My Blawwwwwg

Over the course of this summer I've become pretty "well watched" (lol), but I want to branch out into books. What do you guys consider some really good book that everyone should read? Any genre is fine. Just try and put a brief description for whatever book(s) you recommend! It would help a lot, since I know I can't buy every book out there.



Unrelated note: I'm 4th on Liquibet? Hahaha oh wow I wonder how long I can keep this guess work up.

Well since I don't like playing alone on iccup, I'd really like to get involved with a group of mannered players that I could practice with consistently. Even with school coming up I can dedicate 1-2 hours a night for SC.

Alright, some details on me:

-Terran player, D on iccup (7-7 this season, I don't like playing it =/)
-I have AIM for contacting
-Enjoys long walks on the beach
-???

So, any clans/teams out there that would take me? I don't mind doing tryouts or whatever.

Thanks.

Sup TL, time for another installment of my weekly(ish) blog. I think I'm a bit late on this one, but hey, it's not like I'm getting payed I hear cross-promotional advertising is a great way to make money, so Blizzard, please take note of this possible gold-mine:



I'll try and quickly sum up what my blogs are all about. Here's what to expect:
-A D-level Terran player rambling about playing Starcraft.
-Battle reports of entertaining games, chronicling my progress and what not.
-Hot sexy pictures of Tossgirl >_>

Anyways, this past week or so I've been trying to concentrate on TvZ. Not that my other match-ups are better (or even good), but I know that TvZ is the hardest and relies on the T being aggressive, something that contradicts my TvP style. But before we get into some select TvZ games, I first have to show you a rofltastic TvT match.

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Match 1: TvT on Python

As you can see in this game, my opponent was tired of playing standard TvT. REALLY tired of it. Let's get started:


All aboard!
This is hilarious because in my last blog where I was at 6 on python, I made the exact same wall-in mistake. Sigh. Anyways, I open up 1fact into CC, but I have no idea what he's doing because his marines deny my scout entry. But I do eventually get a glance at something suspicious...


What's also funny is that at the last second of the fog of war (after my SCV died), I saw a dropship load up these marines.


ROFL. Anyways, I was lol'ing too much to be afraid of losing. I had to take SCVs off my main, and then I slowly inched up tanks to his marines. Eventually he packed up and tried dropping on my tanks. Observe:





Well then...Looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't like TvT. Since I haven't been following SC2 much, I have a question to the readers: any ideas what TvT will be like in SC2? Will infantry still be worthless? I read somewhere tank splash is currently keeping things that way.

Hope you liked that random TvT. Now onto the TvZ matches, where I got to practice with some people from TL! They were all better than me so I thank them for spending time with a scrub like me. I remember sometimes how annoying it can be practicing with a weaker player, even though it benefits them.

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Game 2: TvZ on Andromeda

Well for this particular TvZ game I decide to go non-standard and screw around with mech! Don't worry there's a pretty good game after showing me play standard. But I figured this could be fun for some people. And since Terrans are so predictable, maybe adding this type of play style to my repertoire could be good in the future.


I play a normal FE build, in order to get 2 gases up ASAP. Then I try and get enough Goliaths and turrets up to defend from mutas. Unfortunately, he spots out my build...


From here the game gets weird for me. I don't see any mutas coming, and my scans don't reveal much about his army, save for a few groups of hydralisks and zerglings. I macro up a storm of metal and push out into the unknown, only to be ambushed by an army I am not expecting:


I think Terran metal is sexier than Pamela Anderson on Baywatch.


Zerg creates an amazing surround on my forces, spelling doom for me. Just look at that mini-map!


Epic battles like this are exactly what SC is all about. Even if I'm on the losing end, I can still fight it out Sparta/300 style to the death and have a good time playing. Another reason that battle was lost was because of the Zerg's superior unit composition.


But after losing such a big battle like that, there's just no way I'm gonna hold any longer. At this point I'm also very gas-starved with a few thousand minerals in excess. GG.

Thanks to Shallow[bay] for playing that game with me, in case you guys were wondering who the sexy Zerg commander was =)

Replay: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IPS782K3

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Game 3: TvZ on Blue Storm

Here's a really cool game I played with another TL member, whom I think goes by the name of Gyabo. In this game I actually gain a winning advantage in the early midgame, but cannot take it home. So yet another good game ends in tragedy for your Terran hero.


