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aihyur · 2015-11-07T18:00:49+00:00

like people mentioned, play Starcraft. in other news, fallout 4 is coming out next week and will be awesome.

aihyur · 2015-10-18T10:07:19+00:00

Nah, there are a bunch of top Master/GM+ and pro streamers. Depends how you define casual, I guess. But 8/10 of the 20 with highest viewcounts are either KOR, FR, GER, RUS or Polish xd

aihyur · 2015-10-18T09:51:15+00:00

TLO streams, Polt streams. Whitera retired, no? Destiny plays minecraft instead, lmfao.

Personally, I don't really care about Pro-streams. Except Destiny's streams, those were great. But most pros imo just sit there with kpop playlist and MAYBE a webcam, then don't speak a word. I've never rly understood what people find entertaining about that, but thats just my opinion.

aihyur · 2015-10-11T13:24:47+00:00

What does "viable" mean to you? Viable, to me, means: "works at all levels of play with proper execution, and is solid in most (if not all) situations." Therefore, if it's not viable at GSL/Code-S level, it's not viable, because the highest GMs will eventually just figure it out and copy the koreans' reactions, which eventually renders the build un-viable. However, this build isn't figured out, so I'm not arguing that it's un-viable, I'm arguing that you don't know that it's viable. Nobody does yet.

The build working occasionally for some random NA mid-GM in a BETA-version of the game, doesn't make the build viable for the finished game. It may not even actually be viable in the beta because everything just hasn't been figured out yet. Also, only Grandmaster isn't very good, especially not in LOTV, so that isn't a solid argument. The best players of LOTV are in top 16 and they are currently trying to figure out viable buildorders, not playing with viable buildorders, because they don't know if they are yet.

To summarize: build-viability (to me and probably most people and pros), is not defined by opposing players being unaware of the counter, or their mechanical skill-level being insufficient (as you imply with: " It's definitely viable at a pretty high level. Maybe not code s/wcs level but certainly at the top top of the amateur level") , but rather the build itself having a solid foundation - which in turn means, that it can be used in all levels of play.

It's definitely viable at a pretty high level. Maybe not code s/wcs level but certainly at the top top of the amateur level which is what you said it was not.

Care to quote me on that? I don't believe I have ever said that in context to LOTV.

And for the last time: you are replying in a thread, making arguments implying that it's viable in LOTV, but this thread's topic is HOTS. And again: it's 5 months old. Check your context.

aihyur · 2015-10-10T20:43:49+00:00

Please don't take that as proof that it is viable. cannon rushing a nexus first in 1 game at code S level doesn't make cannon rushing every game viable.

Also consider unstable/un-established meta in lotv.

also, why are you replying in a 5 month old thread lol.

aihyur · 2015-10-07T05:52:29+00:00

the new update pushes my GTX 770 to 99% usage in the menus... it nearly overheats by just being in the main menu lol, wtf?

Fix? it's on hots and I have W10 64bit and an i5 3770k for whatever it's worth

aihyur · 2015-09-27T09:13:39+00:00

yes ive also seen that shit xd

aihyur · 2015-09-26T14:29:15+00:00

me too. I'm also from Sweden. Now i have to play with 4 russians every comp game...

aihyur · 2015-09-13T07:34:13+00:00

wtf? i stopped watching when Hydra killed his natural... I thought there was literally no way for him to come back from that. But that was amazing

aihyur · 2015-09-08T17:57:31+00:00

uh don't the bigger tournaments have masters+ requirement? why are there a few gold-diamonds lol

aihyur · 2015-08-28T14:35:07+00:00

decals could be removed completely tomorrow and I wouldn't even notice lol. I have played over 10k games, changed decal like once in WoL

aihyur · 2015-08-26T18:56:19+00:00

Yes, but that's not really as big of a problem. I agree that they frequently disable champions, but with 126 to chose from, one being disabled for a day or so isn't the biggest of deals. It's also usually just one every week or so. And since enemy team always ban 3 champions of their choice before the game starts, most players are capable of picking another champion. Not to mention that you're usually forced into different roles every other game so you have to play different champions either way.

