EPTTwas then in 1995
When Blizzard hatched a plan,
A war of cosmic magnitude
Of alien and man,
They called their project "StarCraft"
and unveiled it at E3,
To mocking cries their game was but
Warcraft on LSD,
But our resilient heroes were
Quite far from giving in,
They launched a revolution that
Was far from Warcraft's twin,
And so they strove away from chess
And two symmetric sides,
Made every race incomparable -
A plan (by them) untried,
The Terrans, mobile, kings of siege,
The Zerg, an endless horde,
The Protoss, stalwart, slow and strong,
United in discord,
But progress soon came to a halt
And two long years went by,
"We can't wait any longer!" screamed
The fans with desperate cries
And so the game was soon released
Those fans conferred with fame,
Type "operation cwal" to
Accelerate the game,
A game that once was met by fans
With mocking cries and scorn
Came to be Blizzard's oriflamme
And Starcraft thus was born.
II
The game was soon off, and its fame fast expanded,
With tourneys by Blizzard supporting its growth,
But insight of players and balance demanded
The job of creators to keep up with both.
Three patches were added to keep gameplay stable
But Blizzard decided they needed much more
And so an expansion was brought to the table
And Brood War released as patch one-point-oh-four.
Each side got two units - one more for the Tosses
One air-to-air fighter, one special support,
A brand new campaign of our heroes' great losses,
How Kerrigan cut their past victories short,
With D2 approaching, support all but severed,
But Blizzard's creation was stronger than ever.
III
The Brood War Beta also brought
A player of interest -
Where thirty-two contenders fought
To be the beta's best
And Zileas, a name none knew
And all who knew forgot,
Invented tactics to confuse
The target of onslaught.
Twas he - the genius - who observed
How Reavers could be used,
Load out of shuttle, load back in,
And watch the Scarab cruise
And so old Blizzard came back in
And stopped him in his tracks,
Now Reavers had to wait some time
Before they could attack!
And so, disciples of his craft
Grew wary yet unfazed,
And still a Reaver proper used
(Or some say, horribly abused
But maybe that's because they lose
And whine and shout, their egos bruised)
Can threaten and amaze.
Now Bnet grew, all kinds of players
From Whitera to Day9,
They all originated in
This dark and early time.
But right about 2001
Some changes were enforced,
In came Patch one-point-zero-eight
To change great Brood War's course.
In came the replays, top-vs-bot,
New gateways on the net,
No flying drones or SCV's,
Nor team game reps - not yet,
(One-point-oh-nine delivered that)
And balance was remade
4 pool was nerfed, Goliaths buffed
The walls of sunkens made more tough
They made more cheap some Terran stuff
And valks were now worthwhile enough
Or maybe not - their stats are rough
Their use may be a load of guff
Since vessels have that big green puff
Which hastens how fast mutas snuff
But I digress, the patch took off
And changed how players played.
IV
And here emerged the great quartet - the ones
Who basked in pure supremacy and strength
Three Terrans, then a Zerg, four shining suns
Who ruled for seven years of StarCraft's length
The Bonjwas, they were called, towards the end
Of their extensive and illustrious reign
The ones on who entire teams depend
Until of course, the final Zerg was slain.
But for those seven years, there was a calm
Four symphonies of silence in the winds
Dynamic plays, but otherwise a yawn -
No great anticipation in the end.
But sure enough, their reigns came to a close,
Where gods fell, violent power plays arose...
To be concluded in Part 2
