The StarCraft II thread

[ReaperCharlie]

Nice. Thanks for posting the links.

OP updated.

[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.

[TheButtonmen]

I'm watching MLG too while "working" on a project; Jinro vs Sock on Desert Oasis at the moment, great TvP game with action happening all over the map all the time and continual nukes raining down off of three ghost academy's.

[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.

[Shanba]

It's probably wrong that I'm this happy, but...

WHOOOOO promoted to silver!

[Claus]

PatoArmado, #451

[AGar]

It's Socke... There's an "e" at the end of that.

/nerdrant

(I frequent TL, for those wondering where the hell that came from).

I need to start playing again soon.

[SaintKerrigan]

Curiosity overwhelmed me and I decided to see if I could actually play this on my laptop, and holy shit it worked. Graphics are sitting at rock bottom on all areas and any big 200 supply battles that I've seen when watching replays have chugged a bit (well actually, a lot) but I am delighted to be able to play some starcraft II.

Pretty much the same thing for me, except I was in the beta so I already knew my comp would survive.

[curiouskarmadog]

shit I play...need to get down on this....

[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.

[ReaperCharlie]

PatoArmado, #451

Updated!

[Shanba]

Spoiler: GSL

Not sure where else to post this, as it's pretty much a rant. But I'm getting absolutely sick of people (nuwen, not you <3) talking about how Foxer's play was cheesy and boring. Guess what. That's what you have to do against zerg. Not necessarily marine pressure (although I honestly think that's probably the most effective kind of pressure - if you have good enough micro), but you have to hurt him in the early game. It's simply necessary. The only game I can think of where terran won a macro game against zerg that entire tourney was nada vs leenock on shakuras plateau - and even that was essentially a 2 base timing push, and he was helped by the fact that leenock threw away all his mutas earlier in the match.

Basically in tvz (and also pvz to an extent) there's a cutoff point before which trading armies favours terrans and after which trading armies favours zerg. That window can be extended using harassment, but unless that harassment is doing huge amounts of damage, it can't be extended indefinitely. Terran is going to have to push sooner rather than later. In a way, fast expanding gets in the way of doing this, since lings running into mineral lines is so devastating that you need to have your defences sorted before moving out or risk losing that economic parity the fe gave you. Similarly you're going to have to have something that can deal with the mutas before you can move out. In essence, fast expanding vs zerg can lose you so much time that the window to attack before the cutoff is vastly reduced - unless you do it like foxer does, where you get no gas, build several marines and try and harass a little with them.

Foxer was the only person to beat multiple zergs at the gsl. In fact, excluding foxer, toss and terrans combined managed a record of 18-46 against zerg (Foxer's record was 10-7, ftr). Foxer won one less game against zergs than all other terrans combined.

Oh and it's not just MASSMARINESHERPDERP each game either. Putting aside the games where he went biomech or banshees, he mixed in two very distinct builds with distinct responses necessary - both off no gas, he'd either 1 fax fast expand or 2 rax pressure but with one hidden. The two are indistinguishable for the period of time in which a scout is in the base, as all they will see is a single rax and no gas. The consequences of this were obvious when he played hopetorture - HT saw the no gas and put down a bunker at his main, when in reality Foxer was fast expanding. Those kind of mindgames are fabulous in a best of x series. All credit to nestea for working him out - he punished the fast expand on XC beautifully (and it was disappointing to see that foxer hadn't walled his main there. If he had walled, nestea's units would have had to attack the expo directly, and in that case would have had to fight the bunker. As it was, he simply walked past it. I don't think it would have helped, as nestea's army was huge, but still.)

