Any time that I see a new variant to an old build pop up in professional StarCraft 2, it immediately makes me think of the awesome ways in which this strategy came about. From there I always start thinking abut the lessons that can be taught about the basics and fundamentals of RTS by using this new strategy or build as an example. It’s hard to make a concrete article about such things, especially since the meta moves along so quickly. So yeah, with all that in mind, here’s a little series of articles that I will put up from time to time. meta ramblings. Here we go!:



Travel time across the map is one of the most important aspects of StarCraft, or any RTS, to take into consideration. It is a big part of the defender’s advantage. Think back to all the Roach vs Roach ZvZs that you have watched. One player would get an advantage and start attacking his opponent. Eventually his opponent (the defender) would take the advantage in this attack, despite starting at a deficit. This is mostly based off of the proximity of the defender’s rallying units vs the distance of his opponent’s units. Another good example of travel time in ZvZ would be Mutalisk vs Roach. The Mutalisk player would prefer to not have creep (and might even pick off tumors) whereas the Roach player absolutely needs the have creep. The creep will reduce the travel time of the Roaches across the map, whereas the Mutas are unaffected. Pretty basic stuff, but very powerful if understood and executed upon.

So now I want to talk about a new build order that has just popped up that is completely based off of understanding travel time and how it affects the game.

PvP has a pretty solved early game. 90%+ of professional games open up with 2 Gateways which make either Adepts or Stalkers. From there it can branch off into a lot of different ways, but at least this beginning part is just about as standard as can be. (little aside: the only other stuff you will see with any real regularity at the pro level would be very map specific. for instance, on Dusk Towers, because of the ease of expanding to your back natural, you will see all manner of builds with 1 gate or whatever. On Frost you will see Nexus First sometimes, as it gives a big advantage probably 2/3rds of the time. The strategy that I’m talking about was engineered for the more standard types of maps that we have, such as Frozen Temple, King Sejong Station, etc. That’s not to say that it can’t be used on other maps, just that it’s full power is on these “standard” 2 player maps.)



GET TO THE BUILD TOSIS.ok ok. SO. This build has been pioneered by the Afreeca Freecs (at least in televised games). Oops, time for a little side story again. So sorry! We see a lot of styles and strategies rise suddenly within teams. If the lead player of a race on a team starts to play a certain way and find success, often times the players below him will follow suit. For instance, GuMiho’s Tank style in TvP was picked up by the rest of MVP, and it was heavily showcased in one night of Proleague (wrote an article partly pertaining to this here: https://t.co/orAhcAH54U). It was created as a way to combat the heavy Gateway style of Zest, who passed it on to the rest of the KT Protosses. Look at Trust, for instance. He is a mini-Zest, hair and all. He’s pretty deadly too, considering how sharply he has Zest’s style and build down in PvT. Helps to sit next to him, eh? (I kind of think of them as the big zombie that carries and throws the little zombie in Plants vs Zombies. Trust won’t win the GSL, but he will fuck up your sunflowers if you aren’t careful).





OK, seriously now, back to what this is actually supposed to be about. The Afreeca Protosses. Super and Patience. These guys have debuted a new opener in PvP that is really cool, and I think has a lot of potential as it becomes a bit more refined.





Super showed it vs Classic in game 1 on King Sejong Station during SSL Group C. I suggest you read the rest of this first and then watch the VODs, but here’s the link anyways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l423_-8nVw





Patience showed it the very next day vs Dear in game 1 on King Sejong Station and game 2 on Frozen Temple in the GSL Code S Group H. Here’s the VOD link: https://www.twitch.tv/gsl/v/80598323?t=00h37m18s





sOs did a lighter shade of this vs Zest on Frozen Temple during the Proleague Finals: https://www.twitch.tv/esl_sc2/v/80942494?t=00h23m05salthough the bridge between what the Afreeca Protosses did and what sOs did is kind of like the line between what sOs did and expanding “pretty fast”. Nothing’s written in stone in StarCraft, and builds blend into each other based upon safety, greed, feel, etc. Builds are finger painting. As soon as a drop of green goes into your orange, your orange isn’t exactly orange anymore, is it? But it still looks pretty damn orange.





SERIOUSLY HERE IS WHAT IT IS:As I said above, the very beginning of PvP is mapped out very well on more standard maps. 2 Gates, make a couple units, (Adepts or Stalkers), then the build diverges. Before the units get out, you have a Probe in their base generally that sees that yes, in fact, they are doing exactly what you are doing.





So, what Super and Patience have done is to combine this opening with the fastest Nexus possible, without opening up any obvious holes in their early game.

Here are the main points of their play:

- Same build order until unit production begins.

- Still scouting with Probe to see if anything is off (this is important, they can easily back out of their plans if anything is amiss).

- Get Mothership Core right away. Start Zealots in your gateway. (this is important, everything will look perfectly normal to the scouting Probe).

- Mothership Core will make sure the Probe has no idea what you are doing, it has to run.

- Cancel whatever was in your Gateways. Build a Nexus.

- Immediately start 2 Stalkers.





YEAH! So back to travel time. 2 Adepts immediately made by your opponent (which are faster than Stalkers, so that’s the time stamp you are looking at), shading across the map, will arrive as your 2 Stalkers are popping out. Thus you have a Mothership Core and 2 Stalkers to defend against them. Your opponent’s build is most likely “normal”, as he scouted yours which looked completely normal. Because of the across map travel time, the 2 additional units that your opponent has on you will not give any real advantage unit-wise to him until Warpgate is done. By then you will have a lot more to work with, like defensive pylons, and only a couple units less (most likely) than your opponent.



This is a really cool build / strategy which Patience and Super have shown us. They have figured out a tricky, well hidden, and quite safe way to get a faster Nexus than your opponent, and it’s heavily based upon travel time. Sick City.

