Evening Reading

Diamond league is scary! I'm still in it, but I've quickly fallen to rank 87 out of 100. Had a great, lengthy Protoss versus Zerg match-up last night. I've submitted the replay to maulla and Lexicon_Leidun. Hopefully, they'll pick it for a cast!

Gaming News o'the Day

Links from Morning Discussion

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 6, 2010 5:02 PM

    Starcraft 2!

    I submit to you this graph of devastation : http://i37.tinypic.com/10ygy2b.png

    :[

    No luck with the 2v2's so far tonight.

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:03 PM

      Hahahaha oh man. wha happun?

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 5:05 PM

        BC's and vikings devastated by a bunch of infestors followed by hydras.

        It wound up being a somewhat even exchange, which I think we had 2 big examples of in that match, but double zerg was able to reproduce so much faster and then overwhelm.

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 5:07 PM

          also, Twilight Fortress still stands as the worst map in all of SC2

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:03 PM

      What happened? Was the drop shot down or what?

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:04 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:04 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:05 PM

      Why do you suck so hard?

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 5:06 PM

        :(

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 5:07 PM

          I haven't bought the game yet, sorry. I would totally play with you.

          • reply
            August 6, 2010 5:08 PM

            Should I? BB or download?

            • reply
              August 6, 2010 5:10 PM

              Of course you should. We need more shack games, but they usually result in 1 or 2 rage quitting and it falls apart.

              • reply
                August 6, 2010 5:11 PM

                Promise me you aren't going to rage quit in my games, and I'll go pick it up right now. ;)

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:13 PM

      Dammit, my screenshots from SC2 just turn out blank...

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:17 PM

      I want to get better with infestors. Any tips? They seem so fragile.

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 5:18 PM

        The strategy here seemed to be have twice as many as I had BC's. (which was about 20ish)

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 5:21 PM

          Haha, you had 10 BC's stolen with mind control all at once? Ouch.

          • reply
            August 6, 2010 5:26 PM

            Nah I'm exaggerating. He probably got 5 or 6 off, but I had to focus fire them down and by then the hydras and corrupters showed up. I don't remember exactly what happened as I was busy.

            • reply
              August 6, 2010 5:30 PM

              just watched. i way over counted the infestors. just got destroyed by hydras is all.

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 5:23 PM

          lol please have Lexicon cast that.

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:25 PM

      if you want to laugh at me, here is the replay.

      http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=download&id=136340

      25 minutes in

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 5:28 PM

        Prolly an easy question to answer, but how does bliz handle replays of older versions when they update the game.

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 5:28 PM

          Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

          • reply
            August 6, 2010 5:32 PM

            12 years of development and they couldn't fix it so that you can watch old replays? lol.

            • reply
              August 6, 2010 5:36 PM

              that was just something they did during the beta. i would expect that isn't gonna be the case anymroe.

            • reply
              August 6, 2010 5:48 PM

              I imagine that you can. During the beta, you'd get a new directory for all the stuff you'd downloaded, so in theory there's no reason the replay mechanism couldn't determine the patch number of the replay, and then go back and use those definitions to run through the replay.

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 5:28 PM

        i'll watch this just to see this infestor action, i never see them get used at all

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 5:31 PM

          as i said above, it really wasn't the infestors that mattered all tho they did grab a few of my bc's. it was the 2/2 hydras and corruptors + me having to focus fire down the newly popping infestors

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:31 PM

      That SC2 replay host thing better get ready for mwasher VS m0rfus!!

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:31 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 5:32 PM

      gfc mwasher.

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 5:36 PM

        I don't know what that means

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 5:48 PM

          gentucky fried chicken

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 6:30 PM

          That's a motherfucking shame homie, it was hilarious -but you missed the boat.

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 6:22 PM

      IM COMING FOR YOU MWASHER!! - 84% installed...

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 6:35 PM

      i wanna play some 2v2s

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 7:05 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 8:44 PM

        haha that was after your teammate had gg'd and left

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 8:40 PM

      ZvZ tunneled infestors for the win.

      I just managed to destroy an entire main mineral line in ZvZ with 2 tunneled infestors, spawning 8 infested terrans while burrowed. And even a few mutas. Because noone gets detection in ZvZ it seems.

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 9:15 PM

        as a zerg player I really don't know wtf to do in zvz games. It's almost pathetic.

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 9:48 PM

          It's taken me a long time to figure it out, and I still dont think I really have. That said, I have learned a few things.

          1. Zerglings are fast and you cant even pretend to wall off. So scout early. Put a zergling at the bottom of their ramp, hold the watch towers.
          2. ALWAYS get zergling speed. They cant wall off either, so dart and deal what damage you can, whenever you can.
          3. Pool slightly earlier than you otherwise would by 1 or 2 supply. Early zergling pressure is VERY likely.
          3. Do NOT fast expand. You will get rushed and not have enough lings. Conversely use speedlings and overlords to punish any fast hatcheries you see go down.
          4. Use spine crawlers. if it looks like they will be agressive, plunk one between your hatch and your minerals. If they keep it up, plunk 2 or 3. Later move them to your natural choke if at all possible.
          5. Banelings are aewsome. Ling + hydra is common and banelings will rape them. If they go roach try to sneak some banelings into their mineral line during an attack
          6. Infestors can be awesome. Rare detection means burrowed infestor harass can be very effective. And fungal growth is awesome against fast zerg balls. Frozen speedlings cant do squat against your ranged units.

