EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eoZmZ.jpg)
Tournament Overview
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Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead. You have been warned
Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead. You have been warned
The King of Kongs has been crowned, but unfortunately we were all robbed of the sweet irony of
MarineKing getting second place in this tournament. Personally, I was also disappointed that GOM didn’t do anything more to take advantage of the playful theme of this tournament. There was little-to-no production work, no funny interviews before the finals, and only one caster for the finals itself. Come on GOM. For the first tournament of the new year, and the first tournament for the people that caved in and bought the annual GOMTV pass, it’s almost unforgiveable.
As for the games themselves, overall they were predictable. The only thing that was truly shocking was
Leenock floundering his way out of the Ro8, but overall what we assumed of the rest of the players were reinforced by the games throughout the tournament. RainBOw looked hopelessly lost, TOP and 
InCa showed that they still needed time to grow, and July reinforced the perception that he is terrible in ZvZ. While we really can’t read too deeply into gameplay from most of the player in the King of Kong tournament, the one exception to this definitely is
DRG's brilliant ZvZ play versus Losira. A few descriptive words like “intelligent” or “amazing” doesn’t do justice to what he showed us in the finals. Even two thousand words (the length of this article) probably isn’t enough to cover every single flash of brilliance that DRG showed, but I will do my best to explore DRG’s victory in words. The DRG Mindset and Strategy
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Guess which one is the Boss Nerd
I’m not going to spend too much time talking about Losira’s mistakes, not necessarily because Losira played poorly, but because there is so much more to learn just looking at DRG’s gameplay. DRG showcased how well he can combine his intelligent understanding of the various matchups with his instinctive ability to craft strategies on the fly in each individual game, and his dominating play versus Losira has cemented his position amongst the Korean SC2 elite.
In a matchup with a reputation for coin-flip results based on build orders, DRG showed us that intelligent play can defy traditional assumptions about the power of build-orders in ZvZ. Over the course of four victories and one loss, DRG organically adjusted to his opponent’s strategies in each game and transitioned into counter strategies to try to hit razor-thin timings to claim his victories. Even when he theoretically was at a disadvantage due to build orders, DRG always persisted and claimed victories where many would have predicted otherwise.
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DRG committed to early pressures such as this spine crawler rush in Game 2 not to win outright, but control the tempo of the games
Using one-base pressure to determine the his opponent’s plan and transition into mid-game tech to counter those plans, DRG rarely let Losira dictate the tempo of the ZvZs, much less even get map control. By controlling map control and thus the information that Losira got, DRG minimized the amount of time Losira had to react, allowing him to exploit tiny windows of time to win the game. The key to this successful pressure was DRG’s ability to keep his units alive. Despite constantly poking and prodding, DRG rarely lost units needlessly, always reinforcing his remaining units and maintaining a presence in front of Losira’s base, denying Losira crucial information and the freedom to drone up.
After establishing a powerful pressuring force to constantly distract and do damage, the next step in DRG’s strategy was to establish the economic base for the counter. Behind his constant attacks and poking, DRG always expanded, droned, and teched whenever he got the opportunity. With his economy established, DRG would then scout and determine Losira’s strategy. Whether it was with his pressuring units, sacrificial overlords, or an overseer, DRG almost consistently scouted for lair timings as he was getting his own.
From the mid-game onwards, DRG’s knowledge of the matchup and instincts took over, and this is the point that his strategy becomes hard to summarize, as after scouting DRG almost always managed to choose the perfect tech and army composition to exploit Losira’s weaknesses. This is the point where theory falls by the wayside and execution takes over, and to appreciate this we must take an in-depth look at the entire process.
Applying Theory With Impeccable Execution
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DRG attacked literally a second before Losira (in the red) finished his zergling speed. Image with hopefully helpful icons
Game 3 is perhaps the best example of DRG’s intelligent reactive play. Opening with the safer gas-spawning pool-before-expansion on Daybreak, DRG saw that Losira went for the greedier expansion-before-spawning pool and immediately researched zergling speed. DRG’s advantage with zergling speed allowed him to constantly pressure Losira’s natural and dodge Losira’s banelings, giving him a crucial positional advantage to run into Losira’s natural expansion drone line. This engagement gave DRG the chance to kill a few of Losira’s drones and gain a slight economic advantage.
