I started doing this a while ago after seeing it on LiquidHuk's stream. It gives you a bit of an edge and certainly helps a lot in a mirror matchup (like PvP).

Kotschmonaut

Germany117 Posts

April 13 2011 08:19 GMT

#82

dudes i dont want to rain on your parade, but i gotta say that this is so neglectable, that's it not even funny.
what i also do is making sure that the first 6 harvesters cover the closers fields, and the 9th and 10th harvester double stack the nearer patches.
an emphasis with the first few harvesters, rapidly clicking like a madman, brings no real advantage with it, it will rather make you lose concentration on the game, in my opinion.

plus you will get mined out on those patches faster ( even faster when u are terran, because you have to use the closer patches for mules ), so this is not worth it imo.
maybe if i do a 6 pool.

just my 2 cents

askTeivospy

1525 Posts

April 13 2011 08:43 GMT

#83

instead of saying that pros are doing it and it gives you an edge, can you post 2 replays, one where you stack and one where you dont and do the same build in both (ie a 4 gate or something quick) for a comparison? I've been trying this and unless I'm doing it wrong I still end up at the same place regardless whether or not i mineral stack

Dhalphir

Australia1305 Posts

April 13 2011 08:56 GMT

#84

I think the initial split is something of less significant importance. Definitely worth learning to do, but if you are having trouble your practise time is better spent on other things until the higher levels.

Worker stacking, however, can be a huge difference. This is anecdotal, but I often find that, in Protoss games, I can build my gateway a full supply count earlier when stacking workers, ie being able to build it on 13 with no interruption on probe making while constantly chronoboosting, where normally you'd have to do make it on 14 to get that.

Warzilla

Czech Republic311 Posts

April 13 2011 09:15 GMT

#85

Guys, c'mon every advantage you can get matters / it is so-called EDGE

BGrael

Germany229 Posts

April 13 2011 09:57 GMT

#86

I have been doing the worker stacking for some time now. Maybe at the beginning I was actually loosing mining time, but I slowly got better at it and now I kind of get it to work. And it is better than mindlessly spamming at the beginning of a game or doing nothing at all.

Blurb

Denmark55 Posts

April 13 2011 09:59 GMT

#87

Sockfolding returns.
I predict this "bug" being removed within a month, for whatever silly reason Blizzard can come up with.

Elothis

111 Posts

April 13 2011 11:02 GMT

#88

i already knew about that, but im not sure if splitting is really that good on all maps. xelnaga caverns e.g. is really easy cause of these 2 "key mineral patches" as you called them, and delta quadrant has the same layout of patches, but taldarim altar is imo really hard to split, although you can kinda see such key mineral patches as well.
i sometimes think that its even as effectiv to just send all your probes to the middle patch (some high master players even do it and they can get out their second probe out in time and start the 1st probe before sending workers to mine).

jelle

Denmark88 Posts

April 13 2011 11:06 GMT

#89

Well it doesn't take a scientist to see that this is an advantage.. atleast from a terran players point of view..

If you get your minerals faster, you get your army faster or you get your expansion earlier.

No matter which of the above is your goal, you would always get it faster. If you get your expansion 1 second faster, you get your 2 x orbital command faster, which means faster mules.. It might not be the ½ second you gain in the start thats advantage, but its more of what follows up.. If you get mules a bit faster, then ur next Production facility will be a few seconds earlier.. With a bit faster minerals, you might be able to squeeze a marauder out, instead of a marine in your opener..

So don't think for a minute that this doesn't help.. The earlier in your game that you can improve your saturation, the more outcome you will get, later on in the game. It's simple math baby

Malloy

Canada166 Posts

April 13 2011 14:57 GMT

#90

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=197826

I wrote a thread a little while ago that demonstrates the importance of having your first 8 workers on close patches. I try to get at least 6 on them every game and it does help refine openings.

Alejandrisha

United States6566 Posts

April 13 2011 15:00 GMT

#91

On April 13 2011 18:59 Blurb wrote:
Sockfolding returns.
I predict this "bug" being removed within a month, for whatever silly reason Blizzard can come up with.

It's absolutely not a bug.. don't know if you're being serious or not though.

JERK412

United States37 Posts

April 13 2011 15:36 GMT

#92

I think its foolish to say that any advantage is neglectable OR negligable. Especially in a mirror match as evidenced by that white.ra- MC series. Just watch the production tab as they are both building their cores. Its a BIG deal. Those split second advantages in the early game always snowball into huge lead when you are both racing to warptech.

kzn

United States1218 Posts

April 13 2011 16:44 GMT

#93

I can produce a 1-2 second faster 12gate with a split and worker stacking than without. That is in no way a negligible advantage - I can already remember games where a 1s faster warpin would have won me the game.

[url blocked]

dUTtrOACh

Canada2339 Posts

April 13 2011 16:56 GMT

#94

I think stacking is more important than a nice split. It's a better habit to get into, and the faster you double stack those probes on the closer patches the more efficient your mining will be in the long run.
Splitting looks nice, but doesn't do as much for you. Stacking for the win! Either way, nice little explanation.

kzn

United States1218 Posts

April 13 2011 17:02 GMT

#95

The benefit of splitting is it makes it easier to stack things up faster. On XNC I can reliably have 4 patches stacked while my 9th probe is building when I split right - if the split gets fucked up, its much harder to do that.

HolyHenk

35 Posts

April 15 2011 20:47 GMT

#96

I stack my probes too now and it allows you to get ur pylon and gateway down a bit faster. With a perfect 3-3 split u can get ur pylon at 50 and sometimes 49 sec. With splitting and stacking you can get pylon down at 46 or 47 if you stack your first probes immediatly at xel naga caverns. By doing this you can gain a big lead over lower league players because most of them won't build their pylon before 1 min and their gateway is also way later.

Mazer

Canada1086 Posts

April 16 2011 04:21 GMT

#97

Not sure if my way is the most efficient but I do:

CTRL+F1 to select all workers (spamming it right before game starts, I find this works quicker than boxing)
Send them to a key patch
Make worker
Split a few off to another key patch

After most games, I verify that I build my worker at 0:01 which seems good enough. I just need to work on splitting off the second half to the right patch

Dankbeer

United States61 Posts

April 16 2011 04:35 GMT

#98

I split similar to the op. Good post.

CCalms

United States341 Posts

April 16 2011 05:38 GMT

#99

click nexus, hit hotkey, f1, click patch, f1, click patch, f1, click patch, f1, click patch, f1, click patch, f1, click patch, hope the observers were watching you spread like a badass, enjoy your early game lead.

mizU

United States12125 Posts

April 16 2011 05:44 GMT

#100

I've definitely started to do this after seeing HuK do this on his stream. And it goes exactly as guided. Nicely written.