Starcraft II

[Wood]

I'm definitely impressed with the new play that's going on. PvP that doesn't come down to "my four gate is better than yours"? Yes please! I was just happy to see how blue flame Helion drops are supposed to be done. I managed to wreck an opponent doing that (TvT). But more on that later. I have yet to see how the finals play out. But holy damn Incredible Miracles has some damn good players. I was hoping more from SlayerS and oGs, but it is what it is.

Yeah, I'm at 50 wins, 41 losses. So for the rest of bronze league, I'm just going to play macro games, no cheese, and stop wrecking electronics when I get mad. It's the only way I'm going to get better. That and I might have to start doing keyboard drills to keep my macro strong.

[Ekkebus]

The GSTL final is the best Starcraft II match played to this point in the games life. That alone was worth $5. Fucking incredible.

[Wood]

"Screw winning the game...I just want to DANCE!" Good 'ole Bomber vs July match was awesome.

Also MvP's Wrestling intro was pretty funny as well. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if this contest gets repeated later this year, and if ST and IM have a huge rivalry after this.
How did MvP comeback? Yeah, I agree that this was the best $5 spent.


Just watched the final, final game. Wow. Just wow. I'm amazed how well these guys are. The Squirtle vs MvP match was simply amazing. I'm starting to see why the audience prefers to watch the large map games. Damn near every unit type came out, and some crazy unit combinations come out at end game. that and 300 food pushes are some of the sickest things to watch.

[Ekkebus]

Bomber and July are on the same team dawg.

The MvP wrestling intro was great. In general I really enjoyed the dynamics of the team play. The showmanship and taunting were great and I loved all the strategy of the teams picking their next player. Like I said before it was also great to see a bunch of players we don't usually see who are actually amazing. It boggles my mind how guys like Bomber and Seed aren't already in Code S.

I loved watching the games on the new maps though word on the street is they're very favorable to protoss. Too early to tell really. I just want to start seeing them on the ladder

[Wood]

Bomber and July are on the same team dawg.

Damn, then who was that match between? I agree about these guys not being in Code S. Either they choked during qualifiers, or they really stepped their game up recently. I don't think I've gotten a handle of what types of maps favor the different races. I assume ledges favor Terran, but that's about all I know.

[Ekkebus]

It was Bomber vs LosirA

[Wood]

It was Bomber vs LosirA

Well, I certainly feel dumb for mixing those dudes up.

Also got some coaching from one of my WoW guildmates that also plays SC2. Lost to a zerg player that made a friggin hatchery in my main base. Didn't see it coming, but I don't feel bad about it, because stuff like that doesn't get you out of bronze. After that, I got 5 or so victories in a row. Simply timing push, retreat, expand, push, win. Carried over to my friend's 3v3 matches where I ended up dominating the entire match. Found out in replay because I had double the harvesters, more production facilities, and I was expanding when it was natural too. Best line over the voice chat:

Kiry: "Ok we need to push, and right now...where's Wood's forces?"
Wood: "Taking care of Red's base"
<Red Zerg>'s buildings have been completely destroyed
Kiry: "What? Damn, already? Well, that worked out much better than I expected."

[Wood]

Really liking the new Code S players picking their spots. Allows the whole thing to be hammed up, in a very good way. Also, I'm surprised how ballsy these guys are by picking their rivals in the groups. On hand you have an opportunity to knock them into the up-down matches. On the other, everyone in the same pool has the same opportunity to get knocked down to up-down. I think one of the Code A matches had an Air Terran build that I wanted to study more, but it's difficult to do so from just video. I may have to try to see if there's any GSL replays out.

[Ekkebus]

The March GSL has been crazy so far. MVP, Nestea, Fruit Dealer, MKP, Boxer and Choya all go down in the first round and suddenely SanZenith looks like the player to beat. The field is pretty much wide open and though I have to think Jinro and MC are the favorites to win at this point. Code A has been so much better this season as well. It was a bummer to see most of the forgein players go out in the first round but at least Huk is in the Ro8 which means he gets a shot at Code S for next season.

