• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:04
CEST 13:04
KST 20:04
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt2: News Flash10[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos0Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy18ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT30Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book20
Community News
Weekly Cups (March 23-29): herO takes triple6Aligulac acquired by REPLAYMAN.com/Stego Research8Weekly Cups (March 16-22): herO doubles, Cure surprises3Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool51Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win4
StarCraft 2
General
Is Adaferin Gel Effective for Pimples Find Out Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool What mix of new & old maps do you want in the next ladder pool? (SC2)
Tourneys
https://www.facebook.com/LiverComplexNetherlands.O RSL Season 4 announced for March-April Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament StarCraft Evolution League (SC Evo Biweekly) WardiTV Mondays
Strategy
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Frigid Storage Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026]
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 520 Moving Fees Mutation # 519 Inner Power Mutation # 518 Radiation Zone
Brood War
General
so ive been playing broodwar for a week straight. ASL21 General Discussion Pros React To: JaeDong vs Queen BSL 22 Map Contest — Submissions OPEN to March 10 Klaucher discontinued / in-game color settings
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Ro24 Group E [ASL21] Ro24 Group F Azhi's Colosseum - Foreign KCM
Strategy
What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Darkest Dungeon
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread The Chess Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread NASA and the Private Sector Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT] Tokyo Olympics 2021 Thread General nutrition recommendations
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
[G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Broowar part 2
qwaykee
China Uses Video Games to Sh…
TrAiDoS
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
FS++
Kraekkling
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Electronics
mantequilla
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1103 users

What is this new pvt style with no arbiters?

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
Jubinell
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
333 Posts
January 09 2021 06:28 GMT
#1
Recently everybody is playing it, Best notably. No stargate, no arbiters. Just mass shuttles with speed and mass templars.

What is the new mechanic that made arbiter play obsolete?

I noticed terran has also evolved their play to counter this. evenly spread tanks, conscious vulture runby at nat looking for unguarded templars, lots of EMPs, etc.
Leonix
Profile Joined June 2019
161 Posts
January 09 2021 06:37 GMT
#2
The secret mechanic that make arbiter obsolete is the fact that Arbiters are OP...
Me_ToKa
Profile Joined September 2009
Bulgaria309 Posts
January 09 2021 07:16 GMT
#3
Man watch Ultimate battle match Light vs Best. There you can see how powerful is this strategy. And yes it is currently really trendy.
y2kid
Profile Joined May 2018
92 Posts
January 09 2021 08:50 GMT
#4
Think it's very good especially on big maps due to arbiter's clunkyness :/ They're big and slow. React very poorly to clicks etc. One EMP just ruins your day. On the other side, if you have HTs in shuttles that's both fast and unaffected by EMP. Gives you a lot more mobility and is useful for the counterattacking/backstabs that P likes to do later on.
ProMeTheus112
Profile Joined December 2009
France2027 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-01-09 10:50:15
January 09 2021 10:47 GMT
#5
wow that's surprising i always thought and actually was taught that arbiters were simply necessary (basically to have a chance to battle T at 200/200 without losing straight after), I really like to hear that at the highest level its possible to choose not to do that so you have more choice of end game strategy in pvt thats great
(i mean carriers was already a possible alternative otherwise though or even possibly a mix)
Jubinell
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
333 Posts
January 09 2021 14:26 GMT
#6
One really cool thing u can do as protoss with this strategy is storm the incoming terran army. Imagine the terran is coming to a choke in front of one of your nats with 7-10 tanks u can send a few zealots heads-on to take the hit, then drop your templars behind. 3-4 templars x 2 rounds of storms and all the tanks are gone!
Timebon3s
Profile Joined May 2018
Norway764 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-01-09 14:29:42
January 09 2021 14:29 GMT
#7
I have always said storm is underused in pvt and reavers underused in pvz. The damage storm does to sieged tanks is simply too good to not use. Jangbi knew this and he was a terran killer. And the potential stormdrops have is insane.

