The Starcraft Noob: April 2011

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

North American Star League Results Division 5, Week 1

Here is the results for Week 1 of Division 5 in the North American Star League!

Idra(2) vs Socke(1)
Sen(2) vs Zenio(0)
Painuser(1) vs Cloud(2)
Drewbie(0) vs Boxer(1)
Tyler(0) vs Mana(2)

Games to check out would be

Game 3 of Painuser vs Cloud.

Both games of Sen vs Zenio were very good.

Game 2 of Tyler vs Mana.

Game 2 of Drewbie vs Boxer

I would like to say that the majority of these matches were mirror matchups with 2 of these being TvT. In almost every TvT match I have seen, its always the same, Marine/Tank. People have said that this matchup offers the most interesting play, however I have yet to see that. TvT just seems to be way to boring. ZvZ looks to be more interesting IMO.

Monday, April 18, 2011

North American Star League Results Division 3 and 4, Day 3 and 4

Here are the results for Day 3 of the North American Star League!

I did not have time to watch all the matches in depth over the weekend but here is how Day 3 and Day 4 went. If anyone would like me to write brief article on each match let me know and I will find time to do it! Hopefully tomorrow I will be back on track for matches!

Division 3
Slush(2) vs MoonGlade(1)
Haypro(0) vs KawaiiRice(2)
DDE(1) vs Nada(2)
Exslav(1) vs Squirtle(2)
Naniwa(0) vs Strelok(2)

Division 4
Hasuobs(0) vs Select(2)
Ret() vs Ace(2)
Catz(2) vs Goody()
Brat_ok(2) vs MC(0)
Machine(1) vs Stalife(2)

Also, if you do have access to any of the games here are the ones that were really good.
Recommended games to watch:
Game 3 of DDE vs Nada.
Epic turnaround for Nada

Game 1 of Exslav vs Squirtle
Incredible use of Phoenix vs. Colossus

Game 2 of Hasuobs vs Select
Epic defense from Select

Thursday, April 14, 2011

North American Star League Results Division 2, Day 2

This post is all about the match results for Day 2 of the North American Star League! Day 2 features 10 players from all over the world competing for the $100k prize pool.

I want to start out by saying I am sorry for not giving all of the info for the first Day the NASL. There was quite a lot of videos to watch and I just did not have enough time to watch them all! I can however give the results for the matches.

Day 1

Artosis vs Sheth

I did watch some of this match and to be honest, so no extraordinary play from Artosis. Sheth went on to beat him 2-0.

Fenix vs KiwiKaki
Fenix beat out KiwiKaki 2-0.

Morrow vs Rainbow

Morrow beat Rainbow 2-0.

Now on to Day 2! Here is the Map Pool that will be used:

NASL Division 2, Day 2's Map Pool, Crossfire, Backwater gulch, and Taldarim Altar

As you can see, the same maps from Day 1 except Terminus has been taken out, and Taldarim Altar was added in. The first match to be broadcasted will be QXC vs MoMaN!

NASL Division 2 QXC vs MoMaN

Match: (T) vs (Z)

This map favors some unique
play with far positions and not
so easily defendable expos

Game 1

Map: Crossfire

Match 1 proved to be very exciting with a few close calls and excellent timing pushes from both opponents. QXC opens with Tank Marine and gets ready to push, but Moman gets 10 Mutalisks out just in time to take out the Tanks. QXC does however damage the Hatchery to just 40 hit points. This loss just puts QXC at a disadvantage and MoMaN takes the first win.

Backwater gulch offers an easily
defendable expansion but large
open areas in the middle.

Game 2

Map: Backwater Gulch

In this match, players spawn in cross positions at the Top Right and Bottom Left positions. QXC uses a great new tactic. He mixed Reapers with speed with Medivacs healing. The Medivac acted as a scout up on ramps and the Reapers were able to poke up, shoot and jump back down to prevent taking any damage. However, MoMaN takes advantage of QXC's immobile army and darts in and out of QXC's base several times doing moderate damage to his economy. This caused QXC to fall permanently behind with Banelings and Mutalisks darting in, taking out units, and darting back out, denying any expansion attempt by QXC. MoMaN takes the game and the series, 2-0.

