The Nietzsche Toss

GSTL- When your team needs a hero, turn to your unproven Protoss Player?

MVPTails

The MVP team was worried. Their handsome terran ace Keen was outmeched by a man named Happy. The random player now Protoss player Guineapig played PvT like it was 10 months ago and massed 10+ colossus, and he watched all of them get obliterated in 10 seconds by Happy’s Viking fleet. Genius, the man who always has a proxy stargate hidden up his sleeve, lost to a 3-base bio timing attack that hit a few seconds before Genius’s Templars had storm. A maxed out bio army against gateway units with no AOE? This would even make the most hardened zealots cry.

DRG, the Terran Killer or the “EZ PZ” Zerg, comes up to bat and does work. He made Happy and Youngwha look like Platinum players, and his epic game versus Losira might have had the most Roaches produced in a professional game. His reign of terror came to an end though when IM throws out one of their final bosses (Yeah there’s two in this game) 3 time GSL winner MVP. Fearing the map for ZvT (Xel’naga Fortress), DRG executes an early roach rush that does damage, but enough damage and loses to the counter Siege Tank/Marine push that would come from MVP.

Their 4 most well-known and seasoned players have been fielded, and with MVP in the booth and Nestea looking smug on their bench, all hope looked lost for the MVP squad and their fans. The camera pans to the bench, who is it? It is….. MVPTails! Wait what? The Code A mainstay or errr player? The teams, commentators, and all the spectators wait in anticipation, will he do the impossible?

About an hour later, a Korean E-sports reporter would nickname him the “Nietzsche Toss,” because “God is Dead.” A name that I think is completely fitting of the situation.

Yes he is pouring Nestea on his head, the drink that is.

Tails showed some crafty defense to MVP’s 1/1/1 build on his against him on Crossfire. Not being flustered by the banshee focus of the IM’s terran version of this “imbalanced build.” He keeps his cool and eventually ends up winning by the work of one Phoenix in sky. MVP is known as the “Conscious Terran” in Korea for stating publicly that this build is

too strong against Protoss players, and he refuses to use it. Oh the irony of this situation.

While Nestea is certainly the best player in the world, I think he is unbeatable in a BoX format, like the GSL tournaments, but in a format like the GSTL, he is beatable but it is not an easy task. I like the build Tails used, a tricky build off a FFE that was a reaction to Nestea’s taking of the gold on Antiga Shipyard. It is Quick 5 gateway pressure that may or may not work but puts the Zerg on the defense, and forces him to make units. While Nestea was producing an absurd amount of units, little does he know that the Dark Shrine is warping for the MVP Protoss. Tails was losing his Zealot/Sentry/Stalker army so badly, but during that time he was sneaking in 3 Dark Templars into Nestea’s main base, where it was the only place that had no spore crawlers (Nestea played a macro based heavy T1 style, that got a sick amount of drones a

nd units, but no tech). Just like that Nestea lost his hatchery that was morphing into a Lair, and all of his tech structures, but this just evens the game as Nestea takes his 3^rd, and retains his macro lead though. This is just a testament to Nestea’s calibre as a player, Tails punished him hard but still has no definitive advantage.

The game becomes much more standard after this, and Tails wins the game not through some gimmicky DT runby, but just solid defense of his expansions as Nestea came with a mass Roach/Hydra drop style. Nestea probably didn’t realize how even it was as he

was trying to do some ultra-aggression T2 tech style that ran into a wall that is Tails’s Stalker/Collossus ball. He had time to tech to Broodlords and Infestors. Nestea GGs out and Tails gives much meaning to the cliché saying and Oliver Stone film, “… On any given Sunday.” Just another great day of Starcraft in the GSTL.

Sorry Zergbong, Reach is not here to carry you like in BW

Follow Grubby!

Grubby, one of the nicest guys around and a legend in the RTS genre is in Korea training at the TL-OGS house! He started a vlog series and its terrific. Look for him to tear up the scene in no time. Check out his youtube page here.

Protoss Units and Pro Association

With Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty eclipsing its 1-year anniversary and with already hundreds of professional games behind us, it would be fun to play an association game. The task at hand is to associate a specific unit to a top player.

