All right, I stink at poetry and I'm not even sure if it's the night before thanksgiving, but life is life, and you can't do anything about it. I shall now start my regular into.

The date is November 22, 2000. It's incredibly cold in New York State. However, the huge snowstorm to the north is missing {ahc}overmind's town by one entire county. His school, thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday lets out at 11:30. {ahc}overmind (now known as I) enters his room with incredible pains in his abdominal region. However, he is incredibly happy because for 8 dollars he was able to buy the CD case of a friend of his who doesn't play starcraft anymore. If you don't remember, in my last br, I had to use a CD key being used by the public in general. So anyway, he uninstalls starcraft and installs it again with the new CD key. He then reinstalls Brood War.

As the little install window makes those blue rectangle things signifying that you are installing something, I close the blinds to my room. He remembers that he has a little homework for the holidays and takes the books out of his bag. Suddenly, Brood War completes installing itself, and I enter it. As I press multi player and battle net, the familiar whine of a dialup modem starts. As it completes, a message appears on my screen, saying that I have to download new software. I press ok, and start doing my homework. Virtually, I look through a novel for figures of speech.

Within five minutes, the thing finishes downloading and I press the ok button to restart brood war and play. The computer does so with a huge noise coming from the hard drive. Then, the familiar opening screen appears with that admiral dude, artanis, and of course kerrigan the mighty. I then press on the satellite, press ok, fill in my password thing, and in we go towards starcraft gaming.

I enter channel ~nohunters, and for some reason there are only 4 people there instead of me. I wait 20 seconds, and Luckynewbie:P shows up. We start chatting about how people should be here, and stuff like that. Then, orc'sbastardson enters the room, along with Ladypaladin. Within another couple of seconds, Unvytae enters the room. The four decide to make a game, where I will observe. The 4 players do not know what they will do, but decide to join the game, Elm/Elm.

What type of game this will be, is hotly debated as I myself enter the game. Several are all for a ffa. However, a couple of others wants a 2 on 2. After a minute of debate, the players decide on a ffa. But, orc'sbastardson believes that we should play an 8 player map should the game be a ffa. Within another couple of minutes, the 4 generally agree in favor of playing a ffa on the map, which happens to be the overplayed Lost Temple.

By this time, the players have decided if they will let fate decide their race or make it their own personal selection. Unvytae decides beforehand that he will be the ravenous Zerg. Ladypaladin decides that his race will be the expensive, but incredibly powerful Protoss. The other two, orc'sbastardson and Luckynewbie:P decide to let fate throw the dice when it comes to their races. Thus, as the countdown meter begins, I wonder how many screen shots I will take of this inevitably big battle.

The great ffa begins with orc'sbastardson being a white terran on the 12 o'clock position of Lost Temple. Luckynewbie:P finds himself to also be terran, being red and on the right part of the well-known map. Ladypaladin finds his protoss forces under the yellow banner and being on the bottom part of this map. Unvytae, the Zerg player finds himself being blue and on the left part of the map.

The game begins with the terran players constructing supply depots really close to their chokes. Ladypaladin constructs a pylon and a gateway, while Unvytae builds a spawning pool on the bottom part of his creep. As orc'sbastardson completes his supply depot, he begins constructing a barracks incredibly close to his supply depot, but still not blocking his choke point. Luckynewbie:P does the same thing while Ladypaladin's gateway continues to warp in and Unvytae's spawning pool continues its mutation.

The game continues in relative peace, where orc'sbastardson start construction on a new barracks, and Luckynewbie:P starts another supply depot. At this time, Ladypaladin starts warping in an assimilator on his only vespane node. All the while, Unvytae continues the morphing of his spawning pool. None of the players have built and units at all. The peace continues over the battlefield as my little bengalla named "this map is overplayed," roams the map. Suddenly, what's this, Unvytae has finished his spawning pool! He sends a drone towards his choke and the drone begins morphing into a hatchery.

To the northern part of the map, orc'sbastardson orders that his second barracks cease construction and that his scv begin construction of another supply depot. One of orc'sbastardson's scvs is ordered to scout the left part of the map. Of course, Unvytae is right there, and the scv runs into 6 newly spawned zerglings. Of course, the zerglings' claws destroy the little scv man, and orc'sbastardson now knows where on of his three opponents is.

