SKPlanet PRoleague

Table of Contents



Week 3 Lookback

Bringing the holiday cheer





Featured Game

Soulkey vs. Dear





Week 4 Previews

Round 1's final week





Fantasy Spotlight

The winners and losers of week 3





SK Planet Proleague table and results at



Bringing the holiday cheerSoulkey vs. DearRound 1's final weekThe winners and losers of week 3SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

Featured Game: Soulkey vs. Dear by Teoita



Week three's spotlight match had STX SouL's going up one of the best Zergs from the final years of Brood War, Woongjin Stars' . The battlefield was Cloud Kingdom, a familiar map to any pro player.



As one of the most popular maps on the ladder, Cloud Kingdom has become one of the most understood maps in Starcraft 2. Modern PvZ on maps with easy third bases usually feature powerful three base pushes before the dreaded infestor/broodlord deathball hits the field. However, instead of following the lead of others, Dear prepared an older, yet still potent blink-stalker build that caught Soulkey off-guard.





Early Game and Openings



As the game began, Soulkey decided to be a bit tricky, opening with a 10 pool and 6 lings, instead of the standard 14 pool we see all too often. This build can do crippling damage if the Protoss starts with a nexus first, or starts with his forge in the main; however, Dear's opening was standard, opting for the low ground pylon and scouting immediately after it. This scout allowed him to get a forge up in time, as well as two cannons in time to deny the zerglings. In the end this put both players around even, as Dear's nexus was delayed, and the cost of the two cannons wasn't cheap either.





Lings denied



In hindsight, there are hints to Dear's later aggression to be seen very early on, coming from two subtle adjustments in his opening build order.

1. High ground second pylon. This allowed him to completely hide his cybernetics core from overlord scouts, preventing Soulkey from knowing how much chronoboost was being spent on warpgate technology.



This allowed him to completely hide his cybernetics core from overlord scouts, preventing Soulkey from knowing how much chronoboost was being spent on warpgate technology. 2. A Fast gateway. Dear got his gateway at 18/26 supply, cutting probe production for a few seconds in order to do so. This gave him a slightly faster Cybernetics Core, which resulted in faster Warpgate tech being available for aggression, at the expense of a bit of economy.

On Cloud Kingdom it's very hard for Zerg to know the exact times a Protoss player will take his natural gasses. This makes scouting certain builds difficult. Soulkey had to play blind during the entire early game, putting him at a major disadvantage.





Dear's Pressure



Despite playing blind, Soulkey's lings spotted the initial Zealot and Stalker escorting a probe across the map. Soulkey reacted fast and immediately scouted Dear's base with a overlord, where he saw three fast gateways being warped in, as Dear was preparing for a 4 gate +1 attack pressure build. This timing attack aims at forcing the Zerg to build a earlier roach warren, and produce defensive units when Zerg would rather be droning. Most viewers will be familiar with the strategy, as it was most popular towards the end of 2011, even ending games straight up against overly greedy Zergs. However, as time went on, Zerg player's reactions to it improved, resulting in it being used quite rarely these days.







Soulkey got a perfect scout of Dear's base and reacted accordingly

As expected, Soulkey reacted perfectly to Dear's build by getting out a well-timed roach warren, and using a small set of lings to delay and push back the proxy pylon. He even managed to pick off one stalker and one zealot. Soulkey made a key mistake though, building nine roaches just to fight a small force of four zealots. This was overkill against the kind of threat Dear was presenting, which delayed his own economy and tech considerably.



The Blink Stalker Follow-up



At this point Dear was in a great spot, with Soulkey's third base hardly mining, and a near even worker count of 43 to 45. Also, Soulkey's lair, evo chamber, and ling speed were all very delayed. Soulkey could have started all that tech about 30 seconds earlier, but was busy defending the light pressure from Dear.







Succesfull pressure: Soulkey's tech was extremely late and his roaches are useless, while the zealots ran home safely



An important detail is that, while Dear's zealot pressure was going on, he used a second stalker off his gateway to deny further overlord scouting in his base. This put Soulkey in the dark about any possible follow-ups Dear had planned. 4 Gate pressure can branch off into many different mid-game strategies, and Soulkey could not identify this until it was too late. In all, Soulkey couldn't drone as much as he would have liked, and he overmade units to defend the early game push; as a result, the blink stalker push incoming from Dear would be nearly impossible to defend.



As Dear moved out with his second and final timing attack, Soulkey found himself in an awful position. He had delayed his key tech and upgrades up until the nine minute mark, meaning it would take about another three minutes to complete roach speed and the +1 attack, or two minutes to have ling speed available; all these upgrades being key in stopping most Protoss two base all-ins. The blink timing from Dear hit way too fast, before Soulkey's tech was anywhere near complete.



The initial roach investment delayed Soulket's macro hatchery, greatly reducing his drone count and production capabilities. Zerg player's normally want around 55 drones against a two base Protoss, but the early 4 gate pressure forced him to have about 10 less for the majority of the game. These factors all combined to make him weak to Dear's blink stalker follow-up.







The final blow: you know the Zerg is in trouble when there's more stalkers than roaches

When the Protoss army arrived at the Zerg's third base the game was basically over. There were more stalkers than roaches, and the four surviving zealots easily killed many of the few speedlings present. After amazing blink stalker micro, and a couple rounds of warp-ins, Soulkey was forced to abandon his third, and with no economy nor tech to fall back on it was just a matter of time before the Stars player was overwhelmed. This was GG.







