Still Platinum!

So after a long 70 hour work week, I head over to a clients house to clean her floors. Shes a nice older lady who I frequently talk to about other business ventures and stuff in general. She told me to head home early and enjoy some time to myself, after I told her how long of a week I had. Now, to set things straight, Work is the reason I have not been able to devote any time to the blog, or Starcraft in general. a 60-70 Hour work week is now normal for me. Any Semblance of a Social Life or free time went out the door in favor or paying the bills.

Anyway, I took her up on her offer, headed home and spent an hour playing Starcraft, which involved 1 Ladder game. I lost to a Diamond Player going Roach + Infestor probably because, even though I knew he was going Roaches, I still built a Colossus. I had been producing a few Immortals, but did not keep up with it, so eventually he won out by having more units. It wasn't until after my third base went down that I realized I was not spending all of my resources, or did I have enough unit producing Structures. I still had 3 Gateways after my 2nd base went up. I still have trouble knowing when to build more unit producing structures after an expansion goes down. I am finding I need to find the right time to push, or just push out then to see what he is doing and how much he has to know whether to continue building units and wait till I have enough money too add more buildings on. I am liking this 3 gate Council build though....

But I was placed in Platinum after that match still! Hooray!!!!!

NASL Grand Finals Day 2 Quarter Finals MC vs Sen

Day 2 Match 6
Sen vs MC

Game 1
Taldarim Altar is the first map. Sen graciously asks MC to not 3-0 him lol, MC obliges and says, ok 3-1. MC throws down a 15 Nexus before Sen grabs his Hatchery, instead opting in for a Spawning pool. Forge is down and Cannons do follow. MC does completely wall himself in, so Sen may Baneling bust, and MC may go Voidrays as MC throws down a Stargate, but nothing is determined yet. Sen continues to Drone up. Sen places a semi ninja expansion at his 4th. MC scouts his main and 3rd with his Voidray and does discover that 4th early on, but is unable to take it down as Spore Crawlers are up. MC favoring a bit of air units trys to go in, but Sen catches him off gaurd as Hydras are now on the field. He loses his Void Ray, but still has alot of Phoenixs. Charge and more gateways are on their way, Infestors for Sen and the food counts are about even at 120 at the 12 min mark. Zealots charge in, as well as Phoenixs now that Charge is ready and clears up those Hydras. He applies pressure on that 4th, but no clear winner comes out of this. MC moving for Storm and a Robo, while Sen moves into Banelings with Zerglings and Hydras and Infestors. He is also taking his 4th base and MC has his 3rd established. Massive amounts of Banelings are being made, and no Colossus are on the map. MC'd 4th base is on its way. Both armies are now maxed at the 18 min mark. Storms drive the Zerglings back and kill so many, Blink is in effect, and Sen should have won that encounter Bu MC comes out on top. MC applies some Blink Stalker pressure at the 4th base of Sen and it causes Sen to eventually lose his Zergling army, Sen gg's and MC takes game 1.

Game 2
Backwater Gulch is the map, MC spawns int he top Right corner, and Sen in the Bottom left. Pretty standard play, MC does a 1 Gate Expand and places a Stargate down as well. Starts bringing in more gateways as well and a Void Ray. Sen is wanting to go Roaches but still has alot of Zerglings, Artosis then drops a Hammer MC joke much to the crowds dismay. 3 Voidrays are out but Sen holds it off. Sen has decided to take his 3rd as his gold, but MC doesnt discover that till well after its down and established. It looks like MC is going to go Colossus, very interesting play and we are going to see a very diverse unit composition. Baneling nest is on its way in. Sens economy is soaring ahead. MC is falling behind in minerals and in food. 170-140 at the 13 min mark. Sen is even taking his 4th base, but he still has not revealed his Colossus. He goes for an engagement and manages his units very well and clears out the initial army of Sen, but Sen counters with his queens help and pushes him back, until they fall off creep, and MC pushes him back, but it is 4 bases vs 2 for MC. MC is microing his army very well, but i dont think it will be enough. This will probably be the last engagement for this match and MC is keeping his Colossus alive, but it doesnt work and MC gg's, Sen ties the series 1-1.

