Category Archives: Replay of the Week

LotV Featured Replay of the Week: Snute’s ZvP 3 base Ravager all-in

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s featured replay comes from Team Gravity’s Fight Night.

http://lotv.spawningtool.com/3224/

You might be wondering: what type of all-in starts with economic cheese? The type that wants to have a sustained attack as soon as possible, that’s what.

In this game, Snute cuts corners and goes for almost pure Drones for the first 4 minutes of the game. This allows him to get up to 6 Extractors and spread Drones across 3 mineral lines before he lines up his attack. From there, he streams Roaches and Ravagers across the map to bust down walls and forcefields to force his way into the Protoss base.

On the flipside, State played it safe opening Gateway first, then getting his Nexus afterwards. WIth a quick +1 attack, he also gets his 3rd base quickly after scouting Snute’s greedy build, and then into Blink.

When the Ravagers attack, State already has his simcity in place with Gateways clogging up the entry into his 3rd base, so despite being down at times 70 to 15 army supply, Snute has difficulty finding space to push in. State continues to build pylons to power his Gateways and for the Overcharge.

With Blink up, though, State makes a great hold: his 3 base economy (with more Probes than Snute has Drones) allows him to slowly get back into the game while Snute’s slow Roaches walk across the map. The battle continues on for minutes, but State keeps his 3rd base alive and evens the supply count. When the pressure begins to lighten, State is able to push for a 4th base as his minerals begin to run out his in main. When the supplys even up, he traps Snute’s army and pushes across for the win.

You can check out Snute’s build order at http://lotv.spawningtool.com/build/6607/

-StoicLoofah

LotV Featured Replay of the Week: Proxy Reaper into Cyclone (Bakemonoda)

Posted on by
Reply

View this build on Spawning Tool

I saw this build on /r/allthingsterran. /u/Bakemonoda had posted a video on the build where he explains the build. He was more than willing to upload the replay and let me do a write up on it for a build of the week, so thanks to him for that.

Basically this build puts the pressure on the protoss before they can get a warp prism out, then the cyclones can deal with the warp prisms after it’s out :D. The protoss opens standard, but this build still does a good amount of damage/game ending damage.

The goal is to do some damage with the proxy reaper, then follow up with cyclones to finish off the game/put yourself in a game winning position.

The proxy reaper is extremely effective in LotV right now. The reapers arrive before a mothership core is out (on a two base protoss opening) and they can do big damage by kiting around the adepts/stalkers. The bombs also disrupt mining/give extra kills.

By the time that the mothership core can get out (if the protoss decides to make it), there will be a cyclone to target it down. After the third reaper, you can also lift the barracks and float it at a ramp/cliff, for the cyclones, so they can have vision and target stalkers/adepts on top of the ramp. This takes away most of the defenders advantage that the protoss would normally have with terrain.

Reapers also can give vision by jumping up on the cliffs/suiciding up ramps to give vision.

Using the reaper bombs to keep the stalkers/adepts from attacking is also another strong thing that you can do to keep the cyclones from taking damage. The reapers are only there to distract/tank for the cyclones. The fact that both of the units in this cheese have high speed makes it hard for the protoss to deal with. The only thing that they can really do is try to save the MSC to photon overcharge some or use the adept ability really well to counter the speed of the terran units.

The latter is the best of the two in my opinion, because photon overcharge only last like 11 seconds as of the last patch.

The followup for the build is just getting another CC and another factory (if you want to go mech). If you want to go bio, I would reccomend floating the barracks back home, switching it with the factory after about 3 cyclones, and starting stim right away, along with more barracks.

~MorN_sc

LotV Proxy Reaper into Cyclone (Bakemonoda)

  • 13 Supply Depot
  • 14 Refinery
  • 15 Barracks
  • 16 Refinery
  • 18 Reaper
  • 19 Orbital Command
  • 19 Factory
  • 19 Supply Depot
  • 19 Refinery
  • 19 Reaper
  • 19 Factory Tech Lab
  • 20 Reaper
  • 20 Command Center
  • 21 Cyclone
  • 21 Supply Depot
  • 25 Factory
  • 26 Cyclone
  • 31 Factory Tech Lab
  • 31 Cyclone
  • 36 Barracks Tech Lab

Featured Replay of the Week: hydra’s Drone Pull v Stardust Cannon Rush

Posted on by
Reply

View this replay on Spawning Tool

What do you do if you see a cannon rush? Maybe you cancel that base and go to the 3rd base location instead. Maybe you pull a few workers to try to poke it down in time. Or if you’re hydra, maybe you just pull the boys and go for a worker rush.

hydra goes Pool First against a Forge Fast Expand. His first expansion is to the gold base, but his Drone crosses paths with a scouting Probe. Seeing no natural expansion, the Probe turns around to cannon rush the gold base. Then, hydra pulls all except 3 of his workers with 6 Zerglings in production to go for the all-in.

Note one clever moment when hydra pulls back his Drones to wait for the Zerglings. Perhaps even more importantly, he saw the Probe leave the base, and that Probe could have potentially scouted his Drone rush with enough time wall in. By hiding them in the corner for a few seconds, he keeps the surprise on his side.

One more thing: hydra has his Drone mineral walk into his opponents base. This is quite important as this would allow him to walk past a “hold position” Probe into the base to attack a Photon Cannon. Stardust wasn’t walled in at all.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a planned opening, but keep it in mind as a response to a cannon rush. The game is going to degenerate quickly anyways, and I guarantee that this all-in will be quick.

-StoicLoofah

hydra’s Drone Pull v Stardust Cannon Rush

  • 9 Overlord
  • 15 Spawning Pool
  • 15 Hatchery (he lets it finish)
  • 14 Overlord
  • 14 Zerglings continuously; pull all except 3 workers to slowly bite your opponent to death

Featured Replay of the Week: TY’s Abusing Terrain with Siege Tanks on Bridgehead!

Posted on by
Reply

View this replay on Spawning Tool

In this game, TY opens with a CC first into a gas before his barracks. This is the most greedy you can be in the early game. He only has one marine out before the 6 minute mark (which he uses to deny scouting). The reasoning behind this is the fact that snutes reaction to the CC first is to go 3 hatch before pool. This is a dream scenario for TY. He quickly adds his second gas to get access to fast tech.

This is a game where TY gains small leads off of early harass. His first mode of harass is the hellions. He makes 4 hellions off of his factory, which ends up roasting 4 drones. This is not a big deal, but it sets snute slightly behind. TY also keeps his hellions alive, to use for more harass throughout the early game.

TY’s second mode of harass is the viking. He uses this to deny overlord scouting, forces snute to spend money on non army related units, and take map control. In the early game, droning up to 3 1/2 base economy is the most important thing for a macro zerg. Setting that back at all can delay the army/tech and make follow up pushes game ending.

TY’s third mode of harass is a widow mine drop. He sends out a medivac with 2 widow mines and 4 marines which kills 8 drones.

All of these small edges that TY gained puts him in a position where Snute’s tech and saturation is delayed. Behind all of this harass, TY is researching stim, making tanks, adding gas, starting double upgrades, and adding more barracks.

The viking is used to push back and kill overlords out on the map, making it so snute does not see the move out with marines, medivacs, and tanks at around 10:30. TY takes a third behind this.

Bridgehead is known as a map where the terrain can be abused. The rocks at the natural have been an issue for many players. TY sieges his tanks behind these rocks while he drops the marines on Snute’s side of them. This creates a strong and very difficult to defend position for snute. It is a very similar strategy to the deadwing one, where you siege behind the rocks in between the natural and the third. This is why zergs always break the rocks there and have also started breaking the rocks on BridgeHead. TY kills Snute’s natural with this push and gains a large supply lead. Snute has almost triple the units lost compared that that of TY after this maneuver.

The aggression doesn’t stop here though! TY keeps dropping in Snute’s natural and 4th, denying the bases and denying mining! Snute does not successfully retake his natural until the 17 minute mark, only to be quickly denied again by TY. Throughout all of this, TY continues to drop marines and widw mines killing drones constantly!

