EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/SilverskY/BackseatBroodwar.jpg)
by Plexatide
What a week it's been at BBW headquarters. Apart from our usual run through of Broodwar, we've also taken time off our busy schedules to propose a complete overhaul to the way progaming is taught and practised. Before such serious business unfolds though, let's take a look at this week in brief, and what better way to do so than begin with a conversation between two of TL's finest minds.
pachi.: there is no break between rounds
riptide: NO BREAK?
pachi.: end one week, start again the next
riptide: SRSLY?
riptide: BUT BUT BUT JAEDONG NEEDS TO REST
riptide: JAEDONG NEEDS REST
riptide: OTHERWISE HE WILL LOSE
riptide: ZVZ ESP
pachi.: between the rounds that involve winners maybe
riptide: JAEDONG NEEDS TO REST. HE IS CARRYING HIS WHOLE TEAM
riptide: HIS WHOLE TEAM
riptide: HIS WHOLE TEAM PACHI WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN
pachi.: killer will save them
pachi.: dw
riptide: lol
riptide: low blow
riptide: i am going to paste this convo into BBW
pachi.: go for it
pachi.: killer is the best
pachi.: he will stop hyuk
riptide: NO BREAK?
pachi.: end one week, start again the next
riptide: SRSLY?
riptide: BUT BUT BUT JAEDONG NEEDS TO REST
riptide: JAEDONG NEEDS REST
riptide: OTHERWISE HE WILL LOSE
riptide: ZVZ ESP
pachi.: between the rounds that involve winners maybe
riptide: JAEDONG NEEDS TO REST. HE IS CARRYING HIS WHOLE TEAM
riptide: HIS WHOLE TEAM
riptide: HIS WHOLE TEAM PACHI WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN
pachi.: killer will save them
pachi.: dw
riptide: lol
riptide: low blow
riptide: i am going to paste this convo into BBW
pachi.: go for it
pachi.: killer is the best
pachi.: he will stop hyuk
Indeed, it is intellectuals such as this that have asked us to propose that some enterprising TL
Enough about failing aces though. Getting into some basic theorycrafting, we'd like to take the opportunity to thank ETT for bumping this thread.
On August 23 2008 02:28 Gaetele wrote:
Now I'm tired of losing to stupid D- Protosses on iCCup. I'm a level C Zerg, dammit.
This is getting friggin' ridiculous. People say that the races are balanced, but there's no way it
is even looked at properly by Blizzard. Once Corsairs get into groups above 8 or so, even
a hundred Scourge won't manage to take out one. That's just retarded. I mean, look at the
story. Zerg are the race that just totally take out all groups in terms of numbers, but
all of the Protoss units have retarded AoE splash that just tears through my units one by one.
About 8000 Zerglings or Scourge have died in my game to Archons, Templars and Corsairs.
How is this even remotely balanced!?
Now I'm tired of losing to stupid D- Protosses on iCCup. I'm a level C Zerg, dammit.
This is getting friggin' ridiculous. People say that the races are balanced, but there's no way it
is even looked at properly by Blizzard. Once Corsairs get into groups above 8 or so, even
a hundred Scourge won't manage to take out one. That's just retarded. I mean, look at the
story. Zerg are the race that just totally take out all groups in terms of numbers, but
all of the Protoss units have retarded AoE splash that just tears through my units one by one.
About 8000 Zerglings or Scourge have died in my game to Archons, Templars and Corsairs.
How is this even remotely balanced!?
Iknorite - ZvP, srsly why even play it? Let's face it, this is the Swarm Season, with two Zerg in every tree. Still, is that necessarily a bad thing? Some will argue that mirrors will suck, and maybe that's true to an extent, but in the long run, we feel that a race dominating from time to time is a good thing. Perceived imbalance or ZOMGWTFIMBA, whatever you want to call this phenomenon, is a good thing because it brings about innovation. With Protoss stuck at the bottom of the ladder for the past two seasons, they haven't been winning much. Yet, in the long run, it is their gameplay that is developing, and it is the PvZ metagame that is going to reap the benefits of this in the months and seasons to come.