          But most importantly, pool slightly earlier, get ling speed at first 100 gas, pump lings, and expand when you can defend.

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 8:57 PM

      anyone feel like playing a game?

      jose.150

      prefer some team or ffa games, gettin spanked in 1v1 tonight :(

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 8:58 PM

      I've spent about 2 hours now trying to beat a Very Hard AI as zerg. They are too good :(

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 9:03 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 9:17 PM

        you're *not* ranked 39d?

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 9:22 PM

        HAhaha, Brian. You're an SC2 adrenaline junkie.

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 9:36 PM

        I hated the matchmaking system at first, because despite being silver I was playing a majority of gold\platinum players. It frustrated me to no end losing over and over, but once I realized that I was massacring silver players it wasn't so bad. Now that I've settled into gold, it's much better.

        now for me:

        Games vs Silver are relatively easy
        Games vs Gold are generally a decent match
        Games vs Platinum are a challenge.

        w/ a majority of matches being against Gold

        I'm like 10 - 3 since moving to gold, so I assume I'll be in platinum before too long.

        • reply
          August 6, 2010 9:43 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            August 6, 2010 10:06 PM

            I've had limited experience with anyone above platinum, but when the rankings settle a bit, some of the lower tier of each ladder will probably be bumped down.

            Me and a friend were playing 2v's and ran into a diamond team (who were both ranked diamond in 1v1 as well). They were probably better than me at 1v1, but I was surprised at some of the mistakes they were making. I was zergling going roach\hydra and my friend was protoss going colossi \ stalker initially. They were both zerg. We massacred their zergling\hydralisk army early. Instead of mixing it up to be able to do some damage to the colossi they just kept pumping zerglings and hydras the entire time challenging us to 1v1s and saying "scrubs just building random things". Anyway long digression\thinly veiled brag over, I can't imagine these guys really belong in diamond. I imagine these kind of players will eventually sort themselves out.

            Unless you think there is a big skill gap between mid tier and top tier diamond players, in which case I could see them adding a new ladder.


            I have the replay I should send it to the shackreplay thing

            • reply
              August 6, 2010 11:03 PM

              2v2/3v3 are a bit weird, them being diamond doesn't say too much because as 2 zerg they might have just got there by doing a double 10 pool every game. I see this a lot with players just going for a mass zergling/marine/zealot rush without getting gas to take 1 player out right away. When you manage to hold them off or win 2v3 or something they'll start crying. :D

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 10:13 PM

        Even though I'm only a mid-level Platinum player I'm really in the same boat. The more success I have the more I worry about playing and potentially losing my rank!

        The competitive nature of playing is extremely addicting and fun though. Mostly I try to make sure I stay the highest rank 1v1 player out of all my friends. ;D

        I wonder if they'll ever impliment any kind of attrition to the rankings.

      • reply
        August 6, 2010 10:16 PM

        maybe u dont give yourself credit/

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 10:30 PM

      gg happynoodle and midgetherder. that was pretty funny. I guess sometimes you luck out and the other team's main guy literally falls asleep.

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 10:55 PM

      Welp, I just played my first match in 10 years. Lost for sure, but with some gusto.

      I was Terran, he was Protoss. Not a lot to it really. We traded blows at the start--I completely wiped his early void ray rush with Marines + Stim. Then marched on to destroy a expansion in the works. By then I had a fair size group of marines and murauders assembled, about 18 units total, with 1st level upgrades, and knocked on his front door.

      Got him down to about 6 units and a few turrets before I finally wiped. A few short minutes later, he knocked on mine, and that was that.

      I wish there was a better way to learn the units. Having separate units in the SP against the MP basically is like a battlecruiser-sized middle-finger to the newcomer--I was counting on the SP experience I had to help me out, even just a little, in the MP.

      I take solace that if I had marched in with a few more murauders and marines, or had found his main base sooner (it was literally in the last of 3 possible places), I MIGHT have beaten him, though he had me outgunned in almost every way in the final stat sheet. It was both of our first matches.

      • reply
        August 7, 2010 1:52 AM

        Alright, so I dicked around in challenges, and did a few AI battles and... fuck, I'm actually having fun.

        I might actually buy this when my trial runs out!

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 11:16 PM

      MY ARMY VALUE

    • reply
      August 6, 2010 11:44 PM

      ugh, I just had like a 5 game losing streak in 2v2. I'm surely being too passive but basically any time zerg is involved (god forbid 2) I start like 10 gating to prevent a ling rush. I think I'm being too tentative but most of the time they actually were doing that rush and had I not done a quick wall with a 10 gate I think they'd have gotten in. But then I can't get out and the mutas/tanks arrive :(

    • reply
      August 7, 2010 3:32 AM

      Sorry I wasn't on. Passed out at like 8pm

    • reply
      August 7, 2010 3:42 AM

      me and 2 friends were kicking ass on 3v3 last night. Won all the placement games, kicked some more ass then got schooled badly by some plat players

Hello, Meet Lola