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Hi all,
So the SC2 Unit competition has closed and a winner has been decided, unfortunately like a Highlander there can be only one !
Before I announce the lucky person, I would like to give some feedback on the general concept of ideas that streamed in.
There were quite a few entries some were very funny some were very interesting.
In the end the competition was about a viable unit to add to SC2 in a future expansion that would compliment one of the races.
As with any simmiliar type of competition there are always some honorable mentions.
Some of the ones that really gave me a giggle were:
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Protoss
Day9 Observer
Upgraded unit from the Observer unit.
Cost:
200 Minerals
200 Gas
Damage:
Knowledge: The day9 Observer unit Damage comes from the fact that it knows so much about SC2.
Armor:
Sponsorship T-shirt
Energy:
200 Gatorade
Ability:
Commentate: The Day9 Observer will give you tips and advice on what is the best action to take vs your opponent at the time the ability is used.
cost 100 energy.
Instant Replay: The Day9 Observer will instantly rewind the last 30 seconds of gameplay in order to correct any micro/macro mistakes in the last 30 seconds.
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Smile Monster
Race: Universal.
Role: (Emotional) Support
Concept
Smile monster is a flying, invincible, untargetable unit buildable from the Nexus/Hatchery/CC in parallel with gatherers/queens. This unit has 0 build time (and can be built in parallel with other units) and like the mothership cannot be massed. Its role on the battlefield is to bring a smile to the face of the player who controls it. With powerful abilities like "Happy Aura," "Heart Flare," and "Reassurance" the player who controls the smile monster can approach battles with confidence and the warmth of companionship rather than with fear or insecurity.
Statistics
Modifiers: Invincible, flying, immune to spells/abilities.
Health: 10
Armor: 0
Energy: 200
Abilities
Happy Aura: Passive
The powerful Happy Aura ability gives the happiness status to all units within a 5-cell radius. Happiness status has no effect on hp/energy/status of units in range but causes a smiley-face icon to appear above each of the units' icons. Additionally, the avatar at the bottom of the screen, if a unit with the happiness status is selected, will be smiling.
Heart Flare: 50 Energy per cast, target ground.
The game-changing heart flare ability launches a flare into the sky above the chosen location and explodes into a translucent heart-shaped splash on the screen that lasts 10 seconds. This ability is particularly useful in the early game for players with high APM and nothing else to spend all those actions on. Shimmering heart-shaped splashes will also lend to the competitive aspect of S][C by making the first minute of the game far more interesting than it has been in the past.
The heart flare ability in action.
![[image loading]](http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7697/ymbh.jpg)
Reassurance: 25 Energy per cast
The Reassurance ability causes the Smile Monster to emit a random reassuring sound byte, ranging from a stirring verse from "Don't Worry Be Happy" to a reminder that the player who controls smile monster is a great person and should fill his/her life with hugs and happiness. This ability is essential in tense late-game situations where victory seems out of reach or anytime throughout the game as a hard counter to opponents' bad manner and insults.
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Couldn`t link the image of SCDROBE but you can check it under his post.
So as to not post two units in one post:
Grobyc's SCDrobe
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=119352¤tpage=2
Stats:
Cost: 150 minerals
Supply cost: 3
HP: 105
Shields: 20
Attack: 15
Resources per cargo return: 15(minerals), 12(gas)
Unit speed: That of a Terran Vulture(With Ion Thrusters upgrade)
Attack range: 3
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There were many really good entries, in the end the one that me and my friends thought would really contribute well to the Starcraft 2 universe and the winner of the Beta is, drum rolllllll 
WINNER
Zerg Flayer
Tech Prerequisites:
Evolution Chamber
Resource Info:
50 Minerals
50 Gas
1 Control
22 build time
Attack Info:
Flaying Claws (vs. air)
1 range
5 (x2) base damage
2 cooldown
*Flaying Claws hit additional targets within 1.5 range in front of the Flayer.
Vitality Info:
Light armor
50 hit points
0 base armor
Tactical Info:
2.25 move speed
8 vision
Flying
Abilities:
[Burrow]
Causes the Flayer to burrow into the ground, hiding it from normal vision. While burrowed, the Flayer counts as a ground unit. Burrow can only be used over terrain that is pathable by Zerg ground units.
Upgrades:
[Flyer Attack]
Each Flyer Attack upgrade grants +1 damage to the Flayer's attack.
[Flyer Carapace]
Each Flyer Carapace upgrade grants +1 armor to the Flayer's armor.
[Burrow]
Grants the Burrow ability to the Flayer.
[Aerodynamic Membranes]
100 minerals, 100 gas, 60 research time
Increases the movement speed of Flayers (from 2.25 to 4 while airborne).
*Requires a Lair
*Researched at Evolution Chamber
[Erosive Mandibles]
150 minerals, 150 gas, 110 research time
Allows Flayers to move while burrowed at 1.5 speed.
