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.

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!!!!!

This is creative....

NASL Grand Finals Day 3 July vs Sen

Day 3 3rd place match
Sen vs July

This will be the last Best of 5 series, I am unsure of the maps that will be used.

Game 1
First map will be Crossfire. Both players opting in for a Economic build by placing early Hatcheries. They are pretty much mirroring each other with their pools and extractors going down. Sen opting in for Banelings and July is going Roaches, the same unit comp and build he did against Moon. Sen also going Roaches now. He tries to attack with Roaches and Banelings but is rebuffed but July's massive amounts of Roaches. July pushes in and is streaming in reinforcements to Sens natural and Sen gg's.

Game 2
Map is Shattered Temple. Close by Air positions are spawned in the north. Same builds are before, but July goes Banelings this time first, and Sen follows up shortly there after. But Sen is grabbing alot of Zerglings really early on. 24 on their way out right now. And July has a few Banelings that get thwarted by Sens excellent unit Micro. Neither side takes an advantage still though as both continue to build up. Something of note is that no real Creep spread is going on. July has made alot of Roaches again, and Sen creating alot of Spine Crawlers and Roaches to help hold July's attack, armies look pretty even, Sen loses alot to the Banelings but holds Julys attack off due to the +1 Attack for Sen. July looks to be making another attack with the same unit comp, Roaches and Banelings are on thier way in again, Banelings go off, Roaches charge in and spine Crawlers from July rush in as well and begin to burrow, but Sen plays very well and holds it off. July gg's and Sen will take game 2. 1-1 is the score.

Game 3
Map is Taldarim Altar. Both players spawning on the East sides, Sen up top, July on bottom Sen favoring some early aggression and forgoes the early Hatch for a Pool. He applies some early pressure to pick off a few drones and also places a Baneling Nest down. Both players favoring Zerglings, and July decides to counterattack and take out all the defending Zerglings of Sen as well as a Queen. It appears July is going all in and just rallies all future Zerglings to Sens Natural, Sen responds by making alot of Banelings, clears up Julys Zerglings and decides to make a counterattack with Banelings and Zerglings. Its not looking good, but he manages to sneack past Julys defenses and clears up the Mineral line of July's main July is now on the defensive and has half the food of Sen, 42 to 22.  July's 2 Spinecrawlers are still up, but Sen has alot of Zerglings on the field with alot more on the way July decides to wall off with an Evo Chamber and a Roach Warren, but Sen sneaks in again and picks off Julys main. July has to gg as his economy is just crippled, Sen will take game 3. Sen now leads 2-1.

Game 4
Map is Crevasse. Players Spawn in the North, July in the East, Sen in the West. Sen will take his Natural early and July will take his protected. Both players again playing standard, no cheese. In fact the only cheesy plays we have seen in this entire tournament has been from Puma. July decides to attack with some early Zerglings and Roaches, Sen trys to pick them off, but the Roaches do extra damage to Zerglings and Sen is forced to retreat. July is building up and breaks down the rocks and makes it into Sens base with no resistance, Sen decides to go for a base trade and charges in, July loses his zerglings and only have a few Roaches left. Sen clears up both bases of units and July has lost all Hatcheries. July sends in a few Roaches, a very wierd game going on its 5 Roaches vs 12 Zerglings 10 vs 14 food. Sen clears up that base and July has 0 food left vs 8 of  Sen, Sen takes game 4 and the 3rd place title.

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 Quarter Finals Day 2 July vs Puma

Day 2 Match 5

I am unaware of this map pool, but i can be fairly certain Terminus will be apart of this. I love Terminus

Note maps are:
Taldarim Altar
Backwater Gulch
Xelnaga Caverns
Terminus RE(i knew it)

Game 1
The map is Taldarim Altar, and this starts the first Best of 5 Series for the day. Cross Positions are spawned, bottom left, July, Top Right, Puma. Typical and standard from both players, 15 Hatch, Puma going for a Factory early on and a Starport shortly there after. Helions in play and provide some harrasment, I assume they did some damage, as Artosis had a bit of a nerdgasm, but i could not see anything a the video stuttered while it happened. 6 Helions up as well as a Banshee and a Viking on its way as well. July going for Lair tech now, but still no clear sign of what unit composition hes going for as he is playing very defensively. More helion harras happens, but he loses them i think, video is really laggy, i cant seem to see what actually happens, just hearing whats going on from Tastetosis. 3 Base is going down for July, and Puma is going for the typical Tank and Marine mix while grabbind Medivacs and Banshees to buy him time. July opting in for Mutalisks, but there is not quite enough to do much at the 12 min mark. Puma tries a few drops and loses a few but nothing big that can turn the tide of the game, food count is July 160-126 Puma at the 15 min mark. July really has alot of Drones and Zerglings and is grabbing his 4th base while Puma is waiting to take his 3rd. Banelings are also in play and get a few good shots on some marines and Julys Zerglings charge in with Mutalisks right into Pumas main and defend against Pumas coutner at Julys on natural. Puma gg's and July will take game 1.

