Hot_Bid's Introduction to SC2
This is just an update after the first night of the SC2 Beta. I won't be going very in depth in strategy, mainly because I don't understand this game deeply yet. First, a little bit about myself. I'm a C at best on ICCup, and I am by no means an expert at SC1. At Blizzcon, I won a ridiculous number of games doing a 1-Hatch Queen-Hydra rush which I felt was quite strong. Blizzard has since nerfed the Hydralisk.

Battle.net Basics

My computer specs: C2D 3.0 GHZ, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD5770 1G video card. I have every visual setting at maximum, and it's perfectly smooth early to mid game. Once you get into late game with gigantic maxed armies (this hasn't happened yet), I anticipate there will be choppiness or lag. There are no chat channels on Bnet, but you can chat with your friends (search and add them). The "find a game" auto match making is great, even for 2v2. After playing 10 "placement" games, you are placed into a division and ranked by Elo. The games seem to get progressively harder. As of right now, I can't see a way to view divisions other than my own.

The Competition
The first eight hours under my belt and I'm in a murky haze of SC2. Total, I've played 29 games and gone 26-3 but the vast majority of the wins were against very new players. So in reality, I've only played three or four "real" 1v1s, and me and Insane have only played six or so "real" teams. I've only used Zerg, and I've only made very basic units. Each game I tweak the builds a little bit more. I feel its much easier to understand 2v2 than 1v1, but perhaps that's just because I have someone to discuss games with. I am simply rolling players by macroing better than them or abusing terrain, not by doing anything strategic build or micro wise.

My 1v1s
My first ten 1v1s were streamed, but in case you missed them, it was me doing the same 1-hatch Queen Hydra rush. Except since then, Blizzard has greatly nerfed the hydra, making them 100/50 and lair tech. Regardless, it didn't stop me from going 9-1 just hydra rushing, but this was because my opponents were bad. It's certainly not an unbeatable strategy. The one loss I had was to a fellow TL-er who reaper rushed me, and hilariously I completely forgot to get lair so I was sitting there waiting forever to make my den. I won against a few TL-ers who even knew I was hydra rushing, but honestly it didn't feel very strong at all. I had a really nice game on the Paranoid Android map clone where I fought mass marines and marauders with hydras, losing every early battle but barely holding on and coming out on top later. Currently I'm in Platinum Division in 1v1, with a bunch of other players who are 9-1, 8-2, etc. There's one guy who is 27-3, he's #1 so far. I don't feel like I know how to 1v1 very well yet at all.

My Team Games
Insane and I decided to play 2v2, and we went 17-2 and are currently ranked #1 in the Platinum Division 1 (1166 Elo). We play Zerg (me) and Protoss (him). One of our losses was to a 9-1 team who we split a series 1-1 with, and our other loss was when Insane accidentally chose Terran instead of Protoss. Two-on-two is really, really fun. The match making system removes what was the most annoying aspect of SC1 Bnet, so you just click and wait and then get into a game.

We've gotten a good sense of early game unit counters and have largely been beating teams based on superior macro and army movement. Some games we go for early aggression (especially when there's a Zerg on the other team), and some games we play for later game map control (vs defensive P/T combos). One of the maps is called "Twilight Fortress" and both sets of allies spawn next to each other and share several bases. Every time we get that map, Insane and I basically play for maxout and expansion denial. All the other 2v2 maps are relatively straightforward ramp location bases. I haven't seen a 6 or 8 player map yet, probably because 3v3 and 4v4 modes aren't available at the moment.

That's it for now, I'll hopefully write another update this weekend.

Insane's Insights
Starcraft 2 is a macro game.
No really, it is. Even though people have been worrying that all the MBS, automine, etc. would turn it into a newbie-fest where macro is too easy, there still is a lot of macro to be done in the game. If you get more money and more units than your opponent you will (usually) win. Thus, the early game is about maximizing your economy while minimizing your opponent's.

It took years for SC1 to get to the point where people were FE-ing and doing heavily economic builds, in part because it was not based off a previous RTS (in the sense that SC2 is heavily similar to SC1), and because there had not been a professional RTS scene. SC2 is SC1, but updated and with cool new features (and some annoyances.. hello what happened to F2-F4??).

I've been playing Terran in 1v1 and Protoss in 2v2. They each have a macro mechanic which doesn't have to be used in a macro sense, but should be. Today I'll be talking about the Terran one!

Terran Special Ability
Terran can upgrade their CC for 150 minerals after they have a Barracks. This makes it start generating energy, and gives them the ability to cast three abilities:

1. MULE
2. Scanner Sweep
3. Supply Boost

That's also roughly in order of priority. Let's start with the worst:

Supply Boost. What does it do?
Well, it gives you +8 supply to one of your Supply Depots (permanently, although probably if the Depot gets destroyed so too does the extra supply). Let me make this clear: it is a free supply depot. That's 100 minerals. That's not very good...

Next up: Scanner Sweep. Well this one can really save you in a crunch, like if your opponent has Dark Templars out. Ultimately this ability is pretty good actually, same as in SC1. The reason it's "bad" is simply because of what it has to compete with. When examined from a strictly isolated point of view, your average college team's Basketball player is actually pretty good.

Well, the Scanner Sweep is that college player compared to the Kobe Bryant of the MULE. The MULE is free minerals, basically. It's a super SCV, and you need to be careful to protect it (just like your SCVs! Although actually with the MULE mechanism you can fight with some SCVs to defend your base and it doesn't really hurt you too much). Every single time you have 50 energy, you should be calling down a MULE. Your entire early game play should be focused on getting the MULE going. That means that you should not do something like 13 CC, because it will delay your MULE (you need a Barracks to upgrade your CC, remember...).

Optimizing the MULE
Since each CC can be calling down MULEs, you'll quickly find that you are getting a ton of Minerals (especially since Marines are pretty weak, and you really need gas to get units that are not simply countered). The other races have this issue where they need to pull off a reasonable number of workers to get gas early on, which slows down their mineral intake (they can both compensate by making more workers, but they do not get free workers the way Terran does).

Thus, you can get more gas early on without negatively impacting your minerals the way the other races have to. This is especially important because unlike SC1, you really really feel low on gas off only one refinery

As a general build order, I've found the following has been working well for me:

• 9 Depot
• 11 Rax
• 13 Refinery
• 15 Depot
• Upgrade CC
• Cast MULE and at same time get 2nd Refinery

You can make another Rax or a Factory according to what you've been going. Contrary to SC1, I've found that double Rax opening is actually good against Protoss/Terran, and so I've been doing that.

I won't go into detail about the army compositions or followups because this is about the economy, not about the game as a whole. I will say, however, that I think doing a hidden expansion pretty earlyish is very worthwhile. If you get the CC up, you should upgrade it ASAP. Assuming it gets upgraded (it gets 50 energy, enough to cast a MULE, instantly), then it already has practically paid for itself. Note that you can call down a MULE anywhere on the map, so even if the CC is far away, you can call it down in the safety of your own base without issue.

Well that's all for now!