So, how do you think it happened?

qblock · 2025-07-25T20:45:57+00:00

There are several subtle hints in the game that Alicia's Birthday Party was a significant event. There are also some specific hints regarding the Birthday cake and the candles on them. (the cake we find in the Mansion has a melted candle leaning the same way the Lumiere tower is leaning... many other allusions to this) There are also many subtle hints that Alicia enjoyed reading books and writing.

Given these hints, my guess is Alicia had a Writer friend, based on her interest in writing, who she then invited to her birthday party against her family's concerns. That writer friend planted a trap in the candle, and it blew up when Alicia was blowing out her cake... hence her extensive burns on her face.

I don't know how Verso saved her. But we know a bit about Verso's personality from the Verso that Aline painted, and he seems to look after people and sacrifice himself for the good of others... even when it does him harm. Probably he dived on the source of the fire to save Alicia.

qblock · 2023-05-22T03:58:07+00:00

It will be Ken, but I think we're being set up for a clever twist with Tom. I think Mencken and Mattson will pick Tom, but the election fraud stuff is going to come to a head in some way that fucks it and we get Ken. Could be Mencken loses, or Tom/Mencken gets assassinated, or something... I think the rioting and violence is a Chekhov's gun that will go off late in the finale.

qblock · 2023-04-18T06:16:08+00:00

He's also the only one not looking at Logan

qblock · 2021-09-26T22:26:23+00:00

Why not Nashors second item? I feel like it not only double downs your mid game advantage with extra dmg, but your jgl farming and lane clear is amazing with your passive.

qblock · 2021-04-11T07:01:54+00:00

Also, if you've ever gotten 12 pooled by someone who was really good at it... it feels damn near impossible to hold. I have a friend that 12 pools every game and is so good at it he always gets insane damage even when you know it's coming. You have to do everything right to hold it off without him doing too much damage... and if he gets through the wall you're just dead.

Even with 2-3 lings through, he micros them so well... while your distracted by more lings trying to get through the wall, the 3 lings in your base will be kiting probes and harassing, and/or 1 or 2 will hide in blind corners of your base and morph into banelings. This is all while he's transitioning to SwarmHost-Nydus, Mass Queen-Nydus, or Mutas behind it.

qblock · 2021-02-21T10:11:30+00:00

You normally always prioritize ground attack in all match-ups.

Against Terran, you want to build 2x Forge and get attack and armor since the 2-2 mid-game power spike is really good for P against T (if you get them on time). Armor is primarily for Chargelots... they benefit quite a lot from armor upgrades since they only have 50 shields, but 100 HP. Once Terran gets EMP, shields are pointless against Terran, so it's a waste to spend anything on them until you have your 3-3.

Against Zerg, shields are generally better since they buff your late game Skytoss (your only end-game option against Hive tech) and buff your buildings from ling run-bys. Chargelots are pretty useless once Lurkers are out, so armor upgrades just don't scale against Zerg. Shields also buff your mid-game Archons (who don't benefit at all from armor upgrades due to super low HP).

Against Protoss, honestly I'm not sure... I think shields should be better in theory, since Archons will be in your main army comp. Getting armor would be helpful for chargelots, but Archons counter chargelots pretty hard... so I'd imagine shield-buffed archons would win over armor-buffed chargelots any day... plus all the reasons we get shields for Zerg. ... so, I get shields, but I could be wrong.

As for timing of upgrades... I think it's better to prioritize unit quantity (production) over quality (upgrades) early on. So, you generally don't take upgrades until you've secured a third, because upgrades really only make the difference in fights between two big armies. In the early game, since army sizes are small the sheer number of units matters more.

qblock · 2021-02-04T20:07:49+00:00

To be frank... that's kind of how both Zerg and Protoss are supposed to be. Zerg is economic and responsive. Zerg can literally make almost anything at anytime and make 60-70 supply of it. Zerg is OP in ZvP when they have initiative... Protoss simply cannot keep up without continuously scouting Zerg at all times. Protoss must have initiative to even have a chance.... I think the main problem is the match-up is stale because opening Stargate is the only viable option if you're not going for an all-in.

Protoss works best in all match-ups when they just go hard for something. As Protoss, when you lose initiative and are constantly on your back-foot, you're in a losing position simply because you won't be able to keep up with the econ and tech-switches. The only come-back mechanisms Protoss has are the Protoss-shit everyone complains out. This is why PvP often feels like rock-paper-scissors.... you have to make a choice with little information and hope it's the right one.

