Hey all, just wanted to talk about tactics of a standard ZvP push real quick.

Classic recently played 2 of the best Zergs in the world on Lerilak Crest, both times using the same general style. Both Zergs played against him with the same general style as well. One game Classic won, one game he lost. While there are a lot of factors in both games, in my mind the overall Zerg defeat // victory was decided by how and where they attacked with their first big Lurker push.



Just to outline the flow of the games, in both Classic goes for some Phoenixes into Charge / Storm / Immortal type of play. Very standard currently in the PvZ meta. Also, Classic, being the WinToss, knows that he must engage a Lurker based army out in front of his base. While it’s all fine and good to fight vs Roach / Hydra near your Nexus, if you do the same vs Lurkers, you are dead meat. You must make them “siege” and “unsiege” as many times as possible, whittling the army down however possible.

Anyways, let’s look at the exact attacks of both players.





CURIOUS VS CLASSIC @ LERILAK CREST



Notice:

- Classic makes sure to engages in front of his 4th base.

- Curious must burrow, meanwhile taking a bit of damage.





Now,

DARK VS CLASSIC @ LERILAK CREST



Notice:

- Classic makes sure to engages in front of his 4th base.

- Dark must burrow, meanwhile taking a bit of damage.





Similar stuff. Classic is doing the correct response of slowing both down. Both are trying to see if they can damage Classic in any way. Now let’s look tactically how Dark has made a much better move by looking at the mini-maps.



CURIOUS’S MINIMAP:



The black line with a circle on it represents one unburrow - move to get into a position to actually threaten Classic with damage. The Pinkish-Purpleish line represents where Curious can attack if he succeeds in moving to that black circle.



DARK’S MINIMAP:



Once again, the black line and circle represent one unborrow move to get into a position to actually threaten Classic with damage. The Pinkish-Purpleish lines represent where Dark can attack if he succeeds in moving forward.



Dark positions his army into a position he cuts off circulation for Classic. Classic now also has to defend 3 locations.Curious, on the other hand, positions his army into a position where he can only attack forward into 1 base. This is much easier for Classic to defend against, and allows him lots of freedom with his attention.



I’m sure its easy to guess, but Curious loses his game, and Dark wins his. I just love being able to compare 2 games close in time by the same player in the same position and see where it went right or wrong, it can really crystallize understanding about a topic.



Oh, and if you wanted to check out these games (both really good ones I would recommend!), here are the YouTube links:



CLASSIC VS CURIOUS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1LGveZirNg





CLASSIC VS DARK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlWzCNtywPU