Introduction:
Hello, my friends. In ASL3, a new map called Camelot will be used starting from the Dual Tournament Stage. Today, I would like to analyze the various matchups on this map based on my 20 years of Starcraft experience. To those of you with a short attention span, I will give you the conclusion first:
This is an effing Terran-favored map.

Two-player maps tend to exhibit the usual rock-paper-scissors balance relationship:
Terran > Zerg > Protoss > Terran.

This relationship usually holds in the early-to-middle part of the game. However, in the late part of the game, Terran tends to gain the upper hand against Protoss because there usually are not many bases on a two-player map. On Camelot, Terran seems to have the advantage from beginning to end.

Terran vs Zerg Matchup:
If you look at the entrance to the mains, they are just the right size to be walled in by a barracks and a supply depot. However, the mapmaker thankfully added a doodad to prevent that. On the other hand, the entrance to the natural base *can* be walled in by a barracks and supply depot.

The mineral-only base is an ideal place for Terran to place a forward 8-rax against Zerg. It is close to both the Terran and Zerg natural bases. Terran can harass Zerg early on with 8-rax play safely and, more importantly, quickly float the barracks back to the natural entrance to wall in and prevent a counterattack:



Terran also has some good spots to place forward factories that could be floated into the Zerg’s main. This could be followed up with two-port wraiths:



Thankfully, it is not that difficult for Zerg to take the elevated third as the third gas-mining base. Reinforcements need not travel very far to defend it. However, Zerg will find it very difficult to take any more gas bases:



The elevated corner expansion is so close to the Terran’s mineral-only area, which will be the ideal staging ground from which Terran’s marine-medic force could attack multiple parts of the map. The non-elevated corner gas base is too far from the 6 o’clock base, which means that Terran can force Zerg to split its forces by harassing both:



Let’s say for the sake of argument that Zerg does succeed in securing a fourth gas base. Do things get better? I am afraid not. The entire high ground defensive line can be spammed with turrets. Terran can transition to mech quite easily on this map and heavily mine the areas in front of the large ramps:



This means that Terran and Zerg will be on the same number of gas bases in the event of a map split with very little hope of harassment. A map split will guarantee a slow loss for Zerg. When Zerg successfully battles Terran in the late game when splitting other maps, it does so by having more bases. That’s not going to happen on this map.

Terran has so many options on this map. Terran can do all of the following and more:

• Place a forward factory and transition into two-port wraiths
  
• Apply 8-rax pressure and take advantage by walling in and expanding
  
• Engineering bay block

Zerg has no initiative and will have to play afraid on this map.

Other factors favor Terran as well. All expansions other than the mineral-only base can be walled in using four supply depots.

The cliffs behind the mineral line of the natural expansion are favorable for mutalisk harassment. On the other hand, can Zerg get to mutalisks safely when Terran has so many options early in the game? Will Terran not expect Zerg to lean heavily on mutalisks given that all other features of the map seem to frown on Zerg?

The cliffs around the main bases may allow Zerg to stage surprise guerilla attacks by air, but the main is quite large. Terran can stash its important buildings near the corner of the map, which is far from the cliffs and use a few turrets near the cliffs to make it unprofitable for Zerg to fly deep into the Terran base while being hit.

Protoss vs Terran Matchup:
Early zealot harass from a forward gate is an important part of the Protoss strategic arsenal on two-player maps. It is completely neutralized on Camelot. This is because there are only two obvious locations for placing the forward gate due to the unbuildable tiles and walking distances:



If Protoss places the forward gate any further away, Terran will be able to wall in or be otherwise adequately prepared by the time the zealot arrives. Terran can negate the usual advantages afforded by forward-gate play on two-player maps by simply sending out a scouting SCV at 9 supply. If he scouts the forward gate, he can bust it immediately and Protoss will be at a disadvantage. If there is no forward gate, then Terran can expand and get fat on resources.

The other strategic card that Protoss can pull out on two-player maps is the gas rush. This may still be a viable option.

It is easy for Terran to take extra bases because of how the map is laid out. Terran can spam turrets just outside the natural base and rally tanks there to defend the position quite easily. It can slowly take the elevated third, the mineral-only base, and the corner gas expansion in order once enough units accumulate. Once 2-1 armory upgrades finish, it can move out and attack.

