• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 09:40
CET 15:40
KST 23:40
  • 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
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets4$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)15Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns7[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 103SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1833
StarCraft 2
General
SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Stellar Fest "01" Jersey Charity Auction Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets When will we find out if there are more tournament SC2 Spotted on the EWC 2026 list?
Tourneys
OSC Season 13 World Championship SC2 AI Tournament 2026 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament $21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) $25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 508 Violent Night Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes
Brood War
General
[ASL21] Potential Map Candidates How Rain Became ProGamer in Just 3 Months BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ A cwal.gg Extension - Easily keep track of anyone
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10
Strategy
Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Simple Questions, Simple Answers Game Theory for Starcraft Current Meta
Other Games
General Games
Awesome Games Done Quick 2026! Beyond All Reason Nintendo Switch Thread Mechabellum Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
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
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
Innova Crysta on Hire
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Physical Exercise (HIIT) Bef…
TrAiDoS
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2350 users

Putting an end to the Zerg Opening Economy debate. - Page 16

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 14 15 16 17 18 21 Next All
Phrencys
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada270 Posts
December 01 2010 14:44 GMT
#301
If anything, this thread shows that almost any opening can be an "economics" build. The differences are so meaningless that it becomes purely a matter of preference/safety/practicability.

The initial debate was driven by the "hatch first cheese" thread and zerg claiming that hatch first and pool first don't even compete in the same leagues as far as economics goes. This has been proven false. I'm not going to buy it even if IdrA says that the extra 50mineral you get from a hatch first opening over 6minutes is the determining factor to say who ggs/ragequits first.

The only argument that remains is safety: early pool gives you more flexibility to stop really quick cheese, early hatch gives you a better opportunity at having a chance to lay down spines in time to stop a later bunker+scv rush at your nat. It comes down to determining which build is safer, on which map, against which strategy!
Dakaru
Profile Joined November 2010
Netherlands59 Posts
December 01 2010 16:34 GMT
#302
jdseemoreglass could you please take another look at 14 pool 16 hatch? after seeing your new graphs I went ahead and played on until 7 min too and this is from my first try (so might be some small mistakes) I did NOT send my drones to individual mineral patches, just hatch waypoints.

[image loading]

BO:
+ Show Spoiler +

9 overlord
14 pool
16 hatch
16 queen (inject and send to natural)
18 overlord
extractor trick
22 queen
24 overlord
32 overlord
35 overlord
44 overlord
50 overlord


Results:
+ Show Spoiler +

Drones:
- 4:30 -- 5:00 -- 5:30 -- 6:00 -- 6:30 -- 7:00
21.29 - 28.53 - 35.76 - 41.7 - 52.59 - 61.88

Resources:
4:30 -- 5:00 -- 5:30 -- 6:00 -- 6:30 -- 7:00
3029 - 3469 - 4049 - 4709 - 5454 - 6269


basically it's behind all other BO's at 4:30, but at 5:00 it's ahead in drones and stays ahead with the exception of 6:00's 11 pool.

at 5:00 it's ahead of 11 pool in resources and at 6:00 it overtakes 16 hatch 15 pool and is in the end only SLIGHTLY behind 14 hatch 15 pool in resources which is so minimal it can be luckbased...
jdseemoreglass
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States3773 Posts
December 01 2010 16:49 GMT
#303
On December 02 2010 01:34 Dakaru wrote:
jdseemoreglass could you please take another look at 14 pool 16 hatch? after seeing your new graphs I went ahead and played on until 7 min too and this is from my first try (so might be some small mistakes) I did NOT send my drones to individual mineral patches, just hatch waypoints.

[image loading]

BO:
+ Show Spoiler +

9 overlord
14 pool
16 hatch
16 queen (inject and send to natural)
18 overlord
extractor trick
22 queen
24 overlord
32 overlord
35 overlord
44 overlord
50 overlord


Results:
+ Show Spoiler +

Drones:
- 4:30 -- 5:00 -- 5:30 -- 6:00 -- 6:30 -- 7:00
21.29 - 28.53 - 35.76 - 41.7 - 52.59 - 61.88

Resources:
4:30 -- 5:00 -- 5:30 -- 6:00 -- 6:30 -- 7:00
3029 - 3469 - 4049 - 4709 - 5454 - 6269


basically it's behind all other BO's at 4:30, but at 5:00 it's ahead in drones and stays ahead with the exception of 6:00's 11 pool.

at 5:00 it's ahead of 11 pool in resources and at 6:00 it overtakes 16 hatch 15 pool and is in the end only SLIGHTLY behind 14 hatch 15 pool in resources which is so minimal it can be luckbased...



