The battle begins on a cold morning on the oft-bloodied fields of the Lost Temple. Both generals elect not to select an army, but leave their destiny to chance and beyond the hands of both man and Zerg. X'Ds~Grrrr... commands a newly evolved Hatchery in the 12 o'clock position, while D22-soso's nexus warps in at the six o'clock starting plateau. X'Ds~Grrrr... hatches drones at a furious pace and eschews evolving an immediate second Hatchery to produce an Overlord instead. His initial Overlord is sent scouting for the enemy towards the three o'clock starting location and so is destined not to find the Protoss for some time to come. D22-soso's Protoss warps in a Pylon and Gateway in short order and sends a Probe out to find the hated Zerg.

The Zerg are shortly discovered when the probe finds the hatchery that X'Ds~Grrrr... is evolving at his low ground expansion. X'Ds~Grrrr... also has a Spawning Pool evolving in preparation for the hatching of endless Zergling waves that the Zerg are so infamous for. The two combatants continue to muster their forces with an Extractor, a Forge, and a pair of Zealots being warped in by D22-soso. Both warriors then decide to take defensive combat stances, as D22-soso places three zealots on his ramp and X'Ds~Grrrr... has a half dozen Zerglings patrol the edge of his base.

The action commences when X'Ds~Grrrr... sends his Zerglings into the valley below D22-soso's base to prevent soso from expanding there. X'Ds~Grrrr... then builds a third Hatchery and a Hydralisk Den and begins to hatch a veritable horde of Hydralisks. D22-soso, growing tired of the Overlords flying over his base, builds a Dragoon to drive them off. He also constructs a Citadel of Adun and several Photon Cannon to keep his base clear of the Zerg menace. Hydralisks now join the Zergling swarm outside of D22-soso's base in the continuing effort to pin soso to his starting plateau. With all of these units massed outside D22-soso's base, X'Ds~Grrrr... decides that it is time to attack. Zerglings charge up the ramp with a swarm of Hydralisks providing cover fire and the Zerg force engages the defending Zealots in a furious battle, but using the advantage of higher ground the Zealots prevail. With his swarm now severely depleted, X'Ds~Grrrr... pulls his surviving troops back to the center of the battlefield.

With the forced ejection of the Zerg presence from below his plateau, D22-soso quickly expands to the resource there and positions his newly arrived High Templar into position to defend his new nexus. D22-soso also prepares to take the war to the air when his first Stargate warps onto the field. X'Ds~Grrrr... is only momentarily set back by his defeat on the ramp, and in impressively quick fashion gathers another 24 Hydralisks in the middle for a second offensive. Always prepared for any future contingency, X'Ds~Grrrr... also evolves a Queens Nest and a Spire while rapidly expanding to the other two starting positions. D22-soso expects a wave of Zerg to attack him soon and in preparation for the assault warps in an additional pair of Gateways to bolster his legion of Zealots and Dragoons. The Hydralisks continue to gather and occasionally X'Ds~Grrrr... scouts the defenses of D22-soso's singular expansion, but the buildup continues unabated. The war in the air seems ready to take off when D22-soso launches a pair of Corsairs to hunt for the ponderous Overlords, while on the other side of the battlefield a pair of Mutalisks takes to the air above Grrr's creep.

The three dozen Hydralisks in the middle of the map seem confident in their position, but then as one of their number dies to the blade of an unseen assailant they are shaken and flee the field. With the Hydralisks having no Overlord nearby to detect the invisible Dark Templar, a single Dark Templar routes the entire Hydralisk horde back to their base. Once the Hydralisks obtain proper Overlord support, they begin what may very well be a march of destruction on the Protoss expansion. This march is then abruptly broken by the thunder of a pair of Psionic Storms rending many of the Hydralisks into their component pieces. Zealots drive off the remaining Hydralisks and both sides now ponder their new tactical positions.

X'Ds~Grrrr... begins to build air units to destroy the Protoss defenses, morphing in a trio of Devourers and half a dozen Guardians. These forces reinforced with another group of the omnipresent Hydralisks engage the Protoss defenses of the lower expansion once more. D22-soso has constructed Photon cannons to reinforce his defensive perimeter, but these are no match for the superior range and firepower of X'Ds~Grrrr...'s Guardians. The battle goes back and forth with Archons and Psionic Storm dueling Guardians and Hydralisks, but eventually the Guardians are destroyed after wreaking havoc on the Protoss cannon wall. D22-soso takes this opportunity to expand again to the minerals that are just north of his plateau. D22-soso decides to take to the offensive, but merely throws away the lives of a few Zealots against the expansion of X'Ds~Grrrr...'s main base in a futile probing attack. D22-soso then sends some additional Zealots at the defenses at the Zerg nine o'clock expansion, but a Sunken Colony and a handful of Hydralisks narrowly wipe them out. As the war progresses the upgrades are becoming a telling factor in the conflict, with D22-soso having all three ground attack upgrades and X'Ds~Grrrr... only having a single armor upgrade and no attack upgrades for his ground forces

