"i'm caucasianally challenged ok?"
-ProtectorOfAuir
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| Kakakakakaru calls out Mark4 | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 08/23/99 07:08 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 7, Max: 10, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for YourRoleModel: 9.3626 |   | 
The Neverending Challenge:
Your role model was hanging out in nohunters when Upgraded Kakaru asked me to watch and report on a game where he would fight Holy Anarchy. Kakaru balked at the idea of playing on a map that didn't have a zerg gimmie, but finally agreed to play on Fading Realm. Unfortunately, I was dropped from the game.
Again, I tried to watch game after game, but some disaster of lag would rear it's ugly heat. Kakaru was very... how do I put this? Persistant! Finally however, I gave up on the notion of reporting a game and agreed to partner with Mark4 in a 2-2, which I had asked for in an e-mail days earlier. While Mark4 and I discussed making a game, challenges rang out from Kakaru.
Kakaru repeated challenges to Mark4, then he spammed the bots to challenge his nemesis... finally Kakaru started talking about how Mark4 thought he was great and could sit there ignoring people. Pkt7:Schizo.xls sounded in his agreement that Mark4 was nothing more than an average player with a large attitude...
...believe me folks, I wanted to partner with Mark4 in a game, but deep down, I knew he needed to have a match with Upgraded Kakaru, so I told him, "Play him and I'll report it."
You see, underneath the tough exterior of Mark4 (the battlenet persona) lies a soldier with a tough exterior in real life... ...and under that soldier's tough exterior is an inner child with a tough exterior... ...but under that inner child, there was an inner-inner child that was secretly bawling his eyes out at the harsh comment. Now you understand why this battle had to take place, and now you understand why Mark4 just might not have been at the top of his game that night.
It is my honor to present to you...
The Fading Realm:
Upgraded Kakaru didn't want to play on The Fading Realm, but he agreed because he was the challenger. Much like a reversed Discovery, Realm is a BroodWar Ladder map with a Z path between the bases.
Kakaru chose zerg and started in the upper left.
Mark4 chose protoss and started in the lower right.
Persistance:
Upgraded Kakaru scouts with his first overlord and prepares to power out of multiple hatcheries at his main. Mark4 prepares a defensively structured double gate and sends a probe to scout.
Earlier that very night, YourRoleModel had been beaten soundly by Mark4 on this very same map, with these very same races. I asked Mark4 what I could have done instead, and he told me that I should have made zerglings out of five hatcheries and ran him over.
Upgraded Kakaru must have listened.
It wasn't long before upgraded Kakaru had three hatcheries, and soon, one of those became a Lair. Kakaru's deadly plan was to run Mark4 over with about 36 lings and 6 lurkers. Mark4 had suspicions that Kakaru would be powering, based on experience, and sent a zealot to check...
As we know from previous reports, Mark4 is lax in training his Zealots to be fit. The portly warrior was caught by a horde of zerglings and ripped to shreds.
 Fortunately for Mark4, he had anticipated a power strike early, and was confident that his zealots, combined with his building and cannon placement, could hold off a large number of zerglings. Not only that, but Mark4 was sporting three early templar and a dark templar that was patroling the map. Kakaru sent wave after wave of zerglings and lurkers to rally at the ramp descending into the protoss camp. The dark templar slashed and destroyed what he could, but the numbers were too large... too large maybe, for Mark4's defensive setup. The stealthy dark templar continued to whittle down the number of attacking zerg forces, even destroying a lurker.
Kakaru attacked. Zerglings died vainly trying to fight their way through small cracks in the Protoss defensive build. Two photon cannons fired away from behind the two gateways, a third photon cannon prevented the zerglings from circling the base to the north. Zealots started to die, but it looked like Mark4 had held his defense... then Lurkers rushed in, three of them, they burrowed separately and attacked the gateways as more zerglings poured to the attack. The gateways were billowing clouds of psionic energy as they slowy were torn apart... then STORM... the three templar that Mark4 were holding on defense lashed out with the most powerful spell in the game and turned the tide of the battle. They killed the lurkers without detection, just by watching the spines.
Below, you'll see a picture of Mark4's defensive formation.
This battle lasted several minutes, but the formation held.
Mark4 took this opportunity to expand to the southwest mineral and gas node. Unfortunately for Mark4, he had overestimated the degree to which he had crippled Upgraded Kakaru's power attack. Back at the zerg main, a force larger than the force just sent was prepared. Hydras accompanied the Lurkers and Zerglings this time, and they poured forth yet again.
