Please excuse my Grammar if I fiddle in certain spots but it should be readable =)
EDIT : Do to some comments i must add DO NOT PULL SCVS TO ALL IN PUSH. Just transition into a macro game =)
Getting out of a certain league is pretty easy, but to do it and improve is a little bit more challenging. We can cheese all day or go fast banshee to hopefully catch our opponents off guard but then we will just hinder ourselves in the process. For those out there who are curious on how to improve the most and at the same time move up leagues, then you have come to the right post.
You can talk strategy and you can think of counters to certain builds, but there is just a few simplistic things you have to do to become a better overall player and jump up the ladder. The 2 simplistic things to do
1. scout for early cheese from protoss (cannon rush, super early zealots) and zerg(6 pool, baneling bust).
2. Macro and a teeny bit of micro
The build that will be used mostly is the 3 rax push. That can be found here:
Credit to trump for doing this video as i do not know him. So check out his stream as he provides insightful play. Hopefully he won't mind =)
By using this build your working on the most important thing, Macro. By learning the timings and when to do certain things (like constantly make SCV's) your improving your mechanics greatly.
So the most important things to remember when playing at this level are :
1. ALWAYS make scv's nonstop. This is extremely important leading you to learning how to transition into the later game without all inning. Your goal isn't just to win, its to learn how to become a better player.
2. Constantly produce units out of your structures.
3. Do not get supply blocked.
4. Keep your money LOW. (which is the outcome of doing the three things above)
By doing these 4 things you should drastically get better and improve your gameplay overall.
How to Execute the build and transition:
Follow the video Trump made and if i recall correctly you attack around 50 supply. When you make this initial push you should drop your expansion down and depending on how many units the player makes (if you don't outright kill him which will probably happen if you execute the build perfectly) you choose to either make a bunker or two or none at all because you feel safe. After stabilizing another expansion you should drop another rax or two and engineering bay. Focus on constantly making scvs and units. Upgrade when you feel it is appropriate depending on your money situation. If you are constantly making scvs you should be able to afford upgrades pretty easily when your first expansion is down. When you decide to attack again, make sure you rally all your rax's to the attacking area and constantly macro while you are attacking. At bronze silver and even low to medium gold this will feel pretty uncomfortable at first but you should get use to it. I recommend using hotkeys so you don't even have to go back to your base to macro more units. Basically, if you macro enough you will be able to outright kill any player with just marines till high gold maybe even medium plat. But since thats just plain boring, add marauders in there as well =).
According to how i attempted to tell you how to do this, you are improving your mechanics by not just winning the game with an initial push, but by looking forward to "what do i do next when my push fails" which leads to a more macro based game. With all this information i have just thrown at you, I am basically telling you one thing which should be the most noteworthy thing you should learn, MACRO. So instead of a player just telling you to work on your mechanics, hopefully i have given you a way to improve those mechanics to give you a step in the right direction. Just a few last notes to rap this up.
Few last notes
Against protoss block off for now because early proxy zealots will rip you to shreds. When you scout after your first depot, make sure he doesnt have a forge as his first building because that almost always means cannon rush at this lvl. If you scout forge (Scout your base!!!) and use your scvs/ first marine to stop the cannon rush. And when attacking with your initial push, dont just let the zealots reach your infanty, try to kite them a little. After that a attack to victory!
Against zerg block off always. after scouting with your scv after your first depot if you see a spawning pool already there, make sure you finish you wall off as soon as possible. If he has a low drone count then it is most def a 6-7 pool. your first marine and possible a scv or two repairing (which usually isnt needed) will be enough to hold it off. If he manages to break through pull your scvs and put your marines behind them. This should hold it off and wall off right away. If he has a baneling nest and doesnt expand. bunker up hes most likely baneling busting you.
Against terran. If he for some reason already has seige tech and a tank and you cant break him, just contain him and macro a alot of units. If you contain him and you expand, you win. Just make sure he doesnt drop you and you have no units at base.
All in all, the initial push will basically beat most people. Hope you guys have fun and stay safe!
I'll notify when im on using my original post http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=199875 so feel free to drop a comment if you liked my post or if you didnt you can call me a noob or w.e haha. But if you liked my post, Keep it on the front page!!!!. glhf
A lot of this is good, but teaching people how to 3-rax is not the most stable way to improvement. A good 3-rax rush will get you easily into masters but you wont have any fundamentals at all. When i first started playing BW, i did Sparks Terran every game tvz, and what do you know, I got to D+ with it but couldnt go any higher and eventually had to fall back to d/d- and learn a more stable tvz build.
a 3 rax will improve their mechanics immensely if done right. it will give them alot fo easy wins but once they hit gold zerg will destroy it with banelings and protoss will destroy it just cause they can macro and usually go robo with immortals or somethin different. terran will beat the crap out of this strat with tanks but all this will be overcome if they take improve their macro. a good three rax will only take you so far (low gold league) . decent macro will take you to plat.
Yeah many low diamond terrans who just played 3 rax rush or marine svc-allin because it was an easy win suck so bad and have just fooled themselfs. If you're a bronze-gold player just start with a 1-1-1 build because I think that will help a newbie in the best way overall.
