Habitation Station was the runner up of the Team Liquid Map Contest. This map features a close by air structure similar to Newkirk Precinct and an easy to secure natural; however, additional bases are harder to secure. The gold base is the maps standout feature and was a central point of contention in this game. On one side of the map we had Bomber, a player known for his monster macro mechanics and pristine army control; on the other side there was Scarlett, a player with a ZvT style all her own revolving around mutalisks and creep spread. A heated rivalry started between these two players during the WCS Season 2 finals: when these players clash, it always produces spectacular games to watch. Kicking off with unorthodox openers, this game went on to be one of the most memorable games of 2013.
StarTale Bomber vs Acer Scarlett RO8, Match 3. From Red Bull Battle Grounds New York 2013 Replay | VOD
Before we get into the game analysis, let's take a look at the features of this map:
Easy to take natural expansion;
A relatively easy to take adjacent 3rd base;
A riskier to take gold base;
Short by air distance to opposing bases;
Lots of choke points.
Given that this is a smaller map, the Terran player has many options: they can do a proxy two rax and try to get bunkers up at the Zerg natural; they can do a hellion/banshee build due to how long it takes for creep to spread; or they can just go the standard 4M and apply more pressure later. This map, however, does not leave the Zerg many options. Due to the high amount of choke points, they can’t be aggressive with Zergling/Baneling and have to rely on Mutalisks to do any sort of harassment.
Openings (0:00-5:00)
Bomber - 12/14 Proxy Rax
Bomber opened this game with proxy play. Given the map, this was not a bad a choice. With a relatively short rush distance -- and only two spawn points -- it's quite possible to complete some bunkers at the Zerg natural and rally marines for constant pressure. Unluckily for Bomber, he was greeted with early zerglings when he arrived at Scarlett's natural and had to abandon his aggression. He was only able to squeeze out a total of five marines before having to float his barracks back to the main. Meanwhile, he finished walling off with a CC and got up a bunker for extra defense.
The ever fragile wall.
Scarlett - 14/14 Speedling
Scarlett chose to open with speedling expand. This build is designed to counter any potential cheeses from Terran while giving plenty of transition options to Zerg. That said, this build is very unorthodox and hasn't been a "standard" opener since early WoL. She confirmed there would be some sort of proxy play when her overlord scouted no wall off and no expansion. The option to go for a baneling bust was open, but she decided to cancel the nest and instead start an expansion. She had lings in Bomber's base, a limited amount of gas for banelings, and Bomber already had a decent wall coming up with a couple of bunkers, so a one base baneling bust wasn't guaranteed to do game ending damage. Additionally, Scarlett always prefers going for long macro games whenever possible.
Progression to the mid game (5:00-13:00)
Bomber - 3CC into 4M
With Bomber proxying the barracks and then floating them back to his base, he saved his minerals and decided to go into the standard the 3CC opening. This is a great map for the quick three base style because the watchtower is easily securable. Since Scarlett took the gold base, the watchtower gives vision of both the high ground at the gold base and the choke point leading up to the watchtower, which gives vision of a potential runby path. This vision gives an advantage in engagements as it forces Zergs to attack through the choke point making any flanks impossible. Bomber continued with the traditional 4M opening by adding his factory, engineering bays, 1/1 upgrades, starport, and stimpack/combat shields. With hellion production only starting at 7:55, he wasn't able to scout the base of Scarlett and had no idea that she was rushing for mutas off 2 bases. Despite being caught off guard, Bomber had enough marines to hold off the mutas and eventually added turrets to help defend.
Scarlett - Mutalisk Harass
Scarlett rushed out her mutalisks before even starting zergling upgrades. As a result of Bomber's proxied barracks, he was set back on his build and Scarlett planned to use the mutalisks to get damage done early: reducing the SCV count, picking off stray buildings or addons, as well as any straggling marines. The inherent risk of the fast muta play while Bomber powers is, of course, that she must do a good amount of damage to recover her investment. She also intended to keep Bomber pinned while increasing her drone count and establishing her other bases. She dropped the spire at 7:15 and started six mutalisks with +1 air weapons as soon as it finished. While her spire was building, she established her third base at the gold and saturated it.
One thing to note was Scarlett's lack of gas income. After cancelling the baneling nest, she forgot to put additional drones into the 2nd gas in her main base, leaving only 1 drone in that gas geyser. Furthermore, one of thegases in her natural only had two drones, and for a short time both geysers at her gold base were also undersaturated with only two drones. This led to an imbalanced income; she had a large amount of minerals but almost no gas to spend.
