Proxy is strong
Proxy has become legitimately strong. Versus terran, protoss, and random, Proxy goes 12 hatch with early sunken defense if needed, then hydras with a growing economy, keeping only 1 geyser and slowly shifting toward zerglings as the gas runs low. In ZvZ, it opens 12 pool (12 hatchery is too risky) and makes mass zerglings, again with an ever-growing economy. The ZvT strategy is not efficient, and Proxy suffers losses to weaker terrans that follow a one-big-push game plan, but still does well overall. The ZvP strategy is the most convincing. The ZvZ is not optimal, and Proxy does nothing to defend itself against mutalisks, but even so the mass lings are genuinely difficult for a bot to hold off.
For me, it’s natural to compare Proxy to Steamhammer. Steamhammer is far ahead in versatility and reliability (Proxy crashes sometimes). At everything that Proxy knows how to do, it is at least as skilled: It is at about equal in zergling micro, ahead in hydralisk micro, better at worker defense, less blunder-prone in tactics, and superior at macro. I admire its ability to switch between army and drone production in ZvP—Steamhammer desperately needs that.
According to the SSCAIT crosstable page, the head-to-head score as I write is Proxy 5-4 Steamhammer—they are about even in ZvZ, which is Steamhammer’s best matchup.
To improve further, Proxy needs more skills and more adaptivity. To do well against terran, it needs lair tech units. Proxy does less well against the top protoss bots, Locutus, PurpleWave, and BananaBrain, and even against XIMP by Tomas Vajda. To move further up the rankings, I think Proxy needs to recognize better what the opponent is doing, and adapt its play. And it needs new skills to cope with cloaked units, zerg air attack, and other basics.
Proxy has only shown itself in public for a short time. How much development did it get behind the scenes? Rather a lot, I imagine, to become as good as it is in such a short time. Still, it comes across to me as a young bot. Proxy shows that it is possible to climb high with few skills, as long as those skills are exceptionally strong. But to challenge the very top, it needs more.
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Proxy on :
The update was originally designed for countering double gateway mass zealot builds, namely for countering WuliBot. As it turns out, most protoss bots are heavily reliant on 2 gate strategies and take for granted that most zerg bots don't have an efficient way of countering it.
There was a post on this blog a year ago called “the end of the rushbots”. In the comments AIL asked if there was a good counter to mass zealot builds but no-one had an answer at the time. I hope my bot can show everyone how to beat this efficiently and that no extra skill or creativity is required.
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