Starcraft II

[Jedo]

Yeah, the thing is that if I don't use my game time for go I feel bad

Maybe this will stop if I hit shodan?

[daniel_the_smith]

Shodan: the rank at which you realize you really want to be 5d...

[Hushfield]

Hi L19, long time no see. I spent quite some time playing SC2 with a bunch of friends, and managed to completely neglect my go studies. Most of my friends placed in bronze, but they are rapidly working their way up through silver and gold leagues. One of my friends however has been a long time wc3 player and he should hit diamond league one of these days after being stuck on plat rank 1 for quite some time now. Practicing with him is just awesome, I get demolished game after game, and I keep coming back for more. I'm still stuck at around gold league level (though I manage to win around half of my games against plat opponents). Anyway, I really enjoy the spectator side of SC2, I'm really into Day[9]'s lectures, and vods of some of the big tournaments.

I feel that actually watching the replay yourself without audio commentary forces you to look for relevant transitions, the production tab, keeping track of the minimap, etc, which impact your playing more directly than just watching a vod. Also, you can rewind more easily, and notice things that some casters might miss. And big bonus: the replay files are much smaller and more abundant on the net, so more convenient for storing and creating nice replay packs to share with your friends ^^ Watching vods like husky's makes me lazy. But he is pretty hilarious at times.

Aphelion, thanks for the great share btw:

This highlight video of July of his exploits in the 2004-2005 OSL season was what got me interested in professional Starcraft, and I still regard it as the best highlight video ever made.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4293671168984783888#

Enjoy.

Though the stream quality is absolutely horrible when compared to the 1080p sc2 streams, that's the first time I've actually seen what "stacked muta snipes" look like (they look very cool, in case you're wondering). Also your comparison of july with shuusaku made me want to explore some of the great bw players and their best matches. Are there any bw players here that could point me in the right direction? And could someone please explain what all the osl, msl, and other abreviations stand for? Oh, I play terran in sc2 btw, and think I should definetely check some of slayers_boxer and iloveoov's matches. I could probably improve by just playing a hundred games thinking only about good macro, building scv's and not getting supply blocked every 5 seconds, but I just love the tradition this game has come to be immersed in.

Teach me, fellow sc players. I am a spunge.

[Solomon]

A "new" trick has been discovered for SC2 which, unless Blizzard decides to patch, is definitely going to make the early game more active : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=152345

I put quotations around "new" because it's not really new: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSrZOcLsTug (at the 1:00 mark)

And could someone please explain what all the osl, msl, and other abreviations stand for?

OSL = OnGameNet Starleague (interesting trivia: The gamer-ized Go variant, BaToo, sponsored the OSL a couple of years ago)
MSL = MBCGame StarCraft League
Everything you need to know about BW leagues can be found here.

Oh, I play terran in sc2 btw, and think I should definetely check some of slayers_boxer and iloveoov's matches. I could probably improve by just playing a hundred games thinking only about good macro, building scv's and not getting supply blocked every 5 seconds, but I just love the tradition this game has come to be immersed in.

Teach me, fellow sc players. I am a spunge.

Rumors are going around that Boxer (and Nada, another Terran legend) will be moving to SC2, so you're in luck there. July, Zerg legend, has already been confirmed.

[ketchup]

A "new" trick has been discovered for SC2 which, unless Blizzard decides to patch, is definitely going to make the early game more active : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=152345

I saw this on the TL forums today at work, and it's definitely a great find. I honestly think it's done on purpose for the micro fanatics out there. There's really no reason why the AI would be THAT slow to respond to unit being "full".

There was also Zerg queen shift-"micro" that was an interesting thread. You might want to link that one also. Basically you can shift-queue the queen around to match the timing of your larvae being done. That way, you never forget to do this. It's a very small thing, but helps quite a bit in the long run.

I have to say, after lurking around in TL forums, they are pretty great. A lot of members are pretty helpful, and are generally a good crowd to read from. I can understand why TL is growing as big as it is. Things like the above are what keep me going back.

