The StarCraft II thread

[Knight of Cydonia]

i just spent 47 minutes in a tvt game

lost pretty early on, but i dragged it out by pissing him off with marines

People like you are why I hate playing SC online.

[Knight of Cydonia]

What I think every time I flick through this thread:
"Oh hey, maybe I'll finally pick up SC2..."
*check store*
"Oh... still £35 because Blizzard/Activision don't understand the whole "prices drop after a few months" thing like every other fucking publisher..."
*goes back to BW*

[Knight of Cydonia]

This has to go down in price soon... right?

[Knight of Cydonia]

how dare they

it's like activision blizzard wants to just make a profit or something like some huge faceless corporation

There's making a profit, and then there's "keeping your game at full price when any other corporation would have dropped it by £10 or so by now".
Seriously, when EA have better business sense than you, you have issues.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Finished placement with 3 out of 5 wins, 14th in my division in Gold league. Considering I'd never played Starcraft, I'm fairly happy with that. Made the mistake of trying a PF fast expo to natural and bioball against Protoss, otherwise it would have been 4 out of 5.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I would totally win. Or lose. Whatever the objective is here.

[Knight of Cydonia]

/in for Worst of the Worst despite being comfortable mid-division Gold

[Knight of Cydonia]

Par for the course, yes.
A good thing for the industry, no. At least with WoW you know there's going to be stuff added for a decent spell post-release, whereas SC2 is just going to be balanced/bugfixed.
I would blame Activision, but Blizzard are very very adamant that Activision have no control over that sort of thing.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Because releasing a new 5 hour campaign (not in SC2's case, but still) every November with a slightly tweaked engine and multiplayer rebalancing doesn't happen all the time in Activision-land... Or yearly sport franchises that have changed very little... or new Guitar Hero/Rock Bands... or Assassin's Creed... there won't have been 3 different iterations of Street Fighter 4 by the time AE comes out... Yep, it's only Blizzard who get away with it.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Well, those who are REALLY INTO SC2 are going to get taken for $180. A game and 2 expansions sold as 3 full price games is just not a good thing for RTS in general. Wings of Liberty was a full game, Heart of the Swarm and... Call of the Void, is it? I can't remember what they nailed down for the third expansion in the end - are almost inevitably going to be a shorter campaign and some extra units, and Blizzard can do that because they know that the entire competitive scene will have to migrate both times, and that a significant chunk of the semi-competitive/casual scene will follow, just as Capcom knows will happen with SSF4AE. Just like the yearly sport franchises always sell massive amounts right before Christmas, just like until recently the new Guitar Hero and Rock Band games sold huge amounts, the SC2 expansions are a calculated ploy to milk as much as they can out of the fanbase, just like the whole "never drop the price EVER" thing that is peculiar to Activision & Blizzard especially vis a vis WoW, Call of Duty (MW2 is still £25 in stores, MW is still £20) and now Starcraft 2.

-edit- This sounds like I'm down on these games. I'm not, I think they're all excellent (perhaps with the exception of Modern Warfare), I just wouldn't buy them every time the franchise is rolled out. I waited until I got AC2 and AC:B for £15, I stopped playing WoW pre-LK on hearing it was going to be a full-price release, and I'm probably not going to pick up the SC2 expansions.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Oh you fuckers. Yes, I'm EU. Requesting position on caster team if you're doing them from replays, then.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I was under the impression it was just a normal tourney, but with really, really bad players.

[Knight of Cydonia]

A round robin is a LOT of games if everyone plays a best of three against each other once.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Well, if the terribads want to pretend to be in a tourney with some meaning, then yes, but I guess it's JD's call.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Only Idra would get so caught up in his own ego as to deliberately go down to the lower bracket just to snipe MC...

[Knight of Cydonia]

In other words, he gets carried. I'd say JD or someone gold-league minimum should test him out, see how he is solo.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I use 2 hotkeys: "S" for SCVS and "A" to attack and to make marines. Everything else I click.

Remind me to go early reaper harass into hellions against y-oh wait, you're on US.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Huh, I thought I was on mafiascum but I appear to have accidentally been redirected to /v/.

[Knight of Cydonia]

yay huk

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLl

[Knight of Cydonia]

It almost never works at GM level on Tal'Darim for certain, simply because at that level scouting is done

super

early because there are 4 potential spots for zerg to start, so if you do attempt a 6pool, it'll be spotted earlier than it might be on other maps, where scouting might be left a little later.

[Knight of Cydonia]

If you aren't watching NASL live,

check out Game 2 of DarkForce vs. LaLive

the whole match when it comes up OnDemand.

So, so good.

One of the best matches I've seen in a while.

[Knight of Cydonia]

If you are watching NASL for what the fucking stage looks like, you are doing it wrong.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I'll just leave this here.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Got a realm change to US. Also got demoted to Silver league as a result.
Mentlegen, 664.

[Knight of Cydonia]

6 POOL.
You make 6 pools, right?

RIGHT?

