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    Saturday, November 30, 2019

    Starcraft guys, spanishiwa is streaming

    Starcraft guys, spanishiwa is streaming


    guys, spanishiwa is streaming

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 10:18 PM PST

    Latest patch be like

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 05:52 AM PST

    Im in danger

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 03:37 AM PST

    NationWars 2019 continues THIS weekend: Get caught up with TL.net's Preview

    Posted: 30 Nov 2019 12:43 AM PST

    HSCXX Showtime goes shopping

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 08:10 AM PST

    HSCXX Thank You Mike Morhaime

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 08:11 AM PST

    High level coaching.

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 06:27 AM PST

    Hello!

    I wanted to ask if anyone is interested in high level coaching. By high level I mean that I provide such coaching but everyone is welcome, even if you want to advance from bronze to silver :D I'm Grandmaster zerg and coaching Starcraft 2 has been my job for the last 4,5 years.

    I have 8 years of experience in coaching SC2. I coached Snute, and he said I helped him significantly to qualify for IPL V in Las Vegas (2012). I was a coach in 3 teams and in pro-house. I prepared Elazer for WCS Spring and Blizzcon 2019 and I helped prepare Soul for many WCS events and I oversee his practice with Serral. I have also coached around 110 people privately.

    Working in E-Sports was my dream since I was 13 years old. It's very rewarding job, seeing other people achieve their goals makes me really happy. When Progamers use strategies that we developed together I'm more nervous than when I played in tournaments myself :D It's really my dream to continue doing this.

    Why would you want to take coaching from me?

    • We just had a major patch released, I wrote down many good builds from HSC XX including builds from Serral. If you don't know what to do in this patch, I'll help you. Many people advanced to higher league after meeting with me a couple of times.
    • Here's my CV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ii1no8lp5dh4xrx/Mateusz%20cv1.pdf?dl=0
    • Everyone is welcome, regardless of skill. I can help whether you want to get to silver, diamond or to grandmaster or to win a tournament. I can coach other races in anti-zerg matchups as well.
    • Here's an example of work I did for Elazer for Blizzcon 2019 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YbOfRWVZSkDWt_5YLHEzHZ-bP8TL_nqELKnMOMlZM3Y . If you are a progamer, I can help you prepare for your tournaments at lower price.
    • I'm very flexible in a way that I carry out coaching. Here's an example of theory session from 2016: https://youtu.be/d-A-zDtt1mY?t=35m22s The other part is practice session, where we do micro scenarios together or we practice a build or I off-race against you. Recently I started doing new method where you play ladder and screenshare through discord and I give tips while you play.
    • I use a bunch of deliberate practice methods. I give specific exercises to my mentees that can improve APM, EPM, mouse accuracy and stuff like that. The example of extremely useful macro/apm exercise: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/brood-war/56230-training-excercise-for-starcraft
    • Apart from that I am focused on getting the build orders down to the perfection so you will receive builds with all timings wrote down. After fundamentals have been corrected we go into certain matchups and try to figure out each of them one by one.
    • Here's the 32-page list of build orders that I created a year ago for my mentees. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1at5KyCM0biSNiRYyXr852pfq_59lb7JhomoV56tjLfM/ I write down various builds for various playstyles, if you want an all-in you'll get one, if you want a macro build then you also will find something for yourself.
    • I also posess some knowledge of psychology which allows me to work on mindset. My main method there is Socratic Questioning (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning#cite_ref-Holden_4-0) of your assumptions about your approach to the game.
    • I think coaching is not just a service but building relationship, so talks about how our games went and in general about sc2 scene or other things are also welcome if that's something you'd want.
    • I invented 1 base ravager all-in which was used widely, even in finals of GSL. I also helped develop Soul's and Vindicta's mass nuke or even BC ghost styles. I wrote guide about Mutas in TvZ in 2017 http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-strategy/522633-byul-inspired-counterattacking-mutalingbane-guide

    I charge 30$/hour, but I'm up for negotiations if you decide to take more than 1 lesson.

    Check out testimonials from my happy students: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tKN1i8sKmf3iDesXBbxbs_QGwzT3WrglUDz1ErTRn9o/

    Polish caster Emil getting Masters league after my coaching: https://twitter.com/EmSc2tv/status/874593837758500866

    Photos with promotion: https://gyazo.com/2b3ed9e751e94277abd05d251513f9b0

    I'm also open for some type of co-operation if it could be beneficial for us.

    How to contact me:

    Send me PM here

    My mail - [Mattie92@wp.pl](mailto:Mattie92@wp.pl)

    My skype - el_polaco_

    My discord: Matiz#6971

    Cheers :D

    Matiz

    submitted by /u/Matiz_
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    TheCore Lite 2.3.6 is released

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 02:55 PM PST

    Found my original StarCraft Battle Chest, including WoW trial CD and strategy guides. Good times from olden days.

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 10:42 AM PST

    Arcturus Mengsk - Co-op Commander Lore (Part 2: Commander Lore)

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 08:53 AM PST

    Hey all,

    This is part 2 of the lore dive into Arcturus Mengsk (since this exceeded the reddit character limit), this time going into his actual Co-op arsenal. There's a lot to see here, as Mengsk has informed many aspects of this commander, and there are a ton of tiny gems of content with him. Mengsk may be the most interesting Co-op Commander from a lore perspective since Fenix, and a character I personally obsess over. So without further ado, let's dig in!

    If you missed Part 1 with his character lore, you can find it here

    Link to previous Co-op lore episodes


    UNITS AND UPGRADES
    • Dominion Laborer: One of the many uses Mengsk had for the colonies he seized or criminals he interred was to conscript them into forced labor, for the betterment of the Dominion. This can be seen in the Mar Sara arc of Wings of Liberty, where Mengsk had conscripted the local population to mine for a xel'naga relic on the world. As the population was formerly Kel-Morian but seized by Mengsk, this inflamed relations and caused a full scale uprising with Jim Raynor arrived. Laborers seem to use very similar equipment to SCVs.

      • Call to Labor/Call to Arms: This is a direct reference to the "Call to Arms" ability from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, where human peasants could swap into militia to defend their base when under attack.
    • Dominion Trooper: Though the terrans are known for their CMC-clad marines, lighter infantry also are commonplace through various terran armed forces. The model of the trooper dates back to the canceled game StarCraft: Ghost, where light infantry was a playable "class" in multiplayer mode, with very similar armor. These would also be used by the Defenders of Man in Nova Covert Ops as their basic soldiers. His troopers have three forms depending on the weapon, Flame Trooper, Missile Trooper, and Assault Trooper. These appear to largely be civilians forced into service., and their weapons are worth more to Mengsk than the lives of the troopers themselves.

    And now we get into his Royal Guard. They've gone by many names over the years, including the Elite Guard, which served Mengsk during the Sons of Korhal and early Dominion. They were the general "red" terran faction on campaign maps, and tried to stop Raynor from escaping Tarsonis, as well as fought the UED and Kerrigan's zerg in the Brood War. They also tried to defend Mengsk from the spectres during their first uprising, but his immediate guard were all killed. Their most famous moment was during the final assault on Korhal, where they stood at his defense against Kerrigan's Swarms and Raynor's Raiders, only to be overwhelmed. They are Mengsk's most loyal soldiers (with some even siding with General Davis to depose his son, Valerian), and are sometimes sent on away missions out from Korhal.

