Support NeoGAF

[Glix]

Hi SCGAF! I'm a really bad player. I was wondering if you guys could watch this video, and let me know what I'm doing well, and what areas I need a lot of work. I'm overwhelmed and I'm not sure which things to focus on first.

But firstly, how can I post links to my replays here, like I see people doing?

Thanks!

 

[Pyke Presco]

I use SC2replayed.com, just save your replay in game and then upload onto the site. Then just paste the link for the page here, and voila!

Also, watching my game again my macro really slipped anytime there was a battle. I needed to get forward pylons sooner, needed to build units during the fight because it was always build an army, attack. It dies. Build a new army, attack, etc. Never any reinforcing during the battle, need to work on that really badly.

Another thing I need to work on is scouting in general. He had an SCV at the bottom of the map that could have easily built a ninja expo and I would have been none the wiser. Maybe set out one probe on a patrol pattern that goes between possible expos just so I'm not completely blind. And in the process drop a pylon at each one. Yeah, I'm liking the sounds of that. Now to see if I can implement it.


EDIT: and reposting for the new page:
Damn I feel badass. Just stomped an 800 point Diamond Player on the ladder (I'm ranked 2 in my gold division, ~1100 points. Scratch that, just tied for rank 1 with that game, 1155! Awesome! Now where's my platinum promotion?).

Rolled him with Chargelots, Templars and a handful of Stalkers. Didn't even go Robo Tech against Terran, which is very, very strange for me, just spammed 8 gateways and rolled into chargelot/templar once I had the economy going.

However, I need to improve my game. Had my second expo up doing nothing for a while, didn't really get any kind of map control or vision anywhere, and would love some tips on how I could have played better. Here's the replay:

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/89407-1v1-terran-protoss-shakuras-plateau

Thanks in advance.

EDIT 2: Durp, busted link. Fixed that.

 

[evangd007]

Sounds sort of like a steath troll on MLG in their own interview. "a lot of people choose Protoss and they do well in mid- level competitions."

MLG is a mid-level competition?

Western competitions have a ways to go before they are on the same level as Korean competitions for SC2.

 

[Tenks]

Western competitions have a ways to go before they are on the same level as Korean competitions for SC2.

This evidence is based on what data? You mean the time the US got #2 in the worldwide championship in China?

 

[Glix]

Okay, so you can download my replay from here, I think? Anyway, I'm really bad, and I'd love some pointers on what I should be working on FIRST.

I think I read too many advanced strategies, and its messing me up. I have to learn on the curve...

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/89411-1v1-terran-zerg-agria-valley#rd:dna;markup

 

[Pyke Presco]

Glix, a couple things:
-at the 10 minute mark you have both expansions up and running but only 25 workers between the two and you havent built SCV's at your main for a long time. There are tons of minerals there and you don't have nearly enough guys to saturate it.
-11 minute mark, you have over 1000 minerals and 250-300 gas, but still only have two production buildings, a barracks and a factory, and your starport has just finished. You should get more barracks. Get a barracks with a reactor and start sinking excess minerals into marines, because at this point you're using a tech-labbed barracks to make 1 marine at a time, which is a bit of a waste. Also, build more SCVs!
-13 minutes, over 2000 minerals banked, 16 minutes at 4000/600. Same idea, more production structures and more production. Would have also liked to see an engineering bay and start getting upgrades for your infantry, or using your armory to start getting vehicle upgrades since you were so heavy on the thors.
-22 minutes your main is mined out and you have about 15 SCVs working off one mineral patch. When you start to notice a base getting low, you should expand to try and stay on equal footing with your current intake. You eventually have a completely mined out main with 30 idle scvs before you finally go for the gold, and use the SCVs to kill the rocks.
-You do a good job throughout the game of staying on top of your supply, but a couple times you falter. Try and streamline that so you never get supply blocked, but overall you stay pretty much on top of it.

In summary:
-build more production structures (barracks, factories and starports)
-make more SCVs
-try to spend your money more often (this will become easy once you have more production facilities)
-expand when you're base is running low on resources. Once you are producing more stuff you wont have that mineral buffer and you should find yourself running out of money sooner, which will tell you that you need to expand.

