The PiG Daily - Thinking critically about SC - Page 10

Frost Game also get to see the same timing attacks

4-adept opening vs 2-adept, 2 -stalker vs pure stalker expands

Fast robo if vsing stalker pressure
SG vs faster expo
45-55 probe meta (frost)
Steadily moving to more macro games

Micro:

In fights with micro. Immortals focus immortals once shields are down (if they can reach them) then stalkers.
Adepts focus other adepts (though generally automatically happens)
Archons focus the clumped adepts wherever possiblle
concave and guardian shield is very important
Don’t shade on top vs archons, won’t end well cos splash
Upgrades very important, +1 is great for archons, +2 is super key in adept vs adept

Frozen Temple Game

Aren’t disruptors amazing vs these slow, clumpy adept armies?

Yes they’re amazing and making a comeback!
However because they’re so expensive and you need a big enough army to support them, you only get them slower “when you feel safe” is the general rule OR
As a desperate comeback measure when behind
Big potential to turn games around with disruptor shots

VoDs of Byun doing it:




Normal 2-1-1
Factory swaps onto reactored barracks
That barracks swaps ohto the starport reactor
First drop still has 16 marines
Armoury goes down as you move across the map
Straight into combat shields
85/5:30 - 3rd CC
5:50 timing with 4 hellbats

Sejong
Normal 2-1-1
1-1
Then 3rd CC
3rd barracks

VoD of Neeb:

No mothership core
A bit risky
Very important to scout very well for all-ins with the adept
If you see them mining gas/not many drones still you might want to start mothership core asap and take other safety precautions
If you see a healthy drone count then continue as normal

I used to a slightly less efficient version with the mothership core always after the twilight started, and only 2-3 adepts built out of the gates. Still would often just get way ahead off it.
The power of this version is even more insane though.

Timing

Most important part of RTS games
“the choice, judgement, or control of when something should be done.”

The most important thing that allows you to have good timing in Starcraft is recognising when you are strong and when you are weak.

Originates from the idea of "A window in time" where there is a meaningful advantage
http://scdojo.tumblr.com/post/109454816450/what-is-a-timing
The easiest way to understand this concept is through the idea of a timing attack.
A window where you can attack with a specific advantage - E.G. an upgrade ahead. A key upgrade finishes like +1 for zealots vs lings so 33% more effective. E.G. hitting before a new expansion has time to pay off, E.G. hitting just before opponent gets a lurker den, psi storm tech or ghosts in TvP.

6-pool just for eye-candy:

However the whole idea of timing is integral to everything in Starcraft. When you first start out playing you get early pool rushed. Even though you're making roaches, marines or zealots which are stronger units than slow zerglings, you only have 1 when they arrive and you get overwhelmed and die. This is when you unwittingly come across the idea of timing. The guy with the FASTER army beats the guy with the better army.

Who has more strength at a given moment

Neeb vs Hydra iem shanghai from Replay pack: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-tournaments/512267-iem-shanghai-replaypack

Sejong

3:30 - adepts staying to harass right up until ling speed finishes - knows he can pressure right up until his opponents strength kicks in.
5:40 - checking for ground assault - low gates, no big power units like immortals out yet. This is a moment where he recognises he is weak if zerg just masses units and attacks. He will need to know its coming so he can positon and prepare

6:45 - scouts hydras, goes blink + disruptors to counter both options - recognises the window where hydra will be strong.
No response against the immediate threat - because hydras are easily held with just ff and overcharge. But gears up HARD for the lurker or speedbane assault which could follow.

10:00 - recognises his strength and pushes out on the map, looking for a fight, looking to clear creep and establish map presence
Cannons ready for the counterattacks

12:00 - realises that the hive tech is kicking in soon so he doesn’t pull home to defend. He knows if he does that then he will struggle vs the hive tech when it kicks in. He also knows that his main army hasn’t really lost size and is still very strong. So now is

1) a great time to hit before hydra jumps up in strength.
2) the last moment to use his army at its strong point.
3) He hasn’t been preparing a tech transition and has only just started mining his 4th. So he HAS to get more done RIGHT NOW in this window of time.

I want these games to be examples of the many points where timing matters, and how timing as our analytical focus helps us understand strategy far better than things which just scratch the surface like composition or positioning. Overarching

If you run into a problem in Starcraft. Say you always die to mutalisks as protoss. Ask yourself not just “should I build phoenix every game?” But actually break down the games where you lose to mutas and think about it in terms of WHEN mutas become a threat. Maybe you can build 2-star phenix reactively if you see a spire. Maybe you find as long as you have 5 phoenix when the mutas pop, you can defend and stabilise just fine. Maybe you find you can always just kill them with blink just before or as the mutas pop! In different situations blink might not work to defend because it’s so hard to defend 4 bases with the stalkers constantly having to blink up and down cliffs. However now it works all of a sudden.

