• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 17:51
CEST 23:51
KST 06:51
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon8[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway13
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues23LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?39Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris76
StarCraft 2
General
What happened to Singapore/Brazil servers? SC4ALL: A North American StarCraft LAN Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time
Tourneys
LANified! 37: Groundswell, BYOC LAN, Nov 28-30 202 SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ alas... i aint gon' lie to u bruh... BW General Discussion [ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent The Korean Terminology Thread
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group B Small VOD Thread 2.0 [ASL20] Ro16 Group A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread The PlayStation 5 General RTS Discussion Thread Iron Harvest: 1920+ Nintendo Switch Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Games Industry And ATVI UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1227 users

[D] Analyzing Flash's ability to use the keyboard

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 Next All
From page 2, stick to discussion about actual strategy.
worldpeace30
Profile Joined July 2012
United States106 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-27 15:31:58
September 25 2012 14:56 GMT
#1
Recently a video was posted of FLASH's hands while he plays SC2


I analyzed the video to see if he does anything different than normal hotkeys and this is what I discovered.


First thing I discovered is that Flash has big hands.

http://i.imgur.com/sT05b.jpg

I noticed in the video that he taps 1 -5 with 1 and 4 he taps a lot with his first two fingers. I tried doing that but my first two fingers can't easily tap two buttons with 2 buttons inbetween.


Being able to tap 1-6 with 2 fingers I saw that his ability to have his ring finger always rest on A or surrounding buttons even when he's tapping or in battle. I was kind of curious if his hand size gives him a slight edge over smaller handed people like myself?

Edit: I made a video zooming in on the hands:


RustySpork
Profile Joined March 2012
United Kingdom49 Posts
September 25 2012 15:09 GMT
#2
one thing that you haven't said is that i think he has rebound his left click to right click, and vice versa. If u want proof, there is one part of this video (cant remember where) where he is only spamming the mouse left click for like 10 seconds as fast as he can while in the middle of a big battle. The only explanation of this is that he is targeting the broodlords with his units as you need to spam click to target them as the broodlings mess with the AI.

Yeah so thats another interesting thing about his setup. As for big hands, yes i imagine that does help and also for me as someone who plays the piano that also helped as it enables me to stretch further and move my fingers faster.
CodeskyE
Profile Joined January 2011
United States777 Posts
September 25 2012 15:09 GMT
#3
also note that his mouse setup is different.

last i heard, his right and left mouse click are switched, so he moves units/focus fire using left click iirc.
Daswollvieh
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
5553 Posts
September 25 2012 15:09 GMT
#4
Have you seen Losira´s hands? That kid has friggin tentacles all over the place.

Shikada
Profile Joined May 2012
Serbia976 Posts
September 25 2012 15:23 GMT
#5
I would guess that his main macro cycle is 4,5,6. So he keeps his little finger on 1 to quickly jump to his main army.

As for left and right mouse buttons being switched, it doesn't seem so to me. It seems like he's on attack command and spamming left mouse button. Probably uses attack command to focus fire instead of right click so that he doesn't move his army on accident if he misses (if Flash ever misses his clicks).
worldpeace30
Profile Joined July 2012
United States106 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-25 15:32:03
September 25 2012 15:26 GMT
#6
On September 26 2012 00:23 Shikada wrote:
I would guess that his main macro cycle is 4,5,6. So he keeps his little finger on 1 to quickly jump to his main army.

As for left and right mouse buttons being switched, it doesn't seem so to me. It seems like he's on attack command and spamming left mouse button. Probably uses attack command to focus fire instead of right click so that he doesn't move his army on accident if he misses (if Flash ever misses his clicks).


