Author Topic: Anyone here watch professional Starcraft 2? (yes, it exists)  (Read 5045 times)

Bobbias

  • #1 Poster
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7210
  • 404 Avatar not found.
    • View Profile
    • Magnetic Architect
Anyone here watch professional Starcraft 2? (yes, it exists)
« on: September 14, 2011, 12:19:32 AM »
Not that this place is very active, but I thought I should put this out there. I've been watching SC2 a lot lately, and I wondered if anyone here did too.

Also, Destiny and Sheth are doing a 24 hour charity drive streaming marathon:
http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/Destiny
http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/Liquid%60Sheth

If anyone sees this before 9 AM (not sure what time zone) tomorrow, check it out.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2011, 02:54:53 AM by Bobbias »
This is going in my sig. :)

BANNED FOR BAD PUNS X_x

MortifiedocAlot

  • I GOT GULD STERRRRZZ
  • Hero Member
  • **
  • Posts: 4760
  • ಠ_ಠ
    • View Profile
Re: Anyone here watch professional Starcraft 2? (yes, it exists)
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2012, 04:03:02 AM »
I know this thread is old, but since this forum is tiny I'll post anyways. I watched the last big tournament they had, but I can never really follow the game since I don't know what it takes to be good at the game. One of the reasons e-sports in general gets held back is because you need to have a deep understanding of a game to fully appreciate it at high play.



Bobbias

  • #1 Poster
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7210
  • 404 Avatar not found.
    • View Profile
    • Magnetic Architect
Re: Anyone here watch professional Starcraft 2? (yes, it exists)
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2012, 07:40:26 AM »
Which tournament were you watching? An MLG?

As a quick rundown of the game: SC2 is heavily based on the player's economies. Whoever has more workers probably has more income. Whoever has more bases probably has more workers. More income means the player is more likely to win later, when he can spend that money. If someone has less income, they likely have a bigger army, which means they have more of a chance of winning the game right now, before the other player can use their larger income to make more units.

Also, I'd argue that traditional sports are just as hard to understand from an un-introduced spectator's point of view.

Looking at a game of football the only moments that stand out as important to me are either an amazing running play, an amazing throw, and a touchdown. These are all parts of the offensive game, not the defensive side. And that's not even getting into the aspect of the different plays, either.

Looking at hockey, or soccer, the only big moments for someone not "in the know" about the game are basically when a team scores.

There's a massive amount of depth to these games, but I can't see any of it. I've played ball hockey, soccer, and football for fun and never learned a damn thing about the depth of the game. And watching a game of any of these on TV would never help me understand anything about the depths of the game if I listened to the commentary. And thee are games we grow up playing as children and such.

There are people out there who've never played a single game of starcraft in their life who could talk with a player about builds, the metagame, and deeper topics in general.

I'd highly suggest paying close attention to the commentators. They go out of their way to explain intricacies in the game (especially if an unusual situation arises) and will often discuss some fundamental important things about the game. Day9 is famous for being the spokesperson for introducing people to the game.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2012, 10:55:33 AM by Bobbias »
This is going in my sig. :)

BANNED FOR BAD PUNS X_x

MortifiedocAlot

  • I GOT GULD STERRRRZZ
  • Hero Member
  • **
  • Posts: 4760
  • ಠ_ಠ
    • View Profile
Re: Anyone here watch professional Starcraft 2? (yes, it exists)
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2012, 05:05:30 PM »
There's a massive amount of depth to these games, but I can't see any of it. I've played ball hockey, soccer, and football for fun and never learned a damn thing about the depth of the game. And watching a game of any of these on TV would never help me understand anything about the depths of the game if I listened to the commentary. And thee are games we grow up playing as children and such.

This is pretty agreeable, but you can at least see how much skill the game takes to play from an athletic standpoint. Still, I'll probably keep an eye out for the bigger tournaments (last one I watched was dreamhack maybe?). I usually watch SF streams, but SC is also entertaining.


Bobbias

  • #1 Poster
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7210
  • 404 Avatar not found.
    • View Profile
    • Magnetic Architect
Re: Anyone here watch professional Starcraft 2? (yes, it exists)
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2012, 05:56:02 PM »
EDIT: Hope I don't sound too preachy/pushy about it. I'm just a HUGE fan.

Ahh, dreamhack is pretty huge too. Not sure who was casting.

And yes, it is harder to visually see what goes into being a good player. I will agree that with no prior experience playing the game it is difficult for someone to make a comparison between what it takes to be good at normal sports and what it takes for SC2.

I'd compare SC to chess in that regard. Not a perfect analogy, but not bad. Of course, it's more like playing 10 games of speed chess simultaneously... against the same opponent.

Build orders are important (do I go for an early expansion and leave myself open for early aggression, or do I play it safe and stay on one base longer, and what sort of army do I want), but they are far less important than some people would think...

Scouting is very important. You need to know what your opponent is doing.... Unless you are confident that whatever you are doing will win no matter what, which is really rare.

Micro, or unit control is something many people don't quite understand. If you don't play the game, you don't understand just how hard it is to do something like split your marines against banelings, or how hard it is to EMP all the protoss's high templars and sentries, or how hard it is to drop down perfect forcefields and split the enemy army in half. (As a protoss player, getting good forcefields is fucking HARD :/) Dodging psi storms is also crazy.

Another important thing that people don't notice is multitasking. If you want to get an idea of how crazy it actually is go watch a first person stream and watch how their camera flies around the map as they're doing stuff.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2012, 06:19:41 PM by Bobbias »
This is going in my sig. :)

BANNED FOR BAD PUNS X_x