EPT
So the game starts off with HAEWOOK spawning as the blue Zerg at the 11 o' clock position and Snuggles spawning the red Zerg at the 8 o'clock position.
Both players scout at about the same time, carefully keeping watch for any signs of cheese. Snuggles opens up with a fast extractor and spawning pool, whereas HAEWOOK has shown no signs at all of throwing down an early pool for himself despite the fact that he had scouted my pool.
As both players near the 15 food mark, HAEWOOK does something quite unorthodox in a ZvZ.
![[image loading]](http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/8827/screenshot2010091819573.jpg)
KEKEKE
He throws down a Hatchery on 14. It wasn't decision made out of the blue, it was a calm and collective one, made with great timing and precision (notice how he has just about 300 minerals by the time the drone reaches the natural). Soon to follow was of course a Spawning pool. Snuggles decides to put down a banelings Nest right around the time HAEWOOK's pool finishes.
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2069/screenshot2010091819591.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/6259/screenshot2010091819585.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7113/screenshot2010091819595.jpg)
HAEWOOK sends his scout from the beginning who had been hiding out in a corner right in the middle of the Banelings Nest's metamorphosis, and immediately responds by placing Spinecrawlers at each hatchery, and began pumping lings in preparation for the inevitable Baneling timing attack.
As Snuggles' Baneling's Nest just completes his lings had just arrived to HAEWOOK's front ready to morph into banelings. Unfortunately for Snuggles, HAEWOOK was well prepared for the attack, with spinecrawlers halfway done and lings ready to peck away at any Baneling eggs that may appear. It was Snuggles' mistake to assume that his Zerg opponent would not FE and in turn neglected to keep an overlord watching over the natural. In response to this surprise, Snuggles immediately knew that he would fall far behind in the game if he committed himself to the banelings he had made. With the amount of lings and spinecrawlers that were being morphed in, he knew that even an all-in baneling push would have a very low chance of succeeding. So he put down an expansion himself and aggressively pumped drones to bring himself back into the game.
Now here's where the mind games come into play. In response to HAEWOOK's macro-oriented play, Snuggle's himself decides to pump drones hard while teching to Mutas knowing that he had his Lair far before HAEWOOK. While HAEWOOK had scouted out a large group of zerglings and very few drones on his natural, signaling that a large zergling push, or baneling all-in was possible. In response he threw down a roach warren and devoted all his larvae to roaches. Both players continued on for a bit, unaware of how they have tricked themselves.
Snuggles' eventually pulls far ahead in the drone count, while HAEWOOK had amassed a large army of roaches. Still thinking that HAEWOOK was ahead in economy, Snuggles' prepares a group of Banelings for a suicide run, in the hopes cutting down HAEWOOK's economy.
However, by the time the banelings were beginning to morph, HAEWOOK became suspicious of how uneventful the game was for the few minutes that had passed, seeing that no baneling all-in or speedling push had come in knocking on his door. Something was definitely up, Snuggles either had to be droning and turtling up extremely hard, or was in the middle of teching. HAEWOOK knew had to make his move now.
![[image loading]](http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7514/screenshot2010091820082.jpg)
So there you guys are! Wait where is everyone?
HAEWOOK charged valiantly into the front of Snuggles' natural and was greeted by an unexpectedly low number of speedlings and banelings. Pulling his lings away from the green atomic bombs, he rushed his roaches in to take the brunt of damage. Snuggles knew he was in trouble, and retreated back to the single spinecrawler he had in case of any aggression he might get from his opponent.
![[image loading]](http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6388/screenshot2010091820083.jpg)
YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
And so the two armies finally clashed, in an epic and desperate Brood War. The damage that was done here would determine the longevity of the game right there.
![[image loading]](http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6824/screenshot2010091820090.jpg)
OH MAH GAWD JUST LEAVE US ALONE MAN!
Somehow Snuggles was barely able to fend off that push by pulling his drones off the mineral line to join the fray as more lings morphed in to reinforce the frontline. Although he had lost a large number of drones, he was still slightly ahead of HAEWOOK who had committed himself to a large number of roaches. In the end both players were nearly dead even. However, Snuggles makes a terrible mistake.
![[image loading]](http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7535/screenshot2010091820102.jpg)
This is it guys, we're going to roll in there blow 'em all up!
Despite the fact that his Spire had finished, Snuggles decided to spend his precious resources on Banelings rather than a small flock of Mutalisks. Already fearing from the very beginning of the fact that his opponent could be leagues ahead in economy, Snuggles' composure broke down entirely at the sight of nearly half of his drones being destroyed by the roach army. In response, Snuggles frantically began to once again morph in a suicidal army of Banelings to try to even out the game.
Over in HAEWOOK land, he thought that he had completely shattered Snuggles' economy and continued the aggression whilst sneaking a few drones during his roach production.
![[image loading]](http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4263/screenshot2010091820103.jpg)
Hey welcome back fellas!
Snuggles' Banelings fortunately had not been sent on their suicide mission just yet, and were sent in to obliterate the approaching roach platoon. However, as Banelings are, they only have a one-time use. It was not cost-effective at all to kill off HAEWOOK's second wave with just banelings.
Knowing that he was even further behind now, Snuggles knew that the end was near, and the only hope of him coming back into the game was to make the Mutalisks he had intended to make in his original game plan.
![[image loading]](http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2558/screenshot2010091820124.jpg)
However it was too little, and too late.
Already making the arbitrary tech to Hydralisks, HAEWOOK calmly began to queue up a few Hydras at the sight of the Mutalisks. Knowing that his roaches would be useless against mutas for the time being, HAEWOOK sent his roaches on a death march to do as much damage as possible before their lives had expired.
![[image loading]](http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1377/screenshot2010091820162.jpg)
And the damage was done.
With only 1 Mutalisk and 2 others still in their eggs, the roaches were easily able to focus down Snuggles' spire, and target fire his drones one by one before eventually dying to the mutalisks. Being left with only 4 workers left in Snuggles Brood, Snuggles respectfully types out.
------------------------------------------------------------------
And so that's my first ever fan-made battle report hehe. I really wanted to share this game, but I figured that honestly aren't interested in non-pro games, so I wanted to make it in a more entertaining format.
When I saw his FE, I seriously shit my pants. I haven't seen a Zerg player FE in a ZvZ since.... early beta? Plus the fact that he was able to shut down my initial baneling timing attack, led me to believe that he had to be one hell of a good foreign player or a Korean player who decided to play over on the US server. Because seriously how many US players have you seen get a hatch before pool in a ZvZ?
I interrogated him a lil bit and examined his match history, he smashed all 1k+ point players and had only played around less than 60 games. He was Korean =O. It was a real interesting game, just wanted to share that's all. Definitely will be experimenting with the hatch before pool more often now...
So uh what do you think of my battle report? It was a hell lot of fun writing it for me, I hope you guys like it.
