5203 gunfireT ESCretZ

"G"

kept that vessel count down pretty good, seemed to be the difference

I actually thought you were going to lose at the end.

Ok, ret 'won' the early-mid game of this match. Not much question there. His counter to the 8rax bunker rush was superb, killing that many marines and more importantly maintaining the hatchery without losing too many drones in the process. Countering the vultures right afterwards, excellent (although with a slight stumble with that one that got through). Getting 3 base mutas up timely enough against a floundering terran player and killing a ton of SCV's, delaying his macro and generally fucking up his shit, all really good.

And then ret went hydra/lurk. And I disagreed.

It's quite simple really. Tanks kill Hydras. That's why people don't use hydra lurk against a mixed MnM + tank + vessel force. Hydra/Lurk is a soft counter to SK Terran because zerglings get churned by marines and lurkers get churned by mass irradiate, but hydras counter vessels, sort of, and lurkers counter marines, sort of (hence the soft part of the term). Lurker/ling is favoured against mixed biomech terran because lings don't get ripped to pieces quite like hydras do when tanks shoot them. There's a fuckload more to the dynamics of the matchup, I know, but I'm trying to keep it simple because this is a replay comment section, not fucking liquipedia.

So, as I said, Tanks kill hydras. That's why pure hydra doesn't work vs mech. That's why breaking Terran naturals is so damn difficult these days, besides other things. That's why I don't agree with ret's choice of hydra/lurk vs gunfire's mixed biomech force. Tanks kill hydras, so just spend more gas on lurkers and more minerals on zerglings!

But ret is the best zerg outside of Korea. He obviously knows this, he doesn't need some c- terran player to tell him how to play Zerg. So why go for hydra/lurk? Well, funnily enough, it's because his early-mid game went so damn well that he could pump a lot of drones safely, and if there's one thing that hydra/lurk requires to operate smoothly it's tons of minerals. Hydras are expensive, if you hadn't noticed. Ret had a few choices, one is to pump tons of drones and float tons because he couldn't produce fast enough to meet his higher then normal income, or he could go for a less then optimal strategy and at least use all his money anyway. I mean, shit, he's miles ahead of the Terran after his muta harass was finished, I suppose any old strategy would have worked.

Ret's other choice would have been to expand a LOT and have the Terran play whack-a-mole, but that's ineffiicent and very weird.

The other thing I didn't like about what ret did was trying to break the Terrans natural after he got in there with his first load of hydra/lurk. It's the same old story. The zerg/protoss thinks the Terran's natural is weak and easy to break and then holy fucking shit it gets stopped by the scv's, chokepoints formed by buildings and like half a siege tank with the end result being a lot of dead zerg/protoss to not much dead terrans.

I think xenos players should understand that a Terrans natural should be avoided at all costs! Stay the fuck away from it unless you've got dark swarm or a really good plan. I think Xenos would be a lot better off if, when they see the seemingly vulnerable terran natural (especially after doing a ton of damage to their push) they should just back up a bit, expand, tech, and prepare for the next terran push and defeat it from a much more advantageous position. Attacking Terran naturals is extremely dangerous and usually pointless. You've already got an advantage, just learn a bit of patience!

Anyway, that's my 2cents. Feel free to dispute what I've written here.