[D] SC2 Multiplayer - Page 2

Read carefully upcoming patch-notes, as every little detail can (and will) change significantly the game. As it was seen during beta, a lot changed from one patch to another – splash damage, attack while moving, research cost & time, base armor, etc. – thus bouncing back and forth various unit combinations, timing pushes a.s.o. Read the forums and see what people think of the changes – you might be surprised sometimes and learn a lot more that the obvious from a simple patch.

For example a +1 armor upgrade for one particular unit might mean that it would take one more hit to be killed from its normal enemy counterpart, therefore making it much stronger on the long run, therefore rendering obsolete the old counter-tactic, therefore making more important another enemy unit and I could go on and on.

There’s no reason to believe that now that the game launched officially, it won’t change until the next expansion. Discuss these changes with your buddies and test with them how things work under the new conditions. Try and emphasize as much as possible on these details, go over the edge if needed – you might even find a solid tactic this way.

We can categorize players according to their own implication in playing the game. There are some who prefer to adopt a specific proven tactic and stick with it throughout every encounter. If they will fail at some point, they will simply go to a website and pick a new tactic to use. While using a proven tactic can net some quick and easy wins, this won’t help in getting the edge needed to play competitively or to adapt to changes. These types of players will always be one step behind and dependant on others to play the game for them.

Another type of player is the one who is willing to think outside the box and try things out, even if they’re obviously not viable. Always do this with your team – every time you got the chance or you have an idea, just go ahead and test it. While you might lose a few more games, the knowledge you can gain might prove advantageous later on. Sometimes this might even surprise your opponents and give you the win. Another good side for trying out various things is that it would help you get used to change. This way it won’t come as such a big surprise if the opponents try it on you.

Keep your aggression levels sky-high. Don’t act peacefully because you will only invite aggression. Some people tend to victimize themselves – starting with the impression that the opponents will be better and stronger than they actually are. This will invite aggression, quite obviously matching their fears. You can capitalize on this in most of your games by thinking as a predator. You and your allies are a pack of hungry and vicious wolves! The opposing team is a herd of juicy sheep passing through your woods. This is what you’ve looked for your entire life – prey – now it’s your time to eat. Go get them!

Why Random?

Learning curve
As you can remember, at the beginning of this guide I specified that I am trying to play as random as possible. One reason why I do that is that I aim at improving my learning curve.
Focusing only on one race would definitely improve your ability to play it, but is it enough? At one point you’ll reach a top. The only way to go above that would be to play the other 2 races. This way you would have intimate knowledge on how they work, what they can do. You would be much less surprised on what your opponents would throw at you, simply because you would be more familiar with that.

For instance, if you’ve never played zerg, you’d know very little how fast they can rush you with zerglings, when they could build mutalisks, why they can kite your marines with hydras on creep, etc. You would only have a general idea on when those beasts might come at your door, but the surprise is yours.
Not counting the obvious surprise factor on your opponents, playing Random from the start might be a bit difficult as a learning curve, but it would definitely improve faster your skills with and vs. any given race.

Behavioral patterns
The other reason why I play random is to avoid falling into fixed behavioral patterns. Behavioral patterns are rigid ways of dealing with upcoming challenges. While these can be very helpful in most situations, they could harm in others. Playing all races you would know what your opponents can do in certain situations and you can tap into that knowledge to force them react in predictable ways.

For instance, let’s say that you’re terrans and your opponents play Protoss. If they see you doing refinery and tech lab for barracks, they would probably focus in getting stalkers out a.s.a.p. in fear of a reaper rush. This triggers the specific response for what they perceive as a certain situation. More so, this would happen if they usually do the reaper-rush themselves when playing Terran. The problem comes in the moment when you knock their doors with a marine/marauder ball instead of the dreaded reapers. Their stalkers and zealots would die to that pretty fast.
This is behavioral pattern knowledge working for you. Obviously, this can happen the other way around. If you’ve never played protoss it’s probable that you don’t know that stalkers counter reapers and you’d try that anyway. If you fail the reaper-rush you would be at a severe disadvantage.

Assuming that you’re the player with the initiative, keep this in mind: “The ball is always in your court!”