Creep is a living Zerg organism. It has a purple coloration  and feels thick and slimy. Creep is psionically-sensitive and may be influenced and controlled by psionic entities.  It is used to nourish Zerg structures and larvae.

Creep may be deposited in a number of ways. Some zerg structures, such as Hatcheries, serve as a home for creep growth. In the initial stages of infestation Hatcheries started the spread but through evolution Zerg creatures have gained the ability to spread creep as well; overlords by direct secretion, and indirectly by queens through laid creep tumors that can reproduce by themselves.

If left unchecked, creep can consume an entire planet within days.

Most zerg structures can only be created upon the creep. Terrans and Protoss cannot build structures on creep. Terran buildings may not land on the creep, however they may lift-off if constructed prior to creep spreading underneath them. The creep will expand to fill the vacated space over the course of a few seconds.

In Starcraft, creep is intended to be used as a resource, and zerg players will want to invade the map with creep. It will dissolve in 30 seconds if not supported.

Most Zerg units move 30% faster on creep. Drones are an exception along with all air units. Spine and spore crawlers, as well as hydralisks and queens, move considerably faster on creep. Creep does not “climb” or “fall” down cliffs, but does flow down ramps. If a carefully positioned overlord drops creep on the edge of a cliff, it will expand on the hill and the lower ground simultaneously. Creep can also be poured onto ramps from an Overlord, but Tumors can’t fixate to the ramps (note creep is as i said a resource that both players can use, meaning if it is ZvZ both Zergs benefit on each others creep.)

Creep only dies if the nearby generator dies and it is on the edge of a patch. Creep inside a large patch, but deprived of generators, will not die. A ring-shaped patch will not automatically expand to cover the “empty” center without the normal assistance of generators. In short, Infest the planet and thrive.

Good Luck, Have Fun

OpGKnight

LEAVE A COMMENT

http://starcraft2strategy.com is proud to present the first of several tournaments geared toward recruiting for our budding Professional Gaming Team.

Everyone is welcome to participate in the tournament series, of which there will be more to come soon. After the first few we fully intend to begin paying cash prizes to the top placing players. You do not have to be interested in joining the professional team to participate, but those who stand out will be considered for a slot on the team. See below for more details.

The Tournament
-Some matches of the tournament will be streamed live, the finals will be commentated on our YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/sc2stratnet)
-The Tournament will be held on Saturday, January 28th at 7PM EST in channel sc2s (North American Server)
-Please join our forums by clicking on the Forum button at the top of the page and make a comment on the tournament thread to indicate your registration. Official registration will take place in the channel at the start of the tournament, so be on time.
-Divisions will be Bronze through Gold and Platinum through Grand Masters. As more players register, we may divide the leagues into 3 groups.
-Top performers will be considered for the professional team
-Future tournament seeds will be based on this tournament!
-Brackets will be hosted and linked to, winners will be announced on several websites

The Team
-We are currently looking for Diamond-Grand Master players who are SERIOUSLY devoted to the game. We aren’t looking for the best player, but the players with the best work ethic and team mentality.
-Funding for the team will be provided by starcraft2strategy.com and our sponsors
-This will be a serious competitive team working toward eventual international level play and exposure
-Team members will have the opportunity to become known within the sc2 community and make a supplemental income, the harder you are willing to work the more money you will make and the more exposure you will get. You will not be required to pay for anything.
-Professional lessons from GosuCoaches, Seminars, Exhibition matches with top Master/Grand Master players, etc will be provided for all serious team members. We want you to improve, we want our team to become the best in the world.
-We are not expecting this to be a success over night, that is why we want hard workers who understand the championship mentality. Hard work pays off! Be willing to show up for weekly or even daily practices, play in national online tournaments regularly and put in the time and energy necessary to become the best player you can be.

Any further questions or comments can be directed to Chimera in the sc2s channel on tournament night, or addressed in the forum post. Registration is now open at 

http://binarybeast.com/xSC21201199# for [Broze-Gold]

http://binarybeast.com/xSC212011910# for [Platinum-Grand Master]

LEAVE A COMMENT

Currently 191 memebers have made at least one post, 9 spots still open for the contest!

