• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 01:44
CET 07:44
KST 15:44
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT25Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book16Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Feb 9-15): herO doubles up2ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/0241LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)46Weekly Cups (Feb 2-8): Classic, Solar, MaxPax win2Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker16
StarCraft 2
General
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT Liquipedia WCS Portal Launched Kaelaris on the futue of SC2 and much more... How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game? Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar) StarCraft Evolution League (SC Evo Biweekly) How do the "codes" work in GSL? Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ? [A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
Mutation # 513 Attrition Warfare The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 512 Overclocked Mutation # 511 Temple of Rebirth
Brood War
General
Do you consider PvZ imbalanced? Recent recommended BW games BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion CasterMuse Youtube
Tourneys
Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 1 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular? Fighting Spirit mining rates Current Meta
Other Games
General Games
Diablo 2 thread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Megathread Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Ask and answer stupid questions here! Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TL MMA Pick'em Pool 2013
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Inside the Communication of …
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1982 users

The Starcraft Pyramid - Page 6

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 4 5 6 7 8 11 Next All
Budha
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada60 Posts
August 15 2011 02:36 GMT
#101
@bransom This is going to be my last reply to you.
"You can't blindly build workers forever and expect to win. Information tells you whether or not you should be building an economy, an army, and/or tech; therefore, it is more important."
I will use your own Sophism against you. So here it goes:
Even if you have a maphack and you can perfectly respond to what your opponent is doing, you cannot produce anything if you have 2 workers. Ergo, economy is more important.
Point made? I don't think so, but apparently, it's enough for you.
If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling.
bransom
Profile Joined October 2010
United States40 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-15 02:40:20
August 15 2011 02:39 GMT
#102
On August 15 2011 11:36 Budha wrote:
@bransom This is going to be my last reply to you.
"You can't blindly build workers forever and expect to win. Information tells you whether or not you should be building an economy, an army, and/or tech; therefore, it is more important."
I will use your own Sophism against you. So here it goes:
Even if you have a maphack and you can perfectly respond to what your opponent is doing, you cannot produce anything if you have 2 workers. Ergo, economy is more important.
Point made? I don't think so, but apparently, it's enough for you.


If you have two workers, you aren't perfectly responding to the information gathered. If you were maphacking, you'd know how many workers you could make, how much of an army, and what that army composition consists of based on what your opponent was doing. Ergo, information is more important. You're using a scenario where you don't use the information, making your point invalid.
Budha
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada60 Posts
August 15 2011 02:42 GMT
#103
@bransom Sry, THIS is going to be my last reply to you. Learn what a Sophism is, and stop using them.
If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling.
Ziktomini
Profile Joined October 2010
United Kingdom377 Posts
August 15 2011 02:43 GMT
#104
I think it should be "Defending cheese" up to high master, then maybe some of the other stuff, bronze to diamond is just different skill levels of cheese in my experience.
Budha
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada60 Posts
August 15 2011 02:47 GMT
#105
@ziktomini haha definitely defending cheese is there. Although Cheese is too much of a tagged word to actually include in this, and this should apply to every game, including cheese. Hypothetically of course! Also, try avoiding using the ranks. I have removed them from the post because they brought too much confusion
If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling.
bransom
Profile Joined October 2010
United States40 Posts
August 15 2011 02:50 GMT
#106
On August 15 2011 11:42 Budha wrote:
@bransom Sry, THIS is going to be my last reply to you. Learn what a Sophism is, and stop using them.


