• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 19:49
CEST 01:49
KST 08:49
  • 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
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
GSTL Returns in 2026!25Weekly Cups (Aug 3-9): Protoss get shut out7RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-2212Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-611
StarCraft 2
General
GSTL Returns in 2026! SC4ALL: II Talent Announcement! Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Protoss AoE skill expression Weekly Cups (Aug 3-9): Protoss get shut out
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) 2026 KungFu Cup Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 538 Media Blackout The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion ASL22 General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Best Games Kespa era StarCraft 64 is coming to Philly at SC4ALL II
Tourneys
Escore Tournament - Season 3 Small VOD Thread 2.0 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-6
Strategy
Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates Any training maps people recommend? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread The Letting Off Steam Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Chinese Gen Z: Between Dream…
TrAiDoS
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Hello guys!
LIN1s
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 4638 users

Ruthless PvZ Build for New Rush Maps (Season 3 GM) - Page 7

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 5 6 7 8 9 12 Next All
ForeverSleep
Profile Joined April 2011
Canada920 Posts
July 22 2011 01:58 GMT
#121
On July 22 2011 09:45 Probe1 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 18 2011 04:32 iamke55 wrote:
On July 18 2011 02:10 laharl23 wrote:
i dont like builds where its "if they scout you, you lose"

any top top zerg who actively scouts and knows this is coming can defend.

but for lower leagues you will win 95% of the time most likely.

On July 18 2011 02:39 UmiNotsuki wrote:
I always love it when people say "this is safe against Zerg because it looks like a 3 gate expand." As in, no Zerg players are ever aggressive against 3 gate expand? I am, every game, and if there was a 7:00 12 unit push coming my way I'd probably wonder why my opponent thought that would work as I clean up the push with a single attack-move and proceed to murder them. Pretending to be vulnerable is not a good way to make a Zerg player build drones!


I love it when strategy forum heroes claim every build won't work against them or anyone good. How do you explain this?
[image loading]

A design flaw in zerg scouting.

I stand by, this build has no intrinsic special trait to it. It comes down to scouting it.


Like 4 gate...
Like roach allin...
like marine banshee tank allin...
Like every single build in starcraft, when I come to think of it, right?
"Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans" - John Lennon
Meff
Profile Joined June 2010
Italy287 Posts
July 22 2011 17:21 GMT
#122
Ehm... no. Not every single build in SC2 translates to a direct loss if scouted.

(not that the proposed one necessarily does so, but I think that this was the point that Probe1 was trying to make)
Grokken
Profile Joined June 2010
Sweden245 Posts
July 22 2011 17:57 GMT
#123
I don't think people understands exactly how hard this is to scout as a zerg. On a lot of maps you cannot get an overlord in place to sacrifice, and you cant really get past the wall in either. The only way of scouting it is if you suicide your lings to see if there is an expansion up, which is not very good if it is a 3 gate expand. It's of course not too strong if scouted, but the strength of the build is that it is very hard to scout, so I definitely think it's a viable build
MMXMoto-X17
Profile Joined July 2011
Barbados23 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-22 19:01:31
July 22 2011 18:25 GMT
#124
this isn't new, nor did he invent it, considering its not even that hard to invent, and i bet a lot of people just throw down 5 gates and attack after +20 seconds warpgate. Even me occasionally.
SethDrone
Profile Joined September 2010
United States51 Posts
July 22 2011 18:34 GMT
#125
Dense people will be dense.

The thread does not say new build, it says PvZ build for new maps. It is a solid guide that reiterates a viable strat and how it might be benficial with the impending changes.

All of the; "it's been done before" and "it's scoutable" replies are about as useful as the "I'm at work right now but...." posts.
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 25 2011 03:40 GMT
#126
I've been doing this on a practice account in PvT and PvT. I went 121/48 (But the MMR was silver at the start)
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Jaxtyk
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States600 Posts
July 25 2011 04:00 GMT
#127
its a 5 gate that gets shut down by scouting. No zerg should assume that a protoss is going to expand just because he has a lot of sentries ._.
To tell the truth....I could beat anyone in the world.
fullmetalcatz
Profile Joined February 2011
United States3 Posts
July 25 2011 04:10 GMT
#128
this seems like an awesome build
day9 made me do it
Universum
Profile Joined January 2011
Canada192 Posts
July 25 2011 04:14 GMT
#129
Hey Tang,

Can you please upload the replay from this game you casted, because stealing the BO for analysis from a video on youtube isn't exactly accurate (Chronoboosts go where, Supply list etc...)

