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Watched "Laddernet 2025.11 Snow vs Queen PvZ @ Roaring Current | Starcraft Commentary" on the NamKraft youtube channel.
Queen opened 9 pool, Snow opened with a forge fast expand.
Queen got their initial 6 zerglings to Snow's base just as the cannons were finishing, ran by into the main with them, and did some early damage to Snow's economy.
Snow then chose to go 2 Stargate, while Queen got their 4th base started around 5:55.
Queen defended Snow's zealot/corsair timing attacks at their 3rd and 4th bases --> gg.
Not a whole lot to say about this one, it looks like Queen's 9 pool/runby gave them a significant advantage which they used to leapfrog Snow economically into the midgame. At that point all they had to do was defend their 4 bases, as Snow was still only on 2 base.
We have seen a few Zergs have success with 9 pool openings vs Protoss lately, definitely something to keep an eye on in the future 💯💯
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Just watched "Laddernet 2025.11 Larva vs Firebathero ZvT @ Dominator | Starcraft Remastered" on the NamKraft youtube channel.
Larva opened with 2 hatch --> early 3rd.
Firebathero opened with a +1 build.
Pretty quick and easy game, Larva did some damage with their mutas to FBH's economy, then held off the Terran's timing push at their natural and countered with lurkers --> gg.
Didn't necessarily see anything wrong with FBH's play, but the ease with which Larva handled them in this game really goes to show how much the meta has evolved in recent days 🤷♂️🤷♀️
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Just watched "Laddernet 2025.11 Soulkey vs Scan ZvT @ Radeon | Starcraft Commentary" on the NamKraft youtube channel.
Soulkey opened with an 11 hatch, Scan opened with a 14cc.
Soulkey went 2 hatch, and chose to produce a good amount of zerglings and mutalisks, while delaying their 3rd hatchery until almost 10:00 (9:50).
They did kill a good amount of SCVs with their initial mutalisk harass, but it seems like they compounded the economic disadvantage they were already at by opting for a late 3rd base.
Scan eventually got to 5 base, while Soulkey got to 6 base...but Soulkey was unable to hold off the constant Terran pressure --> gg.
Very interesting game, Scan made a calculated gamble in going for the 14cc, and it seemed to pay off...while Soulkey seemed to blunder in choosing to delay their 3rd base for so long, while not finishing or doing crippling damage to the Terran.
Soulkey seems to have a excellent understanding of this matchup in terms of balancing drones vs. attack units, but in this case it appears the 14cc in addition to the late 3rd base was too much to come back from 🤷♂️🤷♀️
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Just watched "Bye Bye, Hatchery ?" on the ArtosisCasts youtube channel.
Stork vs Effort PvZ.
Stork opened with a 2 gate at their natural, while Effort opened with a 9pool.
Stork continued producing zealots off their 2 gate, while Effort was forced to constantly produce zerglings.
As a result, Effort was never able to effectively build up their drone count...and eventually was unable to defend the constant zealot pressure --> gg.
Pretty quick game. We have seen Zerg have some success with 9pool recently (against 1 gate expand, forge fast expand), but it seems like a build order loss (or strong disadvantage) vs 2 gate.
Perhaps that is why we don't see it more frequently, as often times top professional players opt for safe openings rather than openers which can result in easy build order wins for their opponent 💯💯
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Just watched "CadenZie vs Scarlett Bo9 SHOWMATCH" on the ArtosisTV youtube channel.
Scarlett opened 12nex, CadenZie opened with an overpool --> 2 hatchery hydralisk drop.
After showing some pressure at Scarlett's natural, CadenZie got a few hydras and zerglings into Scarlett's main...but was unsuccessful in doing any significant damage to their Protoss opponent.
Cheese successfully defended, Scarlett's macro kicked in --> gg.
Not the best game honestly, it was entertaining...but after seeing a failed 5 pool in the previous game, would kind of like to see a more standard-ish game from both players just to see how their mechanics stack up against some of the top professionals.
It was a showmatch, so some varied builds are kind of to be expected...but still, it was interesting to see a Zerg player choose to attempt a cheesy build 2 games in a row against a Protoss opponent 🐔🐔
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Just watched "Proceedin'! Rush! 🇰🇷 (T) vs Speed! 🇰🇷 (T) on Dominator! - Starcraft - Brood War" on the Falcon Paladin youtube channel.
Speed opened 1 rax cc, Rush opened 1 factory cc.
Rush took the early positional and army advantage, pumping out a good amount of vultures with mines...while Speed seemed content to sit in their base and macro off their 1 rax cc economy.
You would think Speed would be at an economic advantage, but at about 7:20 into the game they were down 46-41 in SCVs, and 80-64 in supply.
Both players continued expanding, with each eventually getting to 5 base...but it seems like the early army advantage, as well as the surprising disparity in SCVs was too much for Speed to overcome --> gg.
TvT is an interesting matchup...have seen a game or two where players have been successful using 2 factory plays...but it seems other openers are more popular due to their perceived economic strength.
In our opinion, this matchup is highly positionally based, and often times taking an early army and positional advantage can outweigh the potential benefits of getting an earlier expansion (as evidenced in this game) 🤷♀️🤷♂️
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On December 04 2025 17:38 Psyonic_Reaver wrote:
Are you AI?
No.
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Just watched "🔥KCM 2025 S4 W6 Set 2 @ Pole Star | Starcraft Commentary" on the NamKraft youtube channel.
