Everything in this article is my opinion unless otherwise stated. As a progamer for several years now, I have a wealth of personal experience and observations to draw upon. That said, sometimes I have to speculate.

This article will clarify how to judge whether a build is good to copy and give some insight into how pro players choose builds both on ladder and in tournaments.

In Starcraft, there is no single "best opening". In every game there will be decisions that players must make either before any in-game information is gathered or during a time period where it is impossible to scout 100%. These blind decisions are made based on the meta and tendencies of their opponent. For example, CC first looks like an incredibly strong build in a meta where players open 1 gas nexus no scout and quite bad when proxy gate is common. Deciding to CC first or not must be done with no in-game information. If matched against a proxy gate, it leads to one of the most obvious build order wins in Starcraft.


Although YoDa stabilizes against PartinG's proxy gate, he is forced to gg shortly thereafter due to the immense damage he received.

On ladder, whenever playing a barcode or unknown player I’ll choose my build either based on what I’m currently practicing or in regards to the current meta. For example, If roach bane is very common in TvZ at the moment, then I’ll open banshee more often. Once I hit known players I will adjust my build and cut corners to take advantage of my opponent’s tendencies. For example, if I’m playing Hitman (NA protoss who does 1 base allins 80% of the time), I will open in a way that allows me to defend those sorts of timings more easily. Even if I don’t do an entirely different build, just by being familiar with my opponent, I can prime my mind for what I'm likely to encounter. The downside is that if I'm expecting an allin, I may ‘find’ signs of an allin that don’t really exist. I remember a particular game: I scouted RuFF and because I expected an allin, I never considered the possibility that his missing tech could be a sign of a hidden 3rd CC (which it was). The important thing to note is that many games of Starcraft are decided before the players even find each other because of decisions made without any information such as the above examples. However, there are ways to minimize this effect by playing safer and avoiding certain types of builds that are especially vulnerable early on. Tournament builds are often not good for general ladder play.

I’ve been coaching for a long time now and a recurring genre of question I get is: “Is this build I copied from x Korean progamer good?” That build was probably good for that player in that game, but whether or not it’s worth taking to the ladder is another matter. It depends on the types of builds that my student sees (assuming he has sufficient mechanical skill to execute the build). The first question I must ask when trying to answer “Is CC first into 3 CC good vs zerg” is “How often do you see roach bane allins?” CC first into 3 CC is disadvantaged vs roach bane in a similar, but less extreme way as CC first is against proxy gate. The main reason is that the terran has committed almost all of his resources to economy while the p/z has committed almost all his resources to aggression. As long as the terran player continues to focus on his economy, he will be vulnerable against his opponent's impending attack unless he can change his disposition and prepare for it. The point here is that build order advantages exist past the initial few minutes of the game. A standard roach bane timing hits at ~9 minutes. Starcraft is figured out enough that you can walk into a build order advantage or disadvantage upwards of 10 minutes into the game depending on what builds you and your opponent do. That said, the potential for counterplay grows the farther from the start of the game you reach. At 8 minutes, there is much more that a terran can do compared to the first 2 or 3 minutes of the game because of the availability of better tech, the establishment of required infrastructure, and an economy that can support a sudden shift in direction. For any given build, it possible to learn how to adapt the build in order to do better against builds it is weak against. However, because these adapted builds are often inefficient, it is also an option to accept certain build order matchups as losses and instead focus on choosing the right build for any given game. Of course, on ladder, selecting the right build can be quite difficult.

When choosing during a tournament, the considerations are largely the same. The likelihood of your specific opponent—who you should be aware of in advance—to roach bane against you determines whether or not CC first into 3 CC is viable. In tournaments, many players choose builds specifically designed to play off their opponents' tendencies. For as long as Starcraft has been Starcraft, we’ve seen players choose high risk-high reward strategies that can punish their opponent’s weaknesses or predictable nature.