Remember how in the SC cannon the Terrans are all criminals or something that start their own space society? Well, this SCV right here - let's call him Jamal - was one badass motherfucker. He was locked up for murder, rape, arson, drug trafficking, and stickin' it to the man. I needed to scout the Zerg, and knowing this would be a tough job, decided to call up my boy Jamal. And being a strong ass mofo, he takes down a drone all by himself!


Meanwhile, back at base, his white comrades John and Smith hunt down an overlord, giving the Terran forces a further early lead. Oh and by the way, I do 1rax FE in every TvZ pretty much, this game being no exception.


I try and force some sunkens, but after mistakenly MOVING my force into zerglings outside my base (instead of attack moving), I'm left with a pathetically small force. Regardless, he makes 2 more sunkens so I guess I somewhat do my job.


The muta harass comes, kills a few turrets, a couple of SCVs, then subsides. Overall not too big a blow to me. With 4 raxes pumping and my first vessel out, I move out against his third base, knowing that the game could depend on this battle. M&M armies are kinda cool, but mech armies are more manly IMO. Maybe I should try mixing them sometime...


The muta-ling army defending there dies, the lurkers are late to show up, and the third hatchery dies! Of course these are some angry lurkers, and want to engage my dudes:


Let's see how good my M&M micro is against lurkers...even though I barely do these types of engagements. In fact I probably should have ran back.


I kill a few more lurkers as well as some ling reinforcements, but ultimately I can't pass. Oh well, I took out his third! Props to anyone who got the Monty Python reference in this pic


With a newly macro'd army, I venture onto his side of Blue Storm, as he's retaken his third base. But against the darkswarms I can't really make any progress. From there I go for drop tech and try to take my entire half of the map. Unfortunately, this allows him to get back into the game, and I really should have kept up the pressure. The next important part of the game is my (somewhat failed) drop:


The drop doesn't do too much. It takes out a hatchery (lol), the ultralisk cavern (which he rebuilds quickly) and the Queen's nest (FUCK YEAH!). But I haven't been able to fortify the bottom right, or my side of the map =( So now even though I had a huge lead, I am in trouble. The failed drop investment didn't help either. Anyways, I decide to add some metal to my army.


I hold, then try and push across to his side with all my tanks, getting my vessel cloud and M&M groups plagued.


I now try and push out against 6 o'clock. At this point in the game I got that feeling that I'm playing bad, but for some reason I didn't do anything about it. Maybe I psychologically want to lose games, it would explain me throwing away things like this. I call this "savior syndrome".


...Yep. Elvis has left the building.

All in all though, that was the most solid TvZ I have played, I actually moved out and did something early on at least. My late-game economy management was weak, and I couldn't press home my advantage. It feels like my TvZ doesn't have a "winning spark" to it just yet, even if my mechanics are improving. But hey I'll admit it - I'm not a natural SC player. I'm someone who came rather late to the competitive scene and used VODs/replays to learn the game quickly. But I'd like to change that at least for when SC2 comes out.

Replay: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WZ48GJGF

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Well that's about it for this week's blog. Please tell me how you guys are finding these, what you like, what you'd like to see different, etc. Also if you guys have any random requests for my next one, throw them out there.

OH - I almost forgot, Tossgirl!


Rawr

I'd like her to S my TX if you know what I mean.

That skirt is much too long...

Enjoy.

- Ryot

Hi there,

I am looking for some Zergs to mass game with, as my internet for my desktop computer FINALLY got fixed. This is generally what I'm looking for:

-Mannered people, fun to play with!
-Around the D+/C- skill level (basically, a bit better than me though I'll take what I can get, it's all good)
-Able to contact through AIM. My aim is "realwillsmith" feel free to add me. Also, I'm "Ryot" on US west.

Alright, here's what you get in return:

-A fun T to practice with! We'll be helping each other so if you need me to play a certain way for practice I'll do my best to help out.
-The opprotunity to be part of my battle reports. Since we'll be playing quite a few practice games, I'll get some good material to make battle reports out of, and you get to be the star! Just check out my other blogs if you're wondering what my reports are all about.

That's about all I can think of right now. Oh, I'm in eastern standard time, and thus I'm just about to go eat dinner. My schedule this summer should be pretty good for SC, especially from 9 p.m. onwards.

Thanks!

