Game 1: Bisu vs Baxter on Gold Rush
Bisu (P) spawned in blue at 5 while Baxter (Z) took yellow at 9. Also it is worth noting that although this is considered a Z favoured map in ZvP (across a very small sample size), Bisu actually allowed Gold Rush to be the 1st and 5th game map, an indication of a high level of confidence in his own ability on the map. Baxter's overlord scouted the right direction, while Bisu went 8p at natural and sent his probe in the correct direction too. Baxter opted for overpool, safe and standard, especially when scouted first when the 12 hat can be delayed forever by a probe. Bisu, who had perfect awareness of Baxter's timings, went for a 13 forge before nexus and delayed Baxter's natural with a pylon, forcing Baxter to take the mineral only instead. A 15 nexus was followed immediately by a cannon, which I'd like to briefly nerd out over.

Early game PvZ is filled with very fine lines between unsafe and too safe, where every piece of scouting information changes the equation dramatically. The most ambitious economic opening is 8p13n, but even with 13f immediately after that would have been unsafe against overpool on this map, assuming that Baxter scouted him first and knew to make six lings. Bisu had to forge before nexus, but he didn't have to rush out a cannon necessarily, he just needed to have the ability to cannon if he saw larva banked and then three eggs as the pool finished. Bisu delayed the decision between cannon then nexus and nexus then cannon until he knew which was safer, and cushioned the delay by continuing probe production to 15. With just two lings spawning Bisu opted for 15c15g, a cannon and a sim city rather than two cannons, and then resumed his macroing.

Bisu answered the question of why he opted for 15g by showing us an incredibly tight build order (8p,13f,15n,15c,15g,16p,17a,18c,19z for anyone interested in copying it) with his pylon and gateway finishing as he got 200 minerals to place his core in his main, the fastest possible core timing for a FE. Baxter took his natural and progressed to three hat lair, with just two zerglings to chase out a scout probe and the rest of his larva spamming drones.

Bisu sent a probe scouting the back passage through the minerals and confirmed that Baxter was playing a standard opener, while his first zealot probed the mineral only before being deflected by six zerglings. At five minutes into the game neither player had actually lost a unit yet, Bisu trying to force zergling production from Baxter and Baxter refusing to make a single zergling more than he had to. "Perfect" play by both.

Bisu went for the standard +1 air corsair followup but then defied the meta by not going for a second gate and +1 ground, but instead rushing for archives. Baxter's zerglings at the front ought to have seen the forge not spinning, evidence that a +1 speedlot attack would not be coming and that the gas was going elsewhere. I'd have liked it if he would have suicided his overlord into Bisu's main to scout at that point, as it was going to be killed by corsairs anyway, but perhaps he already suspected dts without needing to see the archives.

Meanwhile Baxter finished his spire and added his fourth and fifth hatcheries, his zergling count continuing to stay at exactly what he needed to deflect Bisu's zealots if he needed to, and not a zergling more. Impeccable macro play from Baxter. Bisu took down the scouting overlord with his first sairs and then confirmed the 5 hat hydra before retreating from the scourge. Bisu's first dt investigated Baxter's mineral only, finding hydralisks and overlords waiting for him, and amazingly at seven minutes into the game the only casualty was the scout overlord, Bisu bringing his scout probes back alive. But Baxter took the first real blood of the game with two scourge above Bisu's stargate knocking out his spawning 5th corsair.

On two gas apiece, Bisu was content to turtle and tech, sending a dt to dig his way through the eggs along the bottom while making high templar and zealots from four gateways. He knew there would inevitably be a clash between speedlots and hydralisks and that a long midgame is favourable to Protoss, he had no reason to rush when every second gave his ht more energy.

Baxter had preemptively scouted for Bisu's dt coming through the eggs and immediately saw it.


Although Baxter had just one overlord in his main and Bisu's sair dt control was great, he was able to defend against it very ably.


The dt was almost killed before it backed out of overlord vision, and three corsairs were killed before the overlord was finished off. His only mistake was moving his drones a little late, allowing three to be picked off by the dt before his replacement overlord arrived. But three drones, two scourge, and an overlord for three corsairs is a winning trade.

