Starcraft 2

[HalcyonSpirit]

SlayerSBoxeR vs NaDa

Holy Check! First two games are finished as of this writing, but let me say: this is how TvT is supposed to be played!

EDIT (SPOILERS): The Emperor defeats NaDa! After the first two games, he just seemed to have NaDa figured out, and NaDa just made one or two more mistakes that cost him the series. But man, that series was awesome.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Is there some way I can watch the rest of the games from that set? GOM only seems to have the first game of each set for anybody who didn't watch it live.

[HalcyonSpirit]

I'd recommend paying for the tickets, but if you aren't going to do that, you can usually find them by putting the matchup name into Google; you'll usually have something within the first few results.

When I watched it live, I did so on Justin.tv on a stream for a user named Carefoot. You might want to check there to see if he recorded the stream as well.

[Scufo]

Incredible TvT. Boxer's "checkmate" give me nerd chills.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I'd recommend paying for the tickets, but if you aren't going to do that, you can usually find them by putting the matchup name into Google; you'll usually have something within the first few results.

I'd be happy to pay for the tickets, but I thought that was just for live stuff -- are the matches available to watch after the fact for ticket holders?

[BardicKnowledge]

I'd be happy to pay for the tickets, but I thought that was just for live stuff -- are the matches available to watch after the fact for ticket holders?

I'm not a ticket holder myself, but I am under that impression, yes. If you click over to "Set 2" in the gomtv player (upon watching the stream of set 1 the next day), it'll prompt you to buy a ticket.

[HalcyonSpirit]

I'd be happy to pay for the tickets, but I thought that was just for live stuff -- are the matches available to watch after the fact for ticket holders?

Yes. The SD stream is free to watch live, the HQ stream requires tickets, and the sets after the first are available when they're posted to ticket holders.

[Dhsu]

Sooo, has anyone encountered this in actual play yet?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/02/genetic-algorithms-find-build-order-from-hell/

[friendlyHunter]

Nope, but I very often find myself rushing with 6 to 8 roaches, doing something very similar to that build. (I don't attack with my queen or drones though). Good against Zerg unless they start getting more roaches than you, and fantastic against Terran if you can break through their wall (and sending zerglings through the wall basically ends the game). I can't recall how it generally goes against Protoss, but a forcefield on the ramp will completely ruin everything. Actually FF on a ramp generally will ruin any attacking ground force (especially if it splits up the army and simultaneously prevents retreat).

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Gah! Earlier today I was playing a match and got utterly flattened by a roach rush seemingy done in no time at all. I wonder if this is what he did?

[BardicKnowledge]

Apparently the counter is to drop a forge and build two cannons _after_ he has committed to the roaches. Then tech to phoenixes asap and supply block him before he can expand/tech to mutas (he's stuck on 1 base at this point).

[HalcyonSpirit]

SPOILERS:

The finals will be BoxeR vs NesTea. SlayerSBoxeR got trounced by NesTea 0-4. I was really hoping for a BoxeR vs SlayerSBoxeR final. Damn.

[The Derrit]

just got this game played campaign for the first time today. soooo goooooood

[BardicKnowledge]

just got this game played campaign for the first time today. soooo goooooood

Hit any of us up for some 1v1 goodness.

[The Derrit]

Hit any of us up for some 1v1 goodness.

once i get a better handle on the game i will

[friendlyHunter]

I've never heard the original song (thankfully), but I thought this video with HuskyStarcraft was pretty amusing:

I imagine the original sounds something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvmIzxO0-n4&feature=related

[Koriantor]

Could one of you fine gentleman help me out?

I'm not a particularly amazing starcraft player. Currently I'm residing in the top end of the Gold league and brushing against platinum, and I might be a bit stuck in this "Limbo" spot. Gold level players are easy to beat, but as soon as I play someone in platinum, I'm very much strained and tend to lose.

So I guess what I'm asking is one, what sort of general differences are there between the two levels of players? What makes me crumble underneath a platinum but dominate gold? ...also, I'm looking for a practice partner. Anyone interested?

Yeah, I know these are general questions that probably won't get answered and sound noobish and crap, but... humor me please?

Oh yeah, I've determined Canadians are the only ones that play on the North American ladder for some reason. I play all these games wishing everyone happy thanksgiving, and it ends up every one of them are canadian. Go figure.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Could one of you fine gentleman help me out?

I'm not a particularly amazing starcraft player. Currently I'm residing in the top end of the Gold league and brushing against platinum, and I might be a bit stuck in this "Limbo" spot. Gold level players are easy to beat, but as soon as I play someone in platinum, I'm very much strained and tend to lose.

So I guess what I'm asking is one, what sort of general differences are there between the two levels of players? What makes me crumble underneath a platinum but dominate gold? ...also, I'm looking for a practice partner. Anyone interested?

Yeah, I know these are general questions that probably won't get answered and sound noobish and crap, but... humor me please?

Oh yeah, I've determined Canadians are the only ones that play on the North American ladder for some reason. I play all these games wishing everyone happy thanksgiving, and it ends up every one of them are canadian. Go figure.

