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edit: The response has been pretty overwhelming, thanks for all the great suggestions and comments. Unfortunately I think my lack of 'proper training' in making these things is clear, hah. I'm going to attempt to fix some problems my end and then release the PSDs.
Update #1 after GSL: So we handed these out for the GSL Finals between Genius and DRG. There was a lot of interested looks and people definitely seemed to appreciate them but I didn't plan too well how I'd receive feedback from people there. I saw people read them front to back, and I saw people give up after the first page and turn to their friends. People have pointed out some valid criticisms in this thread that may have something to do with that. Overall... It was an okay success.
We're fairly busy now with other ideas + our lives (damn you Uni!), so I leave the task of improving on this idea to someone else 
The raw photoshop files
Pages 1 & 4: http://www.mediafire.com/?zjfdh23baenshoi
Pages 2 & 3: http://www.mediafire.com/?4ds7bkih6cd5rwt
Translations
What is this?
It's a (hopefully) simple, A4 double sided "Introduction to Starcraft 2" handout, meant to be given away at the start of a BarCraft. Free to use, change, distribute, etc, all that jazz.
Why?
We (Sydney Barcraft organisers) watched over 350+ people come to our previous two BarCraft events. A good portion of those people were continuously leaning in, pointing at the screen and going "What's happening? Why is everyone going nuts?" Friends dragged along, reluctant girlfriends, random passers-by, maybe we could help them understand.
The Handout
(Note: A couple of updates were made and are present in the PSDs above. Also, if you're unhappy about something and are planning to print these off for a BarCraft, feel free to change it yourself to suit your desires! :D)
To see what it's about
Page 1: http://i.imgur.com/wmJRR.jpg
Pages 2 & 3: http://i.imgur.com/JNpKM.jpg
Page 4: http://i.imgur.com/JrucJ.jpg
A printable copy
All pages: http://www.ausproleague.com/skilani/IntroSC.pdf
Print on an A4 page, and fold in half.
Only four pages?
It was a conscious effort to try and keep it as succinct as possible. One double sided A4 page seemed like the way to go. There's still a lot missing of course, it's really, really hard to condense such a huge game like Starcraft 2 into minimal words and images. We tried our best, and we see there is problems but our deadline was tonight (for printing purposes) and this is what we wrangled up
I'd absolutely love to see someone pick this up and run with it. I'm just a simple uni student armed with Photoshop and zero creative talent, I can't imagine what some of the talented guys here could do
How about a video?
We have this on the way as well, but it's significantly more time consuming. Slowly but surely...
Enjoy your BarCrafts! Cheers!
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Hey man, I love the idea Great job!
Page 1 is a little lackluster, but good job on the rest
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That's pretty cool, combined with seeing how excited people get when watching it, it might seem interessting enough to have a second look at for some
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That is cool as hell. Very well done, totally perfect for the barcraft setting and someone who doesn't really care to get super into it, which is really what it's targeted at.
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Wow, you did a really good job! I wish someone handed me this when I watched for the first time!
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It's awesome. Don't worry about packing more in, you'd never teach someone the finer points of the game in a really short period. These are great fundamentals
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this is great for getting new people into the scene. gj!
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That's awesome. Very useful for helping make Barcrafts more accessible.
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This is the best job anyone has done on this!
How well has it worked in practice? Do new people manage to follow the action?
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Just wanted to note that given the precedents of Alien v. Predator, Protoss are more often associated with Predators (high tech powerful individuals) while Zerg is associated with Aliens (mass breeding, fast moving floods of bio).
Unfortunately, the word predator ultimately does not sit too well with the protoss, as they are not really hunters.
Otherwise, good initiative .
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Wow, this is a really well-done pamphlet, should be great for introducing people to the game!
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On February 28 2012 20:18 Soleron wrote:
This is the best job anyone has done on this!
How well has it worked in practice? Do new people manage to follow the action?
We don't know yet! The test is March 3rd, for the GSL Code S finals...
I hope this works!
Just wanted to note that given the precedents of Alien v. Predator, Protoss are more often associated with Predators (high tech powerful individuals) while Zerg is associated with Aliens (mass breeding, fast moving floods of bio).
Unfortunately, the word predator ultimately does not sit too well with the protoss, as they are not really hunters.
Otherwise, good initiative
Hahah, I struggled with this classification for awhile but I do believe you are correct. I'll fix this for next time 
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This is a good idea, I will be saving this.
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Man those are very well made.
Simple explanations with good illustrations.
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On February 28 2012 20:19 [Agony]x90 wrote:Just wanted to note that given the precedents of Alien v. Predator, Protoss are more often associated with Predators (high tech powerful individuals) while Zerg is associated with Aliens (mass breeding, fast moving floods of bio). Unfortunately, the word predator ultimately does not sit too well with the protoss, as they are not really hunters. Otherwise, good initiative .
That's actually a good point..
This picture (link) kinda looks like a zealot or DT :p
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Oh man, I could have this handout this weekend when I invited friends over to watch MLG.
