Professional Starcraft

[Sharmai]

Has anyone seen a game a player was able to defeat a zerg that had excellent swarm/lurker/plague/zergling micro?

I've watched a ton of games and the late game strat's for terran and protoss often evolve around mass amounts of units and macro'ing them correctly but late game zerg where they have lurkers, swarm, ultas and god forbid ensnare just seems like it's always a win.


I can't recall any match a player has won where this happened unless they had somehow limited the zerg to a minuscule amount of units.

[Tenks]

The reason you don't see very many ultra is because they're at the very latest game for the zerg. You always go defilers first and hope to cover your hydra/cracks with those. If that push fails then you go with teched Ultra. I believe Tasteless said pros will only make the ultra after that +3 carapace is researched.

Has anyone seen a game a player was able to defeat a zerg that had excellent swarm/lurker/plague/zergling micro?

I've watched a ton of games and the late game strat's for terran and protoss often evolve around mass amounts of units and macro'ing them correctly but late game zerg where they have lurkers, swarm, ultas and god forbid ensnare just seems like it's always a win.


I can't recall any match a player has won where this happened unless they had somehow limited the zerg to a minuscule amount of units.

Zerg are arguabally the strongest end game due to this reason. This is why very few players will try to take a zerg to the latter stages. The best you can do is try to snipe off their defilers via irradiate and pray for the best.

[Goltana_R-Zek]

Originally Posted by Tea on tuesday

I've never seen any good players use the ultralisk except as a fuck you.

They're not very good, cost a lot and take a lot of tech

Then again, I haven't played starcraft in a long time. But then again, I shared a dorm with Koreans in college.

Savior used Ultralisks A LOT in his strat, as was mentioned w/defiler + darkswarm and cracklings. Here's a 3 part matchup (old game), showcases some Ultralisk usage at the end. Ultralisks at 5/3 are really good IMO, definitely isn't a fuck you move but more of a very late game strat. Infesting a command center and using infested terrans is more of a fuck you ;p

[The Ancient]

Ultras do a form of splash damage as well, they certainly rate more useful than scouts. I'd put Valkyries on that list though, as well as the Zerg Air to Air. Devourers? I don't even remember what they are called.

[Blank]

Originally Posted by The Ancient

Ultras do a form of splash damage as well, they certainly rate more useful than scouts. I'd put Valkyries on that list though, as well as the Zerg Air to Air. Devourers? I don't even remember what they are called.

Ultra's don't deal splash. You're thinking of Starcraft 2

[The Ancient]

Really? I was pretty certain their claws damaged targets alongside the ultralisk.

[Psyqo]

Originally Posted by The Ancient

Really? I was pretty certain their claws damaged targets alongside the ultralisk.

Nope.

[Ichu]

Ultra's are really common on Iccup. Primarily they take a ton of fire from marines allowing the zerglings to run up unscathed. If the Terran has neglected his upgrades, then the Ultra's themselves are insanely deadly.

I saw them in every single game I played where the zerg made it to hive tech.

Nothing is more hilarious than when the zerg plagues a group of M&M, the terran irradiates an ultra, and the ultra runs into the pack of 1hp infantry.

[Tenks]

Originally Posted by Goltana_R-Zek

Savior used Ultralisks A LOT in his strat, as was mentioned w/defiler + darkswarm and cracklings. Here's a 3 part matchup (old game), showcases some Ultralisk usage at the end. Ultralisks at 5/3 are really good IMO, definitely isn't a fuck you move but more of a very late game strat. Infesting a command center and using infested terrans is more of a fuck you ;p

Do you have any VOD of an elite Zerg player using Infested?

[Goltana_R-Zek]

Nothing I can recollect off the top of my head, the problem with infested terrans is they have something like 60 hp, even though they do around 400 or 500 AE splash damage, terrans just shoot them down before they'd ever be viable. You see it more on Iccup and elsewhere, pretty rare in elite professional play though.

There was a match recently (as in the past month or so) where either Jaedong or JulyZerg was about to infest a CC but moved the Queen in a second too early and it died to a turret just as it was going to infest. Jaedong has been using queens a lot more lately in his ZvT play so you might see it come about sometime soon.

[Tea on tuesday]

Originally Posted by Goltana_R-Zek

Savior used Ultralisks A LOT in his strat, as was mentioned w/defiler + darkswarm and cracklings. Here's a 3 part matchup (old game), showcases some Ultralisk usage at the end. Ultralisks at 5/3 are really good IMO, definitely isn't a fuck you move but more of a very late game strat. Infesting a command center and using infested terrans is more of a fuck you ;p

Interesting, thanks.

I guess, I never saw many because I always tried to avoid getting to the end game with Zerg.

[Tenks]

Originally Posted by Goltana_R-Zek

Nothing I can recollect off the top of my head, the problem with infested terrans is they have something like 60 hp, even though they do around 400 or 500 AE splash damage, terrans just shoot them down before they'd ever be viable. You see it more on Iccup and elsewhere, pretty rare in elite professional play though.

There was a match recently (as in the past month or so) where either Jaedong or JulyZerg was about to infest a CC but moved the Queen in a second too early and it died to a turret just as it was going to infest. Jaedong has been using queens a lot more lately in his ZvT play so you might see it come about sometime soon.

It seems like IT bombing via drops would be highly effective against workers in the mid-late game.

[Blank]

Originally Posted by Tenks

It seems like IT bombing via drops would be highly effective against workers in the mid-late game.

It's really not. You're probably much better off with just crackling/lurker drops (if anything) at that point. Not to mention the insane difficulty infesting a CC, PROTECTING the CC you just stole, and there still being a game worth playing after doing it.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Pretty much. It's also why you don't see dart archons MC'ing a worker and then having someone rush with two teched out armies. By the time you can pull that kind of shit off the game has been long over.

Sucks about BackHo though, was really looking forward to that match. Can't believe how captivating this shit is. Fuck the playoffs man, this shit is tense.

And grats Nony btw!

[Tenks]

Can't 4 infested terran fit into an overlord? Wouldn't 4 be enough to take down a nexus/hatch/CC?

Not trying to defend it because I'm sure you guys know more than me I'm just trying to make some strats up in my head.