*Requires a Lair
*Researched at Evolution Chamber
Background:
Can be used as an early or quick defense against air and can also be used as a scout. Also acts as a slight deterrent against massed light air. Can burrow and move around to catch air units off guard.
The reason why this entry was is chosen is that Zerg do lack a early/midgame air unit that can be used to combat air units, Mutalisk are powerful in numbers yes, but they are expensive and die pretty fast, then the Corruptor is also a good air unit but again very expensive and high tech, corruptor would mainly be used to defend vs air and for eventual morphing to broodlords.
Zerg are in need of a air unit that could be easily produced and suicided to kill enemy air units. These cheap MELEE air units can help alot when fighting Terran air units since the Raven can drop the Defense drone that shoots projectiles, so these little melee air units can be a great compliment to overcome the defense drones.
Also they would make for cheap early scouts, since Terrans have scan and Protoss observers, Zerg have lings but they cant really scout proper.
I would like to thank everyone for their entries.
I would love to do honorable mentions but there are so many good ideas and suggestions.
To the winner have fun and enjoy the SC2 beta !
Random69
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Congratulations to the winner and have fun with the beta! Hopefully I will get one soon so I can join in on the beta as well, and thank you Random69 for hosting this contest, great way to give back to the community.
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Actually just thought about a good tactic for this unit, this will give some new dimension to ZvZ games, make a fast rush for some Flayers and then use them to harras and kill enemy overlords early game, will help force some zerg games out of the roach v roach and mass ling/muta games to a slight different early/'mid game play.
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United States4126 Posts
Heart Flare~!!!!!! Hahaha.
Yo, my brotha!
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Damn, should've gone with a zerg unit 
Thanks for the contest, Random69! And congrats to the winner!
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How did my day9 Observer not win .. !! Thought I final would have got my key. Oh well grats to the Winner.
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Nice work guys, lol. I actually like the zerg flayer, pretty creative!
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indeed a creative entry and congrats to the winner and a big ty to random69!
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OOO
One more thing, about beta keys
My friend had a US beta key and he contacted Blizzard and they made into a EU beta key, so just as some general info it is possible ot exchange a US for EU and EU for US, since the amount of player is still small in the beta.
Im sure this wont be possible once you can buy a retail version where you buy according to region.
Some people who received EU invites got US invite a friend invites which also is something which from Blizzard made no sense.
Guess even blizzard make mistakes
One more thing, if the winner read this post, please confirm your receipt and activation of the Beta key as some troll has already made a comment how I used the competition to gain ideas for a similliar contest.
Besides that, I honestly think that my Energy Archon pwnz, in lore, game balance and as a decent ground addition to Protoss (Just teasing)
Anyways enjoy the SC
If any1 is interested in 1v1 training and/or 2v2`s my EU SC2 battle.net nick is
Random.ztp
Thanks again for all the entries was fun
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Any honorable mentions at all?
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Grats to the winner, and thank god no unit this imba will make it in the game. :D
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FSP.Siggy, yes
I would have loved to actually clean each entry and put them all up, I might still do that, there were so many great ideas.
I really did like your idea as it adds alot of micro to the game, more than just the micro it adds, it actually adds a whole new aspect to "during" combat scenarios. Since you need to select your gateway, cast the ability on the Archon before it dies to create a another unit in its place. Archons at the moment do not have much use since they get focused fire down so easy and the cost/time to make one is so huge, besides versus terran EMP they so terribly useless.
I would even prefer a new mechanic for archons to make them viable where a templar can merge with a Zealot, thus reducing the cost of archons and instead of having them be pure shield based unit can add some armor due to the zealot and templar mix, energy/armor.
Every game I have tried to make a archon even after temps out of energy, or of the enemy tries to make a archon it just gets focused fire to death so easily.
Also morph time for archons need to be heavily reduced.
A general thing that Blizzard seems to missing with balance between starcraft 1 and starcraft 2 is that SC2 is a much more fast paced game that SC1 was, for some reason mineral farming seems to be alot more pace since you now start with 6 drones compared to sc1 3/4 drones, so inital game speed is faster and things like mule/queen/chronos boost also greatly increases the speed of worker production hence increasing the speed of resource mining.
This is why certain abilities do not really work as well in sc2 as they should.
a list of my immediate thoughts on that is
Archons morph time too slow
Instant cast EMP (SC1 had at least 1-2 sec warning, projectile)
Tanks Siege mode cast time too slow
Well back to the entries..
I did seem to find the following trends for each race..
Zerg
There seems to be a big demand or interest in having another caster unit for Zerg and a Lurker based unit.
For the caster unit the most wished for was the cloud ability to give cover from ranged damage
Roaches, there was also a big demand to have this unit become another unit hehe
Terran
What i found for Terran was that there is a big demand for moving defensive units, like bunkers on wheels
For Terran vehicles there seemed to be alot of interest in increasing their armor/speed and the abilities to have them repaired faster.