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This looks very good. The illustrations are well made and very clear. There should be a stack of these at every SC2 event for the uninitiated.
One minor comment: On page 3, the micro description, the focus on the sentry/forcefield is very heavy with 3 out of 4 panels dedicated to it. You could remove the last 2 (medivac lifting units to the other side of the FF) and replace it by other micro examples such as pulling back weakened units or splitting units against splash damage.
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Really nice and good looking!
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I love the concept :D
Good work!
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Extremely well done and hopefully very easy to understand to those unfamiliar with sc2.
Would be curious to see how useful new people find this
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This is quite incredible.
Perhaps in the future there will be room for a slightly longer pamphlet to explain what makes the game so intricate or reveals the subtle mastery that the pro's exhibit...
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On February 28 2012 20:21 Rampager wrote:Show nested quote +Just wanted to note that given the precedents of Alien v. Predator, Protoss are more often associated with Predators (high tech powerful individuals) while Zerg is associated with Aliens (mass breeding, fast moving floods of bio).
Unfortunately, the word predator ultimately does not sit too well with the protoss, as they are not really hunters.
Otherwise, good initiative Hahah, I struggled with this classification for awhile but I do believe you are correct. I'll fix this for next time
Imo the best description might be:
Protoss: Humanoid Alien Race
Zerg: Insectoid Alien Race
Your description fits better for the purpose though I guess...
EDIT: Great work btw!
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Looks great, could change the formatting a little so you can fold into a small A6 size booklet which may look better and use less room on tables to leave more room for beers
eg
+ Show Spoiler +
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This looks really great!
In my experience the comparison to chess and poker and explaining the speed at which pros play Starcraft is also very good to arouse interest.
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Wow this is pretty damn nice. We had our first Barcraft last Saturday (Barcraft Linz) and we have been facing the same issues with lots of random people even though we had like 100 nerds at the venue. definetely useful but i guess we would have to translate it to german.
keep it up - spread the word!
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very nice work. Can be pretty helpful
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On February 28 2012 20:54 Rannasha wrote:
One minor comment: On page 3, the micro description, the focus on the sentry/forcefield is very heavy with 3 out of 4 panels dedicated to it. You could remove the last 2 (medivac lifting units to the other side of the FF) and replace it by other micro examples such as pulling back weakened units or splitting units against splash damage.
Hey there, good points. I wanted to include something about pulling back weakened units but I ran out of space  I'm hoping that "splitting units against splash damage" can be inferred from the opposite of the bottom right frame where the colossus takes shots at a clumped army.
The medivac-marauder micro is supposed to be one of those "look how situations in the game can turn around" moments.
I definitely want to expand on each section in a future attempt though, and will keep your ideas in mind if someone doesn't beat me to it! :D
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On February 28 2012 20:08 Rampager wrote:What is this?It's a (hopefully) simple, A4 double sided "Introduction to Starcraft 2" handout, meant to be given away at the start of a BarCraft. Why?We ( Sydney Barcraft organisers) watched over 350+ people come to our previous two BarCraft events. A good portion of those people were continuously leaning in, pointing at the screen and going "What's happening? Why is everyone going nuts?" Friends dragged along, reluctant girlfriends, random passerbys, maybe we could help them understand. The HandoutTo see what it's aboutPage 1: http://i.imgur.com/wmJRR.jpgPages 2 & 3: http://i.imgur.com/JNpKM.jpgPage 4: http://i.imgur.com/JrucJ.jpgA printable copyAll pages: http://www.ausproleague.com/skilani/IntroSC.pdfPrint on an A4 page, and fold in half. Only four pages?It was a conscious effort to try and keep it as succinct as possible. One double sided A4 page seemed like the way to go. There's still a lot missing of course, it's really, really hard to condense such a huge game like Starcraft 2 into minimal words and images. We tried our best, and we see there is problems but our deadline was tonight (for printing purposes) and this is what we wrangled up I'd absolutely love to see someone pick this up and run with it. I'm just a simple uni student armed with Photoshop and zero creative talent, I can't imagine what some of the talented guys here could do How about a video?We have this on the way as well, but it's significantly more time consuming. Slowly but surely... Enjoy your BarCrafts! Cheers!
Looks great, do we need permission to use this as part of promotional hand outs? A great way to draw in gamers who are unfamiliar with RTS or SC2.
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You could even make this into placemats/coasters.
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Good work. I think these can really be helpful in providing some basics to potential new fans.
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On February 28 2012 21:59 GameNYC wrote:
Looks great, do we need permission to use this as part of promotional hand outs? A great way to draw in gamers who are unfamiliar with RTS or SC2.
Oh I should make this more explicit, absolutely we want other people to use it, or create something better and let us use it Basically just laying foundation for someone to come and expand on the idea.
