Training Grounds in Orlando

I just got home from this Red Bull event. I can't believe I almost missed it. If it wasn't for Twitch.tv, I never would have known that there was a SC2 tournament going on this weekend in Orlando.

But I went, and I saw my first live pro game of SC. Thank you, Blizzard, and thank you Red Bull. I always wanted to live vicariously and see someone come to an event, play some video games, and have the crowd cheer him after he won. Let's do it again?

And I met a favorite pro gamer: http://i.imgur.com/NOR1B5N.jpg

Beat a Master with Game Theory

I will always remember yesterday as the day I beat a Master.

Remember I’m playing as a Diamond ranked Random player. My opponent, a Master ranked Zerg.

The Map comes up, and its a two player.

Without even thinking, my gut told me to 7 pool. However, if you do think about it, it makes perfect sense.

When playing as ZvR, you’re probably going to want to 15 hatch. 15 hatch would be good against T and P. So 66% of the time, it would be the correct thing to do. Only 33% of the time would you fight a zerg. And even then, 15 hatch is often the best opening. It’s only a fraction of the 33% of the time that you would get 7 pooled. So I could reasonably expect my opponent to 15 hatch.

And I 7 pooled. By this point, I’ve had some practice at it. In my earlier days, I did a simple 7 pool.

At 7 supply, spawning pool.

One more drone to bring supply back to 7.

Overload.

@ 100% pool, 3xsets of lings.

That was the old way. Now I have a better build

AT 7 supply, spawning pool.

Two more drones to bring supply to 8.

Overlord.

@ 100% pool, 3xsets of lings.

Continue to make lings until 14 supply

@ 14 supply Queen

Overload

Continue to make lings until you win or call off the attack

The difference between these two builds is subtle. But you can squeeze out an extra drone, while not delaying the attack by more than a couple of seconds. So I had the build down perfect. But I still had to micro a win against a Master.

The first and most important rule to a six pool is, don’t lose your lings. It will be very tempting to simply engage his drones, or allow them to be surrounded. Don’t let this happen. Think of it this way. If his drones ignore you, you can kill them, ftw. If the drones stop mining to attack/surround you, he isn’t making money, while you still are. This is better. The farther you can lure his drones away from the mineral line, the more ahead you’ll get.

But if his micro is perfect, and he never takes his drones far from the mineral patch, you must go for the spawning pool. The point is to destroy the pool, without losing your lings. Since you’ll have a steady stream of lings coming from across the map, you can always retreat, and make another wave once the undamaged lings arrive. Fresh lings should always be at the front lines!

Never try to dps down the natural hatchery. The exception is possibly leaving one or two lings to damage it. But as a rule, it is to be ignored.

The master I beat played perfectly. He never went far from his mineral line. He chased me away from his pool each time I tried to DPS it down. But I finally got his pool, and ran away until the broodlings died. When I returned with a fresh wave of lings, he resigned.

Game Theory and 7 Pool FTW.

UI Woes

Is it just me? Am I going crazy? Or is the UI for my favorite video game in the world … having an identity problem?

Usually, when I lose a game, I click on the menu button. Then I press N. For surreNder.

But every once in a while, I swear, N doesn’t work. I have to click Q, for Quit. What’s up with that?

Want to hear something even stranger? The other day, I played a game. But the graphics settings were different. The creep looked like it was a lower resolution than usual. Usually, creep is slightly reflective, almost like a mirror. And the edges are random and undefined. But in this game, the creep was a much simpler, non-reflective color. And the edges of the creep were *incredibly* defined. They had a thick line, so you could tell exactly where a building could and could not be placed.

I think what caused this way, I tried to play a game with a ton of other programs going in the background. I’m not sure how I feel about this, but I kind of like it. Has anyone else experienced either of these small changes?

I also wanted to make an internet meme for Douchebag Blizzard. But I’m too lazy to actually make it.

You see, one of my big time problems with the UI is that sometimes, I’ll log in for a game, and not be able to select 1v1 as the game mode.

I just found out why this happens. When you first log in, your character portrait in the lower left hand corner of the screen has no boarder. Click on the game match button *before* the border appears (showing your league) and you won’t be able to play 1v1.

So here’s to you, Douchebag Blizzard, for creating a real time strategy game where fractions of a second matter. Then making it so if you click the button to play a game too quickly, you won’t be able to.

Terran HMMM Build

As a random player whose weakest race is Terran, I’m happy to say that I’ve finally found a build that I’m comfortable with. A build that has given me wins. A build that launches a fast, one base attack (to take advantage of the fact that my opponent didn’t know my race at the start of the game) but that easily expands to two base if necessary.

This build works in TvP and TvZ. However, it usually won’t work in TvT, simply due to the dynamic nature of that mirror matchup.

You start with the standard Depot. I like to wait until 13 supply to make a Refinery first, and then a Barracks. I typically won’t sent out a scouting SCV, but instead, make a reaper first for harass and scouting.

This build gives you early gas. After the reaper, the next 150 minerals will go to a second barracks. The next 100 gas will go to a factory. While the factory is building, start the second refinery.

The two barracks should get a reactor and tech lab in that order. When the factory is done, make one widow mine, then start a reactor on it. The next 100 gas goes to a Starport. I usually squeeze out a bunker during the process.

From here, you can pump Marines, Maraders, Hellbats, and Medivacs. Which is why I call it the HMMM build. Move out once you have four hellbats. Rally a stream of units to reinforce your attacks.

This unit composition works excellent for several reasons. In TvZ, the four hellbats will erase any number of lings your opponent happens to have. The timing will hit before mutas in almost all circumstances. The single widow mine at your entrance will do wonders for defense. And the medivacs sets you up to elevator an attack, if his entrance is well defended. This build also counters any early baneling bust, which is probably the best attack for a zerg to make against a terran.

In TvP, the hellbats will counter the zealots nicely. The unit composition will counter anything the protoss has at that point in the game, except mass voidrays (in which case, I’d make more marines and vikings).