• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 22:52
CET 03:52
KST 11:52
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy5ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT30Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13
Community News
Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool25Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win32026 KungFu Cup Announcement6BGE Stara Zagora 2026 cancelled12Blizzard Classic Cup - Tastosis announced as captains18
StarCraft 2
General
Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool Serral: 24’ EWC form was hurt by military service Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?
Tourneys
RSL Season 4 announced for March-April Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV Team League Season 10 KSL Week 87 [GSL CK] #2: Team Classic vs. Team Solar
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026] Map Editor closed ?
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 517 Distant Threat Mutation # 516 Specter of Death Mutation # 515 Together Forever
Brood War
General
JaeDong's form before ASL ASL21 General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Gypsy to Korea BSL Season 22
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 [BSL22] Open Qualifiers & Ladder Tours IPSL Spring 2026 is here!
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Five o'clock TL Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Mexico's Drug War
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion Tokyo Olympics 2021 Thread General nutrition recommendations Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Money Laundering In Video Ga…
TrAiDoS
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
FS++
Kraekkling
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3088 users

Zerg: A Balancing Act

Blogs > Dance.
Post a Reply
Dance.
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States389 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-08 11:17:27
October 08 2010 11:09 GMT
#1
This was originally going to be a response to a thread, but the thread was closed. I just wanted to give my thoughts on zerg and the happy medium of micro and macro needed to succeed.

As a zerg player, I feel like all my games require equal attention to micro and macro. No matter how good your macro is, if you don't engage in the right position at the right time, you are done. The opposite is also true. Even if you can micro the shit out of your units, if you are not keeping up with larvae inject and balancing your drones right, the game is over. Though all races arguably suffer from this, I don't think many people would deny that zerg suffer the most (or maybe they would...).

Wether it's early game or end game, zerg can't get away with just strong micro or macro alone like the other races can. It is a constant balancing act for zerg. This is why I love playing zerg. It is so easy to just warp in a bunch of stalker/sentry and spamming force field, but engaging an army like that demands patience and a good game sense.

Please share your thoughts. Is there any aspect of your macro/micro play that you feel is significantly lacking? Specifically, how do you go about improving (I don't just mean more games.)? Let me know if you feel other races demand just as much of a balance that I think zerg do and why.

Thanks TL, you guys are great.

Edit: I put screenshots of some of my more terrible zerg engagments tomorrow.

*
It is what it is...
village_idiot
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
2436 Posts
October 08 2010 11:36 GMT
#2
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting.

You need to know your opponent's army composition at all times and be able to spread creep while larva injecting at the same time. Once you have half of the map creeped it will be much easier to set up flanks and spot possible drops and other enemy movement. Defending your expansions also becomes much easier.

I also find changelings very useful when scouting as you can see enemy tech and army composition for just 50 energy.
keioh
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
France1099 Posts
October 08 2010 12:03 GMT
#3
I feel we zerg are too much a reaction race, as some claim for a little while now.

Learning to play Zerg has tremendously improved my macro and my multitasking ability (it's not great still). I also have to consistentely look at the map and know what is going on at least at my opponent's ramp. Playing zerg FORCES me to have constant attention to most aspect of a game.

When I play the other race, first it's always in team game, second I feel I have not so much thing to do. T & P armies feel so strong when you played zerg, it's almost funny how you can steamroll a poor zerg fellow with just 50 pop. I do think they are easier to handle, but I don't think at all they're easier to master. Playing terran is so freakin' hard when you have to look at positioning... Protoss feels the same way, you feel strong but then suddenly you have no more units, 2K minerals and no gas and opponent is couter pushing.

Now my biggest problem is about decision making and when to strop droning. Which I believe is the hardest thing to master as a zerg.

By decision making I also count how and when to engage a fight, when to pull back, and which transition to do. I still find myself droning too much and losing poorly when the first protoss push come, like "hmm okay I can drone a little bit more, I saw him with only 2 stalkers and 1 zeal OH SHI- HE'S AT MY EXP AND I HAVE NO LARVAE m^ù$ùm^ù$ùm^!ù$ù ".

