• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 20:45
CEST 02:45
KST 09:45
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7
Community News
Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles2GSTL Returns in 2026!45Weekly Cups (Aug 3-9): Protoss get shut out7RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-2212Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0
StarCraft 2
General
GSTL Returns in 2026! SC4ALL II: SC2 Player Announcement 6/8 - Maru Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Serral wins Maestros of the Game 2 Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles
Tourneys
SC2 AI Tournament 2026 Fall 2026 GSTL Announcement Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) WardiTV Mondays
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome Mutation # 538 Media Blackout Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory
Brood War
General
Are you ready for ASL 22? NEW HYPE VIDEO BW General Discussion [ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ How Famous was FlaSh before his Debut?
Tourneys
Small VOD Thread 2.0 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3 [ASL22] Ro24 Group C
Strategy
Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates Any training maps people recommend? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Dating: How's your luck? The Letting Off Steam Thread
Fan Clubs
The Creator Fan Club MarineLorD Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread Series you have seen recently...
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Young Players Exit Esports E…
TrAiDoS
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 5217 users

Now for something different [SCII related]

Blogs > TZLRazer
Post a Reply
TZLRazer
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
United States40 Posts
October 10 2012 02:46 GMT
#1
Because only butthurt people spend days talking about one silly little personal thing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to know some views on control group hotkeys.

Everyone has their own sense of style, flavor, and dexterity that they bring to the SC2 community. Thus, no person's layout could ever match another's completely.

But, for transparency and to encourage discussion, here are mine [as protoss]:

Don't know if it's relevant, but I'm a righty, btw.

1 - scouting probe, transition to main army
2 - building probe
3 - auxiliary, used for scouting obs, proxy pylons, warp prisms, etc
4 - all nexuses
5 - bay
6 - stargate
7 (`) - upgrade buildings/ really expensive units
8 - rarely used
9 - rarely used
0 (Caps) - upgrade buildings

w remains as the key for all warp gates.

I play with several other people who range from bronze to diamond, and one grandmaster in hots beta.
While all of our control groups differ, no one really argues for/against a point. The conversation gets nowhere beyond

A: My hotkeys are this and this

B: Well my hotkeys are this and this

No one really says why.

I wanna hear your layouts, for any race, and to explain why they're optimal for your gaming purposes. Or, if you could come up with a suitable layout for all 3, I'd love to hear it.

On a side note, any ambidextrous players here? Are you guys as OP as I would guess?

**
I'm a protoss player who makes good impersonations of zerg units. No, I am not Day9.
AnachronisticAnarchy
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States2957 Posts
October 10 2012 03:10 GMT
#2
For most people, controls groups are just a matter of consistency. For me, 1 just sort of "felt" like zerglings and stuff should go there, and so zerglings and stuff went there. I did a bit of optimizing here and there, but by and large I just worked on whatever felt right until I got it down.
Did you know quite a few pros still use horrendous hotkey layouts despite the fact they can change them now? It's because they believe (and rightly so) that the best hotkeys by far are the ones you are used to.
For others, there are the bat shit crazy, ultra-optimized hotkey sets like theCore (which I switched to). If you want optimized hotkeys at any cost, you can go for theCore. Apparently, they analyzed data like key distance, amount of key presses by high-level players over hundreds of games, wrist and finger movement and other stuff to try and make the Ferrari of hotkey layouts. It's hard as hell to learn, but you'll definitely be far, far better off than you were before if you master this.
"How are you?" "I am fine, because it is not normal to scream in pain."
MysteryMeat1
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States3292 Posts
October 10 2012 03:15 GMT
#3
i put my nexi on 0. and switched the 0 hotkey to Q since you don't really use it for anything. 1-4 is army 5 robo 6 stargate or forge 7 forge.

W is warpgates.
"Cause ya know, Style before victory." -The greatest mafia player alive
TZLRazer
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
United States40 Posts
October 10 2012 03:17 GMT
#4
q is last unit selected or something, right? or was it idle workers?
I'm a protoss player who makes good impersonations of zerg units. No, I am not Day9.
Jumbled
Profile Joined September 2010
1543 Posts
October 10 2012 03:55 GMT
#5
On October 10 2012 11:46 TZLRazer wrote:
On a side note, any ambidextrous players here? Are you guys as OP as I would guess?

There are a lot of left handers who learn to use the mouse right-handed just because it's such a standard setup. General it just means you can easily switch from one setup to the other, and probably that your precision is slightly inferior with both.
MysteryMeat1
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States3292 Posts
October 10 2012 04:46 GMT
#6
On October 10 2012 12:17 TZLRazer wrote:
q is last unit selected or something, right? or was it idle workers?