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These look really good, perfect for a person that doesn't know a thing about SC2
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I really love this, but I can't help but feel that this won't be feasible for most barcrafts given how much colour and detail will have to be printed on every single pamphlet and not everyone will be able to get to get access to a good supplier to get it at a decent price. Apart from that though, great job!
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I usually only lurk here but this is something I've thought about a lot. How do you explain Starcraft to someone who doesn't play games that much and not making it sound like the most boring thing ever. I've heard my friend try to explain to his girlfriend and it's just embarrassing. I like the fact you stayed away from unit/race specific details as much as possible since it is not necessary at all to understand the game. What I would like to see is a little more information about the pro-scene in general, not to the point were it almost becomes commercials about the leagues, but rather so people get an idea about how huge this game is. Also a small side note, the pasted in-game pictures was a little hard to follow if you don't know exactly what's going (like the marauder vs zealot pics, if you don't know what force fields are, that zealots can only attack melee and that medivacs pic up and drop units instantly, you probably have to ask someone whats happening in the pictures).
Other than that, great initiative and I hope it serves its purpose. One of Starcrafts biggest strengths and weaknesses at the same time is the level of complexity and seemingly endless possibilities going in to the game.
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Awesome Idea.
Really pretty.
Too much text.
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Wow. This is a good concept.
Great way to introduce Starcraft 2 to more people.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
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Great idea my friend ! Cheers from the loumi's, my Barcraft in Paris
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I dislike your choice in background and your use of space.
Love the idea though.
Use something far simpler.
Otherwise well done, pretty sweet idea for all the super nubs.
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totally awesome bro! love it... keep it up!
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great initiative! i think that all people cannot be watch sc so those who do must explain.
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On February 28 2012 22:29 Roachu wrote:
I usually only lurk here but this is something I've thought about a lot...
Hey man great perspective, I thought about this a ton as well. It's important to remember the context that handout is in, and not to think about it in isolation. People reading this are at a BarCraft, and they will see many things that will 'fill in' certain gaps not on the handout.
Information about the pro-scene: This would be a good inclusion on the first page, but I'm hoping this can be gathered from the atmosphere they find themselves in. Why is a Bar showing SC2 if it wasn't huge, or growing? When the GSL is on and there are pans of a huge audience, it hopefully shows them that SC2 is considered a big deal.
Marauder vs Zealot: Aye there's a lot of emphasis in this series of images for people to fill in gaps. I debated with myself for awhile what should go in those boxes, and the titles, and the motto that guided me is "People are pretty smart." One can see the marauder is shooting from range, and the running of the marauder away from the zealot indicates it's a melee-range unit (without having to explicitly mention it). Forcefields stopping unit movement is not inherently obvious, which is why the text in the second panel let's them know why the zealot has "closed the distance." The medivac lift/drop is, as you said, dubious to infer, but that's okay. They'll see it in play soon on the screens, and can go "Oh, so that's what that image is about", or nudge their friend for a quick explanation.
Thanks for your comments, I hope my reasons justified my decisions to you
On February 28 2012 22:20 Suc wrote:
I really love this, but I can't help but feel that this won't be feasible for most barcrafts given how much colour and detail will have to be printed on every single pamphlet and not everyone will be able to get to get access to a good supplier to get it at a decent price. Apart from that though, great job!
Another reason we kept it to a single A4 page. We trailed a "greyscale" version of the booklet but removal of colour makes the handout exceptionally dull : ( You may not be able to print many, but they are reusable (serve many BarCrafts!) and can be given out/collected/passed around/places on tables and you can get away with only having ~20-30 or so. It's a valid concern though. We'd like to be able to show a video instead for sure to solidify some of the more 'harder to explain' concepts and reduce the cost of production.
I dislike your choice in background and your use of space.
Love the idea though.
Use something far simpler.
There's not a lot of options out there for good backgrounds
Can you explain further what you mean by "use something far simpler"? It's really hard for me to place myself as a 'newbie' and see this from a different angle, so I'd love to hear what you have to say.
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I really appreciate all these different points of views, it can only get better from here.
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Amazing job - this should definitely be at every Barcraft, and even general exhibitions too, like cebit where not everyone will know what is going on, but might be interested.
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This is excellent, well played.
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That's a great introduction to Starcraft. Well done!
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make a slight shadow for better reading pls
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Think there is some things that could be improved, not sure how, but some things I think can be explained better, for those completely new to the game.
However, I think this is a great initiative, and everyone helping to make sc2 more casual gets a thumbs up in my book :D
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This is fantastic! I could give it to my parentsXD
Edit: I can see that the background might be hard on the printing but I still like it.
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Anyone from USA, print in letter form. Not all printers have A4 paper etc, it's not our standard size.
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This is awesome, great job. Could use some minor improvements but overall great stuff
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Great idea man!
Im gonna give one to my gf!
great job
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On February 29 2012 00:38 Grubby wrote:This is awesome, great job. Could use some minor improvements but overall great stuff
I agree with this official grubby endorsment!