His first and middle finger cover all his control groups without ever having to move his ring finger from A. So he's able to use all his control groups with the first and second finger. Most people have to use the ring finger at some point I think.
renaissanceMAN
Profile Joined March 2011
United States1840 Posts
September 25 2012 15:37 GMT
#7
my name is lee bring me the young ho's.
On August 15 2013 03:43 Waxangel wrote: no amount of money can replace the enjoyment of being mean to people on the internet
Shikada
Profile Joined May 2012
Serbia976 Posts
September 25 2012 15:40 GMT
#8
On September 26 2012 00:26 worldpeace30 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 26 2012 00:23 Shikada wrote:
I would guess that his main macro cycle is 4,5,6. So he keeps his little finger on 1 to quickly jump to his main army.

As for left and right mouse buttons being switched, it doesn't seem so to me. It seems like he's on attack command and spamming left mouse button. Probably uses attack command to focus fire instead of right click so that he doesn't move his army on accident if he misses (if Flash ever misses his clicks).


His first and middle finger cover all his control groups without ever having to move his ring finger from A. So he's able to use all his control groups with the first and second finger. Most people have to use the ring finger at some point I think.


Whops, I meant ring finger in my post, not little finger (which he almost doesn't use). But yeah, you're right! You can see him press 1 and 2 with his middle finger while keeping the ring finger on A. That pretty uncomfortable for me. I guess it takes getting used to, although I don't see any particular benefits. Seems like his personal preference.
worldpeace30
Profile Joined July 2012
United States106 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-25 16:01:30
September 25 2012 15:46 GMT
#9
On September 26 2012 00:40 Shikada wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 26 2012 00:26 worldpeace30 wrote:
On September 26 2012 00:23 Shikada wrote:
I would guess that his main macro cycle is 4,5,6. So he keeps his little finger on 1 to quickly jump to his main army.

As for left and right mouse buttons being switched, it doesn't seem so to me. It seems like he's on attack command and spamming left mouse button. Probably uses attack command to focus fire instead of right click so that he doesn't move his army on accident if he misses (if Flash ever misses his clicks).


His first and middle finger cover all his control groups without ever having to move his ring finger from A. So he's able to use all his control groups with the first and second finger. Most people have to use the ring finger at some point I think.


Whops, I meant ring finger in my post, not little finger (which he almost doesn't use). But yeah, you're right! You can see him press 1 and 2 with his middle finger while keeping the ring finger on A. That pretty uncomfortable for me. I guess it takes getting used to, although I don't see any particular benefits. Seems like his personal preference.


I would presume it would be easier to macro if a finger was dedicated to never move up to the control groups. That, and hand posture so less shifing hand one column over and back. Totally guessing though.
Pasargadae
Profile Joined March 2012
Korea (South)173 Posts
September 25 2012 19:35 GMT
#10
On September 26 2012 00:09 RustySpork wrote:
one thing that you haven't said is that i think he has rebound his left click to right click, and vice versa. If u want proof, there is one part of this video (cant remember where) where he is only spamming the mouse left click for like 10 seconds as fast as he can while in the middle of a big battle. The only explanation of this is that he is targeting the broodlords with his units as you need to spam click to target them as the broodlings mess with the AI.

Yeah so thats another interesting thing about his setup. As for big hands, yes i imagine that does help and also for me as someone who plays the piano that also helped as it enables me to stretch further and move my fingers faster.


No..
If you watch closely you can see he's spamming both mouse clicks when he has his tanks selected. My guess for the left click spamming is for tactile sensation/response. You can see his tank shots hitting roaches at the north. And how do tanks hit broodlords?
Schnullerbacke13
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany1199 Posts
September 25 2012 20:54 GMT
#11
he still uses broodwarish keys. grid-based custom is way more efficient as you don't have to move fingers that far .. anyway impressive but improvable.
21 is half the truth
-_-
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
United States7081 Posts
September 25 2012 21:03 GMT
#12
On September 26 2012 05:54 Schnullerbacke13 wrote:
he still uses broodwarish keys. grid-based custom is way more efficient as you don't have to move fingers that far .. anyway impressive but improvable.


