[[This blog was originally written for Team Dignitas]]

After one of my streamed games a viewer asked me “You always scout, how important is scouting in game play really?” and “How does SC2 expect players at our level expected to scout effectively?” Now, I don’t know about the pros but scouting to me makes or breaks most my games. By scouting I am able to determine where my opponent spawned so when I’m ready to make my first move or a drop I don’t have to waste time searching for them last minute.


They’re other uses for scouting of course, so don’t go in an inch see where they are and then leave (DON’T DO THAT!). Stay for dinner, look around take a tour of the house see what fascinating things they have, then maybe thank your host by harassing that SCV building the supply depot >.> The scouter will always be a harvester and pulled off to scout as soon as the first Supply Depot (Pylon, Overlord) is being built/created.



Some will scout even sooner but I do it as soon as I place my first depot down to pull an SCV off the mineral line for its scouting adventure. If you send your harvester in too late your opponent may have already walled off or have produced units that will turn your scouting mission into a suicide mission.



The point of scouting is to try and predict what strategy they will use against you so that you may react affectively. For example if you’re a Terran scouting a Zerg and you see no gas you are able to assume fast expansion, which will enable you to fast expand as well or do some other amazing tactic that will kick butt.

If you see your opponent has both Vespene geysers being mined be careful! They are most likely going to Tech up fast so you want to be able to counter that efficiently. You can choose to attack early because they most likely will be using their minerals for the tech units and upgrades, which leaves you with more units at the time.

On a mirror map your opponent can not spawn at the across point but on other maps they can spawn just about anywhere. I normally like to scout clockwise. You really have to do the research to determine which map is what.

I like to scout more than once during a game just because things change at any given moment. Make sure you take advantage of the Xel’Naga Towers and send a marine/zergling/zealot to their second mineral line to see if they have expanded or attempt to get a peek at what they have. Being able to see what your opponent is going early game gives you a huge advantage. I’m not sure if this has helped me before but I normally like to wall off ASAP to prevent them from seeing if I am going to Tech or not ^^;



P.S If you do a later scout and see they had expanded and their units are on the front line it’s a great change to attempt a drop behind the mineral line of their main base ^_^
GL HF xVixen