EPT
1. Introduction
Throughout the years, the standard gameflow of a Terran vs Protoss game has evolved alot, through a series of innovations, both strategicalwise, and ofcourse in general game mechanics-wise. Everytime a player introduced a playing style, he of course knew it better and played it better than any other player. He then entered a (short) period of domination, where the other race starts looking for an efficient countering style, while the other players of the same race start what in latin was called 'non imitatio sed amelioratio' (non imitating, but improving with additions).
If you look at the history of the TvP matchup, you can see this 'ping-pongpattern'.
With this article I'm going to try to shed some Light on this ping-pongpattern, and how TvP evolved to what it became today. I'm mainly going to discuss it from a Terran point of view though.
2. The Early Days
In the pre-replay days, players relied mainly on their own creativity to determine their build order and how they adapted and reacted to a certain other style. Everything was possible, as real knowledge of the matchup had not yet spread. TvP was not yet the absolute science it sometimes seems nowadays. This, of course, had also something to do with the maps that were played back then. Most of the old maps were micro oriented (think of Jungle Story for example).
Therefore, the so-called 'ping-pongpattern' did not yet exist back then. Even after replays were introduced and the last balance patch was added, it still took a pretty long time till the first real innovation.
Standard TvP was either a 2Fac build or an FE followed by a slowpush (spread out tanks with mines and turrets).
Ofcourse, there were already dominant players, with their own style.
V-Gundam for example, executed the same build order almost every game, with such precision, timing and micro, that even when his opponents knew 2 weeks in advance that it was coming, they still could not stop it. Though his trademark 'gundamrush' seemed simple, it's theory was forked to deal with every single possible counter in an appropriate way, an agressive build that was highly adaptable.On the protoss side,
IntoTheRain, also had his (less complex) trademark buildorder, starting with an early reaver, and controlling it with pure excellence. It was not a 'smart' build, but he sure knew how to use it, even when they saw it coming.These guys, however, did not start a revolution, they did not make other people intensively copy them and force the other race to experiment with build-orders. You won't hear anyone ever say 'you remember, back in the day when everyone gundamrushed? that'd be so easy to counter now'.
A real TvP king arose in 2002, when Lee Yoon Yeol won the 2nd KPGA through the defeat of
fOru and IntoTheRain, back then feared PvT players.3. Spring 2002 - Spring 2003:
NaDa's dominance Some maps changed and became more macrofriendly, other maps stayed, and people discovered there was another way to play them too.
During this year-long period of dominance,
NaDa mainly executed his Tornado terran build that also gave him the nickname he still has today. His Tornado terran build featured a fast expansion covered by siege mode first, followed by a 2 base-macro build. He constantly pumped tanks from 2 factories while pumping vultures from the other ones, and actively harassing with those vultures.
NaDa's (back then) extraordinary multitasking made it possible for him to harass with high efficiency while macro'ing perfectly. The vulture harass was a huge burden for the Protosses, realizing they needed a third base in order not to get outmacroed by the Terran, but they had to protect all three bases from these vultureraids.NaDa followed this lengthy harass up by a fast timing push with a huge tank force right before Protoss could get his zealspeed up.Between May 2002 and March 2003,
NaDa only lost 3 TvP games.Protosses had a hard time countering it. Of course, various cheeses could always be used, but
NaDa had excellent scouting and game feel, and they failed more often than not.Some may say it's the Bonjwa Curse, but after March 2003, Protoss seemed to have found the counter. They went for a somewhat later third expo, making it easier to deal with the vulture harass, and a earlier citadel (often paired with a zealbomb shuttle). Protosses like
Reach and Kingdom were the only ones able to get this right for a while, but NaDa's dominance had been broken. He remained a very strong player nonetheless.It didn't take long till the next dominance though, poor protosses. We all know who's coming up, he's strong, he's young, he's a beast and he's not Manifesto7.
