Replay Analysis #4: TvZ with the Duran Brothers,VortiX and LucifroN

After these two Karonte players made splashes in the recent WCS EU by taking the 3rd and 2nd place, it’s time to do an analysis to show how solid their gameplays are.

A Background on LucifroN and VortiX

LucifroN is a Terran player from Spain from the team Karonte. He is considered one of the top Terrans in Europe having solid finishes winning various tournaments this year including The Gathering 2012, SCAN Invitational 5 and the WCS Spain Nationals.

VortiX is the younger brother of Luci and is in the same team. Though he used to be under the shadow of LucifroN, after beating him the WCS Europe Finals in a dominant fashion many people are now giving the title of the more successful of the two.

Lucifron vs VortiX (WCS EU Finals)
Entombed Valley
LucifroN 1 o’clock position
VortiX 8 o’clock position
Replay can be downloaded here.

With both players spawning in cross positions, we expect to see a macro build from of these players.

VortiX opens up with a standard 15 Hatch 16 pool build, while Lucifron also goes for a very standard build: 1 Rax FE. Going Command Center first is of course the more ‘macro’ choice, but Luci went for a more safer route, just in case VortiX decided to cheese him early game.

Both players go into full macro mode after their already greedy opening. VortiX goes for another Hatch and takes 3 of his Gas Geysers, while Luci follows it up with Reactor’d Hellions into Cloaked Banshees.

initial hellion push

Luci’s initial hellion pokes in to see what the Zerg is up to and spots the early 3rd Hatch. In an uncommon response, Luci decides to bring all of his forces (including the 3 marines he produced before going Reactor’d Hellions) to pressure and try to snipe the 3rd hatch. But with 4 Queens and additional lings on the way, Luci’s pressure is thwarted easily.

 

failed pressure

As we approach mid game, VortiX decides to go for Muta tech which makes sense after he took 3 gases relatively early. LucifroN is going for Mech, with double upgrades and also taking his 3rd base.

Things to note at this stage are: VortiX already has his Baneling Nest up most probably as a safety measure just in case Luci was going very aggressive. VortiX is also going for double upgrades and is on 55 drones in 10 minute mark.

the importance of map control

As you can see here, LucifroN does a great job in denying VortiX map control, which is much more important in large maps such as this since the map has many counter attack paths that can be used by the Zerg.

Despite producing Thors and having turrets up even before Mutas pop out LucifroN couldn’t help but lose some of his SCVs from VortiX’s harassment. VortiX also almost managed to snipe Luci’s third base, largely due to the fact that Luci had not yet taken down the rocks blocking the path from his natural to his third.

bouncing back and forth from 3rd base to main base

A total of 22 SCVs died after that one harassment, as VortiX directed his Mutas to Luci’s main base after he was done with the Terran’s third.

VortiX managed to get hold of a majority of Luci’s hellions as they tried to harass VortiX’s fourth base. Again, this may not be the largest blunder, but small things like this will have an impact when that major engagement will happen.

lost hellions

LucifroN decides he has had enough and went for an all out attack close to the 16:00 mark. Take note that at this time VortiX already has his Hive up and is building his Ultralisk Cavern.

Before the engagement happens let’s look at the stats of both players; VortiX is on (largely) ling / bling / muta with infestors popping out. His lings are on 2/2 and his mutas 0/1. He is researching +3 melee, Adrenal Glands and Neural Parasite. He also has a fifth building as the engagement commences. LucifroN has a mech (Thor / Siege Tank / Hellion) on 2/2 Vehicle Upgrades, researching (a very late) Blue Flame upgrade, and is floating his CC to his fourth base.

As you can imagine, Luci won the engagement handedly and is rewarded by killing off VortiX’s fourth base. LucifroN then decided to back off.

Now it is VortiX’s turn to strike. He found a hole in Luci’s defense and caught most of his tanks unsieged and killed them off with Ultras.

ultras to...

With both players deciding to go defensive, VortiX goes for a Broodlord tech switch. Infestor / Broodlord / Corruptor, now that’s a scary composition. Sensing he has the upper hand after tech switching VortiX decides to march across the map and attack. Luci’s tanks are forced to unsiege as the broodlings shell on them and VortiX to this chance to charge with his Ultra based army. LucifroN held the initial push since he 2/2 Air upgrades on his vikings, but the follow up push consisting purely of Infestor / Ultralisk / Lings was too much for Luci to handle.

...broodlords

Closing Comments

This TvZ showcased how deadly a Hive based army is when used correctly. If not harassed enough in the mid game, Zerg can literally overrun you with sheer numbers, this is why Luci tried so hard to do Hellion run-bys and Banshee harass. Although he failed to do significant damage, that is not the mistake that costed him the game. He lost a majority of his tanks when they were unsieged as VortiX unexpectedly attacked.

The killing blow was the Ultra -> Broodlord -> Ultra switch. Luci was building a massive air army with 2/2 upgrades. He was building Ravens and was getting ready to get BattleCruisers. However he was outsmarted by VortiX who knew he was going air, which is why he tech switched back into Ultras before Luci had the critical mass of Raven / BattleCruiser that could hold both mass Corruptor / Broodlord or Ultras.

Once again thanks for reading,
GL HF!