EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/pachi/Plexa/bbvol2l.png)
A Weekly Column by Plexatide
Sup nerds? It's been an interesting week. While Hot_Bid led the unwashed masses in a desperate bid to free Broodwar from the tyranny of history buffs and Boxer fans, we just sat around reading the comments in both threads over high tea and lolled quietly to ourselves. Of course, we were forced on to the balcony at one point by a raucous rendering of the following, led by HB himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VR1bOha40U&feature=player_embedded
If you do not play this video as you read, you are missing out
If you do not play this video as you read, you are missing out
We did wave demurely at the bleating crowd, but it was ill received. To the guillotine! came the cry from below, but we just retired inside, checked that our banhammers were safe in their holsters, fixed our monocles in place, and began to go through the TLFEs for the second time that morning. I mean, let's face it, the Final Edits have all along been a way for us to control the proletariat, moulding their minds so they are unable to pursue wisdom in LR threads or reach B on ICCUP, which is now in itself apparently a form of enlightenment. Thanks to the Teamliquid Revolutionist and his progressive ideology, the truth has been exposed, but really, it's not like we care. Plexa read out some of the literature that was being handed out on the street.
"Every educational system is a political means of maintaining or of modifying the appropriation of discourse, with the knowledge and the powers it carries with it. Who said that?"
"Foucault."
"Right. What do they want, riptide?"
"Oh, I don't know, something about current gamers and our condescension. Or maybe they want cheaper bread, who knows?"
"LOL."
It's been quite a week here at Team Liquid. From the tumultuous reception that the two staff columns received, to the weird way in which Proleague went down, we've had a lot to talk about. Of course, the big topic on everyone’s lips has been the balance, or rather the perceived imbalance, in ZvP. This is not unjustifiably so! ZvP winrates have jumped to around 60% which is a truly worrying sign. Furthermore, the number of Protoss actually qualifying for leagues is dwindling while the number of Zergs qualifying has sky rocketed. The easy answer is to blame the maps and say that it’s an issue to be taken up with the mappers for next season. But since we’ve just had a change in map pool – shouldn’t any imbalances have been ironed out in testing? Or at the very least, ZvP not been so radically imbalanced across the board?
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/jaedongbisu.jpg)
Will the two alien species ever find peace? Not likely.
Clearly you can’t just blame the map pool – there is something more to the story. The answer lies in the hands of Jaedong – as everything seems to these days. We would argue that the Zerg race, as a collective whole, have caught up to Jaedong – or are at least within striking distance. By this we mean that other Zergs are now perfectly capable of replicating what Jaedong does – such as Calm, Luxury, Zero, Hyvaa and so on. This was inevitable, since Jaedong has been so successful recently. All that success has educated the Zerg race on how to play against both Protoss and Terran and now we are seeing the results of that education. As a result, on the whole you have a lot more Zerg players who are playing better Starcraft than their Protoss counterparts at all levels, and hence, Zerg players winning more often.
In any case, races ruling eras isn’t anything new. When we had Stork and Bisu at the top of the Progaming world winning all the leagues (or in Stork’s case winning the silver in every league) they created a roadmap for Protoss success. As a result, you saw a number of good Protoss players emerge and the so called “golden age” of Protoss. In retrospect, it seems unfair to call this the era of the Six Dragons since clearly Stork and Bisu were the masterminds behind their successes in this age. Coincidentally, as Bisu and Stork began to stop winning leagues – the 6 Dragons fell off the map and are now are bunch of pushovers. Okay, a little extremist, but players like Jangbi and Best are simply terrible right now – but more on that later.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/5Trans/4.jpg)
No more smiles for Protoss in what appears to be the age of the Zerg.
So why didn't the Zerg experience a surge when Jaedong won EVER 2007 and Arena MSL? Well, in truth they sort of did. Luxury came back in full force while there were a few younger Zergs with some real potential. Additionally, July won the OSL and overall the swarm did well. Jaedong was eliminated from both leagues in the latter half of 2008 and didn't really achieve anything (other than a sick proleague record) while Protoss players were rejoicing over Stork finally clinching a gold. Only recently has Jaedong been so wildly successful, and only now is the Zerg so wildly successful.
