Starcraft 2

[Conan The Politician]

I wish they had a league for people that are new to the Starcraft series. I've played 4 matches in the practice league, but I only won 1 (by luck).

The other guys I've played have been playing Starcraft for years, so they already have the advantage. Kinda frustrating...

If you need a hand with practice, I'd be more than willing to help. I've got all weekend and NOTHING going on. Just throw out your character name and code (preferrably on the social group thread linked on my sig), and a time.

[noTuX]

If you need a hand with practice, I'd be more than willing to help. I've got all weekend and NOTHING going on. Just throw out your character name and code (preferrably on the social group thread linked on my sig), and a time.

Cool man. I can't remember my code right now, but I'll post it up whenever I get off from work today.

[Souliarc]

I wish they had a league for people that are new to the Starcraft series. I've played 4 matches in the practice league, but I only won 1 (by luck).

The other guys I've played have been playing Starcraft for years, so they already have the advantage. Kinda frustrating...

If someone who's been playing StarCraft for years is playing in the practice league, then they're just douches I guess their craving for besting newbies beats out the frustration of the destructible rocks and slower speed, which is pretty lame on their part.

I'd love to help with practice too but I've got a hell of a weekend...

[noTuX]

Ok. My name is BlueMagic, code 423.

I'll probably be on tomorrow.

[friendlyHunter]

Just quoting part of my post from the social group thread why not:

Also I seem to remember that adding friends by email address automatically makes you RealID friends, which (I think) gives your real name to friends of friends. Yeah, I don't need that Xl

So give the handle.number please

Also do we perma-choose our race beforehand like in the SC1 OCR tournament? If so I choose Random.

Hold the phone - Is there any reason we can't make a thread for this in the Competitions forum? The Chess tournament has a thread there... and the missing features in this social group thing are already bugging me a little...

[Conan The Politician]

Just quoting part of my post from the social group thread why not:

Hmm, I suppose I'll post a link to the tournament thread on the competition section. Hopefully that doesn't count as 'flooding the forums with spam'.

[friendlyHunter]

Oh, I meant actually moving the tournament operations to the competitions thread, so we don't have to deal with low character limits, and getting annoyed when we want to check page 2+ of the thread and stuff like that

[Edit]

...Unless that forum software update is coming soon. Is it?

[Zombie]

im stuck in bronze league 1v1 and i cant get out

no. 5 though so thats cool

[Souliarc]

I'm kind of confused about Zerg's accepted "natural expansion".

I see why they do it, of course, being they need more larva to sustain their economy so they might as well put another hatch at their natural. Understandable. Not to mention, that 350 mineral hatch is a lot more efficient being that it also produces units and Zerg isn't required to build other buildings to make units from.

What I don't get is how easy it is for them to get an edge in their economy because of how much it makes sense to put their next hatch at a natural. What advantage does a Protoss or Terran player have to make up for this? Basically, how do I deal with this? I'm a Protoss player.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Early pressure and Chrono Boost/MULES. CB can either boost your economy production to keep pace with the Zerg or your army production to put early pressure on when the Zerg is still vulnerable after getting the Hatchery (that's 350 minerals not spent on military units, and it won't be made up for a while). MULES boost Terran's mineral intake considerably, allowing them to create more units (SCVs or military). In either case, the Protoss and the Terrans can gain an economic or military boost without having to spend the minerals on another expansion that they have to defend (even while it is still constructing and not adding to the economy).

[Reaif]

Just wanted to share something that I found recently that has changed my play for the better since encountering it. Everyone who is interested in Starcraft 2 (or even the first one for that matter) should visit www.gomtv.net

Gom TV is a Korean television studio that hosts very high stakes tournaments. For the current SC2 tournament, I believe that first place gets 100 mil Korean Wan. That comes to about 100,000 USD. Anyhow, the part about this that you should care about, is that they broadcast the games with ENGLISH commentary. Yes, they actually have two native English speakers on site who commentate live. To watch the games, you can go to their website and view them live 5 days a week at 4 AM central time (yes, we totally get screwed on that one), or you can get an account and watch all the recorded games at your leisure.

[vega12]

Yes, the GSL is pretty fun to watch. It's almost round of 16 now too, so the quality of the games should be going up too soon. And Tasteless + Artosis is a good casting combo.

As for the Zerg fast expand, remember that while having a 2nd hatchery means increased production from the extra larva (queens also help in this regard), by having all units spawn at the hatchery the zerg player always has to balance making drones and making army units. So if you leave the zerg alone and they are allowed to power drones, they will have a monster economy. So small things like pushing with a small army to force the zerg to build more army units than they would like and maybe some spine crawlers will help stop their drone count from growing too fast. Whenever you have a chance to put pressure on a zerg player, you always should. Of course, don't get carried away with pressure and throw units away, but pressure leads to a weaker zerg economy. This is why early 2 gate pressure is so popular, and also why it is going to be nerfed in the next patch a bit.

