We don't need more Nukes! Posted: 18 Jul 2020 12:23 PM PDT |
The CHAD ZEALOT vs The Virgin Stalker Posted: 18 Jul 2020 07:09 AM PDT |
For the swarm! Posted: 18 Jul 2020 12:46 PM PDT |
One year ago, on the Pylon Show, CatZ promised to show us his abs Posted: 18 Jul 2020 08:54 PM PDT |
a nonviolent protoss player? Posted: 18 Jul 2020 10:57 PM PDT |
I'm no reynor but I hit m3 before turning 16! :D 3 months from D3 to now. Posted: 18 Jul 2020 06:42 AM PDT |
SNEK A TAC (oc) inspired by https://www.reddit.com/user/branb1206bb/ 's post Posted: 18 Jul 2020 07:09 PM PDT |
This part of TL's Ro16 preview aged pretty badly Posted: 18 Jul 2020 04:15 PM PDT |
Playing with this kid that has very broken english and is new to the game Posted: 18 Jul 2020 04:38 PM PDT |
Why is the Ro8 being played past 1 AM in Korea? Posted: 18 Jul 2020 11:11 AM PDT Seems really unfair to the koreans that are playing. Innovation was playing around 1:30, TY series just ended and it's 3AM. Now Cure and Maru have to play at 3:30am. It's kinda ridiculous tbh. Tourney in question is EPT finals. submitted by /u/LinuxF4n [link] [comments] |
soO, Stats, Cure and INnoVation for some pre-DH entertainment live now! Posted: 19 Jul 2020 01:39 AM PDT |
Had a chance to play an out of print Starcraft board game Posted: 18 Jul 2020 06:22 PM PDT |
Did some rough viking sketches to try to figure out its transformation sequence. Posted: 18 Jul 2020 04:13 AM PDT |
Infestor Hit Squad Posted: 18 Jul 2020 03:53 PM PDT |
Today is Golden's birthday - let's show him some love! Posted: 18 Jul 2020 02:19 PM PDT |
Latest wine update on Fedora Linux breaks sc2 Posted: 18 Jul 2020 11:46 PM PDT Updating to wine.5.5.2 breaks sc2, you need to "dnf downgrade wine" to 5.5.1 to fix it, recommend editing /etc/dnf/dnf.conf to add "exclude=wine wine*" until it is resolved submitted by /u/tshawkins [link] [comments] |
Been watching a lot of GSL and its made me want to play again Posted: 18 Jul 2020 06:41 PM PDT Haven't played or watched any games since WoL but watching DongRaeGu and PartinG has really made me want to play again! I have HotS but not LoV can I play ladder or do I need to buy something? I'm not sure exactly what I need to do. Any guides or youtube channels you would recommend to catch up to the current meta? I'm ready to be hurt again. Thanks! submitted by /u/mylegisasleep1 [link] [comments] |
DH SC2 Masters Summer Season Finals Ro4 Posted: 18 Jul 2020 01:10 PM PDT |
PartinGtheBigBoy - In and out Posted: 18 Jul 2020 03:51 PM PDT |
Vision problems Posted: 18 Jul 2020 07:10 AM PDT |
GSL Code S 2020 S2 | Ro16 | Group B | Rundown Posted: 18 Jul 2020 06:23 AM PDT On most Saturdays it makes perfect sense to sleep in and catch the VOD, today wasn't one of those days for me. Group B: - Living Legends with 6 Code S Finals between them: INnoVation, Dark, PartinG
- Underdog Supreme looking to challenge them: Bunny
The year is 2020, my life is going by in a flash as PartinG and INnoVation do their best to recreate the Group of Death from days past. Joining them on this magical journey are Dark - who even when injured and vulnerable still demands respect as the Zerg strikes fear into the hearts and minds of any human opponent - and Bunny who, although lacking name value when put next to these titans, has made strides towards earning a place among the top Terran players in his own right. Warning: if into this post you continue, only spoilers will you find. Stylin', wilin' and provin' beyond a reasonable doubt he is back at the very top PartinG put on an absolute show as he secured 1st place with an impressive showcase of PvT prowess. From there it was anyone's guess how the 'rematch' in the final series of the day would go, in the end INnoVation settled for the 2nd place finish after smashing his opponent even harder than the first time. M1 | INnoVation [ 2 : 0 ] Dark | ★★☆☆☆ | Disappointment - Deathaura | When the early Roach Warren went into the queue the immediate assumption I had was that Dark knew something no one else did. Unfortunately for every Zerg player watching, that wasn't the case as the handful of low tier units waddled across the map to get nothing done. What followed was the Terran sending over a pair of Cloaked Banshees inside Swarm territory as soon as they chased out the attack. Not having detection in this scenario leads to serious consequences i.e. a 20+ Drone massacre starting around 05:50. After that slow econ opener and then horrendous blunder by Dark, there was no universe in which INnoVation loses the game from that point.
