• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 01:56
CEST 07:56
KST 14:56
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror2[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10
Community News
SC4ALL: II SC2 Complete Invited Player Lineup8StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026)67Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double2Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple3BSL Season 2316
StarCraft 2
General
How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? SC4ALL: II SC2 Complete Invited Player Lineup StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026) Back to SC2 after 14 years - Protoss CTRL groups? October World Ranking: herO stays #1, ByuN returns
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament 2026 GSTL Grand Finals Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) SC2 INu's Battles#21 [ 3-Days tournament ]
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 546 Catch the Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble
Brood War
General
Fantasy returning? Sagi.gg Launcher Released BW General Discussion PLAYzone Challenge - open offline tour in Prague 20-year-old Valorant player starting StarCraft
Tourneys
[ASL22] Semifinal A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 4 2v2v2v2 Tournament
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Zero
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Escaping Into Video Games: G…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8590 users

[D] Life's Ling-Centric ZvT (Winter MLG) - Page 2

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next All
MstrJinbo
Profile Joined March 2011
United States1251 Posts
March 18 2013 04:27 GMT
#21
On March 18 2013 13:18 ahw wrote:
i hope everyone copies this because delaying double ups for 45 seconds and getting an early tank out on the high ground would end this.


The whole point is to force the terran to play defensively and to drone up and expand and spread creep. So if you are rushing out that early tank, mission accomplished.
ahw
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
Canada1099 Posts
March 18 2013 04:46 GMT
#22
On March 18 2013 13:27 MstrJinbo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 18 2013 13:18 ahw wrote:
i hope everyone copies this because delaying double ups for 45 seconds and getting an early tank out on the high ground would end this.


The whole point is to force the terran to play defensively and to drone up and expand and spread creep. So if you are rushing out that early tank, mission accomplished.


i guess. but if making a single tank is going to keep me safe to 3cc while a zerg masses lings because he is copying life, that is more than ok with me
BigAsia
Profile Joined November 2012
Canada451 Posts
March 18 2013 04:55 GMT
#23
I too have faced this on the ladder after MLG and am having problems with it. I understand now why Flash doesn't build battle hellions... there are just too many damn mutas. Do you go siege tank mmm, cuz i feel like a few vipers will rip through you. If any terrans have figured out a solution let me know
YOLO
ahw
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
Canada1099 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-18 05:04:41
March 18 2013 05:00 GMT
#24
Try just one siege tank after you make 4-6 hellions, then switch the rax to the fact and start stim and mines.

If he decides to all in, pull all scvs to main and target fire tank on banes. you'll lose some scvs and depots but end up ahead in tech and have 3cc

if he doesn't decide to commit, then you've only invested in one tank, no biggie.

edit: if you are losing to the later game comp, you are probably just being outplayed.
Sc2zero7
Profile Joined February 2012
United States574 Posts
March 18 2013 07:35 GMT
#25
Copying the best zerg in the world is good and all but I doubt more than a handful of people outside life beats 14 blue flame helions with 26 lings. His control and macro are what allows his strategies to be super effective. Something to keep in mind when you copy builds.
Swordland
Profile Joined March 2013
232 Posts
March 18 2013 08:03 GMT
#26
To be honest zerglings have always been extremely strong units. People overlook this because its so cheap, weak, first combat unit for Zerg. They have great speed, can give you map control, super strong in numbers, and extremely expendable....

Perhaps in WoL people didn't realize how strong lings were, only Life lol. Now people are starting to see
GohgamX
Profile Joined April 2011
Canada1096 Posts
March 18 2013 08:05 GMT
#27
Great post, TangSC TY
Time is a great teacher, unfortunate that it kills all its pupils ...
Insoleet
Profile Joined May 2012
France1806 Posts
March 18 2013 08:28 GMT
#28
Personally i've been playing against bio mine with ling-centric style too recently. Pretty good... when your opponent doesnt adapt and doesnt add hellbats.

And it's honestly hard as hell to manage when the terran adds hellbats to his biomine army.

I think that zerg needs to transition very fast to ultra vipers infestors when the hellbats are on the battlefield. Muta ling bane just get wrecked.
KawaiiRice
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
United States2914 Posts
March 18 2013 08:33 GMT
#29
On March 18 2013 14:00 ahw wrote:
Try just one siege tank after you make 4-6 hellions, then switch the rax to the fact and start stim and mines.