It's ignorant of you to call me a sophist without disproving my logic. Your point was that if you had unlimited information (i.e. maphack), and two drones, then you would still lose. My point was that if you had two drones, you probably weren't responding correctly to the information gathered.
Budha
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada60 Posts
August 15 2011 03:02 GMT
#107
@bransom A Sophism is by definition false logic, no need to disprove it. You are clearly following business speak and radical approaches models.
We will just have to agree to disagree on this one, unfortunately, it has become out of context, and I will have to ask you to stop, as we are tracking besides the point. I think both of us have made our points in previous posts. We can keep talking via PM, I will be glad to explain further and discuss, but this discussion has no more link to the pyramid.
Sorry for not holding my promise of not responding too tempting !
If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling.
FireBlazzer
Profile Joined August 2011
4 Posts
August 15 2011 03:15 GMT
#108
i like this thread. interesting
mixXanber
Profile Joined November 2010
United States96 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-15 03:48:49
August 15 2011 03:35 GMT
#109
I noticed a few problems with your diagram, I revised it a little bit to fit the current metagame.

+ Show Spoiler +
[image loading]


OT: There is no way to even give a rudimentary diagram of which area of play is more necessary as it completely differentiates between games, different styles, etc.

For example, you put Timings near the top. Timings are really freakin important even for a silver player: When a stim push should be, when medivacs should come out. You also have micro higher then map control. In certain cirumstances, such as in ghost vs ht, its all about winning the micro war, and map control doesn't matter that much. However in PvZ, a zerg losing map control loses way's to know if the protoss is going to push or not. You cannot rate certains assets of play more then others as it changes so much from matchup to player to game.
Mortilia
Profile Joined August 2011
Canada1 Post
August 15 2011 22:24 GMT
#110
Woah, amazing info in a single post. I'm a long-time Starcraft player, but I've just started playing ladder and most games are overwhelming. Props for putting that info together.

If I can give my two cents:

I feel the pyramid is more about "I suck at multiple aspects, what should I work on improving this week ?" and not "I have 60 APM and I'd need 400 APM to do everything I want in the next 15 seconds, what do I ditch ?". The second question is highly dependant on the game itself and is important for winning that game, while the first one is game-independant, and is what people need to do to improve long-term.

Bransom, I'll take a shot at your question (Give me a scenario where economy is more important than information) with a real-life example. I convinced a friend to try to play against other humans instead of AIs. He did exactly what he's used to in the campaign: he built 15 SCVs, never more, and didn't scout. I believe he would improve more working on improving his economy (don't stop making SCVs until at least 40, possibly 60) than on working on improving his scouting. Sure it's tempting to say "he'll get even better doing both !", but it's exactly why this pyramid is so awesome. You have dozens of areas to improve in SCII, the hard part is figuring out which ones to work on first. Trying to improve all of them at once just doesn't work well. I think this pyramid is pretty much spot-on for priorities. Another way I see the pyramid is "What's easiest to get a lot better at quickly ?" It's common sense to improve something you can get much better at really quickly, than to train a skill that will take a long time to show some results.

However I agree with the previous posters mentionning cheese, new players need to learn how to defend against them properly. If not they'll just start cheesing themselves and never macro properly, which is really bad for getting better at long-term.
Budha
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada60 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-16 03:14:00
August 16 2011 03:13 GMT
#111
@Mortilia Great comment! I +1 that, I really think you are spot on, and truly understand the reason why I worked on this pyramid! In an ideal world, of course all of this would be 100%, my goal was to prioritize things in a comprehensible fashion
I will also try to take a stab at Cheesing. I do believe that cheeses are a very big and important concept in Starcraft. Honestly, I don't even think "cheese" should have a negative connotation, and I think it's as much a part of the game as a standard macro game. That is why I actually tried to build this pyramid to incorporate it in the game and it's progression. I came to the same conclusion as other TL-ers did. That most high-end aspect take a higher priority in a short cheese-focused game. I remedied to this by focusing the pyramid on a purely theoretical and hypothetical case. What I mean by this is that in a cheese situation IF you could somehow over-produce or out-position your opponent, you would still get the advantage. The only problem in these games are that, unfortunately, you can't! Which is why the upper-levels tend to pop up in your face I hope I clarified this aspect and that it makes sense
BTW, Mortilia, thanks for posting, one of the most constructive and supported comments. I am currently taking notes for a final revision of the article, would love to have your input (or anyone elses) on re-formulating some parts to make it clearer
If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling.
WarChimp
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Australia943 Posts
August 16 2011 03:22 GMT
#112
I appreciate this pyramid and I agree with it quite a lot. Especially with the "dusting" part. Albeit I would of called it something different though.
ThunderGod
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
New Zealand897 Posts
August 16 2011 03:42 GMT
#113
On August 15 2011 11:43 Ziktomini wrote:
I think it should be "Defending cheese" up to high master, then maybe some of the other stuff, bronze to diamond is just different skill levels of cheese in my experience.

