Thanks a lot for uploading this. I definitely learned a few things.
* kbroke - Advent was somewhat trapped in a pocket by Exterminate - TEC. kb colonized the key roid giving him a way out, but didn't make any attempts to build ships or defend it. Starting with a Progen and a Halcyon hurt him a lot - if he had built frigate factories on the roid ASAP and spammed Disciples he probably could have overwhelmed Exterminate, who had civic labs and did a whole lot of civic research, didn't build a fleet until later, and sent his cap in the other direction. kbroke made quite a few unusual decisions, like not fleeting, like colonizing further in the pocket despite the fact that his HW and the whole pocket area was soon to be overwhelmed, and like building a starbase which did nothing and got Ogrov'd. I don't get it.
* Nuka Cola / URSolar as Advent, lagged a lot but was facing Disruptor-TEC who seriously underestimated him and opened with a Sova/Kol going in the other direction. Cola built up a ton of Disciples and easily took Disruptor's undefended HW. Disruptor had no fleet and was completely unprepared, but his caps were taking a roid and a heavily defended Terran in the other direction. Cola kept pressing against Disruptor but Dis started building up LRMs, which successfully defended in combination with defense turrets. Cola was trying to bomb the roid with his cap, while taking damage from one of Dis's turrets there, but took severe damage and had to retreat with the rest of his fleet to Disruptor's now-neutralized homeworld. Both sides then built up more fleet (Nuka with Illums now) but didn't fight again until the recording ended.
* Huymac as Vasari vs Mossybinlid, TEC. Huy took a few roids on the safe side and was scouting Mossy on the other, who was building Hangar Defenses on his homeworld only a few minutes into the game. There was a volcano planet in between Huy's front roid and Mossy's HW, which was never contested by either player. Taking advantage of this, Huy with 2 carriers colonized a Terran on the way to the star. After a whole lot of researching, Huy eventually attacked Mossy's ice planet, closer to the star but still only one jump away from his homeworld. Huy made very good use of Repair Cloud on both his carriers while kiting around and was able to keep his caps around for much longer than I would have expected. Huy then brought in a starbase and Overseers, and Mossy only had a small fleet and was forced to retreat back to his HW.
What I learned:
* Tier 0 spam can be extremely effective only 10 minutes into the game, against an opponent who isn't prepared (scouting is essential)
* Players on the sides don't have to completely invest in fleet and firepower even if the enemy homeworld is quite close, as HuyMac demonstrated well
* Repair Cloud can actually be more useful than Scramble Bombers, even if it only repairs a relatively small amount of hull - this is if the player is playing relatively defensively
* Mossy's Hangar Flak Turrets completely wiped out Huy's (strong Vasari) strike craft when it got near, very quickly. Hangar flak is actually quite effective if you can lure enemy SC close enough.
