Game 1: Gold Rush
Larva spawned at 12 in brown while hero spawned at 5 in purple. Larva sent his overlord in the wrong direction while hero sent his in the right direction while larva sent a drone clockwise through the minerals at 9 to hero's main. It was a strange choice because when he made it he did not, as far as I can tell, have any scouting information on where hero might be. I've rewatched it and he made the decision at 1:00, sending out just one drone and immediately sending it towards hero. It is possible that his overlord would have run into hero's overlord if hero was at 9, and if hero sent his overlord to 12 from 9, but the proxy hatch wouldn't work in that situation. As far as I can tell it was a complete hail Mary, unless there is some "9 always scouts towards 12" ZvZ meta on Gold Rush that I'm unaware of.

Larva used the extractor trick for a 10th drone and opted for a 10 hatch inside hero's main. This would be a near instawin against any 1 hat lair builds because those can only survive long enough to get mutalisks by using concaves at the top of the ramp vs 2 hat ling builds. However, it wouldn't do very well vs 2 hat ling openers which would have comparable ling numbers and also the advantage of interior lines. Larva would be able to produce two one hatchery zergling forces while hero would be able to produce one two hatchery zergling force. Theoretically comparable numbers but hero had the ability to divide his forces as he saw fit whereas Larva couldn't move zerglings from one army to another.

Larva followed his 10 hatchery with a 9 pool 9 extractor before overlord while hero went for 12 pool, 12 extractor, 11 hatch at natural. hero's pool was slightly faster but Larva's second hatchery was a good 30 seconds ahead of hero, giving him the ability to produce a larger number of zerglings. If Larva got a chance to do his trick then he'd have the edge, although he would have much preferred a one hatch lair opener.

hero's first 100 gas went on zergling speed, not lair, as his overlord scouted Larva's missing natural. Larva followed with a slower ling speed and took all but one drone off of gas. At this point, hero's overlord was over Larva's main, scouting no lair, no natural expansion, and too few drones, while Larva had no information at all on his opponent beyond location. hero could reasonably have concluded that Larva had expanded to the 11 corner and sent a handful of drones there but hero tried to narrow it down, sending zerglings to every expansion he could reach, and to the back of his own main.


At this point, I would conservatively guess that Larva had at least eight more zerglings as they were even on supply and Larva had around four fewer drones. However, most of Larva's zerglings were in his main, and lacked speed, while hero's speedlings rapidly formed a single flock. hero could get a significant numerical advantage on Larva's zerglings in his main, clean them up, and then the snowballing effect from that disproportionate exchange would allow him to defeat Larva's second army. Larva's only option would be to delay, refusing to fight hero's zerglings.

The optimal strategy would, in my opinion, have been to run them behind the main mineral line where chokes would prevent hero's larger numbers from dominating him until the second army arrived. In either case, his position was very much not ideal but, that may have been the best of a bad situation. Larva attempted exactly that, his proxy army surviving as best it could while his main army pulled hero's to defend the ramp. As hero's zerglings went to the ramp, the proxy army went for the drone line. Once there, it achieved almost nothing, getting immediately drilled and the zerglings trying to attack other zerglings over drones.


hero cut off reinforcements and continued to abuse his interior lines, keeping a constant numerical advantage over Larva who was forced to run his zerglings in circles to keep them alive. It was a delaying action. Hero had a stronger economy and was always eventually going to get sufficient zerglings to place some on the eggs at the proxy hatch.


Larva could never get enough zerglings into a single ball to challenge hero's single mass. The game was over, and both players knew it.

GG

Editorial: Not a fan of Larva's build for exactly the reason we saw. He didn't have the scouting information to spring the trap at the appropriate time and he was quite dependent upon the luck of ZvZ openers which did not go his way this game. Had he sprung it at a time of his choosing, his main speedlings ready at his opponent's natural while his proxy speedlings went for the mineral line, it could have gone really well. But hero identified the possibility and checked for it. Larva wasn't trying to earn a win, he was hoping hero would give him one. hero didn't.

