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Stop that turtle play!

Blogs > Makuly
Post a Reply
Makuly
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Taiwan54 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-05-29 18:20:57
May 29 2012 16:34 GMT
#1
Hey TL!
Makuly here. Some of you may remember me from the coaching blogs. I've noticed some very irritating boring turtle passive play from the majority of foreign players and here I will attempt change that up.

A lot of foreigners complain about cheese, timing attacks, all ins, etc. They say it's no skill, you can't improve, and whatnot. Only a long macro game is considered skill.

Bullshit.

I am going to tell you why aggression is good.

1) It simplifies things. Since you are going to cheese, do a timing, etc, whatever the opponent is up to is almost irrevelant. (e.g. 7gate blink vs zerg). You do not need to scout and react to what he is doing. You only need to know where he is. NOTE: I am not recommending you to cheese/all in every game. I am recommending you to incorporate it into your arsenal!

2) It takes out weaker opponents. When you're climbing ladder, you don't want to waste time vs opponents who have bad builds or are simply not up to skill level with yours.

3) It takes out greedy opponents. Players who cut too many corners will not have a good enough army and will die.

4) METAGAME. Probably the most important aspect of aggressive play. When you play the same opponent several times in a row, you want to throw in these aggressive plays so they do not cut too many corners and will be taken by surprise. They will play safe vs you because they know the potential of a cheese/all in is possible.

HOWEVER, it relies on good situation assessment, micro and decision making. Do not expect to be aggressive and win automatically right from the start. It takes a lot of practice!

The majority of foreign protoss players are turtle-reactionary-passive, it is TIME to transition into unpredictable-dynamic protoss folks! If you spot a weakness in your opponent, punish him for it. This is the correct way for protoss to play. We are NOT zerg and should not try to play 100% reactionary like zerg. The aggressive potential of protoss is HUGE, it's a waste to play defensive every game.

Think about it. The most successful Protoss players are not turtle toss. MC, HuK, NaNiwa, Squirtle, PartinG, Creator...

Start those aggressive plays!



*****
Operations
Profile Joined February 2012
115 Posts
May 29 2012 16:56 GMT
#2
I don't think Flash would agree with that
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10563 Posts
May 29 2012 17:47 GMT
#3
On May 30 2012 01:56 Operations wrote:
I don't think Flash would agree with that

Guess you haven't seen some of FlaSh's latest TvZ matches. He starts standard, 1 Rax FE. Then after he gets stim and a second rax, he pushed with like 6 rines, 1 fb, 1 medic and pushes to the zerg's front. He's won 2/3 times he tried that, and the third game that it didn't work, he still won.

Good blog. 5/5
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
BlackSheep142
Profile Joined May 2012
5 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-05-29 18:14:33
May 29 2012 17:50 GMT
#4
YES! I totally agree with this. I hate when people bitch every time they encounter a cheese. For fucks sake people, it's part of the game, and if you can't win against someone going 7-pool, or cannon rushing then don't expect to get into masters. Yes, you do encounter cheese on ladder a lot, and while some of it is people trolling around, I think most of the time people just don't want to play hour long macro games. Just think of it as practice for when you enter some competition and on your 2nd game someone decides to throw a 7-pool your way. You can't just get up and start yelling at them for cheesing. Again, it's part of the game! SC2 is about aggression, so why is everyone focused on these long-ass macro games where both sides end up controlling 3-4 bases? Why is this considered more skillful than a perfect cannon rush, or a proxy barracks, in which micro has to be near perfect at the better leagues? Plus, do you really want to watch a tournament of tens of 30 min games? Cheese and aggression/timings make the game more exciting.
tl;dr: Ffs, stop bitching about cheese, and don't start crying when someone attacks you before you've finished your nat.

EDIT: This may come off as a hatred for macro games, but it isn't meant to be. I don't mind macro games, they can be interesting, but it annoys me how people only seem to consider games that are longer than 10 minutes "real games".
Ryhzuo
Profile Joined November 2011
New Zealand198 Posts
May 29 2012 17:58 GMT
#5
This blog ended up being less about why turtle is bad and why aggressive play is good. Misleading title.

I agree with the content, however I don't think there is anything wrong with playing passive.
Operations
Profile Joined February 2012
115 Posts
May 29 2012 18:06 GMT
#6
On May 30 2012 02:47 FlaShFTW wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 30 2012 01:56 Operations wrote:
I don't think Flash would agree with that

Guess you haven't seen some of FlaSh's latest TvZ matches. He starts standard, 1 Rax FE. Then after he gets stim and a second rax, he pushed with like 6 rines, 1 fb, 1 medic and pushes to the zerg's front. He's won 2/3 times he tried that, and the third game that it didn't work, he still won.

Good blog. 5/5

every terran and his dog have been doing it for ages and its not really aggressive play, rather standard and safe tvz opening
Makuly
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Taiwan54 Posts
May 29 2012 18:18 GMT
#7
Blacksheep142: I am glad you agree People really need to start adapting the korean aggressive style. Particularly protoss players, the gateway warp tech has huge potential for aggressive plays and timings. Of course this is different for the top top pro level gamers, but for us scrubs down here, this playstyle is more effective and more fun to play imo.

Operations: Sorry i forgot to mention it's protoss play mainly. Though terran players are generally aggressive. Turtle terran is just not effective. There will always be some harass, multi tasking going on.

Ryhzuo: The title says "stop that turtle play." It does not say it is bad, nor not effective, and indeed there is no harm in playing passive turtle. Majority of foreign players are turtle macro oriented (especially Protoss), and whine about aggressive play, I find that illogical.
Back in GSL Season 3 MC raped everyone with his aggressive play. It's less effective now because everyone has been studying his strategies and tendencies so those strategies are now less effective and he is forced into playing macro games. However just because the top top level players know how to stop MC's timings, it does not mean we can. If you have seen MC ladder on NA or EU in his previous streams, he does 1base plays and 2base timings 90% of the time in master/gm league with 85+ win rates.
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