When the mutalisks finished, she sent them to Bomber's base and started to harass the mineral lines, killing off six SCVs and a handful of marines. She also built around 30 zerglings expecting some hellion harass. When the hellions never came, she used them aggressively and tried to pick off even more SCVs in the natural together with the inital batch of mutas; however this move didn't get much done. Due to going mutalisks first, her baneling nest was very late and her 1/1 upgrades are only starting when Bomber's 1/1 was nearly done.
Mutalisk raid Bomber's mineral line.
The Parade Push (13:00-28:00)
Bomber - Three Base Aggression
After Bomber's 1/1 finished, he goes for the push out and lays siege to Scarlett's gold base. Instead of clearing creep between Scarlett's natural and gold base, he decided to do some fancy drop play on the high ground behind the gold minerals. Ironically, this drop play gave Scarlett enough time to finish her upgrades and get into a better defensive position. By clearing the creep instead of doing the drops, Bomber could have been able to establish a much better position for when his upgrades finished later on.
Rather than taking the third base at the gold, Bomber decided to take it at the adjacent expansion to his natural, which is much further away from Scarlett's base. As such, it would have allowed him more time to recover if his push got knocked back. Another benefit of this base is that blue minerals have a longer lifespan than a gold base. By taking this base, Bomber must accept that it is out of the way of his reinforcement path and can be abused by runbys. He continued to make non-stop 4M while cutting SCV production entirely at 59 and maintained his upgrade lead over Scarlett, essentially deciding to finish the game with a 3 base semi all-in.
His main base eventually ran out of minerals, so he was forced to float his OC over to the gold base. Due to his low SCV count, he chose to pull almost all his SCVs off gas to maximise his mineral income and invested every resource into marines. This move trades sustainability for damage output: he had more marines to get something done quickly, but they could have died much faster; again, Bomber's plan at this point was to get the game over with as quickly as possible. He was relying on Scarlett not being able to hold on against the endless pressure of the Terran parade push. The medivac count was already low, and when Scarlett was eventually able to pick off the last of them, Bomber was left with only lethal but fragile marines.
Baneling runby
Scarlett - Muta/ling/bling
After the Muta harassment, Scarlett continued to go with the standard Zerg macro play by adding a fourth base adjacent to her natural. She also positioned herself defensively to face the Terran's impending 1/1 and medivac push. Scarlett started to power the creep spread heavily as is her style, began researching baneling speed, and morphed some defensive banelings as well. She did a great job of not overreacting to the drop play behind her gold mineral base, picked off a decent amount of bio, and evenly traded with the Terran army.
While all this was going on, Scarlett was able to sneak an army around the map and massacred the mineral line at Bomber's exposed third base. Scarlett's gold base does eventually fall, but when it did, it was already nearly mined out and additional bases were on the way. Scarlett continued to send in ling runbys to the third of Bomber while increasing her own drone count. Scarlett was now able to get aggressive with the mutalisks again. She cut into the reinforcement line of the marines and picked off a good number of them. She then moved on to pick off SCVs in the gold mineral line. Eventually though, Bomber was able to out-muscle Scarlett and killed all the expansions save her fourth base.
Low Economy (28:00-34:00)
Bomber - Marines, Marines, Marines
Now fully committed to a three base all-in, Bomber continued to pump out marines and tried to land the killing blow. However, without medivac support the marines died easily to a drone pull. He also found his mineral line being assaulted once again by mutalisks, so he was forced into pushing Scarlett's only mining base, succesfully picking it off. Bomber -- now ahead in economy -- still had the gold base mining while Scarlett was forced to long distance mine. Unfortunately, by committing to the attack on the fourth he was caught out of position and lost his third orbital together with most of his gold base. Bomber decided to mine out the rest of the gold base and make one final push to end the game.
Mutas picking off the 3rd OC
Scarlett - Burrowed Banelings
Despite having a massive amount of drones, Scarlett was down to only a single mining base. With the endless stream of marines assaulting the hatch, she called on some drones to aid in the defense, and barely held on. She was able however to retain a solid amount of mutalisks while keeping this final base alive. During this time, Scarlett bought enough time to morph some banelings to hold off the next push. When this push eventually came, Bomber attacked with no medivacs and the marines disappeared to the banelings. Meanwhile, she continued counterattacking with zerglings while using her mutalisks to pick off SCVs at the gold base. Unfortunately for Scarlett, Bomber recognized this timing where her units were out of position and sniped the last mining base. Due to her immaculate creep spread, Scarlett saw the majority of Bomber's army and took this opportunity to trade yet another blow with Bomber, killing his third orbital. She also continued to be active with the flock of mutas, ravaging the gold base, killing off all of the marines and leaving all but five SCVs. She was even able to get into the main base of Bomber, sniping structures to the best of her ability.
