Daily Ladder-age #34: Roaches Rushing On In

Sir.Phalanx

Japan195 Posts

June 11 2013 10:53 GMT

Hello again peoples! Nice to see you again. Or maybe I haven't ever seen you before and you're a new reader, in which case welcome! Guess just to re-introduce myself incase anyone's checking this out for my first time, I'm Phalanx, a diamond (maybe master!?) level protoss player, writing up battle reports of my ladder games daily. Hope you guys will enjoy today's entry!

Another brief post from me today, but mostly just because the game is question was brief. I feel as if I'm in mid/low masters level MMR right now... I've been at a steady 50% win rate again, facing mostly people who were masters last season but apparently got the demotion wave. I REALLY DO KEEP HOPING FOR THAT STAR I WANT IT. Ok moving on time.

replay : http://drop.sc/341618http://drop.sc/341618

The Game

+ Show Spoiler +

Today's game is a PvZ match up, no the map Derelict Watchtower. Not a bad map, fairly suited to my play style too. I open up as per usual with a forge fast expand, and the zerg does whatever zergs do.

A 15 pool, by the looks of it.

Pretty hard, in my opinion, to tell what a zerg's doing before the 5 minute mark. 5 minutes is when their 3rd would (or at least, was) generally going down, and for me that's basically my only indication of whether he'll be aggressive or passive. Until then, I just go ahead and do my usual thing.

A pretty bad wall... That first pylon was too close.

Now at 5 minutes, my probe Johnson checks out that there is, in fact, no 3rd base by the 5 minute mark. BAM. Rush alerts should be going off all over the place now. From obs vision, we can see that the zerg is going for some early roaches.

Maphax!

Now, surely, I must be starting to build up a bit defensively right? Some sentries, some cannons, maybe a voidray!

Errr defenses??

Pathetically bad reaction by me. Not only is my macro a bit bad with not throwing down any gateways, but I didn't prepare defenses at all. I didn't even call in Emily (the MSC). Barely even started a 2nd cannon before the attack hit. I was, simply put, extremely f*cking stupid in this game.

Arr, ye walk the plank!

Thus a lesson is learned in scouting; actually use that information. This loss could have been prevented, even without deviating from what I normally do. A simple voidray could have swept the tides in my favor. But nope. I just totally played as if the zerg had a 3rd.

Perhaps a little less interesting than any other game I've played, but still a lesson to be learnt. Actually think and use information! YEAH! Maybe something like that might help me get to masters. As far as league placement goes, I feel depressed. I really was hoping for that masters, and maybe my MMR actually IS masters now, but not having that star keeps my emotionally down. :'(

Thanks for reading, check in again for yet another daily ladder-age, and have a great day!

P.S.
Although no longer part of their community, Phalanx continues to support DarkOnyx.
www.facebook.com/DarkOnyxFTW

P.S.S.
Now part of Not A Chance Gaming, Phalanx provides a helpful link for you fantabulous folks support NAC!!
www.nacgaming.net
www.facebook.com/nacgaming

P.S.S.S
Surprised Corgies!?

Salivanth

Australia1071 Posts

June 11 2013 23:56 GMT

Here's how early game scouting should go in PvZ, in my experience:

1) Check for early pool.
2) Block natural, be irritating.
3) When you're forced to run away with your probe, regen some shields and head back in. Make sure Zerg has actually taken their natural, then scout their main for any gasses.
4) Check for the Zerg's third around 5:00. You can attempt to block this, but I've recently began to think this is a bad idea. If the Zerg has lings out, which he should, he can kill your probe fairly easily and you can't scout the third being dropped, meaning you need to send another probe. I'd prefer to just hide the probe somewhere, and send it in.

If the Zerg is early pooling, react accordingly. Vs. 6-pool, throw down a Forge and then make a Pylon in your main. Put a cannon in your mineral line so that it covers one of your gasses, then do a 1-gate expand. Be sure to scout the Zerg for a roach follow-up, and scout your base for a proxy hatchery follow-up. Vs. 10-pool, just do a full wall-off before making your Nexus, and you're ludicrously ahead. I don't think I've lost to 10-pool in the last six months.

If the Zerg takes his natural and also takes an early gas, he's probably going to be aggressive or teching, both off two bases. A gas taken as his third goes down can mean defensive speed or 3-hatch ling/bane all-in. (Extremely uncommon build.) If the Zerg takes his third, 99% chance he's playing a passive game.

If the Zerg remains on 2 bases, you don't want to over-react to this, as he could be teching. 2-3 cannons total and 2-3 Sentries is sufficient to hold Roach or Baneling based all-ins. As you pointed out, 1 VR from the Stargate is also invaluable in helping out. Once your first Sentry has 100 energy, if the Zerg hasn't attacked, Hallucinate to find out what he's doing.

To sum up the scouting, you're looking for four things in order: Pool timing, natural going down, gas being taken, third going down. If you scout for all of this, you should never be completely unprepared. Then prepare for cheese (If early pool or 1-base), potential aggression (If 2-base) or passive economy boom. (If 3-base.)

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