Good fundamentals (Expanding, not getting supply blocked, good unit composition of tank/thor/marine/marauder/viking) but your execution just needs a little work.

 

[ultron87]

Always be building an SCV. Best advice you can get if you aren't doing that.

 

[Glix]

Glix, a couple things:
-at the 10 minute mark you have both expansions up and running but only 25 workers between the two and you havent built SCV's at your main for a long time. There are tons of minerals there and you don't have nearly enough guys to saturate it.
-11 minute mark, you have over 1000 minerals and 250-300 gas, but still only have two production buildings, a barracks and a factory, and your starport has just finished. You should get more barracks. Get a barracks with a reactor and start sinking excess minerals into marines, because at this point you're using a tech-labbed barracks to make 1 marine at a time, which is a bit of a waste. Also, build more SCVs!
-13 minutes, over 2000 minerals banked, 16 minutes at 4000/600. Same idea, more production structures and more production. Would have also liked to see an engineering bay and start getting upgrades for your infantry, or using your armory to start getting vehicle upgrades since you were so heavy on the thors.
-22 minutes your main is mined out and you have about 15 SCVs working off one mineral patch. When you start to notice a base getting low, you should expand to try and stay on equal footing with your current intake. You eventually have a completely mined out main with 30 idle scvs before you finally go for the gold, and use the SCVs to kill the rocks.
-You do a good job throughout the game of staying on top of your supply, but a couple times you falter. Try and streamline that so you never get supply blocked, but overall you stay pretty much on top of it.

In summary:
-build more production structures (barracks, factories and starports)
-make more SCVs
-try to spend your money more often (this will become easy once you have more production facilities)
-expand when you're base is running low on resources. Once you are producing more stuff you wont have that mineral buffer and you should find yourself running out of money sooner, which will tell you that you need to expand.

Good fundamentals (Expanding, not getting supply blocked, good unit composition of tank/thor/marine/marauder/viking) but your execution just needs a little work.

Thanks so much! Yeah, I have lots of trouble deciding when to make more production structures. I find that I'll be cash strapped for units, then, in what seems like the blink of an eye, I have more minerals than I know what to do with.

 

[AcridMeat]

Thanks so much! Yeah, I have lots of trouble deciding when to make more production structures. I find that I'll be cash strapped for units, then, in what seems like the blink of an eye, I have more minerals than I know what to do with.

I'm not good by any means, I only just started winning games in the last couple of weeks, but my suggestion is to start building a second barracks when your first finishes, unless you want to rush to tanks or banshees or something.

 

[Pyke Presco]

I'm really starting to like twilight council first against Terran (based on a grand total of like 3 games today, but still). Had the chargelot/HT game I posted earlier, just did a chargelot/DT game right now that crushed him (DT was a questionable choice against Terran but he pushed with a heavy Marauder ball. Changed my mind last second and put up the Dark Shrine instead of the Templar Archives I was just about to drop because Storm isn't all that great against Marauders). Figured he would go for medivacs but instead he chose fast banshee after a marauder push. Too bad for him I was already in his base by the time it popped and he had no energy for scans and no raven out, so my DT's just crushed his mineral line. Was about to warp in a couple stalkers to deal with the banshee at my forward pylon but he just left the game as soon as I started wailing on his tech labbed starport.

God damn, chargelots are so amazing against Terran. I always go Colossus/Immortal to deal with bioballs but these Chargelots are just crushing everything. Think I might be going heavy gateway a little more often instead. And I don't feel guilty about "4-gating" with this style either, it's like 2-gate into twilight into more gates plus tech, and I don't just push with like 4 stalkers, 4 zealots and a sentry and hope to win.

 

[pieatorium]

Chargelots + sentries are pretty boss against alot of things

 

[Aylinato]

Chargelots + sentries are pretty boss against alot of things

I love chargelots, and i do love sentries, the only unit i wish I got to use way more than what I see in pro-games and such is archons. They just look so cool. I do miss the look of dark archons(red ball of fury!) and wish blizz would just add a different graphic for dark archons.