Game 2
The 2nd match will be on Backwater Gulch. July still has to win 2 more games to advance to the Grand Finals. Both players start off very similarly. Spawn points are bottom left and right. Puma even going early reactor on Helion again, but drops a second Facttory down to change it up. July still going Zerglings and grabbing his second gas at the 6 min mark. Double Factory with Reactors is now down and 4 Helions on thier way out, with 4 more already starting some harrassment. Puma expands behind this and a Lair is now coming out. 10 Helion s on the map and roasting any Zerglings in his way, He even takes out 2 Queens, and 35 workers. July only has 12 supply left to the 62 of Puma. July gg's and Puma takes game 2. we are now 1-1.

Game 3
Both players now have to win 2 more games each. Xelnaga Caverns is the map and we have Cross spawn positions(lolz). Puma at the bottom, July on top. Standard play again, 15 hatch, and now Puma puts a tech lab down instead of a reactor like hes done in the last 2 games. Puma throws his Command Center down and throws down 2 more Factories. Maybe the same unit comp, maybe something slightly different. A reaper is out, but doesn't do much damage. Blue Flame is being research, more helions as well. Blue flame arrives jsut as Helions arrive and roasts 17 Drones. Helion production continues as well as Tanks and Marines. Roaches are now in play and a 3rd factory on its way. Lots of mech play in this as siege mode is on its way in as well. Exciting play all before the 9 min mark. More helions come in and kill quite a few more drones. Macro Hatchery on its way in as well. Tanks Helions and Marines looks to be the unit comp, i cant remember but this could be the iEchoic build. 4th Hatchery going down at the 3rd and Puma is putting his 3rd Command center down. Economically, both players are about on par. Food counts are the same, but Puma is retaining map control. Helions continue to kill drones. 40 drones killed so far at the 15 min mark. Roaches are all July has to react to this. Stimpack, Weapons upgrade, and Combat shield gets upgrade as well, and Banelings are now in play. Puma's 3rd turns out to be the gold which means Puma is surging ahead. July really has to pull ahead some way as his only advantage lies in his numbers at this point, but that advantage will soon be lost, 184 for july and 168 for puma at the 16 min mark. Mass amounts of Banelings clean up the Marines of Puma, but July loses everything and July will go ahead and gg after this match. Puma takes the series 2-1.

Game 4
Terminus RE is the map and Jluy Spawns int he south, and Puma in the west. Puma goes for a 2 racks opening and July is going for fast Zerglings instead of a Hatchery first. Looks to be an early Bunker Rush and July miss micromanages  his units as the Bunker comes down and the zerglings are destroyed, but Puma makes a mistake, doesnt place the Bunker, and the SCV's are killed, but the Marines are still in play. 5 Marines are now attacking but mass amounts of Zerglings are forming, surrounding the Marines and allowing the Hatchery to finish. July gains map control and begins macroing up. Factory with Tech lab coming up, Puma is walled in so not much can happen. Puma is favoring Marines but Stimpack still is not out yet. July is going to grab alot of zerglings to try and push him back, and succeeds in surrounding those marines and picks them all off, Food counts are still even at the 11 min mark, 65-65. 3rd Hatchery on its way, as well as Banelings and an evo Chamber, but no Roaches can be seen, cant even tell if he has the Warren down. Spire is on its way though, and Mutalisks shortly thereafter. Puma favoring Tanks and Marines and Medivacs. Neither player still has an advantage. Puma moves out, loses half his marines to Banelings, and some siege tanks, but also kills the Mutalisks so another even exchange and niether player seems to be in the lead. Puma puts down his third now, and both players continuing to stick with this unit comp. Puma makes a drop and gets a few drone kills, but loses the drop and trys to charge in from the main way, loses his army but destroys the army of July and reinforcements come in, and help out Puma. He keeps on the pressure and eventually July gives in and gg's. Puma 3-1 July and is now in the finals! COMPLETE SURPISE! Congratz Puma!!!