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Very cool idea, I'm going to show this to some friends/family who know what StarCraft is but don't know anything about it. This may get them a basic enough understanding to be willing to watch a game with me.
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I love these! The Micro section should really give people a sense of the skill involved in Starcraft.
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Well one person asked already but I would like to know if its possible to translate in our natives languages ? Can you maybe provide a language file which we native speaker translate ?
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AMazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ohhh man, I'm thinking this was a brilliant idea, and very well put together
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Really good Idea, it's funny that it's still 4 pages though, damn starcraft why are you so complicated??
Have you guys toyed with the idea of making an educational video? Like a 5 minute presentation on SC2. Just play it before barcraft starts?
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This is awesome work, I've been trying to get more friends into starcraft for ages, hopefully this helps
Thanks you very much!
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On February 29 2012 01:19 SupLilSon wrote:
Really good Idea, it's funny that it's still 4 pages though, damn starcraft why are you so complicated??
Have you guys toyed with the idea of making an educational video? Like a 5 minute presentation on SC2. Just play it before barcraft starts?
5minutes? Thats longer than a 6 poll game
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Great job! It can use minor tweaks though.
For example, you say the goal is to wipe the enemy presence off the map. You should instead say the goal is to destroy all of your enemy's buildings, since that's the win condition, and would explain why people base race.
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Very nice. Good for esport. You sir win.
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nice just 1 thing. zerg is the aliens , protoss the predators. havnt u seen 'Aliens vs Predators'
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hm, good work, though I still think some parts are too specific (like the baneling and forcefield part).
I'd rather put in some stuff along the lines of: "the general aim is to destroy your opponents buildings but if a player feels like he can't achieve it anymore, he gives up by typing gg"
maybe mentioning that there are air and ground units in the game, and not every unit is good against both.
but yeah, generally very good work
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A few typo's. It's "dependent", not "dependant". Also, I'd say "wipe opponent of battlefield", not "opponent's presence".
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On February 29 2012 02:01 dizzy101 wrote:
A few typo's. It's "dependent", not "dependant". Also, I'd say "wipe opponent of battlefield", not "opponent's presence".
Correcting typos with typos... :o
And this is awesome. Best work I've seen someone do to try to educate someone that knows nothing about SC2.
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To really get people interesting they should somehow see a Korean FPVOD and being able to see his hands, then they would go like woah.
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Very well done, page 1 leads them in without over providing info at the start and then builids up the amount of info as you go deeper into the handout. GJ
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Well done. I think the info in this pamphlet is the perfect amount to start. A second 'advanced' pamphlet could be made up with more info for people who ar still curious after the first one. I would make the second pamphlet go into each race and it's units (show-casing a tactic or ability from each). Stuff like Mules, Stalker Blink, Muta stacking, Blue Flame Hellions, etc.
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extremely professional-looking, good work
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A very good idea and the handout does look great. Could you guys also make one that kind of introduces you to the scene, to promote upcoming barcrafts?
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If someone doesn't know much about something, the last thing they want is being bombarded with pages of information because they asked one simple question on a whim. I get the feeling you might scare away more people than you get interested in the game.
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Great job guys, I'll be showing this to all the noobs in my life! :D
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I think a sheet that has a picture of each unit, its name, and maybe a quick blurb about what it does would be helpful. That way, whenever a caster mentions, say, Stalkers, the person can just look at the sheet and know which unit he's talking about.
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Very well done! I like how you keyed on key words and phrases that they will hear from the shout-casters. Very short and easily understood!
Just wish there were a barcraft in Mid. TN :-(
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These are great!
Possible suggestion: If it wouldn't add too much to the presentation (ideally you want to keep it simple so people aren't overwhelmed by the introduction), it would be nice if you give a small introduction to the scene outside of the game. I.e., address Korean dominance, popular/large tournaments, how teams and sponsors help players succeed, etc.
A lot of people I've talked to that have never encountered eSports thinks it's astonishing anybody could get paid to play a video game. It might help bridge the gap if we could address how the infrastructure works and why there is a market for these players.
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This is incredibly well made. Nice job sir.
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nicely done. thanks for the hard work!
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Seems that it could be very useful. Will be great to find out after GSL Code S finals to see how useful it was to the uninitiated.
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Oh my goodness, this is absolutely amazing! Tbh, I felt like the third page was had a tad bit too much jargon, but this is an awesome product. Great job guys!
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Nice work dudes, good stuff.
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Really well made, great job.
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This is a really good idea. I think for people who don't even know what an RTS is, it's still going to be too complicated and loaded with terminology that is used in unusual ways for non sc2 players.
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These are awesome, though I believe that they can be somewhat refined. Thanks!
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We already had one at barcraft vienna, and it is a very good idea. Yours does look nice too, though.
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High quality, and I love all of the images with the armies! :D
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A lot of the feedback here is extremely valid. We'll get working on the next iteration of this immediately.
Translation?
