Hello everyone, I am Corazon. I've been around TL for around 2 years, and I've always had a love for Starcraft. Although I do not play anymore, I still try to watch as many games as I can. I've always wanted to write about Starcraft, and I thought I would start with these mini-analysis of games. This isn't going to be as polished as the TL Strategy guides, but I still feel like I can give good analysis and help players out.
I believe that a lot of players are stuck at this plateau where their macro and micro are at decent levels, but there is just something holding them back on the ladder. That thing is decision making. Not all games are going to go on one script or go as planned. The ability to make the right decisions on the fly is absolutely crucial at the higher leagues. When everyone macroes as good as you and everyone can scout and micro as good as you, decision making makes you stand out. Another part that players lack is good planning. Sure people can follower openers and timings, but having a solid plan is what separates the good from the great. I hope this series will show very great examples about how the best players are able to stand out and win important games!
Disclaimer: I'm doing this for fun and to hopefully help people out. I might get a few things wrong here or there, so don't be mad if you read this and don't win 20 ladder games in a row. If I'm forgetting something, please feel free to share your opinion/analysis and we all can learn more as a community! :D
Stork vs. Flash (2014 Proleague Round 2 - February 25th, 2014) Map: Outboxer
This was the pivotal fourth game of the series and a must-win for Stork and Samsung Galaxy. Being down 1-2, Samsung put Stork on their shoulders. The map chosen was Outboxer, a map that is still relatively unknown due to the fact that it is only played on Proleague. I could spend a lot of time on the map, but lets just get into the game!
The players spawn on Outboxer, with Flash in the top left, and Stork in the bottom right.
Perfect depot placement, Flash could see any in-base proxies and gets full use of his supply depot.
Stork goes for 2 gasses before his expansion. This seems a bit strange as the gas delays his expansion, but it is all part of Stork's plan. The early gas allows Stork to make a mothership core, stalker, and warp gate all at the same time (as opposed to when the second gas is delayed). Flash scouts the double gasses and tries to send in the reaper, but Stork's perfect mothership core placement denies the scout.
Flash has two choices: not scout Stork's main or lose his reaper. He chooses to save the reaper.
Flash ends up losing his reaper whole going for a very safe 3 barracks opening. Knowing that two early gasses can lead to oracles or blink, Flash's 3 rax, along with the early engineering bay, allows him to be safe to most of the strategies that Stork could do to him. However, Storks strategy involves misdirection. Upon seeing Stork's expansion, Flash is very likely to guess that Stork is going for a tech build off of two base due to the nature of Stork's early gas and the regular Protoss meta. However, Stork is simply going for a very quick 3-gate attack. He pokes into Flash's natural at 6:00 and sees:
That square is where a bunker should be...(also, look at Stork's gas)
Flash, not expecting pressure until at least 8:00 (the time a blink stalker attack would hit), does not start building his bunker until 7:00. This is where Stork's genius shows. When Flash scouts the natural expansion, he is expecting a tech build. To give Flash credit, it makes sense. If Stork was going for some sort of gateway aggression, why would he take his gas so early? It would simply delay his extra gates. Stork knows that is what is going through Flash's mind, and does something that Flash would never expect. That is why Flash's bunker is so late, which makes Stork's attack work. If Flash had the bunker up sooner, there is no way that Stork would be able to break it. But alas, that is for an alternate universe. Stork is able to break up Flash's ramp with superior numbers, and forces the GG.
I actually believe that Stork put more effort into his build than his celebration.
Summary: Stork's double-gas opening makes Flash think he is going for a tech build, when in fact he is going for a quick gateway aggression build. This was helped greatly by the fact that Flash was unable to scout very much after the initial stages of the game. The most important thing to take from this game is that sometimes, doing the least expected thing can beat even the most prepared and greatest of opponents.
I hope you guys enjoyed this quick write-up of this game. Give me feedback and hopefully I can make the next ones even better. GG!
When I watched the game I didn't really think it was anything "super fancy" more like.. welp Flash just needs to do better! But after reading this and thinking a little more about it Storks little mind games are what won him this game and IMO that's when starcraft really gets fun!
This game was not worth an analysis of any kind... Flash's reaper control was bad, he was unable to scout, and still played super greedy without even a standard bunker at the front that you should go vs almost any protoss build. The analysis ends there. Flash was greedy, honestly insanely greedy and deserved to lose.
On February 28 2014 16:23 AnonymousSC2 wrote: This game was not worth an analysis of any kind... Flash's reaper control was bad, he was unable to scout, and still played super greedy without even a standard bunker at the front that you should go vs almost any protoss build. The analysis ends there. Flash was greedy, honestly insanely greedy and deserved to lose.
Flash was unable to scout because Stork was able to cut off the two paths a reaper could use to get into the main. Flash didn't play ridiculously greedy. Stork just mind-gamed him to hell. A blink all-in would've met Flash's +1 and stim, which would've ripped Stork to pieces.
Every game is worth analysis :D especially with two high caliber players
On February 28 2014 16:23 AnonymousSC2 wrote: This game was not worth an analysis of any kind... Flash's reaper control was bad, he was unable to scout, and still played super greedy without even a standard bunker at the front that you should go vs almost any protoss build. The analysis ends there. Flash was greedy, honestly insanely greedy and deserved to lose.
Flash was unable to scout because Stork was able to cut off the two paths a reaper could use to get into the main. Flash didn't play ridiculously greedy. Stork just mind-gamed him to hell. A blink all-in would've met Flash's +1 and stim, which would've ripped Stork to pieces.
Every game is worth analysis :D especially with two high caliber players
You can't watch much TvP if you are saying Flash wasn't playing greedy with failed scouting and no bunker...
