Playing Zerg makes you a better player?

General Discussion
1

Could it be that playing Zerg just makes you a better player?

OK, I know most of you are triggered by now but please just hear me out.
First of all I’m not that good of a player, so please, and I’m sure you will - take all of this with a grain of salt.

I hear a lot of talk about Zerg Imba, etc. etc. and people saying that Serral, Raynor Dark etc, can’t all be THAT good. But has someone ever considered the fact that maybe playing the Zerg race and it’s playstyle actually forces you to just become a BETTER player?

My Reasoning:
1. I personally find Zerg harder to play
Out of the three races, I like playing Zerg the most but at the same time, I find it the hardest race to play. When I play Zerg, (especially when I’m loosing), I literally break out in sweat sometimes (and no, I’m not overweight I’m 165lbs), because my brain is going crazy. I’m literally burning calories! (Like taking that final exams) I think this actually makes the minds of Zerg players more elastic and forces them to improve over time.
[I would actually really like to see some science on this. For example, hooking up a machine to players and monitoring their brain activity while playing the three races to see what the difference is while playing.]

2. When I play Terran and Protoss I feel like I’m playing The Sims
This is not meant to be an insult, and yes, that’s a bit of an overstatement, but whenever I play the non Zerg races, I don’t feel as challenged. I simply sit back and turtle up. I don’t have to think as much. Interestingly, my friends who play the T and P races, mostly just like to turtle up as well. [The argument to this is that I’m just a low level player. True. But so was Serral, Raynor and every other Zerg player at one point. Serral even said that his older brother would always destroy him, but he kept getting better and better over time.]

3. Zerg is a defensive race
This may not seem like an argument but it is when you think about it. As a defender you need to expect the unexpected. Mentally, that is a huge deal. For Terran and Protoss, once their wall is up, they can sit back and have a beer mentally. That is never the case for Zerg. If it’s not injecting, or spreading creep, it’s trying to figure out what your opponents next attack will be. [Who I would like to hear from on this are those who play all three races. Do you feel the same ‘stress’ or ‘pressure’ when playing all three races? Are you more anxious when playing as Zerg? Do you ever find a point during the game when you feel relatively “safe” or “comfortable” as Terran or Protoss? Do you feel the same when playing as Zerg?]

Final thoughts
This post was not meant to troll anyone, or put down those who enjoy playing a certain play style or race. (It’s about what the game mechanics do to the player) These are just some of my thoughts and opinions on the matter but I would also like to hear your thoughts.

I’ve been wondering about this for a while now but I’ve just never had the chance to compile my thoughts and put it down in writing. I could be totally wrong in this so I would like to hear your thoughts and possibly some counter arguments to what I’ve said.

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Zerg has one of the best aggressive options tho.

Only thing that hits faster than 12 pool is cannon rush. Enemy not scouting bane bust is instant win. Roach ravager all ins require vastly different response than ling based plays.

And if all fails, its very easy to transition to macro play, different all in or nydus.

Zerg is not defensive race. Its just that while its offense is A gade, S grade defense and late game overshadow it.

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I agree that Zergs do have a couple of agressive cheese strats but those are usually very easy to spot and shut down. Zerg cheese usually only works when T and P become really lazy or complacent. A zerg, even at the pro level can see a cannon rush coming from a mile away and still lose to it.

What I was basically referring too (In saying a defensive race) are things like reaper, hellion, Adept, Phoenix and Oracle harass that early game Zergs have to deal with. Whereas Zergs don’t have a unit like that for counter harass (unless it zvz) because they can’t get into the opponent’s base.

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You also shut down all harras hard with queen…

Lack of early harras is not problem if enemy cant do so to you as well.

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No it doesn’t but once you master art of broken race, it makes you better, but if you played hots zerg which took skill you would get destroyed !!! I offraced once protoss and after 30 games i already beaten 140 rank gm and got higher rank than after 7 years practice of terran… No joke, i abused disruptors and tp 6 times back and used f2 a lot, it was when protoss was even more op and overcharge cost 50 energy !

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As pure 100% zerg hater I can say zerg is HARDER to play in lowest leagues (bronze, silver, gold). It’s because he is just a bit different than “make barracks and soldiers then attack and win”. In lower leagues the game looks like this: Terran is doing depots, some barracks and then attack - zerg don’t know what to do he tries zerglings - doesnt work, he tries roaches - doesn’t work, he tries expands but then marines are already there so he loses again. They just simply doesn’t know what to do. This just makes illusion of zerg being harder race. It does exist also in higher leagues where zerg players expands and making a counter to Terran but they still lose. They think it’s the balance issue but the reality is Terran just played better. They think, “what more I could do?? I HAD MORE EXPANDS, I ALSO HAD COUNTER TO THEIR ARMY AND STILL LOSE ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO WIN! WHAT MORE I COULD DO??” but you could try many things like harass better, micro better and dont lose too much units early, don’t expand too fast without scouting or VS obvious all-in etc. But zerg players doesn’t see that. They only see this: “I had tier 3 he had tier 1-2 garbage bio and he still won Terran so imba” meanwhile tier 1 zerglings counter tier 3 Thors but that’s absolutely fine.