A friend of mine got SC2 a couple of weeks ago and asked to play his first game against me. He said he'd googled some "famous really strong plays".
He made 6 pools "because I thought that way you could get units quicker?"

[Knight of Cydonia]

That was physically painful to watch.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I wanted to nail a job with them to promote them with the english community.

Thanks for revealing the conflict of interest that only confirms the idiocy of your posting on this subject.

They're saying (quite rightly) "Hey! We had a contract... That isn't going away and we're going to see what we can do about that." This isn't about hurt feelings anymore. Once a contract is involved its a legal dispute. Threatening legal action is not a "threat", its more akin to exercising a right.

Also - this.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Someone please tell MKP that a marine/marauder ball just won't work any more in TvT...

[Knight of Cydonia]

Just played in the worst organised SC2 tourney ever. Map selection veered between 2 vetoes each first map, loser picks for second game, to "what would be the funniest" to "hey, I haven't seen Scrap Station in a while".

[Knight of Cydonia]

MKP announcing official name change to HellionKingPrime. IdrA choking when it matters again. Still, at least we might get a Stephano/IdrA game now.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Sweeping your pool, including 2-0 wins against Boxer and TLO, then losing to MKP, who hasn't exactly been on fire recently, coming off the back of a win at IEM Guangzhou... I dunno, man.

[Knight of Cydonia]

NesTea vs. Boxer on the MLG Red stream about to start, gonna be a hell of a series hopefully.

[Knight of Cydonia]

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

But this post was entirely necessary, of course.

To keep things on-topic: HerO looked phenomenally strong against Ret just now, really comfortable 2-0. Will be surprised if he doesn't make a very strong showing here.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Yeah, he "only" beat the former GSL champ with a 92% ZvZ winrate.
I like how his "Banjo" nickname has transcended /v/ now thanks to Passion. Good to see they are aware that not everyone is F5ing TL.net or Reddit.

[Knight of Cydonia]

When Leenock finishes school and starts putting in the kind of time every other pro does, he is going to be terrifying. 3-1 against DRG is no mean feat. Just hope he can close it out.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Something about Naniwa makes me dislike him, and I honest to god have no idea what it is. I think it's the fact he only makes eye contact with people about 10% of the time and spends the rest staring at his feet.

[Knight of Cydonia]

When Leenock finishes school and starts putting in the kind of time every other pro does, he is going to be terrifying. 3-1 against DRG is no mean feat. Just hope he can close it out.

leenock doesn't go to school.

Really? I assumed he was still in some kind of schooling at 16... In fact I think Artosis made references to it, so...?

[Knight of Cydonia]

Honestly, that stat is really just a bit misleading.

I'm sure that after losing the first game, among

everyone

the win rate is probably something like

80%

. Is Idra's a bit higher? Maybe. But it isn't so far out of whack imho. I think people are taking way too much from it.

IdrA was on 20 losses in a row in series where he lost the first game before he -finally- broke that streak at Providence. That's pretty far out of whack.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I don't know the situation with GSTL VODs, but holy shit, you have to watch the finals if you didn't see them live. Finally a (more than usual) compelling argument for LAN in HotS, and (MAJOR SPOILER)

MKP displaying some of the best micro and macro with bio I've ever seen to roll over Startale

[Knight of Cydonia]

I wouldn't be surprised if he's continuing for the year so that he doesn't have to work at all while at university, instead of just paying his tuition.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Guys!

HolyshitMVP.

Dude. I know.

I have my suspicions he wasn't really trying in that Cattlebruiser/Archon Toilet/Mass Void Ray game, but still, what a series.

Not sure why people were talking about Squirtle as a Royal Roader though, since he was in one of the GSL Open seasons IIRC.

[Knight of Cydonia]

SO HOW ABOUT SPADES

Fuck Spades.

[Knight of Cydonia]

And because almost every PvZ ended in
a) Protoss 1/2 base timing
or
b) Protoss makes Archon Toilet, gg one way or other depending on result of that toilet

[Knight of Cydonia]

I lose a little respect for any tournament where the group stages are so poor in terms of player quality that IdrA, of all people, can 3-0.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Yes, how dare someone who has those kind of mechanics and has a track record of success break their slump and 3-0 a group. The travesty.

Seriously, do you actually take your head out of your ass before you post or do you just keep it in there so you can deny acknowledging the world isn't flat every time you say something.

You're right, how dare I question a player who hasn't won a single major tournament since 2010
Silly me
And feel free to tell me how

relevant

and

dangerous

Bling, Bly and ClouD are (they're not)

[Knight of Cydonia]

I said major

[Knight of Cydonia]

GSL, GSTL, OSL, Proleague, MLG.
These are majors.
IEM? Nah son.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Except OSL is now a SC2 league, Proleague will be switching over fully after this season, and both of them are considerably more important to the scene than IPL, IEM or DH.
The fact that IdrA does well at those tournaments should tell you a lot about the level of competition and the seriousness with which the few top-tier players who do attend treat them.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Except OSL is now a SC2 league, Proleague will be switching over fully after this season, and both of them are considerably more important to the scene than IPL, IEM or DH.
The fact that IdrA does well at those tournaments should tell you a lot about the level of competition and the seriousness with which the few top-tier players who do attend treat them.

