Replay Review: GenDisarray - TvT Panic Attack

Yesterday GenDisarray sent me a replay of his Season 3 qualifier, asking for "some constructive criticism". He claims he's "horrible" at TvT, and admits to having an "initial panic attack" when he saw the loading screen. Is he really "horrible"? Knowing him I doubt it, but let's see his panic attack in action...



The bullet points:

• Keep building SCVs from your Command Centers - at least until you hit max for 2 bases (60 SCVs).
• Keep building marines from your Barracks - especially if you went for the 1-1-1 build, as they are critical to your balanced approach.
• When you expand, build more production buildings - doubling the amount you would sustain on a single base is a good guideline.
• If high-priced units like tanks, ravens, or vikings are in a bad position, retreat and repair. Most (all?) air units can out-run marines. Even with numerous production buildings, it takes time for Terran to build these expensive units.
• If caught off gaurd, keep tanks in Tank Mode. They have a fine damage-per-second in this mode, and will do more damage before they die than if you take the time to change them into Siege Mode.

So all in all, GenDisarray just needs to keep up his pace. Going for the quick expansion really paid off on the economy side, but it takes some practice to take advantage of the extra income. This is something I struggle with as well - apparently we both need more practice ;-)

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

Improving From a Replay: CmdrTallon's Banshee Rush

After posting CmdrTallon's replay, I was intrigued with his build and whether I could put into practice some of the things mentioned in the review and actually improve upon the banshee timing.

CmdrTallon's example was pretty good. 4 cloaked banshees by 10 minutes 35 seconds (10:35), and the first volley of missiles hitting the opponent's base at 12:55.

Here's my attempt recorded live:



So in my first attempt, by moving the order of some buildings, I was able to build the 4 banshees and research Cloak by 9:09, shaving 1:26 off the original time. And by scouting, the first banshee missiles were flying by 10:18, 2:37 sooner than in CmdrTallon's game.

So in comparison at the 10:35 mark:

	CmdrTallon	StarcraftDad
Banshee	4	6
Marine	17	13 (3 were killed earlier by an attack)
Marauder	1
SCV	22	19
Minerals	195	680
Gas	84	358
Supply / Supply Cap	59/75	50/51

Although I had a significant amount of resources left at that point, CmdrTallon had built an Engineering Bay, a few Turrets, more units, and had more supply available. So he was doing a great job of spending his resources - while I let that slip behind as I was so focused on the banshees that I was getting supply blocked and not macro-ing back at my base.

More interesting than that though, is that I later made more attempts to beat that 9:09 timing - and only succeeded on the 9th try: 8:56.

At my skill level, I'm guessing I'm reaching the point of diminishing returns. 9 minutes is pretty good for having 4 banshees with cloak.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be ready for them if they showed up in my base at the 10 minute mark ;-)

Why don't you give it a whirl? Terran vs. Zerg (any AI level) on The Shattered Temple, how fast can you get 4 cloaked banshees into the opponent's main? And how large was your defending force? Post your time and unit count in the comments!

Don't forget, you need to build 2 barracks and marines for defense, and don't forget to scout to reduce the flying time to the opponent's base!

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

Replay Review: CmdrTallon's Banshee Rush

For today's StarClass, I did a review of a replay sent to me by my best friend, CmdrTallon. He is qualifying for Season 3 and looking for ideas on how to improve his play.

Apologies for sounding tired - I casted this before midnight after a long day (and previously long night!) - and it took me a few false starts before I got the "nerves" settled down to cast! And sorry for it going so long - I slowed the game speed down at one point... and forgot to speed it back up!


Don't forget to watch these fullscreen - and if your bandwidth allows, in HD :-)

For those that just want the bullet points:

• Have a basic plan for what your first goal is when the game starts. This will help you make decisions about timing trade-offs between different buildings or units.
• Scout! All but one of the 1v1 maps on the Blizzard ladder are 4-player maps, and some of them are very large. For many strategies (such as this one), knowing where your opponent's base is can dramatically affect the impact of your attacks.
• Have a plan for expanding to your natural expansion. Even if your plan focuses on a 1-base timing (such as this one), you need to be prepared mentally for the next step, should your opponent survive your attack. If they have expanded ahead of you, you'll need to catch up in the macro (economy) game. If they haven't, you'll want to press your advantage, and enter the mid-game ahead of them.