    Another name they have (as of the novel StarCraft: Ghost: Spectres) is the Imperial Guard, but I expect that may have been changed to not draw immediate comparisons between his army and Warhammer 40K. The names of most of these are pulled from the Heart of the Swarm campaign, but they used the mercenary models, but now they have their own skinset (and I dream of the day we get these in the campaign, maybe also replacing Mengsk's generic mercenaries in WoL with them).

    • Aegis Guard: These elite marauders are a bulwark of Mengsk's Royal Guard. Marauders themselves were a Dominion innovation derived from the CMC-660 armor of the firebat, enhanced into 5-4 Armor. These juggernauts were outfitted with rocket launchers capable of breaking through tough zerg carapaces.

      • Incapacitator Shells: These shells appear to be based off of the Concussive Shells, advanced ordnance for the marauder which create a localized gravity distortion that slows enemies they hit. It appears these are an enhanced version of that shell.
      • High-Grade Stimpacks: Stimpacks are a deadly chemical cocktail of adrenaline, stimulants and various powerful addatives designed to keep soldiers focused and in the fight, in spite of the wear and tear on their health. After Arcturus's death, specialized stimpacks that don't damage the user's health as heavily were created, named "super stimpacks." This appears to be a variant of those. Funnily enough according to the veterancy card this ability was also named "paid overtime," though Stimpacks are much more thematically consistent with his loyal guard.
    • Emperor's Shadow: Mengsk had a healthy distrust of his psionic ghosts, as they were the ones to kill his father, and his betrayed lieutenant Kerrigan was a ghost. When he first took over, Mengsk culled half of the Ghost Program in order to ensure their loyalty. Those he did keep however largely remained fiercely loyal to their emperor, kept in check by their Ghost Program's supervision and liberal use of memory wipes, and Mengsk had personal contact with elite ghosts such as Nova Terra. The model and name of the Emperor's Shadow comes from the early concept art of Mengsk, which shows a similar looking ghost in his shadow. The katana's on their back may be a reference to Arcturus's (and Valerian's) love of ancient Earth weapons, including old Japanese swords.

      • Pyrokinetic Immolation: An extremely rare ability among ghosts is that of pyrokensis. This is the ability to immolate enemy forces with your mind, heating up targets from the inside. Trained ghosts can do this to a precise range and even on objects mid-flight. Some ghosts with this ability were kept out the frontlines out of fear of losing that ability to the zerg.
      • Labyrinthine Cloak: Ghosts can channel their psionic energies to activate a Moebius Reactor in their suit, which they use to vanish from sight. This allows them to sneak up on unsuspecting assassination targets, and give the ghosts their iconic name.
      • EMP Blast: Since the days of the Confederacy, ghosts had been given localized EMPs named Lockdown Rounds in order to disable mechanical targets. Under Arcturus, these were enhanced to be full EMPs that could drain protoss shields and energy. This ability seems to combine both of those, disabling mechanical units while draining shields and energy, even damaging enemy targets it impacts.
      • Sovereign Tactical Missiles: Tactical nukes are the most common of their type employed by the Dominion (and Confederacy before it). To prevent hacking and give an accurate target, ghosts are trained to locate ideal spots for such missile launches. Mengsk himself stocked a number of these missiles and was known for liberal use of them, in spite of nuclear fire having devastated his homeworld.
    • Shock Division: Elite siege tanks of the Crucio-class (though in HotS they used the enhanced Arclite model, since they just used mercenary skins), these siege tanks were part of Mengsk's final bulwark at his palace. They are armed with 90mm plasma cannons on the move, but a heavy Crucio Shock Cannon that requires stabilizers in order to fire without damaging the siege tank itself.

      • Armament Stabilizers: Not necessarily an in-universe reference, this and the ability for Intercessors to pick up Shock Division tanks in general are a callback to the early Legacy of the Void ability for tanks to be picked up by medivacs and repositioned, named "tankavacs."
      • Smart Servos: In the canon timeline, these were a design developed by Valerian Mengsk's weapons expert Reigel when in the service of ghost agent Nova Terra. These allowed her liberators, hellions, and siege tanks to transform rapidly between combat modes.
    • Blackhammer: These elite thors were designed by Dominion engineers in informal competitions to improve the mech. Their ultra-powerful cannons were used to defend Korhal from Kerrigan's last invasion of the world, but they too were destroyed by the Swarm (and a fun neural parasite target). A fun fact is that in Heroes of the Storm, Tychus uses the (albeit old the Heart of the Swarm model) of a Blackhammer to resemble the Odin rather than the Odin model itself.

    • Imperial Intercessor: Part of Mengsk's Royal Guard, the medivac was an innovative fusion created by the Terran Dominion after the Brood War. After the UED invaded, much of their hyper advanced technology was cooped by the Dominion, including super powered medical nanites. Innovative Dominion medics installed their dropships with this technology as well as laser scalpels to keep away from the battlefront, something Dominion marines still distrust to this day. Nevertheless, the medivac has become a common staple of the Dominion forces.

      • Dual Resuscitators: Seemingly this ability is based on the Advanced Healing AI that Raynor was able to purchase in the Second Great War. This was an advanced system that allowed medivacs to acquire multiple targets in the heat of combat.
    • Imperial Witness: Part of Mengsk's strength was his use of propaganda. During the Sons of Korhal, he used pirate broadcasts and the UNN reporter Michael Liberty to spread his message, but during his rule he turned UNN itself into a means to control his population, including a sturring speech when he was first inaugurated that secured his place as Emperor. These blimps broadcast his message to his armies, spurring them onward with his rule. If you watch the sides while in Patriot Mode you can see UNN broadcasts being brought to his troops.

      • Amplified Airwaves: This ability adds an Arcturus Mengsk hologram on top of the Intercessor, which gives speeches directly from Mengsk himself. Mengsk used these holograms to spread his message all through the Dominion, and they became a target for rebels like Raynor during his insurgency. These also give quotes to the Witnesses in Patriot Mode, which have a ton of lore, and we'll get into that in the quotes section.
    • Sky Fury: These elite Vikings were sent to hunt down Kerrigan in the initial stages of the invasion. Vikings themselves are transforming air and ground mechs made to give terran arsenals more flexibility than the former Wraiths and Goliaths. After Arcturus's death, members of this squadron defected to the insurgency of General Carolina Davis in her attempt to get revenge against Valerian for his part in his father's death. However, they were defeated by the Special Forces of Nova Terra. The unit has a bonus versus massive, which according to Co-op lead Kevin "Monk" Dong, was a poke at the Viking that landed to fight an ultralisk in the Heart of the Swarm opening. As now they can defeat an ultralisk, this is monk's way of redoing that scene.

      • Evasive Maneuvers: In the editor, this ability is named "do a barrel roll." This is a reference to the famous quote of Star Fox 64's Peppy Hare.
    • Pride of Augustgrad: Named after the capital city of Korhal, which in itself was named for Arcturus's grandfather Augustus Mengsk. These mighty flagships were utilized by the remnants of Alpha Squadron during the final siege of Korhal by Kerrigan, but were no match for the oncoming zerg swarm.