Game 3
Xelnage Caverns is the next map, MC spawning at the bottom. Standard play again, no out of the ordinary Korean Tactics. MC looking to expand and has alot of Zealots early on, looking to delay the Hatchery, but doesn't work quite well and he is forced to retreat. Sen picks the 3 Zealots off. MC grabs his expansion, and a Twilight council. Sen is upgrading his Melee attack, so probably a Baneling bust coming out. Dark Shrine is also on it way, and no Lairs for Overseers to detect it, but Sen reads him well and places 2 Spore Crawlers down for detection and also gets his 3rd base up at the gold. MC is not looking to be in good position as the 2 Dark Templar he created were quickly picked off with no value coming from them. MC transitions into some more Gateways and is looking to take his 3rd. Sen is looking to be in great position again. MC trys to move in, but Forcefields the Banelings and maintains his unit count,  and takes out a few units, he is still trailing Sen in food and trys to push in again, but he loses his Zealots and the Zerglings surround  the Blink Stalkers. Again no clear victor in these engagements, but Sen is still in the lead overall. 150-120 food at the 15 min mark. Sen decided to push MC's 3rd, blows his Nexus and Baneling drops MC's army. MC loses his army and his natural and gg's allowing Sen to take the series 2-1.

Game 4
Map is Terminus RE. MC spawning in the North, Sen in the West. They loaded the wrong map, RESTART!!!

Map is Terminus RE, MC spawning in the East, Sen in the North. No wierd shenaniganes, both players place down their expansions at 18. Sen takes his 3rd at the 5 min mark, and MC throws a Stargate down, followed by a Void Raw, Sen get his Hydra Den down as well, knowing MC has been liking this VoidRay play, he manages to take down 2 Queens, but loses his Void Ray, but in Response, MC makes alot of phoenixs and starts picking off Overlords and picks up his own third in the process. Corrupters are on thier way with some Mutalisks, Not sure what kind of unit comp MC is going for as he is relying on his Phoenix harrasment. Sen making alot of Zerglings and MC going for Templars with Storm with lots of Gateways warped in and established. Hes made alot of Zealots and Sentries. MC moves out and takes his 4th, Sen is leading in army count by about 20, but Sen sneaks in the back and gets his Mutas Stormed and lsoes his ground army i think(video stuttered) and pushes forward, MC now in the food lead, 200 to 180. Sen grabs his Hive and both players are now on 4 bases. Sen tries to assult the 4th but is rebuffed, and now morphs in 74 Zerglings and 30 Banelings to try and suicide that 4th, and it works, MC lsoes his 4th. Stream lag takes its toll and  have no idea whats going on. Food counts look to be the same as the stream stabilizes. Infestors are now in play and MC is looknig to take out the 4th, and he almost does it, but he loses alot of units, but takes out the ground army of Sen as well, an almost even exchange, but Sens 4th is still up. MC looking to keep up the pressure, his food count his higher than Sen, but MC looking to bring in Colossus But Sen is taking his 5th and 6th base. Stream is really laggy right now. MC mass produces Colossus, 3 at a time, and is up to 6. He is maxed out, using storms, and taking out the Banelings even after the losses, both players are still even. but is staying close to the Front lines, however Broodlords are now on the Map, and voidrays are being produced in response to this. 3 Robos, Lots of Gateways, and 3 Stargates for mass production of units. MC still hasnt expanded to his 5th yet, which is bad, his economic deisadvantage will catch up with him sonner or later., ah now he takes his 5th. Voidrays in, lots of Broodlos are in as well and they get caught out of position, the broodlords and he is losing them fast. He keeps losing them to the 10 Void Rays and MCs ground army is charging in All sen has now is Zerglings. and bringing in Infestors. Sen keep Fungal Growthing the Void Ray mass and they are now in the Yellow after all that. Sens 4th base is down, 5th base jsut fell, and MC's ground army is staying back and defending his 5th base. Void Rays are going for the 6th bue hes losing them to the Fungal Growths. Sen takes a huge economic shot and is not behind, food count is 195 - 100 at the 32 min mark. Storms, Collossus, and Stalkers are moving in and MC finishes Sen off. He takes the series 2-2.
WOW MC!!