One problem I have with this build is that you skipped the final overlord which all other builds produced. This leaves you supply capped at 68/68 at the end of the replay with no overlord in sight. This can account for an increase in at least a drone.

I find it unlikely this build will surpass the others, but I will certainly test it again and post the new results later today.
"If you want this forum to be full of half-baked philosophy discussions between pompous faggots like yourself forever, stay the course captain vanilla" - FakeSteve[TPR], 2006
Dakaru
Profile Joined November 2010
Netherlands59 Posts
December 01 2010 16:58 GMT
#304
yeah I forgot that but really it matters only 1 drone because everything is saturated already and the limiting factor is the larva... also I had 2 larva spawns remaining at 7 min mark because I was supply capped so that would increase my drone count slightly too
either way even with a whole drone less the build is still ahead in drones of all the others by nearly another drone
Dragar
Profile Joined October 2010
United Kingdom971 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-01 17:41:09
December 01 2010 17:25 GMT
#305
jdseemoreglass, I really think you should include the corrected partial drone counting once queens have appeared. See earlier posts by myself and Hyrkul. If you disagree we'd obviously appreciate the reasoning.
jdseemoreglass
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States3773 Posts
December 01 2010 17:46 GMT
#306
On December 02 2010 02:25 Dragar wrote:
jdseemoreglass, I really think you should include the corrected partial drone counting once queens have appeared. See earlier posts by myself and Hyrkul. If you disagree we'd obviously appreciate the reasoning.


No one disputes that different builds will have queen spawn larvae at different times. The point is that all the builds will necessarily produce them at the same RATE beyond a certain time. Showing the data over time provides a visual representation of where each build is in the spawn larvae cycle, but the discrepancy overall in the drone count will not change in the long run, only in short time frames.
"If you want this forum to be full of half-baked philosophy discussions between pompous faggots like yourself forever, stay the course captain vanilla" - FakeSteve[TPR], 2006
Skrag
Profile Joined May 2010
United States643 Posts
December 01 2010 17:52 GMT
#307
Try 14hatch/14pool. It does get larvae-blocked for a short time while waiting for minerals for the pool, but might make that up later with faster queens. If there's enough of a larva advantage, it might be worth a slight reduction in total mining.
"Just go *@#$ing kill him!" -- Day[9] "Thanks for being a jackass though! Enjoy your time on the forums!" - Artosis
jdseemoreglass
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States3773 Posts
December 01 2010 17:56 GMT
#308
I played two games today on diamond ladder (2200+) using the 11pool and won each of them easily.

The first game illustrates how flexible this build is in reverting to an all-in attack. I scout my opponent opening hatch first, so that is exactly what I go for. Going hatch first or 14 pool would prevent this sort of pressure, and would potentially negate what is for me an easy victory.

[image loading]

Game two illustrates how well this build can hold up against a 4gate. This felt like the easiest 4gate I have ever held off because I had many units out quickly. At first I assumed my opponent was making a mistake, or was possibly going 3gate-expand, but the replay shows he did fairly well in keeping his resources low and drone count high.

After holding off two attacks I prepare for a mid-game timing attack before his late expansion can reap dividends.

[image loading]
"If you want this forum to be full of half-baked philosophy discussions between pompous faggots like yourself forever, stay the course captain vanilla" - FakeSteve[TPR], 2006
Erectum
Profile Joined August 2010
France194 Posts
December 01 2010 18:27 GMT
#309
Thx for the rep, the 4 gat is reaped so badly
ubershmekel
Profile Joined May 2010
25 Posts
December 01 2010 18:40 GMT
#310
I've been running evo chamber for 9 hours on a quad core and it couldn't find a build that gives 46 drones at the 6 minute mark. Builds that give 45 drones at the 6 minute mark are easy to produce. The program stagnated on

10 OL
Etrick
11 pool
16 queen
18 hatch
18 OL
20 OL
20 queen

All I really wanted to say is that the builds listed here may be the best possible builds and they are likely limited by this "45 drone ceiling" at the 6 minute mark. I'll publish a graph soon to help understand how the time limit influences this experiment.
Phrencys
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada270 Posts
December 01 2010 19:57 GMT
#311
On December 02 2010 03:40 ubershmekel wrote:
I've been running evo chamber for 9 hours on a quad core and it couldn't find a build that gives 46 drones at the 6 minute mark. Builds that give 45 drones at the 6 minute mark are easy to produce. The program stagnated on

10 OL
Etrick
11 pool
16 queen
18 hatch
18 OL
20 OL
20 queen

All I really wanted to say is that the builds listed here may be the best possible builds and they are likely limited by this "45 drone ceiling" at the 6 minute mark. I'll publish a graph soon to help understand how the time limit influences this experiment.

