Stephano vs aFFZlycu - ZvP - Antiga Shipyard

ZvP has been the object of a little controversy recently (I did say a little). I myself have trouble with the match up when I play against opponents of my lowly level. I did however, watch the ASUS ROG Tournament in Helsinki, where I watched Stephano's first class ZvP in action. I had quite a few replays of Stephano, which came from his replay pack, found here. So I took the time to examine his ZvP reps.

Stephano vs aFFZlycu [image loading]

On Antiga Shipyard
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The game starts with Stephano in the 2 o'clock position and his opponent, the Protoss aFFZlycu at the 11 o'clock position. What I'll be looking at in this analysis is how Stephano opens and what does after that opening. This is as classic a ZvP as you get these days. I won't concentrate on what aFFZlycu (btw, whoever you are, thank you for this replay, but your name is annoying as hell to type) is doing, but rather what does Stephano scout and how he reacts to it.

Stephano's opening is 15 pool, 16 hatch, 16 gas. Something to note is that his starting OL is sent to scout the 5 o'clock position but the first OL he makes goes on to scout the 11 o'clock position. On Antiga you can apparently time your second OL to scout the Protoss main before getting fired at by gateway units. Good to know. The second important thing that Stephano does is make two lings right off the bat and look for Pylons near his base. After that he takes the watch tower and scouts areas further away from his base for probes building forward pylons. This is just playing safe and it's something any aspiring Zerg should do in ZvP.

During all of this, Stephano is content to get some gas and upgrade ling speed, while droning up his two hatcheries.

In the meantime, the lings that were scouting the map finally bounce up to the Protoss ramp and scout the forge FE that affzlycu is doing. Upon seeing this, Stephano immediately throws down his third. Standard, standard, standard.

Fig.1:Poor zergling

Fast forward a bit a few minutes. Stephano continues to maintain map vision with his speedlings, intercepting a mischievous prob(l)e(m), which would undoubtedly have made a problematic pylon somewhere on the map. Standard.

While his third is in its making, Stephano techs to lair, gets a Roach Warren, an evolution chamber, and drones. We're at 7:50 game time.

You'll want to download the replay and note the gas timing, because as soon as the Roach Warren is up, Roach speed and +1 Ranged attack are getting researched immediately and almost at the same time. The timings are really well done. On top of that, Stephano produces a handful on Roaches.

Fig.2:Note the production tab, and the flying pylon warping in drone killers

However after spotting a Warp Prism, Stephano makes a lot of roach/ling and even starts morphing an Overseer. Stephano only knows that both of the Protoss gas geysers in main are taken, which could mean DT. Playing it safe and standard. Either way, the fast mobile force that suddenly appears out of thin air from Stephano deals with the Warp Prism harass easily.

Fig.3:Screw all this..

Figure 3 shows an interesting tale of the Warp Prism being warped away by Roaches, but the real deal is on minimap. A scouting ling is sent by Stephano to determine if the Protoss has taken his third or not yet. This is key to understanding stephano's ZvP. More on that later. Also noteworthy is the income tab. Stephano is up a base with 15 more drones than his opponent, his income is about 30% better than his opponent's (rough estimation, bien entendu). The final detail of note (note how I like the word note xD) is that there's only about a 20 food difference between Z and P. This just goes to show that while there may be a lot of pretty fireworks going on, there are lots of things that a player must take into account. SC2 isn't just macro and micro. Other factors such as decision making and game knowledge are also important, which aspiring players have to know if they to be competitive.

Valiantly, the scouting ling dies, fried alive by the terrible Colossi*. At which point Stephano is unhappy, because his play revolves around denying the Protoss his third. He delays it, wanting to keep his economic edge for as long as possible

Fig.4:Poor probe. Probes are cute btw.

+ Show Spoiler +

Fig.4bis:Illustration of Stephano at 11.03

As if taking a third wasn't enough to anger Stephano, aFFZlycu** also drops Zealots in the Zerg main. Luckily, only two drones die, thanks to Stephano's excellent reactions and multitasking. As it is, Stephano has delayed the Protoss his expansion long enough and retreats a bit, without committing to anything other than harassing anything he can. He is content knowing that he is economically outstripping his opponent, who can't move out against him either, given Stephano's map control.

Stephano of course throws down a spire in response to the Colossi menace and continues to upgrade Ranged attack. The corrupters have the added bonus of shutting down the warp prism harass. All's good for Stephano.

This is where Stephano's early third, coupled with denying his opponent's third, really kicks in. In the space of a few minutes, Stephano's hugely superior economy allows him to jump all the way to 190 food, whereas his opponent, our good friend aFFZlycu, is stuck at something around only 130. Upgrades are going swimmingly and Stephano looks like he is in terrific shape. For good reason: he is!

Fig.5:You have Colossi, you don't need a third

At this point Stephano goes in for the kill. He is up a base and has a much better economy and he continues to put pressure on aFFZlycu's third. He has map vision and map control. If he wants to take 3 more bases, he can. If wants to tech to Brood Lords, he can. If wants to win the game now, he can.

Therein lies the moral of this ~~story~~ review. In ZvP, you absolutely want to consolidate your economy early and prevent your opponent from doing so himself. You do this by taking your own third quickly and harassing, without committing to anything, your opponent. Some strategies are used to win the game outright, such as all-ins or cheese. A "proper" strategy and or/opening is designed to bring you to a point in time where you can obtain an advantage, and use that advantage to "get more ahead", and win the game in the long run.

There are obviously many things that haven't been taken into account in this review, such as Stargate play, 6 or 7 gate all-in, DT, etc. Could Mutalisks offer the map control and vision needed to do this? What about Hydra/Ling, as explained by Day9 in one of his dailies? What about infestors? The list goes on.. but the most important lesson of this review was how to think in a standard ZvP.

The real goal is to deepen the understanding of ZvP, not being right. So please, give your thoughts on this and feel free to disagree with or discuss things I've said. Definitely check out Stephano's replay pack as well! Hope you've enjoyed reading this, for those who have. : )

Fig.6:Automaton: Just doesn't give a f***

*It is a well known fact that Colossi tend to fall over, especially in large numbers. Their balance being sketchy at best.

**I seriously have to scroll up and find this name again whenever I want to type it, which explains my excessive use of the word "Protoss" instead of aFFZlycu's actually name. Sorry mate.

Stephano vs aFFZlycu - ZvP - Antiga Shipyard

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