[BardicKnowledge]

Bumping this thread to talk about the epic GSL series last night, TLO vs. Hyberdub. If you missed it, take the time to at least watch game 1 of this series, which is the best game of the entire tourney to date by miles. It's a very long game for pro play, and we get to see parts of the tech tree that usually don't exist. Go check it out!

As for defeating a proxy rush, you've got to 1) wall up or 2) make your barracks a little earlier than usual. Scout successfully and you'll know what's up (see game 3 of this series for a good example of why scouting is so important).

[friendlyHunter]

I think I found it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irvBy3GDLa0#t=226

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSkGbPIHJGw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYLow_vHSAI

Watching...

[Edit]

[spoilers]

Haha, even the best can be ultra-harassed by Banshees. I HATE those things >.<

[Edit]

That game was INSANE! Wow, thanks!!

[/spoilers]

[Lunarfall]

I think I found it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irvBy3GDLa0#t=226

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSkGbPIHJGw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYLow_vHSAI

Watching...

[Edit]

[spoilers]

Haha, even the best can be ultra-harassed by Banshees. I HATE those things >.<

[Edit]

That game was INSANE! Wow, thanks!!

[/spoilers]

Spoiler:

Holy shit those defensive nukes were sick. Probably the best SC2 game I've ever seen.

[Conan The Politician]

GAH, I didn't watch it yet!

EDIT: Thanks for rectifying that, Lunarfall .

[Lunarfall]

Crap, sorry man, forgot to spoiler.

[HalcyonSpirit]

It's a shame that TLO lost the other two games and thus got knocked out of the tournament...

[BardicKnowledge]

^Yeah it's a shame, as I think he's probably the smartest player on the circuit.

[BardicKnowledge]

Bumping this to advertise another awesome GSL game, this time with Zerg play: http://www.gomtv.net/videos/1122/0

Note the use of the island expansion -- do that if you're not already, terran players.

Couldn't track down game 2 on Youtube, but here's game 3 of that set (ogsTOP wins game 2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7TECOphnJM also amazing. The best Zerg games of the tourney.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Note the use of the island expansion -- do that if you're not already, terran players.

It's situational. Getting the island expansion - any island expansion - is a risky move. Yes, it can prevent the opponent's main army from attacking it easily, so if it remains hidden or you have a good air defense force, it can really pay off. On the other hand, you can't defend it with your main army easily, so if your opponent makes a big strike against it, you won't be able to defend it like you would a normal expansion. So it's a risk vs. reward issue. Normal expansions are a more guaranteed payoff because you have your main army to defend it, while an island expansion can create a bigger payoff in the long run but is vulnerable to large, swift blows. Pick which one you need more in your current match.

[Conrose]

Yeah, if you go for the island expansion and your opponent fast techs to air units, you can easily lose the expansion before you can go into your own mid-game tech shifts... not to mention the loss of resources from flying your command center to the island in the first place puts even your main army at a disadvantage over building the command center on site... although it seems almost standard practice to build a command center in a secure region before flying it to the expansion so it probably isn't that much of a loss anyways.

[Reaif]

Yeah I almost never build the command center on site anymore. Not unless it is either 1) really far away or 2) so close and easily defended that it would be suicide for the enemy to try.

And I LOVED the last few days of GSL. Best so far by far. Can't wait for the round of 8.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

The more I think about Tychus's character, the less sense the whole thing makes. I thought the whole betrayal subplot just didn't make any sense.

WARNING: SPOILERS

Here's the series of events, as I understand it:

-Arcturus "frees" Tychus on the agreement that if he kills Kerrigan, he will then go genuinely free. (Keep in mind that at this point, Arcturus has no reason to believe that Tychus could ever possibly get close enough to Kerrigan to kill her, and no reason to believe he'd have the ability to kill her even if he got the opportunity.) Arcturus has the ability to send a signal which will instantly kill Tychus at any time.

-Tychus (while still secretly reporting to Arcturus) steals the Odin (from Arcturus) and uses it to lay waste to a bunch of Dominion forces (ie Arcturus's forces). All this while Arcturus has the ability to kill Tychus any time.

-With massive help from the Odin, the raiders launch a surprise attack that allows them to pretty much destroy Arcturus's claim to legitimate emperorship. The raiders cause widespread open revolt against Arcturus, largely due to Tychus's help. All this while Arcturus has the ability to kill Tychus any time.

-Kerrigan is neutralized and deinfested, and Tychus then attempts to kill her.

This does not make any fucking sense at all.

Otherwise, fantastic game.

[Mr. Bottle Rocket]

It wasn't arcturus setting up the plot for tychus, it was his son.