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Introduction
This is a mini-guide based on the notes I've taken during the GSL semifinals between Genius and aLive. I've been looking for a good standard opening against 1 rax gasless FE and this build order looks extremely solid. There are of course alternatives, like Nexus before core or HuK's 20 Nexus, but none of them seems to be as safe as this opening. At the same time Genius variation is superior in terms of tech and economy to other 1 gate FEs designed against gas openings, like MC's 1 gate FE or 2 gas 1 gate FE.
The Nexus comes nearly a minute faster than in the other two and robo is started before 6 minutes mark. At the same time an early sentry makes this build safe against any gasless shenanigans a terran can do, like 3 rax all-in etc. This build also gets a good number of sentries early on which makes it safe against mid game pressure, especially on maps with secondary ramp.
What about terran gas builds?
This opening is designed against gasless play from terran and I have not seen Genius using it against gas openings. Also I believe (someone prove me wrong if I'm mistaken) it may have difficulties surviving early rax pressure. Against tech-lab expand you'll only have a stalker and a sentry vs 2 marauders 1 marine and 2-3 scv's which makes it rather difficult. Against 2 rax pressure you'll have a zealot, stalker and 3 sentries versus the push that comes at 6:45, which is not that bad, however vs earlier push around 6:00 with 7 marines and 1 marauder you'll have almost no units.
Build order
First three chronoboosts go on probes.
- 9 pylon
- 13 gate
- 14 gas
- 16 pylon
- 18 core
- 21 stalker (chrono)
- 23 warp-gate research (chrono)
- 24 Nexus (4:10)
- 25 pylon
- 26 sentry
- 28 2x gateway
- 30 gas
- 31 pylon
- 32 robo (5:45)
- chrono probes
- 6:30 warp-gates done: warp-in zealot and 2 sentries
- 6:45 robo done: chrono observer followed by second one
- 7:30 take 2 more gases
- 8:00+ tech
Scouting
This is probably obvious to most people but the fast stalker is there to first kill the scouting SCV and then scout terran's front and deny further scouting. This stalker should stay close to terran's natural or at xel'naga tower in between your bases until first observer is out.
Follow-up
This opening transitions great into any kind of mid-game so I'm not going to cover it here as there is plenty of other guides on it. In general you want to get 4 sentries early and then warp-in mostly zealots. You send your first observer to terran's base asap and drop down your tech after scouting between 8 and 9 minutes. The standard choices include double forge, robo bay and twilight tech.
VODs/Replays
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On March 03 2012 06:14 habermas wrote:
[*]6:30 warp-gates done: warp-in zealot and 2 sentries
Do you mean 6:10?
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The stalker first could be a problem vs the ebay nexus block. Have you seen genius deal with this? I've heard top protoss (minigun) mention that this is unwise and I agree. There may be some subtle reasons why its ok here though... Anyone know?
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On March 03 2012 06:14 habermas wrote:
I've been looking for a good standard opening against 1 rax gasless FE and this build order looks extremely solid. There are of course alternatives, like Nexus before core or HuK's 20 Nexus, but none of them seems to be as safe as this opening. At the same time Genius variation is superior in terms of tech and economy to other 1 gate FEs designed against gas
Maybe this is obvious to everyone but me, but how does this build determine if it's against a 1 rax FE or a 2 rax pressure into expand? Seems like when you commit to not building a zealot first you're in a tough spot defending an expo if an early conc shell push hits. Or is this based on there being certain maps where conc shell timings aren't viable? If not, how can you call this "safe"?
To clarify, I don't doubt this works better against 1 rax FE, but how do you know it's a 1 rax FE before skipping the zealot?
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This build crumbles under early rine push or a 2 rax. A best of 5 is the reason why Genius had confidence.
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On March 03 2012 06:54 Treehead wrote:Show nested quote +On March 03 2012 06:14 habermas wrote:
I've been looking for a good standard opening against 1 rax gasless FE and this build order looks extremely solid. There are of course alternatives, like Nexus before core or HuK's 20 Nexus, but none of them seems to be as safe as this opening. At the same time Genius variation is superior in terms of tech and economy to other 1 gate FEs designed against gas Maybe this is obvious to everyone but me, but how does this build determine if it's against a 1 rax FE or a 2 rax pressure into expand? Seems like when you commit to not building a zealot first you're in a tough spot defending an expo if an early conc shell push hits. Or is this based on there being certain maps where conc shell timings aren't viable? If not, how can you call this "safe"? To clarify, I don't doubt this works better against 1 rax FE, but how do you know it's a 1 rax FE before skipping the zealot?
