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PvP: A Game of Poker

Blogs > zeratultassadar
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zeratultassadar
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Australia30 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-05 02:34:35
May 05 2010 02:33 GMT
#1
I believe that toss vs toss is, moreso than any other mirror matchup, similar to a game of poker. What's difficult about it is the difficulty of scouting, especially in the early game but also when observers come into play.

Lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate. You scout the opponent. He has 2 zealots blocking his ramp and he brings in maybe 2 goons after that. You have no way of knowing for sure whether he will go dark templar, shuttle/reaver or simply play standard - going for goons/zealots.

Let's say you go observatory or cannons to defend against dts. But let's suppose your opponent skipped dts altogether, instead opting for mass goons. This puts you at a disadvantage. Or he might have gone shuttle/reaver, in which case all your probes might disappear in the next 10 seconds unless you defend against it. This also leaves your front door slightly more vulnerable though. Once observers pop out, you either see the guy's 200/200 army (at which point it's too late to do anything), or your observer gets sniped by cannons or enemy observes.

Basically, you always need to guess whether your opponent is teching or massing units. And that's a pretty darn difficult choice to make, especially in an rts game.

Of course, this runs both ways. Neither toss player knows exactly what the other guy is up to. At this point it becomes almost like a game of poker, where you can only make an educated guess as to what hand your opponent has and "bluffing" becomes a part of the game.


EDIT: LOL I'm not sure why poker is underlined...

*
Kezzer
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
United States1268 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-05 02:34:44
May 05 2010 02:34 GMT
#2
On May 05 2010 11:33 zeratultassadar wrote:
I believe that toss vs toss is, moreso than any other mirror matchup, similar to a game of poker. What's difficult about it is the difficulty of scouting, especially in the early game but also when observers come into play.

Lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate. You scout the opponent. He has 2 zealots blocking his ramp and he brings in maybe 2 goons after that. You have no way of knowing for sure whether he will go dark templar, reaver/shuttle or simplay play standard - going for goons/zealots.

Let's say you go observatory or cannons to defend against dts. But let's suppose your opponent skipped dts altogether, instead opting for mass goons. This puts you at a disadvantage. Or he might have gone shuttle/reaver, in which case all your probes might disappear in the next 10 seconds unless you defend against it. This also leaves your front door slightly more vulnerable though. Once observers pop out, you either see the guy's 200/200 army (at which point it's too late to do anything), or your observer gets sniped by cannons or enemy observes.

Basically, you always need to guess whether your opponent is teching or massing units. And that's a pretty darn difficult choice to make, especially in an rts game.

Of course, this runs both ways. Neither toss player knows exactly what the other guy is up to. At this point it becomes almost like a game of poker, where you can only make an educated guess as to what hand your opponent has and "bluffing" becomes a part of the game.


EDIT: LOL I'm not sure why poker is underlined...


because of liquid poker, i believe it auto links it

edit: or not, because mine's not linked lol
exalted
Profile Blog Joined March 2004
United States3612 Posts
May 05 2010 02:36 GMT
#3
i'm allin!
too easy
Rekrul
Profile Blog Joined November 2002
Korea (South)17174 Posts
May 05 2010 02:37 GMT
#4
rock paper scissors would be a much better comparison than poker
why so 진지해?
Rodiel
Profile Joined August 2006
France573 Posts
May 05 2010 02:38 GMT
#5
rock paper scissors is poker.
Carthac
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United States393 Posts
May 05 2010 02:41 GMT
#6
On May 05 2010 11:38 Rodiel wrote:
rock paper scissors is poker.


Easily the most ignorant statement of the day today.