Zest vs Solar solves mutas by hitting right before they become strong (when they hit the protoss mineral lines)

This sort of thinking is where solid play was derived. Understanding when things become a threat, and how late you can delay your response. Understanding when you’re strong and can push, and likewise when your opponent is strong, and you must defend.

At a low level it’s recognising how to stay safe in the simplest terms.
Spore/turret/obs timing to be generally safe. Not 2:00 into the game!
Counting your opponents bases and recognising that if they aren’t expanding at the same rate as you, you have to build lots of defence soon to survive.
You’re learning to recognise that you’re investing into a later stage of the game so you’re weak right now while you wait for it to kick in
You’re also learning to recognise when your opponent is only investing in their power right now
Roughly how long those periods last before it shifts the other way

As you progress in skill you start to discern more and more things about the game state. You learn to recognise what is strong compositionally. What upgrades suddenly tilt the scales. You learn how different levels of economy affect power at different moments in the game.

Beginner Basics - Jargon Pt .1

I won’t be able to cover every single term. We use a lot of jargon and slang but once you understand all the terms used here I hope you’ll find it much easier to understand and learn from commentary and strategy discussions throughout the community.

Neeb vs Uthermal g1 - 3rd/4th place match WCS Mexico Replays: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw8c192hLbETWWNDaUlnYWpCbzg/view


Expansion terms
Natural - expansion
2nd
Always same resources per base
Except gold 6 mineral patches
Back Natural
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/File:Dusk_Towers.jpg
Main ramp is always very tight and easy to defend
On other maps the natural is much more exposed as it doesn’t have that tight choke
3rd, 4th, 5th
Refers to where the player chooses to take the base
Different options

FE - “Fast Expand”
3CC - which means you go for a very fast 3rd command centre - usually after just 1 barracks, 1 factory, 1 starport. Or occasionally off just one barracks.
Zerg - 3 hatch before pool.
The pool is the most important defensive structure so delaying that until after planting 3-bases is the most economic zerg opening.

Micro/Macro

8:00 - Neebs view - 8:30 4th base

Macro
large-scale; overall.
It’s about the big picture
Essentially - getting a lot of money fast and spending it well = good macro

Tenents of good macro:
Always build workers nonstop until you have a strong economy
Expand quickly, and frequently.
Keep your money low
You need to spend your money to get maximum use out of it
Maximum time where upgrades give an advantage
Maximum time where you have the strongest possible army to both defend and attack.
Playing “a macro game” is focusing on these parts, the economy buildup and teching upwards. Playing for the later stages of the game when managing all these tasks has more time to pay off.

Usually takes priority over micro most of the game.

APM - Actions per minute. How much stuff you can get done. Nada demonstration


Important because there’s so many different areas you can focus on. Very few players can focus on having great micro and macro at the same time. The pros constantly chase the ability to do both at once.

Micro

MKP


Control of your individual units and groups of army units to get the maximum efficiency.
It can be aggressive or defensive in nature
Marine splits is a very obvious showcase of micro, but there’s pretty much unlimited ways you can micro your units to gain effectiveness based on the specific engagement, units involved and architecture of the map.
Stutter step + spread
Sometimes players can’t micro everything at once as it takes a lot of actions
Playing a micro game one spends less focus on macro tasks and usually is much more aggressive, aiming to utilise good micro management to kill their opponent with very precise aggression.

4:00 - oracle micro
4:45 - Defensive micro

Metagame, The Meta and so on.

The meta is the “standard” or popular ways of playing at a given time.
Everyone ends up playing into this meta somewhat, even if they don’t mean to
Of course there’s always a range of strategies, but there always evolves a sort of understanding of what usually happens from a situation.
People start to make scouting reads based on this meta
“If he’s got 10 marines at 4:00 in TvZ then he’s going 2-1-1.
People start to play safe ONLY against aggression that is common in the current meta because they aren’t ever punished and start to feel like it’s safe even though it’s not.
People start to do weird unique attacks because no-one expects it!

Cheese

Has vs Jaedong:

Kaelaris losing it bonus clip:

Cheese is a strategy that relies primarily on the element of surprise and involves an inherent gamble in order to work.
It usually sacrifices so much economy and tech development in favour of one particular attack that outright victory or crippling damage must be achieved for it to be successful.
“it's a distinct sacrifice in order to catch your opponent off guard.. Relies on opponent not doing something and has high variation”
Two main types of cheese:
One relies on the psychological impact/surprise of an attack causing them not to defend correctly.
The other relies on them not scouting key parts that lead into the attack
Making decisions which the opponent specifically doesn’t expect because they are not solid or weak decisions.
This plays heavily on the metagame - it only works because the opponent has specifically disregarded this as an option since it is technically a poor one.
Only through the element of surrpise and the opponent playing a little heavily on the metagame does this work.
Keep in mind even the most solid and best players in the world will do cheesy things once in a while. People mainly get elitist and disregard skill only when a player appears to only be capable of winning through cheese. We never see this sort of player win whole tournaments because they can’t get lucky through every round of the tournament.