Probe- Huk, see the MLG Dallas game versus his teammate TLO, where TLO 6-pools him and Huk is going with a FFE and scouts super late, gosu probe micro, and known of course for his harassing probe ever since the beta.

Zealot- Adelscott, 3 Base, 1 gas Pvt style?!?

Stalker- Liquid Nazgul, knew that Blink Stalkers were really really good before everyone else

Sentry- MC, Obama toss throws them down like no other

Dark Templar- Inca, a more sad association though, his games versus Nestea in the GSL finals : (

High Templar- Socke, pre KA nerf and even after the patch : )

Archons- All Protoss Players after Patch 1.3

Observer- Mana, watch his PvTs, when they get sniped he ques one up with the robo even if it means on skipping out on the Collossus

Collossus- Naniwa, in all games he builds them, he is always microing them in the big fights and he is known for sticking with them in PvP

Immortals- Nexsickness

Warp Prism- White-Ra, Special Tactics since 1998, or 1999

Void Ray- Genius, 3 Gate Voids since the game release.

Phoenix- Hero, a newer association but he makes them religiously in PvT and PvZ.

Carrier- Hongun (See GSL season 3, his game between JSL)

Mothership- Kiwikaki, no gimmicks here, he used it every PvZ for a 3-4 months period

Photon Cannon- Wannabecool, NA Protoss player and a Notorious cannonner in all 3 matchups, poor Mana did not know about this

MKP Mumumu!

I've been too busy with the MLG and the NASL lately to really closely follow the GSL Super Tournament.

Part of the reason I haven't cared to watch it because of the early exit of ST_July at the hands of Slayers_Min. Now after a few weeks we're down to the final four players and so I'm paying attention again. The format of this tournament led to plenty of upsets, and the team Slayers in particular seemed to dominate round after round with the only players eliminated early being Boxer and Yugi-oh. As we reach the final four we've only got one Slayers player left, MMA, who is fresh off his nerd-crushing, choking and all around savaging performance at MLG Columbus (a victim of which was July).

One of the icky things about this Super Tournament has been the Terran dominance. Protoss were destroyed early on, leaving only one Slayers_Alicia in the final 16. And while the final 16 had 6 zergs, (IMNestea, oGsjookto, SlayerS_Min, ZeNEXLine, LeenockfOu and TSL_Revival), only one made it to the round of 8, ZeNEXLine, and he was eliminated in a close series by oGsTop.

The only reason that I'll be watching the final four and hopefully the finals themselves are if MarineKingPrime.We can make it. After making it to the finals three times now and coming up short each time, he is hungry for a win, and a chance to ensure that he does not become the quick King of Silver in SC2. I'm rarely a big fan of Terrans, a case in point is SlayerS_MMA, who is a brilliant player absolutely, but whose style of Terran while technically incredible, since his abilitly to take apart zergs in particular by consistently denying them their late bases, while holding off their large pushes in the center, is nonetheless boring. MKP, has so far been a joy to watch and so I'd much rather see him get to the finals and win.

It's 4 Gate

If you frequent the Internet than you would have bound to hear Rebecca's Black song "Friday," here we here an appropriately version of the song aimed for Sc2 fans. The song is so well done.

Protoss TT

Sen and Morrow putting on their ZvP "face" while watching Dimaga play San in the GSL. The smiling fellow on the left is none other than Code A caster DoA. It was sad day for foreign fans to see Dimaga lose, but if you asked him, he said that ZvP is impossible and the match up he would like to avoid at all costs. Sen and Morrow Echo his thoughts as well.

A Protoss vs Terran Clinic by AtN Socke

White-Ra or The IEM (Intel Extreme Masters) European finals were held in the city of Kiev 2 weekends ago. The participants were players who traversed through their own national qualifiers, and while all 10 players are worthy participants, the racial distribution was rather embarrassing. 8 Terrans and 2 Protosses qualified. The two heroes that hail from Aiur are

Socke, a German player who’s creativity has no limits, especially in the Protoss vs Terran Match up. Socke’s style has had the tendency to create epic games, for reference watch (Jinro vs Socke) (Socke vs Drewbie, cast is in German but the game is still sick) (Socke vs Sen).

