Chris Vs. Jacky

"You guys wanna play SC?"

Those infamous words, once again out in the open. It seems that every other night Calvin, Jacky and I were playing Starcraft, and tonight in the Three Kingdoms / Fooners HQ residence, it was no different.

Then, something unexpected: “You guys start first” Calvin said as he headed upstairs to talk to his mom on the phone. A rare occurrence it was, as usually it ends up being a 3v5 comp battle, or a melee battle. But now?

“Jacky… let’s play a one on one!” And so it began.

And then it ended. In the first game Jacky and I both randomed, him ending up with Terran and I ending up with Zerg. Unfortunately for Jacky, his main was close to mine. A few minutes and a zergling rush later the game was over, a victory for me that was later derided as dishonourable and cheap by Calvin and Jacky. Of course, I rebutted against this and pointed out the fact that this was a perfectly legal move and is a classic gameplay mechanic in StarCraft.

After coaxing Jacky to play again and convincing him that playing 1 on 1 is the only way he can improve his skills, we were set to play a classic Starcraft game on the well balanced Lost Temple – Gamei map. And then the real match began…



I once again apologize for the quality of the images, as my laptop has fried and I'm seriously considering just buying a new one. My desktop does not have photoshop, however, so all these pictures were done using MS Paint =(

I left my race choice at random, and in an interesting and unusual twist, so did Jacky. As the countdown to the game began, we were silent. There will be no trash talking on this night, only pure determination to destroy the other. I drew the 9 o’clock base with Zerg, while Jacky warped into the 3 o’clock with Protoss.

Initial build order for Jacky was rather simple- the zealot “rush”. I taught him this focused build order when he started playing Protoss, wherein the player builds a pylon, then gateway, gateway, pylon, focusing on mineral collection and zero on collecting gas, and leaving teching until later. The point, obviously, is to pump out as many zealots as possible. At 100 mins a pop, they aren’t cheap, but they are by far the strongest early unit in the game. A handful is able to destroy a much larger group of zerglings and marines with ease.



I, on the other hand, built drones until I had 9, morphed one into a spawning pool, hatched an overlord, and then waited for a quick zergling rush. In the meantime I sent my initial overlord over to the 6 o’clock base in the hopes of another quick victory.



But it was not to be. The overlord saw nothing at the 6 o’clock base, and seeing as there were only the 12 and 3 o’clock positions, I gambled and sent my zerglings over to the 12… which was empty! I sent my 6 zerglings over to the 3 knowing that Jacky is now there, but he managed to rebuff me with a small group of zealots. Rush failed.



Instead of losing them all, I ran them back over to the 12 o’clock to save them for later, and to attempt to throw Jacky off the location of my base. Later, he told me that he had already scouted out the 12 o’clock position, so he guessed from where my zerglings were running that I was at the 9 o’clock position. Lucky guess…
Perhaps still stinging (and learning) from the previous loss, Jacky decided to be aggressive and counterattacked with three zealots. By this time I had finished building a hatchery at my natural and had two sunken colonies defending, and Jacky charged right in. I lost one sunken, but pulled a few drones off mineral collection and repelled Jacky quite easily.

But Jacky didn’t give up quite as easily as he did in the past. During this skirmish I sent over my 6 zerglings at the 12 and a few from my main into Jacky’s undefended base, and attacked a cybernetics core I saw warping in to deny Jacky the opportunity to tech. Unfortunately, timing was not on my side as although I got the core in the red, at that moment zealots came out of Jacky’s three gateways and I lost all my zerglings. I managed to take out a few probes, however.



A very brief lull occurred over the battlefield. Trying to read my opponent’s mind and realizing that Jacky was, for once, being extremely confident and aggressive, I upgraded my main hatch into a lair and started a spire, thinking of making mutalisks for a backdoor attack on Jacky’s mineral line and slowing him down. In the meantime, I sent over a couple of zerglings into Jacky’s main, but knowing that he has a ton of zealots I hid them in the far left corner of his base, waiting for his zealots to head for my main and leaving him defenceless so that I can ravage his probes. Sure enough Jacky’s zealots left his base and I pounced on his probes as the zealots went past, destroying a few.



What I did NOT realize however, as I rarely played with Zerg, was that I needed more zerglings to get the task done. Although taking out quite a few probes, they were eventually repulsed by Jacky’s warping in defence. In the meantime, I glanced at my minimap and didn’t even see a speck of white.

Strange?

I looked back at my natural, and heard the familiar sloppy whipping sound of sunken colonies defending, but I didn’t see anything in my visual range. And then it hit me- Jacky was being smart, electing not to destroy my natural, but going straight for my main, for which I didn’t build any defence! Sure enough, Jacky’s zealots emerged from the fog of war, 5 of them vs. a couple of drones (1 of the zealots was killed by the sunkens as they tried to rush past). I was suddenly in trouble- this could very well end the game right here and now, as I couldn’t do anything about them. The tide of war, which up to now was at a stalemate, shifted heavily in Jacky’s favour.