I don’t know what exactly what is your league/rank but you said low league so I assume it’s lower than platinum so my advice to you: focus on counters, learn basic build order or standard zerg opener, when the enemy is turtling hard don’t force your army to go in (so you won’t lose your army and map control for nothing) but just just expand more and defend and ofcourse scout properly to see what units you need to make and when to defend.

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Because Zerg is a macro race, you gotta play macro more instead of just following robotic build orders, so yeah… Zerg players are generally better than Terran and Protoss and they have for the most part have better RTS fundamentals. Scouting is more important, expanding is more important and decision making is more important.

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But zergs are following robotic macro builds. When there is enemy attack they just halt macro for a while and then continue the same way they did before. Nothing fun or hard to do there.

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I think it is undeniable that zerg is harder at lower skill levels. I think the highest skill cap might be terran actually but at the highest levels I think it starts to even out. The reason why zerg dominates at the highest levels is not because they are better players. We see toss and terran players that are gods of micro and macro lose simply because zerg can grow faster and has more options. You get more eco, more supply, more vision, more speed (creep), etc. for FREE. The advantage that terran and toss used to have in having powerful but long build time, high tech units has been all but stripped away from nerfs. So now zerg has all those inherent racial advantages PLUS units that can trade efficiently when measured by cost and/or supply.

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I didn’t expect less from you. Strong unbiaised analyse i guess

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Massing queens and getting ovi speed is now considered decision making i guess :smiley:

Jokes aside i thing that playing zerg in low leagues is tricker because you must choose when to build units or make drones, i have won countless games because they just make 15 drones when my timing attack is about to hit.

Then again there are plenty of bs builds you can collect free wins with, from one base roach to 12 pool, proxy hatchery or 6m max roach,bane bust etc.

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I don’t like to get into the conversation of what race is easier/harder conversation. I think anybody who is beginning to play Starcraft will find any race they choose to be a challenge to play.

I think each race has advantages and disadvantages through asymmetrical design. I think mechanical muscle memory and overall control is the difference between leagues.

The better your eyes, hands and mind works the better you will be. When I play I can feel the difference between my opponents.

I notice a difference between a Terran who sets up a liberator and forgets about it and a Terran who repositions it when I am trying to deal with it.

The same for Terrans who drop pick up and drop again in multiple bases being annoying and the Terran who drops picks up and runs away.

The same goes for Protoss with Adepts and Oracle control. You can feel the difference. As you climb the latter you are only going to keep facing better players until the point you hit a wall and blame balance.

The better turtle players are still trying to be disruptive to the opponent.

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But that’s the question that I’m asking at it’s core. Does the fact that having to play a ‘so-called’ harder race earlier on make you a better player later on?

In physical terms, if two people are lifting weights:
Person 1 lifts 5lbs every day for one year and person two lifts 20lbs every day for the same period of time… Who will be stronger at the end of the year? The person who had more of a challenge by having to lift more.

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Maybe. Serral definitely has a deep understanding of his own race and other races. His mechanics are spot on. Even is micro is very very good. I don’t think its a huge effect but playing a race that has so many things you can do to get a lead definitely would be motivation to train harder to hit all your macro while scouting, while macroing battles, etc. as opposed to lets say Terran or Toss who may rely more on sharply executing a build over and over, sometimes blindly.

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My current league is gold an I may have been higher many moons ago, but you may have missed the point of my post and question.

I do not want to or wish to climb the ranks, nor do i even wish to be a great SC2 player. I actually get more enjoyment from watching games than playing them.

I am not asking “how can I improve” or “How can I win more games?” In fact this has little or nothing to do with me, my skill or my level of play.

I’m asking if the playstyle of Zerg players in general set them up to be superior players in the long run?

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I’ll build upon your reasoning even if I think that Zerg players are overall worse. The race that you play becomes an environmental impact as to your skill in SC2. For example, almost everyone will admit that at least in the past Terran players have had to micro harder than other races. That pressure to micro then develops players into being stronger at micro than other races and will persist even if other races have just as high of a skill cap nowadays.

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You probably a-move with bio

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It’s hard to play Zerg as you need more knowledge, while some good mecanism (like the other races) to beat some league, and there is no shortcut, you need to win macro games, and you should know how to play various playstyles as you’re forced to play them. You can’t say “I like mutas/lings/banelings” and don’t like “roach/hydras/vipers”, if the other is deciding to play mech, you’re forced not to play “mutas/lings/banelings”.

You can have 300 APM, if you don’t know how to scout and what to do when the other is bunker rushing/12 pool/DT harass/BC harass/hellbat push/2-1-1/hellions/cyclon etc… you simply die.

If you play P, you can focus on decision making, no need to have crazy mecanisms with this race.

If you play Terran, no need to be as good with mech/bio, and master everyplaystyle, you can choose the playstyle/the BO you like, and focus on the execution.

Ofc you want to be a complete player as a P/T to be a good player, but you’re not forced, while as Zerg you are.

It’s more unforgiving to play Zerg.

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You know, right up to like low plat. But hey.

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You are not trolling so every time you post you are so full of it… Sure thing (no I dont think you are just sarcastic)