Thank You
You often learn more from losing than winning. Don't rage, it's a game!
mothergoose729
Profile Joined December 2010
United States666 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-25 04:30:52
July 25 2011 04:26 GMT
#130
I think a big tell, especially for high level zergs is the late nexus. I am no pro, but I always know something is up with a protoss if they don't expand by six minutes, so by seven minutes I would be considering the options. I am pretty sure a really good player like sheth or sen who are really good at counting sentries would be able to figure this out. Certainly a guy like nestea.

Some simple logic can be used here... if protoss has the maximum number of sentries possible but no nexus... then they aren't saving gas for something like DTs and they are saving minerals for... well probably gateways. Simpler said then done ofc. My point being is that it is scoutable in that sense. The build could be stronger if the protoss hides some of its units maybe.

I won't claim to know better then kiwikaki, but I think this build has a skill cap somewhere around progamer, and I imagine as the game matures and zergs on the ladder all around start to get better the competitiveness of rushes like this will eventually start to diminish.
Felo
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Germany392 Posts
July 25 2011 09:00 GMT
#131
On July 25 2011 13:14 Universum wrote:
Hey Tang,

Can you please upload the replay from this game you casted, because stealing the BO for analysis from a video on youtube isn't exactly accurate (Chronoboosts go where, Supply list etc...)

Thank You


He can't, because he wants you to subscribe to his channel Similar to big tournaments that don't want to give out replays because they rely on you seeing their VoDs for Ads or even buy a season ticket.

Regarding the build: this game isn't that representive because you actually haven't scouted a thing - if you had seen him move out with that, then you would have been able to put up enough spines and roaches.

This wouldn't make him lose the game but it would prolong the game as he would be forced to pull back and expand - so you would enter the mid game on nearly even footing because you invested a lot in defense and he invested a lot in his attack force, the concept is similar to Losiras Roach/Ling-Attack that can end the game against an enemy that misses whats going on (or failmicros) but it can also transition nicely into a regular game.

I was actually using this build for 10 or so games against Zergs ranging from High Masters Guys to Dimaga (Who expected it btw as soon as I wasn't there with my nexus at ~06:30 and putted up crawlers immediatly - there won't be air or dts coming with that much gas tied up in the sentry count so he can prepare for an ground attack).

Its a good build but you need to know when to stop and just macro up ^^

I'm sticking with Forge-FE on Maps that allow it, 3Gate-Sentry-Expand on Maps that don't allow it and 3Gate-Stargate-Expand on close position - theres no use for that build in my roster but if you feel agressive and want to practice your Force Fields than this build is definitely a good idea.
EU GML P | Check my Stream (with commentary!) -> www.twitch.tv/xFelo
syno
Profile Joined March 2011
Switzerland150 Posts
July 25 2011 09:24 GMT
#132
On July 18 2011 03:37 Shifft wrote:
I'm pretty sure I remember Whitera doing this build in beta, especially on Shakuras.

Shakuras in the beta? ;-)
Good Brain
michaelhasanalias
Profile Joined May 2010
Korea (South)1231 Posts
July 25 2011 10:57 GMT
#133
While I don't think I could beat kiwikaki either, a couple things bother me here in this game:

1) Lack of lings. I never see any lings die in this game, which to me denotes you didn't make any. Maybe this is wrong, but since I can't see a replay and only kiwi's perspective of a youtube vid, then I can't say for sure. It looks like you have no lings at either tower and no lings outside his base for the duration of the game.

2) Overlord scouting I think wouldn't really reveal much. It looks to me at least that a smart base layout for this build would "hide" 2 gates on either side of the base, so that an OL sac will leave feeling satisfied, given the sentry count + 2gates. So while I don't see you sac an OL, I don't think it changes this build or reaction.

