• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 06:03
CET 12:03
KST 20:03
  • 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
$21,000 RyongYi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)1Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns6[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 103SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1822Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises3
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Starcraft 2 Zerg Coach
Tourneys
$21,000 RyongYi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) WardiTV Winter Cup WardiTV Mondays SC2 AI Tournament 2026 OSC Season 13 World Championship
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes Mutation # 504 Retribution
Brood War
General
I would like to say something about StarCraft BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Data analysis on 70 million replays
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 SLON Grand Finals – Season 2
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Awesome Games Done Quick 2026! General RTS Discussion Thread Should offensive tower rushing be viable in RTS games?
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 Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced
Blogs
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Psychological Factors That D…
TrAiDoS
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1132 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 16h 57m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SortOf 176
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 29837
Rain 1738
PianO 1715
Shuttle 1131
actioN 336
Mini 289
Light 279
Hyuk 272
Stork 268
Snow 215
[ Show more ]
BeSt 204
EffOrt 199
Killer 195
Soma 193
Hyun 143
Pusan 121
ZerO 119
Barracks 97
Sharp 88
Rush 68
Mind 62
sorry 48
NotJumperer 40
soO 37
ToSsGirL 34
JYJ 25
Noble 20
JulyZerg 17
HiyA 11
ZergMaN 10
Bale 8
ajuk12(nOOB) 5
Dota 2
Gorgc1132
XcaliburYe194
NeuroSwarm84
League of Legends
C9.Mang0424
Other Games
singsing938
ceh9697
Fuzer 295
B2W.Neo197
Sick123
XaKoH 77
MindelVK13
ZerO(Twitch)11
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick27953
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 31
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 3
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 779
League of Legends
• Jankos1488
• Lourlo774
Upcoming Events
SOOP
16h 57m
SHIN vs GuMiho
Cure vs Creator
The PondCast
22h 57m
Wardi Open
1d
Big Gabe XPERIONCRAFT
1d 1h
AI Arena Tournament
1d 8h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 22h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
IPSL
2 days
DragOn vs Sziky
Replay Cast
2 days
Wardi Open
3 days
[ Show More ]
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
4 days
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
The PondCast
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-08
WardiTV 2025
META Madness #9

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
Escore Tournament S1: W3
OSC Championship Season 13
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Rongyi Cup S3
Thunderfire SC2 All-star 2025
Big Gabe Cup #3
Nations Cup 2026
Underdog Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup
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
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
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.