However the exchange did nothing to change the underlying situation, Baxter had a good economy and five hatcheries but just three bases (and two gas) on lair tech, his army was always going to be built around the hydralisk. And Bisu, also on two gas, was banking psi storms while playing with corsairs and dts. The strategic situation was firmly P favoured, and the challenge was on Baxter to break that status quo or inevitably fall behind, while Bisu simply had to respond. Bisu continued to pump corsairs, constantly scouting for Baxter's fourth expansion attempt, ready to delay and deny with minimal expense and risk.

Baxter eventually made his play, cleaning up the dt hiding by the assimilators in his main and taking gas expansion near the top left of the middle.


Bisu immediately scouted it and knew that he had to respond in order to keep the initiative. He sent a sneaky dt poking towards Baxter's natural while moving his main army towards Baxter's mineral only third. Baxter responded with his mass hydra and Bisu promptly threw down the storms.


Then Bisu ran away.

The attack was never intended to break Baxter, Bisu didn't need to, he wasn't being hugely pressured by either Baxter's economy (two gas) or tech (lair). It opened up the map for Bisu's corsairs to resume being disruptive and killing overlords, while forcing hydralisk production and killing a bunch of hydralisks. Bisu could throw his army against the hydralisks, but in doing so he would give the hydralisks value, they could trade themselves for speedlots and therefore potentially map control, securing Baxter's fourth. By pressuring and acting as a screen for the high templar Bisu devalued Baxter's hydralisks without expending his own speedlots.

With the assimilators down Bisu took his safe rear gas natural at 6, surprised to find that Baxter had only killed the assimilators denying him access, and not the ones that denied Bisu an easy land route there. Baxter pushed back out with his mass hydralisks only to find that Bisu had absolutely nothing outside of his natural to be attacked, and eating a storm for his trouble.


Bisu dropped a dt into Baxter's main, killing two drones and delaying a lot of mining, but the attention took him away from his high templar, two of which had gotten lost near some hydralisks.


Then, as Baxter's attention was pulled to cleaning up the dt in his main, Bisu's army pushed out while the dt hopped back into a shuttle. A four zealots slipped out towards Baxter's new fourth while the rest drew the hydralisk fire, with Bisu's corsairs continuing to hunt overlords while all this was going on. When the dust settled Baxter's hydralisks still had "control" of the middle of the map but still found they had absolutely no objectives to take there, Bisu's natural with its cannons and psi storm presenting an extremely undesirable target.

The dt jumped back out of the shuttle, only to find Baxter ready and jump back in, but Baxter's multitasking was too taxed to scourge the shuttle, despite the corsairs being elsewhere. Because at his fourth this was happening.


The dt dropped out of the shuttle again after the hydralisks were pulled to Baxter's fourth, and this happened.


And suddenly, despite not having fought a single full on army vs army fight, Bisu was on three bases and three gas against a three base two gas Zerg with far fewer drones. And while Baxter still had an awful lot of hydralisks there was simply no viable target for them. Bisu's corsairs ruled the skies and Bisu's natural had the cannon and ht defence.

Bisu went up to nine gateways and then, scouting that Baxter was retaking his fourth, pushed. Baxter's hydralisk army, which had controlled the map for the last seven minutes, got an absolutely beautiful double envelopment on Bisu's army.



Incidentally I think Bisu pushed too soon. Every minute that passed increased the size of his army lead and Baxter was still morphing his hive, swarm and adrenal glands, the tools Baxter needed to get back into the game, were still not there. Furthermore Baxter lacked the drones to properly exploit his fourth. The last five minutes had been defined by Baxter investing in hydralisks for the ability to crush a Protoss army and Bisu refusing to give Baxter a Protoss army to crush with the hydralisks, while still getting ahead on economy. I'd have rathered Bisu waited another minute, but that's with a view of both players.

During that battle Bisu dropped a dt in Baxter's natural though.


Baxter's hydralisks had won in the middle and asserted his map control, but there was still absolutely nothing he could do with it. There was no Protoss expansion for them to destroy, there was only a stream of units coming out of Bisu's gateways that he just couldn't match.