3) 3-gate expand timing if I'm not mistaken should be around 6:15-6:30. He doesn't clear his natural until ~6:40, and there's no probe below his ramp, which means he wouldn't drop his nexus until ~6:50 minimum, very late for 3-gate sentry expand. (On a minor note, it's highly clever of him to put 2 sentry warp in at the bottom of ramp and 2 sentry warp in at the top so that even if yo uscout his ramp you can't see that he warped in 4 sentries at once, little very clever tactic by kiwi)

4) I think taking the third before he takes his natural is a very questionable move. By 7 minutes you know this is coming because your natural OL should see no expo, and you can see his force (which is too large for 3gates) is revealed on the bottom tower. This gives you exactly 45 seconds to produce AND get below your ramp every unit you hope to use to defend this push.

5) I barely played any 1v1 this season but when I played in season 1, the standard defense for zerg against a 3-gate sentry push is double spine and some speedlings, with MAYBE a few roaches. Because roaches are easily FF'd away, it's better to use lings to surround from behind once in range of spines. Is there a reason you chose pure roach to defend this?



In an ideal situation, I see a zerg doing the following things differently, and I'm not sure how it might change the outcome:


1) OL sac. This SHOULDN'T reveal anything due to how he has his gates split, since they are on opposite sides of the base. Still, I'd expect to see this even though it doesn't change anything

2) No 3rd until he takes his natural. If he then cancels, you can also cancel. Going +2 bases against a Protoss who has yet to expand is overly greedy. Sheth has an awesome article on TL about how far ahead you can be economically and survive an all-in at time X in the game. (Sorry I don't have a link available.)

3) Ling outside his ramp, ling hiding behind his natural, lings at both towers. For 4 lings, you make it difficult for him to completely hide what he's doing. While you don't see the 5 gates, and the sentry count, while high, is very difficult to be suspicious of... you CAN clearly see the lack of pylon, natural probe or very late nexus. All 3 of these should tell you to be careful.

4) 2 spine crawlers. I've always seen the "standard" hold of 3-gate sentry expand push to be double spine and some speedlings. It only takes 3 shots + 1 tap to kill a sentry. You can micro the spines to attack only the sentries. In this case I'd drop 2 additional spines for a total of 4, and I'd start those 2 spines at 7 minutes when there's no natural + this large force revealed at the xel naga. If you "overreact" it only costs you 50-75 minerals between cancels and lost mining time.




This is clearly a strong build built on deception, but I don't feel like it's overly powerful. Kiwikaki's execution is flawless, and I'm sure he's having great success with this on ladder because of the build's surprise and its quality of execution. That said, there are still tell-tale signs that you can react to in time, and while I can't comment with specific regard to other matches he's done this to, I feel like there's a good chance most players are lazily reacting to what looks like a 3-gate sentry expand to the untrained eye, and then due to greed lack the necessary defense. You hint at this in your video, and I think this is probably the other reason this build is working so well for him.

Also I PM'd you with some personal comments not germane to the thread.
KR NsPMichael.805 | AM Michael.2640 | SEA Michael.523 | 엔에스피 New Star Players
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 25 2011 19:55 GMT
#134
I made a lot of cuts to do a 3hatch push, like I said. Besides, this isn't a zerg tutorial.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
silverhand
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States91 Posts
July 26 2011 04:19 GMT
#135
Just wanted to thank the OP for this thread. I'm silver, but have been playing all gold players since the ladder was locked (hoping to get promoted in season 3) and PvZ has been my weakest matchup. I prefer aggressive builds and most of the PvZ builds I find are either blatantly passive, or passive and feign aggression. This one feigns passivity and provides aggression. While I can't speak for the masters level and up (although I plan to try this in my Geforce ProAm matches against some master zergs this week) yet I can confidently state against gold players that are even aggressive with roaches/lings, I'm winning (unless I screw up my FF's which is hard to do with this many sentries).

I've been able to deny scouting so far and my biggest problem with the original 3gate sentry expand was that I never had enough unit producing structures when the zerg hit my expansion to defend. I tried MC's FFE into Stargate, but quite frankly my micro isn't good enough with phoenix to pull it off more than 50% of the time. With this build, I can warp in 5 zealots if I see a push coming and easily defend it with proper FF's.

