Introducing War3Replays.com and First Impressions 00:00:00 Grubby introduces war3replays.com, a tool by Chico ROC for watching old Warcraft 3 replays in a browser, mentioning players like Beil, Evenstar, and 4K Grubby from the 2004 Warcraft Worldwide Invitational. 00:01:05 He loads a 2004 replay between 4K Grubby and I am Ban, demonstrating the interactive features like controlling the cursor, pausing, speeding up, and even clicking buildings. 00:01:52 The game date is January 15, 2004, five days after Grubby won his first tournament, Cyber X Games, with a $25,000 prize pool in Las Vegas. 00:02:42 Grubby notes the skill level is from 2004 and probably doesn't hold up today, then begins analyzing his opening with a peon scout, double burrow, and two grunts.
Analyzing the 2004 Orc Mirror vs I am Ban 00:04:05 Grubby points out he has only six peons on lumber, a delayed tech time of 2:41, and that his opponent has a boots of speed costing only 150 gold, available in daytime. 00:04:22 The opponent uses a cheesy blade master focus, and Grubby's grunts are mostly AFK, but he splits his units to creep efficiently, using feral spirits to tank. 00:05:59 Grubby makes an awkwardly timed warmill and bestiary, revealing a fire lord, grunts, and kodos strategy, which explains the warmill. 00:07:51 He notes that always-on health bars were not in the game by default in 2004, and then engages in a fight, killing the opponent's blade and shadow hunter.
Transition to the Second Replay: vs Alt Ducky 00:09:27 The replay ends with a GG, and Grubby discovers this was actually a tournament replay from the Warcraft Worldwide Invitational, which he hadn't realized. 00:10:18 He loads the second game from the same tournament, held in Seoul, South Korea, on January 15, 2004, and begins analyzing the match against Alt Ducky, an Undead player from Singapore. 00:11:21 Grubby describes Ducky's opening with a graveyard build and notes the challenges Singaporean players faced with high ping, explaining why Ducky favored tower-based strategies.
Early Game Strategy and Ducky's Slow Tech 00:13:47 Ducky's tech is very slow, but he has many fiends, while Grubby focuses on scouting and item hunting with a solo farseer, aiming to hit a timing before tier two and three. 00:15:39 Grubby notes Ducky's efficient creep and mana management, and switches to a double bestiary wind rider build, planning for venom wind riders. 00:16:47 Grubby explains that reinforced defenses required tier three until 2008, and reflects on his tendency to tower up, recalling matches against MadFrog. 00:18:07 He engages in a fight, losing a wyvern but killing several fiends, and sees a humorous glitch where a fiend is momentarily named 'hermit crab'.
Mid-Game Positioning and Creep Jacking 00:19:26 Grubby criticizes his own decision to fight over a proximity camp instead of creeping the middle orange spots, noting he should use his sentry wards and faster creep with venom. 00:20:28 He wins a fight with a 3-for-2 trade in his favor, then town portals, and immediately starts creeping again, while noting the opponent stands in his base too long. 00:21:51 He kills three fiends for one wyvern, but then makes a questionable decision to creep a small camp, which he later regrets, instead of taking the big turtle. 00:22:39 He sets up an expansion with towers, but then leaves it to creep, allowing the opponent to cancel towers and harass, which he criticizes as greedy play.
The Expansion Battle and Turning Point 00:23:14 Grubby comments on the fight at his expansion, noting he should either stay there to defend or not expand at all, and he loses many wind riders due to webbing. 00:24:32 He talks about ball mice and optical mice from the era, then returns to fighting over the camp, realizing he's at 51 population and should stay on 50. 00:25:36 He advises targeting the Death Knight and not getting baited into fighting fiends, but wind riders get webbed and die, and the Death Knight reaches level five. 00:26:39 He explains the ideal base trade strategy with towers and acolytes, but his army gets wiped, and he adds bloodlust and tauren, which he calls 'Wonderland'.
Late Game Comeback Attempt and Final Defeat 00:29:04 Grubby makes a strong play, surrounding the Death Knight with peons and hexing him, managing to kill him, which gives hope. 00:29:53 He heals up, uses clarities, and plans to hide behind towers, working on bloodlust again, but the wind riders are too few. 00:30:42 He tries to split to avoid frost nova, but loses more wind riders, and then makes a desperation play to target the Lich. 00:31:50 The hail mary fails, the Lich survives, and Grubby loses the game, but he reflects that he could play the build better now and considers trying it again.