DRG was not content to sit on his slight economic lead though. With Losira on the defensive amidst DRG’s continued zergling pokes, DRG teched safely to lair while Losira was forced to defensively throw down a roach warren. Sending in a sacrificial overlord, DRG saw that Losira hadn’t started his lair yet when his own lair was already finished, which meant that infestors and hydralisk tech would be a little while off, and he immediately threw down a spire and a few spine crawlers.
Seeing Losira getting greedy by attempting to get a relatively early third, DRG kept Losira in the dark by constantly poking at Losira’s third expansion, forcing Losira to commit all his forces to defend the third .To Losira’s credit, he was aware of a potential mutalisk threat in the matchup, and threw down precautionary spore crawlers and a hydralisk den as soon as his own lair was finished. When Losira finally managed to send zerglings and a baneling to scout DRG’s third expansion, he saw DRG’s mutas, and immediately threw down an infestation pit and made a few defensive hydralisks.
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Again, DRG exploiting a tiny timing by attacking seconds before infestors hatched
It looked like DRG’s mutas wouldn’t be able to give him the game. However DRG’s brilliance showed through in the next decision that he made. Scouting the relatively modest number of defensive hydralisks and the lack of roaches in the main with an overseer, DRG realized that Losira was most likely teching to infestors. Knowing that he has a very small timing window before infestors would hit the field, DRG made a snap judgment and committed several rounds of production to additional mutalisks and zerglings. He then caught Losira’s defensive hydralisks in the main away from spore crawler and queen support, and committed his massed army of zerglings into Losira’s main seconds before Losira’s infestors could hatch, forcing Losira to GG.
Another Name for Dominance is DongRaeGu
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It doesn’t matter that roaches can’t dance, DongRaeGu will find a way to make them dance
With such a reactive and intelligent style, DRG made Losira look almost foolish. We must remember that Losira’s ZvZ is pretty potent, as he handily proved versus July. Against the DRG though, Losira was helpless as he was forced to make mistakes or commit to making more defenses than he wanted to by DRG’s constant aggressive presence in the front of his base. Losira almost always played in the dark, and when he did manage to find out what DRG was planning, it was typically too late.
Even when Losira managed to get out on the map and counter-attack, DRG was always one step ahead. In game 4 when Losira managed to scout DRG’s early roach warren, DRG immediately started lair tech, distracted Losira by running zerglings into his main base to prevent him from scouting further, and ran over an unprepared Losira with mutalisks. In game 5, when Losira attempted a +1 roach timing attack, DRG had long prepared for it thanks to scouting Losira’s plans beforehand with his constantly pressuring zerglings, and denied Losira’s attack and secured an unshakeable economic lead to take the entire series.
![[image loading]](http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4711/kokfinalgame5.jpg)
To be fair though, DRG’s job was a lot easier with Losira consistently showing lapses of awareness, such as allowing his zerglings to be wiped out by DRG’s banelings here in Game 5
The fact that DRG rarely reused the same mid-game strategy in each of his games should indicate how dynamic his mid-game ZvZ play is. Game 1 DRG used a powerful zergling-baneling attack. Game 2 DRG attempted a +1 roach attack timing. Game 3 DRG rushed to spire and took the game with a zergling-mutalisk attack. Game 4 DRG fooled Losira and tech-switched to mutas from roaches. Game 5 DRG executed an attack intended to line up with +2 roach attack.
With such varied strategies, it is easy to see why DRG is so deadly across all matchups. Combined with his innate ability to dominate the flow of games, DRG has the multitasking, mechanical skills, and the map awareness to pull it all off flawlessly. Of course, everything that I described here has been done by various SC2 pros at one time or another, but DRG is one of the very few SC2 pros who can do it consistently regardless of the circumstances or the opponent.
DRG is by no means invincible, as he can be forced into making mistakes, and SC2 is a game that can punish even the most skillful for the slightest slip-ups. As for his dominating reactive gameplay style, eventually the Korean metagame will catch up to DRG’s aggressive mid-game focused play, and his fellow peers will also grow in skill and perhaps surpass DRG. But for now, DRG is dominant, and there is no denying that the time will soon come when he will prove he is a Champion, not a mere King of Kongs.
Image credits to GOMTV. As always thanks for the feedback and support!
I hope to see more of these in the future.
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