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Why I love BackHo

Blogs > Kwark
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States42668 Posts
Last Edited: 2007-09-13 07:44:15
September 13 2007 05:55 GMT
#1
I just watched BackHo's games vs sAviOr. The first one on Python reminded me so much of myself it hurt. Of course a much better me, playing a much better opponent but even so, the same mistakes. He did a fast expo, scouted sAviOr going fast lair and therefore without more information went for a few sairs with goon support. It's logical. It's a mistake, but it's a very logical mistake, one that I always make.
Thought 1
The sairs are useful and can buy time vs muta until the goons arrive. If you pump goons then the muta can't do any real damage.
Thought 2
If he goes lurks then the goons will break out in no time, but I'll need obs to exert map control. My FE gives me a short term advantage but I need to push quickly.

Consequence
Stargate, mass goon and fast robo. No archives. At this point the muta have been repulsed and you're moving out vs lurks. But he's going mass hydra. You need a counter. You need it quickly. You have robo, you quickly throw down a support bay. It's logical. Reavers are a perfect support unit for goons.

Huge Fuck Up
Somewhere along the line your thinking changes. Whereas normally you'd fight hydra with stormers and speedlots you've had a paradigm shift. You know you need to go stormers. You sit there thinking you must. But you've never got the gas because you're always pumping goons and you can't make zealots because somehow you still haven't got zealot speed. And a change occurs. On some level you start to believe if you could just make enough goons it might just work. In your mind you know you need storm, but in your heart you want to believe the goons can do it. You lay down gate after gate, upping it to 9 gates off your main and nat. You take an island. You keep those reavers coming, providing slow but effective support. Nothing can beat you. Goons are like the ultimate unit. 20 damage!!! EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE!!!(fuck yeah!) Kills shit on the ground!! Kills shit in the air!!! Decent range!!! There's nothing dragoons can't take, if you could just build enough of them.
And before you know it you're late game, your grades are 1-1-1, you still haven't researched psi storm and your pure dragoon army is waiting for those reavers to crawl across the map. And that's when the pure hydralisk attack from every side in huge numbers. I lose game after game to this. BackHo demonstrated it flawlessly. I don't know what it is that makes players think pure dragoons are good PvZ. I don't know how we get there. But we do. Even at a pro level players still fall into the trap which gets me over and over. And that is why when I saw sAviOr tear through the huge army of pure goon as BackHo didn't even have an archives 20 minutes into a PvZ I knew I loved him. For me BackHo is hope. I look at him and I think "sure, right now I'm being owned by noobs on ICC because of that basic mistake but if I stick with the goons one day I could be owned by Savior on live television with it".

But there's more to him than pure dragoon PvZ. For shortly afterwards I saw another game of him against sAviOr. And I discovered BackHo has two modes, not one. That's right, not only has he pure dragoon, he has no dragoon.
In game two BackHo did not make any dragoons. Realising his earlier mistake he purposefully avoided them. Early game we had sweeping armies of speedlots. Then we added copious amounts of stormers. By the late game we had speedlots, stormers and archons. The lack of dragoons was so obvious that sAviOr left a overlord following his army and whenever he added an observer he'd cruise a scourge in to kill it. That overlord didn't take a scratch. Every now and then a scourge would be stormed on it's approach to the observer but that was BackHo's only gesture towards anti-air. Time and time again the army of zealots swarmed into the lurkers, then retreated as BackHo realised they weren't very good at that. Over and over they failed to do any noticable damage to ultralisks as he replaced the fallen zealots from 12 gateways. This is a man who doesn't care what his opponent does. He doesn't see the need to react to them, he's got his game plan and he'll do it regardless. Pregame someone toggles him to either Dragoon = 1 or Dragoon = 0 and he'll play it out. He'll push his opponent to the limit with dragoons, or without, but no half measures.
It may seem that this is a weakness, indeed it could be argued that it lost him two games vs sAviOr from relatively strong positions in each. But we should not consider these as losses. Not for BackHo. A loss would be when he goes against his arbitrary rules and makes a functional army. For him victory is the knowledge that he somehow has a progaming contract despite sabotaging his own game.
And one day, when you all least expect it, he'll strike. And he'll use a mixed army and nobody will be able to equal him.

And that, more or less, is why I love BackHo. Oh, and there was that game that Pusan tried to lose over and over but BackHo just wouldn't let him. BackHo plays to nobody's rules but his own. Pusan can sacrifice 9 gateways for no strategic reason, Pusan can throw away as much of his unit production as he likes but if BackHo has decided he's going to lose then he's going to lose and nobody can change that.