This is covered by a combination of Scouting and Knowledge.
"Certain forms of popular music nowadays, namely rap and hip hop styles, are just irritating gangsters bragging about their illegal exploits and short-sighted lifestyles." - Shiverfish ~2009
ThunderGod
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
New Zealand897 Posts
August 16 2011 03:45 GMT
#114
Also, I prefer the word Multitasking to Management, as I find it more descriptive.
"Certain forms of popular music nowadays, namely rap and hip hop styles, are just irritating gangsters bragging about their illegal exploits and short-sighted lifestyles." - Shiverfish ~2009
zipz0p
Profile Joined February 2010
United States123 Posts
August 16 2011 04:53 GMT
#115
I like this pyramid and found your explanations quite informative. Thanks - if I can find the time to play more starcraft, I'll keep this in mind (I had a fairly similar picture in mind, but had the issue of wanting to move to more advanced topics than I really am prepared for).

I know that if I play more and learn to scout and learn a few good BOs I'll be out of Plat. I think you've really laid it out quite well!
u gotta skate
Danglars
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States12133 Posts
August 16 2011 05:37 GMT
#116
Great noob advice, anybody that hasn't made masters league yet would be helped by reading and following the steps to focus on in improvement.

Production/Economy ARE the foundation.
Knowledge/Information/Army ARE first pillars.

Like I commented on your YouTube video, a related thought can be worked out in regards to Build Orders in the *specific* application of coaching. A loose build order is great to learn as you automatically get practice in its execution as you develop your economy and other skills. Now, if you have problems just building probes, keep at it with no knowledge of developed build orders until you're pretty good hitting nexus hotkey and getting another probe built. Once that's in its basic area, I teach and encourage students to be thinking about, "Is my army ready to fight?" (ARMY key concept) and "Am I scouting (later harassing) him?" So one of the beginning lessons is as we practice build orders, seeing "Oh he has marauders. I know what I want against a bio army and I know the spending of gas on marauders limits the possibilities of other stuff he could be building that I need to be prepared for!"

Of course for the sake of a pyramid, the Army itself takes precedence over Build because player's conceptions of what a build is (regimented pro builds) is second in priority to building the Army you wand with a *loose* build order. On the other hand, as I say in the previous paragraph, the teaching and learning of loose build orders (structure order without huge emphasis on exact supplies to 30) prepares you to have an initial army that is capable of dealing with early threats AND gaining early scouting information/deny enemy scouting information.

Thanks for posting this!
Great armies come from happy zealots, and happy zealots come from California!
TL+ Member
Zestage
Profile Joined July 2011
United States15 Posts
August 17 2011 19:41 GMT
#117
Hmm, that's a really good point... Instead of 15 hatch 15 pool 14 gas 16 ov whatever, for new players it should be something like "put down a hatchery first, then a pool when you get the money. As soon as your pool is down make gas, and make sure you are making overlords!"

Zerg is a bad example, because of the whole "build drones as long as you can" mechanic, but you get the idea...

@danglars, did i understand your post correctly?
Zestage
Profile Joined July 2011
United States15 Posts
August 17 2011 19:49 GMT
#118
As to Econ vs intel, if you have maphacks and can see everything, that's great, but if you don't know how to drone up, the intel isn't going to help you. Watch a pro player's supply, take note of it at certain parts (say, 5 minutes in, 8 minutes, and what time they get maxed), then watch a silver player do the same, an you'll find that they have drastically different amounts of stuff... One has the capacity to use intel to Econ, and the other doesn't.
bransom
Profile Joined October 2010
United States40 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-17 20:06:42
August 17 2011 20:00 GMT
#119
On August 16 2011 07:24 Mortilia wrote:
Woah, amazing info in a single post. I'm a long-time Starcraft player, but I've just started playing ladder and most games are overwhelming. Props for putting that info together.

