It was a PvP on one of the new maps here for HotS at Blizzcon, when a suspiciously early Probe scout entered my base. Naturally, I checked around my base for proxy Pylons and Cannons, but none were found so I felt a sense of relief. At least for a little bit. The sneaky Probe then proceeded to steal my gas at around 9 supply, before a Gateway or any structure other than a Pylon had been started in my opponents base. Again I felt a sense of relief, as in Wings of Liberty there's absolutely no reason to steal gas that early. Assuming that my opponent was a mere novice, I proceeded as normal, letting the Assimilator finish and getting my first Gateway up.

Before I knew it, red flashes lit up my minimap and a stern Protoss voice alerted me that my Probes were under attack. At first I thought it was just a little Probe harass, but then I realized that my opponent had placed an Arc Shield, one of the new Nexus abilities in HotS, on the Assimilator he had built in my base. The Arc Shield does bonus damage to light units, and before I knew it, my Probes were getting two shotted by this thing. Its range denied mining on five of my eight mineral patches, and my early economy was completely crippled at the cost of 50 Nexus energy. I frowned. I sighed. I said GG and took my quickest exit from the demo area this weekend.

I think that there will have to be some sort of change to availability the Nexus Turret ability as HotS closes in on beta testing or at least some way to prevent Probes from stealing Assimilators too early. For the cost of 75 mineral and 50 Nexus energy, my critical early-game economy was completely crippled. It was a sad, sad end to the night.