An Introduction

Hey guys, my name is Gemini and I'm a past three time Grandmaster Protoss player who has been making guides since 2011 on various sites. The Build of the Week is my most popular series of build order guides that I've been making for about three years now on /r/allthingsprotoss. With the help of TeamLiquid.net and Spawning Tool I'm now bringing my guides over to TL as well!

Each write-up includes build order notes, an explanation/analysis of how the build works, and a VOD section so you can check out the source game and how it should go. I'll also include the Spawning Tool link so that you can practice it in game yourself and download the replay of me doing it. I hope you enjoy and be sure to read the whole write-up before asking any questions as I'm sure some of them will be answered in here!

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[PvP] sOs' 2gate stalker into disruptor drop

PvP has turned into a bit of a stagnant match up recently. The consensus is that 2 gate expand openings are far and away the superior builds. There have been some stargate openings that have arisen out of this, though the standard still seems to be robo/twilight. Some other interesting builds utilize those 2 gates to be as aggressive as possible, which is what sOs did vs Billowy in the GSL earlier this month. He followed it up with a disruptor drop that put him in a strong position in the mid game and it resulted in a very fun and aggressive build in a relatively passive state of PvP's history. For anyone who wants a stargate PvP opening, I will do my best to find one for the next iteration of the PvP BotW, but I thought this was a particularly interesting build to feature while it is still relevant.

Build Notes



*Note: The build displayed in Spawning Tool will show each step of the build without context. This is an elaborated version of the build to be used as a supplement.

Build Explanation

The basic opening for this build still relies on the standard 2gate PvP opening, except with a total of 5 units being produced (either 4 stalkers + 1 sentry or 2 adepts/2 stalkers + 1 sentry). This aggressive alteration is a great way to catch greedier and unsuspecting players off guard. It also allows you to gain early map control and put the tempo in your favor and retain it into the mid game.

Like I said, it starts with a normal 2 gate PvP opening and gets 6 non chrono'd stalkers out of the gateways. If you chrono your MSCore out and then switch to the WG after, it will give you enough time to get three sets of units out. What this large set of early units allows you to do is scout EVERYWHERE around the map as you know you'll have many units coming out at home. Unless your opponent goes for the same build then you should always have more units coming across the map than him. This gives you early map control and allows you to scout all corners of the map for potential proxies or hidden probes trying to scout an expansion. sOs is able to find Billowy's hidden probe and keep him from scouting his later Nexus. sOs then takes this map control and warps in a proxy pylon while pressuring the front and warping in 2 rounds of units to continue the pressure.

Important to note: This build is best done on maps with a wide ramp or opening to the natural. sOs tried a similar pressure build on Echo in the same series and it did not do well since the ramp is easily forcefielded. Maps like Bel'Shir Vestige, Newkirk Precinct, Paladino Terminal, and Cactus Valley (to a lesser extent) are best for this build.





You have a slight choice with this early warp in. You can either go for 2 stalkers first to give you extra poke potential at the front, or you can go for adepts in an attempt to prioritize worker kills. Going for the stalkers allows you to poke down pylons and whittle his unit count down and potentially kill him if he's sloppy with his micro and skipped on some early units. The adept warp in allows you to shade them into the main and split his attention while you continue to poke at the front while killing workers in the main. I like how sOs did it by doing 2 stalkers first and then an adept so that way he can do a little bit of both. You have some flexibility with this and it depends on each individual game, so test around with what works best.

It is also important to note a few supply blocks in this build. While going for the proxy and Nexus at the same time, you will be supply blocked slightly at 39. This is fine so long as you get your proxy down ASAP with your stalkers supporting it. If you can't get the proxy down then make a pylon in your natural ASAP. You will also be supply blocked at 47 for a short while after warping in and making probes and an observer. The nexus completing will unsupply block you so there's no need to get another pylon.

While you're pressuring him your natural should have completed and you can start your robo and robo bay to enter phase two: the disruptor drop.

The Disruptor Drop Followup

The fun part of this build is transitioning into a disruptor drop. While it is very multitask intensive, it is very fun when you get the hang of it and usually unexpected by most players which can lead to some very juicy shots. Use this disruptor drop as a way to further cement your lead from the early game and keep the tempo in your favor. This move does two things for you:

1. Guarantees you the early disruptor lead
2. Forces their hand





A lot of PvPs end up being determined by who has more disruptors and who gets the better shots. Going for disruptors this early to harass not only gives you the probe advantage, but also guarantees you'll have the disruptor advantage since there's basically no faster way to safely go disruptors. If you are comfortable with and good at controlling disruptors then this is a great style for you to try out.

The 2nd point is that this type of one-two-punch move can be enough to force the other player's hand. If your harassment is good enough, it can cause the other player to simple try and all in because they sustained too much early damage. This is an ideal situation for you since you will have the opportunity to make disruptors from such an early time in the game. By the time they walk out of their base, you could easily have 2-4 disruptors out to smash their push. This all goes back to what I said earlier about controlling the tempo of the game. The combination of the early stalker pressure and the follow up disruptor drop gives you so much map control and lets you decide the flow of the game. Sometimes it is better to sit back and be the reactive player, but a lot of times being the aggressor can throw the enemy out of whack enough where they won't know what to do. This build is a perfect example of that type of style.

Propelling Into the Mid Game

As far as the mid game preparation and transition goes, your twilight council will be later than most with this build due to the disruptor drop so that is the only big weakness. You'll have to stay fairly passive except for the drop until you have either multiple disruptors out or blink/glaives finished. Even though sOs goes for glaives first instead of blink, I would still suggest going for blink. Going for glaives and a higher adept count is kind of older PvP Korean meta before Neeb revolutionized the matchup with his KeSPA cup games featuring faster blink. It's good if you are planning to do aggressive pushes and you know the disruptor count of your opponent is going to be very low or non existent. Blink is still generally the safer option that gives you a more solid transition into the mid game. You can see in the example game that sOs had a hard time closing the game out early after killing the 3rd base of Billowy, despite having a larger army for the most part. It's very difficult to attack into disruptor armies when you focused so heavily on adepts early on, so I still would suggest going for blink instead.

sOs and Billowy also decided to both do an interesting fast DT switch pre 3rd base. This is kind of a cute move meant to stretch the opponent even thinner and capitalize on the fact that most PvP games have very small observer counts. You usually try to cut the observer for as long as possible and stay on one for as long as possible to get as many immortals/disruptors/prisms out of the robo. This is something you can try adding into your games but I don't think it is necessary and is more of a meta game/tricky move both players try to do to make the game more chaotic. This isn't necessary to make the build work especially if you go into a more standard blink heavy composition.

After the twilight starts upgrading, you get some extra gates to round out your production and take a 3rd when you feel safe. If you see that the opponent is going for a faster 3rd to try and get their economy back in shape after the early harassment, you can either try to all in onto that 3rd and cancel it like sOs does or just take a quick 3rd yourself and get the gateways after.

From here you transition into a normal mid-late game disruptor based PvP. You'll get your forge shortly after your 3rd is set up as well and a 2nd robo for extra disruptor production and go from there.

VODs

sOs vs Billowy - GSL Code S Ro32 Group C Match 5 Game 2