If he decides to all in, pull all scvs to main and target fire tank on banes. you'll lose some scvs and depots but end up ahead in tech and have 3cc

if he doesn't decide to commit, then you've only invested in one tank, no biggie.

edit: if you are losing to the later game comp, you are probably just being outplayed.

This doesn't hard counter Life's style at all, it actually sets you behind as Terran because getting a tank that early is really bad. It was bad in WoL and it's even worse in HotS with the other options T has.

The thing is this style isn't anything new, Life's been using it since WoL and it just happens to deal with the current Terran meta about the same way it did in WoL but nobody looked at it because there was no need to. I remember writing about it in the GSL finals of him vs Mvp. It definitely relies on micro but it's so insanely cost inefficient/larva inefficient and micro oriented that only high level players would be able to copy it.
@KawaiiRiceLighT
Skytt
Profile Joined June 2011
Scotland333 Posts
March 18 2013 08:39 GMT
#30
On March 18 2013 17:03 Swordland wrote:
To be honest zerglings have always been extremely strong units. People overlook this because its so cheap, weak, first combat unit for Zerg. They have great speed, can give you map control, super strong in numbers, and extremely expendable....

Perhaps in WoL people didn't realize how strong lings were, only Life lol. Now people are starting to see


3/3 Adrenal lings have the highest dps in the game on a per supply basis. I don't think we've seen as many because Zergs have been really greedy up until HotS and now that there is more early-game harass it makes more sense to get a stable two bases before commiting to further expansions.

The main thing I took from Life's play was how he never took any early game damage from drops, it was only once the games pace had picked up and his attention was in other places that he was even taking damage. I guess that happens when you make mutas, spores and spread overlords, who'd have thought...
iyasq8
Profile Joined December 2012
113 Posts
March 18 2013 08:41 GMT
#31
i dnt think life discovered anything new in the metagame its just that he has better micro and multitasking than any one else. he has been playing with his aggressive style since wol, i cant believe some ppl used to call him a patch zerg.
Piece
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-18 08:41:54
March 18 2013 08:41 GMT
#32
On March 18 2013 17:33 KawaiiRice wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 18 2013 14:00 ahw wrote:
Try just one siege tank after you make 4-6 hellions, then switch the rax to the fact and start stim and mines.

If he decides to all in, pull all scvs to main and target fire tank on banes. you'll lose some scvs and depots but end up ahead in tech and have 3cc

if he doesn't decide to commit, then you've only invested in one tank, no biggie.

edit: if you are losing to the later game comp, you are probably just being outplayed.

This doesn't hard counter Life's style at all, it actually sets you behind as Terran because getting a tank that early is really bad. It was bad in WoL and it's even worse in HotS with the other options T has.

The thing is this style isn't anything new, Life's been using it since WoL and it just happens to deal with the current Terran meta about the same way it did in WoL but nobody looked at it because there was no need to. I remember writing about it in the GSL finals of him vs Mvp. It definitely relies on micro but it's so insanely cost inefficient/larva inefficient and micro oriented that only high level players would be able to copy it.


And even then most high level zergs fail at it. I remember lots of korean zergs in interviews asked/mentioned life style how they tried it and they just didn't understand how it works for life because they get crushed doing it which is why you don't see korean zergs or pro zergs in general copying it.

When I think of something else, something will go here
Shikyo
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Finland33997 Posts
March 18 2013 08:42 GMT
#33
I definitely don't believe the speedbane followup is an allin at all. For example in game 1 against Polt it got defended really well and he ended up being only slightly behind, still winning the game with mutalingbane. I call it a pressurebuild but regardless of what one calls it, it's not a sure loss or even a huge disadvantage even if it gets defended.
League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
March 18 2013 15:26 GMT
#34
Lowko did a nice little video on this style for anyone interested: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=403678
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Lobotomist
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1541 Posts
March 18 2013 16:12 GMT
#35
On March 18 2013 16:35 Sc2zero7 wrote:
Copying the best zerg in the world is good and all but I doubt more than a handful of people outside life beats 14 blue flame helions with 26 lings. His control and macro are what allows his strategies to be super effective. Something to keep in mind when you copy builds.
Is there a way to watch the VODs of MLG? I'd love to see this game...
Teching to hive too quickly isn't just a risk: it's an ultrarisk
nottapro
Profile Joined August 2012
202 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-18 16:42:57
March 18 2013 16:42 GMT
#36
On March 19 2013 01:12 Lobotomist wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 18 2013 16:35 Sc2zero7 wrote:
Copying the best zerg in the world is good and all but I doubt more than a handful of people outside life beats 14 blue flame helions with 26 lings. His control and macro are what allows his strategies to be super effective. Something to keep in mind when you copy builds.
Is there a way to watch the VODs of MLG? I'd love to see this game...

