Great Team Liquid Thread:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=263636

It talks about the Protoss Warp in Mechanic and things you may not have thought about concerning it. He claims it broke Protoss, I don't agree with that opinion, but the content does make think about certain aspects of the game and how Protoss differs from the other 2 races because of this mechanic.

Starcraft 2 PTR Patch 1.4

The most notable and worthwhile change in my opinion is probably the Immortal Buff. That needed to happen a year ago.


General
Unit vision up ramps has been reduced by 1.

PROTOSS
Immortal
Attack range increased from 5 to 6.

Mothership
Acceleration increased from 0.3 to 1.375.
The Mothership’s Cloaking Field no longer cloaks all units instantaneously, but rather adds units to the cloak field over time (maximum of 25 per second). This should alleviate “Mothership Lag” issue when a Mothership comes online.

Stalker
Blink research time increased from 110 to 140.

Warp Prism
Shields increased from 40 to 100.

TERRAN
Barracks
Build time increased from 60 to 65.

Hellion
Infernal Pre-Igniter damage upgrade decreased from 10 to 5.

Raven
Seeker missile movement speed increased from 2.5 to 2.953.

ZERG
Infestor
Fungal Growth damage changed from 36 (+30% armored) to 30 (40 vs Armored).

Overseer
Morph cost decreased from 50/100 to 50/50.
Contaminate energy cost increased from 75 to 125.

Ultralisk
Build time decreased from 70 to 55.

Huk Joins the NASL for Season 2!!!!

What more needs to be said! This season just got ten times better!

http://www.nasl.tv/News/Article/20110822nasl-welcomes-huk-and-jinro

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 Puma vs MC

Grand Finals
MC vs Puma
PvT

This will be a best of 7 series, no idea of the maps that will be used. My bet will be on these:
Xelnaga Caverns, Metalopolis, Taldarim Altar, Terminus, Shattered Temple, Crossfire, and Backwater Gulch. Not necessarily in that order.

Game 1
First map is Metalopolis. Players spawn in close air positions in the southern portion of the map. MC spawning in the south and Puma in the West. Standard play coming out, Fast factory coming out and floats up and lands in the base of MC for some Helions. MC already grabbing a Stargate and not grabbing Voidrays, but Phoenixs instead. Puma grabbing his Command center in preparation for an expansion. It seems Puma is favoring heavy Bio units and MC begins his expansion as well. food counts are about even at the ten minute mark, 80- 76 of MC. I lost the internet, just for a second but it was enough for me to miss the drop in the base of MC but i dont think it did much. MC did throw down a Templar archives at some time, and grabbing a few Archons and favoring alot of Zealots like he has in the past. MC also epxanding behind this big aggression he is doing as well. EMP's go off and completely nulify the forcefields of the Sentries which wont go down now. MC is forced to retreat as his Zealots are eliminated. Puma expands after this to his 3rd, and attempts another drop but it is spotted early. MC, after now taking full advantage of his 3rd base, is now leading the food count by 40, 150-110 at the 18 min mark. Colossus are now coming into the game as 2 Robo Facilitiys are down and producing. A lot of Ghosts are out now as well, and they get some great EMP's off, nullifying Storms. He pushes through and eliminated the army of MC and MC is forced to gg after the overpowered emps just cripple him....

Game 2
Shattered Temple is the next map and again both players are spawning in close air positions in the south. MC in the West, Puma in the South. Puma looks to be going for 3 Barracks, and MC going for an early expansion. Puma also putting down an expansion as well. Puma looking to be favoring bio units again. MC is grabbing a late 2nd gas and a Stargate and Puma this time doesn't have a Viking to help fend off the Phoenix's. Puma trys a drop but flys right into the Phoenix's of MC, MC holds it off, but his Stargate tech is delayed. Another Ghost Academy is out, so probably some Nuke play, Charge also coming up as well as more Phoenix play. Templars are coming up so we can expect some Storm play. Puma makes a drop and manages to delay the mineral line and snipe the twilight council that was making Charge. This Cripples him and now MC loses his Zealots and is forced to GG. Puma is up 2-0

