3 players, 3 paths to greatness
StarCraft is a game that shows no mercy. One slip up, one miss-click and any one of your rivals will eat you alive. A profession which requires 12 hour practice days is not for the weak or faint of heart. Only the most vicious, the most passionate, are worthy of climbing the ladder and daring for immortality. The grind from bottom to top is a wearing ordeal that breaks many young hopefuls…and yet, amidst the chaos, blood, and tears, three have championed their races, persevered, and broken through to prove their worth.
Today I invite you to take a step back from scandals, beta, and Lee Young Ho to examine, what I consider to be, each races' most promising up and comers in StarCraft: Brood War. In this three-part article we will look at the games, joys and woes, and weakness and strengths of three players bursting with potential.
I first started to pay attention to “the Terminator” when he beat BaBy in Winners League, but it was only after watching the Artosis interview with eSTRO manager Hwanni that I seriously began to consider him one of the top zerg players.
In the past 2-3 months we’ve seen Action grow as a player and start to rack up wins against respectable opponents, including high profile names like sKyHigh, ZerO, Kwanro, Free, and Hwasin, and become famous for his defiler use. The reason for Action’s success? Let’s look to Hwanni for the inside scoop:
“He wakes up earlier than anybody, warms up, for 4 hours, then he actually goes into the practice which is 12-13 hours, then at 1 a.m. when the practice is over he stays until 6 a.m. and practices. So he sleeps like 2-3 hours a day, but when we ask, how can you survive with such hard conditions? He says, “the game is so fun, I’m happy to play.””
The 20 hour practice days Hwanni says Action’s been churning out have really started to show. Only getting his first Proleague win at the end of October, Action has come into his own quickly and decisively.
Action is, so far, 7-4 with ZvZ in 2010. We all know ZvZ is the sketchiest of all the match ups, and just to put his record in context, EffOrt is 12-9 this year, and ZerO is 7-11. While Action hasn’t yet had a JvZ, which apparently you need to break the 4th dimension to beat, taking away the two Jaedong losses from ZerO’s record still puts him at 7-9, and EffOrt had only one game versus Jaedong in 2010.
A large chunk of Action’s ZvZ wins came from his Woongjin all-kill in March when he beat Free, ZerO, Kwanro, and Crazy-Hydra all in a row and got eSTRO’s only all-kill of the season. Winning three consecutive ZvZs in one night not only shows Action's composure and stamina under pressure, but also his ability to simply throw down and bang with the best of them. In the post-game interview, Action was asked if he’s “usually good at ZvZ”. The Terminator said, “I’m not that confident in it,” and just to throw it out there, “but I’m most confident in my Defiler usage in ZvT”. What a baller.
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In his game versus RorO in February, Action opened 12 hatch against RorO’s over-pool. He had a winning advantage, many opportunities to snipe drones, but failed to capitalize on them. At one point he follows two of RorO’s mutalisks all over the map like a noobie when he should have been picking off every single worker.
Perhaps in an attempt to compensate for weak mutalisk micro, Action relied strongly on making large numbers of scourge, which he focused little of his micro on and didn’t use effectively.
He finally lost because he simply didn’t have enough mutalisks, the glaring issue being that he didn’t damage RorO’s economy when he had the chance.
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Two months after playing RorO, Action decisively took out EffOrt's natural four minutes into the game, seizing his 9 pool advantage against EffOrt’s 12 hatch.
However, a sharp counter-attack by EffOrt and continuous ling harassment put Action back on his heels, making him too uncertain to move out (similar strategy seen in Calm vs. Jaedong MSL semi-final B, game 4) with his air advantage, buying EffOrt the time he needed to recover.
mutalisks waiting around until the spore colonies come up -_-
After that, EffOrt’s experience solidified his two base lead. He used a beautiful mutalisk split to delay Action and keep an economic advantage, leading him to an easy late-game win.
very fast hands
Action’s inability to harass EffOrt’s drones, just as it did against RorO, cost him the game.
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In the final game of his Woongjin all-kill, Action and ZerO had nearly identical opening builds, and though Action showed less than perfect mutalisk micro he did have his moments. He showed vast improvements since the RorO game a month before, namely by not spending too much gas and larvae on scourge and actually taking the time to micro his mutas.
While his play was somewhat two dimensional, Action placed an unusual emphasis on his micro, bringing it closer to the level of his top-notch management skills and using it to win the game. If he had showed the same focus on micro in his game versus RorO, Action would have won for sure.
