Idra vs. Cruncher Summary and Analysis (Spoilers)

Idra chose to open with a speedling expand, delaying his gas timing because he does not need the fastest possible zergling speed, an early indicator of low aggression. Cruncher meanwhile goes for a forge fast expand, this allows Idra to really drone up as he knows that no attack is coming for quite a while. This also allows Idra to get a faster third base than normal as well as delay his Lair and Roach warren. Idra is extremely active with his overlord scouting and thanks to that is able to see the void ray charging up on the back rocks. Idra got a very fast third and fourth queen which lets him quickly connect his bases with creep and he is able to defend air harass very easily with a couple of spore crawlers and queens. Idra is being extremely active with his creep spread and as per usual Idra makes some of the best drone vs. unit decisions of any player in the world. He gets the bare minimum hydralisks to defend and gets up his spire, that is beautifully timed out to finish at the same time as the first colossus, rest assured this timing is no coincidence. Idra does some more beautiful scouting with overlords and sees a fast third for Cruncher as well as the robo bay. Idra through his great decision making is up 22 drones over Cruncher at this point, but makes the interesting decision not to attempt to punish Cruncher's fast third. I think he remedies this well in the second game by scouting the same build and then really punishes the fact that Cruncher is trying to get away with too much tech too quickly. Nonetheless, Idra continues to macro up, grabbing a fourth base and making his second favorite unit in the game, drones.

I want to say that at this point it looks like Idra is far ahead, as he is ahead in drones, units, and upgrades, but he continues to sit with this while getting a fourth base up. A lot Idra's understanding with Cruncher's build is apparent by the next game where he punishes Cruncher's timings, but this game I think Idra is trying to play it safe. Idra continues his beautiful creep spread and overlord scouting while at this point it is obvious that Cruncher is trying to build up the big void ray colossus ball. As Idra begins to approach max with 1800 minerals in the bank, he knows he needs to try and make something happen before Cruncher gets too powerful as he tries to get an aggressive position on Cruncher's front. Idra goes for the attack on Cruncher's ramp but is very reluctant to sack everything and rebuild. Idra does some good damage and pulls back, using his extra food to remake more corrupters and roaches. Idra is maxed again and collecting money, he knows he needs to be aggressive while he is maxed and again pokes at the front and again pulls back, afraid to engage. Idra makes a good attempt to nydus warm in but doesn't do very much splitting of his army as he does in game two. Idra is still very hesitant with his max army, and now has over 4000 minerals in the bank. At this point Idra desperately needs more supply as protoss is approaching max on a more tech heavy army than Idra has. Idra chooses to engage the void rays with critical corrupters and loses his army in a disorganized way. Idra then reloads almost entirely on corrupters, the perfect decision. The corrupters are able to wipe the voids and half the collossus from the sky, but Idra's next reload isn't quite fast enough and his reinforcements die off to the left over gateway units and colossus of Cruncher's army, now in Idra's base and Idra is forced to gg, or rather, not gg.

Idra could have won the game at several points here, but when against the Void colossus style, you have to be extremely careful in the late game. First, Idra's decision making throughout the game between drones and units is near flawless, he is extremely good at getting his economy and army up. He also begins to look very powerful as he plays against this style similar to how a Zerg would against a meching terran, just expanding and droning everywhere. Eventually though Idra gets to a big 200/200 army but is unable to do anything with it. I'm sure after this game a lot of people think that this style of protoss is unbeatable in a macro game; however, this game actually demonstrates that it is possible to stop.

Cruncher had two weaknesses:
1st. It was extremely easy to tell what he was doing (giving your opponent plenty of time to prepare) and
2nd. The style is very immobile (something that Idra abuses in the second game).

Idra goes for a standard army composition against a non standard protoss ball. When Idra first engages he is able to free up food, and this engagement was even very messy. He then reloads on almost pure corrupter, and this high corrupter count is nearly enough to dominate everything in the air, the issue was that he didn't have enough time to reload enough to kill the stalkers. I think that Idra could have won by doing the following:
1. When sacking his initial 200/200 food army, he did it with drops and/or nydus' to abuse mobility and buy more time.
2. Hit with the pure corrupter reload as soon as possible, rather than defensively when toss is in your base line.
3. Reload after the corrupters with roach ling or anything to clean up the likely high stalker count that will be left over.
Idra's big mistake was sloppily losing his first army doing almost no damage and then because of that having the corrupter reload come too late when protoss was too far across the map. I don't think that Zerg having to plan three full engagements to beat this style is unfair because of how easy it is to tell that protoss is doing it.

