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What if Magnus Carlsen played Starcraft...

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Leke
Profile Joined March 2012
Brazil22 Posts
January 09 2015 02:34 GMT
#1
Hello everyone!
Have you ever heard about Magnus Carlsen? Just giving you a brief explanation about him..he is the biggest master in chess. Currently the number one in the world and he is just 24 years old.
Once I read that he has something like 500 thousand moves in his head of chess.
I was thinking whether this guy played Starcraft once... how would be the
results? Because in a short interview he said he likes poker and eventually plays it online:

"SPIEGEL: Do you win?
Carlsen: If I take a game seriously, I do. If not, I sometimes lose. But that doesn’t matter. What is important is that I have a life beyond chess.”

Conclusion: He is a monster!

Of course I know that Starcraft involves manual control and other things, but this scenario would be interesting to wonder at what it would result. What do you think?


http://www.pokergurublog.com/content/new-chess-world-champion-celebrates-poker-session
iMrising
Profile Blog Joined March 2012
United States1099 Posts
January 09 2015 02:38 GMT
#2
we can always wonder if players like ronaldo (who is known for his speed) does in a 100 meter dash. I don't think we should automatically assume that he'll do incredibly well in that regard. In addition, chess often has little time pressure, whereas starcraft requires thinking on the go.
$O$ | soO
bludragen88
Profile Joined August 2008
United States527 Posts
January 09 2015 02:39 GMT
#3
On January 09 2015 11:38 iMrising wrote:
we can always wonder if players like ronaldo (who is known for his speed) does in a 100 meter dash. I don't think we should automatically assume that he'll do incredibly well in that regard. In addition, chess often has little time pressure, whereas starcraft requires thinking on the go.


I wouldn't call it little time pressure, there is definitely some. But also he is one of the best blitz players in the world too - 5 minutes to complete a game of chess isn't much.
necrosexy
Profile Joined March 2011
451 Posts
January 09 2015 02:42 GMT
#4
On January 09 2015 11:38 iMrising wrote:
we can always wonder if players like ronaldo (who is known for his speed) does in a 100 meter dash. I don't think we should automatically assume that he'll do incredibly well in that regard. In addition, chess often has little time pressure, whereas starcraft requires thinking on the go.

never heard of blitz? it's fast chess that Magnus is also brilliant at
zeratul_jf
Profile Joined October 2011
United States808 Posts
January 09 2015 02:42 GMT
#5
I think he might be able to come up, with amazing strategies quicker than other people however the question is whether he would be fast enough to execute them properly.
We see this with Catz and soO. soO usually says that Catz has advised him of his strategies however Catz sometimes is not mechanical enough to execute them to their full extend.
[F_]aths
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Germany3947 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-01-09 02:53:58
January 09 2015 02:48 GMT
#6
If he would play Starcraft, we would be fooked.

While he is no Bobby Fischer, he would leave us crushed.
You don't choose to play zerg. The zerg choose you.
Blargh
Profile Joined September 2010
United States2103 Posts
January 09 2015 02:51 GMT
#7
Honestly, I think he'd be rather bad at it. I doubt he's spent much of his life with mouse + keyboard and he also has no knowledge (or so we think...) of Starcraft or RTS-genre. It'd take him at least 6 months to even get to master league (imo), and probably 1 year before he would even get close to "competitive". Maybe about 1.5+ years, he could beat some better NA players.

The guy is smart, but game sense and mechanics are such a huge part of Starcraft that his IQ alone wouldn't be able to carry him to victory.
castleeMg
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
Canada777 Posts
January 09 2015 02:53 GMT
#8
too many variables to determine if he would actually be a world class sc player but my short answer is yes, he would be good, like good enough to beat top tier foreigners BUT only if he had a passion for learning the game and if he had good hand eye coordination and mechanics, which i think he would have considering hes still pretty young
AKA: castle[eMg]@USEast/ iCCup
TwiggyWan
Profile Blog Joined December 2013
France333 Posts
January 09 2015 02:58 GMT
#9
To me starcraft decision making looks like a binary tree that you have to construct yoursefl playing games.
A build, a game plan, a tree. More plans, more trees. Most decisions to take are quite straightforward IMO and don't require advanced thinking/ extreme preparation.

I'm no chess player though, but i highly doubt there is "standard" chess games that all look the same like SC "macro games" where, once again, the decision making processus is rather similar from one game to another.

