MLG Dallas Group B Discussion and Analysis

Select has evolved so much in his play over the last few months. Just two months ago every game that I saw from him in TvT was opening either a blue flame hellion drop or a cloak banshee rush into a non standard game. Now his play has evolved into doing a reactor barracks expand with siege tanks and then getting up a viking and raven for banshee defense. He now is pretty safe against all kinds of openers, but what is important to remember is that thanks to his experience of a couple months ago he is completely able to proxy a banshee, blue flame drop, and other risky openers. From what I've seen, Select's early game when playing standard is probably a little weak, he doesn't always get his e-bay timings or make sure he's safe against banshees, but he is certainly competant at not getting killed in the early game.

Since he is such an aggressive player with his initial units, he can sometimes get himself into a little bit of trouble early on. He also seems to be a player that when knocked off his kilter before two bases are up has trouble getting back on track.

The mid game is where Select truly shines. Select likes to do a standard marine tank midgame, but uses just enough to defend some main attack path and then splits off a force usually around the size of two tanks and 16 marines (often a large portion, but not always these numbers) to punish a third base. He also tends to go double tech lab on his barracks so he can get combat shield and stim very quickly. The matches that Select tends to lose is when it goes lategame and someone goes battlecruiser or keeps getting upgrades, because Select's midgame is so strong, his lategame is often much weaker. He tends not to get upgrades or transition out of marine tank, but his marine tank control with multi pronged attacks is unbelievable and any player will have a hard time holding him to the late game.

Strengths: Completely open to cheesing and has a lot of experience doing it but also plays a good standard opening, incredible aggressive mid game, awesome strategically - multi pronged attacks

Weaknesses: Will occasionally get a late e-bay, early game timing pushes tend to mess him up a little if they do any damage, has trouble transitioning out of his midgame.

Sjow is a very interesting player to watch, he tends to average at only 100 apm, but manages to win TvT not through multi pronged attacks (as two of the players in this group tend to) but through his army movement, map presence, and unit composition. Sjow is the player that famously "doesn't scout" but when you analyze his play you can really see why he gets away with it. He often will use a reaper or hellion to scout, and that often gets better information than the SCV ever could. As soon as he can he brings his units out to the center of the map and is always moving them around. This army movement makes the opponent feel contained earlier and allows Sjow to see anything coming at him and continue to figure out his opponents composition without ever seeing his base directly.

It's often great to watch Sjow replays from his perspective, as you will oftentimes never see the opponents base, but always have map presence and see compositions purely through army movement. Sjow does occasionally blue flame drop, but rarely opens cloak banshee, and has a pretty good general e-bay timing. He often does a similar opening to Select, with a barracks, factory expand. Another notable aspect of his play is that he almost always in every matchup tries to get a fast third, this will make his matchups vs. Select interesting, as Select loves to punish fast thirds. When Sjow gets his third, he tends to be super aggressive with his army movement, and seems to use this army movement as a clutch for people not attacking him.

In terms of unit composition, Sjow actually gets marauder marine more often than just pure marine, which is really interesting in the current state of TvT. This makes him more able to bust siege contains and continue that army movement that he loves. Sjow will also sit in a tank stalemate for a huge amount of time and is very content to expand all over the map while stalemated rather than try and find ways to bust it.

Strengths: Army movement, scouting of the army compositions without seeing buildings, very solid early expansion timings.

Weaknesses: lowish APM for the level he is playing at and from matches I've seen he will often stare at one drop or one battle when there are multiple going on (this could make his matches vs. Qxc very difficult).

Finding Ret replays is damn hard. Like, really hard. The only v T I was able to find without hunting through Assembly VODs (something I really didn't want to do) was his GSL match. This analysis of his ZvT is only based on his GSL match vs. Ganzi, and I'm not sure how much his style has changed since then.

Ret tends to either open two base into muta then uses mutas to survive getting a third base up, or opens 3 base on hatch using baneling/ling to defend. What is interesting about his play is that he seems to prefer lings with upgrades over banelings, and likes to allocate his gas to mutalisks, infestors, or brood lords. His style in the GSL matches was very much getting 4 bases up and then attacking with upgraded lings, broodlords, mutalisks, and infestors. I wish I had more on him but this was all I could find.

Strengths: Supreme macro and mechanics, has a well thought out game plan up to four bases and will be aggressive once broods are out

Weaknesses: seems (at least in these games) that he doesn't really have a plan past his four base 200/200 attack, he seems to be very hesitant with his big attacks, often not engaging in the best positions or not using his infesters.

Qxc will without a doubt offer entertaining games. I've seen him do the typical cross map early marine push but will try and build a bunker with it rather than just poke the ramp, he will do anything to get ahead in the match. Qxc's play seems like a combination of Sjow's and Selects, he uses his aggression to scout but will also use multi pronged attacks to just wear you down as the match continues. He is also the kind of player that when attacking will rally his units forward and kill you at any moment if you let him. Qxc pretty much plays the standard TvT but is also good on upgrades and like Select is not afraid to do something crazy and cheese you.

Strengths: Crazy aggression can kill you at any moment, very diverse play that won't let you sit back and macro safely for much time. "If you're not attacking, you're losing."

Weaknesses: Crazy aggression. Oftentimes because Qxc tends to rally forward and kill you at any moment, he often is skimping at home.

Qxc vs. Select, both of these guys have aggressive, multi pronged midgame attack strategies. Qxc is more drop oriented while Select is more positioning oriented. This will be one aggressive TvT that will be awesome to watch.

Sjow vs. Qxc or Sjow vs. Ret
Sjow is an extremely stable player who loves to expand, if you watch him you learn how to expand safely and get used to your army movement. His matches vs. Ret and Qxc will also teach you how to use aggression against a standard style. No matter what player wins in these games, there will be learning to be done.

Sjow vs. Ret

Both of these guys love taking it to the late game and being aggressive in the middle of the map, without a doubt this series will be close macro games where both players will have a hard time holding each other's pushes

If Ret gets killed by everyone in this group (extremely unlikely but also very possible as all of them are very good players) I have the feeling many of thoughts of terran imba will abound.