Snute holds on well, but in the end TY’s early game lead, mechanics, and micro prove too much! This is one of my favorite games of all time, I think it’s a must watch!

~MorN_sc

TY CC First Into Two Base Tank Push

  • 9 Supply Depot
  • 14 Command Center
  • 15 Refinery
  • 16 Barracks
  • 19 Orbital Command, Marine
  • 20 Factory
  • 20 Orbital Command
  • 20 Barracks Reactor
  • 22 Supply Depot
  • 23 Starport
  • 24 Refinery
  • 25 Hellion x2
  • 31 Marine
  • 31 Supply Depot
  • 34 Hellion x2
  • 34 Marine
  • 38 Viking
  • 42 Supply Depot
  • 42 Widow Mine
  • 42 Barracks Tech Lab
  • 46 Widow Mine
  • 46 Medivac
  • 46 Supply Depot
  • 51 Marine
  • 52 Stimpack
  • 55 Supply Depot, Barracks x2
  • 55 Marine
  • 56 Barracks
  • 58 Starport Reactor
  • 58 Factory Tech Lab
  • 58 Supply Depot
  • 58 Engineering Bay
  • 58 Engineering Bay
  • 60 Marine
  • 60 Refinery
  • 60 Refinery
  • 62 Siege Tank

MorN CC First Hyper-Aggressive TvZ

Posted on by
1

View this replay on Spawning Tool

I chose this build for a replay of the week because of the similarities it shows to Heart of the Swarm. The only main changes are what you can afford and when. Also, in Legacy of the Void, CC First is a much more viable build because of how fast you can get the command center down, compared to the rush distance on maps. The economy change made it so every race can get down buildings and expansions faster, but the time it takes for a unit to go across the map still stays the same, making greedy builds more viable in this new expansion.

Legacy has been pushing towards a more micro and agression based play. With all of the changes, it is harder to get maxed because of how fast your enemy attacks or you attack. Also, in my opinion, upgrades matter even more because turtling is harder to do.

This build starts off with a CC First into a quick 3-rax play. The point of the build is to try to get +1 attack, stim, combat shield, two medivacs, and 16 marines out as fast as possible. When you get these units, you have a ton of utility on the map to do one big attack, multi-prong attack them in their 3rd and main, or just force units out of them. After the starport goes down, I add a quick 4th and 5th barracks to create a strong followup push. This makes the build very all in. It is very hard to transition when you are constantly building out of 5 rax, a factory, and a starport. The amount of units that come for the followup push make up for this though.

One important thing is to stop producing SCVs once you get two base saturation and 3 gases.

Again, this is a very micro oriented build. Misclicks lose games with builds like this. I managed to get lucky and snipe his morphing banelings this game, but if they had formed, I would have split, picked up, and then kept on with the multipronged attacking!

~MorN_sc

MorN CC First Hyper-Agressive LotV TvZ

  • 14 0:25 , Supply Depot

  • 16 0:58 Command Center

  • 17 1:13 Barracks

  • 18 1:32 Refinery

  • 22 2:12 Orbital Command x2

  • 22 2:18 Bunker

  • 23 2:34 Barracks

  • 23 2:36 Barracks

  • 23 2:45 Refinery, Barracks Reactor

  • 26 3:03 Supply Depot

  • 27 3:20 Refinery

  • 29 3:24 Barracks Tech Lab x2

  • 29 3:27 Factory

  • 33 3:42 Engineering Bay

  • 33 3:47 Stimpack

  • 38 4:01 , Supply Depot x2

  • 38 4:05 Combat Shields

  • 39 4:12 Starport

  • 39 4:13 Factory Reactor

  • 39 4:20 Refinery

  • 45 4:31 Terran Infantry Weapons Level 1

  • 49 4:47 Supply Depot

  • 52 4:59 Barracks

  • 52 5:01 Barracks

  • 58 5:18 Supply Depot x2

  • 60 5:29 Factory Reactor

  • 67 5:51 Barracks Reactor, Supply Depot

  • 67 5:52 Barracks Reactor

 

Featured Replay of the Week: Snute’s ZvP Zergling Hydralisk Contain

Posted on by
2

View this replay on Spawning Tool

Group D was the group of death: the reigning SSL Champion (Classic), the reigning GSL Champion (Rain), MVP’s top Protoss player (YongHwa). And Snute came out on top with an aggressive heavy Hydralisk style in ZvP.