Let's look at some history. Before the GOMTV MSL S1 finals, Savior's ZvP was for all intents and purposes unstoppable. Yet a young Protoss walked in, and with the now legendary Bisubuild™, took him to pieces. This series is so influential not just because Savior was felled, though this was quite a feat in itself. It was most important because it was replicated five billion times on the ladders, making Zergs rethink how they played ZvP. In reply, Zergs had to adapt and it is as a result of such an evolution that we now see the 3Hatch Spire into 5 Hatch Hydra build standardised in ZvP.
We could go on, but you get the point - this Swarm Season is good for progaming. Sure, Perfectman may not get very far, but the Protoss that matter will do well despite the imbalances. Stork has been tearing it up lately despite the maps, and Bisu has been doing great too, his OSL loss notwithstanding. Either way, it is from these players that the innovations of modern PvZ will emerge and so we do wish them success in this next season, because a lot of what Protoss is going to do in the months to come is going to depend on how players of this calibre adapt to the invading swarm.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/kids.jpg)
There HAS to be a better way to train the next generation of Progamer!
Now, let's get down to some serious business, and by serious business we mean SRS BZNZ. Korean training methods by now are quite well known throughout the land. The recipe is quite simple; throw a bunch of great players together and mass game playing through basically the exact same build an uncountable number of times. If you’re a top level player, maybe you focus on nonstandard builds like proxy gates or 14 Nexus – however if you are a B teamer you will be practicing the same basic build order repeatedly over and over again. This isn’t a bad thing – players need to practice to get their mechanics up to par above all else since mechanics are what wins games. For more information about this check out Artosis’s immortal thread on the subject.
Backseat Broodwar is here to tell you that Korea is doing it wrong. What? How do two nerds sitting behind their laptops think they know more than people who are being paid to coach these teams? It’s because foreigners are better. There, I said it. Foreigners have lead the way in innovation all along – rekrul pioneered Arbiters, Eriador showed us just how good Queens really are, KawaiiRice worked out the optimum way to avoid Medics wasting their energy healing plagued marines etc. It is time that the foreigners show the Koreans really how to practice.
Starcraft is an esport, so let’s draw an analogy to sports let’s say, football (the real kind), since it’s the most popular sport on the planet. Mechanics are precisely equivalent to fitness – without a certain benchmark fitness standard you just can’t compete with the best since they’ll just outlast you – no matter how many cute tricks you can pull. The same applies to Broodwar – without the benchmark mechanics you can’t last against progamers since they just pull too far ahead. So obviously, footballers work on their fitness. How do they do that? Gym sessions, runs etc. They have ‘specialised’ exercises dedicated to building up their fitness.
Let’s look at what Korea is doing – they are playing out whole games of Starcraft (albeit the most basic kind) which is equivalent to footballers playing games of football without doing anything fancy – just passing, running, and scoring. That’s not the right way to be improving your mechanics!!! (or fitness, for that matter). Just like real sports you need to have dedicated exercises designed to build up your mechanics. The question is – how do you do it? Well you could code UMS maps, but thats ridiculously hard – thankfully, Backseat Broodwar has an efficient and elegant solution. We call it “the Save Game Method” of training.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/savegame.png)
Shhhh, it's a secret
Firstly, you must forget about ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ – these are just distractions from improvement and seeking to win a game is not going to make you a better player. With that in mind, let’s look at the theory behind this method. In the first 10 or so minutes of the game – pretty much nothing happens. This is the early/early-mid game. Sure, Zergs will harass Terrans with Mutalisks – but defending Mutalisks is a skill, not mechanics, and training this is another issue which will be discussed shortly. Once you get away from all that early game crap, you are into the midgame where your mechanics are really tested. Let me make this point by simply pointing out that no one has trouble with early game play – thats just textbook stuff – the problems with macro always occur in the midgame. So why are the Koreans wasting 10 minutes of every game training their early game? It’s pointless!! Furthermore, if you suffered too much damage early game, kiss your mechanics practice good bye as your opponent just steam rolls you by 14-15 minutes into the game. No, what we want are long drawn out games with 100% certainty to best practice our mechanics.
