Episode 1 — Calm’s Queens against Mini

Failing to block the probe

The first critical move happens at 03:30 (in-game timer).

Calm opens with a fast, 2-hatchery Lair. Usually, this would mean Zerg is going for a Mutalisk rush. In ZvP, this is an aggressive build, almost a cheese, as it doesn’t transition into anything if the Mutalisks fail to deal critical damage.

So the 2-hatch Muta build mostly relies on Protoss not expecting it. If Protoss can see it coming, they’ll build cannons, go double Stargate, and Zerg is bound to fail. As Zerg, you need to make sure Protoss can’t see what’s going on inside your main.

And yet, at 03:30, Calm seems to make a critical mistake: he allows Mini’s secondary probe to scout his main. Mini sees the fast Lair; at first glance, this is a disaster… But this is actually our high-IQ move.

Calm, with his Overlord going top, knew about this secondary probe. So he let it in on purpose. Why would Calm do that? Can you see the idea?

Letting Protoss see the fast Lair.

Losing Zerglings

In the same sequence, at 03:50, Calm plays another disastrous-looking move. He tries to surround Mini’s natural’s cannon with his early Zerglings. The cannon does get destroyed, but Calm loses all the Lings (save 1) in the process.

At first glance, that’s not a good trade at all.

From Mini’s point of view, that move would only make a bit of sense in the context of a desperate Mutalisk all-in. Calm got one Zergling into the main, and can try to use it to delay cannons.

Can you see Calm’s masterplan?

Sacrificing Zerglings to destroy the cannon.

The one Ling that got into the main.

The reveal

Here’s the masterplan: Calm never intended to make a Mutalisk in this game.

Everything he did so far was a misdirection. The plan was to fake a Mutalisk all-in, and counter the counter to a Mutalisk all-in.

Mini reacts exactly as Calm had planned:

He builds a cannon in his main, wasting resources to defend a base that Calm never intended to attack.

More importantly, he goes for the double Stargate build, in order to win the air battle against the Mutalisk build.

Calm anticipated this reaction, and counters it:

He macros up to five Hatcheries.

He builds a Queen’s Nest and an Evolution Chamber.

Mini making a cannon in his main

Mini making a second Stargate.

The plan

So, where is Calm going with this build?

First, in the short term, he intends to crush the Corsair fleet with Ensnare. With the movement speed and attack speed debuff, the Scourge will have an easier time catching them. (Note: “easier” doesn’t mean “easy”.)

Then, since Mini is going for the double Stargate build, Calm knows he will not be threatened by any ground push in the immediate future, because Mini delayed his Gateways in order to sustain the Corsair production. You can see that, at 07:45, Mini is still on one Gateway. So if he can destroy the Corsairs as intended, Calm will have time to develop.

Calm’s long-term plan is to skip the Hydralisk phase entirely, power up to Hive tech, and jump directly to his late-game composition: Cracklings (with early Carapace upgrade to negate the +1 Zealot attack) / Defilers / Ultralisks.

The long-term plan: quick Hive + double Evolution Chamber.

The bonus: Dark Templars

Mini is known as an exceptional Dark Templar user.

When you go double Stargate, Dark Templars are a natural unit to build, because of their synergy with the Corsairs: kill the Overlords, and nothing is left to detect the DTs.

So Calm is expecting DTs, and once again, his build counters them: Ensnare can reveal invisible units. So even if Mini managed to kill the Overlords at the third base, the Sunken would still defend the base from the Dark Templars.

Dark Templars cost a hundred gas each. If Calm blocks them with Ensnare and the DTs do not deal any relevant damage, then Mini will have delayed his mid-game technology (Psionic Storm) for no compensation.

If the Queens can help neutralise both the Corsairs and the Dark Templars, then Calm will emerge with a strong lead, and enter his late-game composition in a winning position.

As you can see in the screenshot, the Dark Templar counter went exactly as planned.

Ensnare neutralised the Dark Templars, as planned.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, StarCraft is a highly mechanical game. Even with Ensnare, destroying a fleet of double-Stargate Corsairs is still difficult. You still need to micro your Scourge to actually destroy them. You want to:

“Clone” your Scourge to send a pair after each Corsair.

Spread your Scourge and come from different angles, because otherwise, the Corsairs will wipe them with their splash damage.

Calm attempted to do this and, taking advantage of the Corsairs’ decreased movement speed, had his Scourge come from two different directions.

Unfortunately, the two groups were slightly uncoordinated. The top flock hit a couple of seconds before the bottom flock, and as a result, most of them died before actually connecting with the Corsairs.

Only two Corsairs were destroyed, rather than the five or six we could have expected, and from there, Mini could keep Calm supply-blocked and win an easy game.

But although the execution was a miss, Calm’s incredible plan definitely deserves an episode on our website. Strategically, he got his opponent exactly where he wanted.

The second flock arrives, two seconds later. Those two seconds decided the match; StarCraft is a difficult game.

The first flock arrives.