Game 3
Xelnaga Caverns is the map. MC spawning in the south, Puma in the North. Standard play again. Early 2nd gas is being taken from MC. MC going for a Stargate again, hes favored this build in every game we have seen here in the finals. A Voidray is coming out as well, and a 2nd after that, MC defends Pumas early pressure so well, his entire force is eliminated. MC now goes on the offensive with the 2 Void Rays that have still not been revealed yet. He is picking off alot of buildings and forces Puma on the defensive and establishes hiw own expansion in the mean time. MC is leading the food count by 20 at the 11 min mark, 80-60. MC is going for 7 Phoenixs now and a drop from Puma is on the way. but MC picks it off with no trouble, Puma drops again, this time on MC's Twilight Council and again picks it off right before Charge Finishes. Storm is done however, and 4 Templars are on the field ready to do damage, no Ghosts to counter these and MC pushes Puma all the way back with no trouble slowly eliminating the Terran army, Puma gg's and MC takes game 3, 1-2.

Game 4
Map is Backwater Gulch. Puma is spawning in the Bottom Right corner, and MC is in the Top left. MC opening up with a Robo Opening for the first time in this series. No Stargate tech looks to be coming out. Looks to be a 3 gate Robo. Banshees looking to be coming out as well with Cloak. He trys to do some Harras but it doesnt work as MC fends it off. Puma throwing a Ninja Expansion down in the top Right corner.  Colossus are also on the way in as well. Puma also takes his Natural. Puma now favoring heavy bio units. MC going for Stalkers and Colossus. Blink is out, Charge and Storm both on its way. MC not making more than 3 Colossus. Storm as canceled it looks like.Ghosts are now in play, great EMP's go off, MC's army is destroyed, and Puma will take game 4, 3-1.

Game 5
Terminus RE is the map. Looks like im 5 for 5 in map guessing. Cross Positions are spawned, MC in the East Puma in the West. Early expansions go down. Probably a 4 gate push coming in. it is rebuffed, and a Banshee is out, with cloak, makes it across the map and picks off 9 probes. It seriously delays the economy of MC, but Puma has not done anything to take advantage of his natural. Puma is still on one base. He is just now taking his 2nd at the 10 minute mark, but Cloaked Banshees are harrasing all around the map. Chargelots are coming up. Templar Archives are up as well, with Storm most likely following, Puma is retaining map control. He makes a drop and again delays the mineral line of MC. Puma is just dominating MC and beings taking his 3rd. MC also taking his 3rd and defending against the drops very well. MC makes a push but doesnt do much except pick off 2 more drops from Puma. Puma trying to drop again. The stream is lagging. The drops of Puma are forcing MC to stay near his base and he is just not able to go on the offensive. He holds off a big attack with a key storm that changes the tide of this battle, MC IS NOW IN THE LEAD, hes got Puma running! He denys Pumas 4th and proceeds to head back and tech up. MC looking to make a few Colossus. The Archons are helping him absorb that damage and MC is even taking his 5th as well M C almost loses his 3rd, it was 4 HP away from death, and Puma is on the death march and trys to engange, Archons are getting pushed back and picked off. Puma makes a drop and picks off the 3rd, the main army of Puma is also eliminated and both sides are looking to rebuild. we are now at the 25 min mark and its 4 bases against 5. Puma charges in and Great storms go off to delay that. Colossus are now on thier way into the field MC picks off another drop and is in the lead with food by 20, Great Storms go off, Colossus now on the front lines, Puma is on the run, food count is in favor of MC by 50, EMPs go off but aren't enough. Puma gg's and MC takes game 5, 2-3.