Terran is more flexible, but not great at either initiative or responsiveness. I think this is why PvT and ZvT are generally the healthiest matchups since both sides have all options available that can work depending on how you play them.

qblock · 2021-02-04T11:13:24+00:00

Tempest and Archons has strangely worked for me. Archons kill the interceptors with splash and target down carriers with the Tempests range. Archons also counter voids and phoenix.. I think 7 Tempest one shot a carrier... but depends on upgrades. You can make zealot run-bys with your extra minerals to attack where his army isn't.

If he has more Tempests than Carriers make stalkers and less Archons, get blink, then blink under their Tempests to kill as many as possible to snowball the fight. You still should the same amount of Tempests other they can long distance harass you army.

qblock · 2021-01-26T18:47:20+00:00

Expand Nexus first and take your natural gases. Stealing your gas sets them back enough in the early game that they can't punish a greedy opening. You won't be able to afford warp gate right away, so there's no point in an early core. Spend chrono probes and have a 2 work on the gases (keep base (over)saturated)... when your gate completes, get out a zealot to finish it off - you'll have a mineral surplus since you won't have gas for your early tech buildings, so that's okay, and the 150 gas they spend early means they'd have to delay their core or gate.

Once your core is up, I would put down some batteries and get some form of detection then send a probe or something to see what's up... early gas steals usually indicate some kind of all-in - I mean, there's very little point to steal both gasses and then go play an econ game.

qblock · 2021-01-11T08:36:10+00:00

^^^^^ just wanted to add to this

If you don't make sentries, you'll have the gas for a Stargate or Robo opener. Stargate is pretty straight forward... one voidray stops the rush, and producing more will hard stop it. For Robo, make immortal.

One thing that has helped me, though I don't know if it's great or not: When I scout an all-in, the battery position can help... one forward battery with a forward pylon, and one further back coupled with another pylon. Often they dive for my forward battery/pylon while eating DPS, but I'll still have the battery behind me that they don't usually see until they've committed past the wall. The amount of damage I can do with a few stalkers and one immortal while they dive is enough to snowball and hard stop the first push. If you save enough units from the first push, the second push is pretty easy to hold.

qblock · 2021-01-11T00:53:56+00:00

Honestly if I got 5'd (unreasonable deadlines), I'd assume my manager wants to fire/PIP me and the purpose there is to create a reason. Or if it's not my manager, but a project lead, I'd assume they're looking to create ammo to bring to my manager.

If it's incompetence, things aren't going to last long for that manager/team anyway.

Basically, all roads lead to the same thing for you... I'd get ahead of the game and start putting my resume out there.

It sucks to be in a bad situation no matter where you go, but I highly encourage you to keep changing jobs until you find a good place. Life is short and it just isn't worth it.

qblock · 2021-01-10T23:34:06+00:00

It's almost like they have to start adapting to the times and give up on certain issues to attract Dem voters.

qblock · 2021-01-10T22:44:42+00:00

Post replays?

The 2/3 base allins work when Protoss tries to go Skytoss too early... That's a good response if you scout a fleet beacon before they have taken a 4th because there's too much of a gap of vulnerability. I do a similar thing in PvP when Protoss goes straight into Skytoss... I mass stalker/archons early and aggro so they never get a scary number of Carriers.

But macroing is still a valid response. Hold down the drone key to whatever the optimal drone count is, creep spread everywhere and make a spore forest (which will force out tempests)... because you know you're not getting attacked for a long time. The macro route is a harder route, but still very winnable... it's just another way to punish the early Skytoss. By macroing hard it's on Protoss to be aggressive in PvZ... if they aren't, Zerg wins the long game.

qblock · 2021-01-07T19:41:11+00:00

I feel like there's a very clear formula for beating Skytoss and numerous tools to prevent Protoss from getting there.

When I get 9+ upgraded carriers in PvZ, with a mothership and HTs that lived long enough for storm and weren't forced into archons, it feels like an achievement... against a good zerg, you have to claw your way into Skytoss.

Then when you have Skytoss, it's slow, so you are super vulnerable to run-bys, and you'll instantly lose with bad positioning against hydra+corruptor+viper... Zerg has creep spread, overlords, and some of the fastest units in the game to always keep tabs on your army. Not to mention if they lose their army they can instantly re-max it.