- Ice And Chrome | Things looked understandably more standard afterwards with the first real noteworthy occurrence being the Zerg shutdown on INnoVation's initial push close to the third Hatch. Dark then found himself in an even more commanding lead after pulling off a sick Ling Bane runby at 07:25 which resulted in a forced lift on the third CC and earned him 12 SCV kills. A few minutes later INnoVation once again lost another batch of workers but at least got to snipe a base for his troubles. As the economic position of the Terran was becoming more and more doomed with each successive harassment, it almost seemed like Dark didn't realize he was pretty much forcing his opponent to All In with the last real army he could afford. The definition of playing yourself came into reality for the Zerg as he'd used up way too many units across the map, leaving him unable to clear the siege back at home around 09:40 and it didn't help either that in direct engagements Dark's control faltered to put it mildly, so INnoVation didn't have to try particularly hard to land the knockout blow from there.
M2 | PartinG [ 2 : 1 ] Bunny | ★★★☆☆ | Fool Me Twice Once - Eternal Empire | Bunny decided to kick this one off with a bang by proxying two Barracks while having one extra at home to set up the wall, naturally denying the Protoss critical information that something is missing. Despite diligent scouting by PartinG and some decent crisis management displayed in an impossible scenario, when The Boys™ are in tow as early as 02:15 there isn't anything more he could have realistically done without knowing what was coming his way in advance.
- Deathaura | It felt like the Protoss had then chosen to return the favor when a proxy Robo came down and he stole an enemy Gas Geyser as the cherry on top. Instead, PartinG got a Warp Prism out with some Stalkers first and channeled his aggression that way as opposed to immediately rushing. When a Nexus and Twilight got put down behind this, it was fair to say many of us didn't understand what was happening - Bunny included - so when the much more technical attack finally hit at 06:50 and the Protoss finessed his way to causing critical damage in the form of 30+ SCV kills in spite of the relatively solid defense, the writing was on the wall for this one. Bunny attempted to take back control across the map with a sort of mini doom drop inside the enemy mineral line, but was all too easily wiped out and sent back home. From there PartinG teched up to Storm and even used it for some stellar harassment before eventually pulling off a few vintage moves out of his playbook that resulted in the Terran army bleeding all over the map, notably around 15:15 as the never ending rain of flanking Storms and even Disruptors waddling behind them took us into the final map.
- Ever Dream | I was curious to see what Bunny had planned with a single proxy Barracks this time and a Factory next to it, only for PartinG to double down on his scouting, resulting in the Terran's plans going up in smoke at 02:15. At that point the Protoss could basically play with his food, so he chose to go with some light Blink Stalker pressure which was admittedly handled well by Bunny after stabilizing, so the Terran then geared up for a desperate assault around 07:25 and although his setup was neat PartinG already had Colossi out with a big enough lead he could afford to sack the Nexus instead of forcing himself to take a 50/50 fight. From that point the Protoss not only double expanded but also teched up appropriately, kept his leads and crucially found the key engagement of the game as he went up to meet the Terran army in the middle of the map at 12:20 taking an incredibly powerful fight to close things out.