Snute opens with a safe 15 Pool, 16 Hatch to avoid a cannon rush and transitions into a relatively normal 3rd base timing around 4:00 and Zergling speed soon after. Around 7 minutes, he goes up to 30 Zerglings to deny Rain’s 3rd base and immediately goes into Hydralisk production. He uses those to destroy the 3rd base again and create a soft contain. The safe opening allows Snute to apply pressure before typically 2 base timings come in from Protoss.

From here, Zerg will typically transition into either Infestors to lock down the Stalkers or more Vipers for the Blinding Cloud, but Snute gets away with building only 2 Vipers. Most of us don’t have army control like Snute, but he pulls it off with smart positioning and baiting forcefields. Keeping the Viper and Infestor count low leaves more gas for Hydralisks.

There are a few caveats to this style. First, this build is likely a response to the prevalence of Blink Stalkers in the current meta. Against a more traditional Colossi army, the mid-game pressure timing is much tighter. This seems like the biggest potential risk to this style

Second, there are different ways to transition. In his other games, Snute also opted for Roach Zergling pressure early on, so there are options for staying aggressive.

Third, Snute delays upgrades for a long time. His first attack/armor upgrade is +1 missiles at 12:00. This might be a risk against a double Forge style with more armor upgrades to buffer against the Hydralisks. To sustain the attack, you probably will need to go up to 4 bases. Snute gets it very late in this game, but you can see other timings in his games against Classic

Fourth, the late-game composition is presumably more flexible for how the Protoss responds. Against High Templar, Snute opted for more Roaches. If he had seen more Colossi, I would guess you would get more Vipers for the Abducts.

So in summary, safe opening + big Speedling attack + mid-game Hydralisk contain = devastated GSL/SSL champions

Check out the rest of this series and Snute’s series against Classic for more games like this http://spawningtool.com/28108/

-StoicLoofah

Snute’s ZvP Zergling Hydralisk Contain

  • 9 Overlord
  • 15 Spawning Pool
  • 16 Hatchery
  • 15 Overlord
  • 15 Queen
  • 17 Zergling x4
  • 21 Extractor, Hatchery, Overlord
  • 29 Overlord, Metabolic Boost
  • ~5:40 Queen x2
  • ~7:00 Lair, Zergling x20/30 (attack the 3rd)
  • 8:00 Extractor x4
  • 8:40 Hydralisk Den
  • 9:20 Grooved Spines, flood Hydralisks

LotV Featured Replay of the Week: Geiko’s PvZ 4 Gate Adept

Posted on by
Reply

View this replay on Spawning Tool

Part of learning a new meta-game is learning new cheese strategies, and the 4 Gate Adept build popularized by Geiko is a pretty strong Protoss cheese, so here is our first Legacy of the Void (LotV) Protoss build order.

The basic gist of the strategy is to abuse the mobility and tankiness of Adepts. With the Shield Upgrade from the Twilight Council, Adepts have 90 Health and 140 Shields (and 1 armor). Although they have relatively low DPS because of a slow attack speed, their bonus damage against light units allows them to 2-shot workers, Combat Shield-less Marines, and Zerglings.

Above all that, they also have the Psionic Transfer ability to create a shade to bypass static defenses and attack in 2 locations at once. You can also cancel the shade so that Adepts can effectively threaten the main and natural bases simultaneously, forcing the defender to split up or be left completely defenseless.

The build itself is relatively straightforward, and Geiko provides a good explanation in the TL thread: open 2 Gate to harass. Get your Twilight Council for the Shield Upgrade and 2 more Gateways and place a proxy Pylon to start wailing on your opponent. With the Twilight Council, you also have the flexibility to mix in DTs, just to make their lives even more difficult.

