So, Im pretty interested in what to do after gaining an advantage... When I have an advantage I really want to push it, and not delay. I found this thing by I guess a famous Starcraft player (??) named Day9 (??)... Yeah, I dont know a lot about pros from games I dont play. They had a lot to say. Anyway, Im interested in their section on mechanics and pressing an advantage. Im not super familiar with Starcraft, so some of the examples went over my head, but I think the concepts make sense for other games: wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Day%289%29_Podcasts#Hallmarks_of_Expert_Play_.231_-_Winning_with_an_Advantage They gave 4 basic rules. Ill just copy/quote them: Number One: Always make sure you have an endgame plan before your game has ever started. I see so many players that have a build that will lead them to some advantage and then when they get there, they arrive at this advantageous situation, they suddenly have no idea what to do. Their macro gets screwed up, they dont time their expansions or the rest of their attacks correctly, and thats what ends up losing them the game. And the way to avoid this is just have a very general, straightforward sense of what youre going to do in the endgame. And Im not talking about anything specific, or anything crazy, just some basic framework that you can always be trying to go for. So lets say youre a protoss player against a terran player. An endgame plan might be something like: I want four bases, two stargates making arbiters, and fifteen gateways. Theres nothing too complicated or even very specific about this framework, but again, if terran comes out with a big push and you kill it, you know what youre going for now. You can maybe take those expansions earlier, or add-on more gateways, and the arbiter more quickly. But you still have something that youre going for. Your brain will always feel a lot less disorganized if you do this sort of thing, like, pregame. Number Two: Scout every expansion on the map. I know a lot of players will say things like: Scouting is very important, and everyone is always aware of that. But its so key the instant you have an advantage, to just take that little extra time to send a probe, or a, you know, a zergling, or some unit, just to make sure every single expansion is clear. Because Im sure everyone has lost countless games where youre totally containing your opponent, you feel like youre about to win and then you go to the right side of the map and he has the entire main covered with a whole set of, like, tanks and marines and everything... it just ruins your day. Number Three: When you have an advantage, dont try to win immediately with a big attack. This idea is sort of rooted in the fundamental theory of a better player. In any game, if you have two players, the better player, theoretically, wants the game to continue as long as possible. Because the longer a game is, the more decisions both players are faced with and on average, the better player will make more correct decisions. In other words, if a good player is against a worse player, the good players lead will naturally extend itself over time. So, when you have a big lead theres no need to try to attack immediately to finish him off. You should focus on just letting the game play out, and again, focusing on that endgame plan that you have in your mind. You know, in fact, so many games that I watch July play, hell do this genius build and hell get in this great situation and then hell just start attack-moving the players front and hell end up losing. And its so frustrating for me to watch because hes clearly just throwing the game away. You dont want to give that extra advantage to your opponent. That said, if its clear you can win immediately then yeah, definitely go for it. But theres nothing wrong with letting the game play out and trying to win later and later with, like, hive tech units, or arbiters, or, you know, the huge maxed terran army, thats all fine. Always feel free to let the game play out. Number Four: Make sure youre sealed up tight against harassment, and also, dont try too hard to harass your opponent either. This ideas underlying logic is similar to that of the previous idea in that when your opponent is at a disadvantage he needs to try to take big risks to pull himself back in the game. And a lot of those risks involve making a costly dropship or shuttle to try to do some major damage to you. So naturally, I should make sure that they cant kill me in any way. But the second half of that, dont get too excited about harassing, yourself, seems a little counter-intuitive to a lot of players. Cause a lot of players will say, hey, I have this big advantage, why shouldnt I use this as a good opportunity to do some in-your-face harassment? Again, harassment is pretty risky if youre not careful. I mean, for example, a shuttle that has a dark templar and two high templar in it. If that dies somehow, thats a pretty big loss for the protoss player. That said, harassment is good because it helps give you an advantage. But think again. If Im already in a position where I have an advantage, I dont necessarily have to get an even bigger advantage. I pretty much agree with all of this. The idea of number 3 and 4 has been pretty counter-intuitive to me. I think this is pretty much saying that when you get an advantage its better to slow down and make it harder to lose it (like building tanky in LoL?) instead of putting all your eggs into one basket by going full damage. Sure you can 1-shot people, but if you could do that already then youre just making yourself easier to be taken out. Ive heard other places too that If I can 100-0 any enemy but am super fragile then skipping armor wont help. Why cant I put this stuff into words... Anyway. This is a long post and I just copied everything Day9 and other people have told me. I also read a little about what Day9 said on mechanics, and efficient ways to use a keyboard / mouse. I actually learned to do some of this stuff on my own, so I was interested. :D Not the stuff relating to Starcraft, though. Ive never needed to press things like control + 0. The stuff about using the bone in your mouse hand as a pivot is something I do, and I probably need a softer mouse pad because it hurts a little. Its probably common stuff. Im happy being common. :D
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:00:30 +0000
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