The StarCraft II thread

[Nuwen]

I'll PM you any guest codes I pull out of friends.

Nuwen 294 scrubscrubscrub

[Nuwen]

by the way, i'd love any tips for ladder grinding other than "win." is blizzard's rank algorithm still super secret?

i've been sitting at r1 bronze since i bought the game three weeks ago ffffff.

[Nuwen]

Watching Sen clean up at MLG today. Check out Sen vs. QXC ZvT for an epic 40 minute game on basin (you guessed it! Thor drops and bling bombs) + a very clean followup win from Sen on blistering sands.

[Nuwen]

I just finished watching that set too -

holy templar batman

. Sock really, really took advantage of the split attention with those single stalkers up on the NW island too. I haven't seen many american SC2 games with that many simultaneous engages going on. Definitely need to check out replays.

[Nuwen]

I'm entering this best of the baddies tournament. If you don't mind playing for the amusement of better gamers, there's a $25/10 prize pool.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=168448

Greetings!

Are you a silver or bronze player with at least 50 games played on your account? Do you have nothing to do on saturday night? Then Join our Tournament!

First place- 25$!
Second place- 10$!

First 32 to sign up get to play! First game starts at 8 p.m. central
Single game elimination until the finals (best 2 of 3), and if it's obvious you aren't a silver or bronze player you WILL be disqualified.

Map pool:
1st round: Metal
2nd: lost temple
3rd: Jungle Basin
4th: Desert Oasis

Finals: start on Metalopolis, then loser picks.
winners need to send their replay to:

bluemangroup4@hotmail.com


Brackets will be posted before 8 p.m. saturday, central time. check back here for that.
To sign up, post your name and character code here, or email.
Good luck and happy hunting!

Hey folks, this was a sort of impromptu thing and we ended up not getting enough people at a desired time. We decided to postpone the tournament one week to next Saturday at 6 or 7PM CST, (we will give you guys the final time of course).

We apologize if you guys set aside time for this, but we felt we didn't go about it the right way. We didn't give you guys signup instructions, or enough details to keep you informed and apprised of how to participate in our tournament. We also want to set up a livestream so that we can cast the games live before next Saturday comes around. Hence why we are postponing this tournament, and we will give you guys a heads up for next week with a fully detailed post on teamliquid and through email.

[Nuwen]

GSL 3 qualifiers have wound down.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=168854

Maps used were Scrap, Metal, and Xel'Naga. Scrap definitely contributed to the strong zerg presence. Gom reported the entrant race spread as: T39.5%, P33%, Z23.9%. Obviously, a disproportionate number of zerg players qualified compared to their entry representation.

Edit: bracketsbrackets! http://www.gomtv.net/2010gslopens3/news/279

Editx2: Gom released a few qualifier videos on a 3 day free VOD timetable. http://www.gomtv.net/2010gslopens3/news/277

[Nuwen]

Best ro64 match is probably leenock vs clide.

who called it? Shanba called it!

First time I've ever gotten stressed out

watching

a match. I yelled at my computer quite a bit during game 3 (or 4, if you count the DC).

[Nuwen]

This was a feel good tournament match between myself and some random bronze player.

http://www.z33k.com/starcraft2/tourname ... tches/4635

r64, serious business. My APM is obviously low and we're chatting merrily away. I just sat back and contained and econ'd to mutas, but once I was on my second base the game was pretty over. Notice how I don't get my first queen until almost 20 supply and my visionlords are just clumped together at the top of my main. Whoops.

[Nuwen]

I was recently promoted to gold and I think it's time to start looking at my replays with a more critical eye.

http://www.nnuwen.czwief.com/SC2/goldgames.zip

Most of these are ladder, but one or two are from amateur tournaments. Trends I've noticed:

1)ZvZ builds need to be tightened up - overdroning on autopilot is costing me games to timing attacks. I need to be very, very aware of how many drones I'm making between lair tech and roach speed finishing.

2)ZvT - jesus christ macro. There were two ZvT games where I just lost to being outmacro'd among other smaller problems. If you check out the most recent game, you'll see that I scouted an armory very early on beforer a successful bust. I should have been able to macro enough cracklings to deal with that heavy of an investment + take the entire map while his slow fleet of thors stayed home and waited for mutalisks.