The battle for the middle has not abated with Templar again holding the Zerg swarms at bay with the power of Psionic Storm. With the battle still raging for the center of the battlefield, D22-soso sends a group of Corsairs, Zealots and Templar to the Zerg nine o'clock expansion and when a Psionic Storm annihilates the defending Hydralisks the expansion quickly falls. An attack of three dozen Hydralisks moves in on the mineral expansion just north of D22-soso's main base, but this attack fails when Dragoons and High Templar intercept the attack. The action continues hot and heavy as yet another Zerg assault follows closely on the heels of the last. This time X'Ds~Grrrr... brings Queen support in an attempt to destroy the hated Templar before they are able to unleash their psychic power. One Templar does fall to the lethal Broodlings bursting from his chest, but another Templar remains, and he cripples the attacking Mutalisks and Hydralisks with devastating psychic lightning.

X'Ds~Grrrr... has seemingly grown tired of the Templar and evolves a pair of hulking Ultralisks to break through the defensive web that D22-soso has erected. These Ultralisks are sent crashing in to the proud Zealot line, but despite assistance from Hydralisks and Mutalisks the attack disperses and is destroyed. All about the battlefield Psionic Storm seems to be turning the tide with large numbers of Mutalisks exploding under waves of psionic energy. X'Ds~Grrrr... fights back in the air with the explosive Scourge destroying a number of the nimble Protoss Corsairs. One look at X'Ds~Grrrr...'s three o'clock expansion reveals how he keeps up the brutal attacks: he has four Hatcheries at this expansion alone.

The tide now seems to be turning with D22-soso materializing a nexus on the nine o'clock starting plateau that was once held by the Zerg horde. D22-soso now firmly controls the middle; an area long controlled dominated by the presence of Hydralisks. Both players seem to be regrouping at this point and taking stock of the situation, and a lull grips the battlefield for a few minutes. During this time there is some sparring and even an expansion or two attacked, but no action to compare with the massive battles that have come before. X'Ds~Grrrr... begins to fall further on the defensive as D22-soso makes small but lethal attacks with a handful of units, including the feared Protoss Reavers.

After a while of sparring in this fashion, D22-soso performs a shuttle drop of a Reaver and Archon ally behind the minerals of the Zerg three o'clock expansion. This attack is quickly foiled when nearby Scourge destroy the transporting Shuttle and Hydralisks move in for the kill. The true nature of the attack is revealed when a much larger assault force attacks the Hatchery at the base of the expansion. Dragoons and Archons beat on the defenses and the situation looks dire for the Zerg until nearly two dozen Hydralisks and ten Guardians come to the rescue. D22-soso appears to have been waiting for these reinforcements to arrive, as several Templar rush to the front and with well-placed Psionic storms shatter the Zerg cavalry once more. The attack on the expansion continues unabated and although weakened by the Zerg defenses and reinforcements, the Protoss force succeeds in wiping out both the low and high ground bases at the three o'clock position. With only the Hatcheries at his original base of operations remaining, X'Ds~Grrrr... sees the writing on the walls and surrenders before the might and persistence of his Protoss foe.

Victor: D22-soso

The battlefield of Lost Temple is the same, but the situation is new. D22-soso evolves his first Hatchery in the twelve o'clock position that was held by his foe in the previous match. X'Ds~Grrrr... appears with his Command Center at the three o'clock position. D22-soso immediately sends his Overlord scouting towards X'Ds~Grrrr...'s base and it becomes clear that the two opponents will know of the others position from very early in the game. They both start building their workers and D22-soso tries to use the trick of building an Extractor and the canceling it to hatch an extra drone before he starting construction of another Overlord, but inexplicably cancels the Egg holding a nascent Drone along with his Extractor. X'Ds~Grrrr... builds a Barracks first and then a Supply Depot to provide supplies for the multitude of marines that are sure to come.

D22-soso rapidly puts up a second Hatchery, but he elects to build conservatively, placing the Hatchery on his home creep and not at the nearby set of resources below his base. On the other hand X'Ds~Grrrr... appears to be preparing to build a battalion of marines when he immediately begins construction of a second Barracks. Grrr's sends out a brave SCV to scout for the location of the Zerg, and possibly already having seen D22-soso's early Overlord, quickly verifies the location of D22-soso's Hatcheries. His SCV radios in for help and it does not take long for a pair of marines to arrive on the scene. The Marines, revolted by the creep covered ground, open fire on a defenseless Zerg Hatchery. The Hatchery doesn't remain defenseless for long as a number of Zerglings hatch and fall upon the brave Marines and SCV. The Marines fight gallantly, but despite the arrival of a pair of reinforcements, the seemingly endless Zerglings force the Marines to fall back to their base.

