EPT
MC vs. 
Maru, Game One: Mind Games and Maru's Take on Standard TvPOf all of his matches from that night, Maru showed the most dominance over MC. This is despite the fact that MC is, on paper, a higher caliber player than Squirtle or oZ. Maru's victory over MC was not a sign that MC has gotten worse; rather it was a sign of how well Maru played against MC's style rather then as if he was playing against any old Protoss. MC is such a potent player because of his tendencies to force the game into his court. He uses aggression to scout and punish you, and is always aware of the mental state of the game (not being afraid to cheese or rush to three bases depending on what mental state he thinks you’re in). Watching Maru play was the first time I’ve seen someone take this mental aspect of play over MC, Maru played him like no one else so far has been capable.
In game one Maru went for an inefficient 1 rax FE. He built the CC in base and even added a bunker to the top of his ramp. I talked about this idea in an earlier write up: at the pro level, it can be okay to trade inefficiencies for the strength of the mind game. With this inefficient opener from Maru, MC was forced into a robo build rather than a gateway timing (something that he loves to do). Maru’s unusual variation of the standard three rax follow up allowed his first push to hit with a little more punch. This variation of the opener is only so affective because of the recent trend to delay splash damage in the form of colossus and Templar from Protoss.
In an attempt to more clearly state what I loved about Maru’s play this game:
1. The opening is a huge mind game win over protoss, almost forcing them to make a robo
2. It allows for a nice timing to smash into protoss before any of their splash damage is out
3. It manages to allow for map control while still teching and expanding like crazy
4. Maru gets a fast third base, upgrades, medivacs, and ghosts. In other words, it's very effective against the new protoss delayed colossus style.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ffYP0.png)
Quick notes on the build: it appears that Maru either got his third gas later than he wanted or his e-bay earlier than he wanted, as he quickly started +1 and then cancelled it when he realized he wouldn’t have enough for two medivacs as soon as the starport was done. Also, while at the beginning I stressed how good this opener is against MC, by building the CC and bunker on the low ground, it is also a very strong opener for terran in general.
One last thing: Maru is seriously gosu at killing observers. He should change his name to observer scanner or something, he’s amazing spotting the little things, it’d be nice if an interviewer could ask him about how on earth he spots them so easily.
Game Two: A Bad Build
Just a super quick note on game two: the three rax all in is really bad. I haven’t seen that work in forever. Seriously. People should stop doing it. It’s the build I have my terran friends do in order to get to platinum league wherein it stops working.
Squirtle vs. Oz Game One: PvP in a NutshellSo this game started off in a way that is way too weird and non-standard for me to even begin figuring out who was ahead. oZ stole both of Squirtle’s gasses, and Squirtle built a pylon blocking two of oZ’s mineral patches in response. While this match makes analyzing openings difficult, it is useful for seeing the general trends of PvP. I guarantee you that neither player went into this game expecting what they got, so they were free ballin’ it from the two minute mark forward. When you get a situation that is so non-standard, it’s great to see what the player’s general gameplan was. So here are some general trends I’ve noticed in PvP, both in general and from this specific game.
1. If you expect that your opponent is being at all greedy, feel free to get aggressive. Your units move at the same speed, so as long as you can avoid force field traps and blink, you’re always be free to scout and pressure. Map control is HUGE in PvP, do your best to keep it, even if you lose a few games getting used to it.
2. Get some kind of map control to stop aggression, and then expand as soon as you can stop proxy pylons. Proxy pylons are the only real way to get aggressive in PvP's early game, so if you can stop them, you are pretty much free to expand.
3. After you expand, your end goal is 5 or 6 gates with a robo. This allows you the flexibility for charge/archon, colossus, a third base, or even quick upgrades.
4. If you’re afraid of counter pressure (like gateway timings or one base robo builds), you want to stay on immortals and go blink, but if you feel like you have some space, then you want to go colossus. PvP
Game Two: My Favorite PvP Build
I LOVE THIS BUILD!! As I’ve already established, I’m a big fan of Parting whom I originally saw the build that oZ executed. Sure Squirtle won this game, but it wasn’t because of the build; rather it was because of a bunch of mistakes that oZ made while doing an extremely tight opening. oZ allowed a proxy pylon to go up, his expansion was easily scouted, he built an observer before immortal, lost three stalkers for free, and didn’t cancel his expansion in time.
Here’s the build, and trust me, it’s good. Just don’t mess up as bad as oZ did.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Iteil.jpg)
Squirtle vs. 
Maru, Game One: Playing to the MapI really liked the way that Squirtle played this match out, it was really playing to a map over blindly playing to a matchup. Squirtle really took advantage of the map architecture of Antiga. Antiga is a map that has three bases that are somewhat easy to take but a fourth that is quite difficult to take before you have a dominant position. Squirtle handled this fact by rushing to +3, colossus, and high Templar off of three base. The idea behind this is to get as perfect a composition as possible off of three bases so that you can take a fourth once in a dominant position with your high tech army. In order to tech more quickly, you can see that Squirtle sacrificed some economy (he had 57 vs. 70 workers), purposefully cutting probes to tech faster to that dominant army. Antiga is a map that rewards the player with a better army rather than the one with the better economy (at least in the midgame), and Squirtle really demonstrated his understanding of that concept.
MC vs. FXOz, Both Games: A Couple of Quick PvP TipsThis series was pretty weird, as playing PvP against MC usually is. I just wanted to note a couple of quick things about it.
1. Constantly keep track of your opponents stalker count. Too many times in Starcraft 2, since it's still relatively new, a bluff is all it takes to get away with things you can’t really do. The best example of this is when a protoss has some stalkers in their base and terrans feel like they can’t drop at all – despite the fact that landing a double drop in a different location in the base could kill off all of those stalkers for free (we see some players, like Maru, figuring out that it takes more than stalkers to deny drops completely). In PvP, a lot players will leave some stalkers in their main to deny blink ins, but if you’ve been macroing better than your opponent, do your best to try and count how many they have. If they end up with less than you, one aggressive blink could win you the game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XdL0D.jpg)
2. One base colossus PvP has really made a comeback, and I’m not sure why. That build has been pretty bad for a while, as a fast expand with immortals and gateway units (as oZ showed) easily holds it. Not sure why one base colossus is having a comeback, but it is, so be prepared for it I guess.
Maru vs. FXOz, Game One: Weird Doesn’t Mean GoodI guess that oZ’s build this game was weird enough that I sort of have to mention it. oZ went double twilight council to rush for a charge + blink timing. This timing seems super gimmicky to me, delaying everything just to get a 140 second upgrade seems just sort of…bad. I almost think it was an accident that oZ went with, but the timing was a little too good to be a coincidence. The awkwardness of the build really showed in that maru held despite being caught at a really bad time and not being able to scout that it was coming. I guess I just think that there are a lot of other follow ups to the three base build that are universally better.
A brief note: I love the way that Maru played against the quick three base style. I really don’t like the way that many Terrans are trying to punish three base timings with gimmicky timing pushes. Playing a greedy version of standard seems to be the way to go (for now), with a quicker extra base and upgrades. Standard terran can almost guarantee some damage against these mass gateway three base builds with good drop control. Until Terran figures out the optimal way to handle these greedy bases, I really think that standard is the way to go.
Thanks for reading, and as usual, I don't pretend to know everything. If you disagree with anything I say, please let me know, game knowledge is very important to me.