One of the most memorable risks in Starcraft history occurred in Game 7 of the GSL Finals Season 2 2012. Mvp had been ahead 3-0 against Squirtle, but the StarTale Protoss clawed his way back in 3 straight games to tie the series. In the ultimate match of the season, Mvp chose to proxy 2 rax, a build rarely seen in such high stakes games especially against protoss. Proxy 2 rax matched up well against only a handful of builds and led to instant defeat against almost every other, and it often relied on rush distance. Mvp decided to use it on Atlantis Spaceship, one of the biggest maps in the pool at the time. However, Squirtle had already shown a tendency to crack under high pressure builds in the past and Mvp knew that he would never expect it. By playing his opponent rather than the meta, Mvp proved why he deserved to be that season's champion.



One other example is from Scarlett vs Jaedong in the semi finals of WCS AM Season 2 2013. Once again the series headed into the rubber match, and one of the players decided to risk their entire season on a gamble. Jaedong 6 pooled on Newkirk Precinct, a very long 2 player map, but it was a calculated risk. In ZvZ, there are many openings that deal with 6 pool relatively easily. With good micro, all pool before hatch openings take little to no damage against 6 pool. Even 15 hatch 15 pool can survive depending on the map. However, Jaedong recognized his opponent's tendency to omit scouting even with 15 hatch 15 pool. He chose the correct build—including a drone in his rush for a spinecrawler—for the situation and punished his opponent's weakness. His 6 pool won him Game 5 in the series and he moved on to the finals.



Of course, some players are especially known for stubbornness in style and builds. In 2012, MarineKing faced off against DIMAGA in the Numericable House Cup finals where DIMAGA 6 pooled MarineKing’s CC first 2 games in a row. Even though MarineKing ended up holding those 6 pools, this is another example of a player choosing a build specifically designed to punish their opponent’s tendencies.



While players are sometimes able to be very predictable and still win major events, generally that predictability works against them. It’s hard to forget the IEM WC Grand Finals where sOs opened the Bo7 vs herO with in-base proxy 2 gate 2 games in a row. This sort of play indicated that sOs was very confident that he knew herO’s tendencies and it paid off spectacularly. Not only did sOs take the first 2 games with little effort, the Jin Air Protoss took a mental advantage because losing to a build like that can be mentally disorientating. At that point in the series, herO had to consider what other parts of his play sOs was intimately familiar with and what he could be able to exploit in a similar way, while trying to find his way back into the series.



sOs exploits herO's tendencies by proxy 2 gating in his main in back to back games.

Given relatively even skill, some pairing of builds will just lead to losses. Becoming a better Starcraft player means accepting that some games are actually out of your control. It is possible to lose before you actually see anything in the game because of the builds that were chosen. You can also decide to only play builds that are not susceptible to that sort of luck. 15 pool in ZvZ, reaper expand in TvZ, or adding a worker scout are examples of ways to hedge your luck against the randomness of ladder. If you make it past the first few minutes of the game, you can still end up in a build order disadvantage as in the CC first into 3 CC vs roach bane example above, but the farther from the opening you get, the more potential there is for counterplay. If the 3 CC terran knows he’s against roach bane, he’s just a tank or 2 and some number of bunkers away from a solid defense. The critical idea here is that scouting your opponent’s strategy and reacting appropriately is important to mitigate or even flip build order advantages around.

This dance can continue for the entire game. Consider the following situation. The terran scouts roach bane and makes tanks to defend his 3 CC. The zerg scouts the tanks early and decides to go up to 70 drones instead of building units. If the terran fails to spot the transition he will end up very far behind because his defensive posture makes no sense with no impending attack. On the other hand, if the terran moves out with his units as the zerg drones with abandon, he can catch him off guard if his opponent fails to scout. Starcraft is a never ending cycle of decisions and counter-decisions. Acquiring information and using it appropriately is often the key to winning games. Of course, a little luck helps too.

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