Time for a disclaimer in little white letters that I doubt you want to strain your vision reading. If your browser has a zoom function and you *really* care, I'm sure you can find some way to read this without a magnifying glass. Anyway, the actual disclaimer goes something along the lines of I'm incompetent and there's no pictures. I replace them instead with a spiffy jungle background. What more could you want?

Ah, tournaments...those great communals of StarCraft players from everywhere in the world with one goal. Victory. To raise your flag in your opponent's base, and be able to back up your claims of superiority. To climb the ladder, with each opponent another rung, until you reach the top and can scream of your skillz.

What better place to find a game to report on than the final game of a tournament? The culmination of hours of hard play, weeding out the weak and leaving only the strongest, ready to throw themselves at each other, raising weapons and fighting until only one remains...

...the champion...

...and so I find myself not doing my work as I'm supposed to, instead sitting in an observer slot on the 29th of February, waiting for this final game to begin. The tournament in question is the Team Areola Duel League (TADL), and the victor will claim fourth seed in the Team Areola Starleague (TASL). Not a bad prize, in my opinion, as the three current seeds are all players of great skill, and what's more fun than getting totally beaten down? I say nothing is, and I should know. I'd ramble on, but the game is starting.

The TADL was a double-elimination tournament, and so one player comes from the loser's bracket, while the other has won all of their games so far. From the losers bracket is Born)Slippy, playing as terran, having lost one round to his opponent, l00ker_mx. l00ker has played as protoss for the entire tournament, and having come from the winners bracket, obviously has won all of his games so far. The map is a familiar one to most, except maybe money map playing newbies who are incapable of clicking on game names without $$$ in them. Yes, the supposedly Lost Temple, although scrolling through my maps folder I find that it isn't lost at all...rather it is in surplus.

Beeps fill the air...5...4...3..2..1...the countdown hits zero, and the game starts.

Slippy lands his command center at 3 o'clock, l00ker warps in his nexus at 9, and they both clone their peons and begin their build orders. l00ker gets a pylon, then sends the building probe out to scout. As the pylon finishes, he puts up a gateway, then goes assimilator, cybernetics core, pylon, and a robotics facility. Slippy gets a depot next to his minerals, then scouts with another SCV, then builds a barracks at his ramp, a refinery, a depot at his ramp, a factory, then another depot finishing his wall.

l00ker gets a second gateway, and then follows this with an observatory, following a decently normal build. He is researching dragoon range at his cybernetics core, and is currently building dragoons out of his gateway. He sends these to his ramp, deciding not to attempt any early engagement or harrassment. Slippy, on the other hand, gets a second factory, and puts up a machine shop on the first, moving towards tanks. Not putting a shop on the second factory, he begins the reasearch of spider mines, and when this is done, begins siege tech. Out of the second factory he produces vultures, and the first, having a machine shop, is given the task of tank production.

As soon as he has a healthy amount of vultures, Slippy sends them out towards l00ker's base. They reach his natural base mining the choke point, then they move south, towards l00ker's ramp. However, l00ker has seen them and send his dragoons out to dispatch them. Vultures quickly explode into flames as the blue balls of energy strike them, and they quickly attempt to lay mines again. Only one manages to get his explosive into the earth. l00ker stands by for detection so he can safely move out, and as soon as his newly produced observer reaches his natural, he sends his dragoons out to destroy the mines. Having dealt with this threat, l00ker orders his small army of dragoons to move towards Slippy's choke point, along with an observer to detect any hidden explosives that Slippy may have left lying around.

l00ker expands to his natural base, now clear of mines, and soon afterwards sends his dragoons to attack the terran wall. Slippy has three tanks which quickly siege up behind the barrier, and the force of the explosive projectices starts causing the dragoons to explode, forcing l00ker to fall back, dripping blue ooze from his wounds. Before he calls the retreat, l00ker manages to annihilate the left most supply depot in Slippy's wall, however the fear of being converted into a puddle of blueberry jam is enough to divert his dragoons from continuing his assault on the terran structures. Or maybe l00ker just didn't notice, I don't know. Anyway, Slippy quickly sets an SCV to rebuilding his precious barrier, and puts up a "no tresspassing" sign beside it as well. Shortly thereafter, Slippy begins a command center in his base, preparing it to land at his natural to augment his income. Back at l00ker's base, a probe quickly starts up a citadel of adun for zealot speed and perhaps to move into the wonderful world of templar. Slippy moves tanks and vultures to his choke to assist in holding his new expansion, and looker's dragoons, still just outside of Slippy's base, attack the new position, but are again driven back by tanks.