So here’s the trick. For this to work you need a dedicated practice partner and a bucket load of time. Play out a normal standard game with your practice partner, ideally, one where you come out roughly even into the midgame. As soon as the game is in midgame save the game and then play as normal. If the game goes really long you might want to make some more saves as well. Once the game is over, don’t start a new game, load up your first save that you made and then play it out. Rinse and repeat. You practice is now roughly 66% more efficient than Koreans based on the estimate that a game is 15 minutes long and you are saving at the 10 minute mark. Given you play with your all, and are prepared to sit down and game with your practice partner for hours – your mechanics will improve 66% faster than Koreans.
The applications of “Save game training” do not end there. Weak against Mutalisk harass? Easy solution. Sit down with a practice partner get into a position where he is just about to harass you with mutalisks (assuming you have sufficient resources to defend – i.e. you didn’t lose all your marines to zerglings) and then save the game. As soon as you have defended the Mutalisks, or he has destroyed you – reload the save! Again, you cut out the first 6 minutes of game and you are able to get right into practicing against Mutalisks again. Just remember, that your objective isn’t to play out the rest of the game – its just to play out the phase of the game where you are defending mutalisks which lasts anywhere from 30 seconds through to 3 minutes – then reload. This way, your vs Mutalisk will improve dramatically over a much smaller space of time. To continue the analogy, this is exactly the same as a footballer practicing his handling skills in practice.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/carriers.jpg)
Leta would have benefited from the "Save Game" method to better refine his lockdown skills
This method can be applied to any ‘set piece’ of action. For instance this method can be used to train against Carriers, train against lurker contains, train against drops, train large army control, train defiler control.... you get the idea. Another side benefit to this, is that if your practicing your mechanics from the midgame – then you’re probably going to have a lot more late game experience; which is one area even the top Koreans are weak in as can be seen in the game below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAwhAVUtg-Q&feature=player_embedded
So how does this fit into some kind of training regime? Well, ideally you would practice with your practice partners to train all the little skills that you are weak in, as well as training your mechanics, daily. Once you have practiced these skills enough just play a few ladder games to identify further weaknesses in your game and put your new found skills to good use. I have no doubt that you will be seeing improvements in your play much faster than just mass gaming on iccup – especially with the frequency of cheese at lower levels.
So thank you Backseat Broodwar, for this exposé on the inefficiency of Korean practice schemes, and detailing the trick to optimising your practice.
In other news, Hwaseung’s terrible slump continues and simultaneously a very depressing realisation dawned on us. Jaedong does not matter anymore. Woah woah woah, back this train up – how can J-A-E-D-O-N-G, back to back OSL winner and all around badass, not matter anymore to Hwaseung? In comes in two sad forms; firstly expectation, and secondly the idea of a “new Hwaseung”.
Let’s discuss expectation. Jaedong no longer matters to Oz since he is expected to win. The entire team has come to depend on him for that sole reason – it’s like, sup Jaedong go out and destroy Hyvaa this week, or Jaedong – Zero’s your target! But no one really cares about Jaedong – they leave him to his own methods of training because he is going to win anyway. The focus is on the rest of the team trying to get them to follow suit. That sucks for Jaedong, but I suppose he’s used to it by now. But here’s a consequence of that – no one cares if Jaedong wins. To the rest of his team, Jaedong winning is as natural as Jaedong breathing, or eating, or dominating the practice games in the Hwaseung house. If you don’t believe me, look at the faces on the Oz team after Jaedong’s last win – depressing isn’t it?
