[ROOT`iaguz]

10 ladder games Featuring iaguz!

As part of our "constantly updated" feature in The Grandmaster Manual, every week we will try to add new valuable content that will enhance our subscribers experience. This third week will feature TGM coach iaguz's thoughts on his ladder games. iaguz recently is in tremendous hot form, taking #1 on the SEA GM ladder from glade with an astounding 1520 points, as well as all killing WsWg in the SEACL Ro8 Clan match.

We hope you enjoy these reports but we would also like to give exclusivity to our premium TGM members so only the 5 first games will be displayed for all and the rest can be seen by subscribing! We hope everyone here will enjoy the new releases from our coaches/guest pros each week!

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#1 iaguz(T) vs KYO 1 (70% winrate Protoss)

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My build you see here is pretty much the same one as I use in the tvp's in this analysis with slight adjustments so I guess I should talk about it some.

This build is a fast expansion build designed to go into a medivac-bio midgame and to not die to protoss aggression whilst doing so. From a comfortable midgame state, get a fast 3rd and focus on outmacroing the protoss and generally destroying him! This opening is quite strong in contesting early map space and picking off a stalker or zealot if one is presented to you. It is probably really weak to void rays but no protoss builds those anymore so that's ok. There is an alternative opening which gets a reaper after the tech lab, cuts gas mining and gets an expansion + bunker super quick. That's also fine.

The main things to note are:

1. 1 gas for most the time.
2. only 3 rax. Very small bio, so you need bunkers if you fear getting attacked. If you want you can get add-ons faster and have a ton more raxes in the midgame. I used to do that but I had a lot of trouble putting pressure back on the Protoss because of sentries being insanely cost effective on the defense. So I just get the starport out and try and do cool stuff with that.
3. Ebay at like 6:00-6:30 so you can stop dt's just in case. +1 atk is good upgrade too.
4. the reaper is critical. Use it to check his expansion timing on his natural and through this you can judge how much defense you need at your front and what opening he went for. It's not perfect but it's the best you can realistically get. Also keep the reaper safe so you can later check his 3rd and 4th gas.
5. Ghosts. I make ghosts if I scout no colossus. If there IS colossus then get ghosts later. Much later. They don't help much vs massive laser beams. When getting ghosts, get the energy upgrade, wait until it's halfway complete (run a round of marauders through the raxes) then make a bunch of ghosts. They pop with 75 energy and can instantly be used on the attack. Huzzah for ghosts! Ghosts should be acquired immediately as soon as you can confirm he is NOT going colossus (ie, templar opening, your reaper gets lucky and you scout double forge, you click one of his units and it has fast +1/+1 ups, stuff like that), they are so strong against not-colossus unit mixes.

In this game I scout extremely little because my scv is late. I sense a 4gate with my reaper and the fast second bunker is quite prudent. My control and macro is a bit off during the engagement and I probably should of just spammed bunkers like crazy but it all worked out ok. Sort of.

(no expansion by now almost certainly means 4gate, or a tech build of some sort. Odds are I'll need bunkers and if not it's no biggee; my expansion was much faster so I have the spare economy to get a bit more defense then what it strictly needed)

Also his 4gate build is kinda weird/bad. There's a lot of time for it to be detected and I have stim ready when he hits. I dunno, some protosses are dickheads like that. /shrug, it's 4gate.

#2 iaguz(T) vs MYUU (Zerg)

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I wrote a big thing including pictures for this game but I'd hit the wrong bloody button on my keyboard that was not, in fact, printscreen. Yea I'm a stupid nub. In any case this replay kinda sucks because of three reasons. First is that I don't run in with the hellions early enough and straight up win because his crawler time is awful. Second, this guy floats about a billion minerals and gas all game making what seemed quite tense really not that tense, just a massive mismanagement from the zerg. Goddamn.

I guess drops are fun. Multiprong them zergs!

#3 iaguz(T) vs PIG (zerg)

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Ah my good friend PiG. Usually when we meet on ladder it's close spawns shattered temple and I abuse the hell out of the poor guy. Here we get the slightly better XNC instead. PiG has been slumping in his zvt recently so I'm able to beat him with the push on it's own. Same push as the first game, a mix of hellions and tanks with a few marines for support. Credit to Kawaiirice for doing this build on steam so I could steal it (it's a cool build!). Main thing that works out great for me is the bunker rush and his early game not really going towards his plan. Bad thing that goes for me is holy crap I really have to get more aggro with the hellions!

#4 iaguz(T) vs nGENZERGGIRL 1 (Zerg. ofc)

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There's not an awful lot to say here. I do a different timing push in this one to abuse the ledge above the natural (which is what all good terran timings for this map should aim to do! Bring scvs and plant bunkers if you can). And it works pretty well for me. I don't like my BO execution entirely but the important thing is that I have a clear strategy and good transitions. Not an awful lot to say about this one other then good tank spread, good enemy unit awareness and drops are all important. TvZ is heavily about multitasking and mechanics so if somethings going wrong there's a good chance it's because of that.

(something like this is basically what you want with this kind of push in these positions.)

Zerg girl also fed me some banelings too, which was nice of her. Free banes and drones! Eventually I just grind her down with tons of macro.

#5 iaguz(T) vs nGENZERGGIRL 2 (more zerg!)

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I do the same timing push as before but there's a few difference. First is the bunker rush opening from a 12/14 rax. I had intended to just make 3 marines and expand (I was stealing a build from Brat-OK I'd seen earlier) but I figured I'd try and get interesting with it and throw in a bunker and it works out pretty well for me. Anyway, very similar story as before, I use dropships and tanks to abuse a map feature. Huzzah for Terran! Other then that it's just a standard mix of marine/tank/dropship to aggressively start controlling the map at a certain point and to maintain constant aggression until the opponent eventually dies from it all.

(looks familiar eh?)

One thing that I'll note with a measure of pride with this game is the upgrade timing. stim and siege finish within like 5 seconds of each other. This is really efficient and allows me to maximize my unit count before moving out of my base.

The other thing to note with a bit of shame is that I don't really try and scout an all in before moving out. I just felt comfortable based off of nothing but my gut. And my gut's a ******* moron, I should really run out an scv to make sure I don't get all-ined whilst I walk across the map.

+ [Games 6 to 10] +

Available to all TGM subscribers here! (You will get an error message if you're not a subscriber)

iaguz(T) vs KYO 2 (protoss)

iaguz(T) VS INFI SPIDER

iaguz(T) VS NIRVANA 1

iaguz(T) VS NIRVANA 2

iaguz(T) VS NIRVANA 3

Sorry there was no tvt in these games. Enjoy anyway!

Tip for glade: don't let kelly and banelings near each other! Read from bottom to top

This pic was named "LOL DON'T PUT THIS IN THE THREAD NIRVANA.jpg" so of course i put it in!

Download the replay pack for the first 5 games here.

TGM subscribers can access the full versions of the other 10 game ladder Analysis series below.

Series 1: Featuring PiG!
Series 2: Featuring JessE!
Series 3: Featuring iaguz!

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

entertaining read! lol @ kelly caught on camera!

[TAEdgE]

Very nice here Iaguz, you smart man.

[nGenLight]

Nice read, goodjob Iaguz.

You just revealed too much of your PvT thought process *evil grin*

LOL@Kelly

[Next_rim]

Much better than the previous featured 10 games.

Love the hat.

[TcaTX]

You look boss mate. Respect.

[Champi]

AND MY AXE!

(btw nice games)