IMneverLosira Analysis (GSTL Spoilers)

IMLosira opens with a hatch first build against his opponent ZeNEXIcecream, interestingly he follows with a quick gas before pool allowing him to get zergling speed very quickly (as most Zergs who hatch first get the gas around the same time as their pool, Losira is interesting in that he gets it significantly faster). Losira pumps just enough Zerglings to feel safe when his hatch completes and goes pure drone while using his overlord to scout a barracks with a tech lab, after scouting that the overlord backs off. Then with those few initial Zerglings, Losira manages to scout 2 hellions coming across the map and begins pumping non stop zerglings and making a spine crawler while moving the overlord further into the base to detect what is coming next. When the overlord sees the SCVs coming Losira builds two more spine crawlers immediately, continues pumping Zerglings while preparing for to initiate a zergling counter attack to buy time/insure the victory over his opponent's defenseless main. Losira holds the push at his front with a beautiful zergling surround and the counter attack insures that his opponent must gg.

Losira's win this game came down to some clutch scouting as well impeccable timing with his decision making. He pumps just enough zerglings at the beginning to stop any cutesy sort of harass that might come out of terran (i.e. two rax, reactor hellion) and then drones up while scouting. Losira in all of his games has an attitude of scouting at all costs, but in this game he gets very lucky in that his overlord manages to spot everything. What is interesting is that upon seeing the tech lab on the barracks he is still droning but then begins his constant zergling production when he sees the hellions moving across the map, as this is the tell that his opponent has a factory up and forces his opponent into a limited set of options. A tech lab on a barracks and a factory that has made two hellions at a timing not indicating blue flame can really only mean a maurader hellion all in, I believe that Losira figures this out and that is why he begins constant zergling build up. When he sees the SCVs move out across the map he immediatley begins two spine crawlers and with a stroke of genius counter attacks. The counter attack at that moment was genius because it forces his opponent into two options both forcing Losira to win:

Either force the army to come back to deal with it, buying the extra seconds for Losira's spine crawlers and zergling build up
or
Force this to be an all in no matter how much damage it does, as long as Losira has any drones left, he will win.

The latter of those two options happens and Losira wins through great scouting even when he is not directly seeing his opponent's buildings, and great decision making. After this match Zergs have little reason to lose to this marauder hellion all in again.

IMLosira does the same opening as last game while his opponent 1 rax fast expands. Losira is very careful with his Overlord scouting trying to see as much of his opponents base as he can without giving away the overlord. Losira then makes the interesting decision to pumps lings upon seeing the low ground bunker. He then see the expansion and goes back to making drones while doing some harassment with his zerglings. Losira gets an Early 3rd queen, and begins +1 melee, only then beginning his lair. In the mean time ZeNEX Hack begins two factories, indicating mech. Losira manages to hold the blue flame hellion harass without losing too much (although this is also due to his ling harass early on doing damage putting the harassment damage at about even). Losira begins making lings at 9:45 (I only mention the game time because I honestly cannot tell why without the replay) and checks to see if there is any damage that can be done with his higher ling count. After doing a little more harassment damage he switches back to drones and begins his spire.

At this point Hack's lack of medivacs and lack of third is beginning to signify a marine tank 2 base all in. Losira miss reads his opponents force and attacks with zerglings and a couple roaches and gets devastated - things are not looking good for Losira. Losira than uses some lings to stop reinforcements and potentially counter attack his opponent. The zerglings do huge damage to Hack's economy and again Losira doesn't quite kill off the push at his front with roach baneling. Losira is then willing to sack his baneling nest, being very patient and maximizing his time to pump units. After holding the attack, Losira get's his mutalisks up. The mutalisks seem to be timed with Hack's medivacs and Losira is easily able to clean up hack's drop attempts. Through Zergling counter attacks, Losira is able to force Hack to be all in, Losira holds the push with baneling roach and Hack is forced to gg.

Again Losira's decision making proves to be insane as he knows when to pump zerglings and how to delay attacks excellently. First, when Losira sees the low ground bunker he begins pumping zerglings, I believe that this to check if damage can be done if his opponent is fast expanding. Losira seems to be very aware of the hyper mobility of Zerglings and their ability to punish your opponents mistakes right away. He uses the run by's to buy more time and kill economy when his opponent is trying to get away with something he really can't get away with. This is playing to Zerg's strength, think about how when you are terran and your protoss opponent fast expo's on a large map, you really can't punish it without becoming all in, but because speedlings are so fast, you can punish it without becoming all in, this also explains why Losira goes Hatch, gas, pool, instead of hatch, pool, gas as is more common. Losira then makes a very cool timing of going +1 melee at the same time as his lair, this allows him to be much more aggressive with pure zergling earlier on - he was even so confident as to attack the first force with almost pure zergling, indicating his belief in the unit. Upon seeing the double factory Losira prepares to get roach baneling up, the optimal force for dispelling this play.

