[G] GrandMaster SC2 Lecture: Aggressive Zerg Play

While I'm known as a cheesy/aggressive player, it doesn't mean I just blindly open with an all-in build, attack-move my units, and cross my fingers. There's more to it than that, there are subtle bits of information I use to determine whether to attack or macro, and there's more finesse to the execution than just mashing 1 a-move. That's why I'd like to make a distinction between a Blind Cheese and an Aggressive Response.

Putting all your eggs in one basket: A Blind Cheese is a predetermined strategy or build that requires no scouting information to execute. It requires no in-depth strategical thinking and typically has zero economic follow-through.”
Putting some of your eggs in one basket but leaving a few behind to make drones: An Aggressive Response is a decision to commit to a large-scale attack after holding off pressure or as a result of scouting information. Example: A player opens 2rax pressure, I scout it and I go for a ling/bane 1 base attack (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=273534)

Here is a ZvP game casted by BudhaZerg where I show that, despite being insanely aggressive/all-in early on, there's always a way to macro-up behind it (Assuming your aggressive response was correct and you do some damage):

Since zerg is known primarily as a macro race, people are cutting more and more corners to ensure strong early game economy. You see more and more players opening forge fast expand, 1gate expand, 1racks expand, hatch first, etc. Even a lot of the units that players use to pressure zerg early on will overextend themselves with slow units like marines, banelings, and zealots – since zerg units are pretty fast, you can take the advantage by counter attacking.

Zerg requires the production of one building to tech switch. While obviously you don't want to spend all your resources producing one of every building, you can still tech switch very quickly if your opponent “hard counters” you. Example: You open speedlings, he goes hellions, you build a warren and go for roaches.

You need scouting information anyway, so why not be aggressive and do some damage while acquiring the information you need? Macro players will sacrifice overlords, speedlings, upgrade overlord speed, etc. These are all investments that take out of your abilities to be aggressive, so instead I recommend little timing pushes that will give you two types of information: Direct information and Indirect information
Direct Scouting Information: Tells you exactly what your opponent is doing. Things like how many bases your opponent has, what tech structures he's building, and his unit choice are direct scouting information. Example: In ZvZ you scout he's on one base while you took a fast natural. Also, he only has 1 gas. There is enough direct scouting info to determine he's going to all-in you.
Indirect Scouting Information: Gives you bits and pieces of information that lets me make educated guesses on what your opponent is going to do. Using ZvZ to illustrate this concept, imagine two scenarios. In scenario “A”, you open with my mass-ling style ZvZ (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=274426) and you notice your opponent is using spinecrawlers and minimal amounts of zerglings/banelings to defend. Since he's playing so defensive, you can infer that he's probably not looking to counterattack you. In scenario “B”, your opponent is building ONLY lings and banelings (or lings and roaches) to defend your attacks. Alarm bells should go off in your head, and you should be aware that he has the capability to counterattack/all-in you soon.

There's the obvious element of surprise in that your opponent isn't prepared for your attack and dies, but even if they're able to hold your attack they'll be thrown off their game. TheLittleOne says that he performs best in frantic situations where both sides don't really know whats going on. Emotions and momentum play such an important role in SC2 and by throwing your opponent off, he may be unsure of what to do next while you have all the scenarios planned out.

By attacking, you have complete map control. If they're pressured on the back foot, they're going to be scared to move out and expand when they usually would or scared to move out and attack you. This gives you time to drone up and take additional based back at home. Example Video (Apologies: The audio is off-sync) (http://www.youtube.com/user/budhazerg#p/u/4/H3YxQ1VIJxY )

A build designed to add structure and constant aggression to your play:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=280526

9Overlord
15Hatch
15Pool
18Gas
17Overlord
17 Double Queen / 4xZergling
23-28 Drones
28 Roach Warren
27 Drone
28 2x Overlords
28-42 Roaches
42+ MACRO! Drones, Overlords
52 Start 3rd hatch
Goals: Do damage, secure mapcontrol, and throw your terran opponent off his game while taking a 3rd and macroing.
Here is a replay of DongRaeGu executing this build vs ThorZain:

16Hatch
16Gas
16Pool
18Overlord
Double Queen / 4xLings
Drones to 28
28 Roach Warren (Replace the drone to 28)
28 Zergling Speed
28 2x Overlords
28 Roaches all the way to 44/44
44 2x Overlords
44+ Speedlings (Rallied onto the roaches)
Lead with the roaches to get up into the terran main, if he has a bunker try to surround it before he can repair. Continue reinforcing with lings if you think you can win outright. If not, drone behind your attack and do what damage you can.
Here is an example game using this style as an All-In (Again, the audio is out of sync - Sorry!)

Here is another example of the roach/ling attack off of a gas/pool opening:

The build and analysis can be found at:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=274426
An example of aggressive ZvZ casted by Katide:

Losira popularized this style of play and it is incredibly powerful against 1gate or 3gate expansions because you either win the game outright, deny his expansion, or at the very least kill valuable sentries and probes while securing map control and taking the economic advantage. For build orders, check out Losira games or visit several of the TL threads on this subject:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=252865#1
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=217720

Here is an example against xSixPainuser:
http://drop.sc/50243 / http://www.justin.tv/ignproleague/b/298791823 (Game begins 30minutes in)
Here is an example against VTAvilo:
http://drop.sc/51934
Here is an example against GoSuPokebuni:
http://drop.sc/50244
Here is an example against NoxMistakes:
http://drop.sc/50264
Here is an example against Cyrain:
http://drop.sc/51064
Here is an example against KyrO:
http://drop.sc/51070
Here is an example against Sterling:
http://drop.sc/51935

http://drop.sc/54740 (FruitDealer)
http://drop.sc/54765 (ZelNiq)
http://drop.sc/54751 (PPGbubbles)
http://drop.sc/54753 (REQShuffle)
http://drop.sc/55503 (Computer)
http://drop.sc/55496 (YanagiNagi)
http://drop.sc/55485 (Goswer)
http://drop.sc/55482 (sKsDhalism)
http://drop.sc/54766 (ZeroSkill)
http://drop.sc/54760 (Unyb)
http://drop.sc/54759 (TylerDurden)
http://drop.sc/54757 (Sushi)
http://drop.sc/54755 (Secretasnman)
http://drop.sc/54743 (Inflowlooky)
http://drop.sc/54738 (FitzyHere)
http://drop.sc/54737 (FitzyHere2)
http://drop.sc/54732 (Element)
http://drop.sc/54730 (DarkChigo)
http://drop.sc/54727 (clSBellini)
http://drop.sc/54724 (BuBuKitty)
http://drop.sc/54723 (bnYdice)
http://drop.sc/54722 (bnYdice2)
http://drop.sc/54721 (BlackMamba)

Please try to keep the replies to this thread as constructive and positive as possible, even if you disagree with the concepts presented. It's much more helpful to provide constructive feedback than it is to be disrespectful of others' ideas. Our goal is to improve and help each other out, not start flame wars. If there is a situation you'd like to be more aggressive in, please reply to this post with your thoughts and problems. I will produce additional aggressive zerg guides and answer as many questions as time allows.