Taking a Brief Break

These last 2 weeks have been quite busy for me Starcraft-wise. From Saturday January 14 to Friday January 27, I recorded 11 videos and published 11 blog posts.

Two weekends ago, I started work on a computer program to help me create the summary and intro clips for my upcoming CSL casts. Last week, I tried to start interacting with subscribers and commenters on YouTube. And a few days ago, I got permission from Blizzard to use assets from the game and soundtrack in my videos (with some qualifications of course)!

Last week was also an adventure on the daddy side of things!

My daughter started potty training, we confirmed that we had at least one raccoon living in our attic, and apparently my hefty son has lost a pound since his last pediatrician appointment. So we now have a one-way door installed on the roof (thanks to a wildlife control company) and my son now has full snacking privileges for the next six weeks!

So as you might guess, by last Friday evening, I was ready for a break from the 1v1 ladder!

CmdrTallon had been bemoaning losses to the Protoss Four-Gate, so I offered to do some practice games with him. I believe this is the first time I've done this sort of thing - played custom games with someone to work on a specific part of the game.

We did 4 games of four-gate, once on Shattered Temple, and three games on Tal'Darim Altar. By the last one, he did an excellent job of shutting down my proxy pylon before it even finished.


Time: 6:48 - Two marauders and one marine kite my two advance zealots, and I'm forced to cancel my pylon and pull back.

At this point, I changed my focus to expanding - which I suppose was against the rules for a practice session focused on 4-gate... and ten minutes later, we had a large engagement which characterized the rest of the game.


Time: 16:48 - This large force of marauders struggles to push up the ramp against charge-lots, guardian shield, stalkers, and immortals.

After that, it was time for something less, um, intense. So we played two 2 vs. AI co-op matches, and won :)

Then, I'm not sure how this happened, but we rounded off the night with my first ever custom map game (the mod style of custom map) - Blizzard's "Left 2 Die"!


The basic concept is that play is divided into timed Day and Night modes. During the day, you take your forces out to kill infested terran buildings and earn points for enabling new units. During the night, you run back to your base to defend against a steady stream of infested units and large mutated zerg units!


Time: 4:07 - Night 1, 2:27 left - Our first night, and you can see why a Nazi zombie fan would like this custom map!


Time: 4:35 - Night 1, 1:59 left - The zombies (er, infested Terrans) are in the base! Here, one of the mutated Zerg units is leaping from his previous kill to slice up a marine. Who says SC2 isn't dramatic?


Time: 6:33 - Night 1, 0:01 left - With infested Terrans all over the base, these two marines are about to bite the dust.


Time: 6:36 - Day 1, 3:58 left - Moments later, they are saved! Daytime starts, and the infested Terrans explode into flames! Time to rebuild the base!


Time: 11:54 - Night 2, 2:40 left - The second night begins, and we encounter some nasty mutated Zerg units - this one explodes into a massive ball of acid when killed!


Time: 13:49 - Night 2, 0:45 left - The night is almost over, but the infested Terrans break through a wall of debris, entering an undefended area of the base! Thankfully, my vultures had carpeted the area with spider mines. Since I haven't played the SC2 single-player yet, I had never played with vultures in SC2 to this point - they are wicked awesome!


Time: 26:07 - Day 3, 0:27 left - The next night is about to start, and my infantry are healing up. That's right, that white infantry unit is healing a marauder! Meet another cool unit not available in standard multiplayer, the medic!


Time: 28:21 - Night 4, 2:14 left - Another massive mutated zerg unit, the Stank - basically a huge ultralisk, but not the balanced version from multiplayer! See the little swirlies on some of the units (even the bunker!)? It's a status effect placed on units that are THROWN by one of the Stank's attacks. And yes, that's a TON of defensive units :)

As you can tell, this was SUPER fun!

So much so, that I played a round on Saturday night, a round on Sunday night, and a few half-played rounds in between. Is this as addicting as Nazi zombies? Close, but not quite. Now had Blizzard tied more achievements to it (like for finishing X games per difficulty like they do for normal Custom games) or some sort of high score system, I would find it a huge distraction from playing competitive 1v1 ;-)

So I had a nice break over the weekend, and now it's time to get back into casting and preparing content for the CSL!

Lessons From A Protoss

Last night I did a review of my first BYOB game versus a Protoss, and we learn some things about assaulting ramps and keeping production structures busy - from both players.

(I also try casting again as "CuePhoenix, your gosu dad")




One of the things I love about StarCraft 2 is that at all levels of play, there's something to learn from your replays. There's always room for improvement, and you can learn so many things about the game just by watching your own play!

First TvP with BYOB

Last night (Tuesday) I got to play a bunch of SC2. First, I played 3 games of 2-player co-op w/ CmdrTallon (my wife was watching Hoarders and then Cake Boss in the background!).

After midnight, while waiting for some laundry, I played a quick 1v1 on the ladder. This time, BYOB flexes its muscles against a Protoss player - and of course, there has to be an external timing, and this time I keep to it!



Despite his Gold league status, I later learned that my opponent was new to the game (or at least his account was), he had only won 7 league games. It's possible this was one of his qualifier games.

Regardless, I'm interested in doing a review - you can learn things even from a simple game.

Analyzing BYOB (Bring Your Own Base?)

Last Sunday afternoon I did my 1st review of my game against Alien***kick, but the review was a bit long and one of my YouTube subscribers pointed something out that I wanted to investigate.