4. 2004: The Gorilla age
iloveoov's prime was the most brutal dominance the professional brood war scene has yet experienced. Late 2003 he raged through TriGem MSL, followed by the CEN Game MSL and the SPRIS MSL. Then he continued to win his 1st OSL, an epic one, EVER 2004.Protoss builds, then concentrated on the FE followed by timing rush, fell to
iloveoov's completely macro-oriented gamestyle. iloveoov played defensively after FE, with practically no vult harass. Instead, he invested his gorilla cash in another command center, and got his third base as fast as he deemed he could.Eventhough his TvZ was more untoucheable than his TvP back then, no Protoss was considered a favourite over
Oov.Almost every single one of them tried to prevent
Oov from going into his crazy macro mode, with timed attacks, but Oov adapted well to the Protoss build and got his expansion always JUST in time.Then, he reached the EVER2004 OSL Semi-finals, where he met no one other than
Reach. Man vs Beast ensued. Everyone remembers the game on Mercury. If you haven't seen it, read this:Interview with
Oov after his semi-finals vs Reach It was very hard. I felt so down after loosing to Reach in the first game by units. Reach didn't do harassing or any other thing but went purely mass units and all I could do was blcok,block,block. Later in the game I was disgusted with his unit production. I was so surprised. I never lost a game with mass units vs mass units.
Reach in the first game by units. Reach didn't do harassing or any other thing but went purely mass units and all I could do was blcok,block,block. Later in the game I was disgusted with his unit production. I was so surprised. I never lost a game with mass units vs mass units. That's right, instead of looking for a hole in
iloveoov's macro builds, Reach tried to beat him in his own field, macro, and he succeeded. Oov went on to win the series with a bit of luck, as he says himself in the interview, but his TvP was no longer invincible.iloveoov and NaDa remained the strongest Terran players on the progaming rosters (although anyone could make a statement about XellOs here), till around Spring 2005, when, due to the death of NaDa's dad, NaDa went into a slump.TvP was a stable matchup, and no real domination was ever reestablished after EVER2004 in TvP. There were however, still a few major innovations.
5. Baby Bear Terran
In 2005 rumours were flying around about
Ddang[gm], nowadays more known as Midas[gm]. He was said to have the best semi-pro TvP around, and that at the age of 17. He went on to win numerous games with his then-called "Midas rush". Today we refer to this 'rush' as FD-Terran. To that day, Protosses had 2 very clear forks in their build: one to deal with an agressive 2fact-build and one to deal with a defensive FE-build. Midas used his FD-rush, which features a quick tank, 4 rines and a vulture with spider mines, to fake a 2FacRush, and then safely, but very quickly, expand.Terrans quickly started adopting this build, that was unlike
NaDa's Tornado build, not so difficult to master in order of timing. Protosses were having a hard time. They needed to expand quickly, they needed obs vs mines, and an adequate goon number to stop the tank-rine-vulture agression. Goon micro had however improved a lot over the years, and they found out that this was only possible if they didnt make the obs till much later. 2Gate Powergoon was born.2Gate Powergoon doesn't really hard counter FD-Terran though. It gives Protoss a quick expansion, but also gives Terran a quick expansion. A new standard gameflow of TvP was established, one that still determines the average game you play on ICCup, or the progame you watch on your GOMPlayer.
5. Conclusion
The TvP game you play today is an offspring of all these evolutions. Of course, you don't always FD. And, of course, a 2 base timing rush still works. Build-orders co-exist, but were harder to counter during certain periods. Do also not forget that these evolutions relied heavily on map evolutions. Remember how Sin Cultivation Period brought TvP 3 years back in time?
But, to me, it seems like TvP is one of the hardest matchups to master strategically-wise. You have so many options, yet the smallest changes can introduce huge differences. And that's why I like TvP, it's a matchup no person will ever COMPLETELY understand, otherwise he'd always be one step ahead of the other player.
except take the BeSt link out TLPD messed it up! :p
got some funny ones in there "