      • Field-Assist Targeting System: In many marine's CMC armor, there is an uplink to ships in orbit or comsat satellites, which feed them tactical information on the battlefield around them. Presumably, this is the case here.
    • Earthsplitter Ordnance: During the final siege of Korhal, Mengsk employed heavy Drakken Pulse Cannons and other major artillery pieces against the Swarm, though Kerrigan was able to overwhelm them. According to Monk, these were designed to give Mengsk a very World War I feel. The models themselves are modified from the cannons Mengsk used to defend the doors of Korhal Palace in the Heart of the Swarm mission "The Reckoning." They're also the biggest missed opportunity for a reference to Mengsk beating the forces of Earth when they invaded the sector.

      • Neosteel Fortified Armor: Neosteel is the material that makes up most terran ordnance and starships. It is known to be durable, and the materials to create the alloy have been the primary reason behind many terran mining and prospecting expeditions even before the wars with the zerg and protoss.
    • Supply Bunker: Combining a supply depot and a bunker, the developers have stated these structures are inspired by the Orc burrows from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, which functioned much the same.


    CALLDOWNS
    • Forced Conscription: Mengsk and the Confederacy before him often utilized forced conscription, both of criminals and even just colonies they siezed, to supplement his forces, even for use as manual labor in digsites. While many of Mengsk's forces were resocialized, or altered with false memories in order to be perfect subservient soldiers, these appear to be regular civilians.

    • Contaminated Strike: This ability is a reference to the Heart of the Swarm ultralisk evolution mission, where Mengsk fired experimental warheads and utilized deadly chemical agents against Kerrigan's ultralisks, only to have to have those agents mutate the ultralisks into two deadlier strains, Noxious and Torrasque.

    • Dogs of War: The zerg Mengsk uses are zerg modified by the Cerberus Program, a subversive group dating back to the Terran Confederacy who did experiments on the zerg and on resocialized humans, later successfully enslaving their own brood of zerg by replacing their nervous systems. The ability is also a reference to Mengsk's own use of zerg against the Terran Confederacy, where he used the psi emitters to lure the zerg to their fleets and finally to their capital of Tarsonis itself. Mengsk tried similar enslavement of hydralisks with Project Tamed, though it backfired on Dominion forces when the hydralisks were under Kerrigan's control the whole time. Each zerg unit has their own little writeup if you scroll over their wireframe, with some cool little nods:

      • The Enthralled Zerglings reference the fact the Cerberus Program took from the isolated Maguro Brood. This is a reference to our very own u/bigmaguro, who has hunted down so many bugs in Co-op he now is the namesake of a swarm of them.
      • The Enthralled Hydralisk and Enthralled Ultralisks continue the storyline of Dr. Rudolfo Subsourian, who helped Arcturus in creating strains of enslaved zerg. This is a reference to apparently Blizzard liking it when you relentlessly nitpick the lore they worked so hard for (once again, thanks guys <3). The Enthralled Ultralisk references their Frenzy ability, which was ironically removed from them the same patch Mengsk was added.
      • The choice of units (zerglings, hydralisks, mutalisks, and ultralisks) may itself be a reference to Mengsk's use of the psi emitters in the First Great War, as those were all breeds around during that conflict.
    • Nuclear Annihilation: This ability is a callback to the Destruction of Korhal, where the Terran Confederacy launched a thousand nukes at the planet, incinerating it and its population. After rebuilding the planet, Mengsk had no compunction of using nukes even on his homeworld. When the UED invaded, if the Captain decided to disable his battlecruisers, Mengsk would try in vain to nuke the UED's invading force off of Korhal. In addition, during the final Brood War mission "Omega," Mengsk and his Dominion forces use nukes liberally against Kerrigan's forces, as a means to set them apart from the tactics of the UED. During Kerrigan's invasion of Char and final assault on Korhal Heart of the Swarm, he and his Dominion forces were never reluctant to use nukes in an attempt to stop her Swarm.


    QUOTATIONS
    • "Strike before the protoss steal the thoughts from your head!" - Plays when first encountering protoss. Mengsk ran misinformation and propaganda campaigns against the protoss and their evils, in spite of the two factions having limited major conflicts over the course of the wars to focus on greater threats like the zerg. Mengsk himself however got the ire of the protoss for projects such as Project Gestalt (blending protoss and terran DNA, a experiment that garnered Daelaam retaliation) and Project Blackstone in order to find means to combat the protoss. The "thoughts from your head" is a reference to protoss telepathy, and even under Valerian the Dominion Field Manual makes marines swear to not divulge secrets to protoss under psionic interrogation.

    • "The protoss. Remember Chau Sara!" - When first encountering the protoss. Chau Sara was the opening salvo of the First Great War, where zerg infested the terran colony, and protoss warships arrived and purified the planet of all life. Even years after Arcturus's reign and the ceasefire, Chau Sara was a very sore spot for many terrans who knew people from the planet. Here Mengsk uses it as a rallying cry, similar to "Remember the Alamo."

    • "What a misuse of a monster"/"I knew they'd eventually wriggle out into the light" - When first encountering hybrid. Arcturus Mengsk worked alongside the head of his son's scientific foundation, Dr. Emil Narud, in order to create the hybrid as a weapon against his enemies. Narud assured him that Mengsk could control them with sounds, but in reality Narud was a shapeshifting xel'naga bent on reviving Amon and using the hybrid to wipe out all life. Mengsk however never got the chance to see what his work would have wrought, as Kerrigan destroyed the Dominion hybrid program and Arcturus died before Moebius's would unleash their hybrids on the universe.

    • "We'll take it off the board" - Mengsk had a great love for chess, and loved to find opponents to play chess with him. Though he played against chess AI, he would also play as a means to converse with his allies.

    • "Attacking now. Hold up your end of the bargain." - A reference to Mengsk's quote when he made a deal with Kerrigan against the UED in the Brood War before the mission "Reign of Fire," when he offered to retake Korhal for him if he aided her, "Hmm, a tempting offer. What assurances do I have of you fulfilling your end of the bargain?"

    • "Carry our your orders. Finish it!" - Possibly a reference to his dialogue with Kerrigan at the beginning of the mission "The Trump Card," when she has doubts about using the psi emitter, "I know you have personal feelings about this, but you can't let your past cloud your judgment. Carry out your orders, lieutenant."

    • "You've made the right choice." - A callback to when Mengsk successfully recruits Edmund Duke to join the Sons of Korhal, where he tells him "You've made the right choice, General Duke."

    • "The preservation of our freedom exacts a heavy toll" - A reference to the early Wings of Liberty Mar Sara Mengsk holograms, which state "your freedoms must be protected!" The idea of Mengsk providing security for the sector's freedoms was a common motif in his propaganda.

    • "Now let's hear the skeptics chatter." / "Somehow, they'll find a way to hold this against me." - Though Mengsk had an iron control of the media of his Dominion, many pirate radio broadcasts, Dominion free thinkers, and foreign governments such as the Umojans pushed against him to reveal the evils of his regime to the population. Raynor himself turned the media against him by exposing information connecting him to the slaughter of Tarsonis.

    • "I will not be stopped!" - A reference to Mengsk's line upon destroying Tarsonis to Raynor at the beginning of "The Hammer Falls," "I will not be stopped, not by you, or the Confederates, or the protoss or anyone! I will rule this sector, or see it burnt to ashes around me!" Unfortunately for Mengsk this transmission was recorded by a Confederate adjutant, and leaked to the Dominion in Wings of Liberty.