Has anyone tried silly openings like double expand yet?

9 Overlord
16 Hatchery #2
15 Spawning Pool
17 Overlord
18 Hatchery #3
20 Queen
24 Queen
26 Overlord
28 Queen
30 Overlord
36 Overlord
40 Overlord

To minimize travel time:
- transfer 1 drone and rally main hatch to hatch#2 until both have 16 then rally both to hatch#3
- hatch#3 not rallied

If there's one build that allows you to make more than 45 drones at 6:00, it should be something like this.
Skrag
Profile Joined May 2010
United States643 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-01 20:02:38
December 01 2010 19:59 GMT
#312
Ok, so my testing does seem to indicate that 14hatch/14pool does have a larva advantage of around 2-3 over 14h/15p, which I think would put it as the clear larva leader overall, and that larva advantage comes at the cost of a very small resource loss when compared to 14h/15, somewhere around 30-40 minerals worth.

The actual order is pretty much identical to the posted order for 14h/15p, and in some cases the overlord timings line up much more nicely anyway. For example, the overlord on 17 feels pretty early, and I *think* you could get away with waiting til 18 to build the overlord with 14h/15p, getting an earlier drone, but OL on 17 is necessary for 14h/14p.

I'm measuring things differently than the OP though (I still don't understand where the "resources mined" number is coming from, and I'm also taking the queen spawn larvae progress into account for drones), so having me post numbers isn't going to be particularly useful.
"Just go *@#$ing kill him!" -- Day[9] "Thanks for being a jackass though! Enjoy your time on the forums!" - Artosis
Eladimir
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada11 Posts
December 01 2010 20:48 GMT
#313
Personally I'm loving the 11 overpool 18 hatch build, played some games with it last nite and it worked out well. Always wanted a pool that early but assumed I was at a massive eco disadvantage. Even if its slightly behind the other front runners I'll take it.
Frag first, questions later
Scrimpton
Profile Joined August 2010
United Kingdom465 Posts
December 01 2010 20:56 GMT
#314
agree with eladmir.

whilst there may be the other build that's slightly higher on econ, there's really no price tag on how much safer the 11pool is, and how much more variable you can be with it.
I've been loving it :D.

In the end it will just be a case of looking at the highest econ builds, and working down the list untill you find a sensible game viable one. So far thats the 11overpool :D
Protoss is the only race with "pro" in it
jdseemoreglass
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States3773 Posts
December 01 2010 21:14 GMT
#315
On December 02 2010 05:56 Scrimpton wrote:
agree with eladmir.

whilst there may be the other build that's slightly higher on econ, there's really no price tag on how much safer the 11pool is, and how much more variable you can be with it.
I've been loving it :D.

In the end it will just be a case of looking at the highest econ builds, and working down the list untill you find a sensible game viable one. So far thats the 11overpool :D


I agree with everyone on this. In fact, I think I may start a new thread on the potential new zerg standard in all match-ups. I really can't see any reason or justification for doing any other build yet, but more testing in-game is clearly needed.

One thing that should be analyzed is the "current resources" of this build compared to the other. I suspect this build may be more fragile to variations in unit production with regard to delaying the ordering.
"If you want this forum to be full of half-baked philosophy discussions between pompous faggots like yourself forever, stay the course captain vanilla" - FakeSteve[TPR], 2006
Talkerst
Profile Joined October 2010
124 Posts
December 01 2010 21:46 GMT
#316
On December 02 2010 03:40 ubershmekel wrote:
I've been running evo chamber for 9 hours on a quad core and it couldn't find a build that gives 46 drones at the 6 minute mark. Builds that give 45 drones at the 6 minute mark are easy to produce. The program stagnated on

10 OL
Etrick
11 pool
16 queen
18 hatch
18 OL
20 OL
20 queen

All I really wanted to say is that the builds listed here may be the best possible builds and they are likely limited by this "45 drone ceiling" at the 6 minute mark. I'll publish a graph soon to help understand how the time limit influences this experiment.