Win yourself a FREE copy of the upcoming StarCraft 2 expansion: Heart of the Swarm, Collector’s Edition simply by joining our forum and making a single post. It’s really that simple. We’re trying to get our forum off the ground and active so we’re encouraging anyone who stops by the site to check it out.

-The first 200 registered users will be eligible

-You must sign-up with the email address you wish to be contacted at if you win

-Duplicate accounts, which we can track by IP, will be automatically removed

-You must make at least one post, in any forum you choose, to be eligible. Creating a New Topic will be considered as making a post as well

-There will be one winner whom will be announced on the boards and contacted via e-mail

-The contest is over once 200 people register at which point the winner will be annouced

-As soon as pre-sales of the game are available the free copy of Heart of the Swarm, Collector’s Edition will be purchased from the most reputable retailer offering the pre-sale and express/overnight/fastest shipping will be used direct to the winner’s chosen address

The forum is going to receive many updates in the coming weeks in terms of design, functionality, avatar galleries, and more. We encourage you to drop a message in our Feedback forum on any suggestions you may have.

LEAVE A COMMENT

In order to play the Protoss well you need to understand how their mechanics work and their advantages and disadvantages. Every race in Starcraft 2 is very unique. The units in Starcraft 2 are largely asymmetrical. There is a basic idea of tech levels, but otherwise the units found in each level are much different. The Protoss Zealot, for example, is much different from the Terran Marine or the Zerg Zergling.

The differences between the races go even deeper than that, however. Each race has its own way of building structures and units. In this guide we’re going to take a look at the basics of the Protoss and highlight some of their unique mechanics. These mechanics are very important, and they make it possible for the Protoss to execute strategies that are not available to any other race.

The Protoss race has the quickest, easiest and most efficient building mechanic in the game. Protoss buildings are not built, but are rather “warped in.” The idea is that the Protoss already have all of their structures built elsewhere, and the buildings merely need to be teleported to your location. Because of this no construction is required. In order to build a new structure, you merely need to send your Probe to the location and place the building. The warp process will begin, and the probe is free to go back to mining resources or whatever other task it was performing.This provides a small benefit to the overall efficiency of the Protoss mining operation, since workers have to be taken off the line less often. Building a base simply requires less micro-management for Protoss players.

Another real advantage of this comes in the construction of buildings which are not in your base. A common part of Protoss strategy is the construction of proxy buildings. A probe can easily move to a location, construct a Pylon and a few other buildings, and then move on. Note, however, that Protoss buildings can only be built in the radius of a Pylon. Protoss strategy must always be mindful of this. Pylons are your lifeblood – they provide supply for building units and they provide power for buildings in your radius.

If a Protoss building is within the radius of a Pylon and that Pylon is destroyed the building WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION. This is very important to remember! New players often use Protoss strategies which require a proxy base to be built near an enemy base, but they place their Pylon in a vulnerable position. You must place your Pylons behind other buildings so they are hard to get to!

One of the most important mechanics in Protoss strategy is the Warp Gate. The Warp Gate is built by converting a Gateway. It costs nothing, but you have to research the Warp Gate technology at your Cybernetics Core. Warp Gates produce units, but when you construct a unit at a Warp Gate it can be instantly teleported to anywhere within the radius of any Pylon you have. Instead of taking time to build, the construction of the unit has a “cooldown” timer – once it is refreshed, you can teleport in another unit from that Warp Gate. Overall, Warp Gates do construct units slightly quicker than standard Gateways, so there is no reason not to obtain Warp Gates as soon as possible. The importance of the Warp Gate in Protoss strategy can’t be overstated.

The Protoss is the only race which can instantly call in reinforcements to a battle. Many Protoss players use this strategy defensively, but good Protoss players also use Warp Gates offensively. Remember, you can warp units anywhere in the radius of any Pylon. If you hide a Pylon near the enemy base you can warp in units to his front door. This is a very effective way to maintain pressure on your opponent – do this often!

Protoss units are the only units in Starcraft 2 which have shields. Shields are like a unit’s health, but shields regenerate. Also, note that Protoss units cannot be repaired at all (unless you are in 2v2 and your partner is terran, he will lose gas and inerals by repairing Mechanical units, note that buildings are not mechanical) once they take damage to their actual health, which means that Protoss units which are damaged in battle remain somewhat weaker than the units of other races, which can either be healed or can be repaired.

