Toss High Tech

Step 1: Go play a game on US West










Step 2: Thank MasterofChaos for writing Latency Changer

Thanks MasterofChaos for writing Latency Changer. I just remembered what playing online was before Lan Latency became the norm on iccup. The latency was unbelievable, it made just playing that much harder. You, without a doubt, have greatly increased the competitiveness and the skill of the average non-Korean player.

I wasted my Monday night, which I should have used to do homework, to watch Chill's favorite movie.

]There is Greatness in KTF's Tempest)Is(

I've had my eye on a certain progamer for awhile now. Ever since the return from the off-season, Tempest has put together a solid season, a respectable start for a rising progamer. His amateur replays are well known for their unbelievable macro. Last season, he beat Pure on Katrina in one of the more impressive moments of micro that made GARIMTO and Nal_rA nudge each other in glee (he also lost to Zeus in a pretty good timing proxy). He has been 4-3 since this August, losing to RuBy, FrOzean and Pure.

Tempest versus Pure, 4th Set, Proleague 2007



Some of the best zealot versus zealot micro since Garmito at 5:30, and Garmito acknowledging it at 6:50

The lack of Protoss on KTF's bench is clear after Reach and Nal_rA left. LuCifer and Violet aren't the type of Protoss needed to carry KTF through Proleague or its subsequent playoffs. Flash and Luxury can only carry the KTF so far. Tempest has the opportunity to fill the void left by Kang Min and Park Jung Suk and carry on the legacy of KTF.

Although the amount of games Tempest has played this season is small, his games indicate that he's going to be an exciting player to watch. Excluding his PvP against Pure (which, I'm not sure of, because I haven't seen the VOD yet), Tempest has shown that his play, at least at the mid-tier level, is superior.

Tempest has had a mixed bag of wins. The thing most striking about them are their unorthodoxy. The closes thing to a standard game was Luxury, who ended up trying a largely ineffective run-by. In Tempest's second most standard game, DarkElf chokes, loses his first tank in the FD against 2 goons and a zeal. then Tempest cleans up the game, following up his quick nexus with two 10+ kill DT and again, rushes tech. Tempest 12 nexus'ed against Fantasy, fending off the bunker rush and rushing straight into DT after that. Finally, he cannon rushes RuBy, Nal_rA style, winning the game in an exciting manner as he proxy DT techs behind RuBy's main to finish him off.

Tempest versus Luxury, MSL Survivor




Tempest versus Darkelf, MSL Survivor




Tempest versus Fantasy, MSL Group Stage




Tempest versus Ruby, MSL Group Stage




I cannot ignore the losses the games that Tempest has lost. Or his single proleague game, where he apparently sucked (and lost). But past that, his loses are as elucidating as his wins and indicate where his game is weak and where he must improve if he is to be the player that he can be.

Tempest versus Ruby, MSL Group Stage





In his game against RuBy, Tempest shows that he is still a macro player. He delays his Arbiter tech until after he's taken his fourth base. He builds ninety supply worth of pylons at his natural. He eventually loses because of solid vulture harass from RuBy and, although he breaks RuBy's army the first time, Tempest fails to shut down any of RuBy's expos and RuBy's macro and grades kick in. Although Tempest's army is up to par, his tech isn't. Tempest's army melts beneath RuBy's push.

Tempest versus Frozean. MSL Survivor




Against FrOzean, Tempest again loses to vulture harass. Tempest again goes for an early nexus-dt build. In potentially the biggest what-the-fuck moment of the year (the obs don't even catch it), DarkElf sneaks vultures into Tempest's main and kills many probes and scouts the dark templar tech. Tempest sprint techs into Arbiter but can't fend off the vulture harass that caps his macro and eventually is crushed against FrOzean's push.

The vulture harass indicate some of the biggest weaknesses in Tempest's style. It could indicate many things, weak mini-map eyes, slow hands, poor multitasking, or the inability to close the seams in his builds. Tempest also shows he's vulnerable to big army pushes without tech, which he has a tendency to delay in favor of more expos. He also doesn't like harassing, another skill that Tempest must be willing to incorporate into his game play to become a championship caliber player.

At the same time, Tempest shows his mechanics are solid. In both his games versus Fantasy and DarkElf, he shows that his micro is solid, taking out the FD with minimal units and both of Fantasy's bunkers without batting an eye. In all games, Tempest ends the games with an unheard of number of gateways in his main. Tempest's macro and micro should not be the limiting factor of his game play.