This wave of Zerg strength can be attributed to the success of Jaedong, but what does this mean for Jaedong? Well over the last few months we’ve seen Jaedong drop an abnormal amount of ZvZ. For instance, he lost to Zero last week (but also beat him in the ace match). What this says is that Zergs are getting better, and getting closer to Jaedong’s skill level - but as it stands at the moment Jaedong is still clearly superior. As I (Plexa) noted in my most recent FE, if you were to find a fault in Jaedong’s game it would be his Strategy. What we would like to argue is that with the overall level of Zerg skill rising, Jaedong won’t be able to stay at the top for much longer without working specifically on this part of his game.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/calm.jpg)
CALM4ROYALROAD - you heard it here first, folks.
But then we turn to Calm, a player with great mechanics and an even better brain (he's called the BRAIN ZERG OK THX), and both of us just get excited. Apart from his series with Backho, he's been playing like a monster recently, and we cant wait to see him topple some heads in the individual leagues. We're not big for calling Royal Roaders before the fact, but think that if anyone can do it this time it's Kim Yoon Hwan. A namesake of both Boxer and Bisu, he's a total shoo-in for the NextBigThing™ so be sure to start mentioning him when you guys derail threads discussing the semantics of bonjwa. If you couldn't tell already we're totally hyped about him, so expect more about this son of the swarm in future editions of Backseat Broodwar.
Now, let’s take a look at how the Terrans are reacting to the wave of super-Zergs coming through at the moment. We think Flash has hit the nail on the hit when it comes to the next step in TvZ strategy – that is unorthodox timings. The reason behind this is that Zergs have learned a set formula for when to cut drones, make mutalisks and whatnot and as a result their builds are often highly inflexible. Dedicating two drones to sunken colonies can be the difference between economic success, and economic failure.
Two games exemplify Flash’s new take of TvZ – go.go vs roro and Flash vs by.hero. The former is an example of how Zergs simply cannot react due to their rigid builds and the latter is an example of Flash at his finest showing off his new found trick to TvZ. It may not be as flashy as Fantasy’s Valks, but this could just prove more effective against Zergs – and possibly against Jaedong. (But what about Calm?) Perhaps this will ensure more rigorous scouting is employed by Zerg in the future?
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/bisu.jpg)
One more thing that should be noted is that, apparently, Bisu did not prepare to go up against Shine. Instead both him and Really just practiced for each other. Bisu losing to Shine is a big problem, since if Stork can beat ggaemo then surely Bisu can beat Shine. Bisu just prepared the wrong way for that series and obviously paid the price. We don’t think it’s a sign of any wider imbalance since Bisu/Flash/Jaedong are pretty much immune to imbalances, we do think its a clear indication that Bisu is not going to be winning an OSL for a long time.
So what are Protoss trying to do at the moment to counter Zerg? Well not too much. Movie is trying out Reavers in every possible place he can – he’s getting moderate success with that. Most players seem to like using Dark Templar – as can be seen in Backho’s game against Calm and Jangbi’s series against Kwanro. There really isn’t anything that wrong with what strategies the Protoss are employing at the moment – it’s more the basic fundamental mistakes they make. Like, for instance, wasting a group of Zealots on lurkers, or not walling your ramp properly when there is a ling run by. These kinds of things that should be drummed into you when you’re still a C level player just seem to have upped and walked off. Again, this comes from the fact that there is no strong figurehead for Protoss at the moment, hence a lack of direction, hence they all play like confused monkeys.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/monkeys.jpg)
5 pooled
Actually, there is one thing that Protoss players across the board can do to improve their PvZ - and as far as I can tell, this is the single biggest reason why Protoss lose vs Zerg. Once Protoss secure their fourth expansion they always slack off on defense and begin to lose their mining expansions. This has happened to Pusan, Jangbi, Stork, Kal, Sangho... all within the past few months. Sparing a few Zealots to defend against ling raids isn't such a big deal since losing those mining bases simply loses the game. So please Protoss, stop losing your mining expansions so uselessly, that will drastically increase your winning rate if you manage to do so.
Three players at the moment are playing well below their level – Leta, Jangbi and Yellow[arnc]. Leta failed to qualify for the MSL by failing to Firefist twice in MST. Wait what? Firefist? Yes, when we think of Leta losing to Zergs we usually think those Zergs are top tier like Zero or Jaedong. But Firefist? Sure, Firefist isn’t terrible, but Leta is a class ahead of him – and Leta losing twice to him is unacceptable. Furthermore, HiyA stomped him in TvT and Midas took him out in a very messy encounter. We would recommend watching it though – because seeing Midas win is always worth the watch. Leta however, has begun to show a small signs of recovery like his single-handed defeat of Woongjin - but one set of games isn't enough to alleviate our concerns about his play. We expect more from Leta in the future.
