05/19/00

After I suffered beatings from [ToJ]Mark, Candle logs on to the Ithaca server and joins channel ToJ. [ToJ]Mark and Candle decide to start their games and I watched.

The players:
Candle - a very good Starcraft player; probably the best in ToJ. I've played him a lot lately and got beat every single time, but he has taught me most of my good strategies.
[ToJ]Mark - another skilled Starcraft player. His skills almost match Candle's, and the two have had brilliant fights against each other.

The match is on the ladder favorite Lost Temple.

As the countdown timer winds down, both players stick with random and let the computer decide their races.

[ToJ]Mark yellow Terran 3 o'clock

Candle brown Protoss 9 o'clock

Both players clone and start mining the precious minerals so they can purchase units and buildings. At 8 Psi, Candle builds a Pylon near his Nexus while [ToJ]Mark sends his SCV near his ramp to commence building a Supply Depot as soon as he acquired the money. With the Probe used to build the Pylon, Candle decides to scout clockwise. [ToJ]Mark scouts with his SCV that finished building his first Supply Depot.

As Candle's Probe reaches the 12 o'clock main, Candle decides to build a Gateway followed by an Assimilator.  [ToJ]Mark has started building another Supply Depot and a Barracks to complete the wall-in before Candle could find him. [ToJ]Mark's SCV is still scouting at the 12 o'clock entrance. Candle's Probe spots something very interesting at [ToJ]Mark's base: [ToJ]Mark had begun construction of another Barracks slightly behind the wall-in.

There is a pause in the action as both players build up their economy and tech up.

Candle goes Cybernetics Core, Citadel of Adun, Pylon at his choke, a Forge, Templar Archives, then a second Gateway. Out of the Gateway comes a Dark Templar and Candle builds a Robotics Facility and a Cannon at his choke to stop the likely Marines & Medics rush by [ToJ]Mark.

[ToJ]Mark gets a Refinery for gas, an Academy, and 3rd Barracks, and then a Comsat. After [ToJ]Mark's SCV finds the Cannon at Candle's base, [ToJ]Mark quickly cancels the Barracks and builds a Factory in its place. Following the Factory is an Engineering Bay then a Starport.

Candle sends his DT, a Zealot and his scouting Probe to attack. During this, he builds a Robotics Support Bay. The attack of the Zealot and Dark Templar causes [ToJ]Mark to use valuable Comsat scans and he ends up losing one of his Supply Depots. The Marines are finally able to destroy the enemy threat and Candle runs his Probe behind the minerals of the 3 o'clock natural.

[ToJ]Mark adds a Control Tower and a Machine Shop to his Starport and Factory respectively and begins construction of a second Command Center in his main. No doubt he will float it to an expansion.

Candle, not satisfied with his frontal assault on [ToJ]Mark drops two Dark Templars into [ToJ]Mark's base while expanding to his natural. The Dark Templars find themselves in the middle of two Turrets and immediately destroy the one next to the Command Center. Not noticing the one above them yet, they hack at the SCVs. Soon, one finds the other Turret and attacks it while the other runs away from the detection radius. [ToJ]Mark sends a few Marines to destroy the threat but the Turret falls before the Dark Templar goes up in a cloud of blue. [ToJ]Mark is forced to use another scanner sweep to reveal the location of his sneaky foe.

During this time, [ToJ]Mark has build two Dropships and Candle a Reaver and a High Templar. [ToJ]Mark floats his 2nd Command Center to the bottom right island while loading up infantry into his two Dropships. Candle loads up his Reaver and High Templar into his Shuttle and both go to drop their respective targets.

At the time of the drops, [ToJ]Mark had already begun construction of a second Starport.

Candle's drop on [ToJ]Mark is highly successful as the High Templar unleashes several Psionic Storms on the SCVs, greatly reducing their numbers. The Reaver destroys a newly constructed Turret next to Command Center and then the Starport that was in mid-construction before [ToJ]Mark eliminated the trespassers.

At the same exact time, [ToJ]Mark dropped two Dropships worth of infantry into Candle's natural. With almost no defense there except the two Cannons on the ledge, [ToJ]Mark easily destroys all the Probes and the Nexus. Candle brings in a Reaver and some Goons to kill the incoming forces and then rebuilds the Nexus.

[ToJ]Mark's Command Center finally landed on the island and begins building base defenses and mines the resources there.

Candle had already built a third Gateway and then spotted the island expansion with an Observer. At this time, Candle expands to his mineral only and prepares an assault on [ToJ]Mark's expansion.

Two Dragoons drop outside of the raised jungle at [ToJ]Mark's island and begin assaulting the defenses. Another Shuttle, this time with a Reaver and two Zealots drop next to the minerals. The Dragoons, with the help of the Reaver and 2 Zealots easily destroy the 6 defending Marines and one Medic and go on to raze the base. The Marines were successful in destroying the Reaver and the SCVs are forced to attack the remaining two Zealots inside the platform. The two Zealots disappear in a cloud of blue smoke, taking some SCVs with it. The Dragoons on the outside of the platform harass perimeter buildings which consisted of... a single Refinery.