This particular game against ViBE shows how strong this build is against Zerg. Going down the list of potential defenses,

  1. Zerglings die in 2 shots
  2. Queens aren’t numerous enough
  3. Spine Crawlers can be bypassed
  4. Roaches aren’t fast enough and actually have less HP/Shields than an upgraded Adept

Although ViBE defends well against the initial 2 Adept poke and even the first warp-in, the next wave of Mass Adepts (still off of 1 base) is too much to handle, even with burrowed Roaches.

-StoicLoofah

Geiko’s PvZ 4 Gate Adept

  • 13 Pylon
  • 14 Gateway
  • 15 Assimilator
  • 18 Gateway
  • 19 Cybernetics Core, Assimilator
  • 20 Warp Gate, Pylon at your ramp
  • 22 Adept x2 (send them to harass)
  • 27 Twilight Council
  • 27 Gateway x2 (to wall off), Shield Upgrade
  • 28 Shield Upgrade
  • 29 Proxy Pylon
  • 27 Dark Shrine
  • Then build Adepts

Featured Replay of the Week: TaeJa vs PartinG MindGames

Posted on by
Reply

View this replay on Spawning Tool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0svEpeFf4w&feature=youtu.be&t=1h1m19s

This week I had a very hard time deciding which replay to feature on the front page. I knew I wanted it to be one of the games of PartinG vs TaeJa, but I didn’t know which one. There was the double cheese game that ended in a draw, then there was the game after on the same map in which TaeJa cheesed again, and there was this game. I chose this game because TaeJa finally realizes that he needs to mix it up to beat PartinG. In a standard macro game, TaeJa was stomped by PartinG.

In this game, TaeJa opens with a gas first. When one sees this opening, he can expect to see a 1/1/1 hyper-aggressive and possible allin from the Terran player. TaeJa decides he wants to mix in some mind games on this map though. When PartinG’s probe slips past the marine and gets into the base, he sees that the factory is moments from being finished. TaeJa immediately pulls all of his SCVs from gas and pools up to 400 minerals after the probe is dealt with. He soon after puts down a 3rd Command Center, being extremely greedy.

PartinG’s reaction to the potential aggression was to constantly chrono out stalkers and the warp gate tech, delaying his own economy. This puts TaeJa ahead because of his 2 extra command centers on the way. TaeJa also moves his hellion out onto the map to trick PartinG even more. The build that TaeJa showed made PartinG almost positive that it was a 2 hellion, 6 marine, 1 mine, 1 medivac attack at about 6 minutes. When TaeJa moves his hellion across the map, he makes PartinG think for even longer that the build he scouted was accurate information.

TaeJa takes advantage of this trick and goes EXTREMELY greedy. He stays on one gas for very long just so he can get his extra barracks out sooner, then takes 3 gases in progression to tech up as fast as possible. TaeJa also takes his third at the 9:30 mark.

Based on the stats and replays we have on Spawning Tool, it shows that PartinG only ever loses games when they go past the 16 minute mark. TaeJa must have been checking up on our valuable statistics 🙂 , because he wanted to get into the mid/late game as fast as possible!

If people say that INnoVation is a robot, I say that TaeJa is a piece of clay. In game 3 on Iron Fortress, in multple cases, his medivac drops were sniped. This ultimately was too costly and was one of the main reasons why he lost that game. In this game, TaeJa, when sending out drops, would drop one marine out to scout ahead and to the third positions the find PartinG’s army. TaeJa also goes double starport this game in order to counter PartinG’s large colossus count that overwhelmed him in game 3.

The multipronged aggression/multitasking from both players throughout the game was truly impressive. PartinG sends out a warp prism with DTs and attacks mutiple bases with it. TaeJa also defends this agression while killing PartinG’s third base!

Towards the end of this game, you can see why PartinG is known as one of the best players in the world: he just refuses to die. Even when TaeJa was a base up and microing his heart out, PartinG kept on taking good trades with his units and holding the Terran forces back.

