How are you only silver? I am diamond and I still don't the above correctly (though I know I should).

I'm much better in theory than I am in practice (much as in go). I have a fair amount of knowledge from watching high level games, reading, watching day[9], etc. but I've only played 50 games or so, so I really can't execute. I've yet to stop a simple cannon rush, for instance (though I've stopped 6-pool.) I have enough knowledge that I could play at a high level, but not enough experience to manage the game mechanics or make split-second in-game decisions.

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KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

This is usually my hotkey layout:

1. Nexus(es)
2. Gateway/Warp Gates
3. Robo or Stargate
4. Scouting probe, later observer
5. Melee army
6. Ranged army and/or spell casters
7. Harassment units (e.g: DTs, or early VRs)
8. Forge
9. Depends on game; usually for buildings like Robo Bay, Twilight Council, or Templar Archives
10. Observer if I build both Robo and Stargate

I notice the majority of people have it the other way around though, with 1-3 for armies and 4-6 for buildings. Both are fine though, it's just whatever is most comfortable for you. The hotkey layout that I use is basically what I used in WC3. I also wouldn't feel pressured to try and use all 10 keys. There are plenty of top pros who use as little as 3 - 4 keys. However, I think in the long run it'll be better for your game.

Regarding good build orders, I would recommend YABOT's BO Tester or Liquipedia.

Don't block the ramp with pylons! If you use a bunch of pylons to block the ramp against zerg, prepare to have them all destroyed by banelings :p. Seriously, when I'm zerg and I see even one pylon with your zealots, I think "sweet, I finally get to make some banelings useful against Protoss!". If you want to block the ramp, one gateway and a couple of zealots on hold and you always have sentries <--------- the reason why banelings are usually not so useful against Protoss. Also, depending on the map, it can make sense to block the bottom of the ramp instead. Don't bother blocking the ramp (other than with plain zealots) at all against Terran or Protoss, there's no point and you will regret having all those buildings in the way when you have your sentries out and are trying to encircle some blocked off units at the top of the ramp or snipe blocked off units at the bottom of the ramp or when your buildings are being sniped by tanks/void rays/whatever.

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19/02/2011: this grumpy person takes a voluntary holiday from L19.

If anyone's still up, GSL day 5 is starting in one hour. Staying up because Tester and Artosis are playing . Yesterday I had the fortune of watching the biggest comeback of all time where someone tried to proxy 3-gate, failed miserably, and still managed to win . You can watch the game here: http://sc2casts.com/cast676-oGsInCa-vs- ... ound-of-64

Hey, thank you everyone for the good advices !
I will try to practice and hopefully get some profit, brb when I no longer at the bottom of my copper league

Looks like the transition is finally in gear: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=151746

The rumor that July will move to SC2 has been confirmed; but this was kind of everyone's expectation. There are also rumors that Nada and Boxer are also planning to move to SC2; if those are confirmed, I will be ecstatic . It's just a pity that e-sports politics isn't making this go smoother.

This highlight video of July of his exploits in the 2004-2005 OSL season was what got me interested in professional Starcraft, and I still regard it as the best highlight video ever made.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4293671168984783888#

Enjoy.

Heh, nice vid. July is one of those guys who is fun to watch. I'm more of a Jaedong fan myself, though. Either way, I'm terrible at Zerg, but love to watch pro matches with them the most.

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KGS: schultz [?].

I'm assuming you're watching the OSL Finals right now?

Kids these days XD. Thats like saying you're more of a Lee Changho fan instead of a Shusaku fan. July revolutionized so much about Zerg gameplay, pushing lurk/ling control to a new level and especially demonstrating the power of stacked mutas, dramatically altering all Zerg MUs. There's no Jaedong without July.

Yeah I saw that, felt so sorry for that guy who lost, he probably should have just gone straight in without destroying the gateways pylon first.

Anyway, I haven't really been playing SC2 at all . The fact is that whenever I'm ready to spend some disposable time I think "well I could play craft, but then again I could just log in to KGS..." Go destroys everything!

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"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee

I do both. Log in to KGS, idle in the teamliquid room, and play SC2.