NASL Division 2 Cruncher vs Darkforce

Match: (P) vs (Z)

Game 1

Map: Crossfire

Cruncher opens up with a 3 gate Stargate and begins pumping out Voidrays. He uses them for some inital harrassment but retreats with only 3 Queens to defend. Darkforce looks to be teching to Roaches while Cruncher begins picking up a few delayed Collossus to help supplement his army. Many many Corrupters are on the field and Cruncher attempts to push out with a Blink Stalker/Collossus/VoidRay mix but loses his Colossi to the huge amount of Corrupters on the map, however Cruncher succeeds in taking out the ground army of DarkForce and proceeds to continue the aggression and take the first game.

Game 2

Map: Backwater Gulch

Players spawn in cross positions. The builds appear to be very standard play until Cruncher places a Proxy Pylon, but it is scouted 1 minute before Warp Gate tech is researched. Cruncher decides to expand with only 2 Gateways and nearly loses it to some early Zergling pressure, but holds it with only 3 Zealots and a Sentry. He proceeds to place a Stargate down and begins to produce some Void Rays again. He begins some harrasment and map control with the Void Rays and Phoenixs and also proceeds to grab some Colossus while Darkforce is grabbing a Spire with a Roach/Hyrda army. However Darkforce is very low on gas and his 3rd base was delayed due to the Void Ray harass. Both players are playing very passively, just teching up at this point. Darkforce moves on to take 3 more bases and pushes in but is rebuffed and loses all his Corrupters and ground army and is now grabbing Infestors with Neural Parasite However Darkforce still has an advantage in numbers as well as excellent creep spread so he may be able to deal with this army effectively. However, Cruncher does begin teching to get a Mothership. Darkforce try's to keep Cruncher at bay with some Zergling harass, while rebuilding units he lost against that Stalker/Colossus/Void Ray combo. Another engagement with the Mothership/Colossus/Stalker/Void Ray mix means total defeat for the Zerg army, Cruncher begins taking out expansions and Darkforce concedes the match. Cruncher taking the series and the game to 2-0. Very great game and an excellent unit combo that isn't used enough!

NASL Division 2 TT1(P) vs Sjow(T)

Match: (P) vs (T)

Game 1

Map: Crossfire

This match featured some pretty standard play, TT1 opening up with some Gateway units and transitioning into Robotics play. Sjow choosing to go with Marine/Tank with a Raven, which works REALLY well against Protoss. More Terran players need to not only be incorporating it in a PvT matchup, but making it standard in every PvT match. Point Defense Drone works so well against our Stalkers. TT1 makes a mistake early on and attempt to pick off some Tanks, but loses his army in the process. Sjow then sets up outside TT1's expo and finishes him off with the help of some Banshees. Sjow takes the game 0-1.

Game 2

Map: Backwater Gulch

Both players are spawning on the Right sides of the map. Both players are going for an early expand. TT1 went for a 3 Warpgate with Sjow going for a 3 Barracks and with Banshees coming out. TT1 is going for Colossus again, and a Raven for Sjow coming out as well. Pretty much the same build from both players again, however TT1 favoring Zealots over Stalkers, in fact, not a single Stalker has been made by the 12 minute mark. He is probably trying to make that Raven useless as Point Defense Drone down not cancel out the Colossus's attack. He did try to destroy Sjows army, but the Tanks and Marines are able to eliminate the 20+ Zealots that are without Charge with relative ease. Charge would most likely have done a lot more damage to Sjow if he had it. Having that many Zealots it would only make sense to upgrade them with Charge. Sjow takes the series 0-2.

NASL Division 2 InControl(P) vs Ensnare(T)

Match: (P) vs (T)

Game 1

Map:Crossfire

This match shows that its not the size of the unit that matters, its how you use it. both players open pretty standard, 3 gate expand and a Marine/Tank unit combo into an expansion. Incontrol buys his expansion some time by positioning some units and Sentries outside Ensnare's base to prevent him from moving out while Incontrol takes the economic lead. Incontrol then starts teching up to Colossus while Ensnare makes a push with his Marine/Tank Combo, gradually pushing Incontrols Stalker/Sentrys back, but the first Colossus does make it out just as Ensnares Marines get separated from the tank line. Wihtin a few seconds, all 25 Marines are dead, and the last of the Tanks are getting mopped up. Both armies however do end up building up into that deadly ball and Ensnare does a few drops and positions himself to have a very clear control over his half of the map, but Incontrol takes advantage of the immobility of the siege tanks and jsut completely sidesteps Ensnares army and goes right into his main. By using Ensnares own ramp against him, he is able to take out his army and claim Game 1.