Yarnc has gone 0-4 so far this season, and 0-10 if your count the preseason events. Yarnc is a former OSL finalist – and now look at him?! His game sense is completely shot and he seems completely incapable of doing anything right. He lost to Pure on Heartbreak – a ZvP heaven. He lost to July – a shadow of his former self. He lost to Ruby – a player on ACE. Yarnc’s fail is strong this season – do not expect him to go very far at all.
Jangbi brings up the rear of the fail trio. To be perfectly honest, Jangbi’s PvT has always been his strongest point. But if you look at his series against barracks it is very clear all the magic Jangbi once had has gone. Indeed, the game where he looked the most impressive was the game he lost to Barracks through poor decision making and macro. Furthermore, Jangbi’s PvZ has always been lightyears behind his PvT – and if his PvT is so bad it can barely beat Barracks, then his PvZ must be terrible. And it is. Jangbi vs Kwanro was almost painful to watch as a Protoss player. It seemed as if Jangbi had suddenly forgotten all of the basic strategy you learn to beat Zerg. For instance, Zealots get vaporized by Lurkers. Don’t waste units on Sunk-Spore-Lurk, expand instead! As a result Jangbi is looking so abysmal right now that we really can’t see him coming back anytime soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEp3ghAyzKU
We think singling out this game is good for two reasons. Firstly, its a really close game and certainly has its moments. Secondly, it shows you how PvZ-strategy-deaf Jangbi has become. Very disappointing. With that said, we definitely think this game is worthy of a recommendation on the grounds that the tension never really dies down.
I (Plexa) came into this week not expecting or planning to comment about Pusan. But I just have to say, that Pusan’s cheese vs Best was brilliant. The gist of it was that Pusan proxy pyloned in Best’s choke on Heartbreak. He then built a gateway inside Best’s main – which was obviously scouted. Best pulls some probes and attacks the gateway. Next, Pusan proxied two gateways outside of Bests main (i.e. in his Natural).
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/pusanbest.jpg)
Pusan makes cheese toast.
Best could clearly see this, and once he killed the first gateway then he moved on to take out the next two. The came the brilliant part – Pusan built a forge to make a perfect seal in Best’s choke which locked Best’s probes out of his main. Brilliant. From that Pusan was able to get a macro advantage (by killing off probes and stopping mining) and just pulled miles ahead. Best hung on for a while and made a game of it - but in the end the early deficit had set him back too far. Definitely another game that I would recommend watching if for just the cheese alone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInY4D-cr50
Horang deserves special mention for his Proleague efforts this week. The poor kid tried to 14Nex against Mind, who proceeded to crush it with ease. So then what does Horang do? One base Carrier. There is nothing sadder than seeing a Protoss attempt to win a game building Carriers off of one base. With that said, Horang tried his best, and failed – but at least we all got a laugh out of it. Incidentally, we’ve now mentioned every game from the WeMade vs Hite series this week; so that was probably a good series to watch (especially since Midas won!).
Darkelf also gets special mention this week for his never-say-die attitude vs Shuttle. Shuttle gained a pretty massive advantage in their game but Darkelf stuck it to him and held his ground. Shuttle ended up playing sloppy and wasting units on Darkelf’s tanks and eventually found himself on the losing end of the game. A pretty nice watch, in an otherwise bland week of games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq3Wdw9khcg
Well, we suppose fOrGG vs Stork should get some exposure as well. This was the winners match of their MSL group and it was closely fought – fOrGG put up a much better fight than he did against Pusan that’s for sure. When you watch it, just keep an eye out for observers, since in my opinion, Stork’s PvT can be differentiated from others by his used of observers. We know it sounds lame and boring to have your ‘signature’ be observer use, but it reflects Stork’s safe macro play that seems to work for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1axzyIncdo
OK we've been rambling on like mad men for far too long. We're going to go now. See you next week, and oh, don’t forget to enter the TeamLiquid Pumpkin Carving Contest! We know you'll be carving one anyway for Halloween, so you may as well enter it into the competition, right? You don’t even have to have an SC theme on your entry to be eligible, though why you'd carve anything else is beyond us. With that said, we're outta here. Good games, plebeians, good games!
![[image loading]](http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/446/backseatbw.jpg)