Game 6
Taldarim Altar is the map. 6 for 6 on maps selection woot. MC spawning in the bottom Left, Puma spawning in the Bottom Right. Standard play from both sides. MC going for a fast Twilight Council. Blink is coming down, and no Dark Templar Shrine so probably a big Blink Stalker push. MC appliues alot of pressure, and really delays the mineral line with alot of early game Blink stalker pressure. 21 workers killed several of which were Mules. Stimpack has been delayed, Charge now on its way and MC expanded behind all this pressure. and is now grabbing his Templar Archives and is grabbing storm. Both players are now expanding to thier 3rd. No storm coming out, but Archons are on thier way. Ghosts are also being made. MC defends against Pumas first drop pretty easily. Storm is now on its way, as well as a 4th base for MC. No concussive shell is out, Storms go odd as Puma enganges, MC is forced to retreat, this could be it for MC, he loses his army, but a great lag spike causes me to miss how he turns it around!!!! Puma is pushed back, a great storm goes off and MC is alla round the map picking of anything he can. but a drop from puma picks off MC's 3rd, MC doing a great job at defednig it now, MC picks off a big drop! MC storms another drop Feed backs go off, Archons charging in, Puma engage but is severely at a desadvantage, Immortals in play, MC is forced back, but he is still leading in the food count, so much going on, so much lag, its getting bad.....Another big pickoff from MC stalkers take out one, feedback on the other. MC is at 200 army, Puma at 120 at the 27 min mark. Still no concussive shell is out. MC is cleaning up Puma. Puma trying to drop but it does nothing. Puma gg's and mc takes the series to 3-3. INCREDIBLE PLAY, CMON MC!!!!You can do it!!!!!!!

Game 7
Last match! Map is Crevasse! Spawn points are on the Left side of the map. MC in the bottom and Puma in the top. Early expansion going down. MC going for a 3 gate Proxy Pylon push but it doesnt do so well and is rebuffed. He loses alot of units, and only Marines and SCV's in his opponents base to hold it off. Puma going heavy Bio, Concussive Shell and Stimpack going down. Twighlight council coming up, Food count is 88-72 in favor of Puma. Puma engages, Forcefields so well, and holds off Pumas attack, he loses almost everything and MC is back in this game. Chargelots in, 6 gateways down, and no Medivacs yet, but Ghosts are in play. Dark Shrine is now coming up. Food counts are now about even, but Puma takes the advantage again and MC loses a big part of his army after trying to push up.3rd bases are coming up and Dark Templars do sneak in. Puma has very little detection and MC has alot of map control. Puma pushes out, takes out the proxy Pylon and the Ghosts of Puma EMP the sentries of MC and MC loses his army and gg's, Puma is the NASL Champion!

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!!!!

NASL Grand Finals Day 1 Select vs White-Ra

Match 7
Select vs White-Ra

Game 1

Very fast game, Whitera does a typical 3 gate opener into Dark Templar and Select goes Marine Maurader mix. easily held off if you can get your forcefields off correctly. But he missed it slightly and Select moves up his ramp and into his base to take game 1.

Game 2

In this game Select ops in for an Early expand and WhiteRa looks to be doing something very typical. But he attempts to do some early pressure with his initial Zealot and Stalker and almost pays for it in the counterattack Select attempts but Whitera holds it off. He proceed to go for an expansion and Colossus, and Select goes for a large bio force that could possibly transition into Tanks or Vikings. Vikings it looks to be as both begin macroing up and getting their ideal army compostions up to speed. Food supply has been about even the whole time. White Ra discovers Select is trying to take the gold, but loses his colossus and his army in an attempt to snipe it. White ra is now behind and needs to pull something very clever out of his ass if he wants to come out of this in a better position. So White ra wonders into his opponents base with some colossus to try and hold his own but it wasnt enough and White Ra gg's. Select takes the series 2-0.

NASL Grand Finals Day 1 Squirtle vs Sheth

Match 2
Squirtle vs Sheth

Game 1 has an incredible start with my fellow Brotoss, Squirtle, going for a 15 Nexus before Zerg even expands. Sheth does a typical opening favoring Zerglings while Squirtle favors Gateway units with Blink. He continues to hold off any pressure from Sheth and finally pushes and eliminates his 2nd and 3rd expansion to take game 1. Squirtle 1, Sheth 0

Game 2

Sheth starts out opening pretty standard while Squirtle opens with a 3 gate into expand. Sheth not only takes his natural early but goes for the gold Expansion on the Left side of the map as well. Squirtle hallucinates some extra stalkers and makes a push but scouts the hidden gold base just as he reaches Sheths Natural. He turns around and assaults it while a proxy Pylon is being made at the gold. Sheth loses the gold, but also his entire army, but now Squirtles Natural is established and safe. Sheth responds with getting a Spire up for some Mutalisks for harassment and buying time as he gets his gold setup again. Squirtle doesn't have much to respond to these Mutalisks as Blink is now researched. A Dark Shrine goes down but I'm not sure it will do much as there are Overseers already on the map. Sheth makes a push at Squirtles third base, he manages to sneak up the ramp and take out all sentries and buildings except the Nexus, but loses his entire ground army in the process. Both players begin to macro up hard and improve their unit count and upgrades. 