I'm in the same boat.

Except I'm at the top of bronze instead of gold.

[Koriantor]

I could help you out at that level. It's really a lot simpler than you'd think. I could critique a replay or I could play a match or two with you if you want it.

[HalcyonSpirit]

To get out of bronze, keep a few things in mind as you play.

First, pylons and probes. Or the racial equivalent. Essentially, don't get supply blocked and don't stop producing workers. You saturate a mineral line with three workers per mineral patch, but you want to build more so you can transfer workers when you expand and still have close to saturation at the original base.

Second, if your mineral count is steadily building and you're constantly building units out of all your structures, build more unit-producing structures and build out of them.

Third, pressure your opponent. That doesn't mean always attacking. Setting yourself outside their base is also pressure; forcing them to build more military to defend against a possible attack rather than build his economy while you continue to build your econ will hurt them in the long run.

Fourth, just go over there and kill your opponent. Below Platinum level, almost all games are decided by who has more units. If you've followed the previous advice, you likely have more units than your opponent. ATTAAAAAAACK!

[friendlyHunter]

Oh yeah, I've determined Canadians are the only ones that play on the North American ladder for some reason. I play all these games wishing everyone happy thanksgiving, and it ends up every one of them are canadian. Go figure.

I'm certainly no exception to that trend...

Anyway, I learn a ton by watching my own replays. Often my perception of the match while I'm playing will be quite different than what's actually happening - I'll think I'm behind, and back off, when in actuality I'm way ahead and should be attacking. Probably a sign I should scout better >_<

But a lot of the time I'll win what I think is a close match, then watch the replay and notice "well no wonder they lost, they totally [insert bad practice], and they didn't even [insert good practice]!". If you can see exactly what your opponent could/should have done in order to win, that'll teach you to not make their mistakes.

Often when I lose, it's because I've slipped and made some obvious mistakes that are clear to me while I'm playing. But when I'm wondering "how on earth could I have beaten that guy??" or "that was close, how could I have turned it in my favour?", the replay tends to have all the answers. It's usually something really REALLY simple and obvious, like the other guy had more workers, or more expos, or a better unit combination/counter, or better micro or positioning, or better scouting, or maybe a super one-sided battle took place. Keep the economy or units tab open to see how many workers each player has - worker count (along with expo count) is a key indicator of who's currently on top in a match. The economy graph at the end of the match is pretty telling as well.

So once you figure out what general area your platinum opponents are better than you at, it shouldn't be too difficult to improve

[friendlyHunter]

Bump!

So I officially suck at Terran, despite the fact that I play Random most of the time. I watched a replay where a Terran opponent totally overwhelmed my Protoss base with marines before I could get much of an army up, so from that I learned how to make a pretty mean early Marine and/or Marauder ball... but that's about it. I got promoted to diamond recently, but I feel like my Terran skill is still at gold =\

When it comes to team games (2v2) I'm not too bad with Terran... but for those games it seems like the winner is more determined by the skill level of my ally and opponents (i.e. luck) It'll probably get fairer once I play more team games, but that's been my 2v2 experience so far

On a completely unrelated note, has anyone else seen Protoss players making a super-early Nexus in 1v1? I've had about 4 opponents who did this, and each of them got utterly destroyed. It's like some kind of bizarro-cheese, where it's pretty much the opposite of a proxy, but it still fails miserably if it's scouted. The first guy who tried it against me had literally no army when I got to his base with a dozen or so marines, and I killed the single pylon powering his gateways the moment before they would've spawned 3 zealots (this game was BEFORE I learned how to do a good marine push). The other games weren't much harder... one time the guy placed his 3 photon cannons just out of range of his natural's Nexus, so I just walked past the cannons and killed the entire nexus with 6 or so zealots. Another time I kited his zealots with non-stimmed Marines and built a bunker below his ramp, which coincidentally was right beside his expo's Nexus (on Metalopolis). Is this early-expand build actually good ever (possibly against lower level players?), or is it just what happens when Zerg players switch to Protoss? Each time I'd scout the nexus I'd kind of panic and think "I have to attack NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!", but then I'd be met with minimal defences at their base.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I've been experimenting with a fast expansion build with Terran and it seems to be working pretty well for me. 1 Rax, then expand.

[friendlyHunter]

That sounds like a decent strategy... especially since Terran has bunkers for defence. Hmm, I should probably expand earlier with Terran... I always have trouble keeping my first Terran expo alive for any significant length of time >_<

[Geoffrey Taucer]

That sounds like a decent strategy... especially since Terran has bunkers for defence. Hmm, I should probably expand earlier with Terran... I always have trouble keeping my first Terran expo alive for any significant length of time >_<

Well, I mean, it doesn't work on every map. I'll do it on Jungle Basin, Lost Temple, and occasionally Shakuras Plateau, but that's it. And once the second command center goes up, I generally end up playing pretty hardcore defense for a bit (move the rax out in front of the natural, build a bunker, usually build at least one more rax before teching up).