The effects of worker pairing - Page 3

Below Masters being extremely precise with your timings will be extremely effective. So effective that you won't be below masters for very long at all. Even at low masters, I would expect to win a game (or gain an insurmountable advantage) with any timing I use if I I hit it correctly and don't f*** up my micro. I have won matches against players with good macro and better micro than I purely from being ~10 seconds ahead.

Of course, the longer a game goes the less 10 seconds matter, but you can get that 10 second advantage REALLY early and although this one mostly only applies to early game and taking bases, you can repeatedly grab an advantage so that you are further ahead.

EDIT: Of course, if everybody is doing it (eg: the pro level), then you won't get any advantage - but if you don't do it you will lose, which is often considered sub-optimal in Starcraft.

do you really think being at the enemies base 10 seconds earlier makes no difference? assume hellion harass vs protoss, 10 sec earlier and he doesnt get that forcefield > dead workers > win game

id just like to add my observations to this on a general game.

the minigame i like to play EVERY game on a 14/15pool opening is what time does it go down!

The earliest ive ever done a 15 pool(if supply clicks to 15) is 1.56 and i got that by NOT pairing the workers but sending them to their own mineral patches but of course letting the new drones go to their closest patch relative to their larva position.

Sometimes ive gone mass try hard and rallied all drones before the pool to the closest patches relative to the base and hit 1.57-2.05. it didnt make sense. closer patch mining is optimal right?

I found out, sometimes the pairing actually isnt efficient if you dont get the drone to latch on just as the other drone is leaving, if you get them to pair up just after the other drone arrives you lose quite a lot of time. The drone would have made the trip already if you didnt spam the click onto the patch! The closer mining is instantly negated.

This is to say, ive had much earlier pool put downs by putting each drone to their own mineral patch first, further or closer.

The game just to be clear automatically assigns to drones latch on to the patch and will jump if the position is occupied. although 16 drones on the patches is regarded as the most efficient its not the most mineral income. 3 drones on far patches and 2 drones on close is and they indefinitely lock on as you give the drone NO where to go and dont get the unlinking of the drone.

When you do this right you give the computer NO chance to jump patches as every single patch is locked. this is shown when you only have the one patch left and you have 20 drones on 1 patch . .why dont they bounce around . . because they cant!

for me and for what ive noticed over the 10000's of games ive played rallying the drones to their own patch, prioritising the closest one to the larva spawn and then the closest patch to the base THEN trying to get them to rally Just after the last drone leaves is the most efficient way to set up early game mineral collection and be consistent

On August 08 2014 12:14 althaz wrote:

Below Masters being extremely precise with your timings will be extremely effective. So effective that you won't be below masters for very long at all. Even at low masters, I would expect to win a game (or gain an insurmountable advantage) with any timing I use if I I hit it correctly and don't f*** up my micro. I have won matches against players with good macro and better micro than I purely from being ~10 seconds ahead.

Of course, the longer a game goes the less 10 seconds matter, but you can get that 10 second advantage REALLY early and although this one mostly only applies to early game and taking bases, you can repeatedly grab an advantage so that you are further ahead.

EDIT: Of course, if everybody is doing it (eg: the pro level), then you won't get any advantage - but if you don't do it you will lose, which is often considered sub-optimal in Starcraft.

On August 08 2014 15:41 GiveMeCake wrote:


I believe the difference is so minimal that it would not decide whether you won the game or not. What hellion timing are you thinking of that would strike before the sentry had enough energy to FF?

Again, I'm still waiting for those replays showing worker stacking and split second timing being the deciding factor.