Pull probes, you're a nexus and usually up to 10 probes ahead of a terran doing a 2 rax, let them hit your nexus for a 1000+ hp, wait for your first warpin if you can, then go in with 10-20 probes and your army, outside of mkp micro you should be able to clean up the push and come out even, but you then have to know if he's doing a stim all in follow up, a medivac timing, or if he's expanded behind it, there's no good way to defend or play evenly vs all the options terran has from there without a good scout off, though of course it really depends on how many probes you lost.
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Though I would like to know how he modifies his build if he scouts a gas, does he go 3 gate then nexus, 2 gate robo expand? It'd help if the post gave a better idea of what to change if a gas is scouted.
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Yeah, if the Terran is gasless expanding and sees that you skipped the zealot with no 2nd gas, his proper response is to ebay block your natural. You can work around this by starting the zealot, then canceling it right before it finishes, and sending a probe down to your natural early to prevent the SCV from starting an ebay where it would block your nexus.
Overall, I think it's worth it to just go ahead and get the zealot tho. With the zealot, there's no risk of ebay blocking, and you can use the zealot in a scouting poke to confirm that T has expanded.
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On March 03 2012 06:51 Canopus wrote:
The stalker first could be a problem vs the ebay nexus block. Have you seen genius deal with this? I've heard top protoss (minigun) mention that this is unwise and I agree. There may be some subtle reasons why its ok here though... Anyone know?
If I'm going 1 rax gasless expo, the first thing im looking at is if that zlot is making, if not, it will take forever to kill the ebay, so yer that'd be a huge problem I'd imagine.
Edit: You can work around this by starting the zealot, then canceling it right before it finishes, and sending a probe down to your natural early to prevent the SCV from starting an ebay where it would block your nexus.
That's quite smart.
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On March 03 2012 07:00 RaiD.RaynoR wrote:
This build crumbles under early rine push or a 2 rax. A best of 5 is the reason why Genius had confidence.
Depends on map, and you can easily make adjustments to hold both.
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On March 03 2012 07:05 kcdc wrote:
Yeah, if the Terran is gasless expanding and sees that you skipped the zealot with no 2nd gas, his proper response is to ebay block your natural. You can work around this by starting the zealot, then canceling it right before it finishes, and sending a probe down to your natural early to prevent the SCV from starting an ebay where it would block your nexus.
Overall, I think it's worth it to just go ahead and get the zealot tho. With the zealot, there's no risk of ebay blocking, and you can use the zealot in a scouting poke to confirm that T has expanded.
This is key, since some terrans will fake a 1 rax FE and go for some 3 rax or proxy rax non-sense. The added scouting is key and the zealot has a much better chance compaired to a probe.
Also, fear proxy rax's on any 3 spawn map(metal and shattered) or fixed spawns. The zealot is also clutch on these maps for sniffing that maddness out.
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Since it seems it's not clear to everyone, you determine if terran is taking gas with your initial probe scout. This means 13 gate scout on 2 players map and 9 pylon scout on 4 players map.
I'm not sure about ebay block. Never seen it done or had it done to me. Is there a reason why aLive doesn't do this, even though Genius doesn't queue up a zealot?
Finally I agree that starting a zealot may be a good idea. Personally if I see gas from terran or I'm denied scouting I go ahead with MC's 1 gate FE. I don't know what Genius does. I treat this BO as a deviation from MC's opening if I manage to scout no gas. I cancel zealot and do this opening, otherwise I go with MC's version.
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Whenever I do this build, I get ebay blocked right after I cancel the zealot, unless I patrol a probe, in which case it becomes obvious that I am expanding. Also, I flat out lose to reapers that fly into my base when the stalker is almost to theirs, right before my sentry finishes. Then my sentry dies to the reaper if they micro it correctly. Even when I catch the reaper with probes and my sentry lives, i still lose 3-4 probes in the process.