 

[rsam87]

Screw archons!

Things are going great! You better run!

Oh no a drop!

Good thing I'm in position

FUUUUUUU ARCHON!


His fat-ass couldn't get through the pylon gateway, I learned a huge lesson about simcity -_-

 

[watervengeance]

^ :lol :lol :lol

Yeah, Archons are so annoying. You'd think that a ball of energy would be able to fit through things.

 

[IceMarker]

Official SCII Forums Thread: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/777578529
Official Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNkzpBjQ-U4

Shadow Assault 2.2 has been released! The last patch for a long time has been uploaded! Go play on Battle.net now!

- 2.2

-- Added a leaderboard displaying kills each player has
-- Added MVP award that displays at the end of the game
-- Fixed a defeat definititon
-- Adjusted voting window size
-- Optimizations in triggers

I really do hope you guys love the map, I put a good month into it and I think my work payed off for the time it was still popular on BNet. I ask you now, that you play my map at least once, if you haven't already, to see if we can get this map back into the top 5 pages! Thank you guys for all the support you've given me over the past month and I hope you look forward to the next big thing!

 

[Hazaro]

Screw archons!

I figured you were going to warp in HT and feedback his flying medivacs as they dropped, thus killing his entire army.

 

[rsam87]

I figured you were going to warp in HT and feedback his flying medivacs as they dropped, thus killing his entire army.

I think I had just used a cycle on my warpgates. But yea that would've helped a ton. I've been trying to actively feedback more often but storm is so attractive

As for why there are so many stalkers, the guy started with banshees.

 

[f0rk]

I'm really starting to like twilight council first against Terran (based on a grand total of like 3 games today, but still). Had the chargelot/HT game I posted earlier, just did a chargelot/DT game right now that crushed him (DT was a questionable choice against Terran but he pushed with a heavy Marauder ball. Changed my mind last second and put up the Dark Shrine instead of the Templar Archives I was just about to drop because Storm isn't all that great against Marauders). Figured he would go for medivacs but instead he chose fast banshee after a marauder push. Too bad for him I was already in his base by the time it popped and he had no energy for scans and no raven out, so my DT's just crushed his mineral line. Was about to warp in a couple stalkers to deal with the banshee at my forward pylon but he just left the game as soon as I started wailing on his tech labbed starport.

God damn, chargelots are so amazing against Terran. I always go Colossus/Immortal to deal with bioballs but these Chargelots are just crushing everything. Think I might be going heavy gateway a little more often instead. And I don't feel guilty about "4-gating" with this style either, it's like 2-gate into twilight into more gates plus tech, and I don't just push with like 4 stalkers, 4 zealots and a sentry and hope to win.

Did you listen to last weeks state of the game podcast? IIRC Incontrol said the PvT build he's practising for MLG DC is DTs -> expand -> HT's + gateways.
The justification was DTs do great against everything except fast raven, and feedback is amazing against bio drops.

 

[IceMarker]

Disregard this post.

 

[Aylinato]

^ :lol :lol :lol

Yeah, Archons are so annoying. You'd think that a ball of energy would be able to fit through things.

yea, i dont understand why they have such a huge radius of all things considered

 

[Pyke Presco]

Did you listen to last weeks state of the game podcast? IIRC Incontrol said the PvT build he's practising for MLG DC is DTs -> expand -> HT's + gateways.
The justification was DTs do great against everything except fast raven, and feedback is amazing against bio drops.

Nah, I havent listened to any of the podcasts, but I love the way he's thinking about PvT. The shrine is so slow to build, but if you can get it early on in the downtime, then when that 7 minute attack window opens up you should have 1 or 2 DTs on the field and they just rock everyone's world. 2 holding position on ramp can kill off 3 or 4 units before they even know what is happening, and the harass capabilities are amazing.

Sending one DT into the mineral line can easily kill of 3 or 4 workers before anyone is the wiser, and makes them turtle up in their base with turrets just from the mindgames of "He might hit me with DTs" leaving you free to expand and tech ahead really quickly. Very underused unit I find because everyone thinks "Terran can just scan it".