Protoss
What I found for Protoss was that alot feel Protoss need more Air units and Another Archon type of unit.
I must say i kind of feel on the Archons side of thing, ye Protoss need another archon.
Protoss though have really good anti air units, stalkers are really good anti air whith some Sentrys too. Thing about Stalkers is that they can chase air with blink and focus fire.
Have fun all
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On April 18 2010 06:15 Dekoth wrote:
Grats to the winner, and thank god no unit this imba will make it in the game. :D
To be honest, this unit is fairly imba but, SCBW Scourge were far worse units, some scourge with cover and you can instant kill air units.
If the scourge from SCBW came back then you will hear how people cry hehe
http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Scourge
These buggers are liek the banelings of the Sky
Here are the stats.
Race: Zerg
Role: Biological missile
Armament: Plasma metamorphosis
Properties:
Hit points: 25
Size: Small
Production
Minerals: 12.5
Gas: 37.5
Control: 0.5
Build time: 30
Evolves from: Larva
Requires: Spire
Hot key: S
Combat:
Air attack: 110
Armor: 0
Attack range: 1
Sight range: 5
110 Damage to air and that is just 1 of them, you get 2 for the price of one on these babys like zerglings, I will be too scared to make air units vs zerg, here come your 3 Ravens, pew pew here comes the scourge and gone are the Ravens lol
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United States10328 Posts
On April 18 2010 06:47 Random69 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 18 2010 06:15 Dekoth wrote:
Grats to the winner, and thank god no unit this imba will make it in the game. :D To be honest, this unit is fairly imba but, SCBW Scourge were far worse units, some scourge with cover and you can instant kill air units. If the scourge from SCBW came back then you will hear how people cry hehe http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/ScourgeThese buggers are liek the banelings of the Sky Here are the stats. Race: Zerg Role: Biological missile Armament: Plasma metamorphosis Properties: Hit points: 25 Size: Small Production Minerals: 12.5 Gas: 37.5 Control: 0.5 Build time: 30 Evolves from: Larva Requires: Spire Hot key: S Combat: Air attack: 110 Armor: 0 Attack range: 1 Sight range: 5 110 Damage to air and that is just 1 of them, you get 2 for the price of one on these babys like zerglings, I will be too scared to make air units vs zerg, here come your 3 Ravens, pew pew here comes the scourge and gone are the Ravens lol
hmm scourge are not really imba
they are pretty annoying though
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Scourge would be less effective vs Terran in SC2, and not needed vs Protoss and about the same vs Zerg.
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vs protoss scourge would die easily to mass pheonix(like mass sair) and stalkers. They would only really be good for sniping colossi. I can't remember, what was my entry? Lol. I totally forgot from all the arguing I read about today in the beta key self-nominators thread.
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So it's basically a gargoyle from WCIII? meh.
Your assessment is a bit inacurate. Actual balance aside, Terrans are the most well round, and Zerg come in close second. Protoss however are the only race that actually lack a proper unit to deal with air. Dealing with air is a nightmare.No, Pheonix's aren't viable and stalkers can be out microe'd. That is why my unit should be in the game, beta key aside.
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Congradulations, but he seems like he has extensive knowledge of beta already? Was this won by someone who was going for key #2 ?
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On April 19 2010 05:28 zTz wrote:
Congradulations, but he seems like he has extensive knowledge of beta already? Was this won by someone who was going for key #2 ?
Although it would be sad if it were, it probably isn't true. You can learn the metagame from watching replays or games that are cast. He could just be an observant player and recognize where races are lacking by watching trends of how certain matchups are won and lost.
But I could just be wrong and have to accept the fact that people can hold multiple keys while many of us aren't blessed with a single one.
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I have only one concern, the Winner of they key has neither replied to my email or the TL forum on winning the key.
So i am not sure if he/she has received/used the key.
I have asked the the winner please post a reply of the receipt of the key, if no reply is made today I will have to mail to key to a runner up and hope it has not been used since the winner has not been kind enough to at least say YAY I WON !!
lol
I just dont want a key to be wasted !!
So lets wait and see till later !
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Day9 Observer should be the runner up!!!!!!!!!
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On April 19 2010 17:24 Random69 wrote:
I have only one concern, the Winner of they key has neither replied to my email or the TL forum on winning the key.
So i am not sure if he/she has received/used/sold the key.
I have asked the the winner please post a reply of the receipt of the key, if no reply is made today I will have to mail to key to a runner up and hope it has not been used since the winner has not been kind enough to at least say YAY I WON !!
lol
I just dont want a key to be wasted !!
So lets wait and see till later !
if you find out he/she did what i wrote in red, i say we CILL THEM ALL! just a though
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Did they claim the key or will it be going to runner up?
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EPT