Game 2

Map: Backwater Gulch

InControl attempts a Dark Templar Rush but does not realize Ensnare expanded very quickly and built a few Missile Turrets in time to stop the Dark Templar. Ensnare makes a very good timing push after Incontrol is attempting to expand twice, and crushes his defenses. Ensnare takes the series 1-1.

This is a very Macro oriented map with 2 close
expansions and very long distances between bases

Game 3

Map: Taldarim Altar

Last match of the day. The only match to make it to this map. I was looking forward to this map to see how a Protoss reacts to certain pushes. Players spawn in cross positions so this is going to be a very long macro oriented map. Ensnare takes a very early expansion while Incontrol begins building more units. He is going to go for Colossus, while Ensnare is getting 8 Barracks for a heavy infantry only unit composition. Ensnare is in the lead with food, but a heavy Infantry well get torn apart by Incontrols 5 Colossus. When the engagement finally happens it does happen in Incontrols favor by having excellent Forcefield placement and a dozen Phoenix's to absorb the damage from the Vikings. He kept his Colossus safe and delivered a defeat to a Code S Korean. Congrats Incontrol!!!!

Spoiler Alert!

Results

White-Ra(0) vs July(2)

QXC(0) vs MoMaN(2)

DarkForce(0) vs CrunCher(2)

TT1(0) vs Sjow(2)

InControl(2) vs Ensnare(1)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

North American Star League Results Division 1, Day 1

Well I gotta say, the NASL was very exciting to watch and I was glad I got to be a part of it. The first match of the League turned out to be an epic one with a player that is fast becoming one of my favorite to watch.

Here is what I was able to watch:

Grubby vs Moon
Vibe vs TLO
Artosis vs Sheth

Also, the NASL is limiting players to certain maps on certain days. For example, Players were going to play on 3 different maps, each in succession, so there was no "loser chooses next map." The players knew who they were up against and where, so as to give the players enough time to learn each others strategies, and be as comfortable on the maps played as possible to provide us with some truly epic matches. Here is the current map pool for Day 1:

I have written a brief summary of each of the matches for those of you who were or are not able to watch them.

Grubby vs Moon
Division 1

Match: (P) vs (Z)
Game 1
Map: Terminus

Terminus is a very Macro oriented map
with two natural expansions that are
easily defended.

This match opened up pretty odd with Grubby going for not 1 early expand, but 2. It is important to note that this is the same map that Day(9) and Husky both dual casted the match between Team Liquids Tyler and Jinro. After taking his 2 early expansions, Grubby moves on to wall himself off. Moon, doing the typcial Zerg opening decides to transition into Banelings and nearly pulls the Baneling Bust off by sending an Overlord in to distract his Sentries. However, Grubby holds it off masterfully not, once but twice as a second attempt at busting his front door down was thwarted. Moon later transitions into Mutalisks for harrasment but Grubbys economy was so far ahead by this time that he just overwhelmed Moon's defenses and went on to take game 1! Great job Grubby!!!!

This map favors some unique
play with far positions and not
so easily defendable expos.

Game 2

Map: Crossfire

This game was played on Crossfire and showed a bit more standard play from both sides, however Moon took full advantage of Zergs mobility and limited the timing of Grubby's expansions and movement of his army by keeping him locked down within his base. Grubby held on an excellent defense against Moon using Blink Stalkers. It took Moon nearly 5 minutes of game time to push him back from his base, back to Grubby's, but in the end the sheer amount of forces Grubby had in conjunction with his ability to replenish every unit lost almost as quickly was what gave Moon the win! Truly another epic game!

Backwater gulch offers an easily
defendable expansion but large
open areas in the middle.