I may be incorporating it into my build more often, changing things up from a 2-gate robo or typical 4-gate into blink stalkers play.


And on another note, I finally got promoted guys! I just went from #1 in my gold division at 1156 (was 1180 then lost 2 in a row) to #4 in a platinum division at 980 points! That means I actually am improving at this game, and it's not just my mind playing tricks on me! Huzzah! Here's the game that boosted me over the threshold, a typical 4 gate composition with an immortal in the mix to break his marauders. Also, I went for fast armor upgrade, because combined with the guardian shield it means marines are basically useless, negating half his bioball's attacks completely.

Promoted to Platinum!

God damn I feel awesome today. It's been a good day for Starcraft. I'd like to thank all the GAFfers who play with me on a semi-regular basis to help me get better, specifically Valenti for stomping me with his Terran over and over (and thus forcing me to react faster) and Vaporak for giving me some tips a while back on how to better play my protoss.

Also, Day9 deserves a bunch of credit too. His Dailies are really helping me to improve my macro game. Any players who find themselves struggling with decision making and what to do, when to do it should check out his youtube channel. There is a wealth of information there for lower tiered players to make use of.

 

[jasonng]

Just beat a mothership/Carrier/Void ray push with Hydras and Corrupters. Guy was awful but it was still gratifying to melt his huge army away. I really need a sparring partner for my zerg play. I don't get enough practice with my mid to end game.

 

[Vaporak]

God damn I feel awesome today. It's been a good day for Starcraft. I'd like to thank all the GAFfers who play with me on a semi-regular basis to help me get better, specifically Valenti for stomping me with his Terran over and over (and thus forcing me to react faster) and Vaporak for giving me some tips a while back on how to better play my protoss.

Congrats


...wait, does this mean there's still regular gaf games? I stopped going to the IRC channel because no one was ever on. I haven't played with any gaffers for weeks.

 

[jasonng]

We tend to get a few funday monday games going or some Gaf ffa. Regular games, I'm not sure. I know Pyke and I played a few rounds of Nexus Word Wars.

 

[Zzoram]

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/936925

Blizzard's tribute to Fruit Dealer

 

[Pyke Presco]

GAF games are anything but regular. But I've had more than a few games against Val and won maybe a handful. It's good times. We sort of just wing it whenever there's some people online.

EDIT: I think I've already got you on my friends Panda, but it's PykePresco, 225. We'll get some games going soon (but not tonight, I'm done for now). And yeah, I'd love some Zerg practice, I always get stomped by Muta balls and I don't play against Zerg anywhere near often enough to learn anything.

 

[Pandaman]

whats your id pyke? i could give you some zerg practice mayhap. ^^

 

[clav]

People causing the game to slow down should be classified as cheating. There are scenarios that micro makes or breaks the difference in the outcome and instead I'm presented with "xyz's computer is slowing down the game." I can't kite units such as void rays or micro hellions or other intensive units.

Ugh.

 

[pieatorium]

kinda just won a fundyday monday ffa, don't think it would count though as one guy left the instant the battle started

 

[Mystery]

Hooray! I won a PvP using 2-gate/Robo with Warp Prisms, Immortals, and some gateway units. It was a base race, but I still won. I'm going to try to iron out this build and see if it's more useful in PvP. I messed up with some timings, and the guy I was playing did a 3-gate instead of a 4-gate, but I still think it's a pretty strong counter to 4-gate rushes.

 

[jasonng]

GAF games are anything but regular. But I've had more than a few games against Val and won maybe a handful. It's good times. We sort of just wing it whenever there's some people online.

EDIT: I think I've already got you on my friends Panda, but it's PykePresco, 225. We'll get some games going soon (but not tonight, I'm done for now). And yeah, I'd love some Zerg practice, I always get stomped by Muta balls and I don't play against Zerg anywhere near often enough to learn anything.

Dude, I'm zerg and we were both in top gold. If you wanted practice you should had let me know. No forget it, go to Panda. I see how it is.

 

[Zen]

yea, i dont understand why they have such a huge radius of all things considered

I support Blizzard putting them on a diet.

