EPTReplays are the way to go for a fast track to improvement. (granted you have the mechanics and basic game fundamentals down) There are dozens of replays out there, you need to just sit down and learn to watch them the right way. Everyone watched the IPL4 stream of pool play matches and the championship bracket/finals. We've all seen terrans like MKP/MMA playing on stage dozens of times so I find myself skipping their replays at first when huge packs come out in favor of guys I don't see as much. All of the following open bracket games were played for IPL4 a couple weeks ago and were never shown on stage, never streamed or casted...(well could be casted now...)
I'm going to spend a bit of time and walk through a few of the more interesting games I noticed as I watched about 70 games from the event in the past day. All terran talk all the time of course, I intentionally ignore the abomination matches that don't involve terran, PvP, PvZ, ZvZ are dead to me. I know many more casual players/fans don't really prefer to watch replays because they don't understand what's going on at a deep enough level and need commentary. Hopefully some insight provided here might motivate you to go check some of these games out! There are some really amazing games here which you can witness first hand, and learn a thing or two along the way.
Before continuing I would recommend going and downloading the replay pack and watch any games that I outline below that might seem intersting to you... Some games I have writeups others I have just footnotes on initial thoughts or notes I took as to what builds/styles were done in the game. I do this with many replays I download in order to sort or if I ever have to go back to review anything.
Games in bold are ones you should definitely watch and builds/things I'm stealing. Everything else is simply taken from notes I have on games I watched. I watched way more than just these games but these are the ones I felt were worth taking notes on.
- Winners Round 2
GoSuSTX vs JJakji Game 1 (Daybreak)
STX plays bio vs Jjakji mech. STX nearly wins this game with some nice moves including killer drop on a bunch of tanks. But doesnt defend a blue flame drop and goes for a suicide attack shortly after. First 12-15 minutes are worth studying for both players though depending on what style your intersted in.
STX vs Jjakji 2 Game 2 (Antiga - 2marine reaper expo into marine tank vs banshee tank)
Ghostking vs Chance 1 (Daybreak - gasless fe into double reactor hellion into mech)
Chance does not react to mech well at all in this game, instead of attempting to circumvent things he tries to fight head on and gets destroyed. Also a double reactor hellion move kills shittons of drones which really puts him behind.
Illusion vs Zenio Game 1 (Daybreak - gasless fe into double medivac (no hellions))
Illusion goes with a nice build that is pretty popular, double medivac timing and really gives zenio huge trouble just maintaining his 3rd at first. Eventually Zenio gets to late game but is fairly behind the entire game and never really stands a decent chance. He spends more time making creep tumors this game than units it seems.
ViBE vs Ryung Game 1 (gasless expand into hellion banshee vs roach ling bane allin)
Vibe should have won this game. Does so much damage with his initial allin but classic case of when Zerg doesn't quite win the game with an allin things can get ugly. A spire snipe among other things just lead to Vibe going full foreigner sadly and losing this game.
Vibe vs Ryung Game 2 (gasless expo into hellion banshee no cloak vs ling infestor ult)
A build I've noticed from many Korean terrans is gasless expand into a fast banshee sometimes with cloak sometimes without. No cloak this game for Ryung but I've noticed having the banshee simply for map control in the early mid game before infestors or mutas are out can be so strong. Simply for scouting, denying creep and just being a general annoyance to the zerg player.
KawaiiRice vs Sound 1 (daybreak gasless FE into cloak banshee mech vs marine tank)
Very nice game. Shows how its really hard to win with bio vs a good mech terran on Daybreak due to limited space to move big armies.
KawaiiRice vs Sound 2 (gasless FE into fast siege push vs marine expo (poor marine expo))
Reason why I dislike gasless FE marine builds in TvT. Suppose kawaii could have had better control but it still looked quite grim to me.
Drewbie vs Heart 2 (15cc vs reaper hellion cloak siege lol) - Winners Round 3
Illusion vs Maru Game 1 (Metropolis - reaper hellion vs tank raven 3 cc)
Maru's build is really safe, fast 3cc with a tank and raven. Good safe macro oriented TvT opening. He gets a lucky hit in on Illusions 3rd 12 minutes in which ends the game quickly.
Killer(KR)vs Taeja1 (cloak banshee into macro (raven bio)
Watch this game. Taeja plays some stuff in TvP that I LOVE. Opens cloak banshee and gets a fast 3rd cc. To quote my teammate, protoss player and resident strategy forum guru NrGMonk:
"What I fear most is cloak banshee into macro."
Taeja also gets a raven and produces a number of banshees+vikings. You thought dealing with drops was scary as protoss? add pdd + vikings sniping your obs AND cloak banshees... half a protoss army could die to something like that if they aren't ready. This is a quite awesome TvP style to play and autowins vs lots of stupid gateway allin agression that some people are doing these days (skipping Robo)
Killer(KR) vs Taeja 2 (1rax expo double mediv)
Ganzi vs Classicprime 1 (15cc ninja expo)
Ganzi goes for a 15cc cc in this game but doesnt make it in his natrual instead he makes it hidden on Cloud Kingdom. Poor classic is probably freaked out thinking a proxy rax is somewhere, when Ganzi is just making his 3rd cc in his main...This leads to a maxed terran 2-2 army at 15 minutes for an easy Amove win over a quite solid korean protoss player.
Huk vs Ryung2 (huk probe rush vs 15cc)
Ryung does a 15cc on the same map as the Ganzi/Classic game but does it where you would expect it (In the natural of all places...) huk literally sends 6-7 probes straight to ryungs base and does tons of damage getting him ahead. Wins with a gateway timing follow up. total contrast to the ganzi 15cc and showcases a pretty interesting response that protosses have been doing against 15cc lately. Maybe terran players should think twice about 15cc'ing like this on 2 player maps.
