Hoping to throw off his opponent in the must win game two, Stratus waited until there were just 2 seconds until game launch before picking Terrans.

The match started predictably enough with both players sending workers to scout out their enemy's plans and bases. Stratus, however, started to unfold a brilliant strategy. As opposed to entering his opponent's base, the SCV moved in the direction of the expansion site southwest of Zileas' outpost. As Stratus built a supply depot at his home base, he used his forward SCV to construct a barracks below Zileas in a remote area of the map.

Stratus then sent a second SCV to join the first and engaged the scouting Probe of Zileas.

The Probe finally reached Stratus' base. At this point, things may have looked strange to Zileas and he noticed that something was not quite right. Stratus had only one supply depot and no barracks at his home base, and too few SCVs for this point in the game. This was a strong warning that Stratus was using an offensive building strategy or that he had made a Command Center to fly to an island (which is what Zileas thought)

Zileas continued to build up his base by constructing a Pylon, a Gateway, and then a second Gateway. This led to an early push for Zealots.

Meanwhile, after scouting Zileas' town, Stratus used his second SCV to build a second barracks next to his first one.

When the first Barracks was completed, Stratus made a bold and surprising move. He ordered the mobile building to lift off and flew it toward the ridge above the left side of Zileas' base.

Noticing a Zealot moving towards his defenseless forward outpost, Stratus canceled the construction of his second Barracks and hid his SCV. The rubble from the destruction of the Barracks had disappeared beneath the sands of the dessert before Zileas could spot them. This was important in that it kept Zileas clueless as to what Stratus had in mind.

Zileas next sent down three Zealots toward Stratus' base. Having committed himself, he had no defenses for his main base, and so he hurried to create a Barracks and a Bunker. The one Marine that Stratus was using for scouting met up with the initial Zealot force sent by Zileas. The Marine turned and ran as fast as possible to the Bunker to defend the base.

After the barracks was completed, Stratus managed to get two Marines into the bunker as the Zealots attacked. The Bunker was not in a good position, however, to protect the minerals field and the SCVs working there. If it had been placed closer to the Minerals, Stratus would have been able to defend his workers to much greater effect.

The placement of the Bunker had the Marines just out of reach of this attack, and Stratus was forced to unload and use the Marines to attack the Zealots in the open. Stratus was also building a second Supply depot at this point, which was possibly limiting his training of Marines. In a humorous moment amidst the chaos, a Zealot and a Marine both tried to go between the Command Center and the Barracks. They continued to dance around each other, but as they were both moving, neither was attacking. Luckily, Stratus was able to run the Marine way from the Zealot before he realized what was happening. By running SCVs around the Zealots and using the range of his Marine's weapons, Stratus was able to defend against this attack.

At this point, Stratus had landed his Barracks on the high ledge behind Zileas' base and sat overlooking his Probes gathering minerals, rather than landing on low ground and trying to sneak Marines into the back side of Zileas' town. Stratus then built Marines and attempted to commit wholesale slaughter against the Probes working in the mineral fields. Unfortunately, they had not yet researched U-238 shells and did not have the range required to hit but a few of the Probes.

Zileas constructed a Cybernetics Core and was quick to train Dragoons. Using a Dragoon, he was able to get a few hits on the Marines on high ground, but since he had no units yet to spot for his troops in the valley, he could only counter attack after the Marines revealed themselves by firing on the Protoss below. This meant that neither was able to fully exploit the situation as of yet.

In a move which probably cost Stratus the game, his next building was a Factory. Building Vultures to counter incoming Zealots is a good move, but it meant that he was dividing his resources between two strategies. This also meant that precious minerals were not being used to train Marines or upgrade their range. With only 2-3 Marines in a Bunker for defense, Stratus found himself at a very vulnerable time in the game.

Zileas continued up the technology tree and constructed a Forge to plan to build Photon Cannons to defend against Vultures, and Wraiths.

Zileas then massed a group of Dragoons and Zealots, and attacked Stratus at his main base. Although Stratus had built an Engineering bay, it didn't contribute enough to his defenses. The Marines he so desperately needed to repel this attack were caught out in the open and, although they fought hard, the too few defenders lost the battle.

At this point it was simply a matter of destroying the Terran buildings until Stratus offered a hand shake across Battle.net and conceded the a very well fought and exciting game filled with surprises.