Game 5
Last game of this Best of 5 will be played on Metalopolis and Players are spawned in Closer by air positions in the bottom. Standard play again, Both players expanding early. More stargate play from MC coming up.followed by a Void Ray. Roaches coming in, but no Lair for Hydras. Sen does have an Evo Chamber though, food is at 60 each at the 8 min mark. The Void Ray is rebuffed and Spore Crawlers as well. Sens third is now up and running. and a Macro Hatch so Sen is on 4 hatches and 3 bases defending very well against the 5 Phoenixs and 1 Void Ray from MC. MC responds by taking his 3rd and is able to hold it even as Sen trys to scout it. Send responds and begins teching up very heavily and sends his Phoenxis for harrasment. Sen try to take his 4th gold, but it is scouted by MC and he tries to take it down, but Sen defends so well against it by canceling and replacing the hatch with 4 Queens and a spore Crawler at the Gold. Sen takes this advantage and places his 5th and 6th base down. Both armies are approching max. MC is not taking any more expansions and almost loses his army but some well managed unit control lets him save that battle. Sen does a drop in a mineral line and takes out a few Probes but nothing big. MC takes his Gold and is positioning himself near Sens Gold. Dark Templars are taking out Hatches, Armies are engagning again, but MC keeps coming out on top. Most battles are taking place near the Gold, Sen loses his Gold, his 5th, and his 6th, the 3rd of Sen is under attack, and MC is still pushing forward. food count is now 160 for MC 120 for Sen. MC still in the lead. Both sides take huge damage and back out, but Sen takes alot more damage in my oppinion. MC taking his 4th, and is researching Storm. Broodlords are in play now, but MC still outnumbters Sen, he Blinks underneath the Broodlords and takes the victory, MC will take the win 3-2. Way to go MC!

MC vs Puma tomorrow! Epic Epic Matches!!!!

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.

Warp Prisms and you. A guide to having safe Warping with your partner.

Did you know a transformed
Warp Prism can still
carry units?

A docile Warp Prism

OK boys and girl(lets be honest, theres not many of you out there in SC2), Its time to tell you about the Warp Gates and the Prisms...


When two opponents want to kill each other really passionately, they will sometimes resort to very invasive measures. The key is to test the waters and to make sure your opponent can handle that type of pressure, er wait I mean not handle it...oh boy....this isn't going well...


I used Warp Prisms back in the Silver league of the Beta. It seemed to be the only way I could in against a turtling Terran going mass Vikings. Recently I began using them again. A Zerg match I had earlier today inspired me to begin using them again. The same match I used for my Phoenix build in my post about New Protoss Builds for PvZ.


This match was an epic one. Ever since going 4 gate against Protoss I have begun having more success in this matchup, I know it's sad, but I don't have much choice at this level of play. My opponent snuck a Probe behind my line and near the not so natural expansion on Delta Quadrant. Then the war for the non natural expansion began. If he had done this at the front, I wouldn't have had such an easy time expanding, teching up, and feel safe in general.  Check the replay out, it was quite a good match.

Both Offensive and Defensive Forcefields at work here.

As soon as I fended off the Proxy push, I had an already setup Expo, and was building a Warp Prism with Blink to abuse his obvious high unit count. Protoss units are best stuck together. We don't have the numbers of units that Terran and Zerg often have at later stages in the game. A Protoss army consists of Quality over Quantity(when you think about it like this, those Forge upgrades suddenly seem a lot better huh?). So I loaded up a few zealots and flew to his not so natural expansion, and warped in 7 Blink Stalkers on the cliff over looking it.

Blink Stalkers in combination with Warp Prisms are a very useful.

I waited till a 2nd round of warp ins were ready and brought those in as well. I blinked 14 stalkers into his mineral line and cleaned it up, when his units came over to defend, I blinked back up, waited for them to move and blinked them back in. I then sent my main army to his front and it became a two pronged attack. Shortly after he GG'd.


This next one was on Metalopolis. We spawned in close positions by air. However it was another PvP so using Phoenix's were not an option. When you are close positions by air, utilizing Warp Prisms should be a must, like using Phoenix's or Void Rays against Zerg in the same spawn points.

Did you know you can cut off an army using this choke point? 