There are no better two players to represent the Protoss race in a field of Terrans in Europe (Except for Naniwa) However sparring off with Terran players such as:

Sjow- a flawless Terran player from Sweden, has shown incredible tactics and multitasking in his gameplay

Kas- A macro monster terran, has shown his solid play by steamrolling opponents in the 1^st TSL Open Qualifier (Team Liquid StarLeague)

Naama- Winner of Dreamhack Sweden who showed his Tank heavy TvP in that same tourney

The other players like Tarson, Predy, Goody, Demuslim, Sarens are all beasts in their own rights as well.

A game that was played though that I found comforting as a Protoss player was Socke vs Sjow on Xelnaga Cavern. Socke played a beautiful game to say the least, using the Protoss arsenal to its fullest and making Sjow fight on Socke’s terms. Things to watch out for in the VOD

- Sockes Map Control is brilliant, using Void Rays to keep Sjow in his own base while securing his own expansion

- A smooth transition into Collosus play, but once the Terran gets that critical mass of Vikings, changes aptly into other tech. Also Socke’s micro and unit positioning is phenomenal, and all Protoss players should take notes.

- A Dark Templar transition after the 3^rd is secured, creating a constant threat and making the Swedish Terran player waste valuable scans to end the cloaked assassins.

- His High Templar usage on harassing Sjow’s expos late game decimated the Terran’s economy

While Socke’s play is nothing revolutionary, it is just that his execution and decision making are amazing. This was Sjow’s only loss in the tournament before the finals (He played more than 15 games).

Thanks to the Casters of the linked games, Blizshouter , HDHomerj, ExoStarcraft, and Eonshikeno.

Legacy

With the release of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, it carries a heavy stigma of being a sequel of the one of the most popular and most successful PC games of all time. This game literally created E-sports, or at least gave it a worldwide recognition that spawned communities in nations all across the world. Nowadays, South Korea is known as the hub of Starcraft where TV channels broadcast games and players and teams are sponsored by national banks and large food manufacturers. To this day Brood War is still a force in South Korea, but the sequel is making waves everywhere else.

As a spectator sport, the sequel pales in comparison to the original. This might be due to the fact that Brood War has had 10 years to developed and be fully fleshed out. The game is young. But when time passes, I hope games like this will be produced:

Game 5 of Bisu (P) versus Iris (T), art in pixel form.

If you have any knowledge of Starcraft or Starcraft 2, or any Real-Time Strategy prowess you will know why the game itself is epic, as you do not know who is going to win until the last 60 seconds of the 30 minute match. But the background of the game itself is worthy of discussion as well, at this time, Bisu was considered to be unstoppable and was slated to win this whole league. Iris is an aging Terran player who’s two years past him prime and for him to take it to a 5^th game was a big surprise in itself. I will not spoil the results but I hope dearly that games like this will be produced in Starcraft 2.

Void Rays

My favorite unit in the whole game of SC2 has to be Void Rays. Hu sen guaiya siha. Meggai na biahi esta na Siha gumoggue yu' gi duranten gof mappot na huego.

In my early days of SC2 they were my only hope against the harder levels (VH and Insanne) of AI difficulty. I could never make as many land units as the computer and photon canons don't last very long against masses of anything, and so Void Rays would be my salvation. I would fly them around sniping the enemy bases, slithering into their buildings and either taking out their command center/nexus/hatcheries or taking out key buildings to hopefully prevent them from building certain units I wanted to avoid. In those early days I lost plenty of Void Rays by staring down stimmed Marines, a scary gaggle of Hydras or Stalkers that seemed like they were on heroine, forgetting that they weren't fully charged or that Void Rays are freaking guaguan, expensive and so they shouldn't be thrown away in a battle which odds are good you will lose.