Don't comment on things you don't understand please
blahman3344
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States2015 Posts
May 05 2010 02:45 GMT
#7
i have to say, of all my matchups, i find PvP to be the most annoying for me. I usually find that i can keep my scout alive long enough to see smaller things like core timings and whatnot, but i usually depend on observers to tell me what build my opponent is going.
I like haikus and / I can not lie. You other / brothers can't deny
floor exercise
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Canada5847 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-05 02:48:07
May 05 2010 02:47 GMT
#8
I would say it's more like horseshoes.

lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate, and you throw zealots at your opponents base. This is very similar to throwing a horseshoe at a metal rod, just like in the game horseshoes. Sometimes your throw hits and you win the game, other times you miss and have to throw again (this would be like switching tech) other times your opponent is a huge faggot and force fields his ramp so your perfectly tossed horseshoe bounces in some random ass direction and ends up in the neighbors yard because the AI fucking sucks fuck this game I hate horses
Rekrul
Profile Blog Joined November 2002
Korea (South)17174 Posts
May 05 2010 02:48 GMT
#9
On May 05 2010 11:47 floor exercise wrote:
I would say it's more like horseshoes.

lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate, and you throw zealots at your opponents base. This is very similar to throwing a horseshoe at a metal rod, just like in the game horseshoes. Sometimes your throw hits and you win the game, other times you miss and have to throw again (this would be like switching tech) other times your opponent is a huge faggot and force fields his ramp so your perfectly tossed horseshoe bounces in some random ass direction and ends up in the neighbors yard because the AI fucking sucks fuck this game I hate horses


LMAO u have a good point
why so 진지해?
Ftrunkz
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
Australia2474 Posts
May 05 2010 02:54 GMT
#10
On May 05 2010 11:41 Carthac wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 05 2010 11:38 Rodiel wrote:
rock paper scissors is poker.


Easily the most ignorant statement of the day today.

Don't comment on things you don't understand please

He was more pointing out that if you're going to simplify PvP that much, you might as well simplify poker that much as well... I assume ;P
@NvPinder on twitter | Member of Gamecom Nv | http://www.clan-ta.com | http://www.youtube.com/user/ftrunkz | http://www.twitchtv.com/xghpinder
shinjin
Profile Joined January 2010
United States398 Posts
May 05 2010 03:24 GMT
#11
On May 05 2010 11:47 floor exercise wrote:
I would say it's more like horseshoes.

lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate, and you throw zealots at your opponents base. This is very similar to throwing a horseshoe at a metal rod, just like in the game horseshoes. Sometimes your throw hits and you win the game, other times you miss and have to throw again (this would be like switching tech) other times your opponent is a huge faggot and force fields his ramp so your perfectly tossed horseshoe bounces in some random ass direction and ends up in the neighbors yard because the AI fucking sucks fuck this game I hate horses


lol oh my god this is classic
give it one more try because the best things in life dont come free.
Carthac
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United States393 Posts
May 05 2010 03:24 GMT
#12
On May 05 2010 11:54 Ftrunkz wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 05 2010 11:41 Carthac wrote:
On May 05 2010 11:38 Rodiel wrote:
rock paper scissors is poker.


Easily the most ignorant statement of the day today.

Don't comment on things you don't understand please

He was more pointing out that if you're going to simplify PvP that much, you might as well simplify poker that much as well... I assume ;P


I'm pretty sure that he said poker is rock paper scissors, which is a game of chance, unless you play like rock paper scissors tournaments on ESPN lolol
zobz
Profile Joined November 2005
Canada2175 Posts
May 05 2010 03:37 GMT
#13
On May 05 2010 11:34 BDF92 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 05 2010 11:33 zeratultassadar wrote:
I believe that toss vs toss is, moreso than any other mirror matchup, similar to a game of poker. What's difficult about it is the difficulty of scouting, especially in the early game but also when observers come into play.

Lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate. You scout the opponent. He has 2 zealots blocking his ramp and he brings in maybe 2 goons after that. You have no way of knowing for sure whether he will go dark templar, reaver/shuttle or simplay play standard - going for goons/zealots.

Let's say you go observatory or cannons to defend against dts. But let's suppose your opponent skipped dts altogether, instead opting for mass goons. This puts you at a disadvantage. Or he might have gone shuttle/reaver, in which case all your probes might disappear in the next 10 seconds unless you defend against it. This also leaves your front door slightly more vulnerable though. Once observers pop out, you either see the guy's 200/200 army (at which point it's too late to do anything), or your observer gets sniped by cannons or enemy observes.

Basically, you always need to guess whether your opponent is teching or massing units. And that's a pretty darn difficult choice to make, especially in an rts game.

