(Worst) Game of the Week

by confusedcrib

This game really demonstrated how far Starcraft 2 is from reaching truly high level play. The game is StarTale's Bomber against The SCV Life's Killer. Both of these players are well hyped, code S players. I've never been much of a fan of Killer, but he does get some good results in code S; Bomber is considered by many to be among the top 10 players in the world. I do have to make a small disclaimer, it is possible that Bomber was just not taking the game seriously (evidenced by the multiple nukes on the same location) but regardless, I don't think he would risk dragging the game out if he didn't have to; but it is something up for debate.

Both players open up with fast expand builds, a standard for TvP, and Bomber pokes out to the Xel'Naga tower in the middle of Tal'Darim Altar with early marines. Had Bomber pushed up Killer's ramp with his big marine count, there would only have been two sentries and a zealot left to defend, with warp gate far from completion. Even if he didn't attack, Bomber could at least have scouted what his opponent was doing. I could let this slide though, I mean just poking to the watch tower and back is a cute little move that most players don't do anyways when one rax fast expanding. 

After this point, the middle of the map remains empty for a very long time. Both players just turtle in their mains until Bomber's marine sees the third base get thrown down by Killer, which he responds to by just making one of his own. I guess you could assume that this one was merely both players wanting to play safe, but when is the last time you've seen both players take their third bases so passively, without any harassment or timing pushes or surprise techs from either player?

Bomber and Killer were extremely vulnerable to harassment, but neither player bothered to even try. Bomber never got missile turrets or sensor towers, but Killer, even in the super late game, didn't even go Dark Templar, nor set up proxy pylons around the map at possible expansion locations. And as for Bomber, he found the time to drop 4+ slightly irritating nukes on a single location, but if he had put the same amount of effort in medivac harass, he would have crippled Killer. Not to mention the fact that considering Killer's serious 1A syndrome, a single multiple pronged attack could have won the game much quicker.

Instead, the highlight of Bomber's medivac use was a two marine scout drop that got five total probe kills (four of those kills were due to Killer's horrible reaction speed). Imagine what an entire medivac full would have done. It's just so uncommon to see a Terran who just chooses not to drop at all when going Marine Marauder Medivac. Alas, that was how the game went. 

I guess this next part is really what decides the game. With both players maxed, and with neck-and-neck upgrades and composition (the zealot charge being conspicuously absent for Killer), Bomber decides to max expand while Killer stays content on only a fourth base.

After a passively macroing for twenty minutes, the two players are finally have their first major engagement. Bomber manages to kill off all of Killer's colossus pretty easily, but he also makes two huge mistakes. First, he doesn't have any medivacs by the twenty minute mark, so his units end up at low HP real fast. Second, he lands his Vikings separate from the rest of his army, allowing them to be picked off easily. Killer comes out ahead, after which he decides to counter push, but his attack consists of mostly zealots going up a large ramp into a perfect Terran concave....without charge. After both players botch their chances to end the game, it leaves us 25 more minutes to look forward to. 

With so many bases on each side, the game enters the super-late phase, where protoss gets 20+ warp gates and Terran gets 20+ orbital commands for mules. Bomber makes the right decision to sack some SCVs, but then randomly, Killer decides that he liked that idea and would try it too with his probes. 

Killer played so poorly in this phase of the game that it would have been a travesty for Bomber not to win. Killer has not harassed at all, not made a single dark Templar, is not remaking colossus despite killing all of Bomber's Vikings, allows his fourth base to be nuked over 4 times, never even killing the ghost dropping the nukes, never upgrades shields, and has sacked probes in anticipation of a final engagement that never comes, crippling his income.

But at the same time, Bomber's not playing so hot either. He realizes that there is nothing defending Killer's main base or at the fourth base but doesn't get a single medivac. He is on purely maurader ghost, not having teched beyond infantry and medivacs, and should be completely dead had Killer done anything besides just going mass high Templar.

