StarBlog 17June2013

So, the new season of StarCraft is upon us. As usual, Blizzard placed me into Platinum League. I wasn’t surprised this time around, nor was I disappointed. It’s to be expected by this point.

It makes more sense to me, nowadays, that Blizzard would place us low, and have us fight our way up. Consider the Grandmaster’s league. It doesn’t exist at the beginning of the season. All of the top players on the ladder, every one of them, gets dropped down a league, and has to fight their way into the upper echelon of StarCraft play. Is it such a bad thing if the same logic applies to Diamond and Platinum league?

I had fun, beating up on those Platinum leaguers. And hey, some of them showed me what’s what. But all too soon, I was promoted, and back in the land of my equals.

The first thing I did? Switch to unranked mode, and play a few practice games as Terran. Terran, the only race where I have a less than fifty percent win rate.

On that note, it’s probably worth mentioning that the 2-rax build I recently wrote about hasn’t been doing too well for me. For some reason, it’s worked in many free games, but never in a ranked game. Go figure.

Terran 2 Rax Build HotS

I’ve been rejoicing here in StarCraft land. Because I’ve found a build that finally fits like a missing puzzle piece.

The terran build I’ve been looking for. An equivalent of a toss 5 gate or my much typed about Zerg 2 base ling bling attack.

It’s so simple, it’s a two rax attack.

Normally, when I play terran it goes pretty standard. 14 Rax and Gas. After rax, another Depot. After depot, CC. Building a reaper immediately once the barracks finishes.

This build, you go 14 rax and gas, but you follow it up with another rax once you have the minerals. The first rax gets a reactor. The second gets a tech lab, which immediately researches Concussive Shells.

From there on out, you pump a stream of marines and marauders. I typically move out when the second marauder finishes.

Remember that timing is key to this build. It works, because it hits before your opponent is expecting combat. I’ve found it to be effect in TvZ and TvP. Zergs will often being droning up when you first attack. Protoss, as well, is often caught with only that first handful of gateway units.

Once, when a zerg got a full scout of the attack, I still managed to hit his base before he could finish a single spine crawler.

Sure, the counter to this build is to properly scout and react to it. But from my experience in StarCraft, most players below Diamond level simply pick a build and cross their fingers. This build will destroy them.

On two player maps, this is now my standard. But the real key to making it work is to macro up behind it. Is to gain an economic lead on your opponent while getting some of his probes in the process.

I’ve found it to be the least effective in TvT, because a bunker tends to shut it down pretty hard.

HotS Bug: No 1v1 for you!

I hate to sound like a broken record. A record? What’s that? I mean, I hate to sound like a scratched CD. A CD? What’s that? I mean, I hate to sound like a bad techno song on repeat, but I’m still getting a bug in StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. HotS

It’s an old bug. One that definitely carries back to WoL. I sign into StarCraft this morning. I think I’ve got a few minutes to play before going to work. But when I go to play a game, the 1v1 option is selectable. 2v2 is selected instead, and I can play any game mode option, except the one I want to play. The only game mode that I ever play. 1v1.

Why is this bug still in the game? I’ve read about other players with the bug, and its really annoying. Most of the time, I just restart the game software, and everything is fine. But today, after doing just that (and let’s not underplay what a process it is, logging into StarCraft -- way too many clicks involved there) I still couldn’t select the 1v1 game mode.

So this morning, I had to go to work without squeezing in another game of StarCraft. First World Problems, ftl.

8-8-8 The Terran 6-pool

8-8-8 The Terran 6-pool

Eureka! I’ve found it. The build that allows terran to make a genuine rush. A build that is effective against Zerg players who are increasingly greedy. I can’t take credit for this one -- I read about it at some random website I can’t find again.

But it’s called the 8-8-8. At 8 supply, you make a depot. Then you send out a worker to build a proxy barracks. Finally you make a refinery. All on 8 supply.

From there, you pump out non-stop reapers. There are several variations, but I like to halt SCV production once the barracks finishes. I use the first extra 150 minerals on a my Orbital Command. The next on a second barracks at the front of my base. The next 100 on a supply depot to finish the wall off.

As always, it is essential to keep all of your reapers alive, no matter how tempting that extra kill might look. The goal is also to macro and tech up in the background, eventually finishing your opponent off in a tech switch.

When practicing this build, I find it extremely useful to look at the resources graph at the end of the game. That graph will show if you were able to do enough damage to catch up to the macroing player. It will show if you didn’t do enough damage, or if the attack allowed you to take the lead.

This build is best on the smaller, two player maps. But it also works against all races, in varying degrees.