 

[Pyke Presco]

Dude, I'm zerg and we were both in top gold. If you wanted practice you should had let me know. No forget it, go to Panda. I see how it is.

I'm sorry Jason, I didn't mean anything by it! I'll play against you too. It was just that our games were always Funday stuff or whatever Valenti wanted to do with his FFas and whatnot, I wasnt thinking about practicing my 1v1. But now I will!

Awesome, I'm building a repertoire of practice partners. Soon I will be unstoppable!

 

[pieatorium]

I'm a plat zerg aswell just finished exams so should be on alot for a while if anyones interested in some games.

pieman 380 (NA)
pieman 819 (SEA)

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Hey folks, have a question. Like an idiot, I updated my iPhone to 4.1 and re-jailbroke it without deleting my Battlenet authenticator beforehand. I will call Blizzard tomorrow but what type of information do they require in order to allow you back into your account and how long does it take? Do they allow photo ID via email? For those who have experienced something like this, please tell me what to expect.

 

[evangd007]

This evidence is based on what data? You mean the time the US got #2 in the worldwide championship in China?

The amount of money that gets awarded at GSL when compared to MLG and ESL. The ESL IEM US champ Fenix got $4000. This is one of the biggest ESL invitational tournaments of the year. Fruitdealer got $87,000 from a monthly open tournament in GSL.

 

[Aylinato]

Hey folks, have a question. Like an idiot, I updated my iPhone to 4.1 and re-jailbroke it without deleting my Battlenet authenticator beforehand. I will call Blizzard tomorrow but what type of information do they require in order to allow you back into your account and how long does it take? Do they allow photo ID via email? For those who have experienced something like this, please tell me what to expect.

They don't need any photo ID and they can help u over the phone, just make sure you tell them the name to the account

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

They don't need any photo ID and they can help u over the phone, just make sure you tell them the name to the account

Ok. Thanks!

 

[Tenks]

Screw archons!

His fat-ass couldn't get through the pylon gateway, I learned a huge lesson about simcity -_-

What league are you in? There is a Ray in my division who is like 1850 and I think I've played him once.

 

[Snow]

They don't need any photo ID and they can help u over the phone, just make sure you tell them the name to the account

Depends if you wrote the base security code down somewhere, I think. When I got my new iphone I didn't think about the fact that the code would change while migrating my apps before I reset the old phone. I didn't have the base code written down, so when I called them they asked me to email a scan of some official ID to proof I was who I said I was. After I did the authenticator was removed from my account within a couple of hours.

This was the EU Blizzard billing service though, don't know if there are huge differences between how they work compared to the American one.

 

[HolyCheck]

cellawerras stream is just too amusing lol.

 

[Aylinato]

cellawerras stream is just too amusing lol.

yes his 4v4 with his mass queens and mass infestors vs colosi and stalkers was funny

I'm jealous he got to 2v2 with HuK, it also seems like overkill vs any other team out there

 

[HolyCheck]

posted it in the GSL but i'll make mention of it here!

Gisado who does a korean king of the hill stream has been picked up by GOM and the KoTH will now stream after the GSL starting mondays. and is to go til 2:30korean time.. so that means something like 7 hours straight of sc2 <3

 

[Pyke Presco]

How to throw a game against Zerg:

1) When a spire is scouted with your observer, build 2 Stargates and immediately begin Phoenix production.
2) With the first two phoenix, go hunting overlords, and continue to build 6 more phoenix to fight off those pesky mutas
3) Send your entire ground army into his base and get demolished by Hydra/Roach, and lose all phoenix to hydras because he chose not to make mutas
4) Tech to templar/chargelot in spite of only needing a support bay to start building Colossus/Immortals, and forget to research Khaydarin amulet
5) Lose your whole fucking base


Durp durp durp...

Maybe next time I should wait for him to invest into those mutas and kill them rather than get him to just change his mind completely and own me with hydras. Also, go for the easier transition when your master plan fails hardcore.

EDIT: On the plus side, I'm rank 2 in my platinum league and I'm now almost exclusively playing 900-1200 point diamond players and still winning 50/50, so I may get another promotion stupidly fast! Gold-Diamond transition in a week?

