At first I thought it fairly amusing, but after about 20 minutes of the annoyance, and about 50 permutations of the same general bragging,  I couldn't bear it any longer.  I could have been rational about it, and squelched him, like most of the channel had already, but I just could not let it go.  He would profess his superiority to everyone in the channel, and yet he refused to play anyone because they didn't meet his 1200+ standards.  I appealed to his 12 years, with an offer of instant fame (snicker), that I would BR any challenge that he accepted, regardless of the result.  Eventually he agreed and we ended up with an observed version of Showdown (his favorite map). A guy called HeartCutter showed up, and just as we were all worshipping him, and licking our chops for NinoBrown's beatdown he explained that he wasn't the real Heartcutter.  Nevertheless we started, all hoping that NinoBrown would be crushed.

-Heartcutter- started with an infantry build, and basically used them as the majority of his forces throughout the game.  His build went something like:  8 supply, 10 rax, 12 supply, 13 rax. He then went academy and engineering bay even before building factories.             

NinoBrown went lurkers knowing that his opponent was terran.  His build order went something like 8 pool 10 extractor then another hatch.  We waited to see whether he was going mutas or lurkers, and we were answered with a hydralisk den.  A spire followed a while later.

ON WITH THE GAME...

All three of the observers; myself, Gulp, and WisestYoda were rooting for Heartcutter, and hating NinoBrown.  We started to get worried however when we saw that the two general BO's that the players were heading for were so incompatible.  It was like watching a car crash in slow motion, as we saw Heartcutter mass up marines, while NinoBrown headed straight for lurkers.   NinoBrown scouted very well with a drone and ovys knowing just where to put them over the cliffs, so they couldn't be reached, but could see over the narrow passage that winds through the map.  When Heartcutter sent out an scv, its mission was extremely important, as Heartcutter had no idea that NinoBrown was teching fast to the lurker aspect.  Luckily the SCV was none other than PeonSanders (my very namesake).  He was detected as he ran past an overlord at break neck speed, and NinoBrown countered by making two zerglings.  PeonSanders fakes to the right, and just as it looks as if he is trapped he cuts back, and laughs, 2 zerglings vs PeonSanders, I mock your 25 mineral rabbits.

Thanks to Peon Sanders insane moves,  it was evident to HeartCutter what NinoBrown was doing, and he knew he would have to act quickly as pure medarines don't usually fend off lurkers that well.  He sent about half of his medarine force to try and slow NinoBrown's tech to lurkers, take out some probes and take advantage of his superior troop count.  The trouble was he didnt act decisively enough, and his control group of units sat around  at the entrance to NinoBrown's base for quite some time before attacking.  By the time they did attack, NinoBrown had well advance knowledge due to his ovys which were nicely placed, and had 3 sunkens waiting for them.  The marines attempted to pull back but only one survived, his name is Bob and he had 20/40 health.  He met up with his friend Jack who was an unlikely hero, as in the initial attack he had refused to join his company into the valley of death, and had remained at the choke.  NinoBrown morphed 5 hydras into lurkers knowing that with a failed mini attack, this would be as good a time as any.  The lurkers started to make their way down the windy passage that connects the two mains, when Bob and Jack interupt their lazy stroll.  At first their rifles seemed insignificant, but as they stealthily pursued the lurkers, they came close to killing  one of the six.  Not wanting to lose such an investment to 2 pathetic marines, NinoBrown was forced to burrow them.  Jack was forced to watch Bob die in front of his eyes, before succumbing to the deadly spines.  Their deaths were not in vain however, as the burrowing bought Heartcutter about 30 seconds to further prepare.

        The conflict finally took place between 5 lurkers 2 siege tanks and a control group of medarines.  Again, a players tentativeness came into play, as instead of rushing in with his lurkers NinoBrown preferred to push by moving and then burrowing, and then moving.  His lurker micro was very poor, and though green wasn't that great at microing himself, he was good enough to get his moneys worth from his marines.  He would stim them when the lurkers unburrowed, rush in and then as soon as the lurkers burrowed, rush out, all the while conserving comsat energy.  If NinoBrown had been more aggressive this strategy wouldn't have worked. (But if NinoBrown had real skills, instead of those he just talks about, then he wouldn't be NinoBrown now would he?) NinoBrown lost 2 lurkers in the initial entrance to the base, and then immediately ran to the peon line with the remaining three, and some reinforcements.  I thought this was a good play at the time, but in retrospect NinoBrown should have run right at the defenses instead of slowly losing his number as he walked around the wall of supply depots.  Heartcutter really did a good job using his buildings to full advantage, as siege tanks on the interior of the wall-in picked off lurkers that were on the move.  The lurkers didnt go in as close as  they should have been to the minerals, and this really hurt the attacks effectiveness. 