I've also noticed that there seems to be an interesting group of people who enjoy watching the game adamantly, subscribing to commentators such as HuskyStarcraft/HD/Day9/etc. and keeping track of many of the top tournaments by VODs and streams...but they don't play. Actually a few weeks ago I met someone at a LAN who had just bought a copy of SC2 to play his first games, but he knew a TON about the latest tournament games, top players, strategies, and even build orders just from watching. But of course, mechanics will only come through experience so he still landed in bronze regardless.

Warp gates are critical to Protoss. Basically you get 5-6 of them and then select all of them and then you can warp units in wherever your pylons provide power to.

Basically, I do this as early as I can. It's nice to have 6 units at once when they're done.

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My plan to become an SDK is here.

Yeah, the thing is that if I don't use my game time for go I feel bad

Maybe this will stop if I hit shodan?

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"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee

Shodan: the rank at which you realize you really want to be 5d...

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That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
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My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

Hi L19, long time no see. I spent quite some time playing SC2 with a bunch of friends, and managed to completely neglect my go studies. Most of my friends placed in bronze, but they are rapidly working their way up through silver and gold leagues. One of my friends however has been a long time wc3 player and he should hit diamond league one of these days after being stuck on plat rank 1 for quite some time now. Practicing with him is just awesome, I get demolished game after game, and I keep coming back for more. I'm still stuck at around gold league level (though I manage to win around half of my games against plat opponents). Anyway, I really enjoy the spectator side of SC2, I'm really into Day[9]'s lectures, and vods of some of the big tournaments.

I feel that actually watching the replay yourself without audio commentary forces you to look for relevant transitions, the production tab, keeping track of the minimap, etc, which impact your playing more directly than just watching a vod. Also, you can rewind more easily, and notice things that some casters might miss. And big bonus: the replay files are much smaller and more abundant on the net, so more convenient for storing and creating nice replay packs to share with your friends ^^ Watching vods like husky's makes me lazy. But he is pretty hilarious at times.

Aphelion, thanks for the great share btw:Though the stream quality is absolutely horrible when compared to the 1080p sc2 streams, that's the first time I've actually seen what "stacked muta snipes" look like (they look very cool, in case you're wondering). Also your comparison of july with shuusaku made me want to explore some of the great bw players and their best matches. Are there any bw players here that could point me in the right direction? And could someone please explain what all the osl, msl, and other abreviations stand for? Oh, I play terran in sc2 btw, and think I should definetely check some of slayers_boxer and iloveoov's matches. I could probably improve by just playing a hundred games thinking only about good macro, building scv's and not getting supply blocked every 5 seconds, but I just love the tradition this game has come to be immersed in.

Teach me, fellow sc players. I am a spunge.

A "new" trick has been discovered for SC2 which, unless Blizzard decides to patch, is definitely going to make the early game more active : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=152345

I put quotations around "new" because it's not really new: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSrZOcLsTug (at the 1:00 mark)


OSL = OnGameNet Starleague (interesting trivia: The gamer-ized Go variant, BaToo, sponsored the OSL a couple of years ago)
MSL = MBCGame StarCraft League
Everything you need to know about BW leagues can be found here.

Rumors are going around that Boxer (and Nada, another Terran legend) will be moving to SC2, so you're in luck there. July, Zerg legend, has already been confirmed.

I saw this on the TL forums today at work, and it's definitely a great find. I honestly think it's done on purpose for the micro fanatics out there. There's really no reason why the AI would be THAT slow to respond to unit being "full".

There was also Zerg queen shift-"micro" that was an interesting thread. You might want to link that one also. Basically you can shift-queue the queen around to match the timing of your larvae being done. That way, you never forget to do this. It's a very small thing, but helps quite a bit in the long run.

I have to say, after lurking around in TL forums, they are pretty great. A lot of members are pretty helpful, and are generally a good crowd to read from. I can understand why TL is growing as big as it is. Things like the above are what keep me going back.

Btw, for those keeping up with GSL/ Foreign players in GSL: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=152046 . This person has great blogs about each day. Enjoy the pictures

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I know nothing.