Someone really should have won after that engagement 20 minutes ago, but it was like both players forgot how to play. Bomber was content just getting 30 orbital commands and deemed his nuking on the fourth base as enough harassment to be bothered with. Killer just had no idea what he was doing, no tech switching, no harassment, just nothing; he didn't even stop the ghost that was nuking his fourth constantly.

Before the 45 minute mark, neither player is really leading the other, they're both just sitting back on their chosen compositions, ghost marauder and templar zealot. Had Killer not sacked his probes and actually kept an income going, I honestly have no idea who would have won.

Finally, at the 45 minute mark, Bomber hits an attack into Killer's main base, the fourth base, and the fifth base and crushes through Killer's dismal army and even more dismal multitasking. But this wasn't before he almost lost the game thanks to still not having any medivacs at the forty minute mark, getting his overstimmed troops annihilated by storms.  

This game was so terrible, it was like watching two drunken pandas try to sneeze on each other. There was no harassment, no tech switches, critical upgrades missing, and honestly, it looked like a game my friends and I might play, not a Code S match with two hyped players.  

Strategy of the Week

by WaxAngel

“Put your tanks in siege mode and wait for your opponent to f*** up”

No it's not a joke, there's actually something serious to be said here. It might seem stupid, but sieging up and getting lucky is pretty relevant even at the pro level (as Idra will easily attest to, a lot of things in this game are stupid). It's one of the most common strategies in all of Starcraft II, one you'll see nearly every day alongside "Spam force field and pretend you know what you're doing."

Taking advantage of mistakes is a big part of the game. As players go up in skill level, they make less mistakes as whole, and the ones they do make tend to be less drastic. Every screw-up one can capitalize upon becomes more and more valuable, and by the pro-gamer level even the smallest error comes at a high premium.

With their ridiculous range, incredible single shot damage, absurd splash radius, and total lack of micro or attention required, tanks are stupidly overpowered mistake-punishing machines. The ability to instantly annihilate units from a screen away, without the user even being aware (at least force field and fungal growth require you to be paying attention) is even more valuable at the pro-level. Pros only slip up for seconds at a time, and tanks automatically capitalize for the opposing player inside that window.

Rainbow provided us with a great example in his game against Clide on Terminus SE. The two players began in a standoff-situation, with huge groups of tanks standing off in the center of the map. Noticing a particularly thin part of Clide's tank line, Rainbow went on the offensive and broke through the center with his tanks and vikings.



Encouraged by his success, Rainbow attempted to advance his forces even further. After scanning Clide's tank position, he decided to attack it with a combination of tanks and ground mode vikings. Meanwhile, Clide brought up a few more tanks and pressed “E”.



Unfortunately for Rainbow, he maneuvered his vikings poorly so that they took a different path from his tanks. This put them in a terrible position where they couldn't reach Clide's tanks at all and were in range of every single one of Clide's tanks, even the ones at the very back. Rainbow didn't react for about 2 seconds, long enough for all of his vikings to evaporate.



With Rainbow's vikings gone, Clide was able to land his own vikings next to Rainbow's tanks and eliminate them cost effectively.


With the tank balance suddenly shifted, Clide went on to win the game.

Not only do tanks punish mistakes well, but they're also magnificent at inducing them. Here, MMA has taken up position in the middle with his tanks. He presses “E.”


Since they are so annoying, all SC II players possess an incredible urge to kill siege tanks. Tanks that look vulnerable in any way are an itch that many players can't help but scratch, even tanks that pose no immediate threat.

Lyn's an SC II player just like the rest of us, and has the same urges. Though MMA's position was a fair distance away from any of his bases, Lyn charged in the second he judged that he had a shot at killing off those goddamn tanks.


Poor Lyn, his calculations were only a little bit off. Too bad he's fighting siege tanks though. Against most other units, you can just back the hell off when things turn south. When you start losing against tanks, you're screwed no matter what you do. Eat a ton of damage running away, or eat a ton of damage while you go out fighting in vain. Fortunately for Lyn, he had medivacs to cut his losses, but he still gave away a 30 supply advantage, which MMA would ride to victory.


So, what can we learn from all of this?

If you're building tanks (and come on, if you're playing Terran, why aren't you building tanks?), press "E."