It’s also sad to see protoss recalling half his army into mines and then lose to a counterattack on his natural and killing all units beeing produced
ProMeTheus112
Profile Joined December 2009
France2027 Posts
January 09 2021 14:51 GMT
#8
On January 09 2021 23:29 Timebon3s wrote:
It’s also sad to see protoss recalling half his army into mines and then lose to a counterattack on his natural and killing all units beeing produced

yeah i dont like blind recalls i avoid doing that almost just don't do it
also agree reavers prob underused in pvz
i was trying the templar style a bunch of times just worried about the 200/200 army but if it works at best level it must simply be a good style then should have a look
whaski
Profile Joined December 2012
Finland577 Posts
January 09 2021 15:31 GMT
#9
On January 09 2021 23:51 ProMeTheus112 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 09 2021 23:29 Timebon3s wrote:
It’s also sad to see protoss recalling half his army into mines and then lose to a counterattack on his natural and killing all units beeing produced

yeah i dont like blind recalls i avoid doing that almost just don't do it
also agree reavers prob underused in pvz
i was trying the templar style a bunch of times just worried about the 200/200 army but if it works at best level it must simply be a good style then should have a look


I picked this up from Best Youtube- chat:

Big adjustment is the number of probes and expansions. Protoss makes timing attack with shuttle and storm and trades with terran. Then you just trade and trade. Terran dries and never quite gets 200/200 with 3/2. If protoss cannot demolish scvs or trade with storm it becomes tricky because lower number of probes.

So it comes down to Best and his insane optimization to have just right ammount of stuff to constantly pressure terran and trade/harass with storm. The greatest pvt is back.
it's not just a music it's something else
whaski
Profile Joined December 2012
Finland577 Posts
January 09 2021 15:32 GMT
#10
As a bonus, here

it's not just a music it's something else
omahahowitzer
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States98 Posts
January 10 2021 13:29 GMT
#11
On January 10 2021 00:32 whaski wrote:
As a bonus, here

https://youtu.be/MXYRhJOmOkc


can someone explain this opening for me? 16 gas, 20 core, 3 zealots before goon. Best's PvT is too next level it is beyond my comprehension
Soulforged
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Latvia936 Posts
January 10 2021 14:00 GMT
#12
It isn't an easy style to play, for sure.

The main problem is that you have to keep trading. The trades may be slightly ineffecient, but if you get shut down hard one time, you can no longer do so, and you will have to deal with that 200.
Now there's options to deal with that, such as:
1)getting decent trades by constantly moving around, faking engagement attempt with part of the army while repositioning the most of it elsewhere, trying and catching terran out of position
2)letting them push and doing a counterattack, while reinforcements + defensive storms slow down terran advance, eventually returning and flanking their army when it isn't positioned ideally. This generally trades bases 1:1 and armies, which is what protoss wants
3)or even engaging them as they move out and mass drop zealots on the tanks as they pass the mine field...

all of these are things that frequently come up in Best games as ways to turn things around if he loses tempo. but it is difficult
this style is all about tempo
if terran stabilizes and puts defensive mines everywhere(or even worse, on counter attack routes as well), this can end up being very problematic

I wonder if best gets significantly more than 60 probes due to his constant trades, though. That seems like something that can both be amazing if you keep the constant trades going, and backfire a lot if terran stabilizes.
lurkgoon
Profile Joined November 2020
11 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-01-10 15:19:08
January 10 2021 15:00 GMT
#13
On January 10 2021 22:29 omahahowitzer wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 10 2021 00:32 whaski wrote:
As a bonus, here

https://youtu.be/MXYRhJOmOkc


can someone explain this opening for me? 16 gas, 20 core, 3 zealots before goon. Best's PvT is too next level it is beyond my comprehension

It's your basic zzcorez. You don't have to stop building probes or zeals and can still get your core up reasonably fast. It's probably the best compromise for a safe zealot pressure build in pvt. The gate can be made at your ramp or natural choke, with the natural choke being more common.

Even if your zealot pressure gets shut down, like what happens in the first game, it's not the end of the world. Don't keep throwing zeals away - they are still useful for defending a counterattack, or to later load up in a shuttle with a reaver.

You can't expect a whole lot from a 10 gate at your ramp or natural, though it does have the potential to really mess up an unprepared opponent, as you can see in a later game on Polypoid.