 

[HolyCheck]

How to throw a game against Zerg:

1) When a spire is scouted with your observer, build 2 Stargates and immediately begin Phoenix production.
2) With the first two phoenix, go hunting overlords, and continue to build 6 more phoenix to fight off those pesky mutas
3) Send your entire ground army into his base and get demolished by Hydra/Roach, and lose all phoenix to hydras because he chose not to make mutas
4) Tech to templar/chargelot in spite of only needing a support bay to start building Colossus/Immortals, and forget to research Khaydarin amulet
5) Lose your whole fucking base


Durp durp durp...

Maybe next time I should wait for him to invest into those mutas and kill them rather than get him to just change his mind completely and own me with hydras. Also, go for the easier transition when your master plan fails hardcore.

EDIT: On the plus side, I'm rank 2 in my platinum league and I'm now almost exclusively playing 900-1200 point diamond players and still winning 50/50, so I may get another promotion stupidly fast! Gold-Diamond transition in a week?

You used to be cool lol

 

[Ashhong]

How to throw a game against Zerg:

1) When a spire is scouted with your observer, build 2 Stargates and immediately begin Phoenix production.
2) With the first two phoenix, go hunting overlords, and continue to build 6 more phoenix to fight off those pesky mutas
3) Send your entire ground army into his base and get demolished by Hydra/Roach, and lose all phoenix to hydras because he chose not to make mutas
4) Tech to templar/chargelot in spite of only needing a support bay to start building Colossus/Immortals, and forget to research Khaydarin amulet
5) Lose your whole fucking base


Durp durp durp...

Maybe next time I should wait for him to invest into those mutas and kill them rather than get him to just change his mind completely and own me with hydras. Also, go for the easier transition when your master plan fails hardcore.

EDIT: On the plus side, I'm rank 2 in my platinum league and I'm now almost exclusively playing 900-1200 point diamond players and still winning 50/50, so I may get another promotion stupidly fast! Gold-Diamond transition in a week?

I usually build a couple phoenixes just to deter the zerg from going mutaling. And it works.

 

[Pyke Presco]

Ah, but there's the fatal error in my play. I wasnt trying to deter him, I was trying to stomp all over his mutalisks and then crush him with my super awesome ground army. Only...there were no mutalisks, and my super awesome ground army was outnumbered by at least 2 to 1. I showed my hand to early and he just figured out that my pair of 2's loses to his full house, and was laughing all the way to the bank. Probably went home and told all his buddies about the dumb protoss player who attacked with an understrength army and floated a bunch of phoenixes over top doing nothing. Then they all went to get drinks and fuck gorgeous women in the club, because that's how these poker superstars roll.

Wait a minute...I think I got my story confused with my poker fantasy. Shit.

Syth, you're making me sad. Don't hate me, I just want to be better at Starcraft!

 

[Corran Horn]

Shadow Assault 2.2 has been released! The last patch for a long time has been uploaded! Go play on Battle.net now!

Brutal solo is impossible without cheating and quickly grabbing the cloaking upgrade before the 1000 minerals is removed (which Im assuming is a bug). At least I cant get past it without that

 

[Lucis]

Ah, but there's the fatal error in my play. I wasnt trying to deter him, I was trying to stomp all over his mutalisks and then crush him with my super awesome ground army. Only...there were no mutalisks, and my super awesome ground army was outnumbered by at least 2 to 1. I showed my hand to early and he just figured out that my pair of 2's loses to his full house, and was laughing all the way to the bank. Probably went home and told all his buddies about the dumb protoss player who attacked with an understrength army and floated a bunch of phoenixes over top doing nothing. Then they all went to get drinks and fuck gorgeous women in the club, because that's how these poker superstars roll.

Wait a minute...I think I got my story confused with my poker fantasy. Shit.

Syth, you're making me sad. Don't hate me, I just want to be better at Starcraft!

learn 2 graviton beam and more apm for overlord hunting

 

[FoxSpirit]

I usually build a couple phoenixes just to deter the zerg from going mutaling. And it works.

Also, you can simply go scout with those two. Always a great idea. Maybe snipe my queen, I like that >.<