watched the replay, still no idea. It looked like they were on self-destruct, but it does not seem so...

correction:
They were on self-d.

You throw them up with a lobster by pressing a D key, perhaps you pressed it once before you threw them and also held ctrl

Self-D probably has no legitimate use case that isn't covered by the instant self-d command that requires it to be bound. All the rest of the use cases are extremely niche compared to the threat of accidentally firing off the command. Maybe it should be changed from ctrl+D to alt+D or unbound?

Yes the D key for terraform, roach, imp, etc.

Supcom uses Ctrl+K iirc. Much harder to fat finger.

We require AI determine the expected outcome.

quote: Oh destroying your stuff to leave less reclaim is a good tactic I think.

Falls under "incredibly niche" as most of the time your units will be dead before the 5s runs out or you'll waste value killing things that are in a winning fight. This requires a situation in which 3 things are true: you know that you can't win the fight, you cannot disengage and you have ample time to fire the self d command and allow it to finish.

quote: most of the time your units will be dead before the 5s

Might be a good strategy for Odin after it fired. It's quite tanky and has no use after it fired IF you assume it will not make it back.