So last night I casted a 2nd review with the hopes of shortening it and answering some more questions. Unfortunately, it was only 34 seconds shorter - but I think all my questions were answered.



Although this game seems like a fluke, had I purposely done these two timing pushes because of scouting, etc. (instead of blindly doing them) - I would truly be a gosu dad!

TvT Live: Bring Your Own... Orbital Command?

Another live cast of BYOB - with a new twist. With less than 22 minutes to play, I queued up for a 1v1 and came out with this gem of a game. Who knew that timing attacks could be dictated by the time remaining in an episode of Bridezillas?

This brings new meaning to the phrase "expand towards your opponent" ;-)



And apologies to my fellow SC2 dads out there - I had almost finished uploading this video before thinking I should blur out my opponent's screen name during the loading screen. It did get a few chuckles from me as you saw. You'll have to explain to your kiddos that there are times (perhaps rare) that alien donkeys need a kick or two ;-)

Taking A Second Look

After replying to Brock's comment on my last video, I was inspired to do a second review of the game against MaGestic.

Despite the short length of that game and the AFK situation, there were some interesting points to discuss - and as I'm a talkative fellow, I went much longer than the 10-15 minutes I intended to cast!



There's something to be said for watching all your replays - especially if you're in a mood to learn something!

TvT Live: AFK and My Little Starcraft Buddy

Last night I gave the live casting another go - and had a fairly short TvT involving my opponent being "away from keyboard" (AFK) for the first few moments. The following review was accelerated when my little Starcraft buddy came home with his mom and he got to make a guest appearance :)



I did watch the replay slower afterwards and there were some interesting points. I don't know if I'll do a separate video for it - but of course, the more I think about the game, the more I'll lean towards casting a review :)

TvZ Live: Distracted by BYOB

After getting some positive feedback for my last live cast bundled with a replay review (Thanks Brock!), I decided to try it again last night.

This time I was matched against a Zerg (who turned out to be in Silver league!) and so got to try the 1-1-1 build (which I now like to call BYOB, Bring Your Own Banshee :-) against a new race!



The moral of the story - at least from my perspective - is clear: don't lose focus on that 2nd tier of Budha's Starcraft Pyramid - production.

In addition, the total video ended up being longer than I'd like. The encoding time kept me up late last night, and it took until 11am or so the next day to finish uploading!

So next time, if the game is long enough, I'll break it up into two videos so I can go to bed on time - and the Internet won't be bogged down in the morning - I'm sure my wife will appreciate both :)

TvT Live: Bring Your Own Banshee (BYOB)

Last night, I tried once again to cast a game live while playing - and succeeded! Not only that, but the game was short enough that I rolled right into casting the replay at normal speed (Faster game speed), and the whole thing was only 23 minutes :)

Another change - after playing such long games due to my economy/production focus, I decided that I should move out with my forces sooner - and this time tried bringing some banshees and SCVs. Yeah, I guess you could call it an all-in, but I was planning on expanding afterwards...



It'll be interesting to take this general game flow to other match-ups. I do enjoy sending out armies and not just sitting back and expanding like crazy. Hopefully Battle.net will find me some suitable Bronze league Zerg and Protoss opponents!

Out Macro a Zerg?

Last night I played my first game against a Zerg in Season 5, and the results were surprising. I originally intended to cast this game as I played it, but after some point, the game was just dauntingly long! So I ended up casting it afterwards - on 2x faster speed!



Two things really surprised me afterwards.

The first surprise was that after the game, the summary screen revealed that I had almost built as many workers as my opponent - a very odd occurrence when playing Terran vs Zerg!

The second surprise was that the final video was 20 minutes, but 4 minutes was me analyzing what happened after the game was over! Apparently I'm a bit more long-winded when I'm tired!

SCVs to the Rescue!

My second game playing Terran in Season 5 was quite the adventure. I tried to take advantage of the large map (Tal'darim Altar LE) and that I was playing in Bronze league to do a fast expand and really focus on the economy and production aspects of the game.

My opponent actually did a good job of keeping me on the edge - despite staying on one base for most of the game! Although the final outcome was somewhat anti-climactic, the game really stood out to me - perhaps for obvious reasons :)

Ending 2011 and Starting 2012 - Season 5 Qualifier!

First off, I want to wish everyone a (very belated) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I had a great Christmas break with my family and friends - lots of fun get-togethers, wonderful presents, yummy food, and of course, long-awaited home improvement projects! (pictures on our family blog at some point...)

Since that marathon of goodness, I've had two weeks to recover from the cold that hit our family, attempt to reset the sleep schedule, watch a British Victorian drama with my wife, and yes, put together more IKEA furniture and reorganize our basement - but with a very SC2-related result: a place to cast SC2 games in the evening! (pictures on this blog later...)

So last night I kicked off my StarCraft 2 year with a cast of my Season 5 1v1 qualifier, which I had played on Dec 23, just before Christmas.





As mentioned in the cast, the result was my placement back down into Bronze League!

It may surprise you, but I was actually relieved! Not because I wanted to crush some noobs, but because I've been thinking that it'd be good for me to return to the basics of SC2 play - and it works well with my planned reboot of StarClass...

I hope your Christmas time was great and you've done well in Season 5 so far! And if you haven't qualified yet, well, get playing and I'll see you online!