But naturally when you first get VR, they are like gekpu na yommok na guakka ni' gailaser gi i tatalon-niha, or for those who don't speak Chamorro, big flying cows that have lasers strapped to their backs. Void Rays are incredibly powerful if you can get them early. A two gate rush, with a fully charged Void Ray is a sight to see and gives you a powerful advantage. But as the game goes on, a pack of Marines or a handful of properly microed stalkers can instantly turn that very costly flying cow into vapors.

Early on I would not get a fleet beacon and flux vanes until I had five or six Void Rays, but now I've made a habit out of getting it after my first two. Although VR were both weakened and flux wanes made slower in recent patches, having vanes for my VR makes a huge difference, especially since I've started trying to play more FFA games against 5-7 VH or insane computers. Having that ability to move in and out quickly of a base before the huge mass of units the computer inevitably makes and marches around is essential since in those free for all matches, that mobile mass tends to make expansion difficult to impossible.

Unfortunately in the early games that myself, Leevin and Davis would play, my Void Rays would often save the day, but it became for me a crux, something which I could always rely on to win a game, but would also make my play one-dimensional. For most games I would make 20-30 units and end up with 300-400 kills, because all I was making were probes and VR. When I would try to actually make other units I would find myself feeling irritated when my meager forces would be magalamok ni' i AI, or swallowed up by the ferocious AI, and pine for my regal fleet of Void Rays. Thankfully now I've started to work on other strategies, but my favorite unit is still the Void Ray. And whenever we end up playing a level where we aren't sure what the best strategy will be, I always say, "I'm canoning up and going VR, good luck you guys."

Taisabot

Nick "Tasteless" Plott is a Starcraft 1 and 2 player and a commentator for Starcraft tournaments on GOMTV. On GOM he casts matches with his good friend Artosis. Together they are known as "The Casting Archon, Tastosis." Which you have to be a real SC geek to get.

Tasteless, is in my opinion the cooler of the two, mas paire gui' nu Guahu. Artosis is known more for the intellectual parts of the commentating and also the random trivia about things such as guinea pigs depending on who's playing. Tasteless is supposed to be the more play by play of the team, telling you what is going on and making lighter banter.

One thing that I enjoyed about Tasteless is that he always casts for noobs (i gef gadda' taguini giya Guahu), as well as more experienced gamers. When intriguing or unique tactics are being employed, he is always ready to explain the things in some detail whereas Artosis always reacts more with ambiguous and confusing statements such as "I can't believe it!" or the very confusing "This is it Tasteless!" As I sit there at my computer screen, mouth agape wondering "This is what Artosis!!?!!?!?!?"

I'm not the only one out there who likes Tasteless, as a theme song was created recently for him by a fan, Ken Ashcorp. The song is called "Living the Dream" and is both catchy, nerdy and very man-crushy in a way that only geeks can understand. During the 3rd open season of the GSL, they even made a video of it and played it during the final match between TSL_Rain and OGSMC (which starred Torch). If you are new to Starcraft then some of the jokes are "gehalom" or only for the initiated, and many of them refer to Starcraft 1 and so I only understand what they are by asking my brother. But the one's that I do understand are very endearing and funny. I hope someday someone writes a theme song for my life. Knowing my luck it would probably be to the tune of "F--k You" by Cee Lo Green.

Here's the song below from Youtube and also the lyrics. Info on how to download the song can be found in the Youtube page.



I've been watching you since Averatec Season 1
You entertained me to no end
Flash and Jaedong would have been a boring Muta-fest
If you weren't there to be our friend

You're just the perfect blend

Nick Tasteless Plott
Your commentary's getting me so hot
Got neurosis from Artosis cause you bunker rushed my heart
GG baby, lets go crazy cause the game's about to start

Seoul Korea
Is where I wanna be
I just wanna be next to you
And when that panda bear died
I remember I cried and I remember that you cried to

QQ is what everyone will do
When they see you climbing ladders up into Pro
When John's on your back cause everyone's Grack
Just be like Protoss and take it slow

Early game I'll buy your pylons
Mid game sees me tech to love
Late game your voice carries me away into the stars above
Just please don't lose to 6pool

Nick Tasteless Plott
Your commentary's getting me so hot
Got neurosis from Artosis cause you bunker rushed my heart
GG baby, lets go crazy cause the game's about to start