The Warp Prism came in handy, and I only used it when I knew my opponent had a Sentry at the ramp waiting to FF me the moment my Army was halfway up. I quickly macro'd up and got a Prism with about 7 Gateways to support it. I knew he had an expansion so I Warped in 2 rounds of units. Notice a pattern? when you warp in units, you want to make sure they are going to do damage and be big enough to warrant bringing the entirety of his force to hold it off, so waiting 20 seconds to warp in another round is worth it.

What warping in behind a shrouded area of the map looks like.

Once he moved back I moved in and took out his expansion, while at the same time, I took my third. My force in the back didn't do much damage, in fact we were on more even terms after that exchange, however I was going on 3 bases while he was now back on one. So in the grand scheme of things, it was a great exchange for me.

Summary
So to sum up, Warp Prisms are best used when your opponent does not know about them, and unlike drops they can transport more units into the base. This is why it is so important to wait for another round of warp ins, or to wait until you have more than 4 gateways. If the main has cliffs you can abuse, use them in combination with Blink Stalkers. Delta Quadrant is a great example of this.

Back to 4 Gating

So I find myself going back to four gating. My three Gate Robo build was not working out as well as I had hoped. After three week of not playing Starcraft 2, going back to four gating just seemed natural. Its an easy build:

4 Warp Gate Build Order


9 Pylon
13 Gateway
14 Assimilator
16 Pylon
17 Cyber Core
19 Gateway
20 Stalker
23 Gateway
24 Pylon
24 Gateway

By the time you hit your 26th supply(provided you only build 1 Gateway unit and are constantly building probes) Warp Gate tech is ready and you will need to produce mass amounts of Pylons. I like to drop 3 more at once to expand my supply to 50. Then start warping in units and gradually be placing Pylons down as 4 gateway units count as 1 Pylon worth of supply. This is also a good time to put a proxy Pylon somewhere.

Chrono Boosts
Chrono Boosts play a big part in any Protoss Build. No matter what opening build you are doing, you should be going for Warp Gate research. It is the cheapest research with the biggest benefits. It cuts training down by five seconds per gateway unit and allows any Gateway unit to be warped in to your Pylon influence in four seconds. Ideally you can use 4 Chrono Boosts on Warp Gate before it finishes. Each one cuts 10 seconds off the time. However, if your timing isn't perfect you can end up wasting half of the 4th one so I tend to stick with 3. By doing this I can also use 3 Chrono Boosts on my Nexus as well.

Poking and Scouting
While you are getting your base setup, send a probe every now and again to poke into the base, yes you will lose a probe but you will be able to tell what his unit comp is or isn't. In my latest match, my opponent went for heavy Stalkers and very little Zealots, I saw this by simply suiciding a probe onto his ramp. So I quickly put down a Twilight Council and started researching Charge. Zealots with just the movement speed increase move almost as fast as a stalker.

What to transition into.
Before transitioning into Colossus or Voidrays or whatever, you need to take an expansion. Having two bases mining is so important in Starcraft 2. You will want to take you small force in and cause some trouble, make him think twice about moving out. This will allow a safe expansion to be warping in. Once you have two bases its time to decide what to do next. Two bases can support up to 8 Warp Gates and a Forge. However this way leaves yourself vulnerable to Cloaked units. You may want to grab a Robotics Facility to grab an Observer. This will also open up a transition into Colossus. You can make one Robotics Facility and get up to 6 Warp gates for faster unit production. Picking up a Twilight Council as well to grab Charge or Blink is also useful as the building alone allows you to research more effective armor and weapons upgrades.

There you have it, the 4gate build order. It is a heavy macro oriented build. To learn more about macro and how to master it check out my post about the subject here.

1v1, 1 v 1, Protoss, Starcraft 2, SC2, Starcraft2, Protoss Build Order, 4gate, 4 Gate, Chrono, Chrono boost, Chronoboost, Nexus, Pylon, Pylons, Supply, Supply Blocked, Stalker, Zealot, Core, Cybernetics Core, Warp Gate, Gateway, Assimilator,Strategy Game, 3 Gate Robo, 3gate robo, 3gaterobo, Probes, Probe, 4 warpgate build order, 4gate build order, Twilight Council, Charge, Blink, Blink Stalkers, Stargate, Star gate, Observer, Macro