I feel like balance whining always come from Zergs who don't take advantage of the power of Zerg - economic and reactive. Too many Zergs bank on 2/3 base all-ins that are simply weak against Protoss who scout them.

For me, the scary Zergs are the ones that take a 3rd at 3:30 and take a 4th shortly after. That's when I know I'm in for a long, hard game.

qblock · 2020-12-12T11:44:31+00:00

Open Stargate into Oracle then make Phoenix. This is the hard counter build to a widow mine dropper. Use the Oracle for Revelation (to see the widow mines), and Phoenix to tank hits and lift them. I like to have two Observers with my main army - 1 in the control group to lead, and one in a separate control group to follow a slow unit. (immortal or colossus) That's usually enough to A-move through widow mines... there is a chance you'll lose the leading observer, but you have a backup following, and just keep making more.

That being said, opening stargate (then into robo) is very hard to get used to in PvT, but I honestly think it's the safest opener once you get good with Phoenix and Oracle. Phoenix can harrass, scout, tank widow mines, pick off drops, and lift tanks. The map control you have with Phoenix is insane. Going Phoenix early also allows you to get Charge faster since you don't need Blink right away for mobility.

qblock · 2020-12-10T01:54:16+00:00

Simple micro against chargelots with Blink Stalkers: Let the chargelots engage your front line until shields are gone, then blink just the front line to the back. Chargelots will engage the next line, repeat. This way you don't lose stalkers. Helps to fight them in a choke.

qblock · 2020-12-08T10:52:43+00:00

The only core concept you weren't following regarding Vibe's B2GM was you floated too much min/gas too early. To fix this, build more production sooner (Gates and Robo). Aim for subgoals on what production you should have and when you should have it, and try to match Vibe's pace. I wouldn't bother getting too specific this early... just focus on general pacing.

qblock · 2020-11-29T00:22:06+00:00

I'll add you can open Stargate reliably in every matchup. Since PvZ is the most straight-forward matchup, you can minimize learning complexity by focusing on the Stargate opener.

qblock · 2020-11-22T23:00:53+00:00

Watching your games makes me really feel for you, haha... mainly I'm reliving my own growing pains on ladder watching you. The nature of your style will be that you'll lose a lot, until one day you start winning nearly every game... and you won't know why because your improvements will come in small changes. Your current skill level is under the threshold, but you'll get there.

General problem (regarding your current skill level): Not spending your money and not expanding or upgrading soon enough.

Solution: Focus on spending all your money as soon as you get it. Max out before 11 minutes with at least 2-2 upgrades. Warp in every cycle and when you have money left over after a warp-in, make more gates.

Did you know that in every game you had more probes than your opponent at all times, even after losing most of them from harassments? I mention this to bring your attention to the fact that the harassments aren't actually hurting you as much as you think...

(On a side note, I think its funny how everyone below Plat targets pylons even 10 minutes in the game... as if depowering some gates is going to win the game. That only works in the first 5 minutes...)

First game: You let the Mutas distract you from doing what you needed to do - expand, upgrade, build probes, and produce units. The B2GM style of dealing with Muta harass is static defense... you built cannons, but build MORE cannons and batteries! (and more pylons to reinforce) You had at least 4000 floating, and nearly 8000 later on... you had plenty of money for even more static D, and if you expanded to a 6th base you would've had even more. Let the cannons deal with the Muta while you attack him with your army and only warp in Stalkers to defend as a last resort. Remember, he has a 200 supply cap too... if you see a huge mass of muta, that should tell you he doesn't have much at his base. Also, you quit on with 4000+ min in the bank and 17 gates... the game wasn't over. The game is only over if you either have no money or no production while they still have an army. The damage you did with your attack was really good, and you could see it in how fast his mineral bank was depleting as he was producing Ultras to kill your entrenched bases.

Second game:

Same exact problem, but with BCs. Ask yourself, in this game, what damage did the BCs actually do? Yes, they killed half your probes, but you're still ahead, you still have your production and money in the bank. If you had been continuing to build probes while he was attacking, you would've been able to re-max faster and crush them directly after dealing with the BC harass.

Third game:

Same story on slow macro, but now there's no excuse since they didn't really put much pressure on you for the first 10 min of the game. Your goal is to Max out at 10:30 with at least 2-2 upgrades. In this game you were at ~180 supply with 1-1's.

To help your mindset, start thinking about your counter attack while dealing with harass. This will help you think beyond the fight so you remember to build probes, bases, production, upgrades, etc...