To improve I just try to learn some timings and to adjust better to what I have the time to scout with my first drone. I do this by playing more. And more. And more.

Sometimes though, I want to kill protoss users so badly I have to stop playing for a while ^^
GIMME ALL THE BELGIAN WAFFLES I CAN GET FOR THIS MONEY !!!!!! BELGIAN WAFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFLEEEEEEEEES
Scorcher2k
Profile Joined November 2009
United States802 Posts
October 08 2010 12:58 GMT
#4
I think this is honestly how all the races are now. I honestly miss the play style of reaver+goon and Bisu build from BW a lot when I play because I felt that if I could pull off some good micro then I could seriously turn the tide and make up for my poor macro (vice versa of course). The game kind of feels bland at times right now because it doesn't have this kind of play imo.
SubtleArt
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
2710 Posts
October 08 2010 15:29 GMT
#5
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....
Morrow on ZvP: "I'm not very confident in general vs Protoss because of the imbalance (Yes its imbalanced, get over it)."
AssuredVacancy
Profile Blog Joined September 2008
United States1167 Posts
October 08 2010 15:32 GMT
#6
On October 09 2010 00:29 SubtleArt wrote:
Show nested quote +
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....


Really.. half of the terrans I play don't scout besides the initial scv, and push blindly on one base while cutting scv at 26. There's nothing about defending/macroing or scouting in there.
We spend our youth attaining wealth, and our wealth attaining youth.
SubtleArt
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
2710 Posts
October 08 2010 15:36 GMT
#7
On October 09 2010 00:32 AssuredVacancy wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 09 2010 00:29 SubtleArt wrote:
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....


Really.. half of the terrans I play don't scout besides the initial scv, and push blindly on one base while cutting scv at 26. There's nothing about defending/macroing or scouting in there.


Then you play horrible Terrans
Morrow on ZvP: "I'm not very confident in general vs Protoss because of the imbalance (Yes its imbalanced, get over it)."
AssuredVacancy
Profile Blog Joined September 2008
United States1167 Posts
October 08 2010 16:04 GMT
#8
On October 09 2010 00:36 SubtleArt wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 09 2010 00:32 AssuredVacancy wrote:
On October 09 2010 00:29 SubtleArt wrote:
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....


Really.. half of the terrans I play don't scout besides the initial scv, and push blindly on one base while cutting scv at 26. There's nothing about defending/macroing or scouting in there.


Then you play horrible Terrans


Probably, I don't know the level of 1400-1500 diamond terrans right now because of point inflation. But most of them do some sort of blind one base push involving thor/marine/hellion, or banshee/marine/hellion, or marauder/hellion/scv while cutting scvs.
We spend our youth attaining wealth, and our wealth attaining youth.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 8m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 207
NeuroSwarm 145
ProTech23
PiLiPiLi 22
StarCraft: Brood War
Sharp 157
sSak 88
Noble 67
ggaemo 37
Icarus 3
Dota 2
canceldota152
LuMiX1
League of Legends
JimRising 635
Counter-Strike
taco 834
Other Games
ViBE145
C9.Mang0139
Livibee115
Trikslyr58
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick867
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream135
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta21
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 24
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift3824
Other Games
• Scarra1103
• imaqtpie818
• Shiphtur156
Upcoming Events
Korean StarCraft League
8m
RSL Revival
7h 8m
Maru vs Zoun
Cure vs ByuN
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
12h 8m
BSL
17h 8m
RSL Revival
1d 7h
herO vs MaxPax
Rogue vs TriGGeR
BSL
1d 17h
Replay Cast
1d 21h
Replay Cast
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
2 days
Sharp vs Scan
Rain vs Mong
Wardi Open
2 days
[ Show More ]
Monday Night Weeklies
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Soulkey vs Ample
JyJ vs sSak
Replay Cast
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
hero vs YSC
Larva vs Shine
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
WardiTV Team League
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
WardiTV Team League
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-03-20
WardiTV Winter 2026
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
BSL Season 22
CSL Elite League 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
Nations Cup 2026
NationLESS Cup
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual

Upcoming

ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
2026 Changsha Offline CUP
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 1
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.