In general, Best does a really good job mixing up his builds, with various standard tech builds, forward gate, 12 nexus, etc. Most Protoss players rely too much on the standard 1 gate, 13 core, no zealot builds.
Kingdom[NaS]
Profile Joined April 2018
74 Posts
January 10 2021 16:13 GMT
#14
Storm style is good vrs pushes, arb style is better vrs turtle terran
ne4aJIb
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Russian Federation3209 Posts
January 10 2021 16:53 GMT
#15
I dont think you wait with shuttles until terran gets 200 supply.
Bisu,Best,Stork,Jangbi and Flash, Fantasy, Leta, Light and Jaedong, Hydra, Zero, Soulkey assemble in ACE now!
Dangermousecatdog
Profile Joined December 2010
United Kingdom7084 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-01-10 20:42:15
January 10 2021 19:55 GMT
#16
There's nothing new about putting HT in shuttles, or having HT to storm tanks. Or moving out to prevent Terran from building up their push.
BigFan
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
TLADT24920 Posts
January 10 2021 23:52 GMT
#17
It's not really a new style if I'm understanding things properly. Using a gateway army with ht support was a style that was played frequently in the past, but over the years, protoss players started using arbiters much more. I'm not really sure why the change now, but I am glad to see it being used again because it makes for some great games.
Former BW EiC"Watch Bakemonogatari or I will kill you." -Toad, April 18th, 2017
Soulforged
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Latvia936 Posts
January 11 2021 11:14 GMT
#18
The maps and the reaver opening development, probably.

It isn't that great on maps with a 'free 3rd base' that we had frequent in the past.
Current reaver openings and maps make terran work for their 3rd base, and then it is still either exposed or far enough to where the mobility of speed shuttle-goon can take good trades.
JieXian
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Malaysia4677 Posts
January 11 2021 13:41 GMT
#19
On January 11 2021 08:52 BigFan wrote:
It's not really a new style if I'm understanding things properly. Using a gateway army with ht support was a style that was played frequently in the past, but over the years, protoss players started using arbiters much more. I'm not really sure why the change now, but I am glad to see it being used again because it makes for some great games.

Yes if I recall correctly, P didn't used to rush to arbiters back then (but then again I was absolutely terrible back then). However, I'm sure there would be some new twist to what we see on the surface
Please send me a PM of any song you like that I most probably never heard of! I am looking for people to chat about writing and producing music | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noD-bsOcxuU |
angry_maia
Profile Joined August 2020
327 Posts
January 12 2021 02:39 GMT
#20
I absolutely love this style (watching, I have no chance at actually playing it lol). Leads to super action packed games
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Wardi Open
11:00
#81
CranKy Ducklings18
Liquipedia
Afreeca Starleague
10:00
Ro16 Group Selection
Afreeca ASL 16439
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko430
SortOf 190
ProTech120
Rex 44
Codebar 20
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 3742
Horang2 2329
BeSt 1880
Hyuk 490
Larva 309
Zeus 274
ggaemo 228
Killer 145
Pusan 133
ToSsGirL 85
[ Show more ]
Mind 67
Aegong 54
Shinee 32
NaDa 31
Hm[arnc] 26
Terrorterran 16
yabsab 14
ajuk12(nOOB) 13
Noble 12
Bale 9
GoRush 8
[sc1f]eonzerg 2
Dota 2
XcaliburYe754
League of Legends
JimRising 365
Counter-Strike
olofmeister3050
fl0m1227
markeloff64
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor196
Other Games
summit1g10367
singsing1559
Happy265
crisheroes245
B2W.Neo117
Sick81
ArmadaUGS22
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL13210
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 324
Other Games
BasetradeTV220
StarCraft 2
WardiTV141
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 12
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 56
• Adnapsc2 21
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP4
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Stunt510
Other Games
• WagamamaTV175
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
12h 56m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
22h 56m
PiGosaur Cup
1d 12h
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
The PondCast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
4 days
BSL
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
BSL
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Wardi Open
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Elite League 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 2
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
StarCraft2 Community Team League 2026 Spring
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W2
IPSL Spring 2026
Escore Tournament S2: W3
Acropolis #4
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
RSL Revival: Season 5
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.