Slip has gotten starports, and has produced a dropship. The pilot flies down and lifts up two tanks, then moves towards the cliff overlooking l00ker's expansion. While cliffing the natural has plenty of potential to cause damage, l00ker has stationed two dragoons on his cliff to counter this exact move. As the tanks unload, the dragoons open fire on them. However, Slippy uses the dropship to lift the tanks for short intervals to protect them from dragoon fire and keep them alive, and is able to kill one of the dragoons and bring the other to 7 hp before it flees to the right part of the cliff. He moves his tanks to the edge of the cliff, and sieges up. The tanks have just begun firing into the valley below when l00ker loads up two more dragoons and deposits them on the tanks and rallies the 7 hp one to attack as well. As they're within the minimum range of the tanks, the two dropped off dragoons easily dispatch the already damaged tanks and the terran threat is stopped, but the unfortunate 7 hp dragoon takes two tank hits and is left with a gaping hole in it. Suffice to say that the protoss inside didn't wake up ever again.

l00ker expands to 6 o'clock at this point, and soon after it's finished, Slippy finds out that it's there. He gets together a group of vultures and rushes them down to the new protoss base. Dragoons are waiting at the ramp, and they damage the vultures before they're able to run in and kill the probe who is constructing the base, as well as attacking a pylon and setting it on fire. They have laid mines between the ramp where the dragoons are and the remainder of the base, so l00ker doesn't move to engage the vultures immediatley, instead waiting for an observer to reach the base so he can safely remove the mines and then kill the vultures. As soon as this is done, the goons attack the vultures, destroying all but three who hastily escape and station themselves outside the natural base, too afraid to face Slippy's wrath. Back at his base, Slippy loads up another few tanks, some vultures, and some SCVs into two dropships, then sends the two over to l00ker's 9 o'clock cliff. Again, dragoons are there, and Slippy unloads his troops onto the cliff. He orders his vultures to lay mines beside the dragoons, but most of them are popped before they can dig their way into the topsoil, and the vultures explode from dragoon fire. The tanks have sieged, but the dragoons run up next to them and open fire, quickly bringing them to a critical state.

l00ker positions his newly replentished army outside of Slippy's base to keep the latter from freely moving out, but Slippy sees this and sends out his vultures to lay mines as his tanks position themselves to attack the dragoons. l00ker falls back, as he's had enough of his army put into airtight containers and sold as novelty items at Slippy's local circus. Slippy's force chases them to the middle where they stop, turn as much as dragoons ever turn, and engage the terrans. The protoss force charges the terran position, opening fire as soon as they get into range, and the fighting proceeds to move in a small circle as both players fall back and push onward as their armies dwindle and are replentinshed. In the end, Slippy falls back with five surviving tanks, who siege up at the choke. However, being just outside his base, he is able to restore his army's size and then engages the protoss force again, pushing out of his base towards the center of the map. l00ker orders his army to move out of tank range, but as reinforcements join what he has, he makes another attack on Slippy. This time, the tanks quickly cut through the protoss ranks, leaving two surviving dragoons who quickly escape the artillery and wait for more reinforcements to join them. Slippy moves his troops and takes control of his choke point.

l00ker expands to the 6 o'clock natural as well as beginning dark templar production to augment his ranks. A small force of protoss warriors has accumulated, and l00ker sends them to attack Slippy's formation, however once again the power of explosives is displayed as tank fire and mines are able to force the protoss back, decimating much of the attack force. l00ker regroups, and his dark templar have arrived, but before he can attack Slippy's position again, a group of vultures rushes down into the 6 o'clock area, killing peons at the newly taken natural and the main base before being dispatched by dragoons. Simultaneously, Slippy moves his forces further into the center of the map. l00ker attacks the terran force, and as Slippy has no detection, his dark templar are capable of slicing through the frontmost tanks. Slippy quickly realises the hidden threat and uses comsat on the battlefield, revealing the offending protoss and allowing his tanks and vultures to remove it. Without this advantage of invisibility, the protoss force decides to fall back. Slippy puts up turrets around his tanks to avoid this in the future, then proceeds to take his mineral only base.