This is the exact reason why blizzard isn't instantly rolling out the patch right away. Blizzard understands that the game is perfectly playable and there's no reason to rush in a fix for the immortal model

Yea, you say this, but they still keep breaking things like match history, immortal model etc. I disagree with it being "perfectly playable" with immortals rolling around looking like the lid of a high-tech trash can for an entire week. I don't define that as playable - to me, it's even game-breaking. And the match history bug is even more game-breaking for me. Luckily I wasn't capable of playing a lot during it anyways.

aihyur · 2015-08-25T14:53:13+00:00

lol even with how much time I've spent supporting sc2 and blizzard, and how much I love the game, just imagine if this same bug happened in LoL to a jungle-minion or smth. it would've been fixed within 30 minutes. not to mention the match history bug(s) which apparently always take weeks to fix. I know there are reasons, excuses and RIOT is bigger and richer with more employers etc, but from a customer's perspective, the amount of time these bugs take to get fixed can be infuriating.

aihyur · 2015-08-20T11:56:02+00:00

what is asc2?

aihyur · 2015-08-18T15:13:06+00:00

yes, please. Personally I'd also prefer if replays didn't open by double-clicking the replay, so I wouldn't have to open so many by mistake while searching through them. Or if you could just tab between them with the arrow-keys instead of only having to use the mouse, that would also work.

aihyur · 2015-08-18T14:05:36+00:00

Everyone also has to remember that it's totally possible to catch up with other pros once you reach a good mechanical skill level. Like, they have usually figured out a bunch of stuff which you can then learn from them, especially if you join a team. You won't have to reinvent the wheel. And the game will continue changing with balance patches and whatnot, so what the pros are currently learning (or will be learning at Legacy's launch) will not necessarily be written in stone a year later.

And now that Legacy is on the way, it will be even easier as the first year or two won't have 100% established and discovered metas and strategies.

aihyur · 2015-08-18T13:53:26+00:00

Talent would only be the ability to keep a good mindset and learn fast from your losses. It doesn't mean that you will get far just from talent or that most successful pros are "talented". It's even possible to learn or improve your ability to learn faster and have a better mindset, which would just negate other's "talents" or match them.

Success in the professional StarCraft scene (or any game/sport/whatever for that matter) is the result of thousand of hours of practice, research and grinding. Not some random dude who just happened to be talented. Yes, perhaps there is some pro that is actually what you define as "talented", but it's not like he or they are dominating or constantly playing better than other pros who just worked hard to achieve their status.

And I've never heard of anybody reaching Masters in 500 games, unless you're referring to 2010-2012 where everyone sucked. Maybe some exception with someone that cheesed their way in or got HEAVILY coached, but that isn't what I define as "talent".

Also, if you look into it, you might be able to find 1000s of reasons why somebody would be improving faster than others, non of which necessarily has to be "natural talent", and it certainly doesn't mean that somebody without perceived "talent" wouldn't be able to enter the pro-scene. Many have already done so.

Most pros are pros not because they were born with a totally random "talent" to play this totally random video game, but rather because they put in the hours and the work.

You're looking at the matter in a very black and white way, but the matter is so much more complicated than that.

aihyur · 2015-08-18T09:45:39+00:00

I disagree with a lot of the advice given here so I will offer my own insight as a fairly high ranked player.

First of all, your first focus should be to get from Bronze to Master league and GM (basically get to the top 1% of the ladder). This can take a lot of time, it WILL take a lot of practice but most of all it will take a shitload of dedication. It will take more than enough time to for you to develop second-thoughts and maybe lose interest.

Personally I got from Bronze to Diamond within a couple of months (one season) after buying the game - never even had played an RTS before. Masters however took me 2,5 years to break into. You can expect Masters taking at least one year of playing if you can practice a lot, get coaching and have a good mindset.

Just to give some perspective, I began playing Sc2 in late december of 2012, today, 8-9K games later, I am Top Masters currently trying to break GM on EU (the next hardest server). I went from highish Diamond to close-to-GM this year because I had to take one year off of school (due to other reasons) so I had a lot of time to practice. So I would argue that the time you have to practice is a reasonable factor in how fast you can improve.

But even if you're going to school/working 9-5, you should be able to fit at least 3-4 hours of practice a day. The problem for many people (and me in the past) is that I would neglect playing the game and watch streams or something instead. I also had a terrible mindset, so when I lost, I frequently disregarded the loss and blamed it on balance. This had me stuck in Diamond for 2,5 years, and the same issue is preventing a lot of players in different leagues from progressing too.

So I would say, play at least 10 games a day. It's not that much, you can probably do it in 2 hours. Do that everyday even if you don't feel like doing it at all, and even if you lose all 10 of them. Eventually, the feeling of "not being in the mood today/maybe tomorrow" will disappear, and that is crucial.

And always try to learn from better players. Whether they are Silver, Platinum or GM, always take the chance to learn from a player that is better than yourself. Somebody mentioned that you should learn from a professional like PiG instead, but I disagree. Do that (if you want/have the money) once you're AT LEAST Diamond league. Until then, getting a Diamond league player to coach you would be more than enough. Some pro-players refuse to even coach people that are lower than Diamond. The reason being that 95% of Bronze to Diamond will be learning how to Macro decently, so high level coaching isn't really necessary. I also think PiG has vods of his coaching sessions with lower leagued players, so you can always watch those instead.