http://tv.majorleaguegaming.com/events/23-2013-winter-championship#2424/2432/1

All the VOD's are free.
RMmanlots
Profile Joined May 2010
United States95 Posts
March 18 2013 17:04 GMT
#37
Hey everybody! I just wanted to drop by and add Life's philosophy behind the style.

Strengths/weaknesses
+ Lings are mathematically the most efficient unit in the game...in terms of DPS per mineral spent. Unless splash damage is incorporated, they have one of the best life per mineral spent as well. So long as you can flank (or threaten to flank), you can pretty much keep the terran's bio in his base.
+ Banelings have the best efficiency per supply in the game. Maxed banelings can take out maxed thors if clumped up.
- Ling/baneling has the worst efficiency in the game in terms of larva. If you want to build drones AND ling/baneling, you're going to need lots of hatcheries. Life wasn't really expanding super fast, he was setting up macro hatcheries that would later turn into expansions.
+ Because ling/baneling/(muta) is an efficient use of supply, Life could get more drones than the average zerg before maxing.

That was pretty much his philosophy. He kept several ctrl groups of lings active on the map to deny scouting and trying to get a flank on the hellions. His expanding (macro hatches) were extremely aggressive, which is just a winning combo. I would have liked to see more drops/burrow to keep the terran penned up in his base, but I can't argue with what life did.
Do you want to live forever?
Gtoad
Profile Joined October 2011
United States90 Posts
March 18 2013 17:17 GMT
#38
IMO I'm sad that besides widow mines, hardly any hots units made an appearance in the finals/semis. (save for MC). You could chalk it up to the short time frame the expac has been out, and that most players are more comfortable using their wol builds I guess. I honestly feel like they should've kept warhounds in the game, and maybe gave them the ability to lay mines, instead of the mine being its own odd unit. obvious balance aside it would be much more fun to watch than the current bio +mine style we are seeing.
To succeed you must fail, many many times.
Virid
Profile Joined November 2010
United States130 Posts
March 18 2013 17:56 GMT
#39
It seems like a lot of Life's success can be attributed to the Terrans' neglect of tanks in exchange for the less-predictable mines. Were there any specific games where Life had to use his style against a Terran that was using both widow mines and tanks? What are the tradeoffs for Terran to use both Tanks and Widow Mines? How did Life handle himself in those games?
bri9and
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States246 Posts
March 18 2013 17:56 GMT
#40
Trying to emulate Life's ling centric ling play is something I hope everyone starts doing.. Not because I think it would be effective, but rather because nobody else is going to be able to kill 8 blue flame hellions with 24 lings.. no matter how hard you try. Unless you have 400+ APM you are going to quickly learn that Life's ability to control lings and your ability to control lings are two very different things.
I don't have time to play with myself
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
08:00
Continental Nation League S1
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
NeuroSwarm 194
ProTech137
Nina 86
StarCraft: Brood War
Mong 209
Dewaltoss 121
Bale 38
ZergMaN 25
Noble 12
Icarus 7
League of Legends
JimRising 714
Other Games
summit1g11254
Sick225
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick877
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream35
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• practicex 35
• Letter146
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2173
League of Legends
• Rush1192
• Lourlo1190
• Stunt199
Upcoming Events
Afreeca Starleague
4h 4m
Rush vs Light
WardiTV Weekly
5h 4m
Monday Night Weeklies
10h 4m
Replay Cast
17h 4m
Afreeca Starleague
1d 4h
Soma vs Soulkey
INu's Battles
1d 5h
SHIN vs Cure
ByuN vs Zoun
PiGosaur Cup
1d 18h
The PondCast
3 days
INu's Battles
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
[ Show More ]
BSL: Ladder Tournament
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Patches Events
6 days
BSL Open Qualifier
6 days
BSL Open Qualifier
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Copium Cup

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - GSB
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
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.