Ah... Unfortunately, only the first and fourth pages could be translated, as something got mangled with the 2nd and 3rd page text layers in my photoshop Perhaps translations could wait until a better version of this idea is released?
On February 29 2012 01:19 SupLilSon wrote:
Really good Idea, it's funny that it's still 4 pages though, damn starcraft why are you so complicated??
Have you guys toyed with the idea of making an educational video? Like a 5 minute presentation on SC2. Just play it before barcraft starts?
Bottom of the first post xD This was the original plan, but we found it was taking longer than expected so I whipped this up in the meantime.
On February 29 2012 02:25 willoc wrote:
Well done. I think the info in this pamphlet is the perfect amount to start. A second 'advanced' pamphlet could be made up with more info for people who ar still curious after the first one. I would make the second pamphlet go into each race and it's units (show-casing a tactic or ability from each). Stuff like Mules, Stalker Blink, Muta stacking, Blue Flame Hellions, etc.
Exactly our thoughts/plans! High-five buddy! This is the logical progression.
On February 29 2012 02:28 JustPassingBy wrote:
A very good idea and the handout does look great. Could you guys also make one that kind of introduces you to the scene, to promote upcoming barcrafts?
This might get abit unwieldy haha, how many handouts do you give someone new to the scene? It might be a tad overwhelming. Nevertheless, might be helpful to have these as people leave the venue, if they're interested they can pick it up and it allows them to read up and get sucked into the world of Starcraft... We'll see!
On February 29 2012 02:33 petrie911 wrote:
I think a sheet that has a picture of each unit, its name, and maybe a quick blurb about what it does would be helpful. That way, whenever a caster mentions, say, Stalkers, the person can just look at the sheet and know which unit he's talking about.
Basically a SC2 reference guide? Not a bad idea, but I feel like most of the units are inherently obvious in their roles and functions (except for when some key upgrades are introduced) so I'm not sure how useful this would be. Another thing to consider though, throw it on the pile ^_^
On February 29 2012 00:38 xSixGeneralHan wrote:
Anyone from USA, print in letter form. Not all printers have A4 paper etc, it's not our standard size.
Ah, wasn't aware of this. Sorry :<
On February 29 2012 02:31 branflakes14 wrote:
If someone doesn't know much about something, the last thing they want is being bombarded with pages of information because they asked one simple question on a whim. I get the feeling you might scare away more people than you get interested in the game.
I sincerely hope this isn't the case. It was kept short because of this reason, and except for the last page the amount of text is incredibly low, mostly just nice pictures. We'll see if it works out!
On February 29 2012 03:38 ZasZ. wrote:
These are great!
Possible suggestion: If it wouldn't add too much to the presentation (ideally you want to keep it simple so people aren't overwhelmed by the introduction),
This is a pretty popular sentiment, absolutely worth including in the next iteration although it'd have to be dastardly simple. We'll see how it goes!
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Sami you so clever.
Now to consider: Do I show the girl I'm bringing who has no idea about SC2 this sheet, or just have fun with her knowing nothing so that when I video her reactions to the GSL finals it'll be pure with no former knowledge... Hmmm...
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love it
really nice work and a nice idea
gogo e-sports gogo barcraft
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Great handout. Had a quick read and it all made perfect sense
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thats the best introduction to starcraft that our planet has seen yet! awesome!
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This is such a good idea. So glad someone did this.
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Printing one for my girlfriend!
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Love this so much, I could never have made a better one myself! Do you think you can upload the photoshop/raw project files so that I can translate it to Norwegian for events in my country? (Im sure alot of other could translate it to their own language as well)
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Totally awesome! Some suggestions (because I get way to into this sort of thing):
• Racial descriptions are a little weird, try these: Terran: Versatile and persistent humans; Protoss: Advanced and powerful psychic aliens; Zerg: Legions of swarming insectoid predators
• The "secure, expand, raise" points are okay, but I could see a couple changes - 1. Change "Expand your base" to "Construct your base" - 2. maybe add arrows between the points, to show the path of gather/build/army
• the "gg" section feels so tiny! - add a little explanation there and enlarge the in-game text
• Crank up the opacity on the background of the boxes or something so we can see the units better. Maybe try giving the unit layer a drop shadow (1-2px distance, 0-1px size). Right now I know some new ppl will not understand these diagrams.
• Finally, maybe use max settings for the pics of the racial units at the beginning?
Sorry for being so suggesty! I love your work and will definitely see about sharing it at MNBarcraft!
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On February 29 2012 04:52 Tufas wrote:
We already had one at barcraft vienna, and it is a very good idea. Yours does look nice too, though.
Share please~~
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I like it. It really finds the middle ground between over-simplifying and over-complicating matters. Nice idea and well done
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Someone could make a contest for a really good flier. The winner would have his flier handed out in many bar crafts around the world.
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great little guide. Not too long, and covers a lot in an interesting manner.
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Good job!