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/hwaseungbored.jpg)
Hwaseung just doesn't care when Jaedong plays anymore
If Jaedong loses, however, the team is disappointed and there is a reaction. Usually team moral gets shot right then and there, and the team loses. It’s like long term drug abuse – Jaedong winning just gets you back to normal, while Jaedong losing sends you crashing down into a bad spiral.
Contrast this with other teams, say, SKT. When Boxer or Hyuk wins a game the entire team is ecstatic. Indeed, Boxer’s smashing victory over Killer basically made SKT invincible since their moral was so high. Those wins had a huge positive effect on the team, which is something Jaedong just can’t bring to Oz anymore. Even Bisu and Flash are still able to draw some excitement from their team when they win since their accomplishments are not yet the same magnitude of Jaedongs – which definitely give T1 and KT a psychological edge over a team like Oz.
Furthermore, this ‘new Hwaseung’ that the Coach is trying to build at the moment is almost like trying to create a team without Jaedong. While this probably isn’t the intention, with Killer playing all the aces and comments flying around the Korean communities that the Coach is trying to create the next Jaedong in Killer – that’s got to have an impact on Jaedong and has got to have him thinking that he’s being marginalized within the team.
Yes – his parents are against Jaedong’s high workload, yes the team does need other options. But let’s look at this from Jaedong’s level. Never once has he complained about being overworked – if he has, show me the interview. This kid is a practice machine – and even if he’s not playing the ace match this week he’s going to be practicing for it anyway. Jaedong is putting in all this effort, but his position within the team is simply not the same as it was anymore due to his parents and this “new Hwaseung”.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/jaedongmakeup.jpg)
The Tyrant needs to be fed
Where are we going with all of this? If this keeps up there is no way Jaedong is going to be able to keep up his mentality. As the ‘former’ star of the Hwaseung roster (I say ‘former’ since he really should still be the star) having all your hard work ignored has got to take a toll on your motivation to keep practicing. If the situation doesn’t fix itself over at the Hwaseung House, I seriously have to wonder if Jaedong will be able to dominate as well as he used to. The signs are already showing by the way, ZvZ is matchup that is seriously affected by confidence and practice – with Jaedong’s ZvZ looking a little more shakey, perhaps this is already taking a toll on him?
After this was written, the Oz decided that it's time that they start putting Jaedong back at Ace - and for good reason! The man delivers results! The task for Hwaseung up ahead is to balance the development of their new players while not letting Jaedong feel like he is under appreciated and no longer needed in the "new Hwaseung" vision. A tricky task - and only time will tell if the Oz Coach is up to it.
The OSL has almost determined its top 16 players, and recently, we added another Protoss to the lineup! Pure joined the top 16 in impressive fashion. Now let’s chat about Pure for a minute, because he is one of the great uninteresting hopes for Protoss – a ‘neo-stork’, if you will. Indeed, months ago, Plexa noticed Pure’s stylistic similarity to Stork and commented in his “Team of the Week” blog about it. But let’s talk about it here anyway!
Pure is a Protoss who makes excellent use of observers in PvT and PvP. And for good reason, those little guys are like 25/75 map hacks – an incredible bargain! His PvT is not fancy in anyway. He’s not a “BeSt” – i.e. he’s not going to go two base Arbiter on you. He’s not a “free” – i.e. he’s not going to use amazing micro to defeat you. He uses his observers to gather information, assesses the situation based on that information, and makes sound logical decisions from that assessment. Nothing fancy to be seen here – but this is an incredibly potent style that some of the best PvT in the world employ – particularly Stork. Stork’s use of observers is amazing as well, but, even then Stork’s usage pales in comparison to Pure’s. Just watch the follow game to see what I mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9IK6SnpXHM&feature=player_embedded
I do not know of any other Protoss, including Stork, that would have pulled off that move there. (for the lazy reader; Pure used two Observers to see what was going on when he couldn’t penetrate Leta’s base with one – he sacrificed the first one to turret fire while the second one was able to see Leta’s plan). Without doubt, by seeing the stimmed marines (doh leta... you don’t think Stim would have tipped him off?) and then the additional Barracks just up ahead – Pure was able to see what Leta was up to and adjusted accordingly. And well, he dominated Leta that game. It’s not a classy game by any means, its devoid of the flair that Bisu usually showcases, but it’s solid as a Rock – not the Protoss kind.