Dragoon = 1


Dragoon = 0


Stop fucking up and take the damn win, Pusan!


****
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
Last Romantic
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States20661 Posts
September 13 2007 06:43 GMT
#2
ahahaha fun read.

I keep thinking he should put an "L" after the B.
ㅋㄲㅈㅁ
Locked
Profile Joined September 2004
United States4182 Posts
September 13 2007 06:55 GMT
#3
ROFLLL this entry was fucking hilarious, nice job kwark
UMS map pack http://teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=50442
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States42668 Posts
September 13 2007 06:59 GMT
#4
Thanks.
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
alffla
Profile Blog Joined November 2005
Hong Kong20321 Posts
September 13 2007 07:33 GMT
#5
LOLOL Omg
nice write kwark!
Graphicssavior[gm] : What is a “yawn” rape ;; Masumune - It was the year of the pig for those fucking defilers. Chill - A clinic you say? okum: SC without Korean yelling is like porn without sex. konamix: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!
Daigomi
Profile Blog Joined May 2006
South Africa4316 Posts
September 13 2007 07:50 GMT
#6
Yeah, that was brilliant Kwark. Awesome write-up!
Moderator
Navane
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Netherlands2748 Posts
September 13 2007 11:55 GMT
#7
awesome post man
PePe QuiCoSE
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
Argentina1204 Posts
September 13 2007 13:09 GMT
#8
funny, i just think that backho sucks (for the exact same reasons you gave ). God those 2 games vs savior made me hate him... agjh
besiger
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
Croatia2452 Posts
September 13 2007 14:21 GMT
#9
cool, im gonna use this to up my post count
A weak will coupled with delusions of grandeur
Flaccid
Profile Blog Joined August 2006
8836 Posts
September 13 2007 17:32 GMT
#10
Hahahaha, awesome blog Kwark =]
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
Auspicious
Profile Joined August 2007
United States175 Posts
September 13 2007 17:54 GMT
#11
I actually like BackHo...lol

He had some crazy innovative PvZ games on Luna I remember but I haven't followed him since then so I donno
You don't fuck around with the infinite.
TeRRan`UseR
Profile Joined December 2004
Canada692 Posts
September 14 2007 08:26 GMT
#12
Wow, Saviour is just slouched back in his seat so relaxed.
AKAs FreeloSS @USwest Freel0ss @Europe
Elwood Blues
Profile Joined February 2007
United States261 Posts
September 14 2007 22:09 GMT
#13
Ahaha great read, Kwark. The logic that dictated BackHo's play is oh so familiar.. My favorite kind of player is the one who either knows he has a big flaw or is in the process of fucking up and then reacts by trying to spin it off as an advantage and put all their money on the hand they're playing with. Win or lose, makes for some interesting games
move over rover, let jimi take over
besiger
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
Croatia2452 Posts
September 16 2007 23:20 GMT
#14
write more, the toggle part was xtra funny ^
A weak will coupled with delusions of grandeur
KizZBG
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
u gotta skate8152 Posts
September 17 2007 02:04 GMT
#15
That's 20 FUCKING EXPLOSIVE DAMMAGE!
eSTRO for life | #2 Sea.Really fan! | #1 GosI[Flying] fan! | Clide - best SC2 terran!
SoMuchBetter
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia10606 Posts
September 17 2007 16:03 GMT
#16
nice
AUSSIESCUM
TeamLiquid eSTROgeneral #1 • RIP
semioldguy
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
United States7488 Posts
September 17 2007 22:49 GMT
#17
I thought to myself: "Hold on a second... there's a BackHo fan?!"

LoL!
Moderator
HonestTea *
Profile Blog Joined December 2005
5007 Posts
September 19 2007 09:44 GMT
#18
Kwark, I came very, very late to this post, but it was awesome.

Had me in stitches.

hahah still laughing
returns upon momentous occasions.
Spyder
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
176 Posts
April 16 2008 15:54 GMT
#19
+ Show Spoiler +
I thought to myself: "Hold on a second... there's a BackHo fan?!"

+1 now you should write: ''I thought to myself: "Hold on a second... there are BackHo FANS?!"

i like him and like any other extraordinary player he will come from nowhere and crush everyone, just like anytime did
Goosey
Profile Blog Joined September 2005
United States695 Posts
April 16 2008 16:25 GMT
#20
Hilarious and well written. Very enjoyable! :D
#1 Shuttle Fan.
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