IPL 4 had half of Code S.

Keep striking out chief.

And IdrA came nowhere near any of them:

The only person to perform worse at IPL4 was White-Ra.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Yup
IdrA definitely out of his slump

Good to see him beating giants of the SC2 scene like... er... Bling and ClouD, and managing to take a game off that Korean colossus Sleep...

[Knight of Cydonia]

its as if batman made it all the way to the end and got killed by marion cotillard and lost Gotham to her nuke

all that effort, the struggle to climb out of the pit, the return to gotham, the rise of the dark knight, the beating batman gave bane, all for nothing

damn it taeja

I was going to see TDKR tomorrow.
Thanks.

[Knight of Cydonia]

And before you say it, yes I know the players in Kespa are not to be blamed for the company itself being a dick, but all the same, my feelings aren't swayed by that argument right now.

It's not an argument though it's literally the truth.

also how about destiny's dick.

Meh, at the same time you don't hear the Kespa players speaking out against it. They don't want to rock their boat, and sure, I understand that. But that doesn't make them completely blameless here.

And can we not talk about some guys dick? Seriously, take it to F62, this is a starcraft thread, not a dick thread.

Erm... several KeSPA players did speak out saying they wanted to play in GSL and didn't understand KeSPA's actions.

Also, all I'm going to say on the Destiny subject is... this is like the third or fourth big "incident" he's been involved in, and how many teams have ditched him now? Surely he's got to work out that his behaviour is destroying what little chance he has of being a figure in the NA/EU scene eventually... right?

[Knight of Cydonia]

No LAN = Blizzard having much stronger control of the competitive scene than KeSPA will. I really doubt KeSPA will have as much of a stranglehold over SC2 as BW simply because Blizzard have a lot more say as to whether a tournament goes ahead.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I took a series off a Masters player today 2-0.

soon

[Knight of Cydonia]

I hate mirror matchups so much. Literally every TvT I play goes to 30+ minutes (mostly because of my preference for mech play) and the last one just went up to 63 minutes.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I hate mirror matchups so much. Literally every TvT I play goes to 30+ minutes (mostly because of my preference for mech play) and the last one just went up to 63 minutes.

Welcome to Brood War TvT, where every game was an hour long slow waltz of seige tanks and wraiths!

But without the auto-firing siege tanks to make you actually pay attention to your shit!

[Knight of Cydonia]

That doesnt really answer the question. why do you have two accounts? Why not just play Protoss and Zerg on the one account?

Because if you try to learn another race, it lowers your ladder MMR while you're fucking around getting the hang of build orders and keeping on top of injects or whatever. Having 2 accounts lets you keep your Protoss MMR and your Zerg MMR separate, which I presume was the point of having two accounts. I have a separate account to my main Terran for off-racing because I found a site selling keys for £20 instead of Blizzard Price (c)

[Knight of Cydonia]

My first RTS games were AoE2, Starcraft, and Shogun Total War. I love Brood War to pieces, but it is a game where unless you're at OSL/PL level, or near that, skill is defined as much by your ability to make up for the engine's shortcomings as anything else.

Seeing as the thread is seeing an uplift in posting, would anyone be interested in one last WoL tournament before HotS drops?

[Knight of Cydonia]

Problem with BC's idea is that lower league players will get shit on by higher league players, so the town would end up picking a Masters champion (do we even have any Masters players?) and having him lynched every day to kill off the scum; or vice versa. In fact, a competent scum team would be nigh-impossible to lynch.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I didn't really enjoy the campaign that much, it felt very Mass Effect 2-ish in that

none of the major plot strands from the first game apart from Kerrigan's revenge on Mengsk were really dealt with and it seemed to be more about powering up the Swarm (again) and removing Amon's influence/the Hybrids that Duran/Nurad was creating while telling a really shitty 'love' story.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Yeah, the entire internet is annoyed at the dumb, retconned love story. They do lampshade this near the end of the game from what I understand, though, which made me feel a little better about it. And we also get a neat twist involving Raynor from what I understand.

The only plot-related thing that annoyed me was

Spoiler:

the death of Narud. Big anti-climax, since Duran was one of my favorite Brood War characters. I was over-the-moon about Alexei showing up, though. But there's probably still space for them to full a fast one in Legacy of the Void.

The way I read it was that Narud/Duran is just an avatar of the Dark Voice/Void/whatever; and so he'll more than likely return under another name in LotV.
Also I felt that the Raynor "twist" really isn't that big a twist, Blizzard not having the guts to kill off such a major character for good is hardly a surprise.