    • "I promised I would watch over you, and I have." - A reference to the promise from the speech Arcturus gave upon ascending to Emperor, "Out of the many, we forge an indivisible whole, capitulating only to a single throne, and from that throne, I shall watch over you."

    • "We've held. Think not on the cost." - Possibly a reference to the above speech's final line "And to all the enemies of humanity: seek not to bar our way. For we shall win though, no matter the cost."

    • "We do what we must. Unleash the zerg." / "Few responsibilities have been so great." - A reference to the final dialogue with Kerrigan in the SC1 mission "The Trump Card," where when she activates a psi emitter to lure the zerg to destroy a Confederate blockade, Mengsk says to her, "We will do whatever it takes to save humanity. Our responsibility is too great to do any less." The first quote's use in the Dogs of War calldown may be a reference to that being the first time Mengsk unleashed the zerg on his enemies.

    • "As you sow, so shall you reap" - Possibly a reference to Mengsk's line to Raynor in the last SC1 terran mission "The Hammer Falls" before Raynor cuts him off, "the seeds of a new empire have been sown, and if we hope to reap-"

    • "Fire missiles! Fire again! Fire them all!" - Said during the Nuclear Annihilation calldown. This is a reference to the Torrasque evolution mission of Heart of the Swarm, where in spite of the protests of his men Mengsk keeps insisting on firing experimental nuclear warheads at the ultralisks.

    • "The people have granted me full emergency powers." - Plays with Imperial Mandate is capped. While emergency powers are certainly something in real life, this may be a reference to the meme'd lines of Jar Jar Binks granting Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

    The next few quotes are for special interactions Mengsk has with Raynor, Kerrigan and Tychus:

    • "Careful with MY ship, Jim." - Plays when an allied Raynor calls down the Hyperion for the first time of a match. The Hyperion was Mengsk's flagship during the Sons of Korhal, a gift from the Umojan Protectorate to him after the Terran Confederacy, with Arcturus naming the ship and using it as his headquarters. Shortly after Mengsk destroyed the Confederacy, Jim Raynor took his newly formed Raynor's Raiders and attacked the Dylarian Shipyards where it was stored, overcoming General Duke and stealing the ship for their own revolution. The ship would then remain a thorn in Mengsk's side until his death.

    • "Yes, that's a fine jump. But let's see if the cannon still fires." - Plays when an allied Raynor calls down the Hyperion for the first time of a match. Warp jumps, especially in atmosphere, are incredibly risky maneuvers for battlecruisers, and when the Hyperion made an unplanned jump off of Char in the First Great War it was out of commission for months. This also may be a poke at Mengsk's genius ship-to-ship tactics using the Hyperion during his uprising, such as outwitting Edmund Duke by attacking his ship with a siege tank out of its docking bay.

    • "Why people confuse your late arrivals with heroism I'll never understand." - Plays when an allied Raynor calls down the Hyperion for the first time of a match. This could be a reference to a few things, first being how Raynor often comes late to a situation in Wings of Liberty, like rescuing the planet Agria as it was being overrun by zerg. This could also be a reference to the Brood War mission "Emperor's Fall," where Raynor rescued Mengsk from the UED just as they destroyed his defenses and claimed his capital.

    • "Hmm. At least you're using it for more than the cantina." - Plays when an allied Raynor calls down the Hyperion for the first time of a match. A poke at Raynor's alcoholism, which was going to be a major factor in the Wings of Liberty plot before it was scaled back. The Hyperion also has a stocked cantina, which is one of the conversation spots in Wings of Liberty.

    • "I deserve some credit for your present capabilities." - Plays when an allied Kerrigan uses Immobilization Wave for the first time of a match. During the fall of Tarsonis, Mengsk abandoned Kerrigan to the zerg for calling him out on his brutality and being an unreliable asset. When she became uninfested, it was her desire for revenge on Mengsk that drove Kerrigan to remake herself into a primal zerg, which granted her the vast amount of power we see in Co-op.

    • "You are a nightmare come to life." - Plays when an allied Kerrigan uses Immobilization Wave for the first time of a match. This one's a bit of a stretch, but when Kerrigan was first being infested by the zerg, she instinctively sent out dreams to Raynor and Mengsk crying for help. In response, Mengsk sent Edmund Duke to find her, but neither he nor Raynor could get to her in time.

    • "Have you always been able to do that?" / "Terrifying. I really should let you do more of the work." - Plays when an allied Kerrigan uses Immobilization Wave for the first time of a match. This may be a reference to her never using Immobilization Wave until shortly before she killed Mengsk, as the ability was based off the final cinematic where she stuns a room of Mengsk's final guards, as Mengsk would have not been able to see it in Co-op if he had died.

    • "Remember who's holding your collar, Mr. Findlay." - Plays when an allied Tychus uses Odin for the first time of a match. Mengsk released Tychus from prison in order to keep an eye on Raynor and make sure he killed Kerrigan, but planted a device in him that would shut down his organs if he neglected to follow orders. "Mr. Findlay" is what he calls Tychus in the intro and final cinematic of Wings of Liberty.

    • "I assume you're clearheaded enough to operate heavy machinery." - Plays when an allied Tychus uses Odin for the first time of a match. Tychus had a love of tobacco and alcohol, but refused to partake in any of the heavier drugs of the sector, as he "refused to be beholden to anything or anyone." Nevertheless, he's regularly drunk.

    • "Follow my instructions to the letter this time." - Plays when an allied Tychus uses Odin for the first time of a match. While Mengsk held the ability to kill Tychus at a moment's notice, according to the voice actor Neil Kapplin, he believed Tychus could have shot Raynor in the back when approaching the final confrontation with Kerrigan, but that he refused to go that far to betray his old friend, instead knowing he was going into die. This may be lampshading that, or that Tychus was able to escape Mengsk's gaze in the non-canon Co-op timeline where he survives.

    Now for some of my favorite quotes: if you research Amplified Airwaves on your Imperial Witnesses, a hologram of Mengsk will appear and start spouting propaganda in Patriot Mode, some being cool references to other aspects of the Dominion and the universe.

    • "Economic collapse is imminent throughout the Kel-Morian Combine. Korhal is a safe harbor for all who would depart that wasteland in search of a better life." - The Kel-Morian Combine is a business conglomerate that took over the nation of Moria, and one of the three terran powers of the sector. They fought the Guild Wars against the Terran Confederacy, but suffered a brutal economic and territory loss from which they never truly recovered. Through the rule of the Dominion they maintained, even keeping a sizable military presence, but often buckled under Dominion pressure as they annexed their colonies (such as their recolonization of Mar Sara) and assassinated ranking members Mengsk didn't approve of. By the Second Great War, they were still struggling.

    • "I've done more to protect the people of Umoja from the zerg than their own Ruling Council. No matter how they slander me, I will continue to act in the best interest of all terrans." - The Umojan Protectorate is the third terran nation of the sector, a democratic and science-based society ruled by the Umojan Ruling Council. Umoja helped Mengsk defeat the Confederacy, but when he proved to be as ruthless as they were, the two nations were plunged into a cold war, in which the Umojans spread their own media through the Dominion on Mengsk. Umoja pressed hard on Mengsk's kidnapping of psionic children for use in the Ghost Program and their seizure of Senator Corbin Phash's son, something which caused protests throughout the Dominion. In addition, they gave safe haven to Michael Liberty, former UNN reporter who ran pirate broadcasts against Mengsk. These media attacks would eventually lead to Umoja helping the spectres in their failed attempt to kidnap Mengsk and force him to admit his crimes to their media. The comment on the zerg here is due to the fact that Umoja largely stayed out of both zerg invasions, looking to their own defense rather than get involved in the greater conflict.

