EPT[D] Analysing Stephano, the God of "Foreign" Zerg - Page 7
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TwilightRain
Germany351 Posts
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BongChambers
Canada591 Posts
It's because they not only play the game... they UNDERSTAND the game. Still.. any thead with Stephano's name is win in my books  | ||
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romelako
United States373 Posts
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Mataza
Germany5364 Posts
As in, if a Protoss does an early poke against another zerg player, the zerg would build enough units to somehow survive. That is the mindset of many zergs. Stephano would build units with the goal of destroying the enemy army instead. While against regular zergs you can poke against macro heavy play with little or no risk to your units, you cannot do that against Stephano because he will make you pay for trying that. In short Stephano overdefends against early cute attacks that are thought to be risk free. Didn´t watch him as much myself, but that´s what I´ve been told and it holds up so far. | ||
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j4vz
Canada976 Posts
hes getting the best of every situations, yesterday vs HerO he got a couple roaches forcefield'd, but he still managed to snipe like 5 high energies sentries. the way he surrounds the opponent is also beastly. | ||
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AFSpeeDy
126 Posts
When i saw Stephano vs Strelok in Stim to the Win i decided to use more control groups for army than just 2.^^ I often see Stephano behind in early game, but then he engages so cost efficiency that his opponents are behind. | ||
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foutre
30 Posts
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KimJongChill
United States6429 Posts
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K3Nyy
United States1961 Posts
If it was simple timings or something like flanking, then everybody would be able to do. In my opinion, he just plays smarter than others most of the time. | ||
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foutre
30 Posts
On September 13 2012 02:11 TwilightRain wrote: Can somebody explain why Stephano seems to always have a habbit to supply block himself on purpose at 44 supply in ZvT and ZvP and then build 2 overlords instead? Don't quote me on this, but I think it's because that is his gas/tech timing so he can spend all his money on tech rather than drones. | ||
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Supert0fu
United States499 Posts
On September 13 2012 13:33 foutre wrote: Don't quote me on this, but I think it's because that is his gas/tech timing so he can spend all his money on tech rather than drones. This, At that time period Stephano usually either techs up or preparing a large round of units. Basically meaning that he does not need the free supply, because he is either teching or is going to wait until a production structure is done. | ||
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TangSC
Canada1866 Posts
On September 13 2012 02:11 TwilightRain wrote: Can somebody explain why Stephano seems to always have a habbit to supply block himself on purpose at 44 supply in ZvT and ZvP and then build 2 overlords instead? I do this too, it has to do with inject timings. When your first round of double-injects finish, using all the larva puts you right up to 44 supply THEN you build the overlords, and while you're waiting for supply you can go gas-gas-queen (or gas-gas-2drones) to keep your minerals low. It feels strange but when optimizing builds, sometimes it's actually correct to drone right up to supply block then build an overlord (but don't get in the habit of doing this all the time unless you're 100% confident in the logic behind it). | ||
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Ingsoc
59 Posts
Imo, Stephano's engagements is part of why lower level players have a hard time of understanding and copying his style. I believe his near-perfect engagements is part of the reason his playstyles/builds work as they do. For example; As we all know, Stephano rarely deviates from his ZvP build. If I tried to teach a friend of mine this style, sure, he could probably get the 3 hatches down, 2 gas @ around 6 minutes, 7 min warren + evo etc. Then comes the scouting. I think Stephano scouts considerably less than others. But I'd still tell my friend he should scout (obviously). Say my friend scouts a 2 base colossus. What does he do? He freaks out, and tries to respond "correctly"(unit counter wise), by building a spire, sacrifice roaches for infestors, mass spines, outright spam even more roach/ling or something. That, or he'll probably get roasted by the toss army. Remember, I'm talking about a low level player who probably isn't comfortable handling Colossi with roach/ling. He will delay his infestors and upgrades, army etc. This doesn't work very well. He tries to neglect adapting to the build (as this is what Stephano does a lot of times), and dies due to a poor engage. (I do not seem to have very high thoughts about this friend.) Stephano, on the other hand, knows the game a lot better. If he notices something like 2base Colossus, he'll often use this to his advantage. He doesn't have to engage the toss prematurely, but the toss has to exploit his timing, since he's on 2 base etc. So, Stephano will set up a perfect flank, engage at the right moment, and defeat the toss army with his standard composition. I believe "simple" things like these make Stephano's play hard to understand when you're an inexperienced player, when all you look for is build orders, and possibly reactions to what the player in question scouts. I'm not implying that Stephano doesn't react to stuff, he mostly just doesn't overreact, and tries to stick with his initial decision for as long as it's the best option. His decision making is something I've often been amazed by; I don't know how many games I've watched when the casters have said things like "This isn't gonna work for Stephano". Yet it does, and he proceeds to win the game. Even so, he does not seem to be afraid of experimenting, and when I've watched his stream I constantly see him do new builds. He also seems to be so focused and emotionally detached when he plays. This is, in my opinion, his other key strength to success. Just watch WCS, he won that without having slept, without his proper gear etc... tl;dr I think Stephano's confidence as a player, gamesense and perfect engagements gives him the ability to use what he feels he is the best with, without having to change his gameplan and ending up in an uncomfortable situation. He keeps the initiative and stomps everyone. He's a very active player, does not overcommit to being reactionary, and controls the game to victory. | ||
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JyB
France466 Posts
It enables a perfect defense of harassments and perfect battles setups. | ||
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TangSC
Canada1866 Posts
On September 22 2012 01:19 JyB wrote: Map and minimap awareness. It enables a perfect defense of harassments and perfect battles setups. I think this is something I may have overlooked, and definitely contributes to setting up the best possible engagements. | ||
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dreamseller
Australia914 Posts
i'm sure looking at analysis of the top poker pros could be helpful in working this out, as there are similarities in the metagames. | ||
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DKR
United Kingdom622 Posts
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CodeskyE
United States777 Posts
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TangSC
Canada1866 Posts
On September 23 2012 01:53 dreamseller wrote: hard to get technical about why one person is better at metagaming than another. it's intelligence, knowledge, philosophy of war, etc. very complex and fun topic. i'm sure looking at analysis of the top poker pros could be helpful in working this out, as there are similarities in the metagames. Haha I've considered making SC2/Poker analogies (after-all, all-ins are good in both games!) | ||
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