Jaedong gets two sets of lings (4). Normally this is the worst decision you can make in ladder. You only really need one set to ward off a scouting scv, and generally four lings isn't scary to the terran player whatsoever. However, this is Flash. Jaedong knows Flash, Flash knows Jaedong knows Flash, Flash knows Flash. Flash loves to work with as little as possible. Four lings is a threat to the way Flash likes to play. Flash absolutely had to keep that scv alive. Now it's three lings, now it's more manageable. Jaedong could have went with four lings and let the scv do what it wanted, but the scouting intel was more valuable than the scv kill he might have gotten in Flash's base.
Flash saves his scv from the lings, but the scv surround to kill that ling? That's a crisp move. If I pulled that off I would feel really good about it. Flash does it like it's nothing. He's now safe and in a good lead. 2 marines was perfect. Jaedong is on tilt, but Jaedong is stronger than to let tilt get the better of him. Flash is the better player, but Jaedong is a king.
Barracks spotting the ovie is kind of standard, but yeah it's really cool the first time you see tricks like that. I would have said that shooting the ovie away like that was Flash taunting Jaedong, telling him that he's going mech. But the lings saw everything so it didn't matter this game. If you're playing tvz on the ladder and the zerg hasn't really scouted you, you might not want to reveal that your barracks is lifted.
Jaedong going quick spire, but as the commentators says everyone knows, even though Flash probably hasn't seen it. It's a good move that if you're going to go muta on this map that you do it as quickly as possible, because the window of their usefulness is going to close very quickly, only to maybe be useful again in the late game. Also, everyone knows Jaedong loves his muta.
Flash is super ready, holy crap. Zero danger to him during this window. He spent the extra resources to make himself fully prepared for this. He's reading Jaedong like a book. Playing against a player that can read you so well is terrifying, but again, Jaedong is king.
Muta can't do anything. Oh that's brutal. There's nothing worse than having a bunch of muta and nothing to do with them, and so early in the game too.
Jaedong went in with the muta, because he felt so silly. Ouch. Flash is stomping him.
Flash is building so many goliaths. Does Flash know that Jaedong is going to commit to muta? Is Jaedong even committing to muta that hard? What is going on? What is Jaedong building? Okay it's a huge round of drones. He has to stop with the muta now, Flash is economically forcing Jaedong to stop by building all those goliaths. It's now extremely imprudent for Jaedong to continue, and Flash knows this too. All he has to identify was the third, which I think he already did with the single vulture he built? At least he eliminated a few third base possibilities. God damn. Every single unit has had an exact purpose so far in this game for Flash. I'm not sure about these goliaths though?
Flash goes back into a few vultures and picks off the batch of drones! So, Flash went so many goliaths that it forced Jaedong to stop building muta, and it wouldn't have been the best idea to just go all-in with lings but it would have been a possibility of a sort (vulture to check). So Flash knew Jaedong would go back to economy because he had been forced into it, so he has speed vultures timed perfectly to intercept the new batch of drones. It might seem so obvious, but I can't explain how good Flash is playing in this game. He has prepared for this game so so much. There's a precise playbook in his head and Jaedong is falling into every trap.
Good vulture control. Good muta control too.
Vultures get into the main, kill a few more drones. These vultures are very effective, they're only 50% more than a worker so one vulture killing two workers is a great trade. One vulture gets into the main, kills one worker, can it get the second? Last shot! HA. The drone defends its own life and gets the kill. Jaedong might have a little bit better micro than Flash with gliding units (workers, vultures, air units). That was cute.
Flash is preparing for a strong early-part-of-late-game offensive, but for now Jaedong wants to put on the pressure. Strange. Jaedong sees something I don't. Those mine hits were pretty big.
Flash is pushing out a little bit but it's just posturing. Jaedong is posturing full control of the map, and Flash is trying to lure Jaedong into him as much as possible so that he can pick off what he can. It's very unlikely for a large engagement to happen here.
Those couple science vessels moving out was really dicey. If scourge fly in from the fog of war those two are maybe just too far to get back home in time before they are destroyed. The commentator turns this exchange into something more crude but commentating is really hard to do properly.
Ah, so now I'm at 16 minutes and I see your question. You're right, it's a common vespene shortage for late game mech. The thing about Brood War is that a vespene geyser, even when it's depleted, will still provide a reduced amount of vespene income for the entirety of the game. Minerals are however finite. It's better to stockpile minerals for gas that can come later. Plus there's just nothing good to spend minerals on. If you saw shortly before 16 minutes Flash suicides about six vultures. Vultures, specifically vultures that have already used their mines, are worthless military units in this specific game. They're not even good for fodder (because they take up supply), they're that bad. It just has to do with the sort of units that are being fielded in this game. They can shred lings, but very few lings are built.
There was also a little engagement. I can see why Jaedong went for it but it ended up being the wrong decision, yet another bait from Flash. Flash has so much.
Apollo (the commentator) at 16:50 minutes made me laugh. "148 versus 145... That is--Really close." He second guesses himself. "This game is pretty close." Even supplies at this stage of the game means Flash is in the lead, and Apollo knows it, but he has to roll with what he says because he's afraid because he's being watched by hundreds of thousands of people. I would be afraid as well. He's a cool guy though, and he knows his stuff better than most casters. He has a C&C background though, he played BW but Starcraft wasn't his game until Starcraft 2. I don't know anything about the other caster but I think I've heard his voice before.