Shine vs Royal ZvT
Shine opened 3 hatch before pool, Royal opened 1 rax cc (2 supply variant) into +1 5rax.
After scouting Shine's 3 hatch before pool, Royal pushed across the map with 2 marines and killed 2 of Shine's drones.
After stabilizing, and with both players on a 2 base economy, Royal macroed up, easily pushed across the map and broke Shine's natural --> gg.
3 hatchery play seems to have fallen out of favor at the top levels (aside from the 3 hatch at 3 base variations we have seen a few zerg players have success with).
It should be a given...but from what we've seen, sitting on a 2 base Zerg economy vs 2 base Terran for any significant period of time does not seem to work out well for Zerg players.
Not sure what Shine's plan was in this particular game, as we have seen glimses of high level play from them...but this was not it 💤💤
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Have been feeling under the weather a bit lately, been watching games....but just haven't felt up to writing down any analysis.
Just watched "Pros: STOP OPENING LIKE THIS!!" on the ArtosisCasts youtube channel.
Sharp vs Paralyze TvP.
Sharp opened vulture expand (1 fac cc), Paralyze opened with a gateway at their own natural, and attacked with an early zealot and dragoons.
Sharp successfully defended, got their expansion up...and attempted to pressure the protoss off 1 factory production (2 tanks, 3 marines, 1 scv, rallied vultures).
Paralyze defended the attack, then attempted to counter the Terran player with a reaver and shuttle, lost their shuttle --> gg.
Pretty quick and easy game, extremely solid play from Sharp. They successfully handled the early Protoss shenanigans, defended the reaver harass, and found themselves at a considerable advantage going into the midgame.
Perhaps Paralyze could have fought back, but after being unsuccessful with their early pressure, in addition to having their Reaver attack effectively defended...they apparently did not want to play on, with their 3rd base still not started at 8:20.
It seems to us that Reaver play from Protoss against Terran often times can just put you behind against a strong player.
Have spoken about it before, but any decent Terran player is not going to just hand out free wins against tech plays (reaver/dt). They are really forced to prepare with academy/armory/ebay/turrets anyway, so oftentimes an early 3rd base seems like the better choice from a Protoss perspective 🤷♂️🤷♀️
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Just watched "2025.12 Soma vs Royal ZvT @ Pole Star | Starcraft Commentary" on the NamKraft YouTube channel.
Soma opened 2.5 hatch, Royal opened with 2 port wraith.
Royal attacked with their wraiths. Upon seeing the 2 port play from the Terran player, Soma decided to counter with hydra/muta.
Royal did considerable damage (got Soma down to 3 drones at one point), defended the Zerg counter attack --> gg.
Once again...Terran players are having some success with 2 port vs. 2
5 hatch recently...just not necessarily sure it is a long term sustainable strategy.
In this game, Soma chose to do a basically all-in counter-attack. If Terran continues to have success with 2 port vs 2.5 hatch, Zerg will probably have to do something differently in order to avoid giving up build order wins 🤷♀️🤷♂️
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Hey guys, was in the hospital for the last 2 weeks...and didn't get a chance to watch any Brood War 🤦♂️🤦♀️
...but...
Just watched "3 Factories..... could this become standard?" on the ArtosisCasts youtube channel.
FanTaSy vs Air TvP.
Fantasy opened with a factory expand, Air opened with range expand.
Fantasy chose to get an academy after their 2nd factory, deciding to postpone their armory/ebay in favor of a faster 3rd factory.
They then tried a blind 3 tank push, lost their initial army, took catastrophic damage from the incoming reaver, as well as losing their 3rd cc --> gg.
Did see one game where a Terran decided to get 3 factories and pump speed vultures before academy/armory/ebay, but in this case it seems Fantasy blundered by trying to skip armory/ebay, attack, AND take 3rd base off 3 factories.
Like we have said before, this game was played on the ladder, where it seems like many players test out new builds...so take what you see with a grain of salt 🤷♂️🤷♀️
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Thanks for all these posts! I am gonna try and go through them after watching the games. Good to see some interesting analyses!
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On January 02 2026 08:24 aingel wrote:
Thanks for all these posts! I am gonna try and go through them after watching the games. Good to see some interesting analyses!
Yeah no problem!
We usually watch at least 1 BW game a day, and was looking for a place to share our thoughts and discuss the current trends in strategy etc.
Once again if you guys have any game recommendations or games you would like an analysis done of, don't hesitate to ask! 💯💯
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Just watched "Laddernet 2025.12 Light vs Soma TvZ @ Polypoid | Starcraft Remastered" on the NamKraft youtube channel.
Light opened 1 rax CC (1 supply/15cc variant) --> 2 rax academy, Soma opened with 2 hatch muta --> early 3rd.
Just before Soma's mutalisks popped, Light moved out with about a control group of medic/marines and searched for Soma's 3rd base.
They didn't find it, Soma cleaned up the initial Terran attack force, and Light never really recovered --> gg.
The general consensus was that 2 rax academy > 2 hatch early 3rd...but have seen a few times now where Zerg players have chosen to take unconventional/unsuspected 3rd base locations and had success.
If Terran is unable to find Zerg's 3rd base in time, they can find themselves in trouble heading into the midgame.
Not necessarily sure it is a strategy to live on, just praying that Terran will not find you...but it's definitely something to keep an eye on 🤷♂️🤷♀️
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EPT