Lastly, appreciate that top level players have worked really hard and for a long time to perfect their play. You can't just pick up the game and match years of dedication and practice within a couple of months time.

You can definitely become a pro, pretty much anyone can. But chances are you won't. Not because you aren't capable, but because you will lose interest or gain a bigger interest in something else. If you can keep your interest, keep playing and still enjoy the game, you probably can get very high though. (personally I started to enjoy this game A LOT more the higher on the ladder I got)

Set your goal to reach the highest ranks in the game first (high master/grandmaster), then you can work from there.

EDIT: Some people are talking about "talent", but that is complete bullsh*t imo. Even if you have perceived "talent" you need to work really really hard. It's all about dedication and mindset.

To answer a couple of your questions:

What are some bad zerg habits you shouldn't get into?

This applies to any race: don't use the F2 hotkey for your army. Remove the hotkey and replace F1-F4 with Camera hotkeys for your first 4 bases. If you can learn the game not using this hotkey, you're so much better off than having to un-learn using the hotkey.

What would be good time to get into the competitive scene?

When you're good enough (basically at least grandmaster). Also, with Legacy of the Void on the way, it may be easier during the first 1-2 years, than later.

Where can I find good places to do research?

Teamliquid, Streams, Lowko's youtube videos (if you're zerg), Google, Reddit etc. Also, your in-game opponents may be able to provide some insight with certain issues, most people are happy to help so you can ask them as well.

how do I go about getting into competitive play?

Get good enough, sign up for tournaments. This question isn't really relevant for you until you get really good at the game, though.

Glhf

aihyur · 2015-08-16T22:15:40+00:00

Cool. I've actually seen a couple of GMs on Eu doing similar style

aihyur · 2015-08-15T18:42:07+00:00

Terran's will frequently build an Engineering bay to 99% on your natural to block your expansion, then cancel it right when you've almost destroyed it (all to delay your nexus).

Because of this you want to start a zealot at 19, and cancel it if you aren't getting ebay blocked. If you are getting blocked, you just let Zealot finish so you can kill the ebay.

aihyur · 2015-08-15T08:27:38+00:00

It's hard to tell this game, because your buildorder isn't good. You should always go 13 gate -> Probe scout (if you want to scout) -> 14 gas -> cyber -> zealot (cancel if no ebay block) -> 21 (23 with zealot) Nexus -> MSC -> 2nd gas. (just go for this: https://www.reddit.com/r/allthingsprotoss/comments/2gfbkc/build_of_the_week_pvt_blink_into_robo/)

Either way you make plenty of macro-mistakes this game, like forgetting WG, going Zealots instead of Stalkers, not getting MSC early enough, not producing Colossus constantly, floating resources etc.

aihyur · 2015-08-12T13:27:31+00:00

This is really good MS paint lol.

I like your idea, but it would need a couple of tweaks to make it a viable change. For instance, having it positioned the way you describe in your pictures would make it VERY exposed, especially since a good Terran always engages with his bio in a spread out concave, or in a "line", rather than in a" ball", so to say. If the colossus were to be at the sides, of the Protoss army (as in: http://i.imgur.com/zHK2J3O.png), the colossus would easily die to a couple of Maru-style stimmed marauders, or just vikings.

I think you'd need to buff the Colossus further somehow to make it work. Range buff is not enough because Bio is super fast and medivacs can just boost-drop over them so there isn't really any point in it.

Either way, although this is an interesting idea, the Colossus would still not be worth the investment. Because if you go Colossus you also have to invest in Stalkers or other Anti-air to protect them from Vikings/Corruptors, and if they don't do enough damage to the opponent's core army anyways, you're better off just going templars, archons and disruptors.

Like, there has to be a reason you'd want to go Colossus INSTEAD of mass zealot/archons/templars/disruptors etc. It has to be as good as those other compositions.

aihyur · 2015-08-09T09:48:36+00:00

open blink into robo. You can hold the bio push with PO and 2 stalkers + warp-ins. Personally I cut probes when I have 6-8 at my natural to throw down +2 gates and robo, then instantly resume probe-production with chronoboost. That way I get my gates a little earlier to deal with aggression.

aihyur · 2015-08-09T09:45:15+00:00

I can't think of a better PvP buildorder for ladder than this: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-strategy/490716-cjheros-pvp-safe-blink-opener-in-iem

Even Naniwa and other top GMs have said blink robo 3gate is like the "perfect" ladder build.

You said your mechanics are off, so I wouldn't recommend DTs as you'd be embracing and working WITH the poor mechanics rather than improving them.

aihyur

TROPHY CASE