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UPDATE: Added TvT Videos!!
If any of you would like to follow my stream, I commentate my ladder games on NA and KR, masters on both servers. www.twitch.tv/maxsc
Hey guys, I really enjoyed Apollo's Terran tutorial video, and I'm sure many of you have as well. But I didn't want to wait until part 2! So I gave it a go myself. Have a look, let me know what you think, and if you like my tutorials I can definitely make more in the future!
Basically I copied Apollo's style, with a few major differences. All credit for the tutorial style goes to him. The differences are
1) I am organizing the videos by matchup. Basically I played a bunch of games in a row and recorded them, then compiled all the TvP's together (and will do so for the other races soon).
2) I record the games without commentary, just focusing on my play. Then I overlay commentary in my movie editor. I believe this gives both my play and my commentary and insight better quality.
3) When I play, I slow down and "polish" my APM - I try not to spam, move the screen around super fast, and basically do anything confusing. I want to make the games easy to follow and I want to give a good example of a clean mechanical style with low APM redundancy that lower league players can try to copy and it will benefit them.
Videos:
Apollo Style TvP Part 1 (35 minutes) - This is my first attempt at the tutorial series. Please check it out! Part 2 will be uploaded shortly.
Apollo Style TvP Part 2 (42 minutes) - Part 2 is out!
Apollo Style TvZ Part 1 (30 minutes)
Apollo Style TvZ Part 2 (37 Minutes)
Basic Mechanics - This video was my idea as a standalone, not part of a series of tutorials. I feel like mechanics are very under-examined in pretty much all SC2 videos, so I am trying to fill that void. I don't talk about any strategy here, I simply explain ALL the mouse and keyboard actions that I take, and how you can copy them. The game is a real game in bronze league, and the build is a real build that I use at a grandmaster level in TvZ.
Apollo Style TvT Part 1 (30 Minutes) - NEW!
Apollo Style TvT Part 2 (29 Minutes) - NEW!
TvT Replay pack - http://www.mediafire.com/?111qz6cc7bbh03n
When I upload more videos I will post them in this thread.
PLEASE let me know what you think, and give me advice like what I should talk about in my commentary, what I should NOT talk about, stuff that was confusing to you, mistakes I made and didn't mention, whether my strategies are good at the lower levels of play, ANYTHING.
I want to make these videos the best that I can to help everyone out.
Thanks for watching!
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Seems like a nice idea :D
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Are you the same Max who gave Day[9] the 10 replays ? :p
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I think you commentate on a very nice way. It's lower than your original commentator speed which is just much more comfortable to listen to.
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@Eshra - Yes I am 
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I'll watch as soon as it stops processing.
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Thanks! I hope it finishes soon haha, I am really proud of the mechanics one I think it will be a great tool for lower league players to improve quickly.
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Will watch, I read your reddit post and I have faith in you :D
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Wow, great job Max, a good watch. Keep up the good work. Any analysis is good analysis.
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Thanks Der0, I will try even harder on the TvZ and TvT ones too!
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Good video, keep making more!
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Mechanics is done processing!
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OK, I watched the TvP tutorial. You did a great job. Honestly, I'm diamond and I 2 rax on almost every map vs Protoss, and I've always been taking my gas at 13. It was worth it for me to watch all 35 minutes just to know that I can afford to take it at 14.
You spent a bit of time on the whole moving your army one place and then deselecting one unit and going somewhere else, and I feel like that would be better suited in the mechanics video. Also another thing to add is to go over EVERYTHING your scouting scv could see the protoss doing and the correct responses. This would have to be done out of game obviously.
Great guide, thanks man.
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Can you do a video on a game where the Protoss gets AoE? Nice guides :D
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Ok thanks for the feedback. I will try to keep mechanics and things like that out of the tutorials and make separate videos if it is a big enough issue that people need to know about it to improve. I'll try to go over what I scouted in more detail. Possibly I can just pause the video and say a bunch then resume it.
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Vestrel: this comes in part 2 which is uploading as we speak I will put a link here as soon as it's done.
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max you better be dominating the ladder :p you should hop in vent sometimes
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Oh yeah, another thing, it seems kind of dumb to do the tutorials in silver, because the things done by that caliber of players is rarely what anyone faces. Why not just play at master level and show how to deal with the toughest timings and builds instead of showing how you can TvP when the protoss doesn't pressure or expand until the 10 minute mark.
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Max also has a stream and he usually commentate his game/answers questions from the chat, if you like this video, check his stream =D
Good Job Max!
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I just watched the tvz mechanics video, i can see that its aimed at lower level players, but it's still a lot of information you throw at them. As hard as it is i think you still need to play a lot slower (~50 apm max) for the level you're aiming at. Your explanations seemed to become rushed as the game progressed because you had to do more and more stuff. You probably need to pause and/or demonstrate what you are trying to explain a bit more - particularly when the medivacs come out, stuff gets kinda crazy.