I don't really remember exactly, alot of my hotkeys are switched to suit my personal preference. All upgrades are asd and i sometimes use camera hotkeys but very rarely. Also my spells are switched around to so that Forcefield and storm are both F.

It just makes it easier for me to use this setup. I started off playing standard and then just felt that making some slight changes here and there were beneficial to me.
"Cause ya know, Style before victory." -The greatest mafia player alive
Visage814
Profile Joined April 2012
United States109 Posts
October 10 2012 07:50 GMT
#7
1-3 is my army, 4 is nexii, 5 is gates, 6 is robo, y is starport, h&n are usually observers, or sometimes something weird like DTs

I play using grid, and found yhn a lot easier to hit than 789, so thats why I have them bound to those keys ^^
Ikidomari
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
Australia485 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-10 09:55:44
October 10 2012 09:54 GMT
#8
1 is CC's , 2 is Barracks, 3 is starports, 4 is factories
Q, W and caps (8, 9 and 0) are army
edit: Why i do it that way, i was in the bad habit of CC on 1 barracks on 2 when i first learned to play, and couldn't break it. but i really do like having my army on q w caps, it's easy to hit
Just break the rules, and you see the truth.
Ender2701
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
United States581 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-10 18:54:04
October 10 2012 18:53 GMT
#9
1 nexus
2 zealots + immortals + colissi
3 sentry
4 stalkers
5 high templar / gateways early game
6 robo + stargate
7 air units, observer if no air units'
8 observer/warp prism
9 warp prism
0 forge

I like to keep my army on separated hotkeys because that lets me micro better and quickly split my units. 2 has a bunch of units on it because I mostly just a move those units and they're not really harass units. Also because I ran out of hotkeys.

1 is nexus because I wanted to have my units all together and I used to use 1234 for nexus and 5 for units and it was more natural to put all my nexus on 1 after I discovered location hotkeys since that used to be my first nexus. The reason I had my nexus all separate initially is that I didn't know about MBS when I started sc2 as I played BW but didn't really follow the scene at all.

7-9 were added unit hotkeys when I started using air units as harass instead of just a move units, and I feel that having observers on a separate hotkey is really useful.

I also have F2 F3 F4 F5 as bases, and I make sure to put my forge next to nexus so I can chrono/check ups by going F2F3F4F5. I try to do the same for my robo/stargate too because in the mid game I occasionally cut out checking my robo/stargate/forge in my cycle in favor of more focus on units and keeping them next to my nexus makes it easy to check when doing drop defense or what not as I'll be cycling through my bases anyways.

In HoTS the new units are going to fuck up my hotkeys. I've been considering making a more dynamic hotkey setup and just organizing units differently based on the phase of the game, and therefore moving my phoenix down to 5 or something, as usually I don't have phoenix and high templar at the same time. I also want to have more hotkeys for obs/air units that are lower on the keyboard.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
00:00
Patches' Patch Clash #9
CranKy Ducklings70
CranKy Ducklings SOOP7
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
CosmosSc2 31
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 3274
Artosis 962
ajuk12(nOOB) 12
Dota 2
monkeys_forever506
League of Legends
Doublelift4541
Counter-Strike
summit1g7146
minikerr69
Super Smash Bros
PPMD115
Other Games
gofns12786
Liquid`RaSZi1650
Day[9].tv740
hungrybox472
shahzam397
C9.Mang0316
NeuroSwarm95
Maynarde76
Trikslyr65
Mew2King48
ViBE46
JuggernautJason22
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 98
• EnkiAlexander 13
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 9
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• imaqtpie883
• Day9tv740
• Scarra694
Upcoming Events
Escore
9h 15m
PiG Sty Festival
11h 15m
Serral vs Reynor
HeRoMaRinE vs herO
Big Brain Bouts
15h 15m
MaNa vs Kelazhur
Nicoract vs HeRoMaRinE
Serral vs Cure
CranKy Ducklings
1d 9h
PiG Sty Festival
1d 11h
Zoun vs Solar
SHIN vs Maru
Patches Events
1d 15h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
PiG Sty Festival
2 days
The Patches Monday
3 days
GSL
4 days
[ Show More ]
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-08-19
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL Season 22: Qualifier 1
Escore Tournament S3: W8
RSL Revival: Season 6
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
META DYMY #4
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

CSL Season 22: Qualifier 2
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.