If I can give my two cents:

I feel the pyramid is more about "I suck at multiple aspects, what should I work on improving this week ?" and not "I have 60 APM and I'd need 400 APM to do everything I want in the next 15 seconds, what do I ditch ?". The second question is highly dependant on the game itself and is important for winning that game, while the first one is game-independant, and is what people need to do to improve long-term.

Bransom, I'll take a shot at your question (Give me a scenario where economy is more important than information) with a real-life example. I convinced a friend to try to play against other humans instead of AIs. He did exactly what he's used to in the campaign: he built 15 SCVs, never more, and didn't scout. I believe he would improve more working on improving his economy (don't stop making SCVs until at least 40, possibly 60) than on working on improving his scouting. Sure it's tempting to say "he'll get even better doing both !", but it's exactly why this pyramid is so awesome. You have dozens of areas to improve in SCII, the hard part is figuring out which ones to work on first. Trying to improve all of them at once just doesn't work well. I think this pyramid is pretty much spot-on for priorities. Another way I see the pyramid is "What's easiest to get a lot better at quickly ?" It's common sense to improve something you can get much better at really quickly, than to train a skill that will take a long time to show some results.

However I agree with the previous posters mentionning cheese, new players need to learn how to defend against them properly. If not they'll just start cheesing themselves and never macro properly, which is really bad for getting better at long-term.


I'm not saying that macro is not important. Sure, it would be great practice for your friend to make workers constantly. However, my argument is that information is superior to economy. The term "information" could be interpreted ambiguously, but in my opinion, knowledge about the game itself, gathering information, and properly responding to the given information all fall under the term "information." If your friend is constantly making workers to 40 or 60, but doesn't know how to scout or respond to a 6 pool, he will still lose. Information gives you the ability to make decisions on whether or not economy, tech, and/or army should be invested in, which is why I believe information is the most important part of this game. The reason I feel information is more important than execution is that if you do not know what to execute, then execution becomes seemingly worthless.
1Lamb1Rice
Profile Joined August 2010
United States435 Posts
August 17 2011 20:27 GMT
#120
This may have been mentioned by someone else, but what about the aspect of mind games and trickery? Suddenly playing optimal and efficient doesn't pay off 100% especially if someone is going to purposefully not play optimal to trick you.
twitch.tv/lambnrice @LambNRice
Prev 1 4 5 6 7 8 11 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
00:00
HomeStory Cup 28 - Playoffs
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 161
FoxeR 50
StarCraft: Brood War
ggaemo 290
Leta 132
Noble 44
GoRush 16
zelot 8
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm134
XaKoH 13
League of Legends
JimRising 749
Counter-Strike
m0e_tv380
Super Smash Bros
Westballz34
Other Games
summit1g9499
C9.Mang0400
Mew2King27
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV90
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Light_VIP 43
• davetesta21
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 4
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Scarra2949
• Lourlo1412
• HappyZerGling208
Upcoming Events
PiG Sty Festival
2h 16m
Serral vs YoungYakov
ByuN vs ShoWTimE
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3h 16m
Replay Cast
17h 16m
Replay Cast
1d 2h
Wardi Open
1d 5h
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 10h
Replay Cast
1d 17h
WardiTV Winter Champion…
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
WardiTV Winter Champion…
3 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Korean StarCraft League
5 days
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 1st Round
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
WardiTV Winter 2026
PiG Sty Festival 7.0
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025

Upcoming

Acropolis #4 - TS5
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
Spring Cup 2026
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round Qualifier
Acropolis #4 - TS6
Acropolis #4
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
FISSURE Playground #3
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.