TLDR starcraft is about memory and execution rather than stellar thinking/decision making
No bad days
ZenithM
Profile Joined February 2011
France15952 Posts
January 09 2015 02:59 GMT
#10
Starcraft 2 is about more than strategy and planning. I would even argue that it's less about strategy than many other things. I don't think you can just say that chess skill obviously must translate well to SC2 skill. It's not even obvious that BW skill translates to SC2 skill so...
VengefulTree
Profile Joined May 2014
Canada637 Posts
January 09 2015 03:05 GMT
#11
I think he could be good with special training from Snute and Stephano
"I'll temper my comments the best I can. To have Stats ranked anything below 2nd is total absolute bullcrap! A travesty an abomination!" - Rolltide | "When a foreign Terran is about to win, the entire universe conspires against him" - Paulo Coelho
nath
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1788 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-01-09 03:20:27
January 09 2015 03:20 GMT
#12
On January 09 2015 12:05 VengefulTree wrote:
I think he could be good with special training from Snute and Stephano

if he were to play, we all know there is only one race he should play. definitely not zerg.
Founder of Flow Enterprises, LLC http://flow-enterprises.com/
00Visor
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
4337 Posts
January 09 2015 03:52 GMT
#13
On January 09 2015 12:05 VengefulTree wrote:
I think he could be good with special training from Snute and Stephano


More like Goody.
Stephano and Snute still have really good mechanics.

Goody is the strategist mastermind with atrocious mechanichs.

And of course ... tank chess.
DarkPlasmaBall
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States45006 Posts
January 09 2015 04:11 GMT
#14
He's a great strategist, but chess isn't an RTS. If he was also a concert pianist, with amazing dexterity, then sure his mind + the ability to be mechanically solid would be great. Otherwise he'd just be a wonderful analyst or theorycrafter.
"There is nothing more satisfying than looking at a crowd of people and helping them get what I love." ~Day[9] Daily #100
Korean-MILF
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
Norway65 Posts
January 09 2015 04:17 GMT
#15
Well, mechanics can be learned, in due time he would become a top contender if he put an effort into it.
What Magnus got going for himself is his insane memory. After a (very short) while he would be able to identify a build, and react to it almost perfectly. The BW player Fisheye had very low apm (120 or less?) But his memory was superb, so he could identify the builds, and react properly. He rarely lost to a weird build twice. I think Magnus would be like that, but only godlike!

In due time he would be a top contender, the problem is how much time he would play to get his mechanics up there.
MistrZZZ momma is so fat even boxer cant micro her
DarkPlasmaBall
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States45006 Posts
January 09 2015 04:37 GMT
#16
On January 09 2015 13:17 Korean-MILF wrote:
Well, mechanics can be learned, in due time he would become a top contender if he put an effort into it.
What Magnus got going for himself is his insane memory. After a (very short) while he would be able to identify a build, and react to it almost perfectly. The BW player Fisheye had very low apm (120 or less?) But his memory was superb, so he could identify the builds, and react properly. He rarely lost to a weird build twice. I think Magnus would be like that, but only godlike!

In due time he would be a top contender, the problem is how much time he would play to get his mechanics up there.


I feel like you're assuming anyone can hit 200+ APM if they just practice.

Tons of tryhard gamers stuck in bronze, silver, and gold vehemently disagree. Plenty of people know what they'd like to do in theory, but their fingers fail them because they just aren't physically fast enough. I don't know if Magnus has expertise in fields requiring finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination, but based on his amazing chess skills alone, that's not good enough to actually carry out the keyboard and mouse requirements. You have to be both mentally and physically capable.
"There is nothing more satisfying than looking at a crowd of people and helping them get what I love." ~Day[9] Daily #100
ElMeanYo
Profile Joined March 2011
United States1032 Posts
January 09 2015 04:38 GMT
#17
If you say that if he just picked up SC2 TODAY and started playing... it would be a year or more before he made any dent. Yes he is very smart with his analytical brain, but it takes at least a year of practice to build up the speed, dexterity and muscle memory for macro and micro of SC2.

However, if he had started playing say 4 years ago when the game was released, and was not into chess but into SC2.... then very much I think he could be a top player. He has that mind and killer instinct.... he is a true chess prodigy.
“The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
jubil
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States2602 Posts
January 09 2015 04:58 GMT
#18
"What if" questions are really tricky stuff...it's easy enough to say "oh, with that great mind of his, if he played Starcraft instead of chess he'd be great!"...but with that great mind of his, he didn't choose to play Starcraft, he chose chess.

If you introduced the game to him, I'm sure he'd pick up on strategy and tactics pretty well, but that doesn't guarantee you'll be a pro, it's pretty mechanical as well.
Marineking-Polt-Maru-Fantasy-Solar-Xenocider-Suppy fighting!
Greenei
Profile Joined November 2011
Germany1754 Posts
January 09 2015 05:00 GMT
#19
He would probably be platinum or something. Why would you think that he is any good? The most important part of SC2 is the mechanics BY FAR. I don't care if you have a better strategy than me, if I have significantly more units and better control I just win.
IMBA IMBA IMBA IMBA IMBA IMBA
Deleted User 3420
Profile Blog Joined May 2003
24492 Posts
January 09 2015 05:21 GMT
#20
I think he would be GM within 1 hour of beginning to play. Within 3 hours he would be KT's ace. By the end of the day he would have transcended his physical form, reincarnating as pure energy and fusing with the spirit of tassadar.
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