Ahscar's Mini Tournament Finals 2


Well, this is night two and even more action packed than the previous night, with an upset victory that Pitt[nd]/[[KoRn]] pulled on Da-Cola/Prozerg-Hybrid, they now found themselves in the Finals facing Asm0dean/T_mac.

The Map: Rivalry

The Finalists:



Mad Zergs


[[KoRn]] (Chose zerg and spawned a teal hatchery at top left)

Pitt[ND] (Chose zerg and began his orange cluster at top right)

Terrorizing Toss


T_Mac (Chose toss and warped his blue nexus at bottom right)

Asm0dean (Chose to random and was given command of red toss at bottom left)

A Pregame Thought:


When we eentered the game, I had already seen pitt[nd] and [[KoRn]] terrorize double toss in their previous match, so I figured the same fate would befall Asm0dean and T_mac, but of course Prozerg-Hybrid disagreed with me and sided with his beloved toss players in predicting defeat for the Mad Zergs.

The Early Skirmishes:


All four contestants opted for early double rush tactics. The Mad Zerg commanders were performing conservative 9 pools, while the Terrorizing Toss started their double gates in preparation for their zealot raids.

The Mad Zerg's start their zergling production and once ready, their commanders, [[KoRn]] and Pitt[ND], decide it was time to rush. The squad of 12 fearsome zerglings trek out and head towards T_mac's terrorizing blue base at bottom right, where a lone zealot awaits. The battle commences and the mad zerg commanders manage to kill a couple probes before their zergling squad is eradicated out of T_mac's territory.

T_mac does not wait around mourning the loss of his probes, and now with a trio of blue zealots, he decides to attack Pitt[nt] at top right. Asm0dean also sends 4 zealots to help the cause. Once there, Asm0dean decides that he should use his superior starcraft unit control and get all four of his zealots slaughtered by sunkens while only killing off a drone. T_mac finally makes it up there and finds that Asm0dean's top right presence has been nullified by the sunkens, but in doing what a non mournful player would do, he charged in with his zealots and decides to attack a hydralisk den which was heavily guarded by 2 sunkens and a hand full of zerglings. Had the Den gone down, I would have commended him on his rash decision to waste his zealots but that was not the case and nothing was achieved in the attack except the knowledge that Pitt[nd] still possessed a hydralisk den which is now missing 100 hit points and newly morphed Lair.

Asm0dean seeing that orange was not a good target, now decides to reroute his 4 new zealots toward top left where the Teal Evil Zerg commander was building up his swarm. On arrival I noticed that the 4 zealots prayed that their commander would at least do some damage this time. And in noticing that his troops seemed to have lost faith in his fighting skills, Asm0dean utilizes his newfound zealot control skills and guides his troops behind [[KoRn]]'s mineral field where the zealots killed off 3-4 drones with no disturbance from the horribly placed sunkens. After killing some drones and a hand full of [[KoRn]]'s zerglings, the zealots perish to some newly morphed hydras and informs his commander that [[KoRn]] has also morphed a Lair in his base.

The toss commanders now use their Starcraft Reasoning Skills and decide that cannons are now necessary for detection of oncoming lurkers. And assimilators start getting work with cybernetics cores being warped in both toss bases.

Struggles for Expansions?:


Well, with the early skirmishes really doing no harm to any of the players, except maybe for T_mac's probes who were not avenged or even mourned for. The evil teal zerg commander [[KoRn]] decides to make the first move for an expansion and comfortably places a newly spawned hatchery at middle left. [[KoRn]] also decides to try to "contain" his toss threat from the south by placing a lurker "strategically" near the bottom of Asm0dean's red toss base at bottom left. Asm0dean is no one's fool and with some encouragement to his troops he sends them out and towards middle left for an expansion attempt, but his 4 goons and trio of zealots ran into [[KoRn]]'s new hatch and swiftly deals with the lightly guarded expansion. "Well, what about that "containment" lurker that [[KoRn]] was using?" as some of you readers may be asking... and I'll respond asking you the same thing about his lame attempt to keep asm0dean at bay. [[KoRn]], now knowing that his evil plot to "contain" Asm0dean's clad red units was not working, decides he should unburrow his lurker and try to move it closer to the ramp. Holy behold, Asm0dean has a cannon up there!, and now a couple of zealots charge down the ramp in an attempt to blitz unborrowed lurker, [[KoRn]] notices that his lurker refuses to attack while unborrowed, decides to run it away from the cannon and burrow before the zealots get their dirty psi blades on it. Back at his newly conquered territory at middle left, Asm0dean morphs a couple cannons.

On the other half of the map, The Orange zerg commander, Pitt[ND] decides to take the middle top expansion to the left of his main base. while doing this he sends a couple overlords to bottom middle accompanied with 5 lurkers.

T_mac also keeps busy and is securing the middle right area with a trio of blue cannons, six zealots and a pair of goons. But for some reason doesn't build a nexus.. his probes are probably still mad at him for not avenging their comrade's deaths. I now turn my attention to bottom middle where there is an abundant of orange activity going on. It seems that pitt[nd] is loading his orange overlords with the five lurkers. He slowly gets a lurker transported up on the cliff and moves it into position behind T_mac's mineral line. On it's way the lurker was basically skipping along with virtually on resistance, And without any observers and a cannon placed on the far side of the nexus, the lurker started doing his dirty work. now with speed upgrades the other 4 lurkers are transported up to T_mac's base, where some of T_mac's troops now sit awaiting an observer from Asm0dean. The newly transported lurkers immediately burrow but the observer arrives and all the lurkers are quickly dealt with. T_mac moves his now 8 probes back to work, and boy did they seem reluctant moving back to T_mac's hazardous mineral mines.

