ESFI World

After a disappointing showing in the King of Kongs tournament, FXO.Leenock will soon dust off his shoes to step back into the GSL ring. Nevertheless, the 16-year-old Korean cherub’s residual momentum from his first place win at MLG Providence and his second-place finish in GSL November should still be beneficial as he heads into the first regular GSL tournament of 2012. All the buzz around him aside, Leenock deserves to be looked at, as he’s arguably the first player of note from the StarCraft 2 generation, that is, a player whose professional success has been with this one game.

Leenock celebrates his MLG Providence win (Photo: Zhang Jingna)

Leenock gives the scene a lot more than a youthful face. He seems to be one of the few Zerg players currently playing a rounded game. IM.NesTea might be a smarter player tactically, and EG.IdrA’s mechanics are second to none (watch him split drones on the transfer to a new base), but with these two, opponents know what they’re going up against: solid fundamentals and a well-worn game sense, with a victory sought over the long haul. As Zerg is a reactive race, this can be expected. But expectations deserve to be thwarted, and Leenock is paving the way for some new standards. It will be interesting to see if others follow suit.

As game 4 of the GSL November Finals headed into its final act, Leenock removed a large clump of Jjaki's marines with a well-placed baneling bomb. (Photo: Courtesy of GSL)

Perhaps Leenock’s most obvious claim to fame is his use of burrowed banelings. Anyone who has watched him square off against Terran knows that they are most certainly in order. What’s strange is that when I turn on a professional Zerg player’s stream, or watch the match up in a major tournament, I still hardly expect the strategy. On first glance, baneling landmines are a gimmicky flourish that serve best to bait the crowd into a rising sigh, worth their weight in gold if they connect on a ripe group of marines, a sad waste when they don’t. What that belies is the economic significance of such a move, and nobody understands that economy better than Leenock.

Dong Nyung 'Leenock' Lee

	Name	Dong Nyung Lee
	Handle	Leenock
	Age	16
	Country	South Korea
	Team	FXOpen e-Sports
	Race	Zerg

Let’s look at the total cost of a baneling landmine by comparing it to the ideal target: clusters of marines. Tier 1 buildings aside (assuming the cost of barracks plus add-ons equals or even exceeds the cost of the spawning pool and baneling nest), a baneling landmine necessitates the burrow upgrade—100 minerals and 100 gas—and two banelings—100 minerals, 50 gas—with each subsequent landmine costing this through the end of the game. It is a rather efficient use of larvae, as one larvae yields enough for the trap. And if those connect with the ideal clump of marines, it can be one of the most cost-effective choices as well.

From the Terran’s perspective, in the current state of the game, dealing with such traps is primarily a mineral investment. Once a landmine is set, there are several possibilities: The trap is never sprung, making the cost to Terran zero. A clump of marines can die, maybe 5 to 10 in an ideal scenario. Or a scan will have to be called down at the cost of 250 minerals (the loss of a mule), to clear the area out. All that for 100 minerals and 50 gas (or, in the latter option, nothing, depending on whether the scan actually finds something). That’s a trade most economists would make in a hurry.

Photo: Zhang Jingna

But this is the direct cost, and while the simplest to map on a graph, it’s not the only significant advantage that Leenock gains with such play. For one, burrow is more than an offensive tactical tool; it is a valuable defensive utility as well. In game 1 of the November GSL Finals, on Tal’darim Altar, NSHoSeo_jjakji attacked and successfully removed Leenock’s fourth mining hatchery, at the southern position, three times. However, he never killed the “base” completely, because in each instance, Leenock burrowed his drones seconds before the hatchery came under fire. Jjaki can be accused of a sloppy finish, but maybe he thought the base was never off the ground, or that the drones were already evacuated, or that he killed them while his eyes were elsewhere. With the army dance that both players were negotiating during that game, it’s relatively understandable that Jjakji would continue to miss the early drone burrow. But on Leenock’s end, saving 15 or more drones is the equivalent to saving 750 minerals directly, plus 15 larvae, plus less economic downtime.

Though Leenock eventually lost the game, it wasn’t as much of a rout as it should have been. Jjaki successfully hid an expansion in the top right of the map, almost completely mined it out, was ahead in supply all game, but Leenock took it to 38 minutes in what was one of the most exciting starts to a GSL finals to date.

At three instances during the game, Jjakji had unfettered access to Leenock's fourth base. Despite successfully removing the Hatchery two out of three times, all drones were saved via burrow. (Photo: Courtesy of GSL)

What most Zerg players don’t do, and what Leenock gracefully achieves, is the utilization of burrow, notably in the form of landmines, for the entirety of the game. This continual threat takes on a psychological significance, especially in the way it stalls Terran. A series of scans has to pave the way for each army movement, be it offensive or defensive. And as the game progresses, the coverage area becomes exponentially larger, making it all the easier to miss the two banelings that trim down the marine cluster just enough to delay the push or risk a quick wipe by the remaining muta/ling/bling composition. Let’s not forget the scouting benefit burrowed banelings provide. Though their sight range is relatively small, it’s nothing to scoff at in a game of information. Any knowledge of what’s happening off the edge of creep is worth it.

If other Zergs can master the way Leenock burrows on the move (watch his retreat burrow on ramps against Jjakji in game 3 on Daybreak), then Terrans are going to lose a lot of their mobility, and might even need to relegate some mid-game gas and the starport (which would ideally have a reactor) to produce a raven to keep with their main army. Such a shift seems dramatic on paper, but when the field of Code S Zergs begins keeping banelings tucked away on all the major footpaths, it could just become a necessity. Regardless, in a match up that constantly has the Zerg on the back foot by design, this subterranean flourish puts a bit more agency back in the brood.

Against Protoss and Zerg, Leenock is harder to peg. In part, this is less a reflection of his skill than it is the state of each match up. Looking at Protoss, Leenock showed his talent by trumping Naniwa rather soundly in the finals of MLG Providence. But weeks later, he lost 3-1 to oGs.MC in the Blizzard Cup. What he delivers though is a thorough mix of strategies, serving up standard, straight-up play alongside a wide variety of cheese that he will continue to implement if his opponent can’t handle it.

Leenock levies 8 queens and infestors against Slush in the losers bracket of MLG. (Photo: Courtesy of MLG)

Leenock’s Zerg play feels more creative than most of the field. He does baneling pressure sans speed, is equally at home with a 10 pool as he is with a fast expand. In a game with Slush at MLG, he even pushed with eight queens when Slush went mutalisks, securing a victory with transfuse, zerglings, and infestors. He followed this up with a sound 2-0 defeat against IdrA, and in a rematch against MVP.DongRaeGu, he came out on top in a substantial rout (the series was 4-3, but DRG started with a 2-0 lead).

Detractors might say Leenock hasn’t done enough to prove himself, and I think there’s something to that. In many ways, the MLG circuit is a prime place for his style, as it’s less mediated and more sporadic, a clutter of build orders, all-ins, macro capabilities, and multitasking mayhem. Still, Leenock’s only 16, and his career is already finding such success. He’s a player on the brink of becoming a staple, and he just might change the way we play the game.

Sean "Incandenza" Conner

Sean "Incandenza" Conner is a columnist and reporter for ESFI World, and keeps his personal blog at SC2Observer.net   » ESFI Profile   » Personal Blog