I really need to start playing more, and by “more” I mean “more often than twice a week”. RL is still putting a damper on things. As stresses as I am with my recent stuff, the last thing I want to do is do something that could inevitably stress me out more (like SC2 could do). I just want to relax and forget about all the stuff poking my brain for a while. Eventually it will calm down and I’ll find my center.

Work was just as stressful this week as last week, if not more. So I took this weekend and decided to watch MLG Orlando whenever I could to watch and study those players that make everything look easy, hopefully to gain insight on many things to use down the road. There were so many games to watch (even with the Blue/Red streams) to really remember specific games… I’m terrible at remembering names btw… but there were some strategies that did stick out. There was a couple mass hellion games that intrigued me. One of them, if memory serves, was basically using the barracks to create multiple reactors so the factories, after being built, could lift off and sit on them, instantly gaining the power of pumping out 2x hellions at a time. And this was done on 3 factories AT LEAST. This was also done against Zerg, and as we all know, Zerglings and Hellions don’t mix.

I saw numerous 3/4 Gate play from Protoss which works on certain conditions… and if done wrong or the attack was held, could spell disaster for the Protoss player. Both Huk and MC did this a few times and also against each other, so it was fun to watch. IdrA’s play was very impressive, and it was a nice change of pace to watch him play games out rather than GG’ing early without trying. With IEM China already under his belt, I think he just might win one more before the year is up if he keeps improving his tournament play like this.

I even saw an interesting strategy from a Terran, MKP I believe, who lifted his starting CC from his starting location to one of the map’s center high-yield expansions to start. Long story short, it won him the game easily. Funday Monday indeed!

I’m still struggling to understand the pool ranking system… mainly who is chosen for pool play in these tournament and how they are seeded before the matches overall. I don’t mean the knock the guy, but how is INcontrol still being ranked for pool play after, from what I’ve been hearing, not winning a single match in the last 3-4 MLGs. I’m sure he might agree that his current play doesn’t warrant him a pool spot but I don’t make the rules. I wonder how he would do if he went back to Zerg since that’s what he played in BW. I’m not saying that’s the answer, but perhaps he’s looking at the game in the wrong light, or just not getting the opportunity to practice the right things. In either case, I do hope he improves. He is one of those players I want to see succeed, if only a little bit at a time.

On another note, after watching the championship bracket, and I don’t give a rat’s ass that a Terran didn’t make the grand finals, but the overall nature of the Marine design really needs to be looked at. It’s a combination of things, but I believe that the underlying item isn’t their DPS, it’s their unit size and ranged damage. They are the smallest unit in the game (next to the Zergling), the only tier 1 unit that is ranged AND can hit land and air (I consider Stalkers/Sentries as tier 1.5), and have unique buffs which increase their effectiveness on a massive level. Their small size allows many of them to take out a single unit through focus-fire, and groups of them are able to occupy such a small space that they can easily dispatch a wave of their tier 1 counterparts… with or without stim. We can’t adjust their size obviously, so the only things that can be adjusted are their weapon range, or their DPS in general (either base DPS or taking into account their stim upgrade). There’s really no reason to mass any other unit than Marines because, by Terran design, that’s the whole point… they should be the only unit that can be mass produced. But they shouldn’t be able to take out higher tier units as easily as they are now. Of course, how do you change them without completely breaking them. I mean, a slight reduction in stim time or strength could make the standard mass Marine useless.

Maybe I’m just not seeing the correct way to deal with them yet. I just have to look harder… and maybe get creative. Not all of the builds have been discovered. Perhaps the goal shouldn’t be to emulate the pros and use standard builds, but to put your opponent off balance by doing things that aren’t normal and/or expected.

ADAPT OR DIE (Moneyball was a great movie btw).

-E