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Alright so I'm going to try my hardest to avoid spoilers while I write this, but I think everyone's aware at this point that JulyZerg is having a pretty good GSL season.
My name is Justin, I'm a freshman at Emory University in Atlanta, I'm from Carmel, Indiana, and I play zerg. I have zero (0) experience with brood war -- or warcraft III or the sc2 beta or any other blizzard games, to be completely honest. Before I started playing Starcraft II I was an FPS guy -- cod4 promod, mw2, and so on. I played C&C Generals and Zero Hour, and a little bit of Tiberium Wars, but I never even considered using the keyboard. Also I only played the ai >.<
In other words, when Starcraft II came out last summer, I had absolutely no experience playing rts games competitively. I was as new to the community and the scene as it is possible to get. I played the single player and it was admittedly pretty frikkin' sick, as single player games go. Then I decided to play Zerg on a whim cuz I think alien insects are cool. The more I played, the more I was convinced that Zerg was the way to go -- I loved the feeling of controlling the whole map, of spreading creep and units so that my opponent couldn't even move out of his base without being engulfed and torn to shreds.
I played the practice league for about twelve games before I realized I had no idea what I was doing.
The first place I went for tips was the Blizzard community site. I started bookmarking threads in the forums there that were relevant to my voracious appetite for strategy. Then one day I saw a link to the Team Liquid forums and clicked it.
HOLY SHIT.
Needless to say, I never went back to the blizzard forums, riddled as they were with balance b1tchery. The Team Liquid forums were filled with people who (mostly) knew what they were talking about. And they provided links to yet another resource -- Liquipedia, where I scrounged up some build orders and read the articles for every unit in the game. The "One Base Muta" article linked to an analysis of this strategy by an individual named Day[9].
When I watched that video, I acquired two brand new favorites: Sen, my first favorite Zerg player, and Day[9], my absolute favorite caster/general guru.
I made it into gold on the 1 Base Muta strat. Thanks goes also to Desert Oasis. I had almost a 100% win rate on that map vs all races simply by using my first 100 gas for a quick lair instead of ling speed. Then I'd rush mutas and go trash the opponent long before a standard muta play would have arrived.
It was a good strat (for the silver league), but it got boring, as did my general 1 base play. Once I was in gold I started playing random to spice things up, but nothing compared to zerg, and eventually I went back. By playing a decent amount, watching the Day[9] Daily and keeping up on Team Liquid, I was able to finally make platinum about a month back. Then I felt justified in making a TL account (oh, hubris). After platinum, diamond came rather quickly. That's where I am right now.
But none of this really has much to do with why I'm writing this piece. JULY ZERG IS WHY I AM WRITING THIS PIECE. Because thanks to JulyZerg, I AM HAVING FUN PLAYING STARCRAFT AGAIN!
You see, I've been working so hard on being a "macro zerg" that I actually forgot how to ATTACK people. I had NEVER done a baneling bust EVER until the last couple weeks when I saw JulyZerg do it and went... "huh."
The thing that's been missing from my zerg play is that it's always so PREDICTABLE. Terran opponent? Lings, Banelings, and Mutalisks. Now granted I would LOVE some new units, and I can't wait for the next game to give me some more toys to play with, but following July's lead and being more aggressive more often has given me much better games lately.
I don't even care if my attack fails ingloriously and loses me the game! I feel like I'm actually learning lessons now when that happens, rather than just getting roflstomped by players with better macro and rolling over everybody else. Lessons like -- how many roaches do I need to take out an immortal with zealot support? My last few games, I haven't been so focused on massing up units, taking a couple bases, harassing with mutas, and waiting to engage his deathball with my death....amoeba.
Granted there's something to be said for macro and my macro is still less than optimal and I'm not gonna turn into an endless cheese machine. But from now on, when I decide it's time to JUST GO FUCKING KILL HIM, I'm actually going to COMMIT to it, the way July does, and if it fails, I'll know it wasn't a good idea. I won't take an early third while sending out a semi-successful push that kinda "mehs" out on his ramp when he's only got like a zealot and a sentry left. Either I'll kill the SHIT out of him NOW, or I'll expand now wholeheartedly and kill the shit out of him LATER.
Anyways that's the deal. I'm gonna make masters eventually, and when I do, it will still be thanks entirely to Team Liquid and Day[9]. Maybe I'll start streaming eventually. All I know is, I'm grateful to the entire community for being so awesome and supportive. It's something I never really had in Call of Duty: a place to go and discuss strategy with a couple thousand other similar people.
Starcraft II all the way, baby. And a spoiler:
+ Show Spoiler +
 
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Dude, you just changed my life of starcraft.
I thought that July's style was awesome too, but still ended up trying to macro macro macro to victory, suffering boring defeat or crushing victories.
Just played a 2-base banelings bust against a protoss, and I lost, but GOD WAS THAT FUN !
Thank you !