Tempest plays with flair that is instrumental in any good player. He is pioneering a new Protoss build which ultimately might become the norm: A Reach-esque 1 zeal before gas and core, a nexus plant after the 2nd goon, into a sprint toward DT drop that diverges into more expos or Arbiter tech. It seems to be a strong build, weak to vulture harass (note that in Tempest's game against DarkElf, Tempest fends off the vulture harass with one good and a pylon wall) and it has the potential to be the next development in PvT of the on going developments in PvT.

It is too early to see if Tempest will restore the glory of KTF Protosses. Tempest has shown he has been influenced by the KTF Protoss of yore– the cannon rush screamed rA and the way he charged Fantasy's natural was like something out of a Reach highlight video. Tempest may yet fill the shoes of Nal_rA and Reach, or he may just turn into just another Protoss. He could be a champion or a flop. His play to scrape himself out of his MSL groups seems to dictate his desire to innovate and be part of the former rather than the latter.

I have some work to do, but I'm currently watching the GG.net/TL.net show match and I've been meaning to write this up for a long time now. Needless to say, I don't really feel like working right now.

In Support of Boxer and Two Player Maps

Everyone can relate to famous games on a two player maps. In my mind, sAviOr versus Nal_rA on Sin Peaks of Baekdu and Sea versus Reach on Hitchhiker both stand out. Two player maps are conductive to some of the better games in Starcraft. The fact that both players knows where the other starts allows for a much different dynamic that allows for some unique games to be played. The fact that both players know exactly where the other starts allows for a broader range of strats, proxies and mindgames.

I want to bring your attention to 3 (or 4) games on the recently deceased Blue Storm, which was just taken out of the map pool.





And, introducing the king of mind games and proxies, SlayerS_`BoxeR`, the Terran Emperor. Even with his reduced practiced time, he has still graces us with innovative play on Blue Storm.




BoxeR versus RuBy on Blue Storm, Proleague 2007





Only on a two player map with BoxeR would this happen. BoxeR proxies, not to roll the dice and try to end the game early, but to make RuBy play more defensively. Ruby prepared for a situation in which BoxeR proxied; it's not like Lim Yo Hwan isn't well known for it. RuBy built his extra marines and scouted the empty base only to find that BoxeR proxied his first and second factories – the empty base was merely a diversion allowing Boxer to get his factories up earlier. Boxer rides this advantage to the end, grabbing his first and eventually second expo earlier and proceeding to end the game with 3 port wraiths.

This type of strategy would only have been possible had there only been two positions. If it had been a 4-player or a 3-player map, RuBy wouldn't have been so scared of the BBS and would have opened much more aggressively, probably leading into mid-game even keel. You can see the frustration on RuBy's face as he realizes that he is playing against a strat that goes far beyond build orders and mechanics.



BoxeR versus HiyA on Blue Storm, Proleague 2007





BoxeR again exploits his tendency to proxy, except HiyA handles it a little better, probably because BoxeR went Mnm, so points go to the Emperor there. HiyA successfully scouts the proxy and successfully defends it. BoxeR keeps an empty base for a large portion of the game, and retains map Control to win the game. The interesting thing about this game is that is is a rudimentary form of BoxeR versus RuBy game. It was played twenty-something days before. You can see the elements of the ingenuity of the game versus RuBy hazily manifest themselves in BoxeR's game versus HiyA: the ability to retain map control, to keep an empty base, and keep the opponent on the defensive. He even goes wraiths, like in his game against RuBy, to cut down on scouting and map control.

Again, this strat was made possible by the two start positions. HiyA's early scout saw BoxeR's empty base and forfeited map control to BoxeR. BoxeR would not have been able to depend on this build if the map were a three or a four player base; just by having an empty base, BoxeR realized that he can get people to play passively instead of aggressively.





Flash and Blue Storm


A lot of lame things have been said about this map, especially in the TvP. The wide open center allows for easy splitting of the map tend to make PvT's very boring. Flash popularized this style by winning with it, and a lot of people hold him personally responsible.


Flash versus JangBi on Blue Storm, Proleague 2007





Both the Terran and the Protoss are to blame for splitting the map like this. It is clear that both Flash and JangBi felt they could win by playing this way. Many felt that PvT on Blue Storm was impossible simply because fast-armory fended of any type of harass and the third is so close and easy. Carriers seemed to be the only option, making all games end up like Flash and JangBi's stalemate. Although this game was played early in Flash's era, when it wasn't as apparent that splitting the map would evolve such games. Death God Anytime proved Protoss can win, perhaps with more than a little bit of multitask and gall, without early game proxies or carriers.