Proxies and hidden bases

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=define procurator
https://www.google.com.au/search?espv=2&biw=2133&bih=1055&q=define procuracy&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi02PKuls3PAhXDopQKHYCTCcMQgCsIMDAA

Has proxy Twilight dt shrine vs firecake
31:50 for pylon going down and upgrade being halted at 99%

PvT - Defending 1-base all-ins

Drogo vs masa replay: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-tournaments/512267-iem-shanghai-replaypack

Harstem vs byun replay: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0suoovMS9qxS0NmVzJ0S25KNVk


Examples of it working in Korea. Just a few of MANY times it worked there:





Ultimately not much answer at top level KR play.

Too much variety.

stalker/prism vs cyclone, immortal adept vs marine tank. Stalkers vs libs. Obs vs mines. So many varieties it’s very hard for Protoss to balance. Have to balance on the fly.

SHANGHAI Ptitdrogo holds Masa’s 1-base cheese

3-gate robo defence.
Overcharge to buy time
Focus on warping in ASAP and frequently. Add extra gates with excess minerals
Pull Probes when bunkers are halfway done
Focus fire the tech units
Medivacs, THEN tanks, then cyclones usually.
At lower levels you can just aim the tanks and cyclones first as they won’t have good enough micro to pick them up.
At high levels always focus the medivac first or you’ll lose lots of stalker projectiles when they pick up


So how do we scout and what are the options?

there is 3 things
they can do
with gas first
1. gas first reaper -->factory
they will get 1:45 cc
still
its bascially the same as barracks gas marine
they can do the same builds with that
except here u have a reaper to scout
and slightly worse mineral eco

2. Gas first marine factory inbase
u will see the factory with this

3. gas first marine factory proxy
if u scout gas first
and u dont see a factory in base
and there is no cc on low ground
it is proxy factory
so then u know what it is
either mine-->tank
or
straight tank


SHANGHAI Ptitdrogo holds Masa’s 1-base cheese

3-gate robo defence.
Overcharge to buy time
Focus on warping in ASAP and frequently. Add extra gates with excess minerals
Pull Probes when bunkers are halfway done
Focus fire the tech units
Medivacs, THEN tanks, then cyclones usually.
At lower levels you can just aim the tanks and cyclones first as they won’t have good enough micro to pick them up.
At high levels always focus the medivac first or you’ll lose lots of stalker projectiles when they pick up

Harstem Byun

Scout fast 2nd depot @1:45 - indicates it might be aggressive
Also the meta on frozen is lots of cheese cos no ramp for P to use highground on

Nonstop building units
Mothership core isn’t important
Any tank or cyclone attack will never fight into overcharge - so it just buys time.
Buying time often doesn’t help since the terran will build bunkers and Protoss NEEDS to fight before those bunkers get up.
Chrono warpgate from ⅓ done so that it times out with your gates finishing
2xgates at 3:00


Focus on warping in ASAP and frequently. Add extra gates with excess minerals (5:10)
Pull Probes when bunkers are halfway done
Focus fire the tech units
Medivacs, THEN tanks, then cyclones usually.
At lower levels you can just aim the tanks and cyclones first as they won’t have good enough micro to pick them up.
At high levels always focus the medivac first or you’ll lose lots of stalker projectiles when they pick up


Move out after first warpin
with 6 units
and probes from the natural
to make sure he cant set up with bunkers
Meant to hold the position
2 immortals then prism

You can shade past with 2 adepts if they went tanks. But if there’s any cyclones its best not to.



Trap vs Innovation’s cyclone cheese


The most important thing is still the rule of pumping units off 3 gates and a robo

Vs cyclone-heavy styles the key is to use a warp prism to micro vs it.
It’s pretty advanced, however even if you can’t do it too well dw your opponent will mess up their cyclone micro too so you should do ok.

High ground
Moving forward then back. Forward then back.
Pylon Overcharge as a safety zone

The twilight (greed) + obs being sniped was what made this so hard. If Inno pushed in he probably could have won. There was a window before that scan came down (10:15) where trap could have engaged, targetting the mines and using the prism to negate the cyclones’ lock on.

Blink and disruptors eventually if it drags onto bigger armies
The best anti mech units.

Summary:

You can probably defend if you play a safe 3g robo and delay mocore
You will need great anti-cyclone micro and very good engagement micro and sick timing of when you choose to engage

Ultimately not much answer at top level KR play.

Too much variety.

stalker/prism vs cyclone, immortal adept vs marine tank. Stalkers vs libs. Obs vs mines. So many varieties it’s very hard for Protoss to balance. Have to balance on the fly.