The Devil's Playground

I have been playing a lot lately. In the last 10 days, I've gone from 0 to 100 wins as Zerg. I've earned a nice hydralisk portrait as well as a tiny bit of experience.

What I've been practicing more than anything is simply macroing. I know next to nothing about micro, I don't care too much about which units are good in which situations, I only want to hit my injects and get enough drones. I've still been able to win just about half of my games. I've found that I can win against most cheeses by just playing a fairly solid game, except the four gate which is really hard to deal with. There's a depressing amount of cheese in Bronze. I'm not saying that you run into it now and then, it's omnipresent. About half my games have been against Protoss, and I'd say that one in ten actually expands at some point. Other than that, it's all cannon rush, DT rush, four gate and mass void ray. It's gotten to the point where I groan every time the game loads up with a Protoss in it, and I actually don't know what to do when an expansion is thrown down.

I really don't understand the motivation behind cheese. I'm not saying it to try to be better than them or showing off, I sincerely don't understand it. What's the point? Starcraft is a brilliant, deep game, but these people want to simplify it to one single concept to get a quick win. Is it that important to win? I've asked some of the people who have cheesed me, not a lot of them have answered but it's mostly in the vein of "lololol u got owned" or "I just suck too much, I have to proxy". While I consider myself competitive, a win in itself in any game I play is not worth anything unless the game was good. I want some depth and involvement, and I want to feel that I'm getting better. I'm curious to hear more from cheese people, because I want ot understand what they get out of it. What exactly do you feel after a successful 6 pool? Is it just an adrenaline rush? Some Schadenfreude because you dominated your opponent?

I have cheesed once on the ladder though. I had a Protoss cannon rush my natural, and when I went for a counter-attack, void rays showed up and I had no anti-air. It devolved into a base race where his cannons in my natural were enough for him to win. Immediately after that game, in a freak coincidence, he was the opponent again. Of course he cannon rushed once more, but this time I counter-cheesed and built a hatchery in his base. I spine crawler rushed his starport while he tried to chrono boost his void ray. I couldn't believe that he did the exact same thing again, knowing that he was playing the same opponent. I guess he just thought that "This just can't lose! It's a motherfucking VOID RAY!" And yes, I got some satisfaction out if it, and it was pretty damn funny. So I guess that is one reason to cheese, for the chuckles.

I've been using Stephano's ZvP build from the Red Bull Battlegrounds to practice, both for ZvP and ZvT. Two quick expos, no gas, maximum drones. I like it for two reasons. One, it gives you a really strong economy if you can survive all the cheese, and two, you have to hit all your injects, otherwise it falls apart. Another thing I've kept in mind is something Day[9] always hammers into our heads - an overall plan. Something along the lines of "I want to go into the mid-game with a ton of roaches, and if I don't win then and there, I want to transition into infestors and brood lords". It can have deviations because of early pressure and so on, but I'm really trying to stick to my plan, to keep a goal in mind and to control the game so that I can do what I want. It has helped me tremendously. I'm not quite as overwhelmed when I have a plan. On the other hand, Zerg is designed to be a reactive race. There's not a lot of room for error and your scouting has to be top notch. I've lost a ton of games because I forgot to scout at key times and couldn't respond properly. The two seemingly contradictory concepts of sticking to a plan and reacting to your opponent actually help reinforce each other. You can react, for example by building anti-air against his banshees, but if all you do is react, you give up any control of the game. What I try to do is react appropriately and then, once I'm safe, return to the plan. On the flipside, I've been starting to feel like I can establish control in some games, as long as my macro isn't terrible, and I can force the opponent to change his plan. For example, I can harass with a few mutas and watch a Terran sink 1000 minerals into turrets instead of units, making him a lot more vulnerable to my mass roach attack that follows. This is of course just an ideal scenario that I'm happy when I hit, but mostly I'm scrambling to keep my bases from falling apart. There are larvae everywhere and Jesus Christ why are you guys not in gas???

ZvZ is completely different, and is quite frankly insane. You both have a ton of vision early on and you win or lose by inches. Everything is quick and dirty. I haven't had a lot of ZvZ games go longer than 6 or 7 minutes. I mostly try to react to my opponent, if it's an early pool, I try to win with a stronger economy, if it's a late pool, I try to win with overwhelming aggression. It's fun how easy Zergs are to read since it's the race I know the most about. I should probably play more Terran and start playing Protoss to learn more about how those races work. I think it would really help improve my ZvT and ZvP.

A Sinister Turn

I've switched to Zerg. It's what I've wanted to play all along, but I thought I'd learn basic Terran first. However, Zerg is so different, I felt I might as well just start from scratch with my race of choice. I thought I'd give you my noob view of Zerg.

While Zerg requires good play, in some ways I actually feel that the race is also more forgiving to new players. The reason is simple - Zerg production is very centralised. Everything happens at the hatchery. It's where units are produced, it's where you make workers, it's where you inject and where you check your larvae. There's also a ton of tech happening right there in the hatchery. As a Terran, if you want to quickly replenish your bio army, you need a million barracks with appropriate add-ons. As Zerg? Throw up a Roach Warren, get speed in that building and after that, just hit your injects and your hatchery will spew out roaches. It's also much easier to get vision of the map with a few well-placed overlords and highly mobile, cheap zerglings. It's especially a blessing against Protoss in Bronze, since you can almost always expect a proxy pylon somewhere. Everyone four gates. Everyone.

If you mess up as Zerg, you often have a decent backup plan. Forgot to make units while busy elsewhere? As long as you hit your injects, you have a party of larvae ready to be morphed - simultaneously - from one single building. Eat that, wimpy Terran reactors! Is he suddenly producing air units? As long as you got a single spire, you can get mutas quickly. Tech switches are quick because there's no need for unit-producing structures, just a few simple structures to enable the tech. Didn't hit your injects? Spend the energy spreading creep. Not ideal, but still somewhat of a recovery. Supply blocked with money piling up? You can throw down some spine or spore crawlers, freeing up supply and also adding defenses instead of just idly waiting for a new supply depot. I want to emphasise that it's not good play and that I'm working on simply not ending up in those situations, but still, it's nice to have a backup when I do.

On the other hand, Zerg is horrible for new players since you need to be very active. You can't really do a Terran turtle as a Zerg. You need map control and you need to scout as well as harass. This requires solid macro, a larger presence and view of the map, and most importantly, the ability to multitask and micro if you end up in tough spots. This is where I fall short. I can't really keep three bases running smoothly, I'll inevitably miss injects and creep spread, making myself poorer and less well defended. I have a hard time scouting and staying on top of the situation while still doing well at home. The instinct to turtle and keep the screen on the base is strong. This is why I really love Zerg, I've lost a ton of games and I know exactly why. I need to learn these things, and I think that Zerg is the perfect practice.