Protoss PvP Openers and Game Theory

Protoss PvP Openers and Game Theory

This morning I had a game of StarCraft that was RvR, random versus random. I rolled Protoss. Right off the bat I’m thinking, 5 gate. It’s the defacto standard build to go as Toss. Even though we were on a large map, I didn’t send a drone scout immediately. It paid off, as my opponent sent an early scout, allowing me to see that it was a PvP game.

Now that I knew the matchup, I had to consider game theory. Should I continue to 5 gate? Go twilight council into DTs? Stargate? Robo?

What I no longer like about twilight council into DTs is that it can present some base race scenarios. It can leave you vulnerable to DTs as well. I like to attack from defendable positions. I opted for Robo into 5 gate. It would allow me to get detection, as well as perform an even better 5 gate attack, than an orthodox 5 gate.

I filled up the prism with stalkers, and sent it in through a long flight path. While that was happening, I used a single stalker as a diversion, to poke at his front. That stalker saw my opponent going Robo, but making immortals.

My prism wound up killing some drones, and escaping. So I kept him on the defensive without losing anything. Perfect.

Somewhere in the attack, I had too many minerals, and expanded to my natural.

In a PvP, I love seeing my opponent go Immortals. It prompts me to go Chargelot Archon. If he’s going to invest in anti-armored units, I’m going to make anything but.

Of course, he tried to attack me with a handful of immortals. I was able to defend with simple force fields. He tried coming up my ramp again. I cut off another immortal. All the while using my warp prism to continue harass and confirm that he was behind me on his expansion.

I won the game a few minutes later when I attacked with my chargelots and archons. By then, he had made a few void rays, which the archons made quick work of.

It occurs to me that I won for the simple reason that I tailored my army to counter his. While he, at some point, made a commitment to immortals. Even though I wasn’t going for a stalker heavy army. He committed to charging up my ramp, even though I displayed impeccable force field control.

And isn’t this one of the classic ways to win a game of StarCraft? By playing loose and changing your plan of attack to be specific to your opponent on that match. Isn’t it a classic way to lose, by being rigid and inflexible in your strategy.

It’s also a very Zerg way to win, being somewhat reactionary. What surprises me is that these kinds of mistakes seem to be more emotional, and human. I would have thought that such mistakes were only in the realm of amateur players, of silver and gold league. But apparently, anybody can get an idea stuck in their head, which causes them to lose simply because they couldn’t see fit to modify it.