Meanwhile, Unvytae has been doing some scouting of his own, with one of his overlords. The overlord scouts the bottom of the map, finding Ladypaladin who has warped in a gateway and pylon, and is warping in a cybernetics core, along with another pylon. Unvytae now knows where one of his three opponents is, with the scene set for a couple of battles. At the same time, to the northeast, Luckynewbie:P has begun construction of another barracks, while orc'sbastardson has finished building a refinery of his

Unit wise, Unvytae has 4 zerglings stationed to the west of the center of the map, Ladypaladin has one zealot who has just been finished, Luckynewbie:P has 2 marines, and orc'sbastardson has built 2 marines. Each side is preparing for a major battle that could involve 3 people at the same time.

As Unvytae orders his zerglings to scout the center of the map, Luckynewbie:P begins building a command center in his base. Unvytae has also constructed a creep colony, which has just morphed into a sunken colony. However, orc'sbastardson builds another two marines, as Ladypaladin builds another gateway.

Unvytae's zerglings continue to scout everywhere other than other people's bases, while orc'sbastardson begins building a factory and another supply depot. To the Southwest, Luckynewbie:P starts building an engineering bay and a supply depot. He also lifts off his newly built command center, which charts a course to the lower right island expansion. To the Southeast, Ladypaladin has built 2 additional zealots, bringing his total to 3 who are stationed at his choke. Building wise, he is warping in another pylon, gateway, and forge. To the northeast, Unvytae I building 2 sunken colonies on the creep that has covered his choke. He has also begun morphing a drone into a hatchery at his natural expansion.

Another minute passes, as orc'sbastardson begins building an engineering bay, while Ladypaladin begins warping in a photon cannon. To the north, Unvytae begins construction of a hydralisk den, and mutates another couple of zerglings in. Directly, to the east, Luckynewbie:P begins building a bunker and a missile turret while his command center continues the journey down to the island expansion in the left bottom corner. It appears that orc'sbastardson begins construction of a command center within his own base.

As the seconds pass uneasily, Ladypaladin constructs a dragoon and 2 more zealots, bringing his total zealot force to 5. Unvytae starts building a sunken colony on his natural expansion's creep. Orc'sbastardson begins building a factory, and a missile turret. He also has brought his total count of marines to 7. He sends one of these marines directly south, towards Ladypaladin. At this same time, Ladypaladin is sending 3 of his zealots out, leaving two of these zealots at the ramp to his base. Suddenly, he orders these two zealots to follow the three that have already begun the journey on an interception course with orc'sbastardson.

The two forces of units go right past each other. The marine suddenly begins firing at the zealots, only one retaliates. With three swipes, the marine is a small pile of organs and pulp. At this time, Luckynewbie:P has landed his command center at the island expansion, and is building a starport a factory, and a supply depot. Unvytae completes another sunken colony, and also reinforces his small standing army with 6 zerglings.

The four players continue up the tech tree, with Luckynewbie:P finishing his factory and starport, and equipping them with add-ons, while he reinforces his choke's defenses with a missile turret. He also recruits 4 marines making his entire army consist of this small force. To the northwest, orc'sbastardson has 7 marines and a siege tank. He also orders his newly built command center, to lift off and set a course for the island expansion on the northwest island expansion. Directly to the south, Ladypaladin begins construction of a robotic facility and a robotic support bay.

Another minute passes without provocation, until orc'sbastardson orders one of his marines towards Luckynewbie:P's base. The 4 marines currently under Luckynewbie:P's instantly kill the marine. Orc'sbastardson has also landed his command center in the top left corner island expansion, which is detected fast by one of Unvytae's overlords. Meanwhile, Ladypaladin sends a shuttle loaded with a probe to start an expansion in the southeastern island expansion that is currently inhabited by Luckynewbie:P. A missile turret easily wards off the shuttle.

Updating each player's troop count and defenses, orc'sbastardson has siege tanks, 8 marines, and 1 medic. Luckynewbie:P has 4 marines and 2 siege tanks in siege mode. Unvytae has 5 sunken colonies at various places, and has 12 zerglings and 4 hydralisks. Ladypaladin has 5 zealots, 4 dragoons, and 2 photon cannons. So far, no major engagements have occurred.

The next major event of the game occurs about 3 minutes after we last checked, when a wraith sent by orc'sbastardson encounters one of Unvytae's overlords. The overlord retreats to the closest base, where the wraith encounters a spore colony, and it begins retreating. The wraith is destroyed as 4 of Unvytae's 9 hydralisks open fire upon the little fighter. As each side continues to build huge amounts of buildings and units, it becomes impossible to track it. Thus updates will be periodic.