Storm tech is on its way in as well as Infestors and Banelings. Sheths Gold has helped him to gain the economic advantage and loads up overloads for Baneling drops, attacks at 2 naturals. The entire attack works and Squirtle loses, not 1, not 2 Probes, but 56 probes. Only 1 bases is mining with only 8 probes left. Squirtles Economy is shattered, with 114 food to 173 to Sheths total. Its 3 base agaisnt 4 with Sheth in the HUGE lead. This is a Great turnaround. Sheth loads up for another B52 Bomber run while his Mutalisks begin picking off buildings here and their. Blink Stalkers push em back as the main army of Sheth moves in to clear out the now established gold from Squirtle. Squirtle holds off this push with a Flood of Psi Storms and Sheth loses half his supply in army and in Overlords! Squirtle pushes and takes out Sheths 5th base Sheth attempts to continue to pick off buildings with his Mutalisks but loses them all as Squirtles army picks them off as they try to retreat. The game is at the 35 minute mark at this point, with every bases being taken. One last engagement with a flood of Storms and Archons mean the entire Zerg army is torn apart and Squirtle goes on to take game 2. Squirtle moves on to the finals and the 2nd Zerg player of 8 has been knocked out.

 Congratz Squirtle!!!

NASL Grand Finals start in just a few hours!!!!

If you haven't yet, head on over to the North American Star League and buy your online pass today to catch all the action!

http://www.justin.tv/naslseasonone



Watch live video from NASL Season One on www.justin.tv


I will be providing live updates as I get them all weekend. I am sadly not at the event, but I will be watching as much of the games as possible!

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.

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..."

MLG Dallas 2011 Update, Day 1

Hey everyone! There were some awesome matches tonight! First up was Sockeh(P) vs Idra(Z). Sockeh opened up with several fast Voidrays oin Xel'naga Caverns, however Idra scouted them and shut them down very quickly and took Game 1. Idra said in the interview after the matches that he had studied Sockeh's play and had learned he had been favoring that Void Ray opening. In game 2, Shakuras Plateau was the map, the old version, which was odd because MLG was using the new version of Lost Temple. Sockeh again opened with a Stargate but when it was scouted canceled it in favor of a Robo Facility, Fooling Idra into not making enough units however Idra suspecting something, ended up getting Roach burrow and effectively shut down Sockeh's ability to push by using the burrow as a defense measure against his Stalker/Immortal unit comp. Idra got a third, and pushed out for and attack and took the match 2-0.

I also got to see LiquidTyler(P) vs EGMachine(Z). Tyler looked to be in strong form going into this match, however Zerg kept up some high pressure and prevent Tyler from really getting into any solid Tech. Both matches ended the same with EGMachine taking the win.

Not many other games that were very noteworthy, I hope to bring you some info on some great matches tomorrow!

Its important to remember that these first matches were simply there for players to get seeded higher. No one is getting eliminated just yet, the matches will only get better tomorrow.

Also one last thing, I saw Huk while at the Alienware booth showing off my skill and wished him luck! He flew straight in from Korea yesterday and I for one was worried he would be suffering from some nasty jet lag. I wish you the best Huk! Show them what Korean playing is all about!!!!

MLG Dallas 2011 Update

Good Luck to Team Liquid!

I will be heading over their soon! I cannot wait to check out some games, First up is Socke, KiwiKaki, Idra, and Tyler. With these players we are bound to see some pro matches!

Good luck Team Liquid!!!!