Game 2: Gladiator
Larva spawned at 11 in red while hero spawned at 7 in blue. Both players scouted anticlockwise, favouring Larva with the first scout, and both opted for 12 hat 11 pool. hero went for 10 extractor while Larva went for 11, squeezing an additional drone out first, but it was essentially a mirror. Both went to 12 drones and then saved three larva for six zerglings as pool finished.

hero's faster gas gave him a marginally faster lair but it was still largely a mirror. One unusual thing that Larva chose to do though was to make his lair at his natural. Due to the rotational symmetry of the map layout when hero's second overlord finally made it to Larva's main, it did not pass his expansion, instead finding just a hatchery pumping speedlings, although the drones mining gas indicated some desire to tech to muta.

They mirrored perfectly in drone counts, zergling numbers, spire timings for over five minutes before Larva chanced an attack. hero allowed his defending speedlings to adopt a convex formation at the outside of his natural and the battle went unfavourably for him.


Larva continued to produce zerglings, catching the moment when hero's larva were producing mutalisks (a longer spawn time by 7s), and forced hero to pull drones to defend, killing three. Although Larva's spire was done, he continued to prioritize speedlings, killing more drones and the natural hatchery while hero produced mutalisks that had to stay and defend, and could not physically block the zerglings from killing drones.

A pair of Larva scourge caught a mutalisk hatching from its egg but even had it not, it was two hatcheries vs one. Larva are a very valuable resource in ZvZ and Larva could spend his additional production capacity producing speedlings, representing a perpetual backstab threat, while hero could not counter them without sacrificing muta production and getting behind there. hero was done.

In the few seconds when hero had the mutalisk number advantage, he attempted to move them towards Larva's base, only to have the backstab immediately happen, pushing his weaker economy further behind.


GG

Editorial: Larva did a nice timing attack, correctly recognizing that hero was treating the completion of the spire as an end to the zergling war phase and forcing a decisive battle in the last seconds before mutalisks spawned. hero's mutalisks arrived to find a snowballing zergling advantage in Larva's favour, allowing Larva to delay even producing his own mutalisks, instead getting greater value and cost effectiveness from zerglings and scourge. He had an extremely narrow timing window to make it work, but he hit that window. Still, I can't help feeling like having an overlord over hero's base was a factor.

Game 3: Fighting Spirit
Larva spawned at 1 in red while hero spawned at 7 in blue. hero opted for a 12 pool while Larva went for a 12 hat at natural, a build order advantage, especially in cross spots. Larva followed with 11 pool 10 extractor while hero opted for 12 extractor 11 hatch at natural. hero produced six zerglings, leaving four at his natural and sending one to 11 and 1 respectively, the two base sites he hadn't scouted, while Larva produced an additional three drones and added a blind sunken at his natural the moment it completed. Larva also prioritized lair over zergling speed, playing a defensive high eco opener.

hero's ten speedlings had little offensive potential so instead of producing more and going allin, hero switched to drones, attempting to reduce the economic deficit. But Larva had seventeen drones to hero's thirteen and even with both producing drones, there was an advantage for Larva grandfathered in which hero could not undo. Their spire timings were comparable, Larva's faster lair not being followed immediately by a spire as he instead spent his minerals on a zergling switch.

As in game 2, the overlord scouts favoured Larva. Both players scouted towards 5 but, Larva redirected his overlord to 7 as he saw the 5 natural was clear while hero, scouting in the opposite direction, had to go all the way to the main. This was compounded when Larva's overlord again only had to travel to the 7 natural to scout drone counts and what larva were being spent on while hero again had to travel from main base to main base, Larva's natural being no closer. This meant that hero missed Larva's speedling switch.