Unvytae sends zerglings to every enemy base, who are all, up the tech tree substantially. All the zerglings are killed, as all sides prepare their respective armies for the great battles ahead. Ladypaladin establishes a nexus, pylon, and assimilator at his natural expansion, Unvytae morphs 4 of his hydralisks into lurkers in his natural expansion. Out of a gateway owned by Ladypaladin, comes a dark templar. The dark templar takes station in the center of the map.

At this time, orc'sbastardson is able to build everything up to battlecruisers and science vessels. The same thing with Luckynewbie:P. Ladypaladin now has the ability to build high templar, and reavers. Unvytae has limited himself into morphing a hive, along with a spire and a queen's nest. All sides have armies that will be counted as they are engaged in combat.

The game passes without provocation, with nothing happening for over 3 minutes until an overlord controlled by Unvytae arrives at Luckynewbie:P's island expansion. The overlord drops 2 lurkers; with one distracting the defenses stationed there by burrowing, and letting loose a rush of spines, while the other moves north, out of range of the siege tanks stationed there, and burrows. The lurker is killed within 15 seconds, and the small skirmish is over. But, what's this? 4 shuttles controlled by Ladypaladin are en route for Luckynewbie:P's expansion.

The shuttles begin to crash, but what's this; they're crashes look like hallucinations! They are hallucinations, 3 shuttles are killed instantaneously, but one shuttle remains. So far, there have been one real crash and 2 hallucinated crashes; is this the real thing? Apparently not, as the final shuttle falls to the ground, revealing that it is indeed a hallucination. The two players, Ladypaladin and Unvytae spit in rage, and begin hurriedly pressing enter on their keyboards and writing comments on their failure.

All four of the players continue to build up strength. Suddenly, on the chokepoint towards Unvytae's natural expansion, we here the sounds of Zerg troops being loaded into overlords. The overlords begin the journey south towards Ladypaladin's base. The initial line of overlords encounters resistance from a couple of dragoons and high templar, however no overlords are killed. The hydralisks begin to unload, and a high templar casts a psi-storm right above itself, performing ritualistic suicide, killing himself and a load of hydralisks.

The hydralisks initially have landed in two groups. One of the groups has been almost completely wiped out by a single psi-storm. The other is attacking the only photon cannon in the area, to the south, a couple of yards west of Ladypaladin's nexus. The photon cannon easily falls to the 9 hydralisks in that group. To the north, what remains of the first drop army, about 4 hydralisks, begins to attack the undefended core of Ladypaladin's base. Ladypaladin currently has expansion, and has all of his forces, which were on the other side of his territory rushing to attack the enemy.

The hydralisk army now numbers 11, and is en route to attack Ladypaladin's nexus. As this happens, a fresh group of hydralisks is dropped into the area, bringing the invasion's strength to 15 hydralisks. Ladypaladin, knowing that the next target is his nexus, sends his small army of 3 high templar, 2 zealots, and a dragoon to attempt to delay the enemy forces as his gateways construct troops as fast as possible.

As the hydralisks continue their path of destruction towards the nexus, the protoss forces come ever closer. Within seconds psi-storms crackle above the heads of the hydralisks, and reduce their numbers to 12. However, Unvytae has ordered his hydralisks to only attack a citadel of adun, so they do not retaliate. The hydralisks complete destroying the citadel of adun and engage the high templar. The templar have no defense, but forces are on the way to help. A zealot already arrived on the battlefield seconds ago, and as the high templar began their hasty retreat, the zealot bravely engages the hydralisks.

Apparently, this small skirmish only had one purpose, to delay. The gateways that are on the extreme right part of Ladypaladin's base are constructing forces as fast as they can. Now, 7 zealots and a dragoon are prepared to engage the enemy, and the forces begin the march through the ever-shortening gap between the gateways and the hydralisks.

The zealots make a suicide charge into the hydralisks, and are able to reduce their numbers. However, 3 zealots remain, and are chasing 2 hydralisks towards their commander's only expansion. The original strength of the attack force, over 16 hydralisks is reduced to 7. Again, Unvytae makes a foolish micro-management decision, ordering his hydralisks to attack a specific building instead of destroying the defenders. At this point, the 7 hydralisks are divided into 2 groups. 4 of these hydralisks are directly to the south of the nexus, while the other 3 are to the east, being under attack from enemy forces.

The hydralisks to the east are killed easily, but Unvytae orders his hydralisks to only attack the nexus. While the nexus does sustain heavy damage, the hydralisks are reduced to rotting tissue and slices of separate organs. The first major attack of the game almost ended with the elimination of a player, but is repulsed with great cost. However, if you think that Unvytae's army has been completely annihilated, you're wrong. The Zerg player has been building a huge army of hydralisks that has not been committed to action. Orc'sbastardson also has a large army of marines, and tanks that are ready to serve him. Luckynewbie:P has a force of tanks, battlecruisers, goliaths, and lots of other stuff scattered around his base. Of course, Ladypaladin whose army is almost completely destroyed rushes to build dragoons.