    • "As your emperor, I have overseen record territory and economic expansion for the Dominion of Man. We will continue to grow, despite the poisoned parts of our body that would limit and debase us." - Under Mengsk, the Dominion forcefully seized independent or other nation's colonies to fund its military growth, and drained resources from the Outer Colonies and Fringe Worlds to build up its economic base in the core worlds. The poisoned parts undoubtably refers to rebels such as Raynor's Raiders who violently opposed Mengsk's heavy-handed tactics.

    • "The brave men and women of the Dominion Armed Forces defend our homefront, but they cannot do it alone. Enlist today, to have your sentence commuted by more than half!" - The Dominion Armed Forces are the greater bulk of the Dominion's military, including its marines, navy, and army. When criminals are tried in the Dominion for serious crimes, they are often given a choice, hard labor and prison time, or service in the Dominion Armed Forces. Mengsk is correct that it can be well over half, "Big Wave" Dave from the short story "A War On" was given the choice between 40 years in prison or 10 years in the marines for killing people in a bar fight. However, criminals who choose this route are not allowed to take R&R time like other soldiers.

    • "Our laws are our lifeblood, and yet they are tested like never before. I will restore the order of our empire without bowing to alien ravagers." - This could be a reference to one of two things, one being his son Valerian's working with Kerrigan and the zerg to help depose Arcturus, as well as his peace with the protoss and zerg after his rise to power. This also may be a backhanded poke at the fact that Arcturus did work alongside the "alien ravagers" of Kerrigan's Swarm and Fenix's protoss in order to reclaim Korhal from the UED in the Brood War.

    • "I have pacified the zerg and swept away the protoss. Now their progenitor wants to take away everything we have! Remember who is best equipped to stand in your defense." - By the beginning of Heart of the Swarm, Mengsk had indeed pacified the Swarm, though the protoss moreso retreated from the borders his space after seeing the threat of the zerg beaten back. The progenitor here is Amon, the xel'naga who has returned to wipe out all of the creation of the xel'naga loyal to the Infinite Cycle. Unknowingly, Mengsk was convinced to help breed the protoss/zerg hybrids that now form the core of Amon's armies.

    • "Whatever nonsense you might hear, I am not a clone." - A lighthearted jab on a possible means Mengsk could have "survived" the end of Heart of the Swarm, especially considering the very graphic way Kerrigan impales him, fills his body with psionic energy, and causes him to explode. Since Co-op Missions is not canon, this is more just a fun poke than anything concrete.


    OTHER
    • The introduction menu screen for Mengsk plays an instrumental of the first few bars of Brood War Aria, a song later blended into the soundtrack I, Mengsk. It's show up in the cinematic The Betrayal, which was Raynor's dream of Mengsk leaving Kerrigan, and on Valerian's record player in Heir Apparent. The record player from the menu screen is also the same one from that cinematic. General Davis also plays it when she's reflecting on her time with Arcturus in Nova Covert Ops.

      • The trailer for Mengsk also uses other parts of the I, Mengsk soundtrack, as well as A Card to Play.
    • The quotes on the troopers and laborers change depending on your Imperial Mandate level, with scared and reluctant quotes below 34, normal quotes between 34 and 67, and assured and patriotic quotes above 67.

    • The wolf decal Arcturus has is the symbol of the Mengsk Dynasty, one of the oldest of the Terran Confederacy's Old Families who came to power on Korhal. This symbol carried over to Arcturus's rule of the Dominion.

    • As you can see in the quotations section, Mengsk has special interactions when Raynor, Kerrigan and Tychus use the Hyperion, Immobilization Wave, and Odin calldowns respectively. sadly none for the Aleksander or Nova

    • The trailer for Mengsk uses his quote "Make no mistake, war is coming" from the Wings of Liberty intro, but in the editor there are lines for another speech exclusive to Co-op which they seemed to have cut from the trailer. The "betrayal" in it may be a reference to Mengsk's part in trusting Narud and making the hybrid he now has to fight:

    "Citizens of the Dominion, what separates us from one another is not money or creed or heritage. It is simple loyalty. While monsters walked the streets of Augustgrad, I prepared for a war greater than the last. Whatever betrayals I have suffered, I will rise above them. I cannot abandon you when the hour has grown so dark. Just as we threw back the zerg and the protoss, we will strike down all who threaten our way of life. I know our Dominion will live on... so long as we put our trust in those who deserve it."

    • In the BlizzCon build, the trooper's CPO-7 Salamander Flamethrower was named the CMC-666 Flamethrower. However, CMC is a class of powered armor, not a type of weapon, and this was changed for the final release. Huge thanks to Chris Fugate for hearing out a nerd on this and having a love for the lore enough to change details like this, as well as the other tiny details Mengsk has.

    That's all for Arcturus, and boy what a load of content. If you got through all of this thank you for the time, Mengsk may be one of my favorite commanders so far with a ton of love put into how his kit relates to his VERY detailed backstory, so I'm super happy from a lore front in how the commander was put together. More lore posts coming soon, and I'll see you all next time!

    submitted by /u/Subsourian
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    Exploding brain meme sign at Soma vs Light Ro4 KSL season 4

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 10:44 AM PST

    Arcturus Mengsk - Co-op Commander Lore (Part 1: Backstory)

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 08:52 AM PST

    Hey folks,

    So new Co-op Commander, and boy he's a big one. Arcturus Mengsk is one of the most storied characters of the StarCraft universe, and there's a metric ton of history to him. Back when I was doing lore for the Heroes of the Storm SC cast I joked that I would finally give me carpal tunnel would be Arcturus. And, well, here we are. Mengsk is, by far, the most storied character in the StarCraft universe, even moreso than Kerrigan and Raynor, so there's A LOT to go through.

    As you can see, I had to split this into two threads, one just for his backstory, and one all the lore aspects of his commander. Reddit has a character limit and putting part 2 in the comments always leads to a mess when I tried it in prior threads. Hope yall don't mind.. Still, there's a ton to go into with his history, so let's dig in!

    For the deep dive into the lore of his co-op kit, click here

    Link to previous Co-op lore episodes


    CHARACTER LORE: ARCTURUS MENGSK
    The Son of Korhal

    Arcturus was born to the wealthy and powerful Mengsk Family of the verdant world of Korhal IV. Their homeworld had suffered heavily under the corruption of their government, the Terran Confederacy, and Arcturus's father Angus was outspoken in his condemnation of the Confederacy, secretly funding resistance against Confederate outposts on his homeworld. Arcturus however was uninterested in the politics of his father and even resented him as a troublemaker, and instead focused on his dream of becoming a prospector. Driven, intelligent, and charismatic, Arcturus always had a streak of self-serving preservation that bordered on sociopathic.

