[GSL] (Spoilers) Group H PvP Analysis

Puzzle's build:
9 Pylon
12 Gateway (scout)
14 Gas
15 Pylon
17 Core
18 Gate(2)
19 Gas (2)
19 Stalker; WG
23 Pylon
23 Stalker
26 Stargate
27 Zealot
29 Sentry
31 Gate (3)
Probes are cut (1z2s1s, 6 probes on gas, 16 on minerals)
Phoenix production begins

Parting's build:
9 Pylon
12 Gateway
14 Gas
14 Pylon (scout)
17 Core
20 Stalker (CB'd); WG
23 Stalker (CB'd)
28 Nexus - temporary probe cut
28 Stalker
30 Gate (2)
30 Gate (3)
30 Robo
30 Stalker - resume probe production
34 Pylon
@100 Robo, Immortal
Probes are cut at 29

Puzzle's build is an extremely safe yet slightly inefficient 2 gate into stargate phoenix build. It will hold a 4gate, but it sacrifices secondary scouting by delaying the initial gateway units. Against 1 gas builds (or if the second gas is taken after his probe scout is shut down by a stalker), he will not be able to leave his ramp safely until his phoenixes can help him discern his opponent's actual build.

On maps with a tower in the middle, scouting cross spawns first is beneficial to check for proxy gates, but this map is quite large so proxy gates in the middle of the map will not be very dangerous.

Parting scouts cross first and finds Puzzle immediately. He confirms 2 CB on nexus and standard core timing so he can rule out 10 gate/11 gate pressure. He also sees a quick second gate and a quick second gas. This was most likely the trigger for 1 gate expand, as this opening is very slow to get units out early. He thus skips his sentry for the time being, as it won't be very useful since he will soon take his expansion.

Parting gets his stalker to the tower 1st and is able to clear it. Puzzle attempts a secondary scout outside the reach of the tower, but Parting is luckily able to deny it from the middle of the map with a stalker. Had Puzzled scouted the other way or had Parting sent his stalker through the other path, Puzzle might have seen the expansion sooner.

Puzzle scouts Parting second. He can also confirm 2 CB on nexus and standard core timing. He doesn't see a second gas, which means he cannot rule out a 4gate. He therefore gets a sentry. Once his probe at the tower is denied, he refrains from leaving his ramp with his GW units, most likely because he is afraid of getting pinned had Parting 4gated or even 3 gated. His 2nd gateway and 2nd gas timing prevent him from getting his first stalkers out quickly, so he is unable to establish any map presence and thus get any follow-up scouting done with stalker pokes

Puzzle doesn't see Parting's expansion until he spots it with a phoenix. Never a good feeling. Parting cannot discern if Puzzle expanded in reaction, because he skips his observer for safety.

Puzzle's fast 2 gate build disabled him from poking with his initial stalkers which would have shown him the Nexus unless Parting had more stalkers out on the map. The extremely safe and passive build that Parting was able to scout triggered the 1 gate Nexus, a very bold move. I'm not sure if it's generally a good move, but + Show Spoiler +. The 1 gate Nexus decision was also strengthened by the ramp at the natural. Against pure blink builds, Parting will have the defender's advantage of vision; Puzzle has to get in range of zealots in order to engage. Against blink/obs builds, he will simply have enough units in time to defend. Against robo builds that forgo colossus, he will be able to block zealots from attacking up the ramp with forcefields. Against robo builds that get colossus, he should be able to get enough GW units and immortals in time to stop it. An observer would have been made to discern which was coming if he did not see the push coming at ~7:20, or had already seen Puzzle's phoenixes.

+ Show Spoiler +

Puzzle had to make a decision: he could either expand himself while using his phoenixes to pick off probes to negate some of the income advantage Parting enjoyed from his faster expansion, or go all in and try to kill Parting before his expansion was able to give him a sizable unit advantage. Because Parting cannot tell whether or not Puzzle had expanded, he has to keep his probe count relatively low to be safe against 1 base pushes. By the time the push begins, Parting is only up but 5 or 6 probes, though he has a much higher income because he can spread them over 2 bases. Puzzle knew that Parting would not have blink any time soon thanks to his phoenix scouting, so he could have picked off several probes uncontested whilst Parting is hesitant to replace them, as Puzzle happily chronoboosts his own probes, more adequately saturates his bases meanwhile teching to colossus or twilight without fear of any pressure coming his way.

However, Puzzle believed that his best option at that point was to all-in. He picks off a few of Parting's probes, which would have been a great move if he was expanding himself. But since he is going all-in, this move only takes away gravitons he could have used in the engagement in exchange for a few probes that really do not matter, as Puzzle is trying to end the game as quick as possible.

During the engage at Parting's natural, Puzzle's phoenixes are all but depleted of energy. He only has one graviton beam to use because he wasted them all on probes. He therefore must pick up the sentry that has energy to place the 3rd force field and block off the rest of his units. Puzzle spent a total of FIVE gravitons on probes. Had he saved this energy, he would have been able to lift a sentry and both immortals at the beginning of the engagement, and then he would have been able to keep the immortals lifted throughout the entire engagement. There were some noticeable errors in stalker focus fire and graviton usage after the fact that might have tipped the scales in one way or another, as well.