NASL Grand Finals Day 2 July vs Moon

Day 2 Match 2

Moon vs July

Metalopolis, Crevasse, Typhon Peaks

Game 1

First ZvZ of the day and its between 2 incredible players in cross positions. July opens up with a 10 pool and sneaks some zerglings in, but Moon holds it off. He counterattacks and takes out a few drones, but the food count for both players are very similar. No clear advantage is being taken with small skirmishes here and thier until finally July pushes in with roaches and Moon responds with a mass of Banelings, but they dont do enough damage and the Roaches break Moons defenses and takes the game.

Game 2

Both players spawn in North and South positions on the right side of the map Crevasse. Both players early expand so we are looking at a longer game. Moon seems to be going for some Banelings while July continues to macro up. July is caught off guard with Zergling and Banelings coming in and only Roaches to defend. He loses a few drones but not enough to take a lead, however a second attempt allows him to gain the lead after 14 total drones have now been killed. Both players proceed to now generate higher amounts of units but July walls off and builds up mass Roaches just like in Game one. Moon cannot hold it, loses his drones, army, queens and he gg's. July takes game 2.

NASL Grand Finals Day 1 Morrow vs July

Match 3
Morrow vs July

As a big surprise, Morrow is actually playing as Terran so Match 3 will be a TvZ.

Game 1

Both players are going for early expansions and Morrow is wanting to grab some early Helions for some harassment with the only way for July to react is with Zerglings. He pushes the Helions back with some carefully controlled Zerglings, and then chooses to try to apply some pressure by sending his Zerglings down to make Morrow nervous. He eventually catches the Helions out of position and picks them off. July creates some Mutalisks for some mineral line harassment while Morrow continues along the line of Tanks and Marines. July begins taking his 3rd, and shortly after his 4th at the Gold. July continues to tech up by grabbing a Baneling nest and Morrow continues to up his Tank and Marine count with a few Thors to help out against the Mutas. July pushes in with his Banelings and takes out the tanks and most of the Marines. Several minutes later he does it again as Morrow attempts to take his gold, it quickly goes down as Morrow is delayed economically with that loss. July then pushes toward Morrows Natural and clears up the mineral line. But Morrow, with his bigger army, attempts to push out and begin applying pressure, but July already has 5 bases while Morrow is still on 2.

July begins grabbing some broodlords as he Baneling Busts Morrows new Gold base and takes it down. Broodlords are out and forcing Morrow to retreat. Morrows economy is shot to shit and July is moving to to finish off this game. Morrow eliminates the ground army of July and finishes off the Broodlords. But July is quick to rebuild and takes out the 3rd attempt of Morrow to take his Gold and Morrow GG's.

Game 2

The Match starts up pretty normal, July goes for a quick Baneling Bust and sneaks in quite a few Banelings to eliminate the Mineral line of Morrow. This delays him and he is forced to play very defensively. July's Speedlings are helping him maintain map control as he begins taking his third and starts transitioning into Mutalisks. He uses them for harrasment as Morrow transitions into Tanks and Marines. Morrows Defensive line is holding despite the Zergling, Baneling, Mutalisk Pressure being provided by July. Morrow is trying to grab some detection from Ravens but now burrowed Banelings are few and far between as Broodlords are getting morphed in and moved into position. Food count is 127 for Morrow and 186 for July as the next encounter takes place. The ground army is removed but the Broodlords are taken out and July takes the series again 2-0.

Great Job July!

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.

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!!!!

We have all been there...

Click the image to find out what I mean...

We have all been there, its important to never give up and don't let yourself get discouraged when your mineral split fails....

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.

Broke a losing streak.

So I have been on a losing streak lately. I played 5 matches the other day and lost all of them, vs 5 Protoss. Today I finally broke that streak. I lost 2 two in a row to just early Zerglings and Zergling/Mutalisk.

My strategy had been to just try to out macro my opponent and use my 3 Gate/Robo build because I believe so strongly that it is economically sound in the early game, and in my tests it is, but when I get into a ladder game, I get so distracted easily that my macro and build fall apart. This build requires near perfect timing to achieve and get 50 food worth of units in about 7 minutes and my expansion at 7min, 20 sec. Else I'm not spending minerals like I should.

