Prelude

slained

Canada966 Posts

January 20 2008 00:29 GMT

Note: So this is my first blog attempt, I realized how long it is but if you give me a chance, you might enjoy reading it. Future blogs, will be much shorter.

Prelude

What is Consistency?

When a player wins the odd time against a high level player, it may be called luck or a fluke. When the player wins three or more games in a row, this may be called a streak. However when a player wins a lot of games in succession, this is called consistency. Have you ever heard of a pro gamer that achieves stardom by winning a few games against other high level pros, but more often than not, loses? Of course not. In order to be recognized, to be respected, one must be consistent in winning. In squash, Jahangir Khan, is remembered as the sports player who has had the largest win streak in history, from 1981-1986, Jahangir won an insane 555 games in a row. When questioned about his unbeaten streak, Jahangir responded "It wasn't my plan to create such a record. All I did was put in the effort to win every match I played and it went on for weeks, months and years..."

In the history of chess, the greatest players that are remembered are the ones who dominate the game, the ones who win a ridiculous sum of games with very few losses. They are the ones who achieve a direct and flawless technique to the game. E.g. Jose Raoul Capablancha achieved a win streak of ten years and finalized a record of 37 losses in 567 games!

      In the StarCraft world, one in which I am farther familiar with, many great players are seen to have achieved a level of play that can be seen so simple, elegant, and yet so brilliant that it becomes incomprehensible. Savior has the uncanny ability to adapt to every situation so that it looks like he is always in full control of the game. He performs simple moves to counter his opponent, which makes it seem ridiculous that the other player would even try that in the first place. He approaches every situation logically, he knows when to attack, when to defend. His micro-management skills are definitely not flawless, nor are they the greatest among his zerg brethren. His APM is also not considered high or even mediocre for a pro at his caliber. So why do these players win so often and consistently?

      My belief is that the answer lies in their set of principles and systematic approach to basic game play. Savior's strength lies in his ability to play the game to achieve an advantage by his safe consistent play. In other words, he plays maximizing to his strengths, and if there is no reason to do otherwise, he'll continue doing so. So let’s examine this on a more literal level.

      We'll start off by examining his very standard ZvT; Savior almost always starts off with a 12 hatch, into a 3 hatch muta build. During this time he forces the terran to stay in his base while he takes a third and sometimes fourth base. The amount of time it takes for his mutalisks to come out, and also the number of mutalisk, between 7 to 11 usually greatly varies according to his opponent. If his opponent pressures him before the mutalisks, he responds appropriately by a proper defense. For example if his opponent threatens with a 3 rax, he'd respond by having the correct number of sunkens and zerglings. If the opponent threatens a bunker rush, he'd send drones and rely on his astounding drone/zergling micro to defend.

Even if it is just a fake bunker, in which he’s uncertain of whether it is fake, he will still obviously send drones. If he sees his opponent's nat having a large group of mnm, he'd still have the correct number of creep colonies to morph in time to defend, although it can vary according to map and positioning. And so, when he eventually reaches the point where his mutalisks come out, he continues his standard strategy of map control and keeping the terran in his base. He regularly does not attempt to "JulyZerg" the terran into losing just from his mutalisk control, as that is not where his greatest strength lies. He simply shows the presence of mutalisk to the terran player, and uses them to get his third base.

When he executes this set up into mutalisks, he has full control of the game, and forces the terran to play his game. Further into the game, the terran should eventually kill the mutalisk threat, or render them useless somehow, either by a strong defense, threatening to come out and kill his third, or by eliminating them straight up, (Irradiate, large enough mnm group). The way Savior follows up to his mutalisks, is often by having his bases' ramps defended by lurkers by the time terran comes out. Doing so, he installs a new barrier for the terran to break. The first being his turtle-ish sunken defense, second the mutalisks, and the third his lurker defended ramps. If the terran does not break this barrier by destroying the lurkers with either with science vessels, siege tanks, or even using a drop ship, he simply cannot take down the base.

If the terran player attempts to attack his nat, he sets himself up for a flank in most cases; this is Savior's strongest point.

Iris vs. Savior on Longinus II.

Independent of what the terran chooses to do after this point, Savior will usually follow up by having defilers and now the game is in his hands. I will not go further on into what happens after this point in the game, because we all know how fierce Savior's defiler control is.

      However, another critical point that may occur, is when the terran does not attack the third or fourth base, or is unsuccessful. If the game goes to this point, Savior can usually just keep on building up with his superior eco (or attempt to), to create a larger advantage for himself.

      The philosophy is, if your opponent does not attempt to break your barriers, and then just keep holding your barriers since you are not losing anything, but in this case just gaining more of an advantage by maintaining more bases.

The Search for Consistency

      So where do I stand in this? Sadly, I've always been an inconsistent player, who is becoming aware of his inconsistency.So this blog is my attempt at finding my strengths and weaknesses, and noting my progression into finding consistency. I will also attempt to use pro-gamers to exemplify what is consistency.

      My inspirations for writing such a blog are my friends, the book “Playing to Win”, "art of war", and of course Savior. Therefore this blog is dedicated to my awesome friends. I will see if I can include them in this discussion, as watching them grow playing StarCraft really revealed to me my views of this game. I know I am not the greatest writer; I’m just the ordinary Computer Science student who loves StarCraft. I am sure there are some that completely disagree on the stance of my blog, please don’t hesitate to comment or PM me about anything. And yes I know Savior hasn’t been doing the same thing lately. Thanks for reading my first entry.