You also kind of moved away from the simple things - scvs/supply. It would be awesome if there was a little counter or something that pinged when ever an scv starts just to demonstrate how often they should be made.
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hmm... that's good advice. I think if I get the time I will do many videos and slow everything down so it's easier to understand.
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I coulda swore the best way to continue making supply depots was not rally your scvs back to minerals and simply continue building more depots as soon as they go idle. ofc, 1 at a time then 2 later as your production increases, with only breaks around supply drops and supply provided by new CCs.
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DarKcS maybe that's why I still miss depots at high masters! hahhaahha
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TvZ videos have been uploaded!
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Very nice job max, keep being awesome!
(and get sterling to start streaming again if you can)
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France12578 Posts
I'll probably watch, i loved the daily on your TvP adjustements. Made me want to 1raw FE again instead of 2rax every TvP. :d
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cool beans i just watched the day9 daily with your games and totally stole those "adjustments" that you made.
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these are some sick little tutorials, great job man 
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You're doing a really good thing for the community. This will help a lot of low level players who really don't know where to start with this game. GJ
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Hi Max,
I would like to thank you for the TvP and TvZ videos, helps me a lot. However, I have some questions.
-TvZ: Do you do this 2 medivac, marines with +1 stim,combat shields, push everygame on everymap? Or else, on what map you do it and why? Do you go with this push based on scouting what their army composition will be like? How does it fare against Roach-Ling (with banelings or w/o banelings) compositions?
My standard build is React-Hellion FE into 3 tank push with marines, stim and combat shield around 10 minutes, and push only when the zerg has a third. But I always get crushed by mass upgraded lings or the composition i mentionned above =/ I like the build you showed in the tutorial and I would like to make it my standard build because it seems it is a well rounded one.
Thanks a lot
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Anyone want to fill me in on why you should click A to attack instead of right clicking?
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On March 05 2012 14:29 publicenemies wrote:
Anyone want to fill me in on why you should click A to attack instead of right clicking?
I think it is because if you miss your right click and click on the ground, your units units will instead move instead of attacking, and that can be very bad :/ If you A-Click and missed anyways, your units will still be attacking but probably not what you wanted to target.
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Good form Max, this is super helpful.
I started SC2 by 3 raxing everybody and it got me into plat, but after seeing the daily you were in, I've been trying to copy your build. Piecing the build together at x8 has been difficult, so your vids are going to help a lot. Thanks for making them! Time to go take some ladder points...
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On March 05 2012 14:29 publicenemies wrote:
Anyone want to fill me in on why you should click A to attack instead of right clicking?
It depends on what units you have, but in general it is better to attack move rather than target fire when engaging a large army. This way, your units will stop and start attacking the moment they are in range of any enemy units instead of trying to crowd around one target in particular, wasting valuable firing time.
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Nice ... I'll take a look during spring break.
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lol i think i just played you on ladder. anyways, nice work with your guides =]
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great job, makes me want to switch to terran. keep it up and maybe i will ^^
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Yea polar, not doing that well on the ladder today haha... gg
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Awesome, I hope my 0% winrate against Toss will improve with that.
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Max, as a zerg player, I tend to watch these to learn timings and vulnerabilities of off-race builds. Can you maybe spend a brief moment during some of your analyses to talk about where your builds are weak or what the opponent could do that would scare you?
Thanks
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What's the ETA on your TvT tutorial?
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Would this benefit anyone in masters? Either way, good effort.
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Good videos, would love a tvt part
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Thank you and keep up the good work
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Hey Max,
great videos!
What i do think you can improve on is making the builds a bit more scientific by associating food, time stamp or general sequencing with them.
for example in the TvZ guide Part 1, Game 2 on Shakuras you research +1 attack but you dont mention that, and obviously when you push out the difference between having +1 and not can be critical so you dont want people missing that.
I think that if you include a document with the build sequence together with the videos and review the build before you get into the games would be helpful.
Keep on the great work, im a fan.
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As a lower level terran player, I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to break down and explain their play and thought process. Very helpful, and I will continue to use the tutorials as I learn/grow.
Thanks
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I like your keys setup... I might steal this from you!
I only watched the mechanics video so far, but it looks promising, keep up the good work! By the way, what's the link to your stream? You could add it to the OP for free advertisement...
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Max, I think these videos are GREAT! I really hope you will continue producing them. It seems to be time to abandon my 1-1-1 in TvP and learn to play StarCraft :D
Do you plan to make more than two videos per matchup?
It looks so easy how you get your scouting SCVs into your opponent's base every time. Mine get almost always destroyed by stalkers :/
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Hey Max, love the videos, I'm a diamond terran myself making the push towards masters.