 Kakaru spotted Mark4's lightly defended expansion, which had just finished warping in, and broke off a small unit of crack zerg troops to destroy it. The small number of cannons and the Dark Templar that were there were no match for the zerg. Kakaru had learned from his last attack, and this time, an overlord that had been floating nearby accompanied the crawling army of doom. Mark4 had lost his expansion and was in danger of losing his main base, but Mark4's hordes and hordes of probes had been busy working to provide him more troops, and his defensive minded build would serve him well. Kakaru's attack on the Protoss Main base was a failure... still the expansion was destroyed, and Kakaru had just expanded to his northeast mineral spot sometime during the destruction of Mark4's expansion. Kakaru looked to keep the pressure on and go ahead in the mineral count.
 Mark4 Strikes Back:
Unfortunately for UpgradedKakaru, he had sent the overlord over his expansion to assist in the earlier battle... no detection existed at the site. Mark4 moved to expand to his southwestern site yet again, and to ensure that Kakaru would have other things to consider, Mark4 ordered 4 of his elite dark templar and a zealot to attack the budding zerg expansion. The zealot scouted first, proving the hunch that Kakaru had expanded correct. Several zerglings destroyed the zealot, but found themselves disemboweled in killing strikes from the dark templar. Nearly all of UpgradedKakaru's drones were eviscerated, and the expansion site was destroyed. Mark4 retreated his forces to his new expansion and concentrated on powering there.
UpgradedKakaru quickly rebuilt his northeastern site and shortly thereafter, he aslo prepared to expand to the central eastern site. The defenses at Kakaru's northeastern site were formidable and included three sunken colonies, some lurkers, and a good number of hydras. Upgraded Kakaru also stationed forces at the other ramp leading up and down into his main base.
Mark4 was gathering steam for his Protoss Juggernaut though, and a sizable number of mixed units gathered in the middle of the map. Notably lacking from his forces were archons, dark archons, and reavers... but I suppose Mark4 was hoping that Psionic Storm would allow for the difference.
When Mark4's scouts discovered a budding expansion at the east central site, the Protoss army attacked. Many protoss warriors lost their lives during the battle at Fading Realm Gorge, but Mark4 won through to the expansion and irradicated it. A still sizable army of protoss warriors pooled at the ramp leading up to Upgraded Kakaru's now key expansion. If Mark4 takes this site, the game is over.
 The protoss rushed to the attack. Zealots ran up the hill, taking shots from all the zerg forces to allow the templar those precious seconds needed to cast storm and destroy the lurkers. Many zealots died, but storm found all three lurkers. Upgraded Kakaru had fought valiently, but... wait... a large number of newly hatched zerglings and hydras rush in from the main base and save the day. Mark4's sizable attack force has been decimated.
A Tense Calm:
Kakaru knows that he can't attack now, with the remains of his army, so he wisely expands again to the site at 3:00. Mark4 hasn't been idle at home though, and his army is quicky rolling again. The protoss also expand to the west central expasion. Both players are now at equal expansions, and by my calculations, this favors the protoss. Kakaru had been building up a large army of queens however...
End Game:
Scouting and harrassing with newly formed corsair from a single StarGate, Mark4 gets an idea of what he is up against. He orders his protoss forces to expand once again to the center mineral site and construct a firebase of cannons. After some harrassment from queens and cracklings, Mark4 puts his boot down and establishes control of the center of the map. By this time, the protoss juggernaut has reached an enormous size and Mark4 orders the destruction of the zerg infestation at 3:00.
The queens performed admirably, instantly killing about eight valuable protoss units. Unfortunately, their energy was spent long before the massive protoss army could be converted into ravenous broodlings. Upgraded Kakaru was still jabbing persistantly, but he couldn't stay in the fight and his expansions were overrun by the stalwart protoss units.
Upgraded Kakaru regrouped his queens as his northeastern expansion was falling and combined them with a crackling and drone drop on Mark4's center expansion. Unfortunately, drones < zealots. Kakaru had fought hard, but he could not hold back the Purple Tide that is Mark4's Protoss. I suggested that Mark4 prepare a special treat for his challenger that had spammed him so vehimently for this matchup, and Mark4 was happy to oblige. Now I can proudly say I'm not the only one to suffer this fate.
Lesson's Learned:
A - Zerg must outexpand Protoss in order to win.
B - Protoss can wallin effectively.
C - What could Kakaru have done? Perhaps after destroying Mark4's first expansion attempt, Kakaru could have placed a hatchery at the plateau leading into Mark4's base and expanded on top of Mark4's recently destroyed expansion. Kakaru's only other major victory came on the defensive, so I think that this strategy might have served him better, who knows...
D - Don't harrass people for not responding to you. They might be in a conversation with someone else, and receiving other messages even then. Mark4 has never claimed to be a godly player to me, and he names players like Thorn and Whoop when asked who is good. That doesn't strike me as arrogant.
E - Enjoy the minimap battle... Thank Kakaru for throwning so many forces away to make this a nice animation.
I have to admit, Kakaru went down, but he sure went down fighting... good game to both players.
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