This is my weekly-ish Blog which chronicles my learning of the Terran race. I do one about every week or so, doing brief battle reports on select games with a bunch of pictures for fun. And since it's a blog I throw in some random thoughts on whatever I feel like.

You can read my first one here: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=73169
Once again I want to thank everyone for the warm reception on it, you've motivated me to make more =D

(some ramblings on myself in the next few paragraphs, feel free to skip down to the battle report!)

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Something I wanted to write about in the first blog but didn't get around to was my SC background. After on-and-off casual playing, I came across some youtube professional SC videos, and decided to start taking my game seriously. In just two weeks I went from a casual UMS player to a semi-competent 100apm player with a working knowledge of build orders and hotkeys. I remember joining PGTour and WGTour (or whatever they were called), and losing literally every game. I finally gave up on Starcraft after going 1-15 or something like that on both ladders.

Fast forward about a year and a half. I'm hanging out with a bunch of Korean friends, and, naturally, the topic of conversation goes to Starcraft. I didn't feel like going through all that again, I had been humiliated already. Eventually a friend of mine showed me some more videos (commentaries in English!) and once again I was back into SC. I was terrible, barely pulling 100apm, and not able to manage a build order past 20 supply.

But damn it I didn't care if I lost, I just wanted to get back into it. Why, you say? Because motherfucking STARCRAFT 2 HAD JUST BEEN ANNOUNCED! I thought to myself, if a game 10 years old can still be fun, imagine the sequel! Of course, I had to get in shape and so I watched more VODs, found more Starcraft sites (including this one) and started playing on iccup.

Last season I was only a few games away from D+, and slowly but surely I was noticing some big improvements in terms of management and whatnot. I learned how to use shift, and how to hotkey areas (the shift+f2/f3/f4 thing). But... the season reset. And now with the competition higher than ever, I find myself in an interesting position. My gameplay is better than it has ever been, but my rank/record is bad. At the time of writing my rank is D- and my record is 5-15. Luckily, there seems a bunch of noob tosses out there that like trying to go 2-base carriers, so I should bounce back quite quickly =)

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Game 1: TvT on Andromeda

Ah, fuck. My most hated match-up. But luckily for me it's on one of my new favorite maps, the sexy Andromeda. Anyways, the game starts out without any serious cheese. We both go depot --> rax --> gas, but I put my rax in the middle of the map just for the hell of it. Fortunately for me, my marines get in, as does a vulture, causing him to lose some mining time.


Semi-cheese ftw, even though I'm usually a very clean player.


For some reason, Blizzard made SCVs African-American...


The marine cheese was mildly successful, making him lose mining time. My first 3 vultures all got 1 or 2 kills before dying, so the second wave of cheese did a decent job as well. I pump out a tank while putting down TWO command centers(!). He is going 2fact vults as I find out, but I think he's slowed down enough, so it's time to take a macro lead.


The tank pops out, with a second one on the way. The measly 3 vultures get a few SCV kills at the natural, but his counter attack has failed and my macro is about to kick in. Three command centers, one factory. Sounds like a sexy fetish website... Oh wait...


And here we go, I'm at the part of TvT I hate. I didn't move to a forward position (fearing drops or something) and now I'm contained. Now I'm pissed. Pissed enough to make an epic SCV break.





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Game 2: TvP on Python

This was the best game I've played all season. Ironically, it's the game that pushed me into the D- rating. It was a pretty intense game and in the end I lose a war of attrition, not able to get a 4th expansion and beyond. My blob of mechnical death, while awesome, can't be everywhere at once.


Remember last blog when I said I was rusty because I've had exams? Well, it truly shows here as I've gone dyslexic and screwed up my wall. Meanwhile, he is going 2-gate ranged goons, and he put a pylon next to where my machine shop would be to delay my tank. The tank gets out, I defend fine, and get my natural up and running.


I continued to macro pretty well. At this point we are both at 3 bases (giving me an edge), and thus he commits to an attack. At the point in the picture, I am only behind by 5 supply, but he wins the battle, killing my min-only third base. The game goes back into macro mode, I rebuild desperately as the base situation temporarily becomes my 2 to his 4.


macro macro macro, not much to say here. But look at the minimap and that sexy Terran blob. Placing mines/turrets everywhere ftw. In fact, it will make this next battle pivotal.