Of course, this runs both ways. Neither toss player knows exactly what the other guy is up to. At this point it becomes almost like a game of poker, where you can only make an educated guess as to what hand your opponent has and "bluffing" becomes a part of the game.


EDIT: LOL I'm not sure why poker is underlined...


because of liquid poker, i believe it auto links it

edit: or not, because mine's not linked lol
God dammit stop quoting the entire OP just to post a two-liner immediately after. Chances are, you don't even need to quote anything because it's obvious what you're responding to. People's memories certainly don't need to be refreshed as to what that guy way above your head had said. It's not like it's a post buried under two pages of other stuff.
"That's not gonna be good for business." "That's not gonna be good for anybody."
FraCuS
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States1072 Posts
May 05 2010 03:38 GMT
#14
The World Series of RPS 2020

RPS = Rock Paper Scissors.
Apink/Girl's Day/miss A/IU/Crayon Pop/Sistar/Exo K :D l Kpop and Kdrama Enthusiast
Whiplash
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States2929 Posts
May 05 2010 04:53 GMT
#15
Ya me and my clanmates refer to PvP as a rock paper scissors match, blizz should do something about that imo.
Cinematographer / Steadicam Operator. Former Starcraft commentator/player
lazz
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Australia3119 Posts
May 05 2010 05:17 GMT
#16
if you think pvp is simply rock paper scissors you dont play enough starcraft
Methos
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States206 Posts
May 05 2010 05:33 GMT
#17
As a Z player, I hated ZvZ BO advantage so bad that I switched to Protoss. Little did I know that PvP is equally, if not more BO advantage
Scarecrow
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Korea (South)9174 Posts
May 05 2010 05:34 GMT
#18
On May 05 2010 11:47 floor exercise wrote:
I would say it's more like horseshoes.

lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate, and you throw zealots at your opponents base. This is very similar to throwing a horseshoe at a metal rod, just like in the game horseshoes. Sometimes your throw hits and you win the game, other times you miss and have to throw again (this would be like switching tech) other times your opponent is a huge faggot and force fields his ramp so your perfectly tossed horseshoe bounces in some random ass direction and ends up in the neighbors yard because the AI fucking sucks fuck this game I hate horses


This is way better than the OP
Yhamm is the god of predictions
KH1031
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
United States862 Posts
May 05 2010 05:54 GMT
#19
From my experience:
1. You really need to keep your scout for as long as possible
2. There is a point that you simply cannot scout anymore. This is where A LOT of inference drawing comes up...I suppose better players smell foul play better...be it the position of the opponent's army, scout (or the lack thereof) timing.

If I'm not sure, I go 3 gate zlot rush and pray that my opponent's base has a short rush distance. Better to take luck in my own hands than to hope that my opponent doesn't do something gay.
Severedevil
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States4839 Posts
May 05 2010 06:52 GMT
#20
I usually don't even bother scouting my opponent's main unless it's a two player map. I'd rather have a clean, tight build order that squeezes the most out of my money, and then use the units which cannot mine minerals that I've paid for to find out what the opponent is up to. Trying to play a reactive game usually means everything you do is late.
My strategy is to fork people.
PH
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States6173 Posts
May 05 2010 07:26 GMT
#21
I was so afraid this was going to be about SC2. I'm so glad it wasn't.

But anyway, all mirror matchups tend to be very rock-paper-scissors-y. TvT not so much past the early game, but still.
Hello
Sadistx
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
Zimbabwe5568 Posts
May 05 2010 07:41 GMT
#22
On May 05 2010 11:47 floor exercise wrote:
I would say it's more like horseshoes.

lemme give you an example.

You go 2 gate, and you throw zealots at your opponents base. This is very similar to throwing a horseshoe at a metal rod, just like in the game horseshoes. Sometimes your throw hits and you win the game, other times you miss and have to throw again (this would be like switching tech) other times your opponent is a huge faggot and force fields his ramp so your perfectly tossed horseshoe bounces in some random ass direction and ends up in the neighbors yard because the AI fucking sucks fuck this game I hate horses


You just won the blog section for the upcoming week.
Ghardo
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
Germany1685 Posts
May 05 2010 12:55 GMT
#23
hahahaha omg I hate horses xD
wonderful
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