If you're playing against tanks? Don't walk around the map like an idiot, and be really f***ing sure you're gonna win when you attack. If you can't do this on a regular basis, don't feel so let down. As it turns out, the pros can't either.

Honorable Mentions

Trickster's Mothership Rush

Trickster's 3 warpgate - 1 stargate expand into fast Mothership was by far the most entertaining build we saw in round one. Alas, the mothership was completely unnecessary.

YuGiOh responded to the 3gate-1star expand by going for a hydra-ling bust at Trickster's natural, and for a moment it looked like Trickster was in serious danger. However, Trickster was absolutely fantastic at using his sentries to defend, thwarting Yugioh's attack with amazing efficiency. The failed attack put YuGiOh so far behind that Trickster could have followed up with anything and won. In all honesty, 3 void rays would have ensured him a quicker victory than the mothership.



Still, it was pretty damn cool.

by TreeHugger

The GSL super tournament's first round was somewhat underwhelming. Most of the old faces who returned left without making much of an impression on the better, faster, stronger elite of Sc2. (Bye Junwi!) A lot of bad players once again proved that we were right to think them so. (Bye anypro!) Indeed despite the touch of nostalgia, the super tournament's bias towards players with past GSL experience probably hurt the quality in the opening round. Instead using GSTL wins to put DRG, GuineaPig, Yonghwa or other better players in the main tournament might've been a more dynamic choice. Whatever.

With the wheat mostly separated from the chaff in the round of 64, the super tournament is getting much tougher extremely quickly. But if the round of 64 was an exhibition match for the current Sc2 elite, then the round of 32 must feel something like a GSL finals. And for two players, it essentially was.

It's one thing to have a round of 32 featuring Keen and jookTo, or HongUn and Revival. But this week, two of the most exciting terrans in the world went home, as MMA played SuperNova, and MVP played GanZi. Only one of four of the best terrans in the world will make the super tournament round of 16. And most bizarre of all, the super tournament's second round presented a choice between either the best zerg in the world in NesTea, or the world's best terran in Bomber. That's a match-up that blows every single GSL final out of the water any day of the week, and yet we saw it in the round of 32.



It's a simple fact that six seasons into GSL play, we still don't have anything close to a legitimate official ranking of Sc2 talent. This is a inexcusable failure, and completely attributable to the rigid tiered system that GOM has implemented. For two seasons now, we have seen the final four players in Code A play at a higher level than the final four in Code S. I can't believe I'm making this argument again. Of the top eight Code A players in May, six of eight advanced into the next round. Of the top eight Code S players in March, five of eight advanced into the next round. These players are the new generation, the players who are defining the Korean scene in 2011. There are plenty of others who haven't simply had as many chances at the qualifiers to advance farther. And yet the GSL point and tournament system is designed to be unbelievably slow at charting the rapid fluctuations in dominance that have defined Sc2 to date.

Which brings us back to the incredible inequality of the Super Tournament. Bomber facing NesTea is the worst of the absurdity, but the MMA/MvP/SuperNoVa/GanZi is nearly as silly. So too was the opening round Rochambeau between Korea's two best protosses; Alicia and MC. There are plenty of lesser examples. aLive and Leenock is legitimate Ro32 or Ro16 match. And is Ro64's Min vs July tougher than the Ro32's Tester vs TheBest?



Looking at the albatross that is the Super Tournament's bracket, is it any surprise really that the GSL can't buy a competitive finals? When your tournament structure cools off the game's hottest players with less money than a weekly KOTH, while handing out a fortune to a league of octogenarians, can we seriously be surprised when tournament after tournament puts the wrong players together at the wrong times? Code S remains a tournament fought between roughly the same eight people every season. We've seen a few names drop out of elite status, and a few new names breach the upper echelon, but overall progress in breaking the mold in Code S has been painfully slow. Hence the terrible seeding. Hence the premature tournament match-ups.

So sit back and enjoy the replays of NesTea against Bomber, MVP and GanZi, and SuperNoVa and MMA. Chances are, it'll be the toughest match either of these players have on their way to the championship.