The Chrono Boost is a special ability given to the Protoss Nexus. It requires 25 energy, and the effect of Chrono Boost is that it increases the production or research speed of a building for a short period of time. Your Nexus can hold 100 energy, so you can store a maximum of four Chrono Boosts at a time. Of course, any energy beyond 100 is wasted, so you don’t want your Nexus to be sitting around with 100 energy. Chrono Boost is an important part of Protoss strategy because it gives the Protoss player the ability to accelerate certain parts of a build order. For example, let’s say that you’re playing Protoss and you’re going for a two-gate rush strategy. If you do this, you’ll be using a lot of Chrono Boost on your Gateways in order to produce Zealots as quickly as possible. You’ll need to do this to beat Zergling rushes. On the other hand, let’s say you have decided to try and rush out Void Rays. With this strategy you’re best using your early Chrono Boosts on your Nexus to rush out more workers, and then once your Stargate is complete you can start using the Chrono Boost to rush out your first Void Ray. Many players neglect Chrono Boost in their strategies. It can hard to remember to check and make sure your Chrono Boost is constantly being used. Remembering is important, however, as it can mark the difference between a strategy that succeeds or fails.

Now the Protoss are a powerful race, but as with any race in Starcraft 2 you need to use their mechanics well. If you don’t make proper use of their benefits you will have trouble once you start getting into the Gold and Platinum leagues. On the other hand, simply remembering the mechanics and executing strategies which take advantage of them is often enough to put you into high Platinum, if not Diamond. Learn the race well and you will be rewarded. Good Luck, Have Fun

OpGKnight

LEAVE A COMMENT

Terran APM / Mechanics Guide

This guide is rather for beginners and focusses on the mechanics a Terran player must be proficient in, if he wants to keep up with the other races. Although I mainly aim for beginners, this might be interesting for more advanced players as well.

1. The problems with APM and mechanics

Terran players are a rather rare species outside of Korea. If I was to guess how many percent of all the foreign players are playing Terrans, I’d say it’s not more than 25 %. TL.net does have slighty more Terran users, but I consider TL.net a pretty skilled community anyways and I’m convinced, that in general, Terran is the least played race.

Now how come only a few people are playing Terran? I think it’s related to the mechanics and high APM required. Don’t get me wrong, the other races require skill as well, but I think they’re more challenging in a tactical way, than in a mechanical. The fact, that Terran requires quite a lot of APM is detering a lot of beginners and even intermediate players from using them.

1.1 TvZ as the modelcase

TvZ in particular, is commonly known as the most challenging matchup concerning Terran mechanics.
This, because Terrans have to play a very infantry-heavy style of play, which requires a lot of micro and troop control and further more requires a good macro, because of the rather short building time of Terran infantry. This is not all yet, since you have to multitask very well, because multiple attacks at several expos and using dropships is a absolute must to hold a competent Zerg down. Therefore, everything I write is in regards of this matchup, although it can as well be used for the other two matchups.

What I want to do is giving beginners and intermediate players a guide to help them get their mechanics straight and increase their speed, so they won’t give up the race simply because they’re overstrained.

2. How set the stage to increase your speed

How do I increase my speed? This is one of the most frequent classical questions and I think there’s a simple answer to it. I absoultely believe, that everyone is capable of reaching about 200 – 250 APM without much trying. How to achieve this is easy to say, but not quite as easy to achieve:

2.1 Awareness

I’m convinced that it’s all about awareness in the end. At any point of the game, you have to be absolutely aware of what you’re doing and what you’re supposed to do next. You have to keep those things in your mind literally every second. Also, you have to focus on improving your multitasking and execution, but don’t mistake this with spamming, it’s not the same. Don’t just play and see what comes, you have to know what you’re supposed to do! As an example, I try to list a couple of things you should be constantly keeping in your mind:

- Build Order

- Strategy and timing i.g. (i.e. defending vs Muta, pressuring, expo hunting with Dropships)

- Supply production (hitting the supply limit is going to mess your macro up severely)

- SCV production (keep the production upright until you have 2 SCVs per mineral patch)

- Troop production (for our level of play, I recommend to queue two units, if possible)

- Teching

- Unit hotkeying

This is the hard part of the game, the execution of the things you’re supposed to do is not hard to pull off at all. Don’t try to be fast for the sake of being fast. It won’t help you sh*t, if you’re capable of spamming hotkeys and mouseclicks. It’s important, that you spend your APM on completing the tasks you have to accomplish.