GG

Editorial: Baxter's mass hydralisk midgame would have been fantastic at chewing up a +1 speedlot rush and then steamrolling over a Protoss third which lacked sufficient gateways and psi storm to resist. Unfortunately for him Bisu was content to sit on two bases with two gas while getting his upgrades, energy, and tech. The entire game was defined by Bisu not giving Baxter a chance to do what he wanted. Baxter's "standard" ZvP three hat spire five hat hydra was perfect, he didn't lose a single drone, he didn't make a single zergling more than he needed, he didn't make sunkens he didn't need,
it was absolutely perfect. And then there was nothing he could do with it, he had all these hydralisks, all this map control, and nothing to attack with it. He made a number of mistakes later, particularly in dealing with the shuttle, but it came down to Bisu not giving Baxter the game he wanted.

Game 2: Bisu vs Baxter on Crossing Field
Bisu (P) spawned in blue at 10 while Baxter (Z) took white at 4. Bisu (who isn't Rain) scouted on 8 after a pylon in his main because he wanted to see what Baxter was doing. He therefore chose to delay his gateway until he knew whether he needed it, or possibly even a forge, based upon the pool timing. His decision was immediately rewarded by the scouting of Baxter's 12 hat 11 pool opener, allowing him to go 14 nexus at his back natural with no probes cut and no risk, the most favourable macro PvZ opener that he could possibly have done.

A 16 gateway followed, while his scout probe stopped Baxter from taking a third hatch at his rear natural, first by blocking it and then with a pylon when Baxter pulled a second drone. Baxter continued to pump drones after his pool finished, which Bisu immediately scouted with his probe while Bisu cancelled the blocking pylon and resumed blocking with his probe. At three and a half minutes into the game Baxter had two hatcheries (with his third about the start), sixteen drones, and four lings, while Bisu had two nexus, twenty-one probes, a zealot, and his core already half done. Essentially Bisu could not possibly have been further ahead from openers, and all this happened without Baxter necessarily making a mistake.

Two zerglings managed to kill a probe walling on Bisu's ramp but there was no followup and Bisu killed the zerglings, rewalled with zealots, and continued his corsair rush. A consolation for Baxter's incredibly delayed third hatchery was his fast lair, as he was essentially forced into a two hat lair opener by Bisu's probe blocking, which resulted in a fast spire. Bisu's corsair scouted Baxter's base, confirming the three hat spire five hat hydra, but then backed to kill the scouting overlord and wait for a critical corsair mass.

Bisu rushed out a dt for map pressure and to delay Baxter taking a fourth base while massing corsairs and getting +1 air attack. With just two gateways he opted for an extremely defensive expansion to his third, picking up speed for the zealots he'd produced to wall the ramp, adding high templar with storm, and making up the balance with cannons. As in game 1 Baxter had a colossal advantage in terms of map control and ability to reinforce and replace armies, five hatcheries against just two gateways with freshly produced high templar taking a long time to build up energy. But as in game 1 Bisu didn't give Baxter the kind of battle that Baxter could win. A single dt with corsairs gave Bisu a few seconds of map presence to drop cannons at his natural and by the time Baxter had overlord speed, which was quick, the cannons were down and Bisu was spamming more gateways in his main.

Baxter responded perfectly, not overproducing hydralisks, instead taking a fourth expansion at 11 and immediately saturating it with a dozen newly produced drones. Bisu's incredibly eco heavy macro play put him on three bases and 100 supply in just nine minutes but Baxter, despite having the bad end of the openers, was macroing very effectively, refusing to overproduce hydralisks as he had in game 1 and going up to a quick seven hatcheries. Bisu scouted around with speedlots, forcing some hydralisks but mostly poking, his lack of commitment signaled by the fact that he left his high templar safely behind the cannons at his natural. Speedlots can safely run away from hydralisks but high templar are slow enough to turn a retreat into a rout. Both players knew what was up and Baxter continued to macro, adding lurkers to the mix and coming close to even supply.

Bisu struck first, dropping two dts into Baxter's main, one hitting the rear natural while the other hit the main mineral line.