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Against Kwanro, in the second set of the same series, Action's strategy was risky and innovative. He used a hatch hidden behind the 9 o’clock expo on Match Point to secretly mass lings, using them to simultaneously delay Kwanro’s spire and defend his perfectly timed sunken.
ooo so sneaky mr.Action
honestly, that is the best sunken timing i've ever seen
Even though he lost his hidden hatchery, it served its purpose and Kwanro couldn’t do anything to stop Action’s mutalisks from ending the game, a refreshingly unique and somewhat ironic finish.
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Action has good macro, creative play, and decent ling micro, but his mutalisk micro and overall decision making with them is not yet up to par, and mutalisk micro in ZvZ, is, as Day[9] would say, “the hallmark of a good player”. I think this is only natural as strong mechanics, especially in ZvZ when one has to be insanely precise, only come with experience. To me, ZvZ is Action’s second best match up; he has the ability to be risky and creative while still maintaining good macro, but often times his poor micro mechanics seriously hurts his play.
In ZvT, Action is 11-12 in 2010. Not an amazing record by any means, but comparatively, EffOrt is 5-11 (not counting OSL finals), and lost 9 ZvTs in a row, not winning a single game versus terran between January and April. ZerO, on the other hand, is 11-2, Kwanro 8-12, and Calm 7-11. Besides these top, famous zerg players, the zerg who fall into the mediocre category such as Hyuk, Shine, Great, and RorO have played far fewer games versus Terran in 2010, and in those against mediocre or garbage players.
This is the advantage of Action being on eSTRO. For an up and coming player, being on eSTRO, a team with no strong zerg or super-stars, has huge benefits. Against paltry in-house competition Action has quickly become eSTRO’s #1 player, giving him invaluable experience in the box and against veterans like Flash.
Action has said many times that he is most confident with his ZvT late-game defiler usage. Anyone who’s seen his most recent ZvT or his game against Hwasin knows this is no joke. Hell, even Flash knows it.
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Flash - "God, how is he so good?"
Flash - “Usually I’m confident in TvZ, but Action played too well. His performance surpassed me and my teammates’ expectation. It was really like playing a powerful opponent.”
Flash - "God, how is he so good?"
Flash - “Usually I’m confident in TvZ, but Action played too well. His performance surpassed me and my teammates’ expectation. It was really like playing a powerful opponent.”
Be sure to check out the VOD and l10f’s awesome write-up of this unbelievable game. Even though he lost, Action put on a clinic.
As Action humbly said, “My management when Defilers come out is pretty good, so I hope to be able to drag it to the late game always.” Being comfortable in the late-game is something few players can truthfully claim, and Action only started consistently making proleague appearances in October. To me, he is a prodigy, his defiler play inspirational.
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In April, our hero Terminator faced off against Light, the Winners League beast, 12 hatch versus 12 cc. Light went pure mech and made far too many goliaths for Action’s poor mutalisks to handle, rendering his delay tactic ineffective.
Though Action managed to hold off Light’s first push, Light quickly took a third base and through a combination of good macro, vulture harass, and mech pressure, Action was unable to put any pressure back on Light’s economy and could spend few larvae on drones.
the terminator getting terminated
Shockingly, his first dark swarm came 19 minutes into the game, when Light had an insurmountable five base lead and not even the most gosu management could win the game. Action commendably repelled Light’s strongest pushes, but he stood little chance starting his defiler den past the 15 minute mark.
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This time in a game prior to The Victories, Action lost to Fantasy in a similarly odd fashion by not having dark swarm up in time. Action went his normal 12 hatch into muta harass but because of six turrets and a bunker at Fantasy’s natural, they didn’t do their primary job of delaying the terran.
When Fantasy moved out to pressure Action’s natural and third, the dark swarm, as well as the nydus canal at his third base, came seconds too late and Fantasy took everything out with his first push.
too little too late
In this game we see that Action’s timings, despite evidence to the contrary in The Victories, are not yet perfected. Had he got his dark swarm and nydus up in time I think it would have become a very exciting game.
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In Winners LeagueAction played BaBy in a high pressure match; if Action lost, eSTRO would be eliminated. At the time BaBy was on a four game TvZ win streak, and we all know how scary his TvZ is (hint: he knocked Jaedong out of the OSL 2-0).