    He graduated with high marks from his academy, and courted a Umojan Protectorate (another terran nation secretly helping his father fight the Confederacy) ambassador's daughter named Juliana Pasteur. But during the last days of his schooling Mengsk was approached by a Confederate Marine Corps recruiter named Angelina Emillian, who convinced him that he would have a better life in the marines, and that they could help him realize his prospecting dreams. Seeing this as a chance to lash out at his father, he signed up for the very group his father hated, only revealing to it after one of Angus's large anti-Confederate speeches. Arcturus's mother slapped him and his father was infuriated, and the boy stormed out for his new military future.

    Arcturus was assigned as an officer in the 33rd Ground Assault Division, and given a unit named Dominion Section. As a marine, Mengsk was assigned to "keep the peace" along the borders of the Confederacy, but it quickly became apparent that his operations were just to forcibly seize mining operations and colonies desired by the Confederacy. Meanwhile, he continued corresponding with Juliana Pasteur, eventually meeting her on the resort world of Tyrador IX. However, during their date the bar they were in was attacked by anti-Confederate insurgents, and after Mengsk managed to kill the attackers, the two had a whirlwind night of romance. He took the rest of his R&R to visit his family on Korhal, who welcomed him with open arms,though his relationship with his father continued to be strained leading to fights. After some soul searching with his family's chief of security, Arcturus decided he needed a "clean break" from much of his past, and decided that he would no longer communicate with Juliana and limit his contact with his father until he was prepared to speak with him again.

    Not long after, just as his service was ready to be up, Confederate aggression had triggered a response from the nation of the Kel-Morian Combine, and the Guild Wars erupted across the sector. Mengsk was forced to extend his service to engaged in this new conflict, rubbing shoulders with officers such as Edmund Duke and Horace Warfield. Though he eventually reached the rank of colonel, the utter corruption he saw in the Confederacy became too much for Arcturus, and he resigned his command as the war began to wind down to its inevitable Confederate victory.

    Taking one of his former squadmates, Dia de Santo, with him, he began life as a prospector, searching for rich mineral outcroppings on the borders of known space. As he and his team came upon a massive windfall of minerals, Arcturus was contacted by Juliana's father, who demanded he come to Umoja. There he discovered that his night with Juliana had resulted in a child he was never told about, and he met his seven year old son Valerian Mengsk. Arcturus was shocked, but stayed in Umoja in order to get to know his son, only to find him bookish and weak. Arcturu hoped to harden him to prepare him to face the universe and succeed as a Mengsk should, training him in combat, physical activity, history and science. Valerian, who was young and idolized his father from the stories his mother had told him, quickly began to see how disappointed his father was in him.

    Weeks into his stay however, he received a message from his family's security chief: a team of mysterious Confederate attackers had snuck into his family's home, bypassed all defenses, and killed his sister, mother and father. The attackers chopped off his father's head, took it as a trophy and vanished. Arcturus could only stand in shock at the news.

    "They don't know it yet, but the Confederacy has created the greatest enemy they will ever know."

    "What are you going to do?"

    "I'm going to burn the Confederacy to the ground."

    The Uprising

    With the aid of the Umojan Protectorate, Mengsk took over from his father in organizing the Korhal Revolution. Angus's death had sparked the population of Korhal to fully rebel and declare independence, and the Confederacy began to pull off the world. However, this was merely to push their final gambit: the Confederacy launched a thousand Apocalypse-class nuclear missiles at Korhal. Millions were incinerated as the temperate jewel of the Confederacy was annihilated into an irradiated desert. But Mengsk, who was on Umoja, was not defeated, and he refused to give up.

    With the aid of the Umojans, Mengsk was given a group of volunteers ready to aid him, and a captured Confederate battlecruiser Mengsk named the Hyperion. From the ashes of Korhal, Mengsk declared the formation of his new revolutionary group bent on destroying the Confederacy, the Sons of Korhal. Meanwhile, to avoid assassins, he sent Valerian and Juliana around the sector with a close guard, moving them from safehouse to safehouse, though never sending word to them. Meanwhile, his old comrade Horace Warfield, enraged by the destruction of Korhal, would feed his revolution information.

    Mengsk and his forces would eventually raid the Confederate base on Vyctor 5, discovering Confederate experiments on a strange alien lifeform connected to psionic ghosts. Inside they found one ghost alive, who they brought into their care. This ghost, named Sarah Kerrigan, was taken in, and Mengsk had her neural implant operated on to gradually give her her memories back. Mengsk allowed her to stay with his crew, and she would eventually join them in fending off the forces of Colonel Edmund Duke, and in their attack on the Confederate Ghost Academy on the capital of Tarsonis. The operation had two objectives, strike fear into the heart of the Confederacy, which Mengsk managed to do with a shocking pirate broadcast declaring his goals to bring freedom to the sector, and to capture and kill one of the ghosts who had killed his father. After the operation, Mengsk revealed that Kerrigan too was one of the ghosts who had killed Angus, but that she was doing it as a tool for the Confederacy, and that together they could bring justice for the Confederacy's actions. Kerrigan agreed to stay on, and soon became his second-in-command.

    The Sons of Korhal struck various attacks on the Confederacy, ranging from destroying Old Family factories, to pirate transmissions, to outright fleet warfare. With the revolution becoming a success, Mengsk was finally able to visit Valerian and Juliana, to find Juliana slowly dying of cancer. Valerian was enraged that his father had given them no word, and the two parted on poor terms.

    The Sons of Korhal pushed out to inflame the fringe worlds, having small operations on the world of Chau Sara before being pushed out. However, the planet soon suffered an attack from the same aliens the Confederacy were researching; the zerg. The planet then was sieged by a second technological alien race, the protoss, who incinerated the surface of the world. This was the opening salvo of the First Great War. The Confederacy locked down the nearby world of Mar Sara, but soon abandoned the population of the world to the invading zerg. Seeing a chance to extend the reach of the Sons, Mengsk contacted the local magistrate of the planet, and sent ships to evacuate the population of the world. From the survivors he gained a number of new forces, including the colony's magistrate, the famed UNN reporter Michael Liberty, and the marshal of the colony, former outlaw Jim Raynor. His group raided a Confederate facility before leaving the world to be incinerated by the protoss.

    Mengsk then struck at the world of Antiga Prime, and the planet rebelled against the Confederacy, but soon the zerg arrived to infest the world. They downed the battlecruiser of now-general of Alpha Squadron Edmund Duke, and Mengsk swept in to save him, convincing the general that the Confederacy was on the verge of falling and it would be a better political move to join Mengsk's forces. Duke agreed, and he and Alpha Squadron joined the rebellion. It was not long before Mengsk discovered from files recovered from Mar Sara that the Confederacy was using devices named psi emitters to lure zerg to target areas, as they hoped to use them to crush dissenting planets. When Confederate forces came to Antiga Prime to wipe out the Sons, Mengsk had Kerrigan place an emitter behind their lines, which unleashed the zerg on them, allowing Mengsk and his forces to escape. As his tactics became more brutal, Raynor, Kerrigan, and Liberty began to openly doubt Mengsk's leadership and whether he was truly better than the Confederacy.

    After smaller operations, Mengsk and his fleet finally assaulted the Confederate capital of Tarsonis, besieging the world. However, Mengsk had made multiple psi emitters, which he unleashed on the planet. The greater mass of the Zerg Swarm descended on the world, slaughtering billions of civilians. Raynor and Kerrigan tried to speak out against him, but Mengsk refused to listen, instead sending Kerrigan against the newly arrived protoss forces of Executor Tassadar to prevent them from engaging the zerg. She warded them back, but the zerg assaulted her position. Kerrigan requested backup, but Mengsk refused, seeing Kerrigan's earlier speaking out against his tactics as her being an unreliable element, and pulled the fleet back, leaving Kerrigan for dead.

