[Guide] How to LR and Post Nicely

What is LR-ing?
LR stands for Live Report. This is the act of describing an SC2 match in real time by posting about the details of the match in the Match Thread. You can think of it like commentating through posting. LR does not mean forum QQ, whining or balance posting. LR is primarily for informational purposes.

Why LR?
The first reason to LR is because sometimes people cannot watch matches live. Perhaps they are at work, have bandwidth problems, are on their iPhone, etc. A detailed LR lets them still experience that "Live" feeling and follow along a match they care about.

The second reason to LR is because it's constructive. It's also the main reason LR threads exist in the first place. If you want to QQ or whine, there is always the blogs section.

The third reason is that you both up your APM and observational abilities by LR-ing as you not only have to observe, but also comment and type.

How do I LR?
Put simply, to LR you just write what is going on in the match in an informative and meaningful manner. Fan-bias is fine so long as it's done in a playful and friendly manner. Attention to detail is also good. For instance:


This may be true. But it's also not terribly useful to someone who is trying to follow. Instead:


Is much more useful to someone who is trying to follow.

Isn't that obvious?
Yes.

What if I want to make my LR prettier? How do you LR while trying to follow a match? Tips and Tricks?
Now to the main focus of this guide. Pretty LR-ing. This is how I choose to LR. LR-ing in SC2 is very different from SC:BW because there are so many special functions available and I feel it is a pity more people do not LR.

Starting off:
There's a little prep work to be done before I LR. I put a lot of effort into my LR because I want it to be as informative and useful as possible but it's not necessary in all cases. You don't have to follow everything I say here.

First off, go to the first post of the tournament thread. I choose to use the TSL Ro4 as my example. Click the Quote link at the top right, and copy and paste the section of that post with the details of the matches.


Quote link


This is what you're looking for

Paste this into a Notepad document and clean it up so it looks neat and pretty. Add a little formatting and you now have a template for your LR.


This is how I clean up the code


This is what that code looks like on TL

A lot of you might be familiar with my LR-ing. Some samples are below.
+ Show Spoiler +

LR in SC2 to me seems much easier than in SC:BW because the observer's screen has so much information you can use. In particular, the timer above the minimap lets you show just how the match is progressing and give a deeper feel to the LR.

My preference for my screen set up is below.


This lets me still see what is going on as I type.

When you LR, a clear and easy format is best. My style of quoting myself was taken from LittLeD (kudos to him/her). It's good because someone just tuning in can see what they've missed as well as keep following the action now. Do note though that after about 10 embedded quotes your posts go wonky and start cutting off older embedded quotes. If this happens, once the match is over you will need to go back and edit out some quote tags in the final post.

During the early game, not much will typically be going on. I use this time to update my notepad, clean old posts to be used in a summary and other miscellaneous tasks.

Sometimes you will have situations where there is a lot of action going on and you don't know what to type. Try and focus on key points of a battle and just give the feel of it. Don't go into too much detail as you probably can't type as fast. Put as much as you can, then hit post. Scroll down, find your post, quote it and then start typing all over again. This can mean you post slightly delayed compared to the actual action, but I find it's worth it.

Feel free to add detail that the commentators miss. Sometimes they will not notice upgrade timings, the current level of upgrades, sneaky tech changes, etc. All of those are useful to mention both to people following your LR and others watching at the same time.

Sometimes you will write a lot and notice that a large amount of time has elapsed since you started. In these cases, it's sometimes useful to add a "it is now X time" at the end of the post.

Accept s/he wasn't good enough today and move on.