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You've pretty much described the cure for the boredom that zerg-play had become...
+ Show Spoiler +I also hope July wins 
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I don't se July winning easily, because MC is such a solid player.
And if they get to a macro game, I don't know how July will stop the DeathBall, but I do hope to see AMAZING games and twists!
And ofc, I wish July wins xD (even though I think MC might deserve it more)
//tx
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I don't think July will let it get to deathball stage, that just isn't his style.
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I haven't tried it out yet, but I've been really enjoying watching Idra use a new ZvP style on his stream the past two nights. Instead of going for a huge roach army in the mid game, he pumps a shitload of lings/banes while taking the whole map in true Idra fashion. When he sees collosus he maxes on corrupter (somewhere around 12-16 of them). He waits for a good moment to engage then just charges in with everything, taking out the collossus ASAP with the corrupter and surrounding with the ling/bane. The deathball literally disintegrates in seconds if they don't hit their forcefields. Reinforce w/ ling/roach and collect your points.
I'd highly recommend catching his stream if you can, it is just so awesome to watch (and I normally don't like how Idra plays, so kudos to him for evolving his play-style).
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Thanks for the support/input guys!
On March 18 2011 06:10 JamesSwift wrote:
I haven't tried it out yet, but I've been really enjoying watching Idra use a new ZvP style on his stream the past two nights. Instead of going for a huge roach army in the mid game, he pumps a shitload of lings/banes while taking the whole map in true Idra fashion. When he sees collosus he maxes on corrupter (somewhere around 12-16 of them). He waits for a good moment to engage then just charges in with everything, taking out the collossus ASAP with the corrupter and surrounding with the ling/bane. The deathball literally disintegrates in seconds if they don't hit their forcefields. Reinforce w/ ling/roach and collect your points.
I'd highly recommend catching his stream if you can, it is just so awesome to watch (and I normally don't like how Idra plays, so kudos to him for evolving his play-style).
I'll check it out for sure. :D Can't ever have too many zerg heroes. I've been kinda turned off by Idra's attitude, but maybe I'm not giving him enough of a chance.
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I have been playing since the beta and July did not invent the baneling bust or anything. They have been around since mid beta. It was mostly 1 base baneling bust into gg if it dose not work. I still feel that after 2 tries a banelings bust dont work even on 2 base it is still a lose. But How could it not work, look at those baneling.
Point of this post. July made them more popular at a higher level of play.
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Nice read, but I don't agree with your spoiler!
<3
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Good read. I'm glad that July is still getting fans, and that he's giving people another way to play the game and make it fun at the same time. I don't even play zerg but I love July so much.
+ Show Spoiler +Here's a gif of a minimap from a SC1 game of July vs Rock. Yeah it's hard to see, but I probably don't have to tell you which color July was that day. Imagine doing this with no multiple building select, no auto-mine, no queens and only 12 units per control group. ![[image loading]](http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/906/rovjulyrockay4.gif) Sauron Zerg! MC is my favorite toss but I secretly hope July wins.
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Tbh I think MC has this but July and Losira are my new favorite zergs. Banelings are of course the only good zerg unit, about time people just started making a bunch and fuckin killing people. Or not killing people. Either win hard or lose hard. Fucking rules, makes me want to play more zerg.
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That was actually a really good read.
Yep, the optimal strategy is to mix it up ^___^
I especially like how you said
"Either I'll kill the SHIT out of him NOW, or I'll expand now wholeheartedly and kill the shit out of him LATER."
We should never forget that the goal for each game is, indeed, to KILL THE SHIT out of the opponent.
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On March 18 2011 06:23 gROOT.clever wrote:
I'll check it out for sure. :D Can't ever have too many zerg heroes. I've been kinda turned off by Idra's attitude, but maybe I'm not giving him enough of a chance.
I agree, I have always been put off by his attitude and his seeming close-mindedness approach to matchups, but I respect how good he is and his new style really is a step out of the box that he normally confines himself to.
Last time he was streaming for a period of time (after the last GSL?) I couldn't stand watching because, I hate to say, he was just annoying to watch because of his complaining. This time is much more enjoyable because he doesn't have a mic enabled and just plays music : ( Totally respect for how he handled Combat-ex though for anyone that saw..
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July is fantastic to watch, and I've always been a fan of being super aggressive. My main problem has been finding the balance of where I can inflict maximum damage and then build on my lead without sacrificing my advantage.
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July's more of a #fastball kind of guy IMO
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LOL. Welcome to TL, little br0 ^^
("Groot" being our last name)
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Mmm Sauron Zerg is by far my favorite zerg style to play in BW. It's absolutely insane when you get a good game going in that style, you have this epic feeling of being the puppet master.
Until you lose, of course.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://images1.memegenerator.net/ImageMacro/5626590/Two-Cybernetics-Cores-Standard-Build.jpg?imageSize=Medium&generatorName=Day9-Meme)