Also note that foxer did his cheesiest shit on SP - widely regarded as the a zerg favoured map (a ways less than scrap, but still zerg favoured). Picking off wins on maps that don't suit you is simply good matchplay. And even that wasn't really all-in - the intent is not "KILL OR BE KILLED WITH THIS ONE ATTACK", it's more the idea of trading down - terran has an orbital that becomes more of an advantage the smaller the number of workers. By pushing with a number of his own workers, the terran player hopes to trade workers for workers, thus reducing the total number and increasing the advantage of the mule. It's quite possible to transition from there into an ordinary game (though not hugely likely, as the amount of damage between HUGE ADVANTAGE and MASSIVE DISADVANTAGE in those circumstances is slender). It's more like a 4 gate than say a 6pool.

Early do or die pushes like foxer was playing, particularly with his micro, are the only way to beat a zerg whose drone timings are as perfect as nestea's are.

[TheButtonmen]

Spoiler:

You need to pressure, you don't however need to commit; Foxer lost on Xel'Naga caverns and Metal games because he overcommited and got swarmed by 20+ lings, if he had pulled back then his opponent would have 20 useless lings and no drones. The key to beating zerg is to make them spend their larva on combat units rather then drones, you don't need to all in their natural to do so. Just moving up forcing them to make a production cycle of lings / roach then falling back is enough to stop them from power droning.

Also slight nitpick, SPlateau isn't a zerg favoured map (If the bases are connected by the back door then T has the advantage where as if the bases are cross postion the long rush distance favours the zerg).

[Shanba]

Spoiler: GSL

T has the advantage if they're connected by the backdoor? Two sets of destructible rocks don't make the map suddenly a small map, nor are the rush distances small in that case. It's more comparable to scrap with slightly shorter rush distances when you have the backdoor, I'd have thought.

Eh. I don't agree about overcomitting on metal - that was a deliberate strategy which needed an engagement to justify it. If he had moved in with all those scvs and then not just pulled back, that would pretty much have been game with all that lost mining time. You could argue that maybe that wasn't the smartest strategy in the first place, but I tihnk there's definite merit to it - the idea is definitely sound.

On XC - yeah, there he overcommitted. It's tough to judge when to pull back, though.

[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

[Shanba]

And here are the brackets! - I guess I should check to see if nuwen has edited her post before just hitting enter, huh.

If you're one of those who likes to follow the non-koreans, the names you're looking for are Idra, Ret, Sen, HayprO and Jinro. Sen in particular has a terrible draw, as he will be matching up against GSL S2 champion Nestea in the ro32. If he wins that, his next opponent is likely one of MakaPrime/jooktojung. Then he's got oGsTheWind or NSPGenius. Idra's draw is also not great, as he's got IMMVP followed by CheckPrime - MVP has excellent TvZ, but even if Idra wins that his ZvZ is terrible and I think Check will smash him.

Ret would be my best bet to go deep, followed by Jinro. The big players in Ret's bracket, kyrix and fruitdealer, are both beatable - and he wont be meeting kyrix until the Ro16 anyway. He wins that match, he gets S class. Should be doable - not easy, but doable. Jinro's chances depend, in my mind, on how good Moon (WC3 pro) has gotten at sc2. He'll be playing probably Moon in the Ro32, and then probably SlayersBoxer in the Ro16 - that could be tough. Still, Boxer could hit a zerg before then and crash out.

HayprO has a good bracket, but he's pretty much an unknown to me. The notable player he'd have to face in the Ro16 is fruitdealer, and before that it's pretty much all unknowns. I guess he could go fairly deep. If he does, fruitdealer tears him a new one. EDIT: Nope, never mind that, Ro32 opponent is rainbow aka hopetorture aka 2nd in gsl 1 and 4th in gsl 2. He's gonna get wrecked.

Other notables: FoxerBoxerMarineKingOptimusPrimeEllenPageClare has a fairly easy road this time. He's probably going to crush the dreams of poor gumihofou, the first random player to qualify for the GSL - assuming gumiho beats his ro64 opponent. EX-BW legend Julyzerg plays core first up, who if I recall correctly made it fairly deep last tournament before being eliminated by slayersboxer in pretty convincing fashion. After that, it's likely a match against zenio - a player who himself admits his zvz is mediocre (though good enough to beat idra lolol.) It only gets harder from there. I don't see him making much of a splash, unfortunately.