My Flaws
My first big flaw was not letting my opponent feel the full wrath of the warriors of Auir! In other words, applying good, constant pressure. For me when I am up against Zerg or Terran, its hard for me to gauge where they are at in the game. I cant look at a unit composition from my scout and tell whether they are going certain tech. I know I should be able too, and I know I should play the other races for a bit to get a better feel for it, but I feel i would do better to work on simple play and macro. Once I can do this and not miss a probe, or building, I'll expand my knowledge beyond Protoss. What good is knowing what my opponent has if I don't have the macro and faster hands to deal with it? My other flaw, which I have already stated is my macro is seriously lacking. I think the only way to fix this is to just play a some games until I can "remember" what I should be doing.

How I finally won.
My macro was bad, my eye was not on the minimap like it should, but I did notice one thing...I only got supply capped once in each game I lost. That told me I mentally rose building pylons constantly as a priority to a point where my probe production was suffering. So decided to just keep my macro from being worse, but trying to apply pressure. This gave me knowledge of what my opponent was doing, he destroyed both my advances, and if he had pushed back I would have lost, but I noticed he was massing Stalkers, probably because he saw I had 2 Immortals on the field. I already had my expansion down, probe count was lower than I wanted, but I at least had decent saturation. So I took a chance, dropped 2 more Gateways down and a Twilight Council and began warping in Zealots. In hindsight I did take my expansions two gases after I did this, I don't know why, I was just going to go Mass Zealots. I kept warping them in as I could and brought in a few more Immortals to help take the Stalkers down. When he pushed, his army was crushed. He outnumbered me by about 18 food. But because I knew Stalkers have a hard time against Zealots, I just massed Zealots.

I'm going to try playing a minimum of 3 matches a night now to help keep my macro up. Playing the AI no longer helps me.

Neat tricks you can do that you probably didn’t know about…

There are quite a few casters (including buildings) in the game, and most starting out players tend to ignore them as they take quite a bit of micromanagement skill that they are not comfortable with. They are however, a good way to building your micromanagement skill.  So lets look at the first one. This is for Protoss.

Did you know Chrono Boost can be used on Warp Gates? I am talking about the morphed version of the Gateway, your primary source of building units. It halfs the recharge time of warping in units! So instead of waiting 23 seconds to warp again, you can do it again in 12! Come patch day, it will be 14 seconds, but that is still a fast way to get units out, Zerglings don’t even come out that fast! If you have an expansion and both your Nexi are pretty full in energy with say about 6 Warp Gates, you will still have spare energy remaining and have produced 24 supply worth of troops (1/8 of your max population) in a matter of 12-14 seconds.

Another Protoss unit that has some interesting tricks is the Phoenix. It can move and fire much like the Diamondback from the single player campaign. However it requires some micromanagement as it doesn’t simply move and fire automatically. You can fire, move, fire again and keep moving. It requires very fast hand speed and knowing your hot keys.

This trick is actually something people have rumored it will work but in fact it doesn’t. High Templar cannot Feedback an Orbital Command. It only works on units.

This one I didn’t know about until recently. We have all been trapped or halted by the Protoss Sentry’s Forcefield. It can be a real pain. However, if you have some Colossus, you can use them to break the forcefield! Simply order them to walk through it.

Ghosts are a unit that most people will overlook as there attack isn’t that strong, and they die very easily. However, when you add a Ghost to your unit makeup when going up against a Protoss player, the results can be lethal for the Protoss Player. There Emp Round can take down the shields of any Protoss unit. This is especially useful against the Immortal as their damage reduction only applies to their shield. Once their shield is down, no more damage reduction is applied.

Another way Ghosts are useful is against cloaked units. Most people will think that using EMP against a Banshee reduces its energy to 0, thus it comes out of cloak, or that’s at least what it did in Brood War. However, when it is used against a unit with a permanent cloak, like the Observer or Dark Templar, the EMP will actually knock the unit out of cloak temporarily! The catch is, you have to know where the unit is to use it.

And last but not least is the Zerg Queen. Most people will keep them in their base and puke Larva and poop Creep Tumors. However, their more commonly unused ability is Transfusion. This ability instantly heals 125 health. This is great to use on units like the Ultralisk or Hydralisks. They cost no gas, have a very long ranged anti air, and there is no cooldown for the spell, so you can spam it on targets who are getting focus fired. However the down side is Queens move very slow on ground that isn’t creep. So building a few extra queens and getting some Creeping going is a great way to fix that, as well as giving you excellent vision across the map.