It's more all-in than I like my aggression to be, but once I can beef up my macro/micro skills to be able to handle an MC-style stargate build, this will still be a great build to keep in my PvZ arsenal.

Thanks again!
/me ponders
TheAntZ
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Israel6248 Posts
July 26 2011 05:24 GMT
#136
On July 26 2011 04:55 TangSC wrote:
I made a lot of cuts to do a 3hatch push, like I said. Besides, this isn't a zerg tutorial.


Hey Tang, are you going to ignore these posts?


On July 25 2011 13:14 Universum wrote:
Hey Tang,

Can you please upload the replay from this game you casted, because stealing the BO for analysis from a video on youtube isn't exactly accurate (Chronoboosts go where, Supply list etc...)

Thank You


On July 25 2011 18:00 Felo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 25 2011 13:14 Universum wrote:
Hey Tang,

Can you please upload the replay from this game you casted, because stealing the BO for analysis from a video on youtube isn't exactly accurate (Chronoboosts go where, Supply list etc...)

Thank You


He can't, because he wants you to subscribe to his channel Similar to big tournaments that don't want to give out replays because they rely on you seeing their VoDs for Ads or even buy a season ticket.

43084 | Honeybadger: "So july, you're in the GSL finals. How do you feel?!" ~ July: "HUNGRY."
DiAblo,cL
Profile Joined June 2011
Chile6 Posts
July 26 2011 05:49 GMT
#137
this isnt a Kiwikaki built, i saw this at IEM to STsquirtle, in the match vs MooN,... gimme a break,
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 26 2011 21:01 GMT
#138
Well KiWi uses it frequently with great success so it's still worth learning.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Zedoych
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada57 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-26 21:39:04
July 26 2011 21:20 GMT
#139
It seems to me that your scouting was just far too infrequent. no expo at 6:30 should have been nonstop unit production like you said; as well as spines. Very well timed push from Kiwi though. Once a toss has that many units and unlimited forcefielding of the ramp the game is over I personally have not come across this build before, but I'll certainly keep the possibility of it in the back of my mind when I scout a 3 gate expo.

EDIT:
Haha I say I've never seen it before and the first game I play after reading this post someone does this exact build to me. I managed to get rid of the proxies and the probe early enough however. Thank god for that.
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 27 2011 14:06 GMT
#140
Yeah defending this as zerg really comes down to:

1) Scouting: the expansion between the 6:15-6:45 mark, holding the xel-naga towers, using a few zerglings to scour every nook and cranny potentially hiding a pylon.
2) Responding: As soon as somethings up at 6:30, a big round of roaches and 2-3 spines should be your first goal. I'm debating whether making lings would be worth it to defend; considering the amount of zealot/sentry, spines and roaches may be best. Maybe reinforcing with lings once the toss army is at your natural, since they build faster.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Prev 1 5 6 7 8 9 12 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 10h 11m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
NeuroSwarm 195
ViBE139
ProTech100
StarCraft: Brood War
Mong 114
League of Legends
Doublelift7133
Counter-Strike
summit1g7372
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King168
Other Games
C9.Mang0279
ToD238
ROOTCatZ56
Trikslyr53
PPMD17
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick757
[ Show 10 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• RyuSc2 18
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• imaqtpie1277
Upcoming Events
CranKy Ducklings
10h 11m
PiG Sty Festival
12h 11m
herO vs Krystianer
Solar vs Cure
IPSL
16h 11m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 10h
PiG Sty Festival
1d 12h
Maru vs Shameless
Reynor vs TriGGeR
IPSL
1d 16h
OSC
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
2 days
Rush vs Hm
Bisu vs Shuttle
WardiTV Weekly
2 days
The Patches Monday
2 days
[ Show More ]
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Sharp vs Shinee
Action vs Shine
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
BeSt vs Paralyze
Jaedong vs Speed
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
KCM Race Survival
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
PiG Sty Festival
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-08-13
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
Acropolis #5
Escore Tournament S3: W7
RSL Revival: Season 6
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Escore Tournament S3: W8
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
META DYMY #4
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 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.