The next major even takes shape when the majority of Unvytae's hatcheries morph mutalisks. The mutalisks fly directly towards Ladypaladin's base, and encounter no real resistance. Meanwhile, to the northeast, orc'sbastardson prepares his army by bringing out 2 tanks and casting defensive matrix on them. The two battles begin at once, with neither of the players aware of what is happening to the other.

Concerning the mutalisks, an army of 8 dragoons rushes to meet the mutalisks over their nexus. The mutalisks fight a brief battle with the dragoons, before turning around and flying back to base. The battle to the northeast results in many more deaths.

The d-matrixed tanks commanded by orc'sbastardson go within range of Luckynewbie:P's siege tanks stationed on the ridge. The tanks commanded by Orc'sbastardson to turn to siege mode, and open fire on Luckynewbie:P's tanks, who in retaliation return fire. Both sides rush to reinforce their front with units. Luckynewbie:P sends 2 of his battlecruisers out to take out the tanks while orc'sbastardson order 12 marines and three medics out to destroy the enemy battlecruisers. The battlecruisers begin to withdraw, but for good reason. The tanks commanded by Luckynewbie:P are still on the cliff, and are raining death upon the hapless marines. Marines are killed two, maybe even three at a time for each tank shell that falls upon the marines. Orc'sbastardson realizes he cannot win this battle against d-matrixed siege tanks, and orders his remaining men to retreat. Shells quickly mow down the men, as they turn their backs

The battle is over, with no significant casualties suffered by any of the players except for orc'sbastardson, who has lost more than 20% of his original army. However, a battle can not be silent for long, as Ladypaladin orders his army of dragoons to attack Unvytae's base. The dragoons meet a horde of zerglings, and are completely destroyed. The blood from the zerglings mixes with the blue fluid of the dragoon and makes a Zerg/protoss hybrid! I wish that would happen. So anyway, Unvytae in retaliation for this unprecedented assault on his base orders a new army of mutalisks to wipe out Ladypaladin once and for all. It's a bit hard for me to count, but about 20 mutalisks go straight for the already damaged nexus controlled by Ladypaladin.

The nexus finally falls as the newly constructed dragoons controlled by Ladypaladin begin to open fire on the mutalisks. Anyhow, the mutalisks easily overwhelm the dragoons, and begin to lay waste to Ladypaladin's main. At this same time, Luckynewbie:P begins an attack on one of orc'sbastardson's expansions, of which there are 3. The expansion has just been established, and thus is crushed by the small army of 3 marines, a science vessel and a battlecruiser. Orc'sbastardson sends a small force of 6 marines and 2 medics to attempt to deal with the problem. The marines and medics are slaughtered as reinforcements from Luckynewbie:P's base begin to arrive.

At this time, believing that it might be worthwhile to leave Ladypaladin alive, Unvytae pulls them back and orders them to morph into guardians and devourers. At the same time, Luckynewbie:P is leveling the expansion, and I will make this paragraph very short. Right before the destruction of the expansion is complete, the guardians and devourers complete their mutation and begin an assault on orc'sbastardson's island expansion. At the same time, Luckynewbie:P orders his men to retreat to the center of the map.
As orc'sbastardson yells to the world that he is under attack, Luckynewbie:P orders his attack force in the center to attack Unvytae's base.

The terran armies, like the dragoons before them, are attacked by a horde of zerglings. However, before the zerglings can even rip get within range to attack, they are riddled by bullets, or burst to pieces by shells. As soon as the first wave is beat, a second wave of zerglings that was just standing there arrives. This wave is also killed, but inflicts a couple of casualties. The two battlecruisers that were escorting the attack force power up their yamato guns and destroy several of the sunken colonies in the area.

Realizing that his base in huge danger, Unvytae orders his huge air fleet back, and has his devourers engage the back bone of the attack force, the battlecruisers. The battlecruisers power up their thrusters, and begin a very slow retreat back towards their base. The devourers do not follow, and the attack force is left without its backbone, leaving only a couple of goliaths and siege tanks to deal with the coming threat of guardians. After a couple of seconds, the attack force is overrun by yet another horde of zerglings. What remained of the attack force begins a retreat, and is pursued by a small group of zerglings who are easily killed. Luckynewbie:P rallies his men and prepares for another offensive.