When Larva revealed his speedlings, hero was forced to add a sunken of his own, leaving him with two drones mining his natural to Larva's four, but the real story was in the idle larva. hero was struggling to expend all of his larva with his weaker economy while Larva, simply by expending his greater income on speedlings, held hero's drone count down, forcing him to respond in kind.

Unwilling to settle for being two drones behind all game, hero decided to produce another two drones, adding an extractor at his natural and three mining drones ready to switch to gas. At the very least, his income would be equal during the muta phase. This was what Larva had been waiting for. Larva had already established a higher speedling number from his stronger early economy, and he immediately committed his speedlings.


The concave broke hero and, as in game 2, hero was faced with an awful choice, whether to use his eggs to spawn mutalisks, allowing the speedlings to reach his mineral line in the seconds before the mutalisks spawned, or to use them on speedlings with a faster spawn time. He correctly chose speedlings, but even then he lost two drones before cleaning up Larva's lings. With no mutalisk flock advantage established and Larva ahead by at least six drones, the game was pretty much done.

hero had his remaining speedlings, left over from cleaning up Larva's, but with a sunken at Larva's natural and Larva's muta already out, there was no way they could close the economic advantage. The game had turned into a muta war, and Larva could buy more muta. hero attempted to even it out with scourge, but as they entered the decisive muta fight, it was ten mutalisks against six mutalisks and scourge, hero wasn't winning that.


GG

Editorial: Larva got an economic build order advantage with cross positions, hero making ten zerglings before scouting anything was basically the ideal situation for him. The advantage scaled well and that was that. Larva didn't make any mistakes, but nor did hero.

Game 4: Crossing Field
Larva spawned at 10 in red while hero spawned at 4 in blue. Both opted for a 12 hat but, there was a non insignificant difference in their timings (rewatched a few times to identify). As far as I can tell, hero had his drones spawn on a better side of the hatchery and then manually cycled them on the closer minerals for the first 30 seconds. Either way, hero made his overlord on 0:52, Larva his on 0:55, with a resulting difference in drone spawns following. hero's 12 hat went down at 1:37 at his rear natural, Larva at 1:44 at his front natural. 11 pool 10 extractor followed for both players but, by 2:13 hero was actually a full drone ahead, without any divergence in build orders.

Both produced four speedlings but, otherwise spammed drones, leading to hero getting a 3:54 spire to Larva's 4:04. hero did the same thing he had done in games 2 and 3, banking minerals and skipping zerglings in order to be ready for six mutalisks when the spire completed while Larva, also copying games 2 and 3, produced additional zerglings, hoping to hit hero as the spire completed. However, hero's ramp was held by a concave and attempts to find the perfect angle to snipe zerglings by Larva failed, instead costing him zerglings of his own.


hero morphed five mutalisks the moment his spire finished while Larva's attempt to get something done during the time before they hatched resulted in another poor trade. hero was still a drone ahead, identical mining in their mains but, hero having an additional mining drone at his natural, while also coming out of the speedling trade three ahead. hero's mutalisk spawned first and his surviving three speedlings went to Larva's natural, keeping Larva's mutalisks back home while hero killed Larva's scouting overlord.

Larva's slower second gas left his gas a limiting factor on his mutalisk production but, this was compounded by his failure to split production evenly between both hatcheries, with his main hatchery sitting on three larva, effectively idle. By 6:15, the cumulative tiny advantages for hero added up to a third hatchery at his front natural being started, while Larva fell behind on supply. hero, sensing his advantage, forced a muta fight.


GG

Editorial: I don't think Crossing Field was the map for Larva's ZvZ strategy which seems to be built around a real cool timing attack as spire completes. hero opted for his back natural and used the ramp to his advantage, allowing Larva to throw his units away while achieving a mutalisk edge. There were a number of other tiny advantages eked out by hero throughout, but that was the strategic turning point in my opinion. Also, it's kind of crazy that with both players at this level one of them was able to get ten seconds ahead on spire timings in mirror builds. Especially with Larva having the minerals to the left, allowing him to do the larva overlord trick. hero is a beast.