So keep an eye out for Pure in Proleague and this OSL – because this season he could go deep and surprise everyone (except for us here at Backseat Broodwar of course).
And now for the recommended games of the week! If you’re thinking of learning TvZ/ZvT then the following game is perhaps the most brilliant educational examples we’ve ever seen – indeed we implore Day to give an analysis of this game (and if you don’t, Backseat Broodwar will!). The game is Midas vs Killer on Fighting Spirit. Not only is this a great educational game, it’s not a bad game to watch either! So check it out, even if you do play Protoss.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6k1mbeRkoU&feature=player_embedded
Another great educational game was played this week as well – this time for PvZ. If you are a struggling Protoss in this Zerg-dominated world – then this is the vod for you! Of course, I am talking about GosI[Flying] vs great. Now I, Plexa, have never really bought into the whole GosI[Flying] hype – yea he got lucky in that off season tournament, but so what? This game, however, has changed everything. This kid has some incredible potential – you could go so far as to say that this kid will become one of the top 6 Protoss within the next 6-8 months. This game is such an incredible display of timing, control, macro and overall game strategy that I’ve been converted into a believer.
Continuing the trend of the return of the old school – when was the last time you saw a Terran go mass wraith in TvT? Let alone, mass wraith in TvT and win? Flash and Upmagic have certainly standardised the late game transition into Battle Cruisers in TvT – and for good reason; they’re flying cows! A good BC fleet is almost indestructible. Eh, almost. There was a time when Wraiths were able to stand their ground against Battle Cruisers – like in the classic Boxer vs Oov game on Ride of Valkyries (I’m linking it, but it’s only the last 15 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kw4M1D8FmE&feature=player_embedded
But last week, old school Brood war fans, Ruby brought back the Wraith with style! When he was pushed to the wall in his game against Mr. Standard (Skyhigh – seriously, he’s the neo-Goodfriend) – Ruby took inspiration from the Air Force and made 1287341 Starports and massed wraith. The resulting game was really entertaining;
Dropships have always been a really cool aspect about Terrans - or if you are not Terran - one of the most annoying weapons in the Terran arsenal. The same man who made more Wraiths than the Korean Airforce could ever muster decided that he would abuse the other Starport unit to its fullest. His victim? Roro. The stage? The OSL. Sit tight for this is one game that will have you glued to your screens for 30 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7NKSysioG8&feature=player_embedded
There were so many great games this week – including a completely nonstandard ZvZ between Hyvaa and Peace. What? Who’s Peace? Oh, he’s just some Zerg from MBC that hasn’t done anything worth noting... Until now! This game is an example of a really good ZvZ – not that Effort vs Luxury mediocrefest.
To gap off this weeks games it's only appropriate that it's a Pure game. And none other than Pure vs Leta game 3 from the OSL Round 1. This is ridiculously sick display of PvT at its finest and anyone who remotely loves Starcraft should watch this game. It has innovation, creativity, and a touch of old school in just the right proportions which makes this game an instant classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ASIA7OV4-0&feature=player_embedded
Well, it looks like we're going to wrap up this week's episode with that VOD goodness. Hope you had an interesting read, and as always we're ready to listen to your comments and criticism in the thread, and of course tell you outright when you are just plain wrong. Until next time then, good luck and good games!
Thank you Silversky for the banner!