At the Terran base there is plenty of ongoing construction activity as numerous Supply Depots and an Academy are erected to provide support for X'Ds~Grrrr...'s growing infantry force. Marines and Medics begin to gather at the top of the ramp awaiting the signal to attack. D22-soso's Zerg are also active with a Hydralisk Den morphing into existence and a new expansion morphing at the nine o'clock expansion. Zerglings mill about just outside the low ground expansion waiting for a chance to destroy the hated Terrans.

Alas, the Terran force proves too strong for the Zerg defenders when a force of Medics and Marines comes barreling down the ramp and tosses aside the waiting Zerglings like chaff in the wind. The Marines do not stop there, and they continue their march straight to the Zerg base and lay waste to the 2 Sunken Colonies and the few Hydralisks that guard the ramp into the Zerg base proper. All seems lost for the Zerg until D22-soso counterattacks with his Drones and a third Creep Colony finishes transforming to a Sunken Colony. The tide turns and the Marines are left broken on the ground. The victory does not come without a cost to D22-soso, as many of the Drones who drove off the Marines gave up their lives in the effort and thus the Zerg economy is temporarily crippled.

D22-soso realizes the gravity of the situation and rapidly rebuilds his drones as he can, while simultaneously evolving a Lurker to guard his plateau's ramp against the Terran onslaught. X'Ds~Grrrr... attempts to consolidate his position by expanding to his natural secondary expansion while at the same time constructing a third Barracks and a Factory to seal the fate of the Zerg. Both combatants then cautiously scout the other with workers and prepare to execute their strategies. X'Ds~Grrrr...'s gathers large numbers of Marines, Medics and Firebats at his low ground choke point, leaving them under the detection radius of a hastily constucted missile turret to deter incoming Lurkers. With his entrance now well defended he builds a pair of Starports and commences the construction of Wraiths. X'Ds~Grrrr... hopes that they will be the unit to deliver the deathblow to the Zerg Horde. Back at the Zerg base D22-soso continues to rebuild his economy and at the same time evolves a Queens Nest.

A lone scouting SCV discovers the Zerg expansion at the nine o'clock position and the mass of Marines, Medics and Firebats march out double time on a path to remove that base from their commanders maps. On their way to destroy this Zerg infestation they gun down a subterranean Lurker who was unfortunate enough to be detected in their marching path. D22-soso senses that the time is right to unleash his masterstroke on Grrr and drops the five Lurkers he has carefully been building directly on top of Grrr's base. A single missile turret attempts to destroy the incoming Overlords, but to no avail as the Lurkers descend on the Terran base and destroy the solitary tower that is defending it. The Lurkers are able to destroy a fair number of buildings and leave the base in flames, but Wraiths arrive on the scene and slowly destroy all of the Lurkers with the assistance of cloak detecting Scanner Sweeps from X'Ds~Grrrr...'s two Comsat Stations. While the Lurkers are attacking Grrr's base, the Marines are destroying all traces of the expansion that soso once had at the nine o'clock starting position.

The Marines, Medics and Wraiths now move to the middle of the Battlefield and exert control over this important piece of terrain, killing probing groups of Hydralisks and Zerglings as the need arises. Siege Tanks reinforce X'Ds~Grrrr...'s infantry, and although D22-soso expands to the upper left island the Terran force now appears nigh unstoppable. X'Ds~Grrrr... orders the final attack to begin at once. The combination of Marines, Medics, Tanks and Wraiths raze D22-soso's twelve o'clock expansion to the ground and then the Terran troops set their sights on the plateau housing the Zerg main base. After the Wraiths clear the ramp of Lurkers, the bulk of X'Ds~Grrrr...'s ground forces moves onto high ground and commences a brutal pounding of D22-soso's main Zerg hive structures. D22-soso realizes his forces are beaten and concedes the game, giving each commander one victory and forcing a final and deciding third game.

Victor: X'Ds~Grrrr...

The final battlefield for this epic struggle between D22-soso and XdS~Grrrr… was randomly determined to be the desert wasteland of Forsaken Valley. Both commanders decide to lead the Zerg Horde in the final conflict to come in a brutal contest of tooth and claw. When the battle begins soso finds himself in the upper right corner, while X'Ds~Grrrr... creeps into the upper left starting position. The two Zerg leaders face an interesting quandary, as the size of the battlefield makes any early attack a risky proposition. D22-soso, gambling that his quarry has not taken station on the opposite corner of the map, decides to evolve a Spawning Pool before either an Overlord or Hatchery. X'Ds~Grrrr... decides upon a more conservative strategy, choosing to evolve another Hatchery before his Spawning Pool.