Could you also provide us the replays of you executing your builds? I'm probably going to steal your TvZ, being that it is currently my worst match-up. If not, i can construct it from your videos, but its just nice to compare supplies ect.
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On March 11 2012 14:30 ClockToweR wrote:
Hey Max, love the videos, I'm a diamond terran myself making the push towards masters.
Could you also provide us the replays of you executing your builds? I'm probably going to steal your TvZ, being that it is currently my worst match-up. If not, i can construct it from your videos, but its just nice to compare supplies ect.
I agree, I would like to get a replay file to see the full build order in detail. Thanks Max.
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United States4 Posts
Max, these videos are fantastic. I've been in a TvZ real slump lately, and having a more refined build to practice has been awesome. I really love getting to watch you do the same build over and over, and seeing how you react to a variety of situations. It's much better than trying to copy a build from a single GSL matchup. Here, I got to see how you handled early roach, baneling bust, 2 hatch muta, defensive roach etc. Absolutely a great reference vid. Please keep it up!
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Hey everyone, my TvT ones have just been uploaded! Check the OP
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On March 12 2012 15:20 -MaxSC- wrote:
Hey everyone, my TvT ones have just been uploaded! Check the OP
Big thanks. You are doing an awesome job! Thanks to your TvZ build, I haven't lost to any Zerg in days.
On another note, I would really appreciate if you could upload a replay of your openings to every matchup.
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Hey Max,
Great videos! please keep it up!
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Very nice tutorials, only on the first ne but its awesome! time to GOOGOGOO GOLD!
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So I feel like a moron for not thinking of hotkeying Lifoff/Land to F. Thinking of it as "fly" makes perfect sense because that's what's going on in my head anyway. I often lose time in game as I stare down at my keyboard and wait for my eyes to re-adjust and find the 'L' key. Thankyou for doing this, the mechanics video was definitely worth a few views and I would really like to see more about Terran mechanics. More precisely, an in-depth breakkdown of 'large army micro'
Perhaps you could grab one of your Masters level replays that you felt was particularly sound mechanically and commentate the replay? [This way you could pause the game and take the extra moment to explain your "spam" Day9-style]
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Great initiative Max! Keep it up! )
Cheers
Dan
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I will try to collect the replays for you guys to download. But the TvP/TvZ ones might be hard to find. I think I found all the TvT ones though.
And if I make any more videos from now on, I will upload those replays as well.
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great videos, thanks for this. please add late game TvX in your list if you have any. ty
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Great job. Keep your work up and noobs will thank you
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Hi Max,
I just wanted to drop by and thank you for these videos. They're awesome, and please keep making more
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SCtips: do u mean that i should upload commentary of videos of lategame replays? Or just the replays themselves?
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Hi Max,
I really enjoyed your TvZ videos. Can you tell me how you handle early speedling infestor play? I seem to face a lot of 2-base ling infestor players, and I noticed that you didn't face any infestors in your vidoes.
Also, if the zerg manages to get a 3rd and/or a 4th, what should you do? Same thing?
At what point do you switch unit comp to deal with broods and/or ultras?
Thanks
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Great idea, thank you for this!
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hey Max,
haven't seen you streaming for a while mate, look forward to watching again :_
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nice
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Thank you a million for these videos. It is very easy to follow and comprehensive =D
It would be fantastic if you can do a vid on splitting and unit management during engagement. Im ok in macro-ing but i tend to die hard when i have a big army and not paying enough attention to micro-ing it >.<
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Great job Max, these are very well done.
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I wonder if all the advise you are giving on these video can be useful to a diamond league players like me. You are giving the general build, many insights, but most of time your opponents don't react well to what they see (i'm referring to tvt). But I will keep watching, my tvt is kinda lacking these days! Thanks for these videos!
edit 1: what I meant to say is that I would like to see what is your general thoughts processing, but these thoughts can't be much insightful if the game you are currently commentating is a game that lasts 5 minutes, more or less...
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Thank you for putting together these videos. They are well made and I have found them to be very helpful.
For the TvT series I would like to see a few examples of games where you make it to the late game on somewhat equal footing with your opponent. In your TvT videos you out class your opponents by quite a bit and they do not give any insight into the late game because you were so far ahead at that point. Here are a few things that I think would be very helpful for you to cover.
- How do you go about engaging in the late game with your marine tank build?
- How do you manage your army composition going into the late game? For instance do you limit the number of medivacs you make so that you have more supply for marines and tanks?
- Please try to include a game where you play against a meching player to show any adjustments you make to your build and tactics.
- In one of the games you mentioned that you will transition to air against a player turtling with tanks. It would be great if you could include a game of you doing that transition.
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What do you do when you get a random? Do you get gas after your first rax or not?