Thinking fast, I moved my drones over to my natural expansion to continue mining as I watched the zealots tear my base apart. He went straight for my spawning pool, and as a result I couldn’t build any zerglings or even sunken colonies for that matter. I cancelled my still morphing spire to raise some cash, and then built an emergency spawning pool replacement in a corner of my natural. Timing, at this point, was critical. In the meantime I morphed a few drones into creep colonies to save time when I am later able to convert them to sunkens, and with my blood pressure rising I started converted them to sunkens just as the spawning pool finished… and right when Jacky finished off everything in my main. Knowing that I still needed more time, I needed to slow those zealots down and keep them away from my still morphing sunkens at my natural. In a moment of desperation and determination, I took a group of drones and sent them to the ramp on my main, heading straight towards the zealots...



Jacky’s zealots were going directly for my natural, but in a display of intense micro, I swarmed my drones all over his zealots… but didn’t stop and attack them. Instead, I used them to block the zealots, which became momentarily confused as they tried to find a way around my drones. As soon as they tried to move around my drones, I moved the drones to the direction they were going, to head them off and block them some more. This tactic was so effective and disruptive that my sunkens all managed to morph in by the time the zealots reached my natural, and in a further display of micro, I moved my drones between the hatchery and a wall, further preventing the zealots from reaching my sunkens. They had to walk all the way around my mining drones and hatchery to reach the sunkens, but being whipped mercilessly by sunkens they all died… with the death toll for me being only 2 drones!



With my defence being successful, I quickly sent a drone down to my former main, in order to restart my battered economy. Knowing that I was still in a vulnerable position, I morphed in several more sunken colonies in front of my natural, leaving only a small chokepoint between them and the wall for Jacky to go through.



A little while later, Jacky attempted an attack but quickly retreated to a safe distance once he saw my sunkens. He came back and retried his earlier tactic by forcing zealots past them into my main. This time however, I had the choke blocked off with zerglings, and with several more sunkens the zealots died. I spawned several more drones and zerglings, and deciding to distract Jacky and play with his head a bit, I sent my zerglings out to attack his units and quickly retreated to my sunkens, luring a few into the deathtrap. By the time Jacky noticed, they were killed. He sent over more reinforcements, and I sparred with his units with some more zerglings, but the same trick didn’t work twice and Jacky smartly pulled his troops further back.



I didn’t stand idly by playing with his units, however. During this time I had a spire morph in, and with a larger drone population I started to build a few mutalisks and more zerglings. Jacky, however, was not very productive at his main base, and it was only now when he started an expansion at his natural.

In a move to end the game, I sent 5 mutalisks backdoor to Jacky’s mineral line, and sent my zerglings in from the front. Strangely, I didn’t find much in Jacky’s base (including defending units), but he did send a group of units to my base in order to counterattack. However, by that time it was too late as he lost all his probes, and he left the game.



GG!



This was one of the best games I’ve ever played, if not THE best. Uncharacteristic of “turtling” Jacky, this was also by far his best game ever played as he was uncharacteristically determined and aggressive (normally he doesn’t attack much… in fact, there was one FFA game I remember where Jacky left the game because he couldn’t take anymore after 30 minutes of play, even though he wasn’t in a bad position). The game was fast paced, it was exciting, and until the last few minutes you really didn’t know who would come out on top (just like a good basketball game). The struggle of power swung back and forth and there were times earlier when both of us came to the brink of extermination and fought back. This was one of those battles which became not only a struggle of power, but also strategy and foresight. We both spent considerable time predicting and strategizing each other’s moves, reacting to surprises, getting “timing” just right, and working hard to throw a wrench in the other’s plans.

As for the mistakes, well, there were quite a few. My biggest probably was my inexperience with zerg, as I didn’t build enough sunken colonies and didn’t attack with enough zerglings (being more used to the micro-specific and powerful Protoss, and the defensive Terran), and didn’t do a very good job of playing in general. This nearly cost me the battle as Jacky was able to overwhelm me with zealots. I was also still getting used to hatcheries and the way that zerg units are built, which is really different from the other two races.

Jacky’s biggest mistake is perhaps his single-mindedness on macroing units. While this worked very well in the early going, even nearly taking me out, once I had enough sunken colonies Jacky should have expanded to his natural and teched to something else (like dropships, reavers, high templar, air units, etc… with an expo he could have also simply overwhelmed my sunkens). In the final few moments before I killed his probes, he was also strangely stagnant compared to the furious pace he led earlier.

As Jacky and I talked about it later, these 1v1’s are excellent for learning how to play. You learn more in one game than you would if you played in several multi-player battles. Lost Temple- Gamei is also a great map for learning because of its balance and the fact that several strategies work well on this map. Each mistake you make is amplified and you have far greater creativity in your strategy, so we agreed that we should play more.

Although the Power Rankings likely won’t change because this was one battle (and Jacky lost badly in the first game when I rushed him), I’m sensing that a few positions could change quite rapidly in the next few weeks if things continue as they are. I’ll see after some careful observations. I have been waiting for a LONG time for a decent game to battlereport, and this game finally delivered… and what a game!

Soon after the game ended, Calvin came downstairs. “So ‘gentlemens’, what’d I miss?’

Jacky’s breathing was shaky. So was mine.

Click HERE for replay.