this BR.
  

Thanks to:
All the players, for the best game I've seen in a while, good enough to BR. To ::nobody::, for helping out a newbie like me and helping with my title pic, to [FLS]Prozerran, for attempting to help me with my title pic. and to anyone else that helped me out in the creation of this BR. And to 1-900-bgh, for doing absolutely nothing. =P.

This has been a production
once again by
someone you've never heard of: