By no mean am I claiming to have been the original discoverer of this I am simply revealing it to the community as I have seen many players become frustrated at losing their gas and even pro-players who would appear to not know about this
The technique is simple and I use it in all of my TvZ matchs in which zerg gets a drone in my main before the wall is complete. It allows me to kill the drone early and forget about trying to take it out while it repeatedly builds the geyser which frees up my early marines. This leaves zerg woundering if you took the gas or not and denies scouting with the drone potentially, and relieves alot of frustration.
The Technique Once you think the player is going to attempt to steal your gas (in my case usually as first marine is popping)
-grab worker near unused geyser -right click on geyser and your worker will go right next to it -press hold position -done
the enemy can now not take your gas
simple and effective.
UPDATE
as covetousrat pointed out you can counter this by moving your worker out of vision of the geyser then ordering the worker to build on the geyser in the fog your worker will then push the hold position worker out of the way and build it. tested and confirmed
lovedoctor, yea its not new by any means I first saw it a couple months ago in 1v1 obs metalopolis where people would be annoying with their critters and deny players gas for a little. Didn't realise day 9 already said it but oh well its easy access for anyone who doesn't know, that search's gas steal now .
Yea its pretty awesome, like denying a drone getting to that refinery spot as terran, is a victory similar to a drone getting the hatch down on a probe.
Someone posted this for the first time on TL with the release of 1.4 (I think) although some people have confirmed it has been around since beta. I personally didn't know about it until 1.4.
Great trick. Especially important in PvZ as protoss is pretty much forced to take an early gas in that matchup, there simply isn't anything good you can do without two early gas. In PvP gas steal can be annoying too but because of the 4 gating and 1 gate FEing there are still good options when you do get gas stolen. In any other matchups you shouldn't bother about a gas steal, you'll have a unit out to simply kill the refinery before you even want to take it.
To counter this trick the drone can move out of sight from the gas and Build the Extractor. Move your Drone so you can't see the gas and proceed to build it. I head read this somewhere on TL from someone explained in the Hero vs MC game at MLG where Hero tries to double gas steal.
On October 31 2011 22:21 covetousrat wrote: To counter this trick the drone can move out of sight from the gas and Build the Extractor. Move your Drone so you can't see the gas and proceed to build it. I head read this somewhere on TL from someone explained in the Hero vs MC game at MLG where Hero tries to double gas steal.
And to counter that would be to have an scv on the drone non stop till it leaves the base or is killed.
On October 31 2011 22:21 covetousrat wrote: To counter this trick the drone can move out of sight from the gas and Build the Extractor. Move your Drone so you can't see the gas and proceed to build it. I head read this somewhere on TL from someone explained in the Hero vs MC game at MLG where Hero tries to double gas steal.
i dont see why gas stealing is even good in tvz. I dont entirely mind letting them waste a drone and wasting free minerals because there isnt really any point to get 2 gas before the very first fac created. And even if the zerg gas steals, u can do a early 1 rax CC build as a variation in response. Taking out one gas ONLY denies possibility of certain unit compo of 1-1-1, but thats honestly it.
Do this all the time, it's great if a Zerg wants to try to build an extractor to save his drone from your marine, then you put an scv near the geyser and are like "NAAAHH UHHH!!!!"
On November 01 2011 04:30 DreamRaider wrote: i dont see why gas stealing is even good in tvz. I dont entirely mind letting them waste a drone and wasting free minerals because there isnt really any point to get 2 gas before the very first fac created. And even if the zerg gas steals, u can do a early 1 rax CC build as a variation in response. Taking out one gas ONLY denies possibility of certain unit compo of 1-1-1, but thats honestly it.
The greatest difference is PvP IMO, because you can't do any 1 base 1 gas build and expanding is super riscy. So you have to attack the Gas asap, but then you can't deny proxy pylons
On November 01 2011 04:30 DreamRaider wrote: i dont see why gas stealing is even good in tvz <snip>
I would still prefer to prevent them taking it even though I don't use my second gas for ages.
I like to get 2 marines, then reactor for factory and those 2 marines don't have the DPS to take down the extractor. So it leaves them the opportunity to keep cancelling/rebuilding until they scoot of for a secondary scout. If I can prevent that and kill the drone with those marines, that would be much better.
On November 01 2011 04:30 OpTiKDream wrote: i dont see why gas stealing is even good in tvz. I dont entirely mind letting them waste a drone and wasting free minerals because there isnt really any point to get 2 gas before the very first fac created. And even if the zerg gas steals, u can do a early 1 rax CC build as a variation in response. Taking out one gas ONLY denies possibility of certain unit compo of 1-1-1, but thats honestly it.
Because you will have to use marines for about 30 seconds to break those extractors, which stops some of the early bunker pressure. Stoping 1 base banshees is only a nice plus
EPT![[image loading]](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y132/epikstyles/beforegassteal.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y132/epikstyles/aftergassteal.jpg)
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