Burrowed Banelings (34:00-end game)
Scarlett used her flawless muta micro to keep Bomber pinned to his base while the crucial burrow upgrade finished. When Bomber moved out with his massive marine ball, he lifted his orbital -- meaning no scans available -- and fell into a baneling trap which killed almost half of the active marines. Scarlett used this opportunity to pick off one of the two remaining orbitals. At this point, the game was finally hers.
Marines watch their brothers die
The utility of burrowed banelings cannot be understated; especially, in the (albeit extreme) situation exemplified by this game between Scarlett and Bomber. One MULE can produce around 6 marines -- and since Bomber was down to a single orbital -- at the end of the game he can only make an extra six marines every 90 seconds. The combination of a super low SCV count, burrow from Scarlett, and no ravens from Bomber forced him into ditching his MULE income for scans, halting all marine production. It only takes two burrowed banelings to kill a marine; and in an ideal situation, you can kill 30+ marines if they are clumped. There is always the potential for burrowed banelings, and this game was decided by it. In the final moments of the game, Bomber dropped his last scan and saw nothing. He eventually got baited into the final baneling bomb: GG.
First I just read Scarlett Breaking Down and had a cold pit in my stomach.
One thing I noticed about Bomber is how long he stays on three CCs vs zerg, it's like a prolonged form of all in that is very powerful, but will fizzle out once the main starts drying out and there is a massive lull in aggression as he either falls behind in production or tries to take a new base. I think Scarlett's patient, very clean ZvT is well suited to combat this.
but if bomber would have had the balls to go for the "basetrade" before the burrow upgrade finishied, he would have easily won.
If Scarlett had bane-busted five minutes into the game it probably would have ended there. Mistakes happen, opportunities are missed. The perfect game will never happen.
but if bomber would have had the balls to go for the "basetrade" before the burrow upgrade finishied, he would have easily won.
If Scarlett had bane-busted five minutes into the game it probably would have ended there. Mistakes happen, opportunities are missed. The perfect game will never happen.
Such a fun game. Those last baneling hits were so well done. Instead of some Zerg who just set up traps, Scarlett set up traps then used army movement to force the army into the banelings.
I have the VoD saved on my PC and have probably watched the whole game 10+ times. I've also probably watched the final ~3minutes a good 50 times now haha. Scrappy game but scrappy games are usually the most interesting to watch.
Plus, it was the first Tournament that gave Habitation Station a shot and now look how far it's come. Brings a tear to my eye!
The Terran Parade Push is phenomenally scary - just rallying Marines across the map with that level of macro is enough to almost beat all of muta/ling/bling.
On January 05 2014 06:54 SoniC_eu wrote: Mm love reading these recaps Sit with food / tea and just enjoy the writing like a novel hehe
100% agree. I just miss GSL, when there would be new ones every morning, for me to enjoy with my coffee at work
New ones like this? Man the work we put into these to have one every morning? O.O If you guys really like and want to see more like this I would suggest offering to volunteer to help us get more out
I really loveeeeeee gold base on this map. Actually I really miss gold base in general, I know that the whole design is taken out because it was just too imbalanced on some maps for some matchups. but if the game goes onto the longer stages, there are so much action centered around the gold base that just really make things even more intense.
And the beginning of the game could've been analyzed a lot more. Any masters players can point out 15 different outcomes from how the proxy rax got spotted to scarletts decison to cancwl bane nest. It was gone over a bit quickly
On January 06 2014 02:43 Dontkillme wrote: This game made me mad as a few burrowed banelings aka luck determined the win for Scarlett, needless to say it was a pretty good game
Not at all in this scenario. Scarlett made the smart decision to get burrow at a point in the game where Bomber's economy was hanging by a thread aka mules. Thus reducing any ability to scan. Throw in Scarlett's godly creep spread for sight and the fact that Bomber had to relocate his base after he mined out the gold and he was just a fly in Scarlett's web at that point.
I was really disappointed with Bomber's performance at Red Bull Battlegrounds. I really believed that Bomber could win, but when he lost a game to Scarlett, it all fell down
On January 06 2014 07:15 pms wrote: I LOLed... Aren't you guys overrating this match quite a bit? I guess baneling busts are all what it takes to please you :D
On January 06 2014 07:15 pms wrote: I LOLed... Aren't you guys overrating this match quite a bit? I guess baneling busts are all what it takes to please you :D
Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
At the time they probably seemed like luck, but watch the vod and you'll see that she pulled bombers army into the banelings. It was an excellent strategic move on her part, and so very very clutch.
