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.

1 month summaries part 1

A little more than 1 month have passed since the release of sc2 and I thought it would be nice with a little summary of what I have used the first month doing.

Single player:

Overall the single player experience is far better than I expected, the story is intriguing and the level design is by far the most versatile I’ve seen Blizzard create yet, and the humor had a large presence as always. Though was a great experience it was by no means perfect I found the voice acting quite clunky and there were just too many clichés, but then again that was kind of expected, since it is Blizzard we are talking about here.

I’ve played the campaign, 2½ times and I just started a new campaign playing on brutal this time around.

1 Play though where on hard, only really 2 missions that felt a little challenging and that where supernova and all in (the final mission), but then again if I had used any kind of saves while playing those two levels would have been pretty easy as well.

2 Play though where the “hurry up it’s raid night” achievement, and I completed it on ~6:10 without hurrying to much (and yes I am a complete tool and achievement whore sometimes I know!).

2½ Play through I just wanted the upgrade achievements for all building all ship, all infantry etc, etc. upgrades again the achievement whore in me.
And of course on the play though I just started I am going for the last achievements getting the 1590:1600 all through I’m not in a hurry to get it, I just do a mission now and again, especially when the ladder is to rough on me :-).

I will be doing a Multiplayer summary tomorrow or sometime in the near future.

Beta phase 2 is down.

I haven’t played much of the 2 phase of beta, due to training, irl / summer stuff getting in the way, but I did manage to get some games played in the last weekend.
I’m not sure whether it where the amount of players that where increased or the AMM search engine numbers that where changed but the level of players I met seemed a bit more stable than usual, earlier in the beta I would jump from playing a platinum back when platinum where the highest tier of ladders, then jump down to playing a silver then a gold etc.

In the 2 phase I just after the placement matches met players in the platinum league for around 2 games then 1 diamond where I lost, then plat for 4-5 more games, then diamond league players for the rest of my games, all through I only played a few games it seemed a lot more stable which is nice, and I am really looking forward to seeing how it will be looking after a few month have passed after launch.

The last few games where some 2 vs 2 with Fafner where I pretty much sucked all of the games, but I at least had Fafner by my side pulling me through :-).
only 7 days left until launch, can’t wait!

Stats how to break through the glass wall?

After playing ~60+ Hours of FFXIII I finally got back into the sc2 beta at around the time where there where a lot of turbulence with random resets.

Which I actually kind of enjoyed since I did not feel the restraint I normally feel when I know my stats are going to last, it is such a release to play without the burden of stats dragging your morale to play down.
I have always struggled a lot with it both in the original Starcraft and in warcraft3 and well basically anything that would record and remember how I performed.
In Starcraft I would never play more then like 5-7 ladder games because when I got up to like 1150 I knew I would most likely lose and ruin my stats and in the original ladder get extremely punished for losing point wise.
In warcraft3 I where extremely hesitant to play ladder games as well due to the facts that at some point my win rate would start falling dramatically.
I realize it is completely silly and an absolutely useless attitude toward gaming especially if you want to improve your game, but it is there poking me at every turn and it is doing the complete opposite of 2 key factors for me.
1: encouraging me to play more games and therefore
2: improve my skill level.

I Wish I could just put this nonsense behind me and just play!, right now its only a beta I cant even begin to comprehend how I am going to feel when it goes live!

If anyone knows how to get past this I would really love to hear it!