Jacky's Wrath

"The greatest mistake is assuming you know more than your enemy"
-Quote off a random MTG Card

Nerdy reference notwithstanding, there is no greater truth to these words than when you're playing a game of Starcraft. One minute you think you're on top, and then POW, you get raped by 350+ cracklings (this happens with startling frequency in games of BGH ... or even worse, Fast Possible Map Ever).

A case in point came one day when Jacky and his two roommates, JT and Aaron, decided to hit it up with a LAN game of Broodwars instead of studying for midterms. Thus, our adventure began on a little known small map:


Jacky floated in as purple Terran, whereas JT warped in as white Protoss, and Aaron Teal Protoss.

As all three players are rather new, their early builds were rather strange... and slow.

About 5 minutes into the game (about the same time most pro players on Lost Temple would be expanding or teching to Siege tanks/dark templar/lurkers/whatever), here were the player's respective builds:


Jacky started off with a Supply depot, and followed it up with the standard barracks build. He proceeded to build a second barracks and supply depot. Of all the players, I think Jacky had the clearest idea (at this point in time anyways) of what he wanted to do to win the game... Marines... and lots of them.


Aaron, in the meantime, started off with a pylon, an extremely early assimilator, gateway, then cybernetics core. I thought at this point in time he was going for early dragoons and potentially dark templar. Then when he started his forge instead of a second gateway, I raised an eyebrow. What was he doing?

As for JT? Well...


Okay, he just started playing recently, like Jacky. This probably explains why he had 3 pylons and just one gateway, plus a forge...

All three players started scouting about 3 minutes into the game. Aaron knew that JT was a very small threat, so he decided to harrass Jacky when he stumbled upon his base. His probe survived after being chased off by Jacky's SCVs, and immediately ran off a short distance north of Jacky's base. There, I finally understood the reason for the Forge:


Cannon rush!

Jacky apparently didn't see this coming at first, as he was busy macro-ing marines. Thus, it was pretty much too late for Jacky to react when the first cannon came online, and when additional cannons came online and started firing at Jacky's barracks...


Jacky knew he was in big trouble, and even I thought he was completely screwed.

JT wasn't much help either, as his total offensive force consisted of two zealots:



Jacky, relatively new or not, knew that the entire fate of the game was in his hands. He had to do something... and fast. Then, like a ray of sunlight, inspiration struck him in the head:


Yes, the best thing to do at a time like this is to SCV rush Aaron.

Quickly collaborating with JT, Jacky asked him to go for Aaron's defensive force (which consisted of exactly one Dragoon and Zealot), with his three zealots while Jacky went for the Nexus:



A massive "WTF!???" signalled the mass confusion that greeted the Protoss camp, as Aaron was clearly caught off guard by Jacky's daring attack.


Perhaps so confused and surprised, in fact, that he didn't even bother microing his probes to try and kill the SCVs. Jacky didn't even bother going for the probes at first, concentrating his SCVs exclusively on the Nexus while his Marines provided backup fire for any pesky probes in the way:




As the Nexus's shield went down and health flowed steadily into the red, Aaron tried to erect two cannons... too little too late.

As soon as Aaron's Nexus went down, it was all over. Without enough minerals to start up a new Nexus, and his probes being popped one by one as Aaron STILL didn't bother to micro, it was GG as Aaron left the game.

Final score:



Click HERE for the replay!

Lessons learned:

1. First off, don't underestimate your opponent. Even if you're slightly less newbish than him, he could do something that will completely surprise you.

2. Cannon Rushing does NOT work against another Terran player. This isn't just true for n00bs, but true for pros and everyone in general. Click HERE for a replay demonstrating another example why.

This is game between a pro toss and terran player. As you could see, as soon as the Terran player realized that he couldn't keep the protoss player from building dual gateways in his base, he thought of the best solution: Why not move over to the toss base? In a move that astounded the Korean TV audience that was watching this game, the terran player floated his buildings and brought his SCVs over to the protoss base, BUILT A WALL ON the RAMP to keep the protoss attack force out of his camp, and proceeded to rape the protoss base from the inside out with his SCVs. Worst idea ever for the Protoss player.

3. Jacky is Gosu in minimaps. Do not play against this man if you do not want to be embarrassed.

4. Learn to tech faster than these guys. Seriously, it's almost painful to watch =P

5. Don't rush with your workers unless a situation like this occurs. This is one of the few occasions such a thing would work (the other being if your micro is better than the n00b you're playing against).

I would like to thank all three players for a suspenseful and surprising game, and for Battlereports.com for providing the second replay of a, if anything, even MORE exciting game.

~Eastside