3) ZvZ close air positions/FE friendly map.

Queens need to block ramp. always. all the time. forever until roaches pop out.

[Nuwen]

from teamliquid: AS TERRAN YOU SHOULD WORK HARD TO NEVER BUILD A SUPPLY DEPOT.

I love dying to every single one base timing attack too!

Here's my first ladder session for today: http://www.nnuwen.czwief.com/SC2/12-3-10.zip

[Nuwen]

Getting pumped for Steelseries NA vs. EU, featuring some of the best players in their respective scenes.

Schedule



vs.

[Nuwen]

I got on a pretty good streak this morning. Most of these wins were against favored opponents between 1800 plat and 700 diamond. My single loss was to a spine/ling rush zvz. I just didn't have vision on all of my own hatch creep - I forgot that it spreads further than actual hatch vision on some maps. I've been skipping the 9 drone scout in ZvZ in favor of overlord scouting and slamming down 3-4 roaches before lair tech/speed vs. s/bling openers.

The rest of my wins were pretty clean, but I could have secured the gg 4-5+ minutes earlier in each game if my late-mid and late game macro were better. I'm still focusing on eating the entire map before engaging with a 200/200 army, unless I'm countering one base all-in's (like the failed 4 gate I beat).

http://www.nnuwen.czwief.com/SC2/12-4-10.zip

[Nuwen]

~

[Nuwen]

Got promoted to platinums

[Nuwen]

Resisting getting SC2 because... I actually don't know why.

Please tempt me further!

Play SC2.

[Nuwen]

Close air Metal:

Supply block at 27 food halts your production (from 1 building...) and pushes your money to 500+. Your first scout happens here. After you got to his front, you let your SCV die without ever getting up his ramp to check out building placement + unit composition. Is your banshee supposed to be your first information collecting tool? No effort to take Xel'naga to compensate for lack of in-base information leading up to your banshee attack.

Your opponent, btw, went 2xdepot -> 1rax with double gas (with 2 guys mining from the 2nd geyser!) and sunk $200 into bunkers. He didn't even have an orbital when your banshee arrived. You should have been killing the SCVs building his only form of detection (turrets) and upgrading cloak - you can always cancel if you notice he's invested REALLY heavily into static def detection and plan to mix uncloaked banshees into your ball as dps. Always look for ways to just fucking kill bad players (this does

not mean

suicide shit).

At the 10 minute mark he's invested 600 minerals in turrets and still has no orbital. You both invested in a second command center around the same time - you should be more than 10 food higher. Build your barracks as soon as you have 150 floating minerals anywhere, ever. Mules guarantee that you'll be able to make shit out of rax.You also need to always make units out of your existing rax.

Bring an SCV or two with your main pushes and stick them in a corner - you can't let hurt tanks be killed. You can eventually just kill your TvT opponent with a higher tank count if everything else fails.

You also saw 3 starports, 2 with tech labs, and never bothered to drop your port on a tech lab and get a raven for your push (production also halted from 2-4 buildings for 1 minute+ while you poked up his sieged ramp with your entire marine ball).

Shift-click rally your units to places out of enemy siege fire.

Shift click SCVs back to minerals.

I like the decision to expand twice after containing, but you need to build static defense turrets vs. 3 ports of banshees if your opponent insists on one basing until you can break him. When you split your vikings, you lost tank air control as his front.

Don't charge bio into planetary fortresses, especially if your medivac count is 0.

Upgrades! If your opponent is on 1 base for any significant period of time, your upgrades should be better because you have access to more gas. Armory / vehicle weapons is so important with that big of a tank count. (Speaking of armories, a single thor + turret can defend a planetary fortress against most everything if you need a set & forget defense).

After your contain breaks you just fall apart and let yourself be harassed to death. I consider the game over after your first engage forces him to stay on 1 base.

[Nuwen]

Who gives a fuck about graphics outside of campaign mode.

I need someone to bunker rush me for an hour, pretty plzzzz.

[Nuwen]

If you're new to Starcraft or RTS in general, join the cult of Day9.

[Nuwen]

Wait, how did Nuwen get 15 characters to her name? I thought SC2 only let you have 12...

Magic.

And ReaperCharlie is a fucking moron.

[Nuwen]

SO HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA

[Nuwen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns6G8QYQJtk

<3

[Nuwen]

i'm on many nyquils to fight the tiny invading things in my body.