You can both raise a guinea pig farm
Just please keep on commentating GomTV
When I heard that you weren't getting commission
Well that just plain upsets me

Manlier than Chinro, sexier than Jaedong
Younger than Leenock, dick 5 foot long
Better than Boxer at so many things
But there's just one thing I'll never forget

There's just SO MANY BANELINGS

Nick Tasteless Plott
Your commentary's getting me so hot
Got neurosis from Artosis cause you bunker rushed my heart
GG baby, lets go crazy cause the game's about to start

Nick Tasteless Plott
Your commentary's getting me so hot
Got neurosis from Artosis cause you bunker rushed my heart
GG baby, lets go crazy cause the game's about to start

Chatche'lu-Hu

I wanted HongunPrime.We to win the 3rd Open Season of the GSL, but he lost in the round of 4 last week.

Although I had never heard of Hongun prior to this season, there were five reasons why I wanted him to win.

1. He plays Protoss and at the start of Season 3, there were very few Protoss and I wanted all of them to win. The winners of the first two GSL season were Zerg, and I see Terran as the choice-race for the cheesy.

2. In his match against JSLZenith (T) in the round of 32, Hongun used Carriers to help win his second and deciding match. As the commentators Artosis and Tasteless made clear, no one had used a carrier yet in the 3rd GSL and so their amazement and shock at it being used was priceless. I still chuckle when I think of Tasteless yelling at the site of carriers being made, "What the hell is that? I've never heard of those things!" And after Hongun had won screaming in disbelief "I don't understand the world anymore!"

3. EGidra thinks he sucks and although he knows an infinite more about Starcraft 2 than I do, I instinctively feel like I have to believe the opposite of whatever he says.

4. He uses VR and  likes to rush them without sentries or much other support, and I as a fellow Protoss who uses VR like I'll get some incredibly rare achievement if I rely on them too much, I have to admre his "spunk."

5. I don't know why, but when I see pictures of Hongun looking intently at his computer screen while he's in the gaming booth, he looks like my brother Jack.

Kao Kesu, Pat Ti Kesu?

I asked the other day what is the definition of "cheesing" other than the sneaky things you do to your opponent that they don't like. I think I found out one of the ways of making a distinction between smart tactics and the sneaky tricks of the weak.

Cannon rushing is one of the "cheesy" tactics that Protoss can use. Photon Cannons are a structure which you are supposed to use for defense. It is as the name implies a canon which gives you some pretty solid defense against both air and ground units. But it can be used as an offensive weapon well, by placing a pylon in your opponents base and then setting up canons around to harass and give them a headache. There is a science to where you place your pylons. You can block off their ramp, try and put it directly in their main base.

A cannon rush can be a legitimate tactic and not always a weapon of the tactically weak. After watching it used in the GSL a couple times, used against my brother and also see others use it online I think that to rush it onto the main or even blocking their ramp is a tool of the desperate. It is an attempt to kill the other before you or them can even start the match. When these tactics are used against better players they tend to fail miserably. Because if they fail, you wasted a significant amount of resources with usually little to show.

The more intelligent use of canons in an offensive manner that I've seen is against the natural expansion and not the main. Setting cannons up to harass and taken out a recently build expansion. I've seen players use this most against Zergs who tend to expand the fastest in order to slow them down a bit. The cannons are not meant to kill the opponent, but simply to slow them down, while you can catch up and build your own expansion.

Gaige Gui' gi i Chalan

Earlier tonight my younger brother Jeremy (or Kuri as I call him) reached 1000 1 v 1 quick match wins as Protoss. For his lofty achievement in the realm of playing alot of Starcraft 2 and being good enough at it to vanquish his opponent at least 1000 times he received an image of Tassadar a  which can be used for his profile. Tassadar played a huge role in the first Starcraft game, becoming friends with Raynor and Zeratul, eventually sacrificing his life to kill the Overmind.

For those of you who don't know, the word "chalan" in Chamorro means road, but it is also the ancient Chamorro number for "1000."

Sen maolek i che'cho'-mu. Kalang ti hongge'on, lao maolek sinembatgo.