Four more Zealots are called to action and [ToJ]Mark lifts of his Command Center in hopes of saving it. It starts floating to the 3 o'clock natural while a Dropship with infantry and another with a Siege Tank comes in and unloads their cargo outside the platform. The two Dragoons are easily eliminated. Candle drops two more Dragoons on the island and takes down the Refinery before the Tank sieges right next to the platform. It opens fire on the Dragoons and Zealots and they are destroyed.

[ToJ]Mark transfers his infantry onto the platform and drops two Siege Tanks on his expansion while he floats his Command Center back to the island. Candle takes the 12 o'clock main and drops two Dragoons next to one Tank and a High Templar next to the other at the island. The High Templar summons a storm and kills all the infantry and the Tanks finally remove the threat but the damage had already been done. Throughout this massive battle over the island, Candle had expanded to his mineral only, the 12 o'clock main, and now the 6 o'clock main.

Click here for an animation of this epic island battle.

At this point, the only upgrade is Level 1 Ground Attack for Candle.

[ToJ]Mark takes his natural knowing he is behind on resources and scans the 6 o'clock main and is surprised to find another expansion. At the same time, he sends a single cloaked Wraith to harass the 12 o'clock main.

Candle, wanting even more resources, expands at the 6 o'clock expansion reinforcing it with three Goons.

Candle, having a network of Observers, finds the new expansion and decides to eliminate it. He drops some Zealots and Goons on the cliff to destroy the 3 Tanks [ToJ]Mark had placed for defense. After the massive firepower was eliminated, Candle dropped the 3 o'clock natural with a Reaver and some Zealots. [ToJ]Mark's Siege Tanks placed throughout his main destroy the Zealots and Reaver pulls back away from the fire. Some Marines destroy it after losing some SCVs and Marines.

Tired of defending the numerous drops, [ToJ]Mark decides to do one of his own. He loads a Dropship with Marines and Medics and sends them around to the 6 o'clock main.

The infantry is dropped next to the Nexus and they quickly destroy the Probes. The three Dragoons at the 6 o'clock natural are called to duty and try to slow down the destruction of the base. Back at the 6 o'clock main, the M&Ms destroyed the Nexus and two other Dragoons sent by Candle are sitting right next to them, but none of them attack each other as they are out of range. This creates a rather silly scene as [ToJ]Mark could've very easily destroyed the two Dragoons.

At the 12 o'clock main, Candle had constructed another Robotics Facility and a Stargate. He also expanded to the 12 o'clock natural in order to compensate for the loss of the 6 o'clock main. Almost at the exact same time Candle begun warping in the new expansion, [ToJ]Mark scanned it and decided to attack it.

[ToJ]Mark drops his infantry below the Assimilator and Candle drops two of his Reavers there to defend. He also sends two Dragoons and a Corsair to kill the Dropship. At the same time, [ToJ]Mark's tanks open fire on some Dragoons and Zealots sitting outside of his base and Candle sends them in to attack. He elects to drop some Goons inside the base next to some Tanks to minimize the damage the Goons receive. The combined forces of [ToJ]Mark's tanks and miscellaneous infantry kills the attack force sustaining only minor damage. Candle's defense easily overpower the infantry and they leave a puddle of blood at the new expansion.

Not being done yet, [ToJ]Mark dropped 3 Tanks, 3 Marines, and a Medic on the 12 o'clock cliff. Without sieging, the Tanks open fire and prompts Candle to drop two Reavers on the cliff. The Reavers are overpowered and destroyed taking down a Tank and 2 Marines. The remaining Tanks siege and start pounding on the brand new expansion.

Candle runs his Probes out of that expansion and runs them to the 6 o'clock natural. [ToJ]Mark immediately drops some Tanks there and Candle runs the Probes back to the 12 o'clock main. Candle then sends in about 8 dragoons to remove the Tanks and put the pilot under negotiation.

[ToJ]Mark trying to be sneaky, starts building a Command Center at the 12 o'clock mineral only. The only problem was, there were 2 Observers sitting there watching the whole time. Candle sends in four Dragoons to destroy the Command Center.

At this time, Candle sends his Probes that were originally from the 12 o'clock natural now in rubbles and sends them to the 6 o'clock natural and takes the 6 o'clock main back.

[ToJ]Mark now tries to take the 12 o'clock natural he just destroyed and builds a Command Center.

And then, Candle reveals his master plan...

Candle had been building Carriers from five Stargates at the 12 o'clock main. He sends them out to destroy the 3 o'clock natural and destroys it quickly. [ToJ]Mark, realizing he was dead, attacks with all his units at the 6 o'clock main and the 9 o'clock bases.

Candle calmly removes some of his Carriers from attacking and sends them back to defend. After Candle resumed attacking the bottom right island expansion, [ToJ]Mark surrendered.

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Thanks for reading my first BR and please leave comments.