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Hi folks, I'm Otter and I'm a high diamond zerg player from Australia! 7 pooling against protoss is one of my favourite things to do but seems quite unpopular at the moment, so I thought I'd throw together a guide and some videos for you guys to explain why I love it so much =D
This version of the 7 pool is definitely not an all in (although I like to follow up with one) but instead does early economic damage to put you at an advantage while setting up your exapnsion =D. It is not without risk, however, as if you totally fail to damage his economy you will pretty much straight up lose D=.
The core build
+ Show Spoiler +7 pool (send next drone to scout on 4 player maps)
Drone to 9
Double extractor trick
3xLings
12 overlord
12 queen
Drone to 17
Ling or drone (depending upon risk of cannons at nat)
18 hatch
The all-in follow up
+ Show Spoiler +Queen at main asap, transfer to nat
Drone to 36, overlord and double gas
Drone to 44, overlord then grab 3rd gas and roach warren
Ling speed asap
Mass overlords
Mass roaches and lings to taste, enjoy!
Execution
+ Show Spoiler +I go into quite a bit more detail in the vids I've linked but the basic idea is not to try to kill him with the lings but to damage his economy as much as possible. If he is walling his nat, break it, you should always be able to kill a gateway and sneak past. Engage the cannon at your discretion, but it will almost always be better to leave it and harass the probes. The alternative is that he has abandoned his pylon and forge and is cannoning his mineral line. In this case, go straight for the main and see what you can do, attacking the pylon should force him to pull probes and you can generally kill one of the extractors. Also important is to rally your 12 overlord to your natural, to see any cannon shennanigans that might be going on there. For more info, watch the vids!
Rather than trying to analyse replays with text, which is often quite dry and a bit of a bother to download, I've uploaded some games with commentary to youtube! (Including a game against Socke from the TSL qualifiers!) Please feel free to comment on the youtube videos or in this thread, constructive criticism welcome (although I would encourage you to watch my game against Socke first. That game was taken before I had really developed the playstyle and I think demonstrates that it is legitimate).
Youtube links:
+ Show Spoiler +
To wrap up, thanks for reading/watching and let me know if you have any questions/suggestions!
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Video against Socke is unavailable =/
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Sorry about that, it's ready now!
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not bad but it will be perfect if you show game that you lose using 7pool. that will be awesome too
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Socke game is ready now, it will provide plenty of losing! =D
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No problem, it's just that you wrote : although I would encourage you to watch my game against Socke first
Anyway, watched two videos for the moment. At first, I thought : "how original, 7 pool into macro mode". But in fact, you do actually develop quite appropriately the follow ups, namely the drone counts. Thanks, I'll put it!
Also, one question : how pitifully does it fail against gate first openings? I personally always open gate expand (diamond zergs seem to be flabbergasted and they do not know how to properly allin it it seems) for the Adonminus opening
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lol , this is why 6/7 dont work against high level player. they know what to do. i thought u got brilliant idea 
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Sick guide man, as a protoss player facing 7 pool is probably one of most frustrating builds to react to just because you feel like you are much more ahead than you really are when you defend!
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Thanks for the feedback fezvez! I haven't played against too many gate first openings with this style, and never against the Adonminus opening, so I'm not too sure how it would go. If you're only building a 12 gate, the 6 lings would at the very least force a forge and cannon, as they could kill the gateway before more than 1 zealot is out (theorycrafting somewhat there). I have played a game where my opponent went gate first at top of ramp, added a forge and cannon to wall, then went one base 3 gate robo all in with warp prism and +1 weapons, an excellent follow up. In general though I think gate first if properly managed would put the toss slightly ahead, although not unwinnable for the zerg.
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With respect S2Glow, I make it pretty clear in the vid that I made some serious mistakes and could potentially have beaten Socke (maybe). The point of that vid is not that it will allow a shitty diamond player like me to beat a pro, just that the build is not inherently deficient, as the game stabilised in a very even (if not zerg favoured) position. Thanks for the feedback though =D!
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New Zealand459 Posts
On July 18 2012 16:36 S2Glow wrote:lol , this is why 6/7 dont work against high level player. they know what to do. i thought u got brilliant idea
You'd be suprised ^.^ I play at mid master kr, and it works really well, as long as you react appropriatly to how they react.
Ie. if they sack the forge you expo and macro and prepare for 4gate.
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On July 18 2012 16:38 AnOtter wrote:
Thanks for the feedback fezvez! I haven't played against too many gate first openings with this style, and never against the Adonminus opening, so I'm not too sure how it would go. If you're only building a 12 gate, the 6 lings would at the very least force a forge and cannon, as they could kill the gateway before more than 1 zealot is out (theorycrafting somewhat there). I have played a game where my opponent went gate first at top of ramp, added a forge and cannon to wall, then went one base 3 gate robo all in with warp prism and +1 weapons, an excellent follow up. In general though I think gate first if properly managed would put the toss slightly ahead, although not unwinnable for the zerg.
A protoss opening with gateway at ramp can just add another gateway and then make a pylon for the full block. Shortly before the 1st zealot finishes, he pulls something like 4 or 5 probes and then cancels the blocking pylon when the zealot is out. Probes and zealot will easily drive away the lings. Then he just moves out once he has 5 zealots and transitions into anything he wants. He doesn't even have to cut probe production for this.
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On July 18 2012 17:02 Drunken.Jedi wrote:
A protoss opening with gateway at ramp can just add another gateway and then make a pylon for the full block. Shortly before the 1st zealot finishes, he pulls something like 4 or 5 probes and then cancels the blocking pylon when the zealot is out. Probes and zealot will easily drive away the lings. Then he just moves out once he has 5 zealots and transitions into anything he wants. He doesn't even have to cut probe production for this.
Thanks for the insight Drunken.Jedi, I really just haven't played enough games against gateway first. My advice to anyone coming up against this would be to drop 1-2 spines, get enough lings to be safe, then keep droning and head for roaches
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Definitely going to be trying this on the ladder, as I'm not high plat lol xD. Would be awesome if 10/12 of my games wasn't zvz lol
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If you want a real all in, proxy the hatchery (on 18) in the toss main and make spines and lings xD
Its HILARIOUS!
Of course this works only if he went for FFE. if he went gateway first well, your kinda fucked anyways =-=
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Douillos, only a complete spastic would miss it and not adjust to it.
It's a very unfavourable tactic as you bank on the hope that he may not see the hatchery.
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So 7 pool into roach ling all in?
Um, okay, nice guide.
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On July 18 2012 21:22 Flonomenalz wrote:
So 7 pool into roach ling all in?
Um, okay, nice guide.
Well the roach ling follow up is the only one that I feel is solid enough to write down, but there are plenty of options. If he expands, you could go for a fast third, 2 base muta-ling is fun and if he one bases, you will obviously need to adapt and be more defensive. Thanks for the feedback!
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On July 18 2012 21:22 Flonomenalz wrote:
So 7 pool into roach ling all in?
Um, okay, nice guide.
See, this kind of posts is the reason why I don't participate in the strategy forums so much now. Such short-sighted BS.
To OP, nice work.
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On July 18 2012 21:22 Flonomenalz wrote:
So 7 pool into roach ling all in?
Um, okay, nice guide.
Waiting for a link to all the guides you have taken time to write up
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EPT