TaeJa eventually overwhelms the Protoss army and wins despite PartinG’s efforts.
This game was extremely close. It is surprising that TaeJa, even when he is half retired, can still keep up and take games off of one of, if not the best, Protoss in the world.

-MorN_sc

TaeJa vs PartinG Mind Games

  • 9  0:54  Supply Depot
  • 11  1:26  Refinery
  • 13  1:50  Barracks
  • 16  2:56  Orbital Command
  • 16  2:58  Factory
  • 17  3:14  Supply Depot
  • 21 3:59   Pulls out of gas after being scouted
  • 21  4:01  Widow Mine
  • 24  4:19  Barracks Reactor
  • 24  4:27  Command Center
  • 24  4:34  Supply Depot
  • 28  5:20  Command Center
  • 29  5:46  Bunker
  • 33  6:07  Orbital Command
  • 33  6:17  Barracks
  • 34  6:20  Barracks
  • 37  6:40  Engineering Bay

Featured Replay of the Week: Maru’s Proxy Marauder into Bio Tank

Posted on by
2

View this replay on Spawning Tool

Game 2. Overgrowth. Grand Finals. What do you expect Maru to do? Proxy of course. Maru goes for a proxy marauder. He places it right below Dream’s base, because he expects dream’s reaper to go scout to the his third, then go to Maru’s base (which would then make his barracks unscouted). These type of attempted mindgames only take place in matches where the players know each other very well.

After dream scouts the proxy marauder, he makes the choice to send his reaper to Maru’s base instead of using it to defend. This choice would let him get scv kills, while still defending his own base by pulling scvs.

Maru ends up getting a surround on the reaper which potentially saves this game for him. He had no units on his own side of the map, so this reaper could have been game ending.

After the multitasking dies down, maru goes 3cc! In units, he has a hellion, reaper, and a marauder to defend against any aggression that Dream would throw at him. This is the definition of greed, which is not usually Maru’s play style. He is usually the one multitasking the opponent and constantly applying pressure.

One of the more impressive things in this game is how Maru defended against Dream’s medivac drop at ~ 7:00. His micro is top notch. The fact that he defended this aggression so well means that he can get away with his 3cc. Dream’s followup banshee also gets deflected by a hidden widow mine!

The game evens up after Dream gets 8 scvs in a sneaky double medivac drop as Maru moves his army out onto the map. In order to kill just a little more scvs, he does not attack with his marines until he is on top of the mineral line.

Maru actually forgets combat shields and does not have it researched until ~17:00. Dream did not capitalize on this though.

At around the 18 minute mark, dream sneaks about 30 marines into Maru’s natural and ends up killing a command center. This forces Maru into a counter attack which kills dreams 3rd command center.

These guys are trading blow for blow in the mid-game. They both managed to get maxed by the 16 minute mark, but end up at 100 supply each at the 19 minute mark.

Maru who still has an army advantage and the air advantage closes in and forces Dream into a contain. With great siege tank placement he manages to stop the mining at the natural and forces dream to try something crazy.

Dream ends up trying for a surround by dropping marines behind Maru’s army then attacking with both halves. It almost works, because he has a slight upgrade advantage, but Maru’s medivac count is what saves him. Who would have thought this all started with a scouted proxy marauder? Well, I guess Maru would have ;P

-Morn_sc

TvT Maru’s Proxy Marauder into Bio Tank

  • 10 1:00 Supply Depot (send your proxy SCV at the same time)
  • 11 1:38 Barracks
  • 13 1:54 Refinery
  • 16 2:43 Barracks Tech Lab
  • 16 2:55 Orbital Command
  • 16 3:03 Supply Depot
  • 16 3:08 Marauder
  • 21 3:50 Reaper (defensive)
  • 21 4:29 Factory
  • 21 4:57 Command Center
  • 23 5:33 Starport
  • 24 5:49 Command Center
  • 25 5:56 Supply Depot
  • 25 6:04 Engineering Bay
  • 26 6:21 Hellion
  • 26 6:26 Viking
  • 26 6:29 Engineering Bay