[Guide] 14-14 Speedling Only Opening in ZvZ
Introduction
Zerg vs Zerg is often times a love it or hate it match-up. This is the sort of build which makes people hate it with early aggression which is often hard to scout and defend against. This opening is a great little switch-up on the very popular 14-14 which looks to utilize early Zergling speed and Banelings to break an opponent in the first couple minutes of the game.
The 'switch-up' is that you stop mining gas at only 100, meaning you are only going to be investing in Zerglings and no Banelings. This allows you to expand quickly behind the aggression and means you only have to do a minimal amount of damage to come out with a lead in the game, from which point you can go into any normal ZvZ mid-game.
Build Order
14 Extractor
14 Spawning Pool
15 Overlord
@100 Gas stop mining from Extractor
15 Metabolic Boost
15 Queen
15 6 Zerglings
The follow-up units now mostly depend on how you want to play the opening. Generally at least 10-12 Zerglings are required to achieve the damage you are looking for. If your opponent is falling apart you can continue Zergling production, otherwise begin to drone up.
21 Hatchery
25 Queen
36 Extractor
36 Roach Warren - this is if you want to go for the build discussed in the video where you follow-up with a Roach-Ling all-in.
@100% Roach Warren : 7-10 Roaches (all gas available)
Follow-up minerals spent on : Zerglings
Follow-up gas spent on Ravagers
Pros & Cons of this Build
Pros
- Strong map control established early in the game.
- Very easy to force your opponent to over-react to your attack.
- Keeps you safe against aggressive builds of your opponent, though this can lead to weird games.
- Not a common way to open (yet), meaning opponent might mis-read the situation.
- Success of this build scales excellently with your own ability to read the situation and make the correct decisions and control well
Cons
- Can take some time playing against each opening to know what the best follow-ups and decisions are.
- Very multi-task heavy as you have to be constantly baby sitting your Zerglings to achieve damage, while still injecting etc back at home.
How to make the most from this opening
Success with this opening is going to revolve around how well you can use your early Zerglings and fast Zergling speed to your advantage. Initially you will be looking to force beneficial trades for yourself if your opponent pulls units to try and defend his Hatchery from taking initial damage. Again you want to back away from even fights, because the more Zerglings you have when Metabolic Boost completes the better.
Once Zergling speed finishes it is all about running around and jumping on opportunities. You will be aiming to kill 3-4 drones and to keep the Zerglings running around for about a minute or so in your opponents base. If you can do this with ~12 Zerglings and drone behind it you will generally be ahead.
Fights you want to take are : surrounds on unprotected Queens, surrounds on significantly lower number of Zerglings (especially those just Hatching), quick target firing on singular drones when in mineral lines. If your opponent has Banelings you are going to have to keep dodging around to avoid them while trying to peel away a single Zergling to target it down.
As mentioned multiple times in the guide, it really does come down to quick and accurate decision making as well as control of the Zerglings in order to be successful with this build.
Conclusion
This is a great build if you want to open aggressively but still with a plan to go into the later stages of the game. It is slightly unique in the sense that you cut gas mining which very few ZvZ builds do, which leads to potential confusion if your opponent is unable to scout how quickly you are expanding behind the pressure you are applying.
Through utilizing your speed advantage you should be able to trade efficiently and pull yourself into a slight lead for the next stage of the game, in which you can follow-up with any kind of valid ZvZ play style, be it fast Roaches or the standard Ling-Bane wars.