Moving your hand isn't very important when it comes to hotkey efficiency.
Doubting
Profile Joined August 2012
Canada981 Posts
September 25 2012 21:06 GMT
#13
Wow, I thought he would be faster then that...
Life: The New Champion!!
Schnullerbacke13
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany1199 Posts
September 25 2012 21:08 GMT
#14
On September 26 2012 06:03 -_- wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 26 2012 05:54 Schnullerbacke13 wrote:
he still uses broodwarish keys. grid-based custom is way more efficient as you don't have to move fingers that far .. anyway impressive but improvable.


Moving your hand isn't very important when it comes to hotkey efficiency.


ofc at 250+ apm it is. it's pretty similar to playing a music instrument, and high level musicians spend a loit of time optimizing the amount of movement. less movement = faster and more precise play.
21 is half the truth
antz0r
Profile Joined September 2010
Australia168 Posts
September 25 2012 21:09 GMT
#15
All I saw was a Flash Starcraft version of how a typist has asdf jkl; as their resting position. The whole point is that each finger has a designated key to press, and that when his hand moves around the keyboard the resting position means he's never 'lost' when moving the left hand over the keyboard to hit all those spread about keys.
Schnullerbacke13
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany1199 Posts
September 25 2012 21:13 GMT
#16
On September 26 2012 06:09 antz0r wrote:
All I saw was a Flash Starcraft version of how a typist has asdf jkl; as their resting position. The whole point is that each finger has a designated key to press, and that when his hand moves around the keyboard the resting position means he's never 'lost' when moving the left hand over the keyboard to hit all those spread about keys.


hitting k takes ~3 times as long from resting position as hitting a. that matters at high apm levels
21 is half the truth
AKomrade
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States582 Posts
September 25 2012 21:18 GMT
#17
So Flash is LITERALLY built to play Starcraft..

Also, I tried out his hand positioning in that photo and it takes the full extension of my hand to be able to hit the keys like that. Its also crazy how every finger on his left hand is so well coordinated.
ALL HAIL THE KING IN THE NORTH! HAIL! HAIL!
nebula.
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
Sweden1431 Posts
September 25 2012 21:20 GMT
#18
I miss you July ~~~ I was in PonyTales #7 wooho!
MorowZ
Profile Joined April 2012
Canada56 Posts
September 25 2012 21:27 GMT
#19
LOL @ calling fantasy gg timing while hunching over fantasy... amazing
Fistro
Profile Joined March 2011
45 Posts
September 25 2012 21:27 GMT
#20
LOL even MC learns watching Flash playing ... 00:13
1 2 3 4 5 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 12h 9m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
UpATreeSC 152
JuggernautJason94
ProTech71
StarCraft: Brood War
LaStScan 105
Dewaltoss 87
sSak 45
ZZZero.O 33
NaDa 15
Dota 2
The International113920
Gorgc10985
PGG 33
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K509
flusha195
Super Smash Bros
Liquid`Ken4
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu500
Other Games
summit1g4359
Grubby3288
fl0m632
shahzam174
C9.Mang0173
SortOf136
PPMD46
XaKoH 35
ViBE28
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1719
BasetradeTV25
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 21 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta20
• sitaska18
• Reevou 7
• RyuSc2 4
• Kozan
• Migwel
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• Azhi_Dahaki13
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1360
• Ler71
League of Legends
• Doublelift3220
Other Games
• Scarra1483
• imaqtpie1062
• Shiphtur187
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
12h 9m
Classic vs TriGGeR
ByuN vs Maru
Online Event
14h 9m
Kung Fu Cup
14h 9m
BSL Team Wars
21h 9m
RSL Revival
1d 12h
Maestros of the Game
1d 16h
ShoWTimE vs Classic
Clem vs herO
Serral vs Bunny
Reynor vs Zoun
Cosmonarchy
1d 18h
Bonyth vs Dewalt
[BSL 2025] Weekly
1d 20h
RSL Revival
2 days
Maestros of the Game
2 days
[ Show More ]
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Snow vs Sharp
Jaedong vs Mini
Wardi Open
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
LiuLi Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Copa Latinoamericana 4
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
EC S1
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.