[Nuwen]

• Spend your money all the time, always. You shouldn't have 600 minerals banked less than 4 minutes into the game. If you have more than 150 minerals, build another rax.
  
• Constantly make workers (from both of your command centers)
  
• Hotkey every building and every non-worker unit + hotkey the workers you use to build supply.
  • Keep your hotkey layout the same. Mine is 4hatches/t1production, 5-6t23 production/evo chambers, 1-3 army groups, 890 important shit like overseers
• Get used to hitting command center + worker production & rax + marine/marauder production constantly (4s5aa while focusing the center of your screen on something that isn't your base)
  
• Always have some idea of what your opponent is doing. Eventually you'll pick up on specific timings at which you should scout for builds that might kill you ("if I 2 rax FE and he's 1-1-1, I might need to keep a scan saved at ~7 minutes when cloak finishes")
  
• Unless you suspect that you need scans stored to engage/banshees, MULES. MULES IMBA.
  
• Don't 1 base battlecruisers, no matter what day9 tells you :p

Being able to make shit constantly is all that matters right now. Keep building and making shit until you can build and make shit without thinking about it too much.

[Nuwen]

SC Reddit tournament today & tomorrow, beginning at 2 PM EST.

Group states begin today. Casters include TotalBiscuit, DJwheat, Day9, Incontrol, and Diggity! http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=180059

[Nuwen]

Are we allowed to suggest non-Blizzard melee maps?

If so, then iCCup God's Garden is a map I greatly enjoy playing on (plus I think it's better balanced than a good number of the Blizzard 2v2 maps).

A lot of the ICCup maps are beautifully designed and explore macro situations not often seen on blizzard's map pool - I strongly suggest++ practice on them once you are familiar with the ladder maps and fundamental mechanics. Valhalla and God's Garden are already being used in small cash tournaments on NA/EU/SEA servers

[Nuwen]

Speak of the devil

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=182734

[Nuwen]

Each season usually costs 10 bucks, which gives you full access to HQ live streams and vods (which are promptly uploaded 1-4 hours after matches end). The amount of content you get is well worth the cost. You retain vod access to the season you purchased forever, just in case you want to watch that one awesome game you love a thousand times over.

Yeah, pirated 720p vods and restreams are everywhere. But even -I- buy Gom tickets. So should you.

[Nuwen]

http://mystarcraft2clan.com/blog/perman ... e-vlc-link

It auto extracts the VLC link and works with the HQ stream if you have a seasons pass.

And here's the same function in firefox addon form:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=181714

(allows you to set application preferences for gom URLs)

[Nuwen]

Do you know what a tangram is?

[Nuwen]

You can rebind the center base hotkey to something else for better injecting. I use the tilde~ key.

[Nuwen]

Scumchat is watching MLG all weekend (free HD today, Friday!)

http://pro.majorleaguegaming.com/live/starcraft_2_blue
http://pro.majorleaguegaming.com/live/starcraft_2_red

[Nuwen]

Scout scout scout. Match their gas to their buildings. No gas, no/minimal buildings -> proxy rax or gates. Fast gas, no/minimal visible tech -> proxy sport with lab or sgate.

[Nuwen]

Dreamhack resumes at 10 AM est (15 minutes after the time of this post). Come join us in scumchat!

http://www.dreamhack.tv/

The official mainstage casters are Day9 & Apollo, but there are more than half a dozen streams of SC2 groupplay going on today.

[Nuwen]

I literally /ignore the newfags who join scumchat just to talk about people who post on mafiascum. Feel free to do the same.

[Nuwen]

I'd just rebind everything to suit your own needs. I have small-medium hands, so I just shift everything to the left side of my keyboard. 2-5 are my love taps and 1 and 6 outers tend to be micro units I need fast, like infestors or overseers. I use one control group for hatches, queens, and have tab set to cycle hatches. My inject is bound to R so I can Tab+R inject with my pinky and forefinger very rapidly.

[Nuwen]

I live about 3 hours from Raleigh right now. I don't know if I'll have the finances to attend, but this is the closest I'll be to an MLG event this year.

[Nuwen]

Ghosts.

[Nuwen]

I don't think I've ever seen Otolia make a sensible post.