Game 5: Gold Rush
Larva spawned at 9 in red while hero spawned at 12 in blue. hero opted for a 12 pool 12 extractor 11 hat while Larva went with 12 hat 11 pool 10 extractor, a build order advantage to Larva while hero got the overlord scouting advantage. The faster extractor and pool translated into a significantly faster lair for hero but Larva had an additional two drones.

hero abused the scouting advantage, building two zerglings as his pool finished and hiding them near Larva's base while his overlord watched for Larva's first scouting zerglings to leave. He was immediately rewarded with an incredibly low budget backstab.


Larva's first lings were pulled back, a move hero anticipated perfectly as he continued to produce drones, and Larva actually produced even more zerglings, allowing hero to get extremely high value out of his two speedless zerglings. When his spire was started at 3:44, he still had just the first two zerglings. His naked base defended by threat alone.

Larva's spire in response didn't start until 4:05, a huge problem given that there was less than 21 seconds of air distance between hero's main and Larva's natural. The spire was too late and Larva would once again have to force hero to expend his larva on speedlings for defense in order to protect his own later spire.

Unfortunately for Larva, hero still had an overlord and a scouting zergling. He knew exactly what his situation was and that Larva had effectively put himself into a position where only a mass speedling attack could save him. Hero's economy may have still been a little weaker but, he knew that with a sunken and a comparable number of his own speedlings, he would win, assuming he held the ramp against a runby at least.

The scouting information continued to punish Larva really badly. Hero's overlord seeing the speedlings leaving Larva's base while Larva had still seen nothing from hero and needed to keep some speedlings at home to defend against another backstab attempt. Larva added a sunken at his natural, compounding a later spire with a misreading of the situation.


With four hero mutalisks in eggs, Larva made his move trying to break through hero's natural. Many of his speedlings arriving late and in a column due to Larva realizing too late what he was up against.


Larva's lings won but, were denied access to hero's main by three surviving zerglings and a drone and then the mutalisks spawned, ending the attack. Hero made a beeline for Larva's scouting overlord, picking it off and then returning in time to prevent any damage being dealt by Larva's mutalisks, securing a nice mutalisk count advantage for himself. Both players were on two hatcheries; their mutalisk production would always be capped by their larva production. But hero, whose spire had finished first, would always be slightly further ahead and killing an overlord not only cost Larva 100 minerals, it also cost him a larva that could have been turned into a mutalisk.

hero quickly capitalized upon his numerical advantage, attacking Larva's natural and killing the drones there.


Larva was forced to choose between entering a mutalisk fight he couldn't win and sacrificing the drones at the natural, without which he couldn't win. He chose to sacrifice the drones, running his three remaining zerglings by hero's sunken and killing one of hero's drones in response. Amusingly enough, hero had just twelve drones at this point, six on minerals, six on gas, while Larva had four on minerals and six on gas.

Larva made an attempt to even the drone count through harassment but, hero's mutalisks shadowed his and he wasn't able to get close enough to the drones to commit. And over time the difference in drones translated into a mutalisk advantage for hero, despite hero taking more scourge hits than he ought to have taken. Hero won the decisive mutalisk engagement, killed another trio of gas mining drones at Larva's natural, and then backed to ensure that a four speedling runby counterattack could not equalize the damage. The speedlings were cleaned up and the game was won.

GG

Editorial: Larva had a build order advantage but, hero had the scouting advantage and completely threw Larva's game off with just two zerglings. Larva produced zerglings he didn't need and defended when he needed to be attacking, discovering too late that hero had the faster spire timing. Sometimes in ZvZ, it comes down to the luck of the spawns. Larva reaped a significant benefit in games 2 and 3 from the scouting advantage. It's not unreasonable that hero had it go his way once.