l00ker gets high templar, and then groups his forces at the top of the central area. As soon as he has a sizable force, he hits Slippy's mineral only from the north. As Slippy has pushed mostly into the center, this part of his base is undefended, and the protoss do a significant amount of damage before tanks siege close enough to dispatch the protoss forces. Slippy responds by loading up two tanks and cliffing the 6 o'clock natural base, and as there are no goons on this cliff, he is able to raze the nexus without any trouble. He then proceeds to further his hold on the middle of the map by moving his tanks further out. l00ker, seeing that the 6 o'clock natural will not be his for some time, expands to the mineral only and groups forces outside of the range of the push. Slippy sends an SCV northward and takes the 12 o'clock natural. He also sends a portion of his tanks north to prevent a ground attack on 12 as well as an attack on his 9 o'clock mineral only. l00ker attacks yet again, but as in the previous attempts he is forced back. l00ker takes his mineral only.

l00ker ships a probe to the northwestern island just as Slippy sends a force of vultures to the 6 o'clock mineral only and forces the probes there to fall back to the interior bases. He then sends his forces down, attacking the natural that l00ker has retaken recently and also the probes in the 6 o'clock main base. l00ker is able to dispatch the vultures with his dragoons, but not before losing several probes. Slippy fortifies his economy after hurting l00ker's by taking 12. As he does so, a pair of shuttles fly over it and unload three dragoons and a reaver into the 12 o'clock natural. Beyond a few turrets, Slippy has left this base relativley open to attack, and he is forced to run his SCVs away before he loses them all. l00ker destroys the command center then moves down towards the mineral only, but of course his three dragoons are no match for the tanks that are currently fortifying this base. They quickly meet a gruesome end.

So far l00ker seems to have been incapable of causing any major breaches in Slippy's force, only damage them slightly. His attacks have been small groups of troops, and the large amount of tanks, mines, and vultures has been able to handle them time and time again. l00ker, seeing no way to win this by attacking the push by ground, decides to take drastic action. He plays his trump card: three stargates and a fleet beacon are constructed in his base, and he begins production of carriers, as well as reasearch increasing their capacity. Slippy, though he doesn't know it at the time, makes a similar move to capital ships, constructing a physics lab and then beginning production of battlecruisers out of his two starports. He retakes the 12 o'clock natural and then proceeds to cliff the 6 o'clock natural yet again, with similar enough effects.

l00ker has accumulated a healthy amount of carriers, and they move into the center and begin to wreak havoc on the terran force. Tanks explode left and right, and turrets are quickly destroyed as the might of the interceptor swarm is focused on them. A few dragoons come to join them, but they do very little in terms of damage, getting popped open by the tanks that currently hold the center. Slippy sends vults to the 6 base again, but they are lost to dragoons coming out of the gateways at the 6 o'clock main base. While Slippy has a pair of battlecruisers done, he does not deem them sufficient to prove useful against the protoss force, instead cranking out goliaths from his factories to engage the carriers. The carriers move to 12, and while it is peppered in turrets, are able to handle threats relativley easily. Goliaths come, but they are picked off one by one as they wander up the ramp by the might of the massive amount of interceptors filling the air. Slippy sends his BCs to combat the carriers, however the misguided crews open fire on the interceptors, who in turn focus fire the BCs. Yamato takes down a few carriers, but in the end Slippy is forced to flee from the carriers. While the surviving four battlecruisers flee, l00ker razes the 12 o'clock expansion.

Ground forces engage the remains of the push, but Slippy proves that while he may not be doing so well against the carriers, he still owns the ground. As he loses his 12 o'clock natural base, he sends a portion of his force to 6 to decimate it. While they meet little resistance, every second they attack is a second that Slippy is losing buildings to carriers. They have made their way through two bases and now the carriers move into Slippy's main from the north. Slippy's BCs attempt to yamato the carriers, but they are unable to do signifcant damage. Instead of trying to fight for his base, Slippy takes the battle to l00ker's soil, destroying 6 and attacking 9 with goliaths and battlecruisers. He runs his buildings away, sending his command center to the southeastern island, however it is detected by an observer that is stationed there. Slippy's factories make their way to 6 as his main is burnt to the ground, trying to buy his attacking force precious time. The carrier fleet then turns and chases the fleeing buildings before eventually making their way to 9 o'clock to defend l00ker's main from the battlecruisers and goliaths that are attacking. A few carriers destroy the fleeing command center, and Slippy, realizing that he is fighting a losing battle, concedes the game and tournament to l00ker_mx.

Good game to both players, and congrats to l00ker for winning the tournament. Hopefully I can get a BR out of the TASL games :) As always, comments are thx. Go make comments. Love from the DD man.