With the threat to his base removed, Unvytae orders his air fleet to continue attacking orc'sbastardson's island expansion. However, a couple well placed irradicates destroys this huge threat, and Unvytae orders the remainder of his aerial fleet to return to base. Convinced that an aerial force is no longer an option, Unvytae begins build up of a huge swarm of hydralisks.

But the Zerg aren't the only ones preparing to attack, orc'sbastardson has ordered a he army to be brought up to the north of Unvytae's main defense point. The army consists of 23 marines, 4 goliaths and a medic. To the south, Ladypaladin has constructed a force of 10 dragoons and 2 archons ready to destroy the next mutalisk attack he's sure will come. Of course, Luckynewbie:P has a huge force just waiting to strike, made up of battlecruisers, siege tanks, goliaths, and marines.

An offensive begins suddenly and without warning. Who is the perpetrator but orc'sbastardson! He sends his entire offensive army to attack Unvytae's defense. The first line, made of goliaths encounters a small army of hydralisks. Both sides pump men, alien, and machinery into the battle until the full-fledged armies of both sides are engaged. The offensive army is completely overwhelmed by the horde of hydralisks, and the army is beat.

But what's this? Orc'sbastardson has a small force of marines and medics! These forces were constructed right when the battle started, and were on a hard march to join the great battle. Of course, these marines and medics are overwhelmed as well. The third unsuccessful attack on Unvytae is over.

The next battle between two players will occur within 5 minutes. Which players do you think will be the ones who fight? I will give you a hint; he's terran and he's also white. Well, that just gives it away, so I might as well tell you that orc'sbastardson makes a huge attack made up of 13 marines and 3 medics towards the hydralisk horde of Unvytae. The initial line of defense is overrun completely, but a wave of zerglings arrives.

Then, suddenly, and without warning, to the south, a phase disrupter rips apart a zergling. Ladypaladin has mounted an offensive, and the two are attacking at the same time! However, Ladypaladin is not completely engaged yet, so not many Zerg troops go off to engage him, focusing mainly on orc'sbastardson's force of marines and medics.

As another wave of zerglings arrives at the front, orc'sbastardson's line begins to fall apart. The troops begin an orderly retreat, and this retreat goes pretty well except for the people who die trying to delay the Zerg troops from attacking the fleeing units. At this point, the dragoons controlled by Ladypaladin are now at Unvytae's doorstep. The dragoons die as the sunken colonies wipe them off the face of this earth. Both attacks have been unsuccessful, but a new player is about to emerge in this little game.

Luckynewbie:P's attack force, made up of; 5 siege tanks, 8 goliaths, 2 battlecruisers, and a whole lot of other stuff. This entire invasion force descends onto Ladypaladin's expansion. The nexus is destroyed in seconds, before 2 archons appear and prepare to sacrifice their lives to delay these terran attackers.

But the attack on Ladypaladin's main never comes, and the attack force makes an arch, going back up towards blue's battered defenses. At this same moment, orc'sbastardson is making another attack on blue. The already weakened defenses begin to waver, and then completely fall.

As Unvytae's forces pull back, the two invasion forces encounter on another as they head towards the Zerg player's main base.
As of now, as the two forces begin to engage each other, Luckynewbie:P's forces outnumber orc'sbastardson's about 3 to one, and it doesn't help when the white terrans forces are deployed to attack the red terrans without being coordinated.

As the terrans face off, it is clear who will win even if Mark4 used his powerful use of micro instead of orc'sbastardson. The white terran forces are completely destroyed, and Luckynewbie:P's forces begin the next part of their operation, pure invasion.

During the small battle between the terran players, Unvytae has been trying to build up as much a defense as possible. While he has been able to build up a sizable amount of hydralisks, he knows that his time is almost at hand. Apparently orc'sbastardson shares this feeling for he surrenders when his attack force is destroyed.

As Luckynewbie:P's forces descend upon the ramparts, tank shells kill hydralisks before they even get within range. As the terran forces destroy the last of his hydralisk swarm, Unvytae begs for mercy, but what should come from the south?

A large army of zealots appears hiking the trail towards Luckynewbie:P's army. These zealots are all killed within a minute, not inflicting any casualties at all. Luckynewbie:P now knows that the Zerg swarm is now almost completely out of the picture. He now turns towards the south, where an old lady by the name of paladin has large army of protoss warriors. The terran forces race through the base, killing and destroying everything.

The Zerg player knows he will lose, so he surrenders, and seconds later so does Ladypaladin. The great battle is over. The lost temple has been fought for, and the winner is Luckynewbie:P.

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