Unlike the previous game, in which Baxter's economy was under stress, it was disruptive but not too destructive, Baxter cleaning it up before Bisu killed his spire. However, the majority of Baxter's hydralisks were pulled back and he left his lurkers behind to contain Bisu, who promptly swept for overlords with corsairs and then broke it with a dt. With the lurkers pushed back Bisu was free to take his own fourth at 7.

A followup drop attempt went less well for Bisu, but it's a high eco game so it wasn't a significant blow.


One thing that could potentially become an issue later though was Baxter's triple evo to Bisu's single forge. With three bases and three gas I think armour upgrades are totally worth it for Protoss, if only to limit the destructive potential of cracklings later on. However, Bisu wasn't interested in later on, he had his army pumping and wanted to make a move before hive, pushing out with mass dragoons and high templar to battle the lurker hydralisk defence waiting for him on the higher ground.


The battle was a total meat grinder, both sides feeding units into the other, none of the cute observer scourging (Bisu had four observers and sairs escorting so it wouldn't have worked) we saw in the previous PvZ series, just macro into macro. The high ground advantage really handicapped the dragoons though and when the storms ran out it was clear that Bisu couldn't break through. He'd exacted a terrible toll on the hydralisks with his high templar but his zealots were all dead and dragoons don't work so well without escorts.



But in the chaos of the melee the overlords had been pushed back by corsairs and, despite his frontal assault being repulsed soundly, Baxter actually lost the high ground lurker position to a single dt.


Bisu lost seven corsairs buying his dt time and keeping Baxter's hydralisks from reinforcing the high ground but they did their job and by the time the corsairs and overlords made it to the front lines Bisu's ground army had overrun the position.


Baxter picked off the observers but they were on four bases four gas each and Bisu had already broken through Baxter's defensive line. If Baxter had a prepared sunken spore lurker defence to pull back to, while adding crackling drops, the game may have continued. But he did not, Bisu's corsair sacrifice had broken through and now it would just come down to feeding an endless stream of units into the fray.


GG

Editorial: A slow start but a great macro game. And that Bisu opening, so very abusive, and so very calculated. Every part of it was a direct response to scouting information. Baxter macroed his little Zerg heart out, despite the build order disadvantage, taking a faster fourth base, hive, and the upgrade advantage. It looked a little one sided but if Baxter had successfully held the high ground we were just seconds away from seeing defilers, dark swarm over lurker positions, and plagues on Protoss armies. Baxter was where he wanted to be with a very real pathway to winning for most of the game, and successfully threw Bisu's army back down during Bisu's critical attempt to scale the high ground. It was Bisu's multitasking, adding the corsair dt element to a chaotic macro melee and reinforcement struggle, that broke Baxter. Great play by both, a good contrast between strategic and tactical fluidity and opportunism from Bisu and some really great fundamentals by Baxter.

Game 3: Bisu vs Baxter on Gladiator
Bisu (P) spawned in blue at 7 while Baxter (Z) took teal at 11. Baxter opened with an overpool and sent his overlord in the correct direction while Bisu went for 8p at natural into 11 forge double scout, the correct play when he failed to scout Baxter at 4. He saw Baxter's overlord and pulled back his first scout probe while Baxter, seeing the probe heading to his natural, hid a drone behind the mineral line to expand while Bisu scouted his main.

The second drone actually backfired. Had Bisu not seen an expansion or a drone it would have been brown trousers "is it a 5 pool?" time, especially given he was banking minerals and delaying his cannon, not even having a probe at his natural to drop a cannon yet. Instead Bisu's probe saw the drone hiding behind the mineral line and, having played this game enough to be familiar with the timings, correctly called a gasless overpool, responding with a single late cannon and continued probe production, with a strong eco 15 nex. To add insult to injury Bisu blocked Baxter's natural, first with his probe and then, after a second drone was pulled, with a pylon. Their expansions were taken at the same time, Baxter taking the gas third at 12 while Bisu took his own natural.