    Raynor was enraged by Mengsk's betrayal, and took a group of like-minded Sons and Confederate remnants against Mengsk, leaving Tarsonis on their own. This group would become Raynor's Raiders. But such a small group was of no matter to Arcturus; Mengsk returned to the slowly rebuilding world of Korhal, and from there broadcasted a speech around the sector declaring the death of the Terran Confederacy, and the rise of a new empire to combat the threat of the two alien races: the Terran Dominion.

    Mengsk Ascendant

    Mengsk consolidated his rule of the Dominion, sending his forces to root out powerful pirate groups and ward off the alien attacks. However, he also crushed any and all dissent against him, and his former allies in the Umojans who supported the Sons quickly saw him as just as bad as the Confederacy. When Mengsk received dreams of Kerrigan on a volcanic world, he sent General Edmund Duke to find the source of them, only to discover that on the infested volcanic world of Char, Kerrigan had been reborn as a zerg.

    In spite of the brutality, the Dominion survived the First Great War and thrived. Both the protoss and zerg had beaten themselves down in the fighting, while the Dominion had endured. Months into his rule, the emperor visited Valerian on Umoja to formally acknowledge his son to the sector. But when he arrived, a group of Confederate loyalists, under his former commanding officer Angelina Emillian, slipped through the Umojan defenses and ambushed him. Arcturus and Valerian were able to ward them off, but before her death Emillian mocked him of the arrival of a new power: the UED. Mengsk was unsure what she meant, but assumed the Umojans were responsible for allowing the attack. Tensions between the two nations became strained leading later into a full cold war.

    But when Mengsk returned to Korhal he discovered what Emillian meant: a fleet from the United Earth Directorate, the government of the terran homeworld, had arrived to depose him and claim the sector against the two alien races. They crippled his fleets at Dylar IV and besieged Korhal, smashing his defenses and burning a path to his palace. Mengsk tried to escape but was surrounded, when he was saved by Jim Raynor's fleet, allied with the protoss hero Fenix. They took him to the ruined protoss homeworld of Aiur, and put him in cryostasis, but the UED gave chase. Raynor, Fenix and Mengsk were able to escape the UED when a zerg blitz warded them back.

    Eventually, Mengsk arrived on Tarsonis, to find who brought them all together: the infested Sarah Kerrigan. She told them the UED had seized control of the new zerg Overmind, and now controlled most zerg broods. Kerrigan needed Mengsk's psi emitters to reclaim her broods and destroy the superweapon the UED was using against her, the psi disrupter, and promised she'd help him reclaim Korhal if he did. He reluctantly agreed, and with his help Kerrigan crushed the disruptor. Mengsk, Kerrigan, Raynor and Fenix then unleashed their forces on Korhal, wiping the UED and their zerg slave broods off the planet. But at the eve of her victory, Kerrigan turned on them. She killed General Duke, crippling Mengsk's forces, and left him on the ruins of Korhal so that he would see her rise to power as revenge for what he did to her on Tarsonis.

    But Mengsk was not done yet. He called in favors and gathered a new fleet, and worked alongside the protoss under Artanis and the remaining UED forces, and unleashed a final assault on Kerrigan above Char. The attack failed. As his forces departed Mengsk left one final message to Kerrigan:

    "Congratulations Kerrigan, you've beaten me again. Just remember that I'll be out there, waiting for you to slip up. Because sooner or later you'll make a mistake. And when you do..."

    The Dominion

    Though Kerrigan was victorious, she held her broods back, allowing Mengsk time to rebuild his Dominion. In the chaos following the UED invasion, Mengsk was able to become a beacon of order as he crushed pirate and bandit groups and the last holdouts of the Confederacy, but this swiftly returned to brutal crackdowns on all civilian protests, and the killing of anyone Mengsk decided was inconvenient. Raynor meanwhile attempted to lead his Raiders against Mengsk, but Mengsk used the media and his abundant military might to wear Raynor down, though he could never truly defeat him.

    In the interbellum, Juliana Pasteur passed away from advanced stages of cancer that went untreated when they were on the run, which Valerian held against Arcturus. However, the two began to repair their relationship as Valerian stepped out into the spotlight as the heir to the Dominion throne, though the two never could connect on a deeper level. Valerian meanwhile chased his love of alien studies with some blessings from his father to keep him appeased.

    Meanwhile, Mengsk turned to find means to combat Kerrigan should she return, many horribly unethical and unsuccessful (such as mixing terrans and protoss), but one secret project that bore fruit was using his son's xenoarchaeological science group, the Moebius Foundation to breed hybridized protoss and zerg under the lead of Dr. Emil Narud. Mengsk was unaware that Narud was truly a xel'naga seeking to use these hybrid in a crusade to wipe out all life, but was convinced they were a weapon he could control.

    Mengsk also embarked on secret projects on psionics, such as Project: Shadowblade, using terrazine gas to create powerful, yet unstable psionics. The project was shut down, but the survivors, calling themselves spectres, assaulted his palace and nearly kidnapped him in order to force him to confess his crimes. Mengsk personally sent his best ghost, Nova, to hunt them down and destroy their operation, which she was largely successful in doing. Meanwhile, Mengsk took some limited actions against the protoss to gain more knowledge on their race. In order to keep an eye on his nemesis Jim Raynor and ensure he would keep to his "promise" of killing Kerrigan, Mengsk released Raynor's former comrade Tychus Findlay from his cryoprison, with the deal that if he killed Kerrigan he would be pardoned of all his crimes and allowed to go free. However to ensure he did what he needed to, Mengsk implanted a device in him that would shut down all his major organs if he tried to break from the deal.

    Four years into his rule, Kerrigan returned, invading the fringes of the Dominion and heralding the Second Great War, but oddly enough she did not seem to be focused on conquest. Mengsk recalled General Horace Warfield into service to ward the zerg back, but Jim Raynor stepped up his terrorist operations during the assault, fighting the Dominion and the zerg. Raynor recovered an adjutant that had information connecting Mengsk to the slaughter of Tarsonis, and leaked that information to the media. Riots broke out across the Terran Dominion, with the people's faith in Mengsk having been shaken.

    But Arcturus had a plan. He knew his son Valerian had allied himself with Jim Raynor in a gambit to "purify" Kerrigan and destroy the zerg on Char using a xel'naga relic named the Keystone, and that he had taken half the Dominion fleet to do so. Mengsk took the other half and hid nearby Char as his two enemies battled, waiting for the weakened victor. Raynor and Valerian would indeed win and deinfest Kerrigan, and Mengsk attempted to use Tychus to kill Kerrigan, but Raynor shot his old friend to protect the women he loved.