Soulkey got blunk. GG!

The 4 gate pressure was a strategy we have not seen all too much lately. It hinges on the fact that it needs to force some sort of overproduction, or do moderate damage. This time around that worked perfectly for Dear. On any other map than Cloud Kingdom, there might have been the chance of Soulkey scouting the aggression earlier on. That did not happen, and it eventually led to his downfall in this game.



Dear clearly had thought this out specifically for a possible PvZ on this map. And it went perfectly as planned, giving him the win over Soulkey in the ace match between STX SouL, and Woongjin Stars. As STX SouL moves forward, it is starting to seem like they are a force to be reckoned with.













Week three's spotlight match had STX SouL's Dear going up one of the best Zergs from the final years of Brood War, Woongjin Stars' Neo.G_Soulkey . The battlefield was Cloud Kingdom, a familiar map to any pro player.As one of the most popular maps on the ladder, Cloud Kingdom has become one of the most understood maps in Starcraft 2. Modern PvZ on maps with easy third bases usually feature powerful three base pushes before the dreaded infestor/broodlord deathball hits the field. However, instead of following the lead of others, Dear prepared an older, yet still potent blink-stalker build that caught Soulkey off-guard.As the game began, Soulkey decided to be a bit tricky, opening with a 10 pool and 6 lings, instead of the standard 14 pool we see all too often. This build can do crippling damage if the Protoss starts with a nexus first, or starts with his forge in the main; however, Dear's opening was standard, opting for the low ground pylon and scouting immediately after it. This scout allowed him to get a forge up in time, as well as two cannons in time to deny the zerglings. In the end this put both players around even, as Dear's nexus was delayed, and the cost of the two cannons wasn't cheap either.In hindsight, there are hints to Dear's later aggression to be seen very early on, coming from two subtle adjustments in his opening build order.On Cloud Kingdom it's very hard for Zerg to know the exact times a Protoss player will take his natural gasses. This makes scouting certain builds difficult. Soulkey had to play blind during the entire early game, putting him at a major disadvantage.Despite playing blind, Soulkey's lings spotted the initial Zealot and Stalker escorting a probe across the map. Soulkey reacted fast and immediately scouted Dear's base with a overlord, where he saw three fast gateways being warped in, as Dear was preparing for a 4 gate +1 attack pressure build. This timing attack aims at forcing the Zerg to build a earlier roach warren, and produce defensive units when Zerg would rather be droning. Most viewers will be familiar with the strategy, as it was most popular towards the end of 2011, even ending games straight up against overly greedy Zergs. However, as time went on, Zerg player's reactions to it improved, resulting in it being used quite rarely these days.As expected, Soulkey reacted perfectly to Dear's build by getting out a well-timed roach warren, and using a small set of lings to delay and push back the proxy pylon. He even managed to pick off one stalker and one zealot. Soulkey made a key mistake though, building nine roaches just to fight a small force of four zealots. This was overkill against the kind of threat Dear was presenting, which delayed his own economy and tech considerably.At this point Dear was in a great spot, with Soulkey's third base hardly mining, and a near even worker count of 43 to 45. Also, Soulkey's lair, evo chamber, and ling speed were all very delayed. Soulkey could have started all that tech about 30 seconds earlier, but was busy defending the light pressure from Dear.An important detail is that, while Dear's zealot pressure was going on, he used a second stalker off his gateway to deny further overlord scouting in his base. This put Soulkey in the dark about any possible follow-ups Dear had planned. 4 Gate pressure can branch off into many different mid-game strategies, and Soulkey could not identify this until it was too late. In all, Soulkey couldn't drone as much as he would have liked, and he overmade units to defend the early game push; as a result, the blink stalker push incoming from Dear would be nearly impossible to defend.As Dear moved out with his second and final timing attack, Soulkey found himself in an awful position. He had delayed his key tech and upgrades up until the nine minute mark, meaning it would take about another three minutes to complete roach speed and the +1 attack, or two minutes to have ling speed available; all these upgrades being key in stopping most Protoss two base all-ins. The blink timing from Dear hit way too fast, before Soulkey's tech was anywhere near complete.The initial roach investment delayed Soulket's macro hatchery, greatly reducing his drone count and production capabilities. Zerg player's normally want around 55 drones against a two base Protoss, but the early 4 gate pressure forced him to have about 10 less for the majority of the game. These factors all combined to make him weak to Dear's blink stalker follow-up.When the Protoss army arrived at the Zerg's third base the game was basically over. There were more stalkers than roaches, and the four surviving zealots easily killed many of the few speedlings present. After amazing blink stalker micro, and a couple rounds of warp-ins, Soulkey was forced to abandon his third, and with no economy nor tech to fall back on it was just a matter of time before the Stars player was overwhelmed. This was GG.The 4 gate pressure was a strategy we have not seen all too much lately. It hinges on the fact that it needs to force some sort of overproduction, or do moderate damage. This time around that worked perfectly for Dear. On any other map than Cloud Kingdom, there might have been the chance of Soulkey scouting the aggression earlier on. That did not happen, and it eventually led to his downfall in this game.Dear clearly had thought this out specifically for a possible PvZ on this map. And it went perfectly as planned, giving him the win over Soulkey in the ace match between STX SouL, and Woongjin Stars. As STX SouL moves forward, it is starting to seem like they are a force to be reckoned with.