I'm not sure why Losira begins pumping zerglings @ 9:45 but I have a theory that it is a general timing he has where he gets more zerglings to check if terran is getting a third base or is building up on two base, where if he is getting a third too fast then Losira can punish that and if he is building up on two base he needs the units anyways.

Losira then brilliantly demonstrates how to hold these two base terran all ins that have been popular for a while, by abusing moblity to survive until an optimal number of baneling roach is built up. What I would learn from this game, is that against two base terran all ins to counter attack with significant speedling numbers to cut off reinforcements while you continue to build up baneling roach, skipping mutalisks for the time being.

Losira opens standard gas pool, his opponent ZeNEX zerO rushes for 2 sentries with his chrono boost and seems concerned about an all in perhaps this is due to losira's lack of interest in his probe at the expansion, as Losira only send 1 of his initial zerglings to kill it. Losira sacks and Overlord @ 6 minutes and sees the other two gateways. Although Losira should be reasonably confident that a 3 gate expand is coming, he builds a roach warren and a spine crawler at his natural regardless. Losira also, seeming very safe in his play, pumps some extra zerglings to deny scoutng probes and pressure his opponent while he gets his expansion up. zerO begins a forge and a robo as Losira gets a second spine crawler up. Losira's ling pressure forces a cannon out of his opponent and Losira begins an evolution chamber at what I would describe as "a little bit after the roach warren completes" to avoid food counts. Losira is exteremely active at scouting with zerglings, and even leaves a group behind the tasteless hallway to counter attack if given the opportunity.

The evo chamber starts +1 with lair (similar to last game), as his opponent begins poking across the map Losira builds drones and roaches. Most likely as a result of seeing a ton of gateway units and an immortal instead of a slow tech to colossus, Losira begins more spine crawlers as it begins to look like a big 2 base attack all the while using counter attacks to scout a high gateway count and no colossus and using spine crawler build up as an excuse to keep droning like crazy while teching to Hydralisks. Losira then begins using saved up money and larvae to begin immediately pumping insane amounts of hydras while using his counter attacks to buy more time. Losira barely holds the attack at his front, using all of his spine crawlers in the process. Immediately after holding the attack Losira begins a third, +2, an in base hatch, and a spire to prepare for eventual colossus. Losira uses an overseer to scout when he cant run by. Losira then pushes out with hydra corrupter zergling and versus the low collossus count of zerO combined with his ability to remake lings to reinforce quickly Losira forces his opponent to gg

I think in this game Losira demonstrated his knowledge of how play to Zerg. He had impeccable drone timings and always seemed to have a purpose for his units. The use of spine crawlers and ling counter attacks was very interesting as he was able to see how long he could delay the push. This is counter to July's style vs. MC wherein July tried to get roach speed, burrow, +1, and hydra range, Losira focused in on what he wanted to do. He made a few roaches, and I think this was to try and figure out the timing of his opponents push, and I think it was because he was so unsure of the timing that he just kept adding on spine crawlers to buy himself more time to drone and think. The +1 range starting at the same time as the lair allows him to choose either roach or hydra to hold any attack, without committing to either until later on.

I think it was upon seeing the high likelihood of a big gateway immortal all in that he decided to go spine crawler hydra instead of roach hydra, as roaches would have just been force-fielded away from the hydra's and been useless. Losira truly seems to be the master of safe play and scouting. The constant activity of his zerglings means that his opponent is constantly having to delay his push and also gives opportunities for Losira to see his opponents entire base. I think that if Losira is unable to scout with Zerglings he makes the overseer, as he eventually made one when this situation occurred. Losira really took advantage of the fact that his opponent was not going colossus by getting spine crawlers and hydralisks, and I honestly believe that he could have taken down MC if he played like he did this game.

This last game is the easiest of the bunch to analyze but is nonetheless a textbook example of how to flawlessly stop a mass zergling ZvZ build. Both players opt to hatch first and Losira does the same opening as versus terran, with hatch > gas > pool. Losira skips ling speed in favor of faster roaches and gets a spine crawler upon seeing constant ling production from ZeNEX Coca. Losira sees the low drone saturation and constant ling production and gets a baneling nest, all before ling speed. Losira get's roach baneling up in time, holds the attack, and moves across the map to kill his opponent.

This was simply great scouting and great reaction, if you are having trouble with mass ling in ZvZ watch this game again and note the timings and scout paths and I doubt you'll ever lose to it again. Not much to say as it was as simple as "countering" what his opponent was doing