Overlords and Drones are sent by both players to the corners of the battlefield to determine where their enemy has established a presence. D22-soso finds X'Ds~Grrrr...'s base in the top left corner, and X'Ds~Grrrr...'s drone also finds D22-soso's base shortly thereafter. With his Spawning Pool now completed, D22-soso orders the creation of six Zerglings, and when the Eggs finally hatch the Zerglings are sent on the long trek to X'Ds~Grrrr...'s base with an additional Drone following behind.

D22-soso's Zerglings begin their attack run on X'Ds~Grrrr...'s base, and D22-soso's two nearby Drones follow the Zerglings on to the enemy creep and begin the process of morphing into two Sunken Colonies! X'Ds~Grrrr... is initially only able to respond to the threat with a hastily evolved Sunken Colony of his own and his nearby Drones. Many of the X'Ds~Grrrr...'s precious Drones die to the claw of a leaping Zergling. X'Ds~Grrrr... hatches his own Zerglings barely in time to prevent the Subterranean Tentacles of the Sunken Colonies from causing too much additional damage. The crucial damage has been done, however and X'Ds~Grrrr... now only has five Drones to harvest resources. This leaves D22-soso in a much better economic position even though he sacrificed his own development to attack X'Ds~Grrrr... so early in the conflict.

The two players continue to hatch Zerglings, X'Ds~Grrrr... fearing another attack and D22-soso wanting to press his advantage. The long distance between rival bases makes ground attacks very difficult, and this is proven when D22-soso attacks X'Ds~Grrrr... with six Zerglings only to find twice as many enemy Zerglings maintaining vigil over X'Ds~Grrrr...'s base. D22-soso's Zerglings flee the area, and X'Ds~Grrrr... has his own Zerglings follow the retreating troops all the way back to D22-soso's main base. The long distance again proves to be a problem for the attacker, and X'Ds~Grrrr... retreats when met by Sunken Colony resistance and additional Zerglings recently hatched in D22-soso's base.

Knowing that on such a large map control of the skies is a crucial key to success, both players are rapidly evolving the structures necessary for a Spire. Leveraging his early economic advantage, D22-soso is able to hatch his screaming Mutalisks first. His Mutalisks quickly move to attack the enemy base, hoping that X'Ds~Grrrr... will be caught without air defenses. D22-soso brings along his ground force of Zerglings to complement his new Mutalisks. The Mutalisks swoop in to find no air defenses awaiting them, but X'Ds~Grrrr...'s Spire is already finished and Larva begin morphing into Eggs almost immediately. As the Mutalisks move in and it looks like D22-soso's early Mutalisks will carry the day , six Scourge hatch from X'Ds~Grrrr...'s eggs and D22-soso breaks off the attack fearing the loss of his costly Mutalisks to the much cheaper Scourge.

With a brute force strategy now no longer viable, D22-soso decides to expand in the quest for precious resources while pinning X'Ds~Grrrr... to his main base and its solitary source of resources. D22-soso evolves a Hatchery in the sandy sunken pit below his main base, and uses his Mutalisks to trap and destroy the Overlords X'Ds~Grrrr... was using to scout the map. D22-soso also extends his own scouting effort, placing Overlords or Zerglings near most every resource area X'Ds~Grrrr... could possibly reach. X'Ds~Grrrr... builds more Zerglings, Scourge, and Mutalisks, then moves his combined force to attack. The attack suffers a major setback before the battle even commences when several of X'Ds~Grrrr...'s errant Scourge decide an enemy Overlord must die and they proceed to suicide into this lone enemy behemoth. The Scourge were sorely needed for the upcoming air battle, and their loss on such a low priority target causes X'Ds~Grrrr... much grief. The attack continues, but D22-soso commands too many Mutalisks and X'Ds~Grrrr... is forced to retreat with his air units. His Zerglings are left to perform a suicide run on D22-soso's base, but they are torn apart by the Mutalisks overhead with their deadly Glaive Wurms. D22-soso now expands again to the bottom left corner of the battlefield to further extend his advantage in resources.

D22-soso's Mutalisks now hover over the ramp leading into X'Ds~Grrrr...'s base, and both commanders begin to gather their forces for the final epic showdown. X'Ds~Grrrr... begins to franticly hatch additional Mutalisks and now Hydralisks, while D22-soso will rely on his continually growing cloud of Mutalisks with lesser support from his own Zerglings, and Hydralisks. X'Ds~Grrrr... attempts one last desperate attack with his forces up the ramp, but soso's far superior number of Mutalisks proves the decisive factor and X'Ds~Grrrr... resigns. D22-soso has won both the battle and the war and he proceeds to the finals of the tournament.

Victor: D22-soso