Crazy big engagement by Jaedong, but it feels very deflated as well. He's not controlling it as well as he should, I need to see his fpvod to see what he's doing, but it was a little ugly. Somehow he still managed to clear out most of Flash's army, but if you can't break the turtle it just comes back stronger. The reinforcements took too long. Flash immediately claims map territory just outside Jaedong's third. Jaedong's third isn't dead yet, but it's under threat. Jaedong moves in to defend and... Oh yeah, he's going to mop this up very easily. 18:50 I can already tell.
I'm no expert on BW's meta but this mass hydra style is kind of unusual and it seems to be working so far. Jaedong is pretty low on gas though, I don't know. Maybe if he keeps expanding he can outpace Flash? Go figure that's what he's doing. Now I see the grand strategy of both players, but the players have both known a long time ago.
Finally some Defilers from Jaedong. Here's where things get really exciting. Defilers change the whole TvZ dynamic.
Vultures come in and kill some drones again. Again, they probably had no mines left and so they were worthless, and any kills that they can get is alright. This is pretty much the only way for Flash to spend excess minerals. Build a vulture, drop three mines, suicide it, repeat. Costs no gas. The vultures aren't being built to kill the drones, neither player cares too much about a worker kill here and there when whole armies are being evaporated. Apollo focuses on how many kills the vultures are getting, and the audience focuses on it, and everyone misunderstands what is actually going on here.
Wow, Jaedong making a huge move out on what is going to be the main point of contention on the map, the 12 o'clock base. With defilers he might be able to hold, and if he can hold it he might be able to just barely out-produce Flash.
Flash decides to take it to the other base. As Apollo rightly points out, Flash's army is in a giant line as if pointing an arrow from his base to Jaedong's expansion. Each unit is protecting each other. It's as impenetrable as can be. Jaedong tries to defend for a second, roughly how long it took him to visualize and respect this massive push. Jaedong has probably already lost this base and I think he already knows it. I think he's going to posture a defense but then he's going to give it up.
Oh, beautiful drop. Perfect execution. Flash had been weakened on that highground ridge from Jaedong's lurkers, and then Jaedong bit it off. This changes things, but the game isn't over. Flash can hold the rest and rebuild.
A bunch of vultures swing in. This is actually a big deal now, losing workers. Look at Jaedong's money at this point. If 10 vultures swing in and wipe out 8 workers, that hurts a bit. Jaedong burrows. Flash scans and target fires each individual worker, and even picks one off of the geyser but misses the second. Apollo comments on it, nice job.
24:50 another good push from Jaedong. The commentators are focused on how Flash will not die but this was actually a small win for Jaedong. Like 7 tanks went down to only a handful of lings and some hydras, all while under dark swarm. I don't know who is going to win but Jaedong is looking really strong right now even though Flash was looking bulletproof just moments before.
Flash is rebuilding the line.
EVERY LAST SCIENCE VESSEL DIES. Flash has been off balance but losing all those science vessels, all that gas, it's like taking an uppercut. Could he possibly recover? Flash cleans up but oh man. Flash is now rushing to get that base. It needs to die. It needs to die now. Now might be the only chance.
You picked a good game.
Here it is, 26:30, who is going to win this engagement? Flash has put everything into killing this base. Jaedong is defending calmly. 26:38 lurkers get right up in front of the tanks. That's it. I think Jaedong just won.
Wait, what the crap?! Flash, during that engagement, KILLED THE HATCHERY. JAEDONG IS BROKE. Flash accomplished his mission, at grave losses, and he walked the line of total collapse towards the end, but he completed his objective of taking control of the 6 o'clock and he's now no longer on the back foot. The pressure is relieved. Flash doesn't use this to lick his wounds. He uses it to explode. He takes map control everywhere. Jaedong is broke and low on units, he can't contest. Jaedong needs to decide carefully what he does in these critical moments. Every unit counts.
27:19 Jaedong's unit rally gets intercepted. Ouch. Flash tries to bait Jaedong into mines but it doesn't work out and he loses a bunch of vultures. But no matter, he moves on past the screen of mines to attack the drones at the expansion. It doesn't do anything, but I can tell exactly what Flash is feeling right now. He's exploding, he's going for the jugular. He wasn't sure of himself a moment ago, but now he is more sure than anything. He's taking the win. Jaedong is sweating internally, but he has been here too many times before to let it really bother him. He almost had it, didn't he? It was so close. All those hours of practice only for third place, none of the people he practiced against was as good or as prepared as this guy was, as Flash. But Jaedong is beast, Jaedong is king and he will carry on.
Which makes Flash a hero, actual greatness. Some say God.
A few more engagements happen... but both players know it's over. 29:00 now and Jaedong is dejectedly meandering around the map killing mines. I mean, you're right that it's not a bad thing to do, but he is clearly very deflated at this point. It's not something that you want to be doing at this stage of the game. If it were NBA he would be slowly walking down the court, dribbling almost as slowly as possible with his step. He sends his units through the nydus and they just die instantly. GG.