Almost giving up

So I reinstalled my computer and suddenly the sound is not always working when playing Starcraft. That is annoying. I did play a few 3v3 on (regular) Hunters just see if I could diagnose the issue. One of the games were with 2 really good allies against 3 really good opponents. We were being raped due to my suckiness and my allies were discussing the n00b (aka me) on their team. Rating my ability to control my units, expand and manage my base. Extremely rude and humiliating. And I was playing without sound too.

I tried to install Starcraft on my laptop and the sound works, but it is almost impossible to use the keyboard effectively in the game on the laptop. It won't work out for competitive playing.

Then I installed Warcraft III (both Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne) on my desktop computer and it has no sound problems at all. Quite puzzling. I then finished the human campaign in RoC and a few games against the computer. Starcraft is a way better game than Warcraft III, but it is hard to deny the many minor features that Warcraft III got right: Like the sound working! and automatic match making.

Old School Warcraft III

Tillerman just posted some old Warcraft III video commentaries. They are insanely funny, so go watch them. His Scottish accent is not very easy to understand (for me), but it is part of the experience ;-).

In the four-on-four game he plays the worst ally you could ever get. Funny, as long as you where not in the game yourself.

APM is Everything

Well not everything, but surely a lot as my new cyber-friend L.Gergõ has taught me. I kinda knew it already, but he led my attention back to the fact that those who has more action per minute, get more done than those of us who have less.

The graph above show his APM at top and mine at the bottom in a recent game we played. His APM was 119 in the game and mine was a lousy 62. And actually that is quite good for me, cause I can see that many of my old games have APMs around 55.

Now I don't think that a high APM rate is all good. Some players have APM in the 3-400 range and that is just plain silly. I even think 119 is higher than strictly necessary, although Gergõ argues that it keeps you on your toes to have a constant high APM, even when it is not absolutely necessary, to play the game well.

I think I'll make it my goal to get my APM up to around 75 soon and without cheating. Just pressing random keys would make it too easy.

Another, and I think much more valuable lesson he taught me, was to use hotkeys more. Hotkeys allows you to keep producing stuff even when your attention is on your units. I now use 0 for my ComSat, 9 to 4 for unit producing buildings and 3 to 1 for unit groups. Even when in battle I press 9, see if anything needs to be queued, put stuff in queue if necessary and so on. The benefit being that I can still watch the combat and adjust that if need be. I need to do this more often.

Another trick that I rediscovered from watching a replay with AiurAdun was how to split the SCVs properly in the opening minutes of the game. Select all SCVS and send them to a mineral patch. Deselect the first and sent the rest to another mineral patch. Repeat until the group consists of only one SCV. It really makes your opening slightly faster if done correctly and it warms you up to the high paced action that is Starcraft when it is at its very best.

Bordering the Sea

So I played three games against a Protoss called Veramar. Thanks to my eternal suckiness I lost the first two and only managed to secure the victory in the third and final game.

5 minutes into the first game, I realized that I was a better player than him and yet still managed to loose to a reaver drop in my mineral line. Pathetic play!

The second one was slightly better. He basically pumped zealots from two gateways and I tried to hold my ramp using scvs to block and marines behind them to hit the zealots. I think I could have managed this better by using 3 scvs. Two to block and the third to repair what ever was being hit. But I was to nervous to pull that many scvs from gathering resources. That was a bad judgment call. When I finally had enough troops to secure the ramp he gave up attacking with zealots alone and I countered. When I reached his base he had dark templars and I had to flee. This basically sealed the game in his favor, although it went on for another 5 to 8 minutes.

In the third game I decided to be a chicken and block the ramp with buildings. He then went for a reaver drop like in the first game, but I had suspected he might and I had units to defeat it. I still need to work on placing them better when anticipating a drop. When the drop failed I went for a contain and slow tank push up his ramp. This was a very safe victory for me. Surprisingly enough I had gathered the least resources when the game ended. Impressive how even a failed reaver drop can set you back!

Since iC Cup rewards a win with 130 points and punishes a loss with -50, I ended up gaining 30 points total. I'm not so sure I deserved that given how badly I lost the two first games.

What can a Starcraft Player Earn?

When I talk to people about the Korean Starcraft scene I am often met with a lot of skepticism. First: Can it really be true that eSports is more than a teenage boy's fantasy in any part of the world? Secondly: How much can a Player really earn, playing Starcraft. I've often wondered about that myself and it is not easy to find a solid number. An article in the Herald Tribune specifies that top players can earn in excess of $100.000 a year. I don't know if all pro-players earn that, but I do know that the KeSPAs (Korean eSport Association) official numbers of Starcraft Professionals in Korea is around 600.

This picture is from the Starleague 2008 final, showing July winning 40 million Korean Won. That is about $40,000, which I think is a pretty hefty sum.

Best, the second place got half of that amount. Still a lot without being high stakes Poker.

OSL 2008

The OSL 2008 finals are insane.I highly recommend watching the July versus Best games. The link I provided there is to an article named "OMG did I just watch that? The OSL 2008 finals". The games really are that exiting.

The first two games are so cheezy, that you'd have to see it to believe it. One of the commentators claims that the second game could be a candidate for "the pimpest play 2008" and I wholeheartedly agree. The first game could be one too!

The best of it all, is when the camera switches from the action in game two, to show Bisu among the audience. He just looks shocked and awed at the same time. Speaking of the audience: If you haven't see a Korean Starcraft Finale before, you have to see the images from the first game that really demonstrates how many people have shown up to see the matches. It is just sick.

The final game shows some amazing use of scourges in the early game and demonstrates just how unfair ultralisks are.

Defeat frenzy

I've not been playing much lately. I blame real life and work, but mostly I've been avoiding logging on to iC Cup. The defeats were getting to me and it was no fun.

But today I have played a series of games. All of them on Tau Cross: a map I don't really like, but all the other bonus maps this week are worse. I've played a few Terran vs. Terran games where I have lost very fast. I don't understand why, when I go fast wraiths against a Terran I loose, but when a Terran goes fast wraiths against me I still loose. That does not seem fair.

I even lost a regular game against a Zerg. The only match up I am reasonably confident about. He harassed me with mutalisks, then did a switch to lurkers and zerglings. The harassment set me back a lot and the lurker containment had me locked up in my base for awhile. Just when I was ready to break out, he switch his remaining mutalisks into guardians and killed me.

My final game was against another zerg. When I scouted him, I saw that he was going 9-drones, spawning pool and even when his second overlord spawned he did not make drones of his larva. I take a little pride in deducing the obvious: That he would attack me with 6 or 8 zerglings right away. When they arrived in my base I had one marine and a bunker. With that and my scvs I fended the attack off. He tried a few follow up attacks and then quit. That was quite stupid as I had not really used my advantage much and I think he could have survied my counter attack and gone into mid game. Pretty weird.