Just tried my first coaching session with Smob, SmobZerg, Sm0b, guy has a few names, but the only one important right now is BAWS-MODE ZERG COACH. This guy was awesome.

For anyone who's caught my previous replays vs DemonAce ZvP or vs a few other people, and my frustration with the matchup...check these out:

Smob was on Skype coaching me for these games. The first game, I was just doing my own thing, trying to make this work, second game I was following his build order and figuring some stuff out. 3rd game was again, Smob coaching me through this build order over Skype. And I wanna say, this guy not only can guide you through this stuff, he explains every though process and the whys and hows of everything all at once, but it is smooth as hell. Not overwhelming. Like some kind of Overmind mind-meld going on.

BAWS-MODE.

I feel 10x more confident and relaxed with ZvP now than I have in weeks.

2 thumbs up. No...5. 5 thumbs up. All the thumbs. They're all up.

PLUS, he streams and commentates. He was at MLG Anaheim. Guy is awesome. Check him out.

Vlare

748 Posts

September 28 2011 05:57 GMT

Protoss not op anymore?

Yay

Advocado

Denmark994 Posts

September 28 2011 06:32 GMT

You should explain the concept/strategy of the build. Dont know if Im gonna watch replays if I have no idea what kind of zvp it is.

sm0b

United States157 Posts

September 28 2011 06:38 GMT

On September 28 2011 15:32 Advocado wrote:
You should explain the concept/strategy of the build. Dont know if Im gonna watch replays if I have no idea what kind of zvp it is.

The build is focused around a speed roach +2 melee bling bomb timing attack that allows you to safely take 3/4 bases (based on map) and get T3 tech. The evo chamber timings are based around void ray and dt timings so with proper scouting you are safe against the majority of protoss builds.

It's my bread and butter ZvP.

Reithan

United States360 Posts

September 28 2011 17:43 GMT

The first game went a lot better than usual, mainly which I attribute to the talk I had with Smob before starting. We went over some basic mechanical issues, mindset and some differences in how different timings of expansions and macro hatcheries would affect the game.

Starting off, DemonAce blocked my hatch with a pylon, which he cancelled just before it finished.
I had gone hatch first and prepperd 4 lings and a queen while I was blocked, but was ready to throw down my natural as soon as the pylon was cleared.

I had gotten an initial 100 gas for ling speed for some map control, after taking a fast 3rd, around 7:30-8:00 I threw down a roach warren an evo chamber and started getting more gas in preparation for an attack I assumed would come around the 9-10 minute mark, as normal, since I hadn't seen anything odd when scouting.

I was ready with some roach/ling when he pushed out towards me and I had lair, +1 carapace and a 4th on the way.

I juked around and got a reasonable surround on his forces, making him burn blinks to try to get into a better position.

I chased him back through a couple sets of forcefields, but just kept re-surrounding whenever he moved.

I was eventually able to crush the attack. Being 2 base up and still having a reasonable standing army, he gg'd. (Or because it was a practice match! ya!)

This game Smob was silent and just watched me play and listened to me ramble on about what I was doing in Skype, in preparation for showing me how to up my game in the following matches.

Reithan

United States360 Posts

September 28 2011 22:59 GMT

Ok, so, second game, I tried following along with Smob's build as he fed it to me real-time in Skype. I didn't do phenomenally well the first time around, but it let me get a feel for what he was trying to accomplish with the build.

First, he had me open with a standard 14/14 speedling expand.

The pylon block was attempted again, but this time I was able to kill the offending blockage and place my hatchery right away.

At almost 6:00 I put down a roach warren and an evo chamber, and put drones back in gas.

After that, I got lair, roach speed, melee upgrades, overlords drops and speed, and started massing units.

After loading up my now converted banelings into the waiting overlords and moving out, I tried to engage with DemonAce's army. A minor bit of confusion on my part ended with a lot of the banelings being dropped wrong, and the roaches engaging improperly.

Router, I ran the overlords back to base, though I did a good deal of damage to DemonAce's army, this still put me on the back foot.

I remaxed on Roach/Infestor and started making a beeline for hive tech and Ultras while trying to secure expansions.

Unfortunately feedback works really well on infestors and Colossi work on everything else. Also, I've noticed the animation for Feedback doesn't seem to play a lot of the time. The sound plays and the infestor explodes - but there's no flashing blue lightshow.

After getting my under-upgraded ultras out, I found out that you can't fungal up a cliff you don't have vision to, even if you can 'see' the stalkers up there, and that mass zealot still counters ultralisks pretty effectively, especially if you're down on upgrades.

I cleared out a few mineral lines and some production structures with some crackling drops, which seemed really cost effective. I think I like these.

But in the end, I was just too far behind and DemonAce was able to raze my bases.

Reithan

United States360 Posts

September 29 2011 00:15 GMT

The 3rd game was just putting some more practice down on the build with Smob coaching me on from Skype.

The beginning of the game went pretty much identical, however, I was able to get a 3rd down a bit faster, and my upgrades came together a lot better, allowing me to have +2 melee attack finished by the time I was loading up my baneling drops.

The engagement went much better this time, as well. DemonAce got some pretty good forcefields down, but he wasn't able to avoid both the roach army AND the baneling carpet bombing.

His last 2 colossi escaped up a cliff, but 1 overlord that hadn't gotten onloaded provided a bit of additional damage in his mineral line, culling 5 workers from his line. Not a killing blow, but every little bit counts.

With the overlords on the retreat, I took my remaining roaches and sniped down his 3rd while I took a 4th, 5th and a macro hatch in my main, while teching to hive and getting some more upgrades. I felt pretty safe to do this, because I knew I'd just decimated at least 90% of his forces.

Having liked the tactic last game, a couple quick zergling drops (I didn't have Adrenal Glands finished, yet) both cancelled his 4th and killed off 15 more probes at his main and natural.

Engaging into his magical congo line of stalker/colossus netted me with some more kills thanks to some good fungals and a few banelings in my mix. With no HTs to Feedback my infestors they were running rampant until his blink stalkers blunk over to run them down. This did leave my roaches free to focus down the last 3 colossus, though.

His stalkers were able to finish off my infestors and severely supply block me, however, I'd already been remaxing on ultra/ling/bane and they finished hatching just as his stalkers beat a hasty retreat back off my creep.

A big Ultra/bane push into his natural and main while a couple rogue ultralisks assaulted his 3rd did enough damage to push the game to a GG.

Demonace34

United States2493 Posts

September 30 2011 11:16 GMT

On September 28 2011 14:57 Vlare wrote:
Protoss not op anymore?

Yay

Not when I play

. Cool write up on our games. First game by me was horrible, 2nd game was decent by me but your other bases were too late. 3rd game I just got decimated because I got caught out in the middle of the map and your bane drops were damn good it was GG after that.

Thanks for the games, hope you get to diamond soon.