Lost Temple

Ok so at 2008’s Blizzcon I played a match on this map and it was great because when the game started I didn’t recognize it, but someone over my shoulder said “Hey it’s Lost Temple!” and then I knew exactly what was going on. Now that a large size map image is out I’m able to remember a lot of this great game I played, so it’s helpful to click the link and have it open while reading.

It’s PvP on LT and I’m at the 9 o’clock spot and my opponent is at 12 o’clock. I send out my scout and find his town immediately going clockwise with my scouting path and due to the speed of me finding him, he sends his scout to me. What I usually do with my scouting probes is I send them to a remote starting spot or natural expansion and take over from there in case trouble arises so my scouting probe ends up at 6 o’clock starting spot.

I’m building a pylon on my cliff beside my ramp when I notice an army down there. I have to quickly respond and keep the battle on the ramp since I don’t have nearly the army that’s waiting for me. We exchange blows but the game has become containment and I’m stuck in my base. Several times we’ll exchange blows but each time his army feels larger and larger. I realize he’s taken his natural expansion and I’m still trying to respond to this offensive onslaught.

I’m behind now and I’m unable to go down my ramp, so I have my 6 o’clock probe begin building at that starting spot. I’ve moved into a much more defensive posture and am teching to observers to see what else might be going on, all the while an army lurks just outside of reach below my cliff but outside my expansion, so below the gold expansion between us.

At the time I could have responded multiple ways, but I was in a very BC mindset and decided to go for dark templar. So I’m teching up and I suppose my opponent thinks I’m too quiet, and before I realize it, my 6 o’clock town is under attack. I just just gotten a few probes going down there too but didn’t dedicate enough time to setup defenses. Also since I’m teching I’m trying to make the most of my cash and praying that he didn’t think that I’d have made an escape at any point since I’m practically fully contained. However his scouting saved him at that point. Nowadays I feel really dumb for having let that expansion die out because I could have just had one pylon and warp gates and could have saved it easily.

So I’m back to one base and I have some observers out. I send them out and notice nothing going on at 6 or 3. He does have his natural but he’s also starting to attack the terrain at the gold minerals between us. Dark templar are just inches away now. I desperately search his base and notice no observers. My first pair of DT comes out and I did something incredibly bold and stupid. I send them out to ward off the army so that I can get established at my natural expansion. Two dark templar alone against protoss don’t do too much damage, but it does force him to retreat to his natural with cannons. I’m able to take out a few units as well but now he knows what’s going on and one observer is all it will take to break my game.

I secure my expansion and build stalkers (with blink) and dark templar alone to fight off a mixed army of zealots, stalkers, nullifiers. When he finally gets observers he foolishly rallied them or did something crazy where they moved to the front of battle and I was just waiting with my stalkers for that and picked them off giving my DT more breathing room. The battle continues into his natural which is taken down and the gg occurs.

Probably not as exciting as the recent battle report: http://www.starcraft2.com/features/battlereports/4.xml but seeing the map helped visualize it. Also the map is so classic and they fixed the 12 vs 3 starting spot craziness so it’s cool to remember a lot of memorable games on LT. I remember this crazy reaver drop madness match 2v2 that I played that was totally awesome in SC1. I can’t wait for this thing to finally come out or even beta sheesh!