2.2 Hotkeys, shortkeys and F-Keys

The way to converse your awareness into the game are hotkeys, shortkeys and F-Keys. They are your instrument to get the things done quickly and comfortably. If you want to multitask effectively, there’s no way around using those keys. Your mouse should only be used to give commands and micro single units, not to select entire groups of troops.

Hotkeys:

Hotkeys help you to maneuver over the map, build troops from buildings and most important, they help you control your units. Hotkeys are a absolute must for a Terran user. If you look at replays of good players (semi-pro and pro), you’ll notice, that around 40% – 50% of their APM come from hotkeys.
To set a hotkey, simply select the building or units (remember, you can add new units to existing groups by holding SHIFT down), press CTRL + a number from 1-0 and from there on, you can select the unit by simply pressing the assigned hotkey.

3. Practice makes perfect

3.1 Awareness

There are several things that can help you keeping the important things in mind:

- Some players like to watch their supply count and build/train their stuff accordingly. I think this is
a good thing to do when you’re in the earlier stages of the game, but I don’t think it’s wise to stick
to the supply count further than 35-40 psi.

- Create some sticky notes with the most important tasks written on them and put them on the
monitor frame. This is a good idea, although you should make sure that after a while, you will be able
to keep track of your tasks without it. Don’t rely on it to heavily, your goal is to do it without the
stickies.

- Have somebody watching and reminding you, while you play (I heard some TL-users force their little brother/sister to remind them  ).

3.2 Hotkeys, Shortkeys and F-Keys

Here too, there are several possibilites to get accustomed to hotkeys. These are just examples:

- Open a text-editor, close your eyes and try to accurately press the hotkeys. This way, you can see
whether you misspressed any hotkeys.

- Open up a game vs a computer and close his slot, when the countdown starts. Then proceed to play normally and focus on hotkeys especially. If you feel that you have learnt the keys properly, you can add a computer, later maybe even two of them.

Note: It is really important that you force yourself to use hotkeys, where it’s needed. You have to shake your old habit to become faster.

Hope this helps, thank you for reading. Good Luck Have Fun, and Happy New Year!

-OpGKnightmare

LEAVE A COMMENT

Season 5, due to start sometime this week, will bring 2 new maps into the 1v1 map pool. Abyssal Caverns and Nerazim Crypt, which were considered the last 2 non-tournament viable maps, will be removed from the pool and in their place comes Arid Plateau and Entombed Valley.

On Arid Plateau holding the watch towers is going to be crucial as they give you almost complete visibility of any moving ground forces. You also have a close raised base to expand to as a great 3rd base choice as the high yield expansions will be difficult to defend. Despite the map’s compact size the rush distance is still pretty maxed out giving players a fair chance to wall.

Entombed Valley is completely symmetric and spacious with multiple attack paths and exceptionally balanced starting points. Curiously there don’t appear to be any high yield expansions which was likely very intentional to keep this 4 starting point map balanced from every position.

LEAVE A COMMENT

StarCraft2Strategy.com is hosting its first tournament series this Saturday, 12/17/11 at 8PM EST.

We’re organizing it all in the Forum

Here’s the thread: http://starcraft2strategy.com/forum/first-tournament-series-12-17-2011-8pm-est-t100.html

———–

The tournament was a big success! Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone for playing! Stayed tuned for more tourneys in the near future.

LEAVE A COMMENT

The leagues are now locked and the transition to Season 5 has begun. Be sure to rank as up as high as you can within the next week, because after that everything you did these past couple months is forgotten and season 5 begins. This has been my first full season, so the end is somewhat exciting for me. I’ve improved quite a bit, and a large part of my thanks certainly goes to Starcraft2Strategy.com and the community on our forum.

I hope Season 4 has been as memorable for you as it has been for me (pwning 2 n00bs vs. just me for starters). Season 5 officially begins the week of December 19th and with it brings a fresh start and new opportunities. So even if Season 4 was a nightmare or a stomp fest, sound off in the comments and on the forums and tell us all about it!

LEAVE A COMMENT