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Could you write the general build order in description as well ? thanks for the videos tho. I enjoyed watching them. Also I'm using the TvZ build a lot.
Thx again.
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Here's what I got out of the TvP, correct me if I'm wrong:
10-depot
12-Rax
13 Gas
Command Center in natural
Bunker
2 rax, 2 refineries
Tech Lab on one rax, Concussive Shell
Factory
After Concussive Get Stim and a third refinery
Starport
4th Gas
2 Tech Labs on Barracks
Engineering Bay, start an upgrade
2 more barraks
2nd Engineering Bay, other upgrade
Ghost Academy
Armory
If you scout Robo, make vikings after your 4th medivac, if not ???
Make some ghosts
Take map control, get a third.
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Pretty much it snoodles, except you don't take any gas at first ( supply, rax, expo ).
Also, i believe he only take his 3rd and 4th gas at the time he launch the +1 infantry upgrade. ( which would be fact, starport with the swap on the reactor, ebay +1 then the 2 gas of the natural)
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I've only watched the mechanics and first TvP videos so far, but they were awesome! I like that you slowed down and demonstrated only clean apm, it definitely makes it easier for a bronze leaguer like myself to follow what you're doing and why. And commentating the videos after you recorded them definitely made for better analysis and explanations of your build orders and reactions than other similar tutorials (not ripping on those by any means, but this in particular simply made your's better :p)
I'm trying to think of constructive criticism, but honestly I can't think of anything I would criticize. I'll finish the rest of the videos and report back.
Thanks! And please do keep making these!
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Max, I watched your TvT & TvZ videos and thought they were really well done. You present the material in a very clear and purposeful fashion and I think that's a big plus when it comes to material that is meant to educate.
I'm a gold league Terran (pretty awful) and because my main focus is on my mechanics I have been opening 1 Rax expand in TvT for the last few weeks. Generally, if I make it out of the early game I win, however I would say that the MU, at least at my level, involves a lot of early pressure and one base play. It's not uncommon to see 1/1/1 all-in, which you dealt with in your video and which I usually can handle by just pulling SCVs (still ahead), and cloak banshee opening which I think most Terrans have a lot of practice handling and I can generally scout and deal with pretty well.
The thing I don't like about 1 Rax expand is that it's pretty obvious what you're doing due to lack of gas. Barring some 5 Rax all-in or whatever, it's generally fairly easy to scout the expansion and I think that most people know when they see the 1 Rax FE that they can proceed with whatever early pressure they have planned knowing they're pretty safe. I tried your Reaper expand yesterday and really like it. You still get a pretty fast expansion with really early combat sheild, and the initial scout can't really tell what you're doing so easily as you're taking your gas. I'm going to use it for the foreseeable future.
My question is, how do you respond to an opponent who opens with their own Reaper pressure (let's say they do the same build) or that hellion/marine elevator play that everyone's so fond of these days? If I scout it should I keep the reapers in my base for defense?
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Thanks to Max my APM has nearly doubled, not sure if its cause I'm building reactors now and building two of everything or because Max's builds are so awesome!
Max usually streams Tues. and Thurs. 6-10pm PST.
Don't worry be happy!
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Theme song from Max's stream
Do- do, do- do
Dooo Doooo
Life is like a hurricane
Here in Max's room
Marines, Marauders , and Hellions.
It's a Max- blur
He might solve a mystery or rewrite history
Max Tales (woo woooh)
Every Tues & Thurs, Max is out there making.
Max Tales (woo wooh)
Tales of daring do bad and good.
Max Tales (wooo wooh)
D-D-D-Danger!
Watch behind you.
There's a stalker out to find you.
What to do? Just tune into some Max Tales (wooo woooh)
Every Tues & Thurs, Max is out there making.
Max Tales (woo wooh)
Tales of daring do bad and good.
Max Tales (woo wooh)
Not pony tales, or cotton tales, no
Max Tales (woo wooh)
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Thank you very much for these videos Max. They are excellent, great format and very informative.
I've just been focusing on TvZ. In your videos you say that if the zerg fast expands then terran should be able to fast expand as well, using the standard fast hellion opening. This is exactly the kind of info I've been after.
So I just went straight into trying to fast expand vs zerg on the ladder using your build as a rough guide. I've fast expanded against zerg about half a dozen times and I've had the most hilarious games.
I'm high gold, so pretty bad, and I've lost my hellions, failed to scout incoming attacks with them, and been forced to lift off and evacuate my natural more often than not. Yet somehow once I've stabilized and start to apply counter pressure with hellion bio medivac the zergs just can't handle the constant pressure and drop harass. Slowly but surely they fall apart.
It really is a great feeling to be playing aggressively rather than turtling up and defending until 200/200. Thanks a lot for the fun times.
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EPT