Btw, for those keeping up with GSL/ Foreign players in GSL: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=152046 . This person has great blogs about each day. Enjoy the pictures

[Hushfield]

A "new" trick has been discovered for SC2 which, unless Blizzard decides to patch, is definitely going to make the early game more active : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=152345 [...] Rumors are going around that Boxer (and Nada, another Terran legend) will be moving to SC2, so you're in luck there. July, Zerg legend, has already been confirmed.

Wow, I'm going to try that. It seems like a sensible way of early game warming up instead of senseless spamming. And Boxer, Nada and July in sc2, that's just awesome. I actually already saw nada play some sc2 in his showmatch with TLO. Though I really dislike TvT (both in playing and watching), I was pretty impressed. I remember July from his "Sauron Zerg", in which he just rallies units from what seem like a thousand hatcheries straight to the enemy base. That was epic.

[ketchup]

Linked in some TL thread I was skimming through. Great Day[9] video about his experiences in SC: http://blip.tv/file/3486428

I don't think he had any of this planned as it turned out, but it's an amazing thing to listen to. Give it a viewing when you have a few hours available. Also, sorry if it's been posted before.

[Solomon]

Linked in some TL thread I was skimming through. Great Day[9] video about his experiences in SC: http://blip.tv/file/3486428

I don't think he had any of this planned as it turned out, but it's an amazing thing to listen to. Give it a viewing when you have a few hours available.

Yeah, definitely his most famous daily. I won't lie, I teared up a bit in the middle when I first saw that . Highly, highly recommended for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Makes me proud to be a Starcraft player.

[Hushfield]

Omg, I thought I was a total geek for getting somewhat emotional and really proud to be part of the starcraft community after watching the Day[9] Daily 100. I have watched it several times since. It's a source of inspiration. Whatever weird goals you decide to set for yourself, this video by Day[9] is sure to help you accept your inner geek. Man I liked this video. I might just watch it again tonight.

[Solomon]

Just cheesed in a ladder game for the first time after a very frustrating streak. Oddly enough, it was on Kulas Ravine, a large map that's very difficult to cheese on. Got paired with some ~850 diamond player, PvP. Gambled and sent a scout on 7, got lucky and found him on first guess, then proxy 2 gated. Needless to say, he wasn't very happy and the convo wasn't pleasant...I won, but I can't get this bitter aftertaste out of my mouth. Felt pretty much the same way as when I used to play Go games with SD time settings many years ago and, when I was losing but ahead on time, would make ridiculous plays just to drain my opponent's time and get a dirty win. Oh the shame....

For anyone who's been laddering, how often do you cheese if at all? If so, do you feel bad about it like I did? Or do you accept it as a valid strategy and consider it just as much of an earned win as a 40-minute macro game?

[Hushfield]

I almost never cheese, partly because I'm still learning the game and I think it's more helpful to play standard 'good macro', and partly because I always get so nervous and out of my comfort zone that I play much worse than I usually do. Though I think most cheese strategies are aesthetically less appealing, I do think they are valid strategies. You mostly trade some economic solidity for an early advantage. It's a game to win, right? It's not like you're breaking the rules. Serves him right for not scouting (although that might be somewhat harsh on a map like kulas ravine). I think the only bad mannered person in the game you described was the player getting angry for getting caught off guard. Don't worry about it.

[fwiffo]

I haven't cheesed yet, but I think it's generally because of the attitude that I've carried over from perfect information games.

[MountainGo]

I've never cheesed, simply because I'm trying to improve by focusing on the things that will always apply to most of my games. It also just never really occurred to me to try it, but the suggestion is making me want to. I play all three races so that I'll understand them better even if and when I choose to focus on one, so I should equally get good at some common cheeses to understand how to deal with them better.

[Aphelion]

There's nothing wrong with cheesing, and I think its not useful to think of it that way. I think there's very few cheeses that are purely BO luck, mechanics and game understanding play the ultimate role in the result.

Araban, if you continue to feel bad, take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIs5HS_oMxU

[MountainGo]

There's nothing wrong with cheesing, and I think its not useful to think of it that way. I think there's very few cheeses that are purely BO luck, mechanics and game understanding play the ultimate role in the result.

Araban, if you continue to feel bad, take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIs5HS_oMxU

Totally agree.

That clip proves that cheese doesn't have to rely on your opponent's bad scouting. The only thing I didn't understand was why the other guy didn't go after the second Pylon on top.