Starcraft 2

[Pikachu]

day9tv.blip.tv/file/4049854/

Something that I already picked up on in BW (though not always practiced), but I really like how Day9 explains and illustrates how to effectively expand in this cast. He really is good at just explaining shit in a way that's good for everyone.

[buhwhyen]

Since more people are playing, and likely not going to do the research themselves. I'll spell out a few of the general opening builds. All of these are probably listed on the TL wiki (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Main_Page)

Terran
Typically you want to use mules with oribital command energy. But if you lack scouting and really want to know whats going on, typically your 3rd set of 50 energy can be devoted to scan a base (ie, you use 2 mules then scan) which is typically a good time to get information.

1)
-10 supply depot
-12 barracks
-13 refinery
-15 orbital command (command center upgrade) + 1 marine
-tech lab when marine finishes
-16/17 supply depot
-2 more barracks (typically you want 2 tech labs 1 reactor for barracks)

2)
-10 supply depot
-12 barracks
-13 refinery
-15 orbital command (command center upgrade) + 1 marine
-16 refinery
-16 supply depot
-factory @ 100 gas
-tech lab with next 25 gas
-marauder or marine after tech lab finishes
-switch factory and barracks (so factory has tech lab, factory should finish just before the marine/marauder finishes)
-tank + siege research
-command center
-supply depot
-barracks
-barracks

Protoss
Chronoboost should be used on the nexus until you start building your cybernetics core, then it should be saved for either your 1st gateway or cybernetics core (for warpgate). In general, chronoboosting your gateway is preferable

Typically you want to build a stalker then zealot then sentry so you can hold off early rushes. What you build after the first 3 gateway units is generally personal preference, but keep in mind sentries die really easily and don't do as much damage as zealots and stalkers. And contrary to what you might think, zealots do way more damage than stalkers.

1) 3 gate robo build
-9 pylon
-chronoboost after pylon finishes
-13 gateway
-15 assimilator
-16 pylon
-cybernetics core as gateway finishes
-stalker + warpgate research when core finishes
-assimilator
-pylon
-robotics facility
-gateway
-gateway

2) 4 warpgate build
-9 pylon
-chronoboost after pylon finishes
-13 gateway
-16 pylon
~18 cybernetics core as gateway finishes
-stalker + warpgate research when core finishes
-pylon
-gateway
-gateway
-gateway
-assimilator (second)

Zerg
I personally wouldn't bother using roaches against the computer b/c they typically have a lot of stalkers/immortals/marauders. If you do the 15 pool/16 hatch build, typically you build both your queens at your starting hatchery and send your first queen to your expo hatch after your first inject larvae/creep tumor.

Most of the time you want to spend the first queen's energy on inject larvae, but if you really want to get creep spread started early you can drop a creep tumor with the first 25 energy of your first queen.

1) 15 pool 16 hatch (macro oriented build)
-9 overlord
-15 pool
-16 hatch
-15 overlord
-15 queen + 1 zergling

2) speedling build (defensive oriented build)
-9 overlord
-14 extractor
-13 pool
-put 3 drones on gas till 100 gas then put them back on mining minerals
-15 overlord
-15 queen + 3 zergling

[Pikachu]

Do you know exactly how the ranking system works? I was almost at the top of my silver league and then got promoted to gold, again ranked near the top. Almost no real difference in my opponents either. Do the points mean anything, or is it just locally relative to the league you're in?

[buhwhyen]

The point system is 99% useless and I really wonder why they even bother employing it, frankly. Basically there's 100 people in each "division" and points only tell you how you are relative to those other 99 people in your division, there is no way to correlate even between 2 different divisions within the same league.

So...if you have 800 points in division "A" in Gold league, you can't tell whether you're better off or worse off than anyone else in division "B" also in Gold league. And points are randomly inflated by the "bonus point" pool which adds up to 19 points per win you get if you have them.

The way you get promoted to higher leagues is to have > 50% win rate against "higher level" players. So once you reach roughly top 10 or 15 in your division, you'll start playing mid-lower level players in the league above you. So if you're in Silver league, you'd play against mid-low level Gold players. If you're in Gold, you'd play Platinum players. You know they're higher level than you by seeing a "favored" tag during the load screen and you get like +26 points per win while if you lose you only get -1 point.