And a special point for you blog readers:

• Know the timing of your units, buildings, and upgrades - and when you'll need them. You may be able to build buildings a bit sooner, or train a few more workers or army units. You'd be surprised how these decisions can add up to shave minutes off the timing of your goals, or give you the few more units needed to survive an attack.

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

StarClass Has Started!

One of my Season 3 resolutions was to start writing posts geared towards teaching others (and myself!) about SC2 - the races, the units, the strategies, the lingo, and some game etiquette.

Check off one of those resolutions - or at least mark it as "in progress" ;-)

Below you can see the first entry in StarClass, and I've added a page at the top of the blog that lists all the StarClass entries so far.

I've got a long list of topics, but is there anything in particular you'd like to see in StarClass?

StarClass: Basics of a Game & Tour of the Replay UI

For those new to watching games of StarCraft 2, here is a video explaining the basics of a game and the user interface elements shown on screen during a casted game.

After watching this video, you should be able to understand the basic concepts of a game and some of the tools used by casters.




Update 11/2/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

Qualifier Surprises

Last night, I played a few games vs Very Hard computer opponents for warm up. This morning, I woke up, played my 1v1 qualifier and casted it, all before leaving for work - and making it on time :)

It was a surprising game. During the game I felt (as usual?) that it was a super tight game - at every moment, I felt like I was seconds away from my base being overrun. And if you watch the cast, you can see that the feeling was not unwarranted!




And with that, I qualified into Silver league!

Interestingly, according to the score screen, I was ranked 20th in my division upon qualifying. But when I looked at my rank on the Multi-Player screen a few minutes later, I was ranked 22.

Perhaps I was placed into a new division, and by the time I looked at the Multi-player tab, 2 more people had qualified and were ranked higher. I'll likely be ranked much lower when I log in next time. Zero rank points will do that ;-)

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

Season 3: New Season's Resolutions

So here I am, with Season 2 behind me, and Season 3 ahead. Sounds like a great time for some resolutions, right?

#1 Play more StarCraft 2!

Kind of an obvious one :) Although I'm definitely a spectator (I even listen to pro games while I exercise!), I'm a player at heart, and love the sportsmanship, the excitement of competition, and the character building of skill improvement. That, and I'll never go pro unless I practice ;-)

#2 Blog more often, a few times a week or so.

This last season I was figuring out various technical aspects of making videos and getting over those "Never posted publicly on the Internet" jitters. Now I'm ready to rock-and-roll!

#3 Continue to cast games.

Casting games is fun! I really enjoyed making the casts I've posted so far, and want to do more this next season. I'd also like to cast some games of other people - it'd be fun to not know the outcome of the game while I cast it, and it does weird me out a bit to refer to myself in the third-person... Of course it would be even better to co-cast with a friend if anyone's interested!

#4 Start "StarClass" - a series of posts for those new to SC2 multiplayer and the competitive scene.

Most of my friends and family are not avid SC2 fans - yet! As with any sport or game, I think the more you understand it, the more interesting it is to watch, read about, and cheer on those you know who are competitors. I know that you can learn a lot about something by teaching it. So I figure I can kill two birds with one stone: help people learn more about StarCraft 2 and become an expert - all at the same time!

I think that's a pretty good set of SC2-related goals. Of course, for a more complete personal list, I would include:

Exercise and lose weight.
Read more to my kids.
Do more movie nights with my wife.
And can't forget - play more XBox360 and PS3 :)

Well, that should do it. Happy New Season!

And for those of you joining me on the Blizzard ladder this season - any new season's resolutions for you?

Season 2 Retrospective

At my job as a software engineer, our team holds a "retro" at the end of each major release, and we discuss what things went well and what things need improvement.