Now back on the left side of the map, Asm0dean sends more troops to middle left, but has still yet to start a nexus there. The new reinforcements were a welcome add-on to Asm0dean's middle left strong hold because [[KoRn]] has assembled a 12 zergling, 4 hydra, 2 lurker doom squad and was now pounding at asm0dean's cannons and goons. The goons fought bravely and fend off the attack.

[[Korn]], now knowing that his teal zerg presence was not wanted at the red middle left stronghold, decides to take his natural mineral expansion, but not before the attempt was thwarted by enraged goons moving north from the previous battle. Asm0dean continued moving his 8 goons and a pair of zealots toward the top middle orange zerg expansion and commences to pound on the hatchery. Pitt[nd] is a very observant starcraft player and notices that his mini map has gone from a peaceful green color to red blips, in response, he yells for help from his teal zerg partner. And all zergs have to stick together, so [[KoRn]] rushes 12 newly spawned teal hydralisks to the cause at top middle. While Pitt[ND] desperately scrounges together some of his orange lings. A reluctant dragoon who was dragging along at the end of asm0dean's troops see's the oncoming hydra horde and asm0dean wisely moves his goons to the bridge to get a strategical advantage. [[KoRn]] charges across the bridge yelling "remember the alamo," but obviously his zerg troops didn't understand the phrase and half of them died before [[KoRn]] makes the big decision to pull his men back. Asm0dean now takes this opportunity to continue pounding on the hatchery.. er actually he takes a break at the bridge and allows pitt to scrounge up enough lings to attack his idle squad from the right side while [[KoRn]] gets across the bridge from the left side. Asm0dean's red toss troops are sandwiched by zerg forces and the expansion continues to thrive.

T_mac notices the struggling defense at top middle and decides to send his fearsome dozen of zealots accompanied with 4 corsairs from his main at bottom right to pitt[nd]s main base at top right. When T_mac gets to top right, I notice that asm0dean has started his expansion at middle left while T_mac's probe at middle right still sits idle and seems to refuse to build a nexus expansion for the blue protoss cause.. (still obviously steamed about losing his probe comrades with no justification). T_mac charges up the ramp.. and it looked like he was going to do some real damage to pitt's main when all of a sudden he decides to turn around, tuck his tail in between his legs and run back to his main. What was he thinking ! but I looked at his main and saw that a dozen of [[KoRn]]'s hydras were killing yet more of T_mac's probes. T_mac arrives at the scene to fend off the evil assailants but is too late for his nexus has gone down and his probes refuse to rebuild another nexus in it's place. Maybe because T_mac didn't save for a nexus.. Nah, it's most likely because the probes refused to work in such a hazardous area.

The Final Battles:

Well it's not looking too good for the toss players at this point... Especially T_mac because his probes seemed to have gone on strike. Asm0dean's expansion is fully operational and he now has 3 gateways, a robotics facility, and a support bay. With the newfound wealth, Asm0dean decides that the top middle expansion must go down, and so he sends 8 zealots and a hand full of dragoons to met some of T_mac's remaining zealots at orange's top middle expansion. Here they pound away at the hatchery while [[KoRn]] does the neighborly thing sending reinforcements to top middle, but he was too late and the terrorizing toss finish the expansion. With a large portion of [[KoRn]]'s hydra's at top middle. Asm0dean contemplates a cunning plan and drops reavers behind [[KoRn]]'s minerals. The reavers killed a few drones but met the wrath of a few hydras standing guard.

And just when you thought T_mac was starting to show some compassion for his probes by sending his men back to fend off that attack from teal, we now see that he has volunteered his probes for his makeshift army which is now down to 7 zealots and 12 newly enlisted probes sitting outside orange's base at top right. Heck, with a toss commander like T_mac, you might as well pick up arms and fend for yourself instead of having him "protect" you. Finally T_mac musters the courage and he runs up pitt[nd]s ramp as he did at the beginning of the game and his army of Blue soldiers do the exact same amount of damage as they did back in the beginning. That is they did no damage at all! Surprised eh?. Knowing that he built 3 cannons at middle right for no reason and that his main is now inoperative, T_mac makes the unexpected decision and surrenders to the zerg armies, I myself was surprised at this spontaneous move.

Asm0dean is now left to fend for himself and decides to leave his main base open for zerg visitors by sending all of his men... which surprisingly only consisted of half a dozen zealots and a trio of goons... toward [[KoRn]]'s teal main at top left. His attempted attack was met and foiled by a dozen hydras and a pair of sunkens while his base was being run down by a carnival of zerglings.

After 33 and a half minutes of displaying their "special" toss skills, asm0dean joins his partner and concedes victory to the Evil zerg and gg's were exchanged.

The Lessons:


It's a good idea to save up for a nexus right when you see oncoming enemies, instead of trying to pump units that will just get massacred as they pop out of your production facilities one by one.

A templar archives is the key to victory vs zerg.. ask Prozerg-Hybrid, he'll rant on for hours about the abilities that come with a Templar archives =]

Thanks to the participants in this finals and all the participants in Ahscar's Mini Tourney 2. er and I hope I wasn't too hard on T_mac =[