It was game 4. Much had been sent out to fight, not so much for his team's survival, but from the humiliation of an 0-4 loss. His opponent was Light, and the map was Match Point, a map that has proven to be just slightly Protoss favoured against Terran. With the pressure of securing this win weighing greatly on his shoulders, Much trudged into battle.

His battleplan revealed itself within moments of the game's start, as one of his 4 probes made its way to Light's third. There it planted a pylon, followed by a proxy gate, and cybernetics core after taking his gas back at home. A zealot was warped in, and it made its way down to Light's main, where it wreaked some havoc, forcing Light to pull some SCVs to defend. A second zealot and a dragoon joined it, and an intense battle quickly occurred at Light's nat. SCVs, marines, and a vulture, met Much's army of 2 zealots and a dragoon, and with overwhelming numbers, Light was able to force Much to retreat north. Much consolidated his position on the high ground at Light's third, and eventually whittled down Light's army with some impeccable micro, forcing Light to fall back to his main where he had set up a bunker. In the meantime though, Light had attempted to bring some vultures into Much's main, but, there, he met a pylon wall, and a goon arrived to brush them aside.



The game then proceeded with Much teching to (proxied) reavers and Light starting up tank production. With 2 tanks and 7 rines, Light, once again, pushed out, encountering Much's reaver-supported forces at his nat. This time, Light microed well, driving his units out of the reaver's range, and maximising the damage on the dragoons - the battle should've easily ended in Much's favour, but Light successfully traded his army for Much's (save the reaver). In fact, a single tank of his survived, thanks in part to some handy SCVs for repair, and it took out the pylon powering the proxy buildings.



However, the danger was not over for Light yet, as Much was in his main with a shuttle/reaver. The situation almost seemed hopeless, as Light's main was more or less defenseless, but a mine brought the reaver down into the red, and Much decided to err on the side of caution, flying his reaver out to deal with the errant tank, giving Light some much needed time to get his starport constructed.

The succeeding wraith took out Much's shuttle, and Light, trying to catch Much with a greedy expansion, moved out with his army, this time 2 tanks and some marines. Unfortunately for him, Much had added a gateway at home instead, and with a superior army, crushed Light's effortlessly.

The game now slowed down a little; both players expanding to enter the midgame. With his superior army, Much delayed Light's expansion for a huge amount of time while double expanding himself, taking a pretty hefty lead in the game. There was a period of time where it looked like a bulldog, with his 2 reavers, would've broken Light's defences, but Much never capitalised on that opportunity, perhaps not wanting to take risks in a game that he already had such a huge advantage in.

After both players set up their expansions, a very standard TvP began to unfold. Light's harass was impressive, although for some reason, Much kept his army at Light's choke, giving Light plenty of room with his vultures. A third base quickly went up for Light in the midst of all the harass, but Much was on his way to a 4th and arbiters.

Finally, sick of being on the receiving end of all the harass, Much careened his army into Light's third. Light's defense was more than adequate though, and Much's only chance of doing any damage was to snipe the CC. Light, too, was aware of the situation, and he immediately floated the CC and transferred his SCVs away. What seemed like a failed attack now would later end up paying huge dividends, as before Much pulled his army out, he had killed a couple of turrets and paved the way for his shuttled reavers to enter. Thinking it was safe to resume mining, Light transferred his SCVs back, and to his dismay, a couple of reaver scarabs took them all out.



Light was by no means out of the game though. His harass was still going strong, and Much was constantly losing probes and zealots to vultures and stray mines. However, arbiters had now joined the fray for Much, and with his first arbiter, he executed a recall into Light's main. Unfortunately for him, his units were immediately hit by mines upon arrival, and Light cleaned up with a couple of tanks, the recall doing next to no damage at all.



Suddenly, Much didn't seem to be ahead anymore. Light's 4th base was only slightly behind Much's, and his tank count and upgrades were getting pretty scary. Much just could not find anywhere to attack - he eventually ran his army up the small ramp at Light's nat, but was forced to retreat with heavy casualties. During this, Light had placed 3 tanks behind his nexus at 12, and Much was unable to do anything to stop it from falling.

Now, Light's plan was starting to see light. He was going to split the map in two, prevent Much from taking the centre expoes, then count on his upgrades, and Much's lack of arbiters to win him the 200/200 fight. Sure enough, the game played out exactly as expected. Light continued defending his half of the map while committing a few units to harass, and when he finally pushed out, Much's units were caught out of position trying to defend a vult raid. His units engaged the Terran push haphazardly, and he lost a tonne of units before giving the order to retreat. Each time the armies met, Light was a lot more cost effective, often trading a couple of units for entire control groups of Much's army.

Tanks rained fire on Much's expo at 6, but that was merely a decoy to get Much's army out of position. Once Light took the high ground above Much's mined out third, there was no hope of Much coming back into the game. He quickly gave up and typed in the GG after losing his 4th.



Much had plenty of opportunities to win this game. Better micro with the reaver would've defeated Light's first push, and even the first reaver drop should've done a whole lot more damage. Light got through the early game thanks to Much's myriad of mistakes, and then his vulture play, along with Much's poor vulture defense allowed him to claw his way back from his disadvantage to eventually claim victory.