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
About ~10 seconds before, Bomber scanned the direct spot that Scarlett burrowed her first banelings, she instead pretended to run away with her entire army because bomber didn't know she had burrow. Once the scan wore out she moved her two banelings back towards the watchtower and proceeded to "play dumb" (aka bait) with her mutas to get the marines to go ontop of the banelings. Since Bomber just scanned recently he probably assumed everything was 100% safe.
On January 06 2014 07:15 pms wrote: I LOLed... Aren't you guys overrating this match quite a bit? I guess baneling busts are all what it takes to please you :D
Do you know what a baneling bust is?
My bad, I meant baneling traps, naturally.
I watched this game live. I think that people get crazy about it just because of the baneling traps. Personally, I don't think it's a big deal, it's just flashy. IMHO the game is overhyped on TL.net.
On January 06 2014 07:15 pms wrote: I LOLed... Aren't you guys overrating this match quite a bit? I guess baneling busts are all what it takes to please you :D
Do you know what a baneling bust is?
My bad, I meant baneling traps, naturally.
I watched this game live. I think that people get crazy about it just because of these baneling traps, or whatever you call it. Personally, I don't think it's a big deal, it's just flashy. IMHO the game is overhyped on TL.net.
Well, I can't speak for everyone, but what got me excited (also watching live) were the near-constant marginal judgement calls. Often the right thing to do is obvious from a spectator's perspective. The game settles into a recognisable pattern, the players either get the next step right or the game ends (barring some colossal reciprocal mistake). In this game, everything was a marginal call. Proxy vs blind speedling. Aborted retaliatory bust. Muta-heavy opening in before the parade push that would have smashed it. Judging when to risk splitting banelings or mutas away from defence to hit expansions, which had to happen to soften the 3-base all-in. Judging when and how to defend the third and when to abandon it, judging when to commit to low-econ and killing orbitals rather than trying to regroup and mass up. Every single decision was heart-in-mouth time.
Scarlett constantly dangled the possibility of victory in front of Bomber's nose while goading him with harassment. She was always one mismicroed muta flock or one slow round of banelings away from losing - and Bomber knew it. At the same time, the constant economic damage he was taking kept the prospect of backing off to muster a truly overwhelming push just out of reach. The combination meant Bomber always felt he had to keep attacking, even as his medivacs dwindled, which is what Scarlett needed him to do. But this finessing of her opponent came at tremendous cost to Scarlett's economy. An unstoppable deathball was no more an option for her than it was for Bomber. What was awesome about the unscannable baneling mines that won the game was that only unscannable baneling mines could have won the game.
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
Yeah it's not like there was a crazy 35 minute game against a world class player on a pretty hard map before that or anything. Just a couple of lucky bane bombs.
This game was so low econ even with Gold Base it seemed hahaha The fact that Scarlett Did burrow those banelings in bombers face / Undercover of the other units was just So quick thinking on her feet that if she just tried engaging once they came down the ramp bomber would have won the True definition of Mind > Matter and beautiful micro...... IE Making the most of the units you have....
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
About ~10 seconds before, Bomber scanned the direct spot that Scarlett burrowed her first banelings, she instead pretended to run away with her entire army because bomber didn't know she had burrow. Once the scan wore out she moved her two banelings back towards the watchtower and proceeded to "play dumb" (aka bait) with her mutas to get the marines to go ontop of the banelings. Since Bomber just scanned recently he probably assumed everything was 100% safe.
Hardly luck...
Burrowed banelings are so gimmicky that I have a hard time liking games that are won by them. Same with baneling busts, actually.
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
About ~10 seconds before, Bomber scanned the direct spot that Scarlett burrowed her first banelings, she instead pretended to run away with her entire army because bomber didn't know she had burrow. Once the scan wore out she moved her two banelings back towards the watchtower and proceeded to "play dumb" (aka bait) with her mutas to get the marines to go ontop of the banelings. Since Bomber just scanned recently he probably assumed everything was 100% safe.
Hardly luck...
Burrowed banelings are so gimmicky that I have a hard time liking games that are won by them. Same with baneling busts, actually.
Son... I am disappoint... Anyone want to go into the long tedious debate as to the definition of 'gimmicky' and why this was not a 'gimmick'
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
About ~10 seconds before, Bomber scanned the direct spot that Scarlett burrowed her first banelings, she instead pretended to run away with her entire army because bomber didn't know she had burrow. Once the scan wore out she moved her two banelings back towards the watchtower and proceeded to "play dumb" (aka bait) with her mutas to get the marines to go ontop of the banelings. Since Bomber just scanned recently he probably assumed everything was 100% safe.
