Pros switching

We have seen alot of pro sc players switch to sc2 lately especially July and NaDa are some of the bigger names, also with both the Kespa "saga", and a lot of teams losing coaches/players rapidly it does seem like sc is dying faster than expected.

I’m not sure whether I am leaning towards this being good or bad. From a game pont its absolutely good, they succeeded where Counter-strike absolutely failed, I Think the Cs’eres (without being in the community at all) are still suffering from are you playing source or 1,5 or 1,6 problems. Having 1 game will make both the community and the game bigger in all regards.

But then again Starcraft broodwar will always have a special place in my heart and it saddens me to see it deteriorate like this, I Love(d) playing the game and I love Watching the pro matches, sc2 doesen’t quite give me the same kick.

Teaching Sc2

I Was out visiting a friend last weekend, and between the normal drinking and that kind of good stuff, we had some time to play sc2, and to put it straight he have only played very few games under the beta and only played half through the campaign after the launch of the game, basically his multiplayer would be: "get 2 barracks and then 1 factory and have ~10-15 workers", so I would guess he would be a bronze leaguer, but I decided to try to help him out.

After teaching him some basic tools: Rotations and a basic strategy, and giving him some helpful tips, and piloting him though 2-3 of the first placement matches and off course him discovering the power of stimpack! He actually managed to end up in platinum with 4-1 stats only losing to a tower rush where 1 minor decision lost him the game.

To be honest I did not expect him to get into platinum watching his first games, but just getting a slight handle on the “basic macro” and the right mindset gives you sooooo, so much in the lower level of play.

And with my weakest site being my macro I think I learned something myself from what I was teaching and that’s just a nice extra bonus

1 month summaries part 3

Well even through a little latter then promised here is the third part of my 1 month summaries, this time focusing on my experiences in 1 on 1.

When thinking about this post and how I wanted to write it I felt my mind going in a lot of different directions on what I wanted to talk about, there is the basics how much have I played how did I fare in my games etc, but also a lot of other subjects I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, timings, balance, me vs different races, what I am doing right / wrong in my 1 on 1, and what I’m trying to improve and how, but well it would basically end up as one huge probably pretty mixed wall of bla.bla bla. But I will most likely talk a bid about some of these subjects when I get around to it :-)

So here is the breakdown:

After around 20-30 matches I ended up in Diamond league
I have played 117 1 on 1 Ladder matches
Won 63 games
Lost: 54 games
A win rate at 54%
A rating of 801
And currently rank #115 on Fafner’s Danish ladder site just 1 rank and 1 rating point above Fafner

I’ve found 1 on 1 to be both fun and challenging and I can see multitudes of ways to improve my play especially my macro game seems to be lacking especially under pressure, I really am looking forward to playing a lot more 1 on 1 but with both my normal work, my work in the dansih starcraft community www.sc2replays.dk and my sport activities I don’t have a lot of spare time to actually play that much would love to have some more time on my hands to really get into the game and really practice.
Also there is 1 month and 4 days left before I leave for a 3 month vacation to new Zealand, I’m really looking forward to it but I am going to miss playing sc2 that’s for sure

1 month summaries part 2

In This 2nd part of my 1 month recap I will be looking a bid at my team games.

I have pretty much been playing an equal amount of 1 on 1, 2 vs 2 and 3 vs 3 games, but only played a pinch of 4 vs 4

My 2 vs 2’s have mainly been played with Fafner, both of us playing random, and not having any straight up tactic to follow, so we pretty much played it by ear.

3 Vs 3’s have been played with a lot of different teams and some random team games as well

4 vs 4 I have mostly played with some irl friends who don’t really have any kind of refined play, to put it lightly ;-).

While playing at a lower level the team games becomes pretty fun because you can get away with almost anything, but as the level progresses it gets more and more into the “we rush we win” antics counting on mass lover tier units and early game harasses which can be tremendously hard to resist.
In 2 vs 2 you often see zergling / reapers, dual reapers / bunker antics and a lot of other semi cheesy stuff, and on some maps it’s just not manageable, which can be quite frustrating at times.

Team games seems to function a lot like it did in the original, all through the maps are designed a lot better and a lot more towards team games, and that does pull it quite a bit ahead of the original. Still i wouldn’t at all consider something that would be interesting as an Esport.
Warcraft3, although it had its faults, worked a lot, lot better in regards to team games then sc2 does.

My next and final 1 month write-up will be about my 1 on 1 games.