Meanwhile I'm trying to get active on the ladder again and simultaneously get used to the new maps. So far this has been a predictably loss filled experience as I both remember how to play and get used to all the new tricks. I do think the new maps are much improved for the most part though I'm still pissed they cut Shakuras instead of Delta Quadrant. Makes no sense.

[Wood]

Wow, just wow! The code A finals was pretty crazy, and up and down matches are just...how is this stuff happening? How far are you caught up?

[Ekkebus]

I'm up to today which means I don't understand the world anymore. MVP plummets down to Code A after winning the entire tournament? Insanity. I'd say he's a lock to win Code A but with the way he's been playing lately who knows. The sad thing is that Rain gets to move back up to Code S because he drew a stupidly easy group (and still almost lost) while Leenock had to group with MKP and Nestea, and is now headed back down to Code A with MVP, Choya and Boxer. Bah.

Also I didn't realize they had a little Team Liquid show match tournament at PAX East with Haypro, Tyler, TLO and fucking Jinro this past weekend. Wish I'd made it out for that if nothing else.

[Wood]

Yeah man, Rain has no reason to be in Code S when it's clear he can't keep up harvester production constantly. To see all these top champs plummet to code A is absolutely heartbreaking. However that should make code A just that much crazier as a tournament, more so than this season.

As for the code S finals, I think July just might win it, even though I'd rather see a Terran victory in a TvZ. The guy just has a great sense for attacking, and committing to all of his actions. But, we'll see how it plays out.

I haven't seen what's coming down the pipe in the next patch, other than removing Viking flowers. And have not done any 1v1's lately. How are the ladder map rotations now?

[Ekkebus]

Finals are ZvP. Not a Terran to be found.

The stuff they're trying on the test server for the new patch is added build time for bunkers, some slight changes to Infestors and removing the Khadarin Amulet upgrade for Templars so Protoss can't do warp in Psi Storms anymore. The big one is the last one but overall Blizzard is taking it slow with making sweeping balance changes, which is good. The game has a long healthy life ahead of it, no need to totally turn things upside down.

I like the new maps though I haven't gotten enough play in on them to win consistently. I wish they'd start using them in the GSL so I could copy some strats. Maybe next season. I'm just happy Steppes of War is gone really.

[Wood]

My favorite quote from Artosis so far was on the topic of walling in on TvT.

It was to the effect of "It forces the hellions to knock on your door, and when you ask 'who is it?' They try to say they're delivering mail. It gives you time to realize 'wait a minute...it's Sunday, YOU'RE A BLUE-FLAME HELLION!"

So glad these guys can really ham up the commentary.

And yeah, that Khadarin Amulet is friggin huge and will definitely change the Protoss match up, especially PvT. I assume the bunker timing is to stop bunker rushes?

[Ekkebus]

I'm not really sure about the bunkers. I don't feel that bunker rushes are so super powerful that they need to be nerfed in that way. I usually don't have trouble stopping them though I'm sure its to effect the balance of TvZ.

GSL commentary is really interesting, specifically Tastless and Artosis because its so much lighter and funnier than commentary on traditional sports. It really does make the games a lot more entertaining than they might be otherwise.

Really excited for the Finals tomorrow. TSL3 starts tomorrow. GSL World Championship starts today and next week is GSTL2 which I'm sure will just be sick. They're changing up the map pool for it again. They've removed Shakuras and Scrap Station and made some slight changes to Terminus RE. Of course the big news is the maps they're adding. Typhon Peaks is coming over from the ladder plus a sick looking 1v1 map called Dual Sight and a 3 player (!) map called Xel'naga Fortress. Very much looking forward to seeing them in action as I think the GSL has been straying a bit too much towards these massive 4 player macro maps.