Best ro64 match is probably leenock vs clide.

[Papa Zito]

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.

Now I wish I actually played some ladder games. I have, like 4 or something. I completely qualify otherwise.

[ReaperCharlie]

FoxerBoxerMarineKingOptimusPrimeEllenPageClare

??!?!?!

...

+

+

+

+

+

+

...

WHO??!

*mind explodes*

lol

[Shanba]

He's an ex brood war progamer who went by the id of clare. Switching to SCII, he changed his name to BoxeR - in honour of his idol, broodwar legend (and father of e-sports) BoxeR. During the last GSL, he was dubbed Foxer - fake boxer. However, Boxer (the real one) switched to scII as well (who also did rather well last season, reaching the semis. He currently is and always was SlayerS_BoxeR). So Foxer decided to change his name. He said during the interviews for the final (which he lost) that he would change his name to OptimusPrime if he won, as he'd then definitively be the best player on the Prime clan (he's currently also known as BoxeRPrime, but whatever.) But he lost, so he stuck with BoxeR. His nickname is MarineKing for his insane marine micro, and he recently played at a tourney or a showmatch or something under that nick.

Oh and for some reason he came to last season's GSL qualifiers with the nick EllenPage.

Regardless, he's insanely good.

[ReaperCharlie]

Well.... nice.

He likes Marines and Optimus Prime, so he can't be all that bad.

[Flameaxe]

/in before idra's next tantrum.

[AGar]

/in before idra's next tantrum.

Spoiler: Semi Rant

Ugh, I hate people like this.

I've known Idra for about a year and a half, coming up on two years now. I ran a money league back in early '09 that lured some of the better Brood War players in, including Idra, Strelok, Artosis, LzGamer, Machine, Yayba, Draco, and NonY (except Machine, Lz and NonY didn't qualify ). I will fight anyone to the death who dares dispute Idra's professionalism and actual manner. Yes, he can be a bit abrasive in certain games, and he has his moments. But his job for over two years now has been winning. Anything less to him is considered a failure. Rather than just assuming he was entitled to enter my league, he started things off by contacting me and asking if it was kosher. He then put up with extremely laggy connections with one player through multiple series. He was willing to work around our time schedules that we laid out, and patient with what he needed to do. He made a request that his replays from the ladder not be released if not necessary, but was willing to cope with it had I deemed it necessary. Aside from one small, contained incident, he was all pro in my dealings with him there. I then met him personally at WCG USA that October. Again, complete professionalism at it's finest. Willing to deal with anything reasonable and working with my requests. Completely mannered guy.

[scotmany12]

Im late in this thread

ejcraw
253

I'm also not very good.

[ReaperCharlie]

I then met him personally at WCG USA that October.

Omfg dude! WCG rocks! I went to WCG in 2004 when they had it in San Francisco. The Counter-Strike was intense! I don't believe they were playing Starcraft though, only WC3 Frozen Throne. Still though, it was awesome to see so many pro gamers and watch such high level competition.

Also, my friend won a free Audigy 2 ZS sound card and we all got free T-shirts, just because one of the staff overheard him yell "Motherboard audio SUCKS!!!". Yesssss, score.

[AGar]

I then met him personally at WCG USA that October.

Omfg dude! WCG rocks! I went to WCG in 2004 when they had it in San Francisco. The Counter-Strike was intense! I don't believe they were playing Starcraft though, only WC3 Frozen Throne. Still though, it was awesome to see so many pro gamers and watch such high level competition.

Also, my friend won a free Audigy 2 ZS sound card and we all got free T-shirts, just because one of the staff overheard him yell "Motherboard audio SUCKS!!!". Yesssss, score.

StarCraft has been a part of WCG since the beginning of WCG. They were playing in 04. JulyZerg might've won gold that year, have to check.

E: Damn, wrong. XellOs. Perfect Terran. Seo Ji Hoon!