MiniGun

I encourage anyone to keep an eye out on TeamLiquid.net for a livestream by the user Minigun. He occasionally Streams ladder matches and also streams his coaching sessions so a great way to get some tips without paying for it. By the way, he is primarily a Protoss player :)

Team Diamond Slayers Tournament

Tonight at 9pm EST, Team Diamond Slayers will be hosting a lower level tournament, and I am in it! Yesterday they hosted the Bronze and Silver level Tournament and declared a winner, Moach. The prize pool was small, but they are hoping to get more people involved! So check out the stream tonight for the Platinum/Gold level Tournament!

You can check out the stream and the rest of the site at: Team Diamond Slayers.

To find out about other Tournaments, head on over to Team Liquid and check out their Tournaments forum for all the latest info on currently running tournaments!

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.

GSL oGsMC(P) vs July(Z)

The Grand Finals of the March GSL was last night and the winner is....

oGsMC!

You can check out the first match at Gom.tv. To watch the rest of the matches, you must purchase a season ticket. :) oGsMC is now the first player to have won a GSL as Protoss, not once, but twice.

New Builds for Protoss Part 2 (PvZ)

PvZ

This matchup I enjoy the most. I have been using Phoenix play early on too great success. Zerg have no effective Anti air early on, and they must sacrifice their queens(150 minerals Yikes!) or get a Evo Chamber up with some spore crawlers in there Mineral line to effectively Defend against it. I usually go with 4 Phoenix's and begin searching for Overlords. I need to take down at least 6 to make it worth my while. However I am still working out the kinks and I tend to let my Macro slip because I get so excited shooting the big fat floaty things in the sky :)

Queens make prime targets for the Phoenix

They also work well in other situations like when your opponent is going Muta/Roach/Ling. Phoenix's can handle a group of Mutas larger than them. They do extra damage to light and thats just what Muta's are. However Mutas do no extra damage to any unit. They are just very fast and are great at harassing the mineral lines. There is one more thing Phoenix's are good at, defense.

Phoenix's are great removing units from play without killing them.

When being attacked. the Phoenix can lift up some units from the battle to prevent them from participating. Later on in this match, the opponent sent Roaches at me. I let my macro slip and was about 1100 minerals up. So brought my Phoenix's back and had them lift some roaches so as to try and even the playing field. It worked and I repelled the Roaches back. Phoenix's, however, don't do so well in the other Matchups.

The Build
But this is how the build works. You grab your gateway and Core down ASAP. And then grab your 2nd gas while placing your 2nd gaeway and Stargate down. When you have enough minerals, place another Gateway down. Phoenix's only cost 50 more gas and 25 more minerals than a stalker. So you should be able to still utilize 3 gateways, which was the mistake I kept making, I was under the impression that you could only have 2 Gateways and a Stargate.

Also, 4 gating also works very well in this Matchup, but I am looking to break away from the monotony that is 4gating. Sometimes grabbing a Robotics Facility will help fend off the Roaches as well as provide you with access to an Observer and only 1 building away from a Colossus. If Zerg are going only Roaches and Lings, your best bet is to attempt to grab a Colossus, but the only way to know if he is doing this is by applying pressure. Constantly build Stalkers, and if hes still building Roaches to defend, he wont be getting alot of lings, however if he builds more lings and more Roaches, get ready for some tricky play. Either way, a Robotics Facility will be your friend. When you push out, place one down so you can be ready for whatever he decides to throw at you. Staying in a 4 gate build or even into 6-8 gates, will only hinder the effectiveness of the Protoss. Lings are just the bane of a Protoss army early game.

Probes and Chronoboost

Probes are the unit that always gets the first Chronoboost of the game and recently I heard of a post on Team Liquid about the efficiency of workers and minerals. However I could not find this post by searching the usual avenues. So I decided to do a few quick tests of my own..

Blizzard tells us three per patch, and after doing some research, this isn't the case. In fact, the number is lower. So Chronoboosting probes is beneficial early on, or during Maynarding(the process of taking half your probes and transferring them to your expansion). But there comes a point where Chronoboosting your probes helps you in no way relating to mineral collection. Here are the numbers:

The Test
My tests consisted of 1 minute intervals with 5 probes at a time.

Beep beep

5   Probes can collect 280 give or take 5.
10 Probes can collect 560 give or take 5.
15 Probes can collect 825 give or take 10.
20 Probes can collect 1040 give or take 20.
25 Probes can collect 1100 give or take 40.

