Welcome



Hi, I am a casual Starcraft 2 Terran player in top 8 Masters, that watches the GSL, MLG, Dreamhack, IEM, and most big tourneys which feature top-tier Koreans. My Terran openings and builds are highly influenced by Korean players as I love watching their crisp play and sick timings. I believe opening build orders should be well-planned with tight timings for optimal supply. My favorite Terran players are currently KTFlash, ST_Bomber, IMMVP, and MVPKeen. I like to practice a handful of openings for each match-up over and over again so I can refine my play and timings and know the best responses to deal with and adapt to various situations. Here are my favorite Terran build orders. Here are some of my replays.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

TvP: Engagements

One thing a lot of Terran players are really lacking in on the NA server is their engagements and micro. It seems common for players to mis-attribute losses to other things like macro, build order, strategy. Yes, while those things are always in need of improvement, I feel like engagements in TvP can make or break an entire game, or at the very least, have lasting repercussions. What really took my standard TvP play, which was in ruins for a good while, was that I started focusing more on my engagements and micro, less on my macro. Suddenly, in my mid-late game, I did so much better playing standard against P: I didn't feel like I was playing from behind and I felt more confident putting on pressure and controlling the map, less scared of any all-ins because of my new found control. There were several things I drastically had to improve on to get better at TvP.

1. FF's: Don't ever get caught by them, ESPECIALLY before medivacs come out or you can insta lose. When you get Medivacs you can pick up pretty safely if they don't have blink. Most don't have it early-mid usually sticking to a more standard Zealot/Sentry/some stalks & immortals comp, something quite abusable by MMM. You can really abuse ledges, especially if they have tech near. This is the biggest thing I've improved on, always trying to juke out the FF's, run around it, use it against the P, etc. It really does make or break engagements.

NooOooo!

2. Medivac drops: Don't ever ever lose them early, so it is imperative to watch them early on if you try; I have just stopped doing early drops altogether since decent P's knows the timings. However if they go the Collossi route, it becomes much easier to abuse drops while your main army/Vikings are moving around. If HT's are out it's a lot riskier to drop, less you scan first. When your first two Medivacs come out (and your next two rallied), this is usually the best timing to put on pressure/attack because it's just before their AOE comes out.

3. Kiting/Surface area: So important, always do this, it is a free way to increase the effectiveness of your army. Unless your army is substantially bigger the Chargelots need to always be kited and isolated as much as possible while not getting trapped from FF's. Running to chokes where surface area is reduced as much as possible (if there is no AOE out). Once they get Collossi/HT, spreading and picking where your engagement happens becomes insanely important in trying to reduce the AOE damage as much as possible and make the Protoss have to funnel his units towards you. This is why concaving on ramps is always an amazing defensive position.

4. Storms: Admittedly still the hardest thing I need to work on; in my constant storm dodging and Ghost control. A proficient Storm user is going to mat the area with storms, this is why dodging and Ghosts are absolutely needed to deal with them or you will just melt. Unless you can take out/drain most of the HTs, I would personally just straight up kite/run back, not engaging the army if given the choice. We should abuse the fact that HTs are much slower, this is a good way to get the P to pull back.

In conclusion, the best way I've believe to improve one ones TvP is to always watch the army and micro the !@#$ out of it if P army is near. If you need to look away, make certain you won't get caught off guard by having your army in a retreating/defensive position. Yep, meticulously watching your main army control in TvP should help anyone improve in standard MMM play, as a bonus you will often see that blur and get to kill an observer. Don't get me wrong, you still need a good foundation in macro, scouting, timings, etc, but engagements should be #1 priority. TvP late game is tough, so you really need to be on top of everything, but most of all your engagements.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

TvZ: 1rax FE into Hellions

Everyone knows the Hellion expand, this is a slight spin to it that is a bit more greedy as you go CC after rax, then rush to factory, but more economical. I've always wondered about the true viability of CC after rax in TvZ, but MarineKingPrime showcased it brilliantly at MLG Columbus 2012 easing many of my doubts. Especially with the much bigger maps we've been seeing, you are much less likely to die to any sort of early rush.

10 supply
12 rax
15 Marine
16 OC
16 CC
16 gas
17 gas
17 depot
18 Marine
20 Marine
22 reactor (on the barracks)
23 OC
24 bunker
+ switch fac onto reactor ASAP

* There are slight deviations to this build, for example if they send an early drone scout you might want to trap it in with a second depot before CC or deny the scouting. NOTE: Don't worry too much about the supply numbers and hitting things perfectly, as long as you keep on time with the pace of the game you're fine.

EXECUTION: This is a economic variant to the all-to-standard Hellion opener that you might prefer on bigger maps if you aren't going for some 2 base timing. The first few Marines can hold off any Zergling pressure, you still need to scout for the normal Zerg cheese, if they lay an expo you are pretty much safe to anything assuming you react properly, if they do some one base crap, I would probably just not take my gas at all and drop 2 extra rax and some bunkers. There are still a lot of Zergs that get cocky and try to just overrun your Hellions with lings, so I would recommend at least 6 with this build since it becomes insanely cost-inefficient to try to take them out with just speedlings. After the rax is floated off the reactor I generally like to follow it up with a tech lab, a 'rauder, and stim assuming I'm not meching. Any Hellion opener is just so amazing in TvZ, you will eventually learn to not die to any Zerg all-ins after enough practice and be able to keep the Hellions alive for so long; which is why it's so amazing in TvZ.

IN GENERAL: I'm undecided on which opener I prefer, the Hellion FE is safer and the Hellions come out so much faster; but as I've said before, as the maps get bigger and Zergs get better, you should not expect to get any drone kills, only contain the Zerg/force units long enough for whatever you're doing. I think CC before fac may eventually become the new standard, the first 2 Hellions pop only 20~30 Blizzard seconds slower. In addition because you take both gasses so early, Unless you want a fast starport/ebay for ups, you can pull 4 SCVs off gas after your fac and reactor are building or you will get a huge gas bank; re-apply later.

Replay 1: http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=262195
Replay 2: http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=263299