Season 2 ended a few weeks ago, and I've had some time to reflect on how things went. (and put together some cute HTML tables :)

	After Qualifier	Final Standing
League	Silver	Silver
Rank	84	23
Rank Points	0	278
Bonus Pool	780	1067

Matchup Wins Losses Total Win Rate TvZ 8 1 9 89% TvT 4 8 12 33% TvP 2 3 5 40% Total 14 12 26 54% Opponent's League Wins Losses Total Win Rate ? 2 2 100% Gold 2 2 100% Silver 5 5 10 50% Bronze 5 7 12 42%

Map Wins Losses Total Win Rate Delta Quadrant 3 1 4 75% Metalopolis 3 1 4 75% Tal'darim Altar LE 2 0 2 100% Xel'Naga Caverns 2 2 4 50% Slag Pits 1 1 2 50% Scrap Station 1 2 3 33% Shakuras Plateau 1 2 3 33% Typhon Peaks 1 3 4 25% Green text = map was new for Season 2 Red background = map is removed for Season 3

So some interesting results!

Apparently, I'm very good at TvZ - except for my qualifier, I won every game. When playing, I felt like TvT was my most even match, and I was beside myself with how to handle Protoss (TvP). I felt like I was getting better at TvT the more I played - and I was pretty jazzed after that last game, winning against a Gold league Terran! But yeah, TvP is a challenge for me.

The league breakdown confirms my feeling that I'm mid/lower Silver. The goal of the match-making system is to get you a 50% win rate, and it looks like I'm there.

I did find it sad that the two maps I did the best on are being removed for Season 3. I will miss Metalopolis, it's a great map. But it's been a staple map since the Beta, so it was only a matter of time before it got cycled out. I'm really looking forward to the new Season 3 maps, and playing more on Typhon Peaks and especially Tal'darim Altar LE - both bigger maps.

One thing that really stood out for me is that I really should play more games - 26 is not a very large sample set! I also thought it was a shame that I wasn't able to play more 2v2 or 3v3 with the handful of my friends that play SC2. Now that I'm getting the hang of blogging, casting, and posting on YouTube, I should be able to spend more time playing and less time in production!

Well, I think that's it for Season 2!

Good Game and Well Played :)

Sprinting to the End of Season 2!

It's been a while since my last post, and you're probably wondering, "Did he ever make it to the Top 25?"

Well, you'll find out ;-)

That evening after my last post, I played 2 games:

Result	Player's Race	Player's League	Map
Win	Zerg	Gold	Tal'darim Altar LE
Loss	Protoss	Silver	Xel'Naga Caverns

So I ended the night at rank 29 with 209 rank points.
"djer" was rank 25 in my division with 266 points, so I needed at least 267 points to push him down to rank 26.

The next morning I played 2 games before leaving for work:

Result	Player's Race	Player's League	Map	Notes
Loss	Terran	Silver	Metalopolis
Loss	Terran	Bronze	Shakuras Plateau	top in his division

So I was back to where I was after my last post: Rank 30, with one less point at 188 rank points!

And I only had the evening to play before the end of the season!

So that night, I put my baby boy to bed, did my Jillian Michaels workout (priorities first after all!), and told my wife my only plan for the evening was to play SC2 - and I started playing...

Result	Player's Race	Player's League	Map	Notes
Loss	Terran	Silver	Typhon Peaks	doh! 4 game losing streak!
Win	Terran	Bronze	Delta Quadrant
Loss	Protoss	Bronze	Scrap Station
Win	Terran	Bronze	Scrap Station
Win	Protoss	Silver	Delta Quadrant
Loss	Terran	Bronze	Xel'Naga Caverns
Win	Zerg	Silver	Tal'darim Altar LE

At this point, I was rank 26 with 262 points - I only needed 5 points to beat "djer"!

Result	Player's Race	Player's League	Map	Notes
Loss	Terran	Bronze	Delta Quadrant	Nooooo!!!!

So now it's just before midnight, and I was at rank 27 with 252 rank points.

I needed 15 points to get ahead of "djer", and push him out of the rank 25 spot. A single win would do it.

My wife was working on a project, putting up a bunch of photos over our fireplace. So I was given the go ahead for one more game...

Here's a videocast of my final game of Season 2 - enjoy!



Like that ending graphic? I thought it might be a nice touch. Wondering how I did it? Don't worry - at some point I'll add a section to my "How I make SC2 Videos" page describing how I did this :-)

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.