HeartvsBBongBBong2 (reactor hellion expand into forget siege)
HeartvsBBongBBong3 (reactor hellion expo with non cloak banshee marine tank) More interesting stuff with hellion/banshee into marine tank. Pretty standard but nice to see executed well. Heart probably focused super hard this game due to an abysmal game 2.
JJakjivsCrank1 (hellion marauder semi allin into bio)
Jjakji has a pretty interesting build in this series against Crank. Hellion marauder. Not too common anymore at least from TvZ's I've seen but can still work decently. It actually gets spotted really early by an overlord so Crank prepares and defends quite easily but Jjakji simply just makes an expand and defenses it into an easy win regardless.
JJakivsCrank2 (marauder hellion pressure into bio)
Parting vs Virus WR3 1 (something bad into a fail 3 tank timing into lose)
Parting vs Virus WR3 2 (1rax fe, good ghost vs templar game (T win))
Some of my favorite micro in all of sc2 to watch are really good ghost vs templar wars. This game has that and more.
Parting vs Virus WR3 3 (more templar vs ghost (P win))
Very nice flank move by Parting to dodge Virus's army wins him this series. - Winners round 4
Taeja vs Maru 1 (cloak banshee vs tank raven expo into marine tank vs marine tank)
Taeja vs Maru 2 (more good marine tank by both sides) - Winners Round 5
JJakjivsTaeja1 (hellion marine siege allin, into marine tank)
JJakjivsTaeja2 (hellion marine into siege cloak allin)
Jjakji's build both games is really interesting and a terran allin I haven't seen much before. It sort of combines an opening that usually transitions into standard play (marine, hellion elevator) but Jjakji simply tech labs both fact and starport and techs up off 1base which autowins on cloud kingdom(game 2) and I believe gets him pretty far ahead in game 1. The cloud kingdom game Taeja has sick defense of the first marine hellion poke. He does something not many players do and gets 1 marauder out which I think is way more scary for the elevator player... Sadly no answer to the siege follow up push though.Definitely a nice build to pull out of your pocket against a terran player you know fairly well or feel like its a good time to allin. - Losers Round 4
Kiwikaki vs Illusion 2 (cloak banshee into 4thor timing into mech)
Illusion plays a very interesting cloak banshee thor timing which easily kills kiwikaki. Sure kiwikaki is slightly out of shape lately, was still an interesting fairly unorthodox build by illusion who obviously was taking the game seriously since he was down 0-1 in the series already and this was game 2.
Kiwikaki vs Illusion 3 (hellion drop into mech)
Really solid mech play by Illusion which is something super rare to see these days TvP.
LiquidRet vs GhostKing 3 (15cc gas first into standard)
VirusvsSheth1 (reactor hellion into 1medivac(mistake?) timing)
VirusvsSheth2 (reactor hellion into double medivac)
ScarlettvsDemuslim1 (tragic)
Poor Demuslim.
ScarlettvsDemuslim2 (even more tragic)
Poor Poor Demuslim. - Losers Round 5
July vs Sound Antiga 1 (failed bane allin)
Golden mouse winner plays some of the most allin zerg I've seen in all of the current korean proscene.
July vs Sound Metropolis 3 (reactor hellion into siege 3cc)
Virus vs Classic Antiga 1 (bunker rush vs 15nex, lets bunker get up)
Pretty safe to say you should never let a bunker get up in range of a nexus when your 15nexin.
Jinro vs Creator (fake expo hellion drop allin loses bunker)
Jinro vs Creator 2 (1rax fe vs 3gate agression only 1 bunker)
note: Jinro looked ridiculously bad in both these games
Illusion vs Ryung 1 (marine tank by both)
Really solid marine tank movement throughout the game by illusion who gets a slight advantage and uses it to remain the agressor throughout the game eventually sniping the 3rd which seals it.
Illusion vs Ryung 2 (bio vs mech, mech op gg)
Ryung makes mech look unbeatable on cloud kingdom.
Illusion vs Ryung 3 (marine tank)
sick sick marine tank game by both players.
Bbongbbong vs Ghostking 1 (gasless fe into banshee vs ling pressure)
Bbongbbong vs Ghostking 2 (12-13 economic proxy rax into 3cc vs muta ling bane infestor) - Losers Round 6
Illusion vs Oz 1 (reactor hellion into double medivac vs 2base colo allin)
Oz stays on 2 base in a 24 minute game. Illusion defends a build that so many protosses have been doing for quite a while now, 3 colossus timing with heavy gateway support. I feel a build like that protoss players tend to make allin way more than they need to.
Illusion vs Oz 2 (cloak banshee into mech loss)
Similar game to kiwikaki game on Antiga except this time Oz has slightly different unit comp I believe and doesnt waste money on phoenixes like Kiwikaki did. Crushes the timing and fairly easily takes game 2.
Illusion vs Oz 3 (cloak banshee into mech win)
Something illusion is pretty crazy good at is adjusting on the fly and I noticed in this game instead of focusing on thors early illusion goes for the same opening but focuses on tanks. Might be a thing to do on daybreak due to small chokes/good places for tanks behind rocks or across ledges. Really amazing mech TvP game against one of the best protoss players in the world. Whenever I see mech beating protoss I have broodwar flashbacks. All that's missing are spider mines and stasis fields.
Heart v Sound G1 (allin vs allin raven cloak siege)
Heart v Sound G2 (reaper hellion cloak siege vs reaper expo)
Virus vs Maru1 (fast banshee siege medivac expo)
Virus vs Maru2 (reaper hellion vs cloak banshee)
Happy replay watching !
If you DL the pack and find something really amazing feel free to share it.
