I'm a Coach! (Part 1)

One of my biggest regrets with regards to SC2 is that I haven't been able to convince my two IRL best friends, Ben and Francesco, to play the game that I love so much. All three of us played SCBW years ago. We were noobs (Fasest Map Possible & BGH on useast) living in total ignorance and lack of awareness of a professional SC scene & community.

Hell, we didn't even know about ICCup.

But when they quit SCBW, I kept playing. Eventually I stumbled upon ICCup and TL. This great stroke of fortune sparked a chain reaction. As a lowly D- Zerg on ICCup, I somehow befriended a B- Zerg and an A- Terran who both agreed to coach me. I owe so much to them.

SC2 has become the sport I watch and play. It is my meditation, my self-improvement mechanism. It's like going to the gym for me... even though I don't intend to enter a body-building competition, I do wish to "stay in shape" and constantly improve throughout my life.

So whilst Ben and Francesco had given up SCBW years ago, I have since surrounded myself with it. I tried to keep them in-the-loop about all the things I was doing, and how much my starcraft perspective (if I may say, the real Starcraft perspective) is different from our narrow-minded days on useast.

Generally, they were uninterested. That is, until last week when Ben and Francesco called me on Skype.

"We just bought SC2," they said.

HALLELUJAH!

"Can you coach us?"

They've seen the light! Oh praise Jesus!

I popped the question: What race do you want to play?

I've informally coached people before. I'm friends with a number of bronze through platinum players who constantly ask for advice. I 1v1 them and review the replays. On many occasions I have braincrafted them. (braincrafting is the act of observing a game, following the player-cam of one of the players, and telling that player what to do over Skype / Ventrilo etc.).

I wasn't surprised when, after installing the game, Ben and Francesco wanted to rush straight into the campaign. To my delight, after playing a few campaign missions they decided to 1v1. I observed. Naturally, both of them chose Terran. I didn't braincraft them.

After an abysmally depressing/hilarious game of piss-poor macro, strategy, and 14 APM mechanics (all expected...) I became vocal. The first conversation we had was about choosing races. Both had played Protoss in SCBW, and before buying the game had expressed to me that Protoss looked the coolest in SC2.



Francesco: "Yeah we chose Terran because of the campaign. I don't really know anything about Protoss or Zerg."

Me: "That's okay, you don't really know anything about Terran either! Just pick whichever race feels coolest to you and stick with it."

Ben: "I guess I want to play Protoss... but Adam [that's me] didn't you tell me that Protoss was the weakest?"

Me: "Uh... what!?"

Ben: "I remember you told me a while ago that Protoss hasn't been as good in Korea."



...Let me explain this. Over a year ago, before SC2 came out, I was talking to Ben about all of my favorite BW legends: Flash Jaedong Savior July NaDa Boxer Bisu Nal_Ra (Hell yeah Kang Min is a legend. Wanna fight about it?). I commented on how the majority of BW legends seem to be either Terran or Zerg. I referenced an Artosis interview where he talks about the staleness of the Protoss race in BW. At no point did I outright say that Protoss is the weakest race in BW. I don't know enough to hold a strong opinion on that.

Whether or not this is true is not important. What IS important is what Ben took from that conversation:

First, he misconstrued my comment into a statement on balance. This is a theme I have noticed throughout all my informal coaching experiences, especially with brand new players. They come from a gaming history where one character is better than another. One move is better than another. One item is better than another. Imbalance is the norm, and they are always looking to be on the right side of imbalance.

Second, he took something from BW and (wrongly) assumed it applied to SC2. In SCBW, playing fastest and BGH, he made Gateways and Zealot rushed. Every. Single. Game. And sadly, against Francesco and I it worked a lot.

So what do I see him doing his first 1v1 game as protoss in SC2? Mass Gateways. Mass Zealots. Classic Ben.

This prompted a stern conversation about balance.

"Even if imbalance exists at the professional level," I said, "It has no implications for players at your level. You will win games by being the better player, not the better race."

That settled that. I proceeded to coach Ben and Francesco as two Protoss players, but the rude awakenings weren't over.

"You just built more than me... I don't know"

We did a few non-competitive practice games as Protoss. I showed them the tech tree, how Warpgate and Warp-in works, and reminded them the basics of mechanics (hotkeys, CTRL groups, and the uses of the SHIFT key).

Now, something I absolutely love to do with new players is what I call the "worker game" (I can't remember if I created this or stole it from someone on teamliquid... oh well). The worker game is a contest of who can get to 200/200 supply FIRST, with ONLY workers (1 Queen per hatchery is allowed for Zerg). No army. No attacking.

The jist is, whoever wins obviously utilized better decision making, macro, and mechanics than the other. I use this game as a lesson to teach the value of these things. And even though it was only making workers, the same lessons can be applied to making army in a real game. It's all about keeping your money low: more bases, constant worker production, not getting supply blocked, using Chronoboost / Inject / Mule. It's also a lesson in production facilities. The more Nexus you have, the more Probes you're making. However, you need to judge how many Nexus you can support with your income. The worker game is a fun, friendly, and non-stressful contest.