Additionally, I second this:
On February 29 2012 02:33 petrie911 wrote:
I think a sheet that has a picture of each unit, its name, and maybe a quick blurb about what it does would be helpful. That way, whenever a caster mentions, say, Stalkers, the person can just look at the sheet and know which unit he's talking about.
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The following this may be a lot of work, but they will most likely improve the presentability
- Configure your video card driver to force some anti-alias, make the screenshots with ultra settings.
- It's hard to tell some things apart, transparency is to blame. Either keep the ground the units are walking on or add a shadow.
- The words GG will need some explanation, add in some small font underneath the pic or something. You may want to try quoting a famous player like Marineking.
- Raise an army -> Create an army
- Terran -> Crafty, versatile humans with a efficient forces and a powerful defense.
Protoss -> Psionic Aliens with futuristic technology, expensive but very powerful.
Zerg -> Insectoid creatures, weak but mobile, strength comes in numbers.
- Strategical -> strategic (not sure about this one)
- Cloaked units can cause untold damage -> Cloaked units can cause damage undisturbed.
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This is great stuff.
The only things I would change are the introductions to the three races and the use of the word cloaked. I think making it cloaked (invisible) would be better, since more people understand invisible.
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Top work with the guide! Shame I live in Melbourne and not Sydney I would've loved to come along to this.
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hey looks great! could be improved with a short description of each of the units!
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I like this idea! I'm sure it would help some of the clueless people understand the game more and perhaps encourage them to start playing.
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I love the idea, and will be borrowing it =$.
Couple of comments:
1. Should focus on the dynamics of the races more with bars or the hexagons they use for MMA and boxing games. Each race has tendencies in relation to: Cost / Speed / Strength / Range / Defense.
2. Also agree that the background is too complicated and takes away from the text and images. I think this is because there is a lot of information on the page. Someone suggested making it a tablemat or coasters. I think those are awesome ideas. Particularly the coasters.
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I think this is amazing!
Not only is it a great idea, but the concepts are kept simple and concise while still being useful imo.
Great job! =D =D =D
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On February 29 2012 02:01 dizzy101 wrote:
A few typo's. It's "dependent", not "dependant". Also, I'd say "wipe opponent of battlefield", not "opponent's presence".
There are a few more typos.
You are correct about "dependent." I wouldn't replace with "wipe opponent of battlefield," even if you meant to type "off" instead of "of." Why not just "attempt to wipe their opponent out," maybe that's not common in Australian English but it's common in American. However the current language is a little unusual but not so awkward that it jumps out at you or anything.
Anyway, to the authors of the pamphlet, here are a few more:
On the Micro page, it should be "units' strengths."
On the Macro page, I would write "a.k.a." or "AKA" instead of "aka" but this is a minor concern. On this same page "efficiently" is misspelled.
Also on the last page, there should be a comma after the word motto, before the quotation. A colon here would probably be fine too.
Sorry to nitpick on the grammar but it can really stain an otherwise awesome, professional-looking pamphlet.
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Can you give me a PSD verison? I want to translate it into Chinese.
hootkai at gmail.com
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Very good idea. Would have been better to use PNG instead of JPG though considering it's for print media, and you don't want any quality loss. In fact, PSD (assuming photoshop was used) could be even better for some people, like hootkai just requested.
Personally I think that it could be better if it had more white than black though (which I know is hard considering the game is in space, and generally doesn't take place in light/white areas). It would mainly make it a lot cheaper an easier to print.
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could this be simplified? i feel like for many newcomers this version is gonna be tldr'd
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Great job! This will be so useful!
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On February 29 2012 07:07 Primadog wrote:Show nested quote +On February 29 2012 04:52 Tufas wrote:
We already had one at barcraft vienna, and it is a very good idea. Yours does look nice too, though. Share please~~
It was just text and in German, I don't think it would help you
But here you go:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6454211/SC2 Newbie Cheate Sheet_print.pdf
Also, I would like to tag along here
On February 29 2012 12:55 hootkai wrote:
Can you give me a PSD verison? I want to translate it into Chinese.
hootkai at gmail.com
and translate it to German.
PM me if you want to share.
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This is simply brilliant :D
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This is a great idea, really helpful and can bring in new fans. Great idea!
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Maybe the only thing missing is some explanation about the screen elements, like the minimap on screen and maps in general, but maybe that's more intuitive anyway, maybe also mention minerals and gas somewhere. But very cool idea and well worked out!
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Very good job! This is a great idea and you did it really well. Not too much info, a lot of pictures to demonstrate the points, and written with efficient sentences that does not incorporate confusing terms.
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The PDF could have had vectored text and bleed edges, but it looks very good at least, gj
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Off-topic. OMFG!! I didn't realise there was a Barcraft in Sydney. I'm managing a restaurant atm and I just swapped all the shifts around to give myself this Saturday off so I can go!
On-topic: Exellent work on the pamphlets. I would personally prefer a brief overview of Expanding vs Teching vs Massing/Agression than the example tactics section and feel you could give a summary in the same amount of space which would give a better understanding of the way a match works (or more likely encourage people to take note of and learn this).