Any suggestions? Don't know how necessary replays are in this case since its such early stuff, but if you need me to I can dig through and find some.
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On March 03 2012 07:05 kcdc wrote:
Yeah, if the Terran is gasless expanding and sees that you skipped the zealot with no 2nd gas, his proper response is to ebay block your natural. You can work around this by starting the zealot, then canceling it right before it finishes, and sending a probe down to your natural early to prevent the SCV from starting an ebay where it would block your nexus.
Overall, I think it's worth it to just go ahead and get the zealot tho. With the zealot, there's no risk of ebay blocking, and you can use the zealot in a scouting poke to confirm that T has expanded.
I like to pretend im making a zealot and then cancel it once scout is gone and make nexus with probe that returns from scouting duty :D ofc some terrans will ebay block you just for the sake of doing it but thats rather small number of cases
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On April 11 2012 21:42 YosHGo wrote:Show nested quote +On March 03 2012 07:05 kcdc wrote:
Yeah, if the Terran is gasless expanding and sees that you skipped the zealot with no 2nd gas, his proper response is to ebay block your natural. You can work around this by starting the zealot, then canceling it right before it finishes, and sending a probe down to your natural early to prevent the SCV from starting an ebay where it would block your nexus.
Overall, I think it's worth it to just go ahead and get the zealot tho. With the zealot, there's no risk of ebay blocking, and you can use the zealot in a scouting poke to confirm that T has expanded. I like to pretend im making a zealot and then cancel it once scout is gone and make nexus with probe that returns from scouting duty :D ofc some terrans will ebay block you just for the sake of doing it but thats rather small number of cases
That's what I do too, just begin production on a zealot regardless. If he goes for an ebay block, you can let the zealot finish and shut it down easily. If he doesn't ebay block, you can cancel and go stalker first.
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On April 12 2012 02:22 TangSC wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2012 21:42 YosHGo wrote:On March 03 2012 07:05 kcdc wrote:
Yeah, if the Terran is gasless expanding and sees that you skipped the zealot with no 2nd gas, his proper response is to ebay block your natural. You can work around this by starting the zealot, then canceling it right before it finishes, and sending a probe down to your natural early to prevent the SCV from starting an ebay where it would block your nexus.
Overall, I think it's worth it to just go ahead and get the zealot tho. With the zealot, there's no risk of ebay blocking, and you can use the zealot in a scouting poke to confirm that T has expanded. I like to pretend im making a zealot and then cancel it once scout is gone and make nexus with probe that returns from scouting duty :D ofc some terrans will ebay block you just for the sake of doing it but thats rather small number of cases That's what I do too, just begin production on a zealot regardless. If he goes for an ebay block, you can let the zealot finish and shut it down easily. If he doesn't ebay block, you can cancel and go stalker first.
There is always a window for them to ebay block still though if they do it well if they just move the scv to your natural just as the cyber finishes (which is when you'll be canceling your zealot). Unless you've cut gas and scouted late you won't be able to get the nexus down before the cyber finishes. Ebay blocks are seriously underused at the moment, such a simple trick to get so far ahead.. Ebay blocking while the zealot is moving to the terran is also just a good move for terran to do. It's not like terrans can't fit the 125 into their builds either as delaying the bunker for it is easily worth it most times.
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On April 12 2012 03:33 Markwerf wrote:Show nested quote +On April 12 2012 02:22 TangSC wrote:On April 11 2012 21:42 YosHGo wrote:On March 03 2012 07:05 kcdc wrote:
Yeah, if the Terran is gasless expanding and sees that you skipped the zealot with no 2nd gas, his proper response is to ebay block your natural. You can work around this by starting the zealot, then canceling it right before it finishes, and sending a probe down to your natural early to prevent the SCV from starting an ebay where it would block your nexus.