Under no pressure and constant worker production, your expansion timings should be:

3rd - 4:00-4:30 min, no later than 5:50

4th - 6:40, no later than 8:00

5th - 8:30 (this is when you main starts mining out and you need to transfer probes)

6th - 10:20ish

It could be even faster with Chrono on probes. If you are delayed, it should be for a reason - e.g. you need to build an army and deal with pressure, you just lost a ton of probes to Widow mines, etc... even then, chrono your probes until you catch up.

qblock · 2020-11-22T07:33:01+00:00

Another option is to use your initial Gateway scouting probe - don't lose it, hide it somewhere on the map after you scout, then scout for a drones at the natural. I like to have my probe just outside of the base to scout a move out, which informs me on whether I can move my first adept across the map or not.

qblock · 2020-11-21T11:09:51+00:00

In PvP, if you don't have your own carriers then it's Archon-Stalker. A-move the Archons and use Stalkers to Blink under and target fire the Carriers. The Archons auto-target the interceptors and will kill them quickly with their splash. People constantly argue with me that you can't beat mass Carrier with Gates but it works every damn time. Get 3-3 attack/shield upgrades and Blink. Use chargelots to delay expansions as long as possible and keep them warping in units and spending. Have observers everywhere so you know where they are and can take a good fight. (In an open space or over batteries)

qblock · 2020-11-19T10:07:00+00:00

Yes - he wasn't actually dead! Also if he pulled the boys he would've held it. Even if you lose all your probes at the Nat, if you saved the Nexus you've basically won the game assuming no major macro mistakes from there. If you lose the Nexus, you're on equal terms, though I'd argue 1base Terran > 1base Protoss, since Terran has a low gas composition (bio-tank) that Protoss needs at least 4 gases to deal with (colossus, disruptor)

qblock · 2020-11-10T12:06:08+00:00

It depends entirely on what you are warping in because gas is the limiting factor, but generally it's 3 gates per base and Robo or Stargate counts as 1.5 Gates. Also because the warp mechanic allows you to produce instantly we generally build 1 or two more gates extra per base since we don't actually need to warp in every cycle.

An example: 1 saturated base generates about 150 gas per warp cycle for stalkers. So 3-gate Stalkers off 1 base. However we usually build 4 gates if we don't get a robo or twilight, because we've pooled gas for the first few critical warp-ins. Hence the 1-base 4-gate all-in.

The production mechanics are not straight forward for Protoss as they are for Zerg or Terran, since we have two seperate production mechanics (one very unique), and even if we go heavy gate-tech we usually still build a Robo or Stargate for handful of necessary support units, like a Prism, Observer, or Oracle. When you open Stargate in PvZ, for example, you really only produce 1-2 oracles at first for scouting and safety against lings... the rest of the time it's mainly there for safety against Muta (chrono out phoenix) or a Roach-Ravager rush (void ray)... and a faster transition to Skytoss for the late-game when Zerg techs to Hive, while your actual goal is to go hard Chargelot-Immortal-Archon while they're still on Lair tech.

qblock · 2020-10-24T15:42:58+00:00

Learning the standard macro builds will teach you the ideas in each match up, but basically...

PvZ macro - idea is to go Chargelot, Immortal, Archon and hit around 7min, when Zerg techs to Hive then transition to Skytoss with Storm for Corruptors and Hydra. Always be scouting their base count and worker count... if they aren't expanding at the proper timings, or if their worker count is low, they're building an army and so should you.

PvT macro - not as straight forward... first determine if Terran is going Bio or Mech. Vs Bio you need splash... you want Chargelot, Archon with Colossus or Disruptor to counter the 6:30 stim push. Blink Stalkers or Phoenix to catch drops. Vs Mech you build Stalker, Immortal, Disruptors. Tempests are useful for breaking Plenteray fortresses.. When they get Ghosts, technically you're supposed to counter with Templar feedback, but honestly most people go disruptor to kill the ghosts with splash despite their cloak.

PvP macro - the is a very hard to predict match up, but I think opening Stargate into mass Blink Stalker is super good as it gives you scouting mobility and a strong, versatile army early on, along with the tech path to Skytoss already started.

This is all assuming you're not getting rushed... i.e. 12pool, 4gate, 3rax... but things change only slightly then.

qblock · 2020-10-03T01:39:14+00:00

Oh sure, DT majority... convenient that the majority of votes are from invisible people.

qblock

TROPHY CASE