This is the start of an epic battle. He is maxed, and I am down 50 supply and mining out my bases (currently trying to sneak an expo in bottom right). I don't know how to make a .gif, so in the following pictures you will behold my epic defense:



Holy shit! I hold and I'm up 25 supply! Time to roll out and take revenge on the Protoss scum. Unfortunately, this epic tale is a tragedy, as yours truly - the Terran hero - bows out in a war of attrition. But not before some vengeance!


He had over 9000 gateways and got an army back up, but it was no match for my ball of Terran greatness, and thus I kill the top left. But then, as I push to the other bases, and tragedy strikes:


What a great time to run out of scans. I try and kill his last mining base, but DTs keep coming and my scans don't last. Meanwhile, my 4th and 5th bases have been picked off, leaving no economy:




He has one mining base, I have zero, and not even enough for a command center. Nothing to do but "gg".

However, I'm glad that I lost to an actual decent Protoss, not one of those 100apm "1a2a3a4a" types.

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Replay: http://rapidshare.com/files/123463778/TvP_loss_3.rep.html
===

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Brief gameplay discussion:

The TvP game I used a FlaSh-type build with early upgrades, to 4facts, to a 3rd base. I like moving slowly with my awesome Terran blob. I guess you could say it's a pansy-strategy, but waiting until I'm maxed out and just rolling over everything is awesome. And for an inexperienced player like myself, it's a stable and reliable strategy.

For hotkeys, I use the shift-position hotkeys for my command centers for SCV production. I use quite a few for factories to keep tank production pretty constant. Usually I just hit 4t, 5t, 6v, 7v, then I start double-tapping the last factory to bring up all the others for vulture production. It works decently enough for me, though if you guys have anything better to suggest, by all means go ahead. The first three hotkeys are for units and the last 2 or 3 for scanners.

The main question I have is, how do you go about taking the 4th and 5th bases on Python in TvP (or TvZ for that matter)? Should I go for a main and hold the ramp up with part of my force? And I have no idea how much I should invest in those defenses , unfortunately I don't get to spam cannons to stop harassment =P
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Thanks for taking the time to go through this second entry of mine. I hope it wasn't too long and it was somewhat organized. Tell me what you guys think, I'd love to hear!

- Ryot

(edited - terrible initial formating! sorry!)

I need some motivation to play this match-up, it just seems lame as hell. It seems like either I get BBS'd (insta-lose), or hides starports and masses wraiths early on. I don't mind getting raped in SC, but when it's by two or three wraiths and they deliver it slowly and painfully...well, it's not my cup of tea.

Also, siege tank stand-offs suck. It feels like even if I'm macro-ing better, if he has a better position and is in siege mode w/ turrets, I can't advance without at least twice the unit count (which leads to my occasional hero sacrificial SCV plays).

So basically I want you guys to tell me some good things about TvT. The only thing I really like is the strategic play between dropships and taking/holding bases. Goliaths vs. BCs are very fun as well for me (when I have the Goliaths, as it reminds me of all the n00bs I pwn going 2-base carriers in TvP lolololol).

Links to any good games would also be appreciated.

Thanks.

Feeling discouraged for a number of reasons, as well as not having the time, I decided to take a bit of a break from SC. But now I'm back, and you're gonna continue reading this lame blog because - let's face it - you probably have nothing better to do Don't worry though, my Starcraft tales and witty pictures shall keep thee entertained.

Why was I discouraged? Well, to start, I play Terran. That means for my current D-level skills, I suffer a ton of losses, and forget something different every game cause there's just so much to multi-task. Now I don't want to turn this into a "race warz" blog, but after playing all 3 at my low level of skill, T is definitely the toughest, with Protoss being the easiest. But for some reason I choose to play Terran. I hope one day my multi-tasking gets up to par and I can roll over bitches with my ballin' ball of metal awesomeness.



Moving on. Alright so I haven't played seriously for weeks, but guess what - apparently it's my birthday soon! I totally forget, end-of-year culminating school assignments have been the only thing on my mind. Anyways, as an early birthday present I get around $150 to go buy whatever.

So... do I order a hooker? Do I throw a party and invite half the school? Do I ask my significant other out on a date? FUCK NO! I go and buy a new mouse and keyboard for ub3r-l33t-gam1ng!!11!!!11!!!