If you are talking theoretical maximum (from evo chamber) I got 48 drones in under 6 minutes using

10 Extractor Trick
11 Overlord
11 Hatchery
12 Spawning Pool
14 Overlord
15 Queen, then Constant Spawn Larvae
17 Queen, then Constant Spawn Larvae
19 Overlord
27 Extractor Trick
29 Overlord
34 Extractor Trick
36 Extractor Trick
38 Overlord
51 Drone

Though I did use the GUI version as it runs much faster - my understanding is there shouldn't be a time diff between the two. Not sure on how many minerals you'd have at this point but it would probably be close to the others. However, I don't think evo chamber takes into account travel times and such so no one would actually be able to realize this directly. Not very useful but it does pass the 46 drone limit you were talking about.
Skrag
Profile Joined May 2010
United States643 Posts
December 01 2010 21:47 GMT
#317
On December 02 2010 06:14 jdseemoreglass wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 02 2010 05:56 Scrimpton wrote:
agree with eladmir.

whilst there may be the other build that's slightly higher on econ, there's really no price tag on how much safer the 11pool is, and how much more variable you can be with it.
I've been loving it :D.

In the end it will just be a case of looking at the highest econ builds, and working down the list untill you find a sensible game viable one. So far thats the 11overpool :D


I agree with everyone on this. In fact, I think I may start a new thread on the potential new zerg standard in all match-ups. I really can't see any reason or justification for doing any other build yet, but more testing in-game is clearly needed.

One thing that should be analyzed is the "current resources" of this build compared to the other. I suspect this build may be more fragile to variations in unit production with regard to delaying the ordering.


Despite the fact that it probably seems I'm fighting to have 14hatch still be considered the "best" build, I agree as well. I think it's totally awesome that 11overpool/18hatch is close enough economically to the best true economic builds that you can use it in all but the absolute safest of situations. I'll probably hatch-first on shakuras, jungle basin, and maybe metal (although even there it's nice to know that 14h/15p or 14h/14p are both better than 15h/14p which is what I've been doing), but everywhere else it's almost certainly going to be 11overpool for me from now on.
"Just go *@#$ing kill him!" -- Day[9] "Thanks for being a jackass though! Enjoy your time on the forums!" - Artosis
Randomaccount#77123
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States5003 Posts
December 01 2010 21:53 GMT
#318
--- Nuked ---
jdseemoreglass
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States3773 Posts
December 02 2010 00:07 GMT
#319
I added a thread regarding the 11 Overpool as the possible new standard opening, including several more replays.

Here is the link:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=173430
"If you want this forum to be full of half-baked philosophy discussions between pompous faggots like yourself forever, stay the course captain vanilla" - FakeSteve[TPR], 2006
bmn
Profile Joined August 2010
886 Posts
December 02 2010 02:02 GMT
#320
I counted each mineral node at the end of the 11 pool 18 hatch replay and came up with 20065. Subtracted from the 24000 minerals from 16 nodes at 2 bases, that comes out to 3935 minerals mined. Where does 4620 come from? Same for the 14 hatch 16 pool Dakaru posted. Why are the results off by 600-700 minerals if you have a replay.
Prev 1 14 15 16 17 18 21 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
12:00
Season 13 World Championship
NightMare vs TriGGeRLIVE!
YoungYakov vs Babymarine
SKillous vs TBD
WardiTV985
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko447
LamboSC2 133
BRAT_OK 67
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 33868
EffOrt 1622
Shuttle 1350
Soma 604
Stork 556
Larva 494
BeSt 389
firebathero 285
Rush 256
hero 224
[ Show more ]
Killer 140
Snow 138
Mong 117
Hyun 114
Barracks 67
Sea.KH 66
Leta 53
Yoon 35
Terrorterran 23
910 21
Free 18
HiyA 16
GoRush 16
yabsab 16
scan(afreeca) 15
Bale 15
JulyZerg 15
Rock 13
ivOry 13
Shine 10
Sacsri 6
Dota 2
syndereN199
Counter-Strike
olofmeister2551
kennyS438
markeloff75
Other Games
B2W.Neo1186
DeMusliM372
crisheroes290
Happy231
QueenE93
Mew2King75
ArmadaUGS38
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick2242
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• HappyZerGling 110
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Michael_bg 4
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV583
League of Legends
• Jankos3279
• TFBlade849
Upcoming Events
All-Star Invitational
11h 35m
INnoVation vs soO
Serral vs herO
Cure vs Solar
sOs vs Scarlett
Classic vs Clem
Reynor vs Maru
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
21h 20m
AI Arena Tournament
1d 5h
All-Star Invitational
1d 11h
MMA vs DongRaeGu
Rogue vs Oliveira
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 19h
OSC
1d 21h
Replay Cast
2 days
Wardi Open
2 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-14
Big Gabe Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
Escore Tournament S1: W4
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W5
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Rongyi Cup S3
SC2 All-Star Inv. 2025
Nations Cup 2026
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 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.