The layout of this map is enough to make Protoss cry uncle. Starting at the rally points in front its own natural expansion, Terran has many short paths to attack Protoss. On the other hand, all bases are relatively easy for Terran to defend, which means that Protoss cannot take advantage of Terran troop movements to try a backstab attack. The short attack distances also make it easy for Terran to retreat and defend if needed.

It gets even worse. There are only two paths that can be used for large troop movements across the center. Terran can always heavily mine the other as it moves out to severely delay or cripple a Protoss counterattack:



Much like the Zerg, Protoss should be shaking in its boots every time Terran makes small meaningless troop movements. On more standard maps, Protoss normally uses observers to track Terran troop movements and use that information to decide the right timing to build extra bases and gateways. In this way, Protoss builds up an infrastructure that allows it to play war of attrition with Terran if it can take good engagements at 200 supply since it would be able to re-build lost units faster. On Camelot, Protoss will find itself flinching more often and making units when it should be warping nexuses.

As mentioned when I discussed TvZ on this map, the entire defensive line right above the ramps can be spammed with turrets. There is a small unbuildable area in front of the elevated third base but that is no big deal. Terran only needs a few turrets there because sieged tanks have the longest range in the game. A few tanks in the elevated third base should make the position easy to hold:



Look, I am not saying that an older gamer like me can’t lose if Protoss induces a multi-tasking battle with shuttles flying everywhere. But now imagine Flash playing on this map. Are you feeling the suffocation yet? How the hell is Protoss supposed to even imagine a path to victory?

It’s even hard for Protoss to hide tech from scans because the elevated third and the main are the only places unscoutable by ground forces. Sneaky carrier builds? Not a chance that Protoss won’t get caught.

Zerg vs Protoss Matchup:
Since Terran is not involved in this match up, I do not claim to have the level of expertise needed to judge this matchup. However, I do have a simple guess based on intuition and experience. On a four-player map like Fighting Spirit or Circuit Breaker, Zerg can slap down a hatchery at the natural expansion of a neutral main base (i.e. one of the two empty main bases at the beginning of the game). If he can successfully defend against a zealot push, the Zerg player can take the main for “free” and go up to four gas bases.

On Camelot, Zerg cannot get the extra gas base for “free” in the same way. This would not be a problem if the fourth gas base was easy to defend. However, the fourth gas base is quite far away no matter which of the two corner gas bases Zerg decides to take as its fourth gas base. I conjecture that this will make the matchup slightly more challenging for Zerg than it usually is.

Version 1.6:
Since I did this analysis, the map was updated to include changes intended to help Zerg a bit in ZvT. The two most important changes are as follows.

Change #1: The 1 and 7 o'clock expansions were originally quite open due to the wide ramps but the addition of neutral buildings made it easier to defend them with lurkers.

Change #2: The distance between the mineral-only expansion and the large ramp was slightly reduced. This was done by changing the mineral configuration to affect command center placement. This will make it slightly harder for Terran to defend the base because the shorter distance will give Terran only one line of defense at that base as opposed to two lines that could afforded by a longer distance. This allows Zerg to assault the ramp with fewer swarms.

While these changes will help Zerg, the map should still be Terran-favored.

Looking Forward to Later Rounds:
My suspicion is that Camelot is ASL’s response to the dearth of Terrans in the tournament. Very few Terrans made it through the preliminaries in Seoul and Busan. It’s either that or the ASL mapmakers are biased Terran users. The rumor mill has it that La Mancha will be the map that will added to the pool after the Dual Tournament Stage ends.

This is how I see the maps overall (accounting for all matchups).

• Circuit Breaker: Even
  
• Camelot: Effing Terran map
  
• Outsider: Zerg-favored but okay for Terran against Protoss

Zerg players tend to like La Mancha, so I believe that this will balance out the effects of Camelot in TvZ. However, Protoss players will have to take their lumps. The lesson, as always, is that the Protoss race is trash. Hahaha. (This is a joke. Please don't take it seriously!)

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I have started a YouTube channel and post new videos on a regular basis. I hope that TeamLiquid readers will subscribe. Content ranges from Ajae League games, ASL commentary, map analysis, player evaluation, Starcraft lectures, meokbang (!!), UMS play, slice-of-life and more. This particular map analysis was sourced from a video I made for my channel. I also alternate between streaming live on Afreeca and YouTube.

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