I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it! The tournaments are back, players are practicing, and we have a new expansion! I finally got a chance to sit down and play some Heart of the Swarm after avoiding the Beta for a while. I didn’t want to get used to a game that was being patched every two weeks and I didn’t want to overhype it. I quietly bought it through TeamLiquid and I’m glad that I followed those rules. HOTS feels like when I first picked up Wings of Liberty without the learning curve and I know have 100% more fanboy-hood ^_^.
This post is going to be a wonderfully crazy stream of consciousness concerning MLG Dallas 2013 and my thoughts on HOTS so far. INCOMING WALL OF TEXT!
The Return of MLGs! I was super thrilled with the competition at MLG Dallas. It was such a new and interesting tournament. Like when Wings of Liberty first came out except that people aren’t lacking tournament experience/mechanics/tactics now. The level of play is still high but people aren’t sure how to deal with certain things. I think it was Taeja who was interviewed saying that he didn’t know how to deal with some of the new HOTS units.
But there was so much on-the-fly thinking and tweaking; it was so exciting. When Bomber showed off his little medevac afterburner/hunter seeker missile trick? Holy shit, I was shouting, saying how amazing the play was.
Bomber getting on that “Holy fucking shit that was incredible” flow
Even the old compositions and matchups like TvP are exciting again. I remember a time when colossi death balls meant that Terrans (read: me) would have to dance or micro/spread their forces as best they could. It was very precarious and Terrans just seemed to melt away to the lasers. But now, Terrans might be able to stand toe-to-toe in a head-on fight and not have to rely on drops to try and lure the Protoss ball out of position. Hellbats really seem to add a great dimension to the bio ball. Check out this game between Taeja and Sase (Game 4, Ro32, MLG Dallas).
[small]Hellbats are add a totally new dimension to Terran bio in TvP[small]
Another matchup that could be completely changed is the use of marine tanks in TvZ. Tank lines were pretty strong in Wings of Liberty and could lull me into a false sense of security. I’d just setup my tanks and slowly move the line. The games could get a little silly because it’d just revolve my tank lines and whether or not they lived. With the introduction of the Vipers, the game becomes way more dynamic and will cause me to speed up my games. I just love that the new units and metagame means that the games will go way faster now. The mid-game will become much quicker and crazier; making the games way more intense and hopefully fun. I think that slow and steady players will now have to learn to take more risks. I think this was well showcased by Killer when he played Thorzain. Killer was able to make the game way more dynamic and take away Thorzain’s slow pushes. Check out Games One and Two of Killer vs Thorzain from MLG Dallas. Methodical is still good but Thorzain will have to make more moves it he wants to stop the Vipers from nibbling away as his forces.
Medivac Afterburners
The crowd at MLG Dallas seemed to have a pretty strong opinion on the matter. But I feel like it just hasn’t been solved yet. Life seemed to handle Flash’s drops in the final pretty well. But Goswser vs Bomber seemed to show a different story. Drops were integral during the matches and kept Bomber in the match for a long time.
[small]Like TotalBiscuit says later, the first half was incredible and the second half was silly. But you get to see the afterburners in full effect, good or bad.[small]
I think it’s a good ability at the moment but I’m not sure that theres enough punishment for using afterburners. However, I really like the approach Blizzard decided to take. I think there’s way too much expectation to just have a hot-fix with a patch. I would MUCH rather see players figure things out and change the metagame.
Since I’ve just been rambling this whole post, I think I’ll just abruptly end. I really look forward to the future of HOTS and seeing how the metagame will change. The pacing of HOTS is so awesome and I can’t wait for the hectic/exciting future games.
Totally agree man! MLG Dallas was the shit! It was so fun being there. I'm sad I missed all the commentary on the games off the main stage, been having to watch a lot of VODs to catch up with it all. I'm really sad I missed that initial shock and awe from TotalBiscuit and iNcontrol after Bomber's sick gosu moves with HSM and IA....
"BOMBER YOU ARE SO GOOD AT THIS GAME!" ... "Ok, OK, pause the game, Bomber just stop it." "That was just silly." "Bomber if you're not making out with the hottest girl in this building in 10 seconds... a crime just happened."
I spoke to Goswser about his games against Bomber and about Life's games against Last/Flash and he pointed something out that I wasn't really fully aware of. While all three of those Terrans were utilizing the medivac boost and the drop play that enabled throughout all their games, Bomber was playing a fundamentally different style to the Kespa guys that yeilded a much different type of game in his TvZ's vs Flash/Last's TvZ's. The main point being that Bomber actually made siege tanks. Obviously I noticed this having watched all of these TvZ series first hand, but I didn't realize just how differently it made the game play out vs going to new HotS-y Widow/Bio composition that the Kespa Terrans were favoring.
I just wanted to point all of this out since Goswser's thoughts about this difference in style really changed my outlook on the patch, and where I once thought there'd be an immediate hot fix for it, I now subscribe to the idea that waiting as long as possible is the best approach. The WoL-esque Marine/Tank TvZ that bomber played and the HotS-esque Widow/Bio make the medivacs play out totally differently both in how the Terrans use them and in how the Zerg is able to deal with them composition-wise. For instance, Goswser planned on utilizing speed roaches against the widow/bio and drops to defend ion the midgame to make it to hive tech intact then attempt to win with Vipers added into the mix, but Bomber didn't make widow mines, he made tanks, so speed roach play got shutdown hard and his drops were that much more effective. On the flip side we saw Life play a very ling/muta heavy style against the Kespa Terrans' Widow/Bio and manage to come out on top with some very smart play. It's easy to look at those games and say that Life won and Goswser didn't because Korean, duh, but I think it goes much deeper than that. I'm excited to see the way TvZ unfolds without a patch, because there's definitely more room to explore than a lot of Zergs are willing to admit, and Terrans still have some figuring out to do as well.
REALLY REALLY looking forward to Code S man... Gonna be HAWT(s)
Oh man....You're so right, I am bad at wall of text. I'll see myself out...
Thanks for your thoughts on the games I commented on. And I'm STUPID jealous you got to go Kommatiazo. I wish I had enough vacation days. And holy shit, InControl's comments were so hilarious. I was DYING.
EPT