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Every time I check this thread I'm overwhelmed with what people have to say. So, here we go!
I'd love to translate this into <my language>!
Here are the .PSD files!
Pages 1 & 4: http://www.mediafire.com/?zjfdh23baenshoi
Pages 2 & 3: http://www.mediafire.com/?4ds7bkih6cd5rwt
Go nuts.
Varied opinions on the strategy page
The strategy page of the handout is definitely it's weakest point, I can easily agree with this. I was treading a fine line of how deep you can go into strategy before realising it's not going to fit on a page, or even two pages. Do you go into race specific strategies? What is teching? What does aggression mean for the attacker, what does it mean for the defender? Strategy is one of the most important parts of SC2 and it's incredibly hard to find any concise starting point for it. Was the text I had a good representation of that starting point? Hahah, nope.
This handout would, ideally, not be used in isolation. The original idea was a multiple part series of handouts, the first gets your feet wet, and additional handouts (if you found the first interesting) would dwelve into the more intricate parts of SC2/pro SC2 community. Didn't get more than one out in time though
Moving on...
Very good idea. Would have been better to use PNG instead of JPG though considering it's for print media
They are actually .PNG files, but I guess imgur recompresses everything as jpg? Didn't actually notice it, since it's still so crisp haha. Anyway, PSDs going out!
bakesale: Typos, typos everywhere
Fixed a couple of these in the PSDs uploaded above ^^ Thanks for the proofreading :D
_Major_ + Show Spoiler +I love the idea, and will be borrowing it =$.
Couple of comments:
1. Should focus on the dynamics of the races more with bars or the hexagons they use for MMA and boxing games. Each race has tendencies in relation to: Cost / Speed / Strength / Range / Defense.
2. Also agree that the background is too complicated and takes away from the text and images. I think this is because there is a lot of information on the page. Someone suggested making it a tablemat or coasters. I think those are awesome ideas. Particularly the coasters.
1. This is a cool idea, but perhaps might be alittle too scary for someone just picking it and glancing casually at it?
2. Aye, the background(s) is/are abit full on. I should've done a better job separating text/images from the background... but I'm pretty bad at this kinda stuff
I think making it cloaked (invisible) would be better, since more people understand invisible.
Agreed!
The following this may be a lot of work, but they will most likely improve the presentability + Show Spoiler +- Configure your video card driver to force some anti-alias, make the screenshots with ultra settings.
- It's hard to tell some things apart, transparency is to blame. Either keep the ground the units are walking on or add a shadow.
- The words GG will need some explanation, add in some small font underneath the pic or something. You may want to try quoting a famous player like Marineking.
- Raise an army -> Create an army
- Terran -> Crafty, versatile humans with a efficient forces and a powerful defense.
Protoss -> Psionic Aliens with futuristic technology, expensive but very powerful.
Zerg -> Insectoid creatures, weak but mobile, strength comes in numbers.
- Strategical -> strategic (not sure about this one)
- Cloaked units can cause untold damage -> Cloaked units can cause damage undisturbed.
- All settings were on high! (except for the terran/zerg/protoss shots... those were in the map editor, sigh oversight.)
- I found it difficult to find a tileset that meshed well with the background images, so I cropped them. In hindsight, this was a ton more work. To whoever tries to improve on the idea, I 100% agree with keeping the ground
- I figure this one is quickly enough explained by people next to you to not be a big deal. Also, gg is pretty common nowadays, even my non-gamer friends are aware of it's usage.
- Don't see a difference here.
- These are better descriptions to be sure :D Next iteration of this handout will be better presented
- Pre'sure strategical is okay... but I'm not sure either, hah.
- I think both are good!
Goblinoid + Show Spoiler +
Totally awesome! Some suggestions (because I get way to into this sort of thing):
• Racial descriptions are a little weird, try these: Terran: Versatile and persistent humans; Protoss: Advanced and powerful psychic aliens; Zerg: Legions of swarming insectoid predators
• The "secure, expand, raise" points are okay, but I could see a couple changes - 1. Change "Expand your base" to "Construct your base" - 2. maybe add arrows between the points, to show the path of gather/build/army
• the "gg" section feels so tiny! - add a little explanation there and enlarge the in-game text
• Crank up the opacity on the background of the boxes or something so we can see the units better. Maybe try giving the unit layer a drop shadow (1-2px distance, 0-1px size). Right now I know some new ppl will not understand these diagrams.
• Finally, maybe use max settings for the pics of the racial units at the beginning?
You and the guy above have very similar ideas... You guys should work together :D
- "secure, expand, raise" -> your changes = better. /agree.
- Hah yea more of a space issue than me wanting it to be tiny, it seems so big when you're zoomed in at 100x
- Yea tbh not sure how this will come out on paper. It looks pretty good to me upclose, but when it's printed and you're viewing from a distance... This is a definite problem. Next time for sure bigger/clearer.