    As the weakened Raiders and Valerian's Fleet regrouped, Arcturus pounced on them, demanding they hand over Kerrigan and Raynor. Valerian refused, stating Kerrigan was key to a protoss prophecy, and that killing her would be short sighted, but Arcturus refused to accept this, and fired on the forces of his own son. He chased Valerian and Raynor's retreating fleet across the sector, using trackers and traitors in their ranks to pursue them. Eventually, the rebels ended up in the lab of Valerian's head researcher Dr. Emil Narud, who was secretly in the pocket of Arcturus. Narud turned on them, and Arcturus had his forces surround the lab. But the Raiders proved too wily, and slipped out, retreating into Umojan space. Narud was able to take the Keystone from them however, and after doing what he needed with it, gave it to Mengsk as one of many weapons to use against Kerrigan.

    Arcturus finally tracked Raynor and Kerrigan down into Umojan Protectorate space, and sent a force led by Nova Terra against them. Kerrigan and Valerian escaped, but Nova captured Raynor. To the media, Mengsk reported to the media Raynor was dead, but instead he placed him on a prison ship as a gambit should Kerrigan return. Meanwhile, Mengsk began a public crackdown on civil unrest, in order to calm the riots caused by Raynor's revelations. Between having seemingly defeated the zerg, protoss, and rebels and his iron grip on the media, Arcturus returned his rule to some stability for a time.

    But soon Kerrigan returned, as a powerful zerg being leading the Swarm, and she took back Char and killed General Warfield. Mengsk then contacted Kerrigan revealing that he had Jim imprisoned, and he would kill him if she moved his Swarm into Dominion Space. But Kerrigan was able to work with Valerian and the remaining Raiders to hunt down Raynor, and she freed him from Mengsk's prison ship. She then targeted Dr. Emil Narud and his protoss/zerg hybrids, destroying the Dominion's ability to use these beasts, but discovering their true purpose: to serve the xel'naga Amon.

    With all her Swarms, Kerrigan then besieged Korhal, raining her broods down to overcome Arcturus's considerable orbital defenses while Valerian Mengsk evacuated the population. Arcturus deployed a superweapon named the psi destroyer against her, but her allies in the primal zerg were able to overcome its field and help her destroy the weapon. Finally, Arcturus sent his Royal Guard against Kerrigan, but her broods and allies proved too much for them. Kerrigan cornered Arcturus in Korhal Palace, but he revealed the Keystone, which incapacitated Kerrigan. Raynor however burst in, and crushed the device he used to control the relic, which gave Kerrigan time to impale him on her bone spikes. In a snarl, Arcturus Mengsk spat one last insult to his former second-in-command:

    "I made you into a monster, Kerrigan."

    "You made us all into monsters."

    With that, Kerrigan unleashed a burst of psionic energy into Arcturus, causing his body to explode. The Emperor of the Terran Dominion, the once brightest son of Korhal, was slain. Valerian Mengsk, knowing the sins of his father, took over his rule, and swore that he would create a fairer Dominion. But the spectre of his father's brutality would always loom over him, from many doubting his decisions, to rebellions of Arcturus's loyalists in his own ranks.

    Though he kept humanity together against an alien threat, Arcturus's regime would leave scars through terran space, and his human body count would rival that of the very aliens he claimed to protect mankind from.

    TL;DR: Arcturus was the bright son of an anti-Confederate senator, who joined the Confederacy to spite him, but after seeing their corruption retired to be a prospector. The Confederacy killed his family, so he took up his father's role at the head of the Korhal Rebellion, but then the Confederacy nuked his planet. He created the Sons of Korhal, and took advantage of the zerg and protoss invasion to use the aliens against the Confederacy. In the process he left his second-in-command Sarah Kerrigan to the zerg, and other former loyalists such as Jim Raynor rebelled. Mengsk secured his rule over the sector and founded the Terran Dominion, but was briefly deposed by an invasion from Earth. After losing to the now-infested Sarah Kerrigan, Mengsk rebuilt, but was a brutal dictator. Eventually, Kerrigan and Raynor were able to ally and push back into Mengsk, killing him and ending his tyrannical rule.

    If you all want to read the history of Mengsk for yourself, I HIGHLY recommend the novel I, Mengsk, well worth the read for Mengsk fans that gives a ton of context for his actions and personality.


    That's all for the backstory of Arcturus Mengsk, abridged a bit but still should give you the basic idea of his character. If you have any questions let me know, and I'll see you all in part 2 of this thread where we go into his commander!

    submitted by /u/Subsourian
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    Some really impressive micro

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 03:35 PM PST

    The Recall $15 Bi-Weekly Plat/Diamond Tournament

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 03:40 PM PST

    https://tl.net/forum/sc2-tournaments/553301-the-recall-15-bi-weekly-plat-diamond-tournament

    If you're a Platinum or Diamond player and want to test your skills against other players, get casted, have some fun, and maybe even win some money...check out "The Recall" bi-weekly tournament on Challonge: https://challonge.com/Therecall3

    The focus of the tournament is to bring hype casting and a relaxed tournament experience to Platinum and Diamond level players. If you're a new plat/diamond and looking for tournaments to participate in or if you're one of the regulars on the challonge tournament scene we welcome you to sign up, have some fun, and try to win that money!

    *11/29/2019 Update*

    Timmythehill Donated $10 extra for the prize pool..

    submitted by /u/Ohrloner1
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    AlphaStar Showing Upgrades are for Wimps in PvT

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 11:43 AM PST

    About what level of bots should I be able to beat before going into competitive?

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 05:26 PM PST

    Hi, I'm a pretty competitive person by heart, and I've actually had a ton of fun playing SC this last week or so. That being said, people are scary. I'm able to beat the difficult after hard pretty handily, but is that enough to not just get my ass totally whooped in multiplayer? Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/epicpantsryummy
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    Nvidia Control Panel Performance Settings

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 12:48 PM PST

    Im on a low budget pc and im lagging hard sometimes in big battles, i have all "low" and "off" on sc2 but now im trying to squeeze more in the nvidia control panel but default presets are shitty, what are the best settings there? im not interested in quality. thanks in advance!

    submitted by /u/PolloAndres99
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    Still playng

    Posted: 30 Nov 2019 12:03 AM PST

    Born Gosu is looking for players!

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 08:41 AM PST

    Born Gosu is a passionate community of nerds united by the greatest game series on earth, StarCraft!

    Born Gosu is proud to have a storied history of championships in the amateur SC2 scene and currently participates in many different team leagues such as Chobo Teamleague(CTL), All-in The Nydus, Alpha TL, VTL, and Oceaninc Pond League. There are opportunities for players of all skill levels from Gold thru GM, especially with the upcoming season of our longest-running league CTL.

    In addition to competition, Born Gosu is a fun loving group of diverse individuals from all over the world. We have players from all regions: NA, EU, and Asia. We also are very lucky to have clan activities and fun various in-house rivalry show-matches as well.

    We're looking for players of all ranks, who are looking to improve, make friends, talk about what's going on in SC2 and the community at large, watch some WCS/GSL together, and most simply play some StarCraft!

    If you have any questions feel free to ask or message me on discord Spoon#1655, or here on a reddit DM.

    Sign up, come chat, and find some practice partners at our discord link below! Anyone can use the !app command in discord to apply as well.

    https://discord.gg/x7jewJq

    submitted by /u/CyberneticJim
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    When is the best time to get promoted in SC2?

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 06:44 PM PST

    I believe they lock promotions close to the end of the season, but is there a period of time in which promotions are more favorable towards ladder grinders?

    submitted by /u/Anarioxan
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    SC2 Swarm is looking for players!

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 02:00 PM PST

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