Action got an early BO advantage with a 12 hatch and hid a third hatchery in the top left corner of his main, which led into two and a half minutes of surprisingly effective muta harass, giving Action enough time to get lurkers out and his third base up at Neo Moon Glaive's 4 o’clock main.
BaBy barely misses the hatchery
When BaBy’s first push finally reached Action’s natural, the Terminator was more than ready to show off his monstrous macro. He flanked with mutas and lurkers, pinning the terran troops between the zerg army and sunkens. After that, Action got his defilers out without a hitch and immediately pushed BaBy’s army back across the map with dark swarm, three lurkers and a handful of zerglings. Sick. BaBy could do absolutely nothing and soon gg’d.
scary.
Action did exactly what he says he likes to do, take it to the late-game and win with his management skills. He played an amazing game with good reaction time and perfect swarms, ZvT that’s up there with the best.
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Three days later Action went up against Hwasin, a veteran with very strong MnM play. It was in this game that Action, in my eyes, became known for his defiler play.
Action doesn’t joke around about macro; once again he 12 hatched successfully and went the same three hatch build he used against BaBy. However, Hwasin went 12 cc and scouted the third hatchery as it was being made, giving Action no BO advantage.
Just as it was against BaBy, Action’s defiler was perfectly timed to halt Hwasin’s push on his natural and shove it back down the terran’s throat.
so close Hwasin, yet so far
Also similar to the Baby game, Action showed the presence of mind to whittle away Hwasin’s science vessels, and though he pressured across the map off three bases, Hwasin was time and time again denied by Action’s dark swarms. The best part of the game came when Action brilliantly built a hatch at 4 o’clock right under Hwasin’s nose, then a nydus, forcing Hwasin to cancel his long planned fourth base and taking it as his own.
so.cool.
A phenomenal number of plagues, not one wasted, constantly weakened Hwasin’s army, and it wasn’t long until Hwasin completely lost map control and had no spot for a fourth base versus a five gas zerg. Even though he decided to go the lazy mans route and mass tanks, Action’s dark swarms and plagues ate it up and it was gg.
Hwasin and tanks do not mix
In case you missed it, take a look at snowdrift86’s "Last Action Hero" article, it includes some crazy plague statistics from this game.
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Action lost to Fantasy and Light primary because of miss-timed defilers, showing perhaps too much of a reliance on pre-planned build orders and an inability to adapt in-game. Maybe he can’t yet read the flow of the game well enough to see the changes he needs to make, when he needs to make them. But whatever the problem, I’m confident that experience against odd timings and failed harass will give him the insight to adapt on the fly and further strengthen his best match up. Once this guy gets defilers it’s lights out. For Action, it’s just a matter of getting there.
Action's 13-7 record against Protoss in 2010 may look great on paper but have no doubt; ZvP is the Terminator’s Achilles heel. His seven game win streak in prelims against Tazza and TLPD “unknown” players By.Rage and GgMaN[Name] padded his record but they can’t be taken into account when comparing Action to S class players EffOrt and ZerO. Wins against protoss of that calibre is just a given.
For context, EffOrt is a sexy 9-3 ZvP with wins against Stork, BeSt, and four wins against Kal (3 of those back-to-back). ZerO is 8-2, though half of ZerO’s wins are against mediocre players, at best.
When looking at his opponents, Action’s stats no longer impress. Only sent out for 6 proleague ZvPs in 2010, eSTRO coaches are clearly feeling Action has a ways to go in this match up. Fortunately for him, whether eSTRO coaches think he’s ready for it or not he might be getting some serious ZvP experience now that Winners League is over.
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In their game in March, Shuttle took a fast third and opted to play defensively, but unlike in his victory over Free, Action was unable to snipe any templar. When Action, for some reason, decided to attack Shuttle’s army, up a ramp, to prevent him from taking a third, he completely neglected to micro his hydralisks before backing off with heavy losses and no gain.
Action tried again to pressure Shuttle’s third in the late-game but because of bad army positioning he hardly did any damage and was massacred by storms and reavers. Then all Shuttle had to do was macro off three bases until he had a comfortable army composition, which he did with ease, and attack.
Action’s odd, completely unsuccessful timings point to what might be unfamiliarity with economic based protoss builds. Unsure of what to do, he attempted to stall Shuttle by attacking again and again, but without good positions or micro his army was easily squashed.
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A few days before he played Shuttle, Action had a very exciting, if not close, game versus Pure. Typical of his awesome self, Pure snuck a gateway in the corner of the main behind Action’s third and used fast DTs to simultaneously harass it, and Action’s natural.