What Cruncher did Right: Cruncher did have an interesting timing that is more evident in the second game, he gets an extremely fast colossus which was able to hold on against any potential hydra play that Idra would have done. Cruncher's goal, and I thought it was obvious that the goal of void ray colossus was to get up 3 bases and max out on Voids and Colossus, Cruncher did this well, holding any pokes that happened in his base. I'm sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but I thought that Void ray colossus and it's goals were extremely obvious and Cruncher executed the turtling style well.

TL;DR what to learn:
For Zerg: How to stop the void/colossus death ball through a macro style rather than a micro style as Idra does in the second game. Also if you just generally want to know Zerg timings Idra is THE player to watch.
For Toss: How to execute the void/colossus style.

Caution: Idra plays so well this game that your face might melt from the awesome. With that being said, Cruncher goes for the exact same build as last game and Idra completely demolishes him for it. Idra goes hatch first and Cruncher fakes a rush by placing a pylon inside Idra's base which Idra stops by pulling 4 drones. Once Cruncher's void ray makes its way across the map it becomes very apparent that Cruncher is doing the same build. Idra's reaction to a forge fast expand seems to be taking a fast third, and I think it may be safe to say that this is his standard reaction based on these two games. Idra sacks an overlord at 6:15 but is unable to get any good scouting information. Idra grabs his third and fourth gas much faster this game than the last and gets a hydralisk den without even a roach warren upon seeing the void ray. As he gets the hydra den he also starts ventral sacks - a sign of what to come. Idra is up 63 drones to CrunCher's 37, I actually had to pause the VOD and double check as that drone count is insane. Idra then begins Hydra range and OL speed and begins massing hydra's and making a fourth base. Idra moves his overlord's forward and prepares for a big hydra - ling drop in cruncher's main. Despite this looking like a game winning move, Cruncher's colossus manages to pop out in time to hold the drop, this aggression from Idra is happening right as Cruncher is trying to drone up his third. Idra continues dropping and abusing Cruncher's slow army. Idra continues the perfect balance of units, drones, and expansions, all while not allowing Cruncher to feel safe. Once Idra gets corrupters out and is able to isolate pockets of Cruncher's ball, he is able to harass Cruncher to death and force a gg.

This is the perfect example of how to defeat the colossus void ball in a micro oriented style. The ball requires just that - being a ball - to survive. Idra is able abuse a late colossus timing from Cruncher with a hydra drop - as hydralisks are supreme before colossus are out, and after the first drop is able to slowly destroy Cruncher's army and economy as his army cannot be everywhere at once, even on this map where the three bases are so close together. To apply this to the first game, imagine if Idra had done this multi pronged attack with his first max army, remade corrupters, then remade roach hydra to finish off the gateway units. Either way this game is a must watch for Idra's incredible play. Also it is very useful to see how Zerg can be aggressive, while still droning.

Idra opens pool , hatch, gas, opting to take the greedy expansion outside of his own base. Cruncher opts for a one gate expand, but gets a stalker instead of a sentry, possibly to fake a 4 gate or to deny scouting more easily. CrunCher get's up 4 more warp gates after expanding, putting him at 6 gates. CrunCher has a huge sentry count and Idra still is unable to completely scout what Cruncher is doing. Idra is playing somewhat safe, getting a few roaches and roach speed, but no burrow. Idra sees a small force of mainly sentries push out from Cruncher, and assumes that it is simply a fake attack. As the units approach Idra's front he calls what he perceives to be a bluff from Cruncher and begins 7 drones. Cruncher is able to dominate what few roaches Idra has out with excellent forcefields and take the game, with a friendly smiley face to boot.

I cringed as I saw the pylon finish and Idra make 7 drones. If this larvae had been roaches, the game would have been much closer. Without seeing the affects of this decision to make 7 drones, it is difficult to speculate what would have happened.