Anytime versus Flash on Blue Storm, GOMTV Star Invite

Anytime versus Flash on Bluestorm, GOMTV link


He really exploited the 2-player nature of the map, scouting early and forcing an early gas and a delayed rax and pushing out 2 zealots before core, forcing Flash to build more marines. The precision of the opening build would have not been permitted on any map but a two player map.

And here I deviate: the reason this game is worth watching because not because it demonstrates tactics exclusive to two player maps. Anytime choses to beat Flash's fast armory build stylistically. You can play for a macro game, stuck in the mindset that you can will in the long run, inevitably drawing the game into a stalemate or you can play like Anytime did. Anytime teched to speed shuttle-reaver telling the fast armory build to go to hell, harassing with multiple shuttles and forcing Flash's army to defend in too many places at once. Anytime variated his build, played slightly differently, and blew a hole in Flash's build.

To a casual observer, two player maps might seem only aesthetically different than one player maps. Two player maps unlock a area of tactics that was previously unavailable. Two player maps allow the players to practice to finer timings and more exact build orders. They also open up a wilder, much more unpredictable mind game, like tricking players into playing defensively. You could see this on past two player maps, like Monty Hall and Bifrost and I have no doubt you will see it on future two player maps as well.

I was watching Spitfire's WCG 2007 movie and at 3'30 in part II I noticed a picture of PJ playing Savior and it seems he's playing left-handed? Or did spitfire just flip the image? I can't imagine PJ playing lefty, but I can't really tell.

It's a great highlight video, though.

I was wondering if anybody had a UMS map that was basically like python or LT that you could play by yourself with no computer and no map triggers.

One would use this to practice build orders, without the interference of dumb cpus running in with a 6 pool and completely messing up your build order. Or with 12 zeals, super late, something that no human would ever do. Modern build orders are pretty advanced and can go into 50-60 psi so I was wondering if anyone had such a UMS map.

I guess I'll give props to whoever makes one, too.

So everyone's seen the White_Ra FPVODs, educational, as well as Vo-one's translation, equally elucidating.

Thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=75402
Hard Link: http://www.vimeo.com/1392885

In the first 11 seconds, Ra does a slash command that gives him the latency of the two players.

The video's kind of unclear and I can't really make out the 2 characters that white_ra types do check latency.

I googled and couldn't figure out what it was, and I couldn't find it anywhere on the Iccup page.

Does anyone know of this command and how it works?

Thanks in Advance.

So, I've been having problems across the board with Starcraft and all the applications that go with it.

I run a legit copy of Windows Vista, on a dual-core laptop computer with 3 GB of ram. If anyone wants specific specs, I'll give them, but I personally think that all the fixes should (are going to) be software related.

First of all, Starcraft lags. It's probably Vista's fault and I run it in windows XP capability mode. I can even make games, but SC lags when I play with other people (even on Hamachi, for that matter - and on LAN games). I open up task manager and make it realtime priority, but it feels like a pretty temporary salve.

I run bw chart 1.03g and when I open up bwchart it gives me a "please wait while loading replays" dialog and a 15 second wait every time I open up a replay. Is there any other way to get rid of this? I looked in the settings and didn't see something likely. Should I be deleting replays? I'll throw out the comment that I have 2.3 gb of replays.

When I run chaos launcher, an error messages come up. It still runs, so I usually click through them, but it probably indicates that part of Chaos Launcher isn't healthy.
The error message is:
"Error in ApplyPatch in C:\Users\JohnSmith\Desktop\Chaoslauncher\\advldr.bwl."

Thanks in Advance.

Btw, I managed to get Starcraft on a Stick to work. Works great and it's very useful.

So, has anyone managaed to get Starcraft to run portably? That is, run off of a Flash drive so when I plug it into a computer without Starcraft installed, it recognizes SC as an installed program and runs off of a flash drive.

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried to do this? And succeeded? I'm thinking that I'm going to have to buy at least a 2 gb drive, possibly a U3 one because it has a bit of firmware that makes it recognized as a CD drive and it autoplays.

Thanks in Advance.

This is a complete abuse of a blog entry, but I recently switched computers and I'm digging up all the stuff right now to port forward correctly and I thought I'd clean it up and publish it for everyone.

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