Only time you see a terran go no bunker is if they SCOUT 2 forges or something like that...
On February 28 2014 17:46 hellokitty[hk] wrote: Flash is always greedy.
Yeah. It annoys me. He's greedy and often plays below expectations. I'm a huge Flash fan so he has been extremely dissappointing for me, I've been facepalming a lot watching him, even when he wins, lol..
i missed things you pointed out as second post said i just saw it as 3 rax vs early protoss pressure doesn't do well - but you are right. A lot more too it.
Nice write up, Flash has always been susceptible to these type of plays. He likes to make assumptions (usually correct) and cut as many corners as possible.
On February 28 2014 16:23 AnonymousSC2 wrote: This game was not worth an analysis of any kind... Flash's reaper control was bad, he was unable to scout, and still played super greedy without even a standard bunker at the front that you should go vs almost any protoss build. The analysis ends there. Flash was greedy, honestly insanely greedy and deserved to lose.
Flash was unable to scout because Stork was able to cut off the two paths a reaper could use to get into the main. Flash didn't play ridiculously greedy. Stork just mind-gamed him to hell. A blink all-in would've met Flash's +1 and stim, which would've ripped Stork to pieces.
Every game is worth analysis :D especially with two high caliber players
You can't watch much TvP if you are saying Flash wasn't playing greedy with failed scouting and no bunker...
Only time you see a terran go no bunker is if they SCOUT 2 forges or something like that...
Greedy? No bunker is not greedy its stupidity. Greedy would be if he cut down and rax/units and maked a faster 3 cc.. lol
On February 28 2014 16:23 AnonymousSC2 wrote: This game was not worth an analysis of any kind... Flash's reaper control was bad, he was unable to scout, and still played super greedy without even a standard bunker at the front that you should go vs almost any protoss build. The analysis ends there. Flash was greedy, honestly insanely greedy and deserved to lose.
Flash was unable to scout because Stork was able to cut off the two paths a reaper could use to get into the main. Flash didn't play ridiculously greedy. Stork just mind-gamed him to hell. A blink all-in would've met Flash's +1 and stim, which would've ripped Stork to pieces.
Every game is worth analysis :D especially with two high caliber players
You, my friend, see the greater things in StarCraft that a lot of viewers don't. The world needs more people like you. ^^
Good analysis, spot on. I think the biggest issue here, though, is Flash's bungled reaper control. Stork did a great job of denying information, but I still think the reaper should have been able to get the necessary scout needed.
However, in the end, Stork had a brilliant and solid opening. GG
On February 28 2014 16:23 AnonymousSC2 wrote: This game was not worth an analysis of any kind... Flash's reaper control was bad, he was unable to scout, and still played super greedy without even a standard bunker at the front that you should go vs almost any protoss build. The analysis ends there. Flash was greedy, honestly insanely greedy and deserved to lose.
Flash was unable to scout because Stork was able to cut off the two paths a reaper could use to get into the main. Flash didn't play ridiculously greedy. Stork just mind-gamed him to hell. A blink all-in would've met Flash's +1 and stim, which would've ripped Stork to pieces.
Every game is worth analysis :D especially with two high caliber players
Stork has a huge advantage as protoss. if he sees the defense and don't want o commit , he can fall back to his macro build.if he see terran cuttting corners, it is GG. Gateway units pre stim are the most powerful units in the game.
On February 28 2014 16:23 AnonymousSC2 wrote: This game was not worth an analysis of any kind... Flash's reaper control was bad, he was unable to scout, and still played super greedy without even a standard bunker at the front that you should go vs almost any protoss build. The analysis ends there. Flash was greedy, honestly insanely greedy and deserved to lose.
Flash was unable to scout because Stork was able to cut off the two paths a reaper could use to get into the main. Flash didn't play ridiculously greedy. Stork just mind-gamed him to hell. A blink all-in would've met Flash's +1 and stim, which would've ripped Stork to pieces.
Every game is worth analysis :D especially with two high caliber players
Stork has a huge advantage as protoss. if he sees the defense and don't want o commit , he can fall back to his macro build.if he see terran cuttting corners, it is GG. Gateway units pre stim are the most powerful units in the game.
That is just not true. Making 7 gates and not using them is a waste, delays your third/tech and thus, puts you behind compared to where you could be. Whatever way you try to twist your words, whether you believe Protoss is ahead all game long or not, you cannot say that committing infrastructurally to an attack but not committing the units puts Protoss even.
Now, relatively ahead/behind is another story.
Also, I'm fairly certain equal cost of bio beats equal cost of gateway units without stim, especially with bunker support and close to the rally. The 'problem' is that Protoss can power infrastructure faster.
Ahh this is what you were talking about! Nice write up, i didn't catch the game put it perfectly summarizes everything in a short an effective way, thanks!
Just lmao at some of the replies. Flash's play is "greedy", "stupid", "disappointing". His win record in SC2 proleague is among the very best, and he is the greatest BW player of all time for a reason. If you try to counter every possible build that has a chance of killing you, you will never have an edge. Flash goes for optimal play based on his reads, and while he occasionally loses silly games to bums like Stork this strategy works out well in the long run.
Stork's play was heavily weighted towards builds that do not require an early bunker, so Flash's late bunker was a good decision. Unfortunately SC2, especially sc2 protoss, is designed in such a way that one small error can insta lose games even if your opponent is horrible, and that is what happened this game. Stork rolled the dice and beat a far superior player with an easy to execute all in that was difficult to identify.
EPT![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/a/ab/Picon_small.png)
Stork vs. ![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/9/9d/Ticon_small.png)
Flash (2014 Proleague Round 2 - February 25th, 2014)![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bATMDDFl.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/97uc6zSl.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rqHxeCul.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Dr9OYiDl.png)