So I load up Tal'darim Altar. Worker game 3-way FFA with myself, Ben, and Francesco all as Protoss. I won, getting to 200/200 way before them. Ben was at 120. Francesco was at 100.



Me: "Why did I win?"

Ben: "You just built more than me... I don't know."

Me: "Think about it. What exactly did I do than you didn't... How many bases did you have?"

Ben & Francesco: "One, with a lot of Nexus."

Me: "One? Well that's a huge problem right there. Your income can only be so much off of one base... I had six, with two Nexus at each base. You gotta expand."

Ben: "Yeah but I thought the time it takes for a probe to move to another base
makes it not worth it."

Francesco: "I just forgot to expand."

... *facepalm*

I finally realized that they didn't understand mineral-line saturation. They thought a patch of minerals could take on infinite numbers of workers (just like fastest!). I taught them that one mineral line with ~24 workers has the equivalent income to one mineral line with 100 workers. Without more mineral patches, the extra workers are useless.

We played the worker game again. When I won this time, Ben was at 160. Francesco was at 150. They both expanded and built a lot of Nexus.



Me: "Why did I win?"

Francesco: "I got supply blocked a lot and I let my money get too high."

Ben: "Me too. I got supply blocked and could have built more nexus"



Now we're talkin!

The night is darkest before the dawn… or some shit.

From there, we decided to play revised versions of the worker game -- who can make 18 Stalkers first? 18 Stalkers and 4 Zealots? 18 Stalkers, 4 Zealots, 8 Sentries?

Through this game I taught them Protoss openings. 9 Pylon, 12-14 Gateway, 14 Assimilator, 16 Pylon, etc. Basically, it was a general version of 3-Gate expand.

We went non-stop. I wanted to drill the opening into them. I wanted them to start developing muscle memory. We must have played 10 games, rotating around different ladder maps. We would play-out the opening until the expansion finished, restart and do it all over again.

I could tell they were getting bored, and wanted to ladder. So I set them free.

I get home from work the next day…



Me: “Wow Ben, you’ve played fuckin’ 13 ladder games.”

Ben: “Yeah I know, I had nothing to do today.”

Me: “You weren’t worn out?”

Ben: “No not really… I just kept hitting the find match button after I was done.”



I was happy Ben’s placement matches got him instantly into Gold league. Francesco hadn’t finished his placement matches yet. Thus, Ben will be my only focus for the rest of this blog, as he is playing and improving much more than Francesco. He has a lot of dedication.

Except there was one problem…

Ben lost every single one of his ladder games. What a loser.



Me: “Hah, you lost every single one of your ladder games. What a loser”

Ben: “Yeah I know! It’s pissing me off. I’m playing until I win one”

Me: “Wait. I have a friend online who you can practice with. He’s a Gold league Protoss too. 1v1 him and I will braincraft you.”

Ben: “Okay…”



I was actually very interested in how this game would turn out. I had been coaching this guy, the one Ben was about to 1v1, for about a month. I knew that Ben was the underdog. But maybe, just maybe… with my braincrafting he could overcome!

The game starts on Shattered Temple. Ben defended an early-midgame attack. He took his 3rd. His economy was good and he was approaching 160 supply on pure Gateway units. I told him to attack.



Me: “Send a Probe with you.”

Ben: “Why?”

Me: “To build a forward pylon. Camp your army at the Xel’Naga tower and build a pylon there.”

Ben: “Okay…”

Me: “When that pylon finishes you make a round of units and attack.”

Me: “ADD THOSE REINFORCEMENTS TO YOUR ARMY. SHIFT 1!”

Me: “LOOK AT YOUR ARMY. MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS ATTACKING.”

[Their army sizes are fairly even…]

Me: “MACRO. GO BACK TO YOUR PYLON AND BUILD MORE UNITS.”

Me: “SHIFT 1!”

Me: “CHECK YOUR ARMY. FORCEFIELD. GUARDIAN SHIELD. GO.”

Me: “IS WARPGATE COOLDOWN UP?”

Ben: “Yes.”

Me: “THEN MACRO. FUCKING GO. GOGOGO.”

Me: “SHIFT 1!”

Me: “ARMY. YOU’RE WINNING.”

Me: “WARPGATE COOLDOWN?”

Me: “ARMY.”
Me: “MACRO.”

Me: “ARMY. GO. FASTER.”



By then he got it. I was so proud of him. He was nailing his Warpgate cooldowns. He was balancing macro and micro.

GG.



Ben: “Wooooo!”

Me: “You feel that? That’s how you fucking do it son. Do you fucking feel that? You were on TOP of your Warpgates. Your macro was better than his. You hammered him with wave after wave. You wouldn’t have won if you didn’t reinforce that attack.”

Ben: “Yeah, that was fucking awesome.”



In the days after this event Ben starts winning a fair share of his ladder matches. He’s top-Gold now.

What a winner.

I thought we were making progress. I really did.

Ben and I are on Skype. He’s laddering and I’m browsing TL. When all of a sudden…

Ben: “FUCK!”

Me: “What happened?”