Pure only killed one drone at Action’s third but delayed all mining for over a minute while Action spent larvae on hydras and zerglings. Action then mined for a whopping 20 seconds before Pure came back with more DTs and corsairs to shut down mining for almost another minute, this time killing many drones in the process.
By this time, Action’s economy was so battered he could only hold on and try to survive while Pure took his own third base and pressured Action’s natural, halting mining there as well. Action could do nothing to delay Pure’s third or fourth bases and finally lost to a bigger army.
i think that army has every single protoss unit
The reason why Pure could harass so hard and consistently was because Action, as he did against Violet, had no semblance of air control and had to turtle up in his base with hydras and spore colonies, and even in this he failed against Pure’s DT harass.
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Action's greatest ZvP performance of the year, in my opinion, was his game against Free on New Tornado. Action used the rarely seen burrow to scout undetected with zerglings, letting him spot Free’s army position and when Free planned to take his third as he macrod on three bases. He also showed perfect timing with his mutalisk harass, sacrificing six mutas to snipe the first four high templar before they left Free’s base and delay Free’s push and expansion.
death from above!
Despite these good tactics, Action’s sim cities were not the best and his nearly microless attacks glaringly shine light on his dependence to overwhelm his opponent with macro.
[i]yikes, look at that k/d ratio
All in all a solid game, Action was in control from start to finish but I think he might have got a bit lucky picking off so many high templar at once and delaying Free’s attack.
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In round 2 of the Proleague in his game against Violet, Action opted not to open with mutalisks and was horribly ineffective with his scourge, letting Violet effortlessly take air control and hold onto it all game. Violet used his undisputed corsair count to take out at least five overlords in less than a minute, delay mining at one of Action’s bases in combination with DTs, and kill nine drones with a DT drop on Action’s fourth later in the game.
But even without air or map control, Action scouted Violet’s troop movement with burrowed zerglings and managed to squeeze in some sneaky drops of his own.
i love this
Action hunkered down, macrod, and weathered Violet’s harass, pulling ahead economically until he could use a key timing drop to take out Violet’s third. Before Violet could recover, Action surprised him with a group of mutalisks, sniping five high templar before engaging Violet’s army and pushing him back across the map. After that, Action stopped the mining at Violet’s new third with a lurker while keeping the protoss force herded in his natural.
look at the minimap, perfect timing
Action had a great finish due to good macro and well-times tactics, but losing air control so quickly and easily almost caused his downfall. A better protoss might have exploited his air and mid-game advantage to expand sooner or mass up a larger army, had Violet done either of those things instead of continuing to mass corsair, go for drops and small timing pushes, I think Action would have crumpled. However, Violet didn’t and Action showed great composure as he fended off the harass attempts and dealt with losing so many overlords. Another thing to note is that Violet is 1-3 PvZ in 2010, and Action barely scraped together a win. Compared to his brilliant games against Kwanro, Hwasin and BaBy, his ZvP performance is less than inspiring.
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Action struggles hard in ZvP, especially when he doesn’t put up a fight for air control. Against Violet, a mediocre player, he barely survived with quick reaction time and high templar snipes, but he put himself in an uphill battle as soon as he stopped making scourge. Against better protoss like Pure, who exploited his air domination to the fullest and utterly destroyed Action, his macro won’t be so good in comparison that he can pull out a win. Even if the protoss does not go for mass corsair, Action’s micro is often so poor that he falls back against aggression he could have held off, but because he’s a macro beast he can still win through overwhelming numbers.
Action loves defending with as few units as possible (reminds me of Bisu, except Action is good at it) and using gosu dark swarms. From all his match ups, I would speculate that the single aspect he needs to work on the most is multitasking, one possible reason for late defilers in ZvT, missed opportunities for harassment in ZvZ, an inability to deal with corsairs in ZvP, and his often poor micro. While there are many things for Action to work on, these criticisms are shallow in comparison to his strengths – macro comparable to or better than EffOrt's, good reaction time against harass, great timings, and, most of all, godly defiler usage. I want this guy Ro8 OSL.
Thank you to TLPD for being a wealth of information all things StarCraft, TL for being the best place on the internet, Artosis for all his "Korea Reacts" videos, “Mr.Jack” for the amazing defiler picture, Fomos for the pictures of Action, Waxangel for the Flash .gif and translation, and Jaedong for inspiring me to write this.