I attribute bad lurker placement to two factors: the fact that Heartcutter had walled the side of his peon line off, and NinoBrowns stupidity.  After having such an advantage in unit strength, NinoBrown ultimately would have to come to terms with his unqualified failure.            

        Now was a time for both players to reassess their situations, and this, I think is where the game fell apart for NinoBrown.  I think NinoBrown was accustomed to his lurker ploy being effective, as he didnt seem to have a plan after his attack failed.  He recognized two things that would help him out however, he saw that Heartcutter was going to need science vessels to detect lurkers, and also that Heartcutter was building an extra CC to float to his island expansion.  Accordingly he built a spire, and built scourge to stop science vessels, and flew two down where Heartcutter would be floating his CC.  He also recognized the need to expand.  What he did not realize however is that hatcheries do not spontaneously generate minerals.  His expansions never had more than 5 drones a piece, not even one per patch, and he couldnt maynard any from his main, because it was in the same predicament.  He also had way too few hatcheries, as he didnt seem to build anything during his botched lurker attack.  Once I noticed this, and then looked at the saturated  peon line of Heartcutter, I sung a little song, and generally celebrated that I was going to be able to laugh at NinoBrown afterward.  

                                                                                                                                                                Heartcutter decided that despite the fact that lurkers were in play, he should continue to pump medarines as the major part of his army, using only a couple siege tanks with science vessels to take care of lurkers.  During the whole game, Heartcutter pumped marines out of his ever increasing number of barracks.  Here is an update of the minimap.  I call NinoBrown's hatcheries expansions only in the most literal sense of the word, as they probably only barely recovered the 600 mineral investment in them.               Heartcutter had also begun to amass a huge force of medarines and a few siege tanks and put them defending one of the many chokes.  This would later be an attacking force, but not until after a horrifyingly bloodly battle with some lurkers.                                       

Heartcutter began to assert himself with his force in the center of the map, but he only had his one SV for detection, and had taken his finger off the comsat hotkey.  NinoBrown flew scourge around the back of the medarine force, and took out the SV just as the medarines came just too close to 5 burrowed lurkers.  What ensued wasnt pretty.

        NinoBrown looked to press what would seem like a great advantage for him, as Heartcutter had lost over half of his m&m's in the recent battle.  He loaded up a massive force of about 10 hydras into ovys and sent them down for a drop in the back of Heartcutters base.  What he didnt bring were lurkers, and used hydras in one of their worst applications, against marines.  The Hydras were enjoying some success, despite their 0/0 upgrades, until a small group of 1/1 medarines decided to beat them into soup (the recipe is on another report).  Heartcutter forgot to repair, so the hydras could at least justify their short lives, knowing that they had destroyed the critical... control tower.  NinoBrown had wanted to make a two pronged attack, I think, as 3 lurkers tried to attack through the front door, but due to more brilliant micro, they got within tank range, and then died to 8 marines.  What was becoming increasingly apparent, was that due to NinoBrown's third world economy, he simply couldnt keep up with the ever blinking barracks of Heartcutter.  Heartcutter quickly assembled a medarine force once again, and began to push toward the only expansion NinoBrown was actually seriously mining from.  Heartcutter had transferred his peons that had mined out his main to his island expansion, finished mining out that expansion, and started constructing a new expansion at his natural.  NinoBrown was a conservationist, and hadn't even finished mining his main.  He also  expanded to his natural, bringing his total number of expansions to 4, but having no more than that number of drones mining at each (on average).  

                                                                            Heartcutter once again pushed up to the NinoBrown's middle expansion, raining arclite down on the hatcheries.  With such low mineral intake, NinoBrown couldn't amass enough troops to take down a force of 1 science vessel, 12 medarines, and 1 siege tank, (and who could, its just too strong).  Faced with the prospect of fighting like a man and trying to get back into the game (he did have 3 lurkers IN his expansion), NinoBrown....mustered up his faculties and...

GAVE UP!!!!!!!

Sure, I think Heartcutter would have beaten NinoBrown anyway, just due to economics, but it just completed NinoBrown's character sketch.  He wanders into a room full of strangers, professes his superiority due to his meaningless ladder rank, refuses to play people, then when he does he demonstrates NO ability whatsoever, and just gives up.

It didn't make for a good ending to a BR, thats true.  So why did I post this?  SO that everyone in nohunters that day, who were getting pissed at NinoBrown, and wanted him to see him chew on his words, can witness his failure.  SO there it is-  magnificent isnt it...  who says there is no moral order to the cosmos...