Ben: “I lost. He went mass Zealots. I don’t understand.”

Me: “Give me more than that. I want the whole story.”

Ben: “He had one base. I had my expansion up but he just attacked me with a fuckton of Zealots. I had sentinels and Stalkers. I don’t understand why I lost, I really don’t. How could he have the economy to make so much more than me?” [he confuses Sentry with ‘sentinels’]

Me: “What do you mean you don’t understand? Like, you don’t understand how he built that many Zealots? Or you don’t understand how you’re supposed to beat it?”

Ben: “Both”

Me: “Well it’s easy to find out how he built that many zealots. It’s not like he had some zealot-building-hack. This is a scientific game. You can only build what you have the resources for. Zealots don’t appear out of nowhere. They’re cheap and don’t cost any gas. Watch the replay if you don’t believe me.”

Ben: [After watching the replay] “Okay, I watched the replay and I still don’t understand how I’m supposed to stop it. Why can’t I just mass Zealots like him?”

… *facepalm*

Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch the replay for myself and show him all of the flaws that I know led to his defeat (and I didn’t want to go through all the trouble of teaching him how to send me the replay). Still, after a long discussion about scouting cheese, unit counters, crisis management, proper defense, and proper micro, he still wasn’t convinced. He still was under the impression that mass Zealot is unbeatable. So I gave that stubborn bastard a challenge.



Me: “Alright, we’re going to PvP on Tal’darim. I’m going to 2-gate Zealot pressure you. Do your standard Gateway-Core opening and try to defend it.”

Ben “Okay…”



The game starts. I execute a 2-gate Zealot pressure with my offrace flawlessly (not really) and beat him. Beat him hard. Too hard…



Me: “What the fuck was that?”

Ben: “Again, I don’t see any way to beat that.”



This time I had the replay to watch. There were many little errors in his opening that no doubt contributed to the loss. However, there was one MAJOR error.

His first Zealot popped out. His core finishes. He starts Warpgate research. He doesn’t start a second unit out of the Gateway…

A few seconds go by. Still no second unit…

An exact total of 52 in-game seconds go by before he starts building a Stalker for his second unit. This happens exactly when my 3 Zealots are running up his ramp. My 3 Zealots meet his 1 Zealot. He engages. GG.



Me: “Ben, you waited 52 seconds to build a second unit out of your Gateway, and it wasn’t even the right unit.”

Ben: “I still don’t see how that makes a difference.”

Me: “Ben, it takes 37 seconds to build a Sentry, WITHOUT Chrono. If you had played correctly, you would have had a Sentry out with plenty of time to Forcefield the ramp. GG me.”

Ben: “But what happens when the Sentry runs out of energy?”

Me: “Assuming you were playing correctly, your first Forcefield should have bought you enough time to get more units out. With Chrono, you probably could have had another Sentry out to keep a Forcefield on the ramp. Or a Stalker. With micro a Stalker can kite Zealots all day. GG me.”

Ben: “Eh… I dunno…”



I thought, at first, that my crazy good logic must have convinced him how to beat mass-zealot. Perhaps he simply admired how easy it was to go mass zealot, thereby skipping all of the “hard” stuff like teching and expanding. But after further discussion, it turns out this wasn’t the case. After all I had struggled to show him, he still didn’t believe it. He still didn’t understand how to beat it.

I realized, then and there, that not only was I dealing with a stubborn bastard, I was also dealing with someone who fundamentally doesn’t understand the value of efficient play; someone who doesn’t understand that Starcraft is just a bunch of numbers; who doesn’t understand that Starcraft is an economic RTS; someone who came from a gaming history where one move is better than another, one character is better than another, one strategy is better than another. No matter how hard you played, the game always favored imbalance. So it made sense that he would grow fond of the first identifiable strategy that beat him – mass Zealots.



Me: “Ben, what if we switched the roles. What if you went mass zealot and I played normally. If mass zealot is better you should win, right?”

Ben: “Haha no. We both know who would win.”

Me: “Yeah, we do, but why? Why would I win?

Ben: “Because you’re just better than me.”

Me: “NO. That’s the answer you gave me on day 1, with the worker game. You chalked it up to ‘you just built more probes than me.’ That’s a bullshit answer.”

Ben: “Why?”

Me: “Because Starcraft isn’t ambiguous. Building units isn’t a mysterious concept. Everything costs something. Everything is exact. Everything can be explained. The reason why I beat you in the worker game is largely the same reason why I beat you every time we 1v1. It’s the reason why you lose to people on ladder, whether or not they go mass Zealots. They play more efficiently than you Ben. They make fewer mistakes then you. They get their army out faster than you do, and when they engage their army is bigger than yours. They don’t get supply blocked. They spend their money. Making mistakes like waiting 52 seconds to build a second unit out of your Gateway has consequences that reverberate throughout the course of the game.”

Ben: “I guess.”



That was the best I could get out of him – “I guess” – but I suppose it’s something, right? In the days following this incident I didn’t hear any more nonsense about Zealot rushes. He continues to play ‘standard.’ Crisis averted.

More to come. Thanks for reading!