Every ~30 games you're "evaluated" and if you have >50% winrate against higher level players you'll be promoted to the next league.

tldr;
once you reach the upper part of your division you start playing people in a league above you to determine whether or not you "belong" in the higher league. And the point system is as useless as battlenet 2.0

[Pikachu]

I see. I noticed a few of my opponents tonight were kind of good. Like, they expanded and had real armies. Made it worse that they were Terran.

Speaking of which, I'm not sure if it's just because I'm playing against slightly better players, but just as every Protoss predictably tries to go toward Void Rays, every Terran I played against started dropping with Medivacs. Like, if I scout reactors going down first before tech lab, there's only one reason they want to make a ton of marines: they want to drop them in my base. But it's a HOMOgenous army that dies to roaches.

With Toss it seems sillier: no matter how many gates, I just assume they'll have a stargate eventually, and I just don't bother to scout anymore and build spore crawlers blindly. It's gay and not that interesting after a while. Not to mention stupid cheese like cannons in your base. They just try to trap you, and tech to Void Gays again. I have literally zero experience against robo bay units. They're either too slow to do it, or they're actually good and kill me with it. Shit for practice.

Zerg? ZvZ is just lame. Either I get 6 pooled or I just out-macro virtually everyone I come across now. I just need to protect my 2nd base by the skin of my teeth and I win.

Please get back in town. I need to not play in a stagnant style.

[buhwhyen]

SuperDanielMan is Smrt. It's a shame he isn't more involved in E-sports anymore. He was Estro's old head coach. His perspective is pretty damn unique cause he was living in America as a Korean-American that not only has been around really since the early days of E-sports in Korea, but also has supported bringing foreigner players to Korea to try to expand E-sports. He is now the owner of a PC bang (haha).

channel.pandora.tv/channel/video.ptv?ch_userid=kexxy&prgid=38986261&categid=all&page=1


The basic idea of his videos = why the fuck did BLizzard bother partnering with GomTV, they don't know shit about E-sports. Blizzard marketing strategy = massive failure in Korea, maybe 1 out of 50 people in a PC cafe (bang) is playing sc2 (this idea was confirmed by another article that was basically saying PC bangs = success in Korea).

I also didn't realize that pro gamers/E-sports in general reach top 10 searched in Naver 3-4 days a week (most popular Korean search engine/portal site), particularly when there's a big match coming up, ie Jaedong vs Flash.

[dyuman]

Is there place for protoss builds? Just wondering what the options are.

[buhwhyen]

wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Protoss_Strategy

As a general disclaimer, everything listed is meant for 1v1, not team games. Also, a lot of the builds aren't...what you want be doing as a beginner.

[dyuman]

How do you guys feel about hallucination? I figure making it look like I have 3 Collosi in a group could be a good distraction.

[buhwhyen]

www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=152345

Sigh bad coding. New apm sink early game.

[buhwhyen]

terran = fair
www.youtube.com/watch?v=elFKRsgg2p4

[buhwhyen]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px0zB9_ePmI

Blizzard epic coding failure. Srsly, this is flat out retarded and inexcusable.

[buhwhyen]

Wow. SC2 "balance" patch just before the round of 16 in the GSL, hope nobody was basing their builds off early zealot/reaper pressure. This is actually really fucked up that patches HAVE to be played on, even if in the middle of a gigantic 2000 person tourney with 100k USD on the line - especially if they come just before the round of 16 starts. I'd be pretty pissed if I played zerg and got knocked out before this point (I think there's 1? zerg player left in the tourney).

I also do not think the advent of a "in game timer" is at all a good idea for a game that shoots to be competitive. There is zero reason to add this in other than to help newer players and I wonder how it'll be handled in current "LAN" tournies, because a sense of how long the game has been going on is really one of the hardest things to keep track of, particularly when you're being harassed or have a lot to keep track of all at once.

[Pikachu]

Whoa whoa whoa, say that again? They're going to have an in-game timer, or is that already implemented? That's just an idiotic idea. Tell me they can at least turn it off.

[buhwhyen]

It is already in the game, was added with the recent patch. You have to go to your game interface menu in the options to ENABLE it. Doesn't seem like there's a way to detect whether or not someone has it enabled during/after a game. So it'll just become a part of tournament and competitive play. Hooray...