Hardly luck...
Burrowed banelings are so gimmicky that I have a hard time liking games that are won by them. Same with baneling busts, actually.
3/3 stim marines are pretty hard to kill without banelings man.
Other comments aside, this really was a fantastic game all the way through. It wasn't the baneling trap that made it a good game. Indeed, it would have been a good game regardless of the outcome. Would to God there were more SC2 games as good as this one. And there may yet be
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
About ~10 seconds before, Bomber scanned the direct spot that Scarlett burrowed her first banelings, she instead pretended to run away with her entire army because bomber didn't know she had burrow. Once the scan wore out she moved her two banelings back towards the watchtower and proceeded to "play dumb" (aka bait) with her mutas to get the marines to go ontop of the banelings. Since Bomber just scanned recently he probably assumed everything was 100% safe.
Hardly luck...
Burrowed banelings are so gimmicky that I have a hard time liking games that are won by them. Same with baneling busts, actually.
Widow Mines are so gimmicky that I have a hard time liking games that are won by them. Same with bio drops actually.
No seriously, if 4M is a perfectly legit strategy, so is ling bling muta.
On January 06 2014 17:26 maartendq wrote: Is this that game that Scarlett won due to some lucky burrowed banelings? Winning by pure randomness shouldn't be the standard by which we judge foreigners.
About ~10 seconds before, Bomber scanned the direct spot that Scarlett burrowed her first banelings, she instead pretended to run away with her entire army because bomber didn't know she had burrow. Once the scan wore out she moved her two banelings back towards the watchtower and proceeded to "play dumb" (aka bait) with her mutas to get the marines to go ontop of the banelings. Since Bomber just scanned recently he probably assumed everything was 100% safe.
Hardly luck...
Burrowed banelings are so gimmicky that I have a hard time liking games that are won by them. Same with baneling busts, actually.
It was perhaps not emphasized enough in the article, but Scarlett's use of ultra late game, low-economy baneling landmines is pure genius and has nothing to do with gimmicks. In such low economy situations, 1) the zerg cannot afford to throw mass ling/bling at the terran and hope to overwhelm 3/3 marines with good splits and 2) terran can't freely scan because they are low on SCVs and need to use primarily MULEs to feed their economy. The combination of these two things makes baneling landmines INCREDIBLY powerful at that stage of the game. As far as the positioning goes, Scarlett lured Bomber into the first landmine with clever muta micro (though perhaps this kind of tactic looks a bit obvious sometimes) and used brilliant positioning to run Bomber over that ramp for the final blast. No luck there, no happy accidents.
While I honestly don't think that Bomber and Scarlett played at the absolute highest level mechanically and made several obvious mistakes throughout the game, it was important to note the incredible decision making made at several instances of the game. It's a little over-hyped, I agree, but there's still a lot of gold in the decision making involved here, and very little of it was a "coinflip" or "gimmick" factor.
I suggest taking a look at the replay yourself and really analyzing the decisions each player made and how they dealt with specific problems. Avoid coming to conclusions like "I guess Scarlett just made a mistake" or "Bomber just forgot to remake SCVs"; those are silly conclusions and will only lead you to dead ends in your learning. Good luck, have fun, and remember that there's always something to learn from watching a pro game (unless it's a hyvaa game :p)!
I am brand new to the forum but I did catch the game live @ Red Bull Battlegrounds in NYC. I have to say this is the best game I have seen in 10 years of playing a wide variety of RTS. The micro management was off the wall! I was also able to catch some videos @ battlegrounds that I’ll post on youtube later tonight. I’ll share the link later! I’m a protoss player but I do have to say that TvZs in my opinion are the best match up’s to watch. Even if you don’t care to watch the pros, this one is worth watching!
On January 06 2014 02:43 Dontkillme wrote: This game made me mad as a few burrowed banelings aka luck determined the win for Scarlett, needless to say it was a pretty good game
i beg to differ -Scarlett never relies on luck, she makes her own luck so to speak - and that is why she is a world class player. She won because of her awesome decision making. She understands how the game develops and she adapts instantly - she won because of her versatility.
She never does anything useless, she didn't research burrow early thinking " this may come in handy later" - only when she was absolutely convinced it would help. She's calculated, precise, never does anything randomly and that's why she wins game after game.
Last but not least , on top of that precision and versatility that she has, we must consider what's probably her most lethal weapon - her mind games. She played with Bomber's mind in a way that reminded me of Star Wars jedi knights, lol. And that's where she simply shines and has the edge that few other players in the world have.
EPT
Bomber
Replay | 
VOD