Nothing at BestBuy really caught my eye, but then I saw this mouse made by a brand called "Razer". I thought to myself, "Hmmm, where the heck have I heard about these guys?" Then I remembered: they sponsored the TSL, and they specifically make gaming mice! Now I usually never buy something just because of the brand-name, but I just had to as seeing a legitimate English Starcraft broadcast was just so amazing, and couldn't have happened without that awesome company. Anyways, I picked up a sexy-looking mouse called the Razer Diamondback:



To be honest I wasn't expecting anything amazing, but this thing really blew me away once I started using it. It had to be the smoothest, most responsive piece of hardware I've ever used. I'm not writing this blog to promote Razer or anything, but holy crap talk about a good product. Anyways, since it's my (early) birthday, I figured I should go enjoy myself getting bashed on iccup (as you can see by now, I have very different interests from the average 17-year-old).

After about 5 quick games of getting raped early due to build order mistakes, I finally got a TvZ where I survived for quite a bit. My macro early on was terrible, but somehow I made it to the mid-game and got a ball rolling. I felt like after the beginning, I moved out all right with my boyz (M&M of course) and did some decent harassment. But of course, I had some mistakes that only someone as absentminded and rusty as me could have had:


A medic-less army... Talk about a sausage fest.


"Ah, fuck. I can't believe you've done this."


GG yo.

So that was quite an entertaining game, you can DL the full thing here if you like:

http://rapidshare.com/files/121603166/vZloss1.rep.html%20target=

Yes, rapidshare, omfg. But don't worry, it's happy hour right now! For those wondering why rapidshare gets so much hate, please take a look:



Anyways, the only other note-worthy game I had tonight with my new mouse was the one that I won, a tense TvP on python. The game lasted roughly 40 or so minutes, but don't worry, pictures are worth a thousand words/seconds:


Well, at least the shuttle died. But unfortunately this little bad boy took out my turret exposing my supply depots to a slow, painful, invisible rape by sword.


Believe it or not, these vultures used to accompanied by 12 tanks!


However, the next time I roll out I win the engagement, thus coming back from behind somewhat. While this happens I reclaim my third base and start a fourth.


This is the turning point of the game, after which I try to plow his main base, only to be fended off by carriers! Now ensues a vicious battle between the flying behemoths and the retarded Goliaths.


yeeeeeeeeeeee boiiiiiiiiii


Seriously, Goliaths are fucking retarded.



Alas, I went on to win this long game as I whittled his carrier force to nil and walked over him with my Goliaths (who walked like cripples).

Rep: http://rapidshare.com/files/121606655/vPwin1.rep.html%20target=

Anyways, to conclude, I just want to say that I had fun playing SC today. Even if I get whooped on iccup, I can have some fun with it. Overall I still feel that Terran has to do so much more to win games, but I'm hoping that eventually the hard work will pay off, and I'll reach my eventual goal of a C on iccup before SC2 comes out.

Thank you very much for reading!

Hello internets. I've used you for a lot of things (read: porn), but I never thought I'd be here asking for your help. Basically, I have a physics project due in less than 24 hours, and nothing I've tried has worked. I've been working endlessly since Friday night...

Anyways, the project is this: build a homemade electrical device. I've tried making motors, speakers, etc but nothing has worked for me. I've googled basic motor designs, followed their instructions, but my stuff just won't function!

So does anyone have anything simple I could make? Or an easier-to-make motor? Here are my available materials:

-6 volt battery
-thin insulated copper wire
-aluminum foil
-paper clips
-magnets
-tape

Thanks for any help!

Hi, I'm a D-level player looking for someone to train me. I really want to improve my Terran play. My goal is to get to an eventual C-level (which I realize is a loooooong way off lol).

So if there's any players out there who can play a bunch of practice games against me and give me advice, then that would be sweet. I don't mind losing like 10 games in a row or anything, just looking for consistent practice/training. Iccup doesn't really let me do this because I can't choose to play on different maps, races, builds, etc (my host sucks so people can rarely join my games).

I'm available a lot on weekends and usually an hour or two on weekdays. If anyone's interested, please post here or PM me. I promise to work hard and be a good student! Thanks.

edit - info to make things more clear:

Race: Terran
APM: 150-180
Server: US West, US East
available times: weekdays 5-7 P.M EST /or/ 10-11:30 P.M EST - weekends: a lot (sporadic times tho)