- Yea, oversight
I don't consider valid criticism being overly suggestive at all. If you'd like, since I'm kinda over the current edition of this thing hah, you can make the changes proposed with the .PSDs given above for your own barcraft! gl hf!
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phew.
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If you liked rampagers work, help us by fan'ing us on facebook, or following us on twitter - the effort is much appreciated!
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Thanks a heap for this - they will be making an appearance at BarCraft Melbourne!
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Really nice job. Think they could be really useful for people who don't understand
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It's ideas like this that make me believe e-Sports will be taking over the world at some point in the future. Sure as hell hope I'm alive for it 
Awesome job!
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What a great idea I'd be interested to know how they were recieved. I have some suggestions for improvement too.
-Aesthetically I don't like it at all, the background is way too complex and I don't like how all the pictures show just the units and not the maps.
I think you should try a cleaner design with only a few colours and instead try to use more screenshots as the images, that should both look nicer and be more representative of the actual game.
-The 3rd and 4th images on the micro page require more assumption than I think you can expect of a new watcher, I'm also not sure how important it is for a new watcher to understand the maneuver of using a medivac to lift units over forcefields.
-I also think the 7th and 8th micro images can be improved, although I like the message you're trying to convey. Maybe something like "Maximise damage dealt by" and then the concave picture with the caption "concaving your army to increase surface area" and the picture of the colossus with "targeting clumps of units with splash attacks" or something like that, maybe somehow make it more concise.
Or another idea is to scrap the Colossus picture and combine the concave and multi-pronged attack messages, in order to keep the symmetry of images in twos.
-I'm not a huge fan of how the section with banelings and cloaked units is done but I do like the idea.
Maybe if you have a section where you just explain some of the more complex units, like the spellcasters and medivacs, and then you can factor in concepts like splash damage, cloak and dropping in these unit descriptions.
I don't mean to be so critical, I love the idea and I think your first one was a good start, but there's also so much that I think can be done to make it as good as possible.
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This is a good idea but I think a video is the way to go. Nice job!
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awesome... been looking for something like this. I guess I am not struggling anymore to find the right words to explain sc2 to my friends =).
imo a description of the backbone units (on the 1st page) is missing but those are easily explained in person.
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Great job, appreciate people trying to grow the Aussie scene. Here's my take:
- The backgrounds on the first two images are too noisy and make it hard to read IMO. The third background isn't too bad and I would use this for all three pages.
- 'Focus fire', while being a term they will hear from casters, is a pretty gaming specific term that might not register with non-players. I would change this to 'Target key units (focus firing)' if you have the space or simply 'Target key units' if not.
- On the same page I would change it to "Set up defensive concaves". (plural rather than singular). I think this matches the other text in those images better.
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I was at the Paragon Hotel where these were scatted around the tables. Awesome work man! I saw a bewildered looking family of father, mother and a 4, 6, and 8 year old kid there, I gave them the pamphlet and they were very pleased.
Keep it up :D
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how did this go during the gsl code s finals?
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Page 1 is ok, but the rest is too much. I don't think people want to read page2-4 :O
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Great concept. I will definitly prepare some copies for our next barcraft here in Aachen
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Great idea, I might just hand this to some non-BarCraft friends as well... Thanks!
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Translation links put into the OP, thanks!
Update #1 after GSL: So we handed these out for the GSL Finals between Genius and DRG. There was a lot of interested looks and people definitely seemed to appreciate them but I didn't plan too well how I'd receive feedback from people there. I saw people read them front to back, and I saw people give up after the first page and turn to their friends. People have pointed out some valid criticisms in this thread that may have something to do with that. Overall... It was an okay success.
We're fairly busy now with other ideas + our lives (damn you Uni!), so I leave the task of improving on this idea to someone else I may try something else later down the line.
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Awesome I really think you should include definitions for all the slang we use, such as; Turtle, APM, Tank, DPS, and other stuff like that (I know there is a lot more).
Also, might want to describe some of the various upgrades in the game and put them into context. For example, if a commentator says "+1 is about to finish" a new player would have no idea what that means.. but if you describe how units can be upgraded in different ways ie attack, utility (zergling "speed", blink) then they will be able to understand a huge factor of what commentators say.
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wELL DONE sir, lets bring this awesomeness we know as sc2 to the masses. Getting pumped for MLG columbus and my first bracraft of 2012.
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I can tell from the pixels that the man who made this handout is ruggedly handsome. GJ Rampager!!
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I printed this last night and showed it to a girl I'm dating who's never heard of Starcraft before.
After going through it with her for maybe 5-10 minutes, we watched Ret vs. Naniwa- by game 2, she got what was going on, was remarking on things in-game ("Oh gosh! Those 'ling' bugs are so fast!"), and had chosen a player she wanted to win the series ("Naniwa - protoss have such pretty buildings!")
Pretty great work, I might have to print one out of photo stock and keep it in the office.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ymlET.jpg)