Termit please read the part where i say make and expansion. the whole point was to not all in and tansition into a macro game. a 1-1-1 cannot be executed right with bad mechanis and turns into make a banshee and catch them off gaurd. ok ill fix it and put at the top no SCV all ins =)
On March 10 2011 21:26 m3rciless wrote: A lot of this is good, but teaching people how to 3-rax is not the most stable way to improvement. A good 3-rax rush will get you easily into masters but you wont have any fundamentals at all. When i first started playing BW, i did Sparks Terran every game tvz, and what do you know, I got to D+ with it but couldnt go any higher and eventually had to fall back to d/d- and learn a more stable tvz build.
Naw you'll stay in master's and get there faster if you include workers when you rush and make bunkers. Once people figure out you play like that every game you'll start losing.
On March 10 2011 21:32 PeachTea wrote: Termit please read the part where i say make and expansion. the whole point was to not all in and tansition into a macro game. a 1-1-1 cannot be executed right with bad mechanis and turns into make a banshee and catch them off gaurd. ok ill fix it and put at the top no SCV all ins =)
You're comment wasn't posted before I wrote mine. Also, many low players skip the expansion because they feel uncomfortable with expanding and macro so they just push till they die.
EDIT: Oh, did you mean your OP? I didn't realise you were the OP here. :D
In the how to execute i clearly state expand, drop a few more raxs , and an engineering bay. Meaning macro. So when they hit gold league and there push fails what happens. They drop the rax and engine bay and macro. while macroing they upgrade =). When i post my gold league post ill show that they can expand to a few more build but now that they have the complete basics down, which is what this teaches them. they can execute more builds. If people are gonna take this as "im going to use this and just all in" let them. but the people who truely want to improve will use this to its full extent.
learn 1 single build the 3rax opening Marine maruder with stim and combat shield always have production and money low you should be in plat if you can do that good
I did meet this push done by a masterleague player @ Scrap yesterday.
Easiest win I've had in Master since I got in. I wouldn't personally go for this strategy as a proper way to play. I guess it's Terran's 4gate, so might be a decent way to learn basics I guess..
On April 24 2011 22:20 Mercury- wrote: Why would you even want to get into higher leagues just by doing one retarded (and easily countered at higher levels) all-in?
Learn fundamentals and elevate your game imo.
I couldn't have said it better myself. One build over and over again doesn't make you skilled, it makes you worse.
This will be very useful to bronze/silver and maybe even gold players! good job!
EDIT: Seems like a lot of the guys here doesnt understand the meaning of this: it is a really easy build so its easily doable by bronze/silver players. With this easy build and the good basic advice given by the OP the basic mechanics of a bronze/silver player will become better much faster then when he's trying to do many different kind of pro builds out there. Bronze/silver players REALLY suck so they dont need more complicated builds than this to get better.
Im a master league player myself and could see many of my noob friends get better with the OPs help.
Learning to do an easy, 1-base rush build well will help a lot of players learn to macro better as well. You can tell people to keep up worker production and keep the buildings producing units constantly but for some people it'll never sink in until they actually learn a build. Even if you're learning a rush build, it teaches the importance of crisp timing and it teaches awareness of production cycles.
I've got a bronze league buddy I 2v2 with and I taught him how to 4-gate once for some random reason. He has a decent 4-gate now but his lategame is massively improved as well. Sure it's not good if a player never learns a more macro-oriented build, but refining an easy-to-do build like a 3-rax is actually a really good way for low level players to progress towards more solid play. They can always add more builds to ther repertoire later.
On April 24 2011 22:20 Mercury- wrote: Why would you even want to get into higher leagues just by doing one retarded (and easily countered at higher levels) all-in?
Learn fundamentals and elevate your game imo.
I couldn't have said it better myself. One build over and over again doesn't make you skilled, it makes you worse.
Poor wording... constantly practicing one build per matchup is the fastest way to improve - it certainly will make you more skilled. You will get to know the finer details of the build, why it works, improve your mechanics, and improve your game sense. However, it is important that you choose a stable long-term build for practicing. When you get those down, then you can experiment with other builds.
I agree constantly doing 3-rax pressure isn't the best way to go about it, though it's a useful build to occasionally throw out.
The 3rax is neither a rush nor an all-in. It hits about the 7:30-8 minute mark depending on the map and you can expand behind it if it fails.
The strat is just a very strong one base push but unlike 4G it will NOT get you anywhere near masters as someone claimed. It basically stops working around Gold once your enemies learn to recognize and counter it.
Still a very good build for beginners, since MMM are the Terran fundamentals
You can quite easily get into Diamond with this build, no questions. It doesn't make you any 'better,' but thats the joy of the ladder - you are very unlikely to face the same person in the lower leagues, so you can just keep on doing the same stuff.
The fastest way to improve would be to practise an FE and set yourself up in a situation where you need to macro better. If you can't macro perfectly off one base though there is no point in trying to macro perfectly off two bases.
So IMO, this is a great guide to getting solid on one base. Once you can do this perfectly, go for more ambitious builds!
EPT
Sparks Terran
