EPT
This was a sweet build by Rain in his match against Dear during the Proleague Playoffs (VoD here). Even though he actually lost the match, the build itself is incredibly safe and incredibly strong, and Dear only just BARELY survived twice in a row.
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Rain vs. Dear
9 pylon
**Chronoboost x3 on nexus**
13 gate
15 double gas
**3 in each gas**
17 pylon
18 core
20 gate
21 warpgate
23 sentry
25 MsC (Chronoboost)
25 pylon
28 stalker
31 stalker
31 pylon
35 sentry
37 sentry
38 nexus
@6:00 send hallucination scout
38 robo
40 stalker
42 stalker
42 gate
@7:30 -> nexus finishes, move out
@8:30 3-gate pressure (3 sentries/5 stalkers/8 zealots)
MsC stays at home with observer
Immortal/chargelot/archon followup
@14:00 followup immortal/chargelot/archon push
9 pylon
**Chronoboost x3 on nexus**
13 gate
15 double gas
**3 in each gas**
17 pylon
18 core
20 gate
21 warpgate
23 sentry
25 MsC (Chronoboost)
25 pylon
28 stalker
31 stalker
31 pylon
35 sentry
37 sentry
38 nexus
@6:00 send hallucination scout
38 robo
40 stalker
42 stalker
42 gate
@7:30 -> nexus finishes, move out
@8:30 3-gate pressure (3 sentries/5 stalkers/8 zealots)
MsC stays at home with observer
Immortal/chargelot/archon followup
@14:00 followup immortal/chargelot/archon push
The sentry first followed by double stalker makes Rain safe from practically ALL threats to the point where he doesn't even need to scout until 6:00 (refer to my previous blog post here). While this expansion comes quite late, it comes with a cool window of opportunity, which is a POWERFUL 3-gate aggression that comes at 8:30 and is meant to punish other early expands. The reason the push works is because Rain gets a total of 10 gateway units out (3 sentries/5 stalkers/2 zealots) of his initial 2 gates before even moving out @7:30. The MsC (with an obs) stays home during this attack to deflect any kind of zealot/DT runbys and because you're only on 3 gates, you can afford to continually make probes during the the attack. When I saw this, my jaw dropped (and of course, dropped even further when Dear managed to miraculously defend it). I think this build is super super cool and definitely worth copying into anyone's repertoire of builds.
It's freaking cool! Rain's the man!
Sidenote: the followup 14:00 immortal/chargelot/archon push was in response to Dear taking an early 3rd with colossus and not necessarily part of the build. Again, Dear only BARELY survived this push; it hit with 3 immortals/2 archons/tons of zealots and hit from 2 sides, which would surely kill any lesser player.
EDIT: Puzzle (VoD here)and Myungsik (VoD here) also used variations on this build in the semifinals of Proleague, worth studying!
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