Game 3
Map: Backwater Gulch

This match had to be the most entertaining out of all three. Players spawn in the Top Right and Bottom Left positions and lead into a very macro oriented play. However, Grubby plays very safe and begins taking his third only after Moon has already made plans to take not only his 4th and 5th, but his 6th as well. With neither player wanting to risk it, they both play very safe.Grubby looked to be at a disadvantage but pulls ahead after a surprising engagement that ended in his favor. After moving from one side of the map to the other to defend against Moons small Mutalisk army, Grubby grabs a few Dark Templars to begin sniping his opponents bases, while Moon decided to counter this by sending a dozen Roaches occasionally to Grubby's expansions to keep him contained and on the defensive. Grubby ends up being successful and takes out 4/6 bases of Moon's but a small misblink causes Grubby to lose too many Stalkers against several Broodlords. This began a down ward spiral as Moon began to retake his bases and apply pressure from 3 different angles to keep Grubby away from his base.

This tactic eventually won him the game as he denied the economy of Grubby and slowly rebuilt his own. Truly an epic series of games I have not seen the like in quite some time. Grubby is truly a man to watch. Great job Moon on the first victory of the NASL!

TLO vs Vibe
Division 1

Match: (T) vs (Z)
Game 1
Map: Terminus

This match was very interesting as it appeared Vibe was going for a very mobile army reinforced with some upgraded Infestors, and equipped with the mobility of the Nydus Worm, however TLO made sure Vibe could not take advantage of this despite having a very immobile army. I don't believe a single Maurader was used in this game. He was going primarily for Tanks, Thors, and Marines. He was able to pick apart Vibes army as he poked in and made sure to stay so bunched up that the mobility advantage Vibe has was never used. TLO took this game 1-0. Some important things to mention on this map was the amazing micro from TLO using only 12 marines and a Medivac to kite two Ultralisks around a mineral patch and nearly take them both out.

Game 2
Map: Crossfire

This match had to have been the most creative one I have seen yet. TLO pulls a very suprising 6 Barracks rush and suprises Vibe with a mass of Marines. Vibe was busy teching up and had only a handful of units on the field. TLO takes this match and this series 2-0.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The NASL starts tonight!

I am really excited to watch the start of the series tonight!

The only way you can watch is if you purchase a ticket from there site nasl.tv

Tickets are $25, and give you full access to there Videos if you want to watch them later, not to mention replays and other interviews.

Stay tuned here to the Starcraft Noob for updates! I will be watching the matches and posting the results as I get them!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Mouse Accuracy

Have you ever wanted to try to increase your Mouse Accuracy by either using a Starcraft 2 map or program?

I found this neat little tool developed in HTML5. Not sure if it will help increase the accuracy of your mouse clicks, but its a great way to keep your mechanical skills up even when not playing Starcraft like at work, or when you need to take a few days off from laddering.

It helps you aim at targets that are stationary, moving, mutiple targets that pop up and must be dealt with very quickly(micro), or blind clicking to help your accuracy when your attention has to be focused elsewhere...

http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/target-shooter/?f=

Note: For best results, play this game using Google Chrome or Safari. You should all be using chrome anyway because it is far superior to all the other web browsers, including Firefox IMO.

Also, there seem to be a few bugs with it. For me it tells me I lose around the 8k points mark, but I get no trouble if i just close the window out and start a new game instead of pressing ACEPTAR.

Post your scores!

So far I have gotten too:
Stage 10
35030 Points

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Osu!

You need to check this game out. I have heard from multiple people that it can really help increase your mouse accuracy...

I have played it quite a bit over the last few weeks and it really works, and it is a lot of fun! I particularly like playing the 4 minutes song by Madonna and Justin Timberlake.

Here is how to set it up.

Sign up for their site at http://osu.ppy.sh/
Download the game from said site
Install it.
Search for a song and download it in the Beatmaps section of the website.
Simply open what you downloaded and Osu! will do the rest!.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Fly Like Auir

I just realized I had not shared this song I found while watching a few streams! It's brilliant! I've had to listen to it for the past 2 weeks because of how catchy it is! You can purchase the song from http://underlineent.com/. I highly recommended supporting them and buying the song!

"Sometimes I think Feedback is lame, my Templar has no energy but thats OK..."

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

North American Star League Schedule of Matches

Here is the proposed schedule for the NASL. Some exciting matches coming up!

You can find out more info in this forum at www.TeamLiquid.net.

North American Star League Season 1 Schedule

4/11

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