So we can see, the most beneficial number of Probes to have mining is about 20. Any more and the number becomes erratic sometimes going up 100 a minute, sometimes only increasing by about 20-40 a minute. This is because all the Probes are trying to find empty mineral patches. I have even read that some Probes at this amount will bounce from patch to patch for up to 30 seconds without ever working. Therefore, Chronoboost no longer becomes useful on Probes after 20 Probes have been assigned to minerals. However this would change if you were doing a Fast Expand build.

Summary
20 Probes per expansion on the mineral line. Do not Chronoboost Probes after 20, which I believe is around the time the Core is going up if you had been constantly building Probes.An easy way to find out how many you have is to box your Probes and if there are two and a half lines of Probes exactly in the unit bar, thats exactly how many is most efficient.

This is what 20 Probes look like.

This also helps later on so when you see you have 60 Probes and only two expansions, you need to expand simply to be making more money.

I have heard several people say that you need to be constantly building Probes and never stop. But one Probe costs not only 50 minerals, but also 1 food. I have seen some pro games were the Probes made was around 90, thats half of your supply and at least 12 Stalkers worth of units. Meaning your army size will not be as strong compared to someone who only made 60 workers. Yes having extra can help you later on if you decide to go for 4 bases, or they do a drop in your mineral line, but thats what Cannons and keeping a good eye out for enemy movement is for. Chronoboost usually lasts for 2 rounds of Probe production on a single building So you may only need to use Chronoboost 7-10 times on your Nexus before needing to switch Chronoboost targets.

I hope this was helpful. For Terrans and Zerg, the Same rule applies to efficiency, however for Terrans, Mules take priority on mineral Patches over an SCV, meaning they will always work the same patch so make sure to assign them one of the patches that are closer to your Command Center.

A Mental Tactic

After watching the Day(9) Daily about the contaminate, it got me thinking about other ways to mentally screw with your opponent. We saw that Contaminate can really screw with a persons macro, which is huge! So what can Protoss do to mess with an opponents mind?

Well for one thing, our options for some effective early harassment are limited. The only real unit that is fast and able to due extra damage to Lightly armored units are the Phoenix, and they can only attack air and a limited number ground targets. The best they can do is harass mineral lines or snipe Overlords/Overseers. So I began looking into Protoss mechanics and how the race differs from the other two. So I thought of the Warping Mechanic, and how it can help Protoss develop some mental tactics against their opponents. In the past I had one opponent who did something similar to what I am about to propose, and I cannot wait to try it in a real match.

What this player did was setup a line of Pylons from his base to about 1/2 to 2/3 to mine. In an effort to allow for quick reinforcements if he is ever pushed back while also creating an advanced warning and scout system to know when I am making my push forward. It also buys him time to regroup, as a Pylon in the middle of nowhere is more threatening than an army retreating. However the amount of minerals lost if you have to retreat can cost you quite a bit. So here is my variation of this tactic.

What if instead of creating a line of Pylons, you actually place proxy Pylons in key places that aren't normally scouted or maneuvered through. It would really benefit someone later on when control of the map is more important. The enemy could come out at places you would not expect to have seen. For example, on Xel'naga Caverns, you could place a Pylon near the visibility reeds at the natural expansion, one at the expansion behind the rocks, and one near the other end of the back door trail behind the visibility reeds. This gives 3 additional attack routes that are not commonly scouted or moved through. It will cause your opponent to scout around and find these Pylons if he indeed realizes that is what you are doing. Warp Prisms work with this as well because they can maneuver, however, they cost twice as much, have a smaller warp field, and do not offer supply.

It is also important to remember that this will not work effectively on every map. Lost Temple for example gives very easily defend-able attack routes that allow a mobile force to move around the map quickly, but hard to implement this tactic as there are no visibility issues or alternate routes. Metalopolis would actually be a good map to implement this on in almost any of the spawn locations, as well as Steppes of War, Shakuras Plateau.

**Edit: After writing this post I stumbled across an article about the new 1v1 maps and discovered that several of the maps I mentioned are not even on the ladder map list**