Baxter produced just two lings to try and drive the Bisu's probe out (unsuccessfully) while droning up and taking his natural and gas. Meanwhile Bisu's unrelenting probe production continued as he added a gateway, a pylon, and his own gas. A build order advantage to Bisu, albeit less than in game 2, as he was able to take a faster expansion than his opponent without making more cannons than he needed or earlier than he needed. Bisu's first zealot wandered onto the map, passing beneath an overlord and then changing direction out of sight to go look for Baxter's third. I like this because Baxter's unit production facilities are three hatcheries, all of which can pump drones, while Bisu is limited to two nexus and a gateway, unable to invest in eco quite as much. By actively showing his zealots Bisu forces lings, killing drones without a drop of blood spilled.

Three zerglings ambushed Bisu's first zealot, discovering a little bit too late that Bisu is pretty good at zealot micro.


As in the first two games Bisu immediately rushed out a stargate, +1 air attack, and a fast citadel, funded by his fast natural gas and his delayed +1 ground attack and second gateway. Baxter cleaned up the first zealot but it had done its job, forcing zergling production and giving Bisu the initiative while he continued to tech back home, guarded by just a single cannon and a zealot.

Baxter ran a few speedlings through Bisu's wall, Bisu doing a great job of blocking with a probe but unable to prevent two making it into the main. Once inside he scouted one gateway, no ground attack, no threat of a speedlot or archon bust, and happily resumed droning. Unfortunately for him Bisu's zealots abandoned his natural, one heading to 12 while the other went to Baxter's natural at 11, leaving his defended by just a single cannon against scouted speedling tech. Baxter microed perfectly against the zealot at 12, killing it without losing anything, but clearly did not expect another zealot to show up at 11.


With Baxter's attention pulled back to his main, where a zealot was wandering around killing nothing but being extremely annoying, Bisu attacked with his entire army, one zealot and one dt, both newly produced from his one gateway. The slow zealot walked up to the 11 natural, again just trying to be annoying, while the dt paired up with his corsairs at 12, killing both the hydralisks while the corsairs cleared the overlords.


Baxter was just trying to do a standard three hat spire five hat hydra build, and for all the random zealots it had been going pretty well. He'd not lost a single drone, he had overlords split between his fronts, and had hydralisks beneath them to prevent exactly this from happening. Had the dt appeared seconds later, or if the drones had been pulled forwards to block for the hydralisks, a hydralisk may have lived. But with both hydralisks down the corsairs had a party and by the time new hydralisks spawned the overlords were cleared.

Baxter killed the slow zealot that was distracting his units from moving over to 12 but a dt showed up outside his natural to keep the distractions going. It couldn't hurt Baxter, who was ready with hydralisks and overlords, but its existence forced Baxter to keep hydralisks there, or risk the corsairs clearing an opening for Bisu to play dt corsair games in two bases at once.


The dt party at 12 continued as the corsairs wiped out another handful of overlords, Bisu no longer having any drones to kill but achieving his goals simply by forcing Baxter to try and put out the fires he was lighting.


Baxter finally got a good scourge flank on Bisu's corsairs, trying to control the count and keep the numbers down, but Bisu microed them out of there, only losing one.


Meanwhile Bisu had added a lot of gateways during all the dt play and had put some speedlots together. Baxter's hydralisks were split into two groups at 11 and 12 respectively, and he was caught off guard by the speedlots overrunning his natural. He pulled his hydralisks from 12 back to defend but by then the corsairs had killed all his overlords and supply blocked his hatcheries. There was no recovery from this.


GG

Editorial: Bisu played Baxter pretty hard in this game. All three games Baxter has tried the safe standard options, overpools and 12 hats, three hat spire into five hat hydra, trying to play it out like you would any practice game against any other Protoss. Meanwhile, Bisu's opening was tight but after that, he played an extremely fluid game, adapting to what Baxter was doing with intensive scouting, playing extremely abusively. Nothing showed that as clearly as an expansion with no blocking units and just a single cannon against speedlings. On paper it was all wrong but Bisu wasn't worried by the speedlings because he knew Baxter would be far too busy putting out all the fires he was lighting with his zealots to ever punish him. And the less Bisu was punished, the more fires he could light. This game, the dt did a hugely disproportionate amount of damage compared to the degree of Baxter's mistake, but if it hadn't been the dt it probably would have been something else. Bisu was showing off his formidable multitasking, and how close to the edge of disaster he can play when he's retaining initiative and forcing his opponent to play the way he wants.