Overall, I think it's worth it to just go ahead and get the zealot tho. With the zealot, there's no risk of ebay blocking, and you can use the zealot in a scouting poke to confirm that T has expanded. I like to pretend im making a zealot and then cancel it once scout is gone and make nexus with probe that returns from scouting duty :D ofc some terrans will ebay block you just for the sake of doing it but thats rather small number of cases That's what I do too, just begin production on a zealot regardless. If he goes for an ebay block, you can let the zealot finish and shut it down easily. If he doesn't ebay block, you can cancel and go stalker first. There is always a window for them to ebay block still though if they do it well if they just move the scv to your natural just as the cyber finishes (which is when you'll be canceling your zealot). Unless you've cut gas and scouted late you won't be able to get the nexus down before the cyber finishes. Ebay blocks are seriously underused at the moment, such a simple trick to get so far ahead.. Ebay blocking while the zealot is moving to the terran is also just a good move for terran to do. It's not like terrans can't fit the 125 into their builds either as delaying the bunker for it is easily worth it most times.
Cutting gas (or more specifically pulling Probes from gas so only 1 or 2 is mining) to get your Nexus up faster is pretty standard AFAIK for early no Zealot fast Nexus builds like the 20 Nexus, and the timing works out so that your Probe is heading to or at your natural ready to throw down the nexus around when your core finishes. And even if it's not standard when ebay blocks become more common it will become standard I'm sure. So in this case I don't know if it's worth it for the terran player to ebay block and they are most certainly not "far ahead" so I don't see this as a big deal. Also you can cancel/restart your Zealot in your gateway all day and the terran player can't tell because the gateway stays "lit-up" as if it is constantly producing the whole time, so there's no way a Terran player can "time" the ebay with a canceled Zealot (Oracles are not in the game yet  ).
Also there are sneaky things protoss players can do here too. Remember that MMA vs Oz game where Oz faked an expo, MMA ebay blocked, but Oz actually had proxied gates near MMA's base? The late bunker there lost MMA the game as he couldn't keep Stalkers out and he got micro'ed to death. I believe the game was during the last GSL season of 2011 in which MMA eventually won.
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Well only if your build is taking very minimal gas AND you scout late (after cyber for example) can you throw up the nexus before the cyber finishes (if you want to start warpgate on time). You could keep a zealot producing while your cyber is already finished but you're delaying the stalker then. If terran is smart they should be heading to go for an engi block right when the cyber just finished and there is no zealot out, then P has either canceled the zealot or they are late with the zealot and thus delay their stalker. Either way engi block is probably safe and likely to delay P significantly.
To avoid this problem I often just play a greedy build where I scout after cyber and mine exactly enough gas to have 50-60ish when cyber finished which let me make nexus before i even start warpgate, fast enough to make it unlikely to be blocked. With enough chrono on warpgate it's even safe against most builds.
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On April 12 2012 04:56 Markwerf wrote:
Well only if your build is taking very minimal gas AND you scout late (after cyber for example) can you throw up the nexus before the cyber finishes (if you want to start warpgate on time). You could keep a zealot producing while your cyber is already finished but you're delaying the stalker then. If terran is smart they should be heading to go for an engi block right when the cyber just finished and there is no zealot out, then P has either canceled the zealot or they are late with the zealot and thus delay their stalker. Either way engi block is probably safe and likely to delay P significantly.
To avoid this problem I often just play a greedy build where I scout after cyber and mine exactly enough gas to have 50-60ish when cyber finished which let me make nexus before i even start warpgate, fast enough to make it unlikely to be blocked. With enough chrono on warpgate it's even safe against most builds.
We're getting a bit too into the nitty gritty here, but the timing on core finishing and throwing down your nexus is very very close on 20 Nexus, so my point was your probe is at your natural to see the block and you can then decide if you want to cancel the zealot (you time it to finish right when you would throw down your nexus). Also with a 20 Nexus since you throw it down before any units it delays your stalker regardless. This build however is is a stalker then nexus build, so you can also easily have your probe there at your natural to block an ebay at this time if you were getting a later nexus. The advantage of this later nexus is that you can use the stalker to shoe away the SCV so it is harder for them to confirm you expanded, but of course it is less econ. Personally I just go for the 20 nexus when I confirm gasless expand and don't care if he scouts me or not.
I can tell both of us are perfectionists with our builds so here's a tip if you don't already do it. To optimize mining in the early stages of the game where you only need a certain amount of gas and need max minerals for an early expand, it is better to have no probes on gas until you reach optimal (16 workers) on minerals, and then put probes into gas until you get the required amount. It is less efficient say, initially putting 3 on gas right away since you take away probes which are at that point mining efficiently.
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EPT