Puzzle's build is about as safe as a 2gate stargate opener can be. However, it lacks a secondary scout which allows his opponent to play greedy. Parting saw the 2nd gate and 2nd gas start, so there is no reason why he should not try to be as greedy as possible. From here, Parting played it very well. He cut probes at such a number where he had not invested a significantly large sum of minerals to his economy while still reaping the benefits of having expanded in time for Puzzle's push. The magic number here was 29. We are unable to discern when Parting would have gotten his observer out, but always consider that when you are expanding first in PvP and have no way to scout whether or not your opponent has expanded in reply, he can safely make more probes than you have and may surpass you in economy if you do not scout it in time because you have to cut probes to prepare for a 1 base timing that may or may not be coming. I don't recommend this 1 gate nexus response by Parting on maps that do not have a ramp at the natural.

Puzzle's build
9 Pylon
12 Gate (scout)
14 Gas
15 Pylon
17 Core
18 Zealot, though it is canceled
19 Gas (2)
20 Stalker; WG
23 Pylon
24 Stalker
27 Twilight
27 Gate (2)
28 Sentry - probe cut
30 Gate (3)
30 Blink
33 Hallucination

Parting's build
9 Pylon
12 Gate (scout in base proxies, return to mining)
14 Gas
15 Pylon
16 Core (scout)
18 Gate (2)
18 Gas (2)
19 Stalker; WG
23 Pylon
24 Stalker
26 Stalker
29 Pylon
30 2 Stalkers (up to 5)
35 200 mins Robo (300 gas.....)
36 Nexus

Notes on builds

Puzzle's build is what I would call a safe 1gate tech build. the 2 stalkers will help zone the approach if a 4gate were coming, and the sentry is out in time to block the ramp way before the 1st warp-in would be ready. He cut the zealot after seeing no zealot from his opponent. I assume this means that he feels confident in holding a 4gate without that zealot after a faked 2nd gas into a 4gate with no zealot on 18. + Show Spoiler +

I don't like Parting's build. First, He gets his core on 16 before scout, which is unnecessary and only gives his opponent almost a full probe advantage. He's not going to do anything with the 16 core, so it's simply inefficient. He then does the build Puzzle did in game 1, but it is even less economical, getting his 2nd gate and 2nd gas on 18 food and cutting probes to do so. Getting a 2nd gas this early and mining from it for a 2 gate robo expand is just bad play; there is no way he can spend these resources efficiently based on his production capabilities throughout the entire game. For this build, you can get your 2nd gas after 1 stalker or 2 stalkers and still maintain the same stalker production and robo timing. In fact, you'd get them faster because you're not wasting probes on unnecessary gas.

Puzzle gets to Parting's base in time to see Parting start his core. The timing nothing out of the ordinary. He also sees Parting start his second gate and take his second gas, skipping the zealot. Puzzle cancels his zealot and starts his second gas. He also scouts 2 back to back chronoboosts on WG tech, but doesn't necessarily react, as this is not anything out of the ordinary; he has also seen that Parting did in fact begin mining from his 2nd gas before leaving the base. Looks like the seeds of a safe build that won't be able to pressure outside of what Puzzle is able to hold with his first sentry.

Parting gets to Puzzle's base when Puzzle is beginning his first stalker and WG tech. He can thus account for Puzzle's chronoboosts so far, and can see that 2 were used on probes. He gets there in time to see that the second gas is nearly complete and stays long enough to see it finish.

Puzzle sees the probe leaving from the top left expansion, but knows it's not safe to clear it immediately and that it's too far from his ramp to represent any immediate aggression. Upon Parting's poke, he confirms at least 2 stalkers and a sentry. The quick 2nd gas and the possibility of a pylon in the upper left would make me think DT's as Puzzle, but doesn't seem to think this warrants detection. This could have been the presence of at least 5 stalkers, though as we noted, Parting had plenty of gas to spare. Keep that in your back pocket, I guess.

An unforgivable mistake by Parting- You absolutely cannot expand on daybreak off of 2 gates and a robo given the information Parting had. Parting Only saw 2 stalkers and a sentry with stalker initial poke, which pins Puzzle on absolutely NOTHING. You might be able to get away with 2 gate robo expand against a blink all in on shakuras because of the natural's geography (though the addition of hallucination might mess that up, though that is 2 stalkers worth of gas to give up), but absolutely NOT on daybreak. The 2nd ramp is too far from your main, meaning your reinforcing immortals have a long way to waddle, and your opponent opt to take the other route to your natural. If the blink stalkers can engage you without the inconvenience of ffs on a 2ff choke, 2 gate robo expand will lose 100% of the time given the most barely correct blink micro. Artosis called this a build order loss, but it was simply terrible decision making based on all available information

It seemed as though Puzzle had his mind set on the blink all-in from the start. He canceled his zealot upon seeing that Parting had forgone his zealot, opting for quick second gate instead. He didn't scout the expansion until his stalkers arrived at the natural, so this did not shape his decisions (though he might have Parting pegged as one to take greedy expansions; this, however, would manifest itself from the second the game started rather than the timing of his move-out).

Not a whole lot to say on execution. Parting blindly expanded when he absolutely could not, and where he absolutely could not, and Puzzle's micro didn't have to be perfect to punish this terrible decision.

I haven't the slightest idea how the quick 2nd gate and 2nd gas on 18 or 19 supply opener is so prevalent. It doesn't seem to be able to do anything a 1gate build couldn't, and you cut probes in order to follow it. Puzzle's opener was much more efficient. He got his 2nd gas and Twilight at good times, allowing him to delay additional gates until he actually had sustained use for them, while still being safe from any foreseeable threats.

2gate robo expand is terrible on maps where you cannot abuse a secondary ramp. If you do this, you will die to any number of 1 base pushes. Especially blink all-ins.

Korean PvP befuddles me O_O