Clarity rebOrn- Zerg Replay Pack #1

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Download here!

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Hey there! My name is Arthur “rebOrn” Lee and I’m a Zerg playing for Clarity Gaming! I’m a 19-year-old college student from Bellevue, Washington. I’ve been playing StarCraft 2 since its release, currently (and consistently) Top 25 in Grand Master. I play a very mixed style with high variance, a style that I hope will carry me through to WCS America’s Challenger League this year!

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While I personally feel like ZvP is currently the trickiest matchup, it’s the matchup I feel I understand the best. CONSTANT scouting is of the utmost importance against Protoss, and should play into a very reactive style. Protoss have a huge variety of available options right now in all stages of the game, so you have to remain vigilant and keep an eye on what your opponent is doing. This gets much harder to do against Phoenix openings since it prevents overlord scouting, additionally the Mothership Core gives Protoss a lot of breathing room in terms of scouting defense (and defense in general).

Things to keep an eye on when scouting:

• How many gasses he has and how many probes are in each
  
• What he’s using Chrono Boosts on
  
• The structure and vulnerabilities of his wall
  
• Whether he’s producing probes
  
• When a probe moves out to build a proxy pylon and when/where he wants to drop it

Not as unbeatable as we used to think it was.

I’ve been experimenting with Ultra/Viper/Infestor/Queen compositions lately. While a three-spellcaster composition is very hard to control, doing so properly is incredibly strong. If I don’t feel like I can get there safely, I’ll default to a more normal Roach/Hydra/Viper while transitioning into Tier 3 or Mutas. I’m personally not a fan of blindly going Ling/Hydra, as I’ve observed that it’s too situational to do so without full information (mostly because of the low cost-efficiency of the army and how expensive hydras are), but I think it may just be a matter of personal preference.

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ZvT is my favorite matchup to play due to its high tempo and small skirmishes. Unlike ZvP, it’s not decided by one major engagement; most of the time, it’s always back and forth, which makes it exciting to both play and watch. The widow mine nerf has changed this matchup a lot, and stylistically made it a bit easier for how I play it. I open fairly standard with 15 Hatch, 16 Pool, 17 Gas. For my taste, I think this is currently the best opening, giving you lings by the time the Reaper arrives while still providing you an early speed and a strong economy. Although it is a bit less economical than gasless openings, it keeps you safe from Hellion harass and gives you map presence for counter attacks. I can usually hold the INnoVation Hellion/Reaper harass with a 3-queen opener, as two doesn’t feel like enough but four feels like overkill. 2 queens can be easily picked off by hellion reaper. From there on, I play completely standard with early upgrades and Ling/Bling/Muta.


What it looks like when you’ve done it right.

Against mech, I try to be extremely aggressive and end the game as early as possible. The most important thing about playing against mech is not allowing terran to get to their ultimate army; when they reach that point, it becomes almost impossible to win an engagement against a good terran when they get to that point. The best way I’ve found to stop them from getting there is to keep mixing it up and transitioning dynamically. I believe that it’s a major misconception that Swarmhosts are the answer to mech. rather than allowing you to kill your opponent, it creates a state of stasis where the Terran is given a bigger window to get to their ultimate army.

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ZvZ is a very volatile matchup with a wide variety of openings (ranging from early poll all-ins to ultra-greedy gasless expands). As such, some ZvZs can simply come down to build-order wins. Two of the most of popular openings in the current meta include fast lair into mutas, and gasless into roaches. Muta vs Muta is very unforgiving; often, if one player loses his third, he also loses the game. The key to circumventing such a loss is control of the watchtowers and control the map with mutas, while simply avoiding making the bigger mistakes. It can be very difficult to gauge who has more Mutas, but if you sense that you have a lead and are ahead or even on upgrades, that’s an advantage you can press. Inversely, gasless has become extremely popular due to its variance of transitions, providing strong creep spread and economy on four queens and being extremely safe. The downside of doing a greedy gasless build is that you forfeit map control, which allows the opposing player to be equally (or sometimes more) greedy in lieu of trying to punish your greed.


Where map control can get you.

Lately, it seems like 9-pool has become the early pool standard, since the pool completes roughly 10 seconds earlier than a 10-pool. Failing that, a pool at nine rather than ten gives you better odds of cancelling a hatchery if the opposing Zerg goes pool/hatch first. If the game makes it to Roach vs Roach, It’s always advisable to make an overseer and check how many drones there are in your opponent 3rd base. If you see he’s making drones you are safe to drone yourself. Again, scouting is of the utmost important’ knowing what tech route he’s going (whether it be Roach/Bane, Roach/Infestor, Roach/Hydra, or even Ling styles).

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There are 18 replays in this pack, (8 ZvP, 6 ZvT, 4 ZvZ), including games against QXC, Minigun, Hellokitty, Jig, Suppy, Xenocider, CreatorPrime, MajOr, and Vibe. Most of them are ladder games, I’m very open to explaining any facets of my play I may not have touched on, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, and I hope you check out and enjoy the replays! Also, my team, Clarity Gaming is awesome; please follow and support them! And also #SaveHyuN by watching his stream and donating!

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@Clarity_rebOrn
Twitch.TV/rebOrn3

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@Clarity_Gaming
Facebook.com/ClarityGaming
Twitch.TV/Clarity_Gaming
ClarityGaming.com

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