M3 | INnoVation [ 0 : 2 ] PartinG | ★★★☆☆ | Hit 'Em Up Style - Deathaura | When we saw PartinG start doing the exact same build he'd already shown on this map during the previous series, I thought there would be no chance in hell the Protoss wins here. Not only did INnoVation immediately find the proxy Robo, he then also caught the enemy out in the middle of the map with his rushed Marauders and started cleaning house accordingly. Through the power of micro and the dark arts, PartinG nevertheless came out looking okay from this by getting an Immortal out and then having the nerve to put down a proxy Nexus on a Rich Gas location at 03:00 as the chaos was unfolding. The result of him getting away with this bold move was a near infinite supply of Templar, which facilitated another round of successful harass via Storm drops, and also a mess of Archons being confidently merged early on. INnoVation still found a lot of success in the game by taking out the "third" Nexus around 08:40 while also harassing the proxy expansion and killing off a ton of workers there, in addition to then unleashing Liberators on his opponent as PartinG was attempting to push up ramps into the hunkered down Terran. After the Protoss could no longer contain him, INnoVation went out and finally took care of the cheeky expansion close to him, only to find PartinG completely ready to pounce on the opportunity to retaliate at roughly 13:45 landing a huge Storm on the entire Terran army from flanking Templar as his own forces were taking out the third CC at the same time. This essentially forced INnoVation's hand so he moved out with his terrifying number of Tanks and infantry, only to find himself all too clumped up and surrounded around 14:20 when the supply lead was melted by PartinG, at which point he again teched up into Disruptors and eventually leveraged his econ lead and army complexity to close out the incredibly tight and hotly contested battle with style.
- Ice And Chrome | The plan to go for a Marauder Tank push with a proxy Factory and Barracks in that order made it look like we were watching anyone other than INnoVation behind the wheel. Needless to say, I expected this to be an absolute bop before we quickly moved on to the final map, considering for all intents and purposes PartinG had no idea what was coming until it arrived at his front door. When the Terran army showed up at 04:50 with double the supply I expected the gg shortly after, instead PartinG did a phenomenal Probe pull, cleared everything with ease and basically did a metaphorical "?" in chat. A few minutes later INnoVation did the Goofy-inspired followup and when it ended just as badly if not worse he was escorted out of the server.
M4 | Dark [ 2 : 0 ] Bunny | ★☆☆☆☆ | Hopeless - Eternal Empire | Nothing worth mentioning went down at the start of this doomed match, even the early Terran push on the fourth Hatch was completely unremarkable and nowhere close to getting any real damage done. The basic autopilot play from the Zerg was more than enough to establish a stranglehold on the map with Hydra Ling Bane prowling around to pick off any stragglers and an insane Drone count to fuel the Swarm. I had some hope left as around 17 workers got picked off thanks to poorly defended Mine drops throughout the game, however as Bunny's fourth base got taken out around 10:20 and then his army basically got wiped off the face of the planet not even a minute later 10:50, everyone could see the complete annihilation coming, culminating at 12:20 and allowing us to mercifully move on not long after.
- Deathaura | When the Roaches showed up in the production tab at the start once again my hopes for the Terran underdog returned. The problem here turned out to be a bit of a build order loss with Mine drops getting rushed out across the map, leaving little to no defense at home. A late Banshee, which would usually still be enough to stabilize, ran into some trouble around 05:40 when a lapse of attention, control or will to live meant it fell to the Ravagers, so naturally Bunny decided to call it a day.
M5 | INnoVation [ 2 : 0 ] Dark | ★★☆☆☆ | Gold Star Performance - Ice And Chrome | A single BC off just two CCs was enough to throw Dark off as the Zerg went into autopilot to deal with nonexistent Mech, realizing his mistake what felt like a little too late as the 07:20 push on his fourth Hatch arrived. The base was, of course, deleted immediately and from there INnoVation set up for the inevitable desperate crash of the Swarm, which came in around 7:45 as Dark attempted to clear everything out and almost succeeded, unfortunately for him one too many Marines survived and chased down all his Queens, sniping the Bane Nest along the way, which basically wrapped things up here.
- Submarine | The earliest possible Roach Ravager attack off three Hatches arrived at the front door of the Terran at 4:20 as if to prove a point about how bad this strategy is. INnoVation held on comfortably with just a few Hellions and an incomplete Bunker, seeing as his Banshee was neither late nor lacking the will to live. At that point the Zerg essentially went bankrupt even more so spamming out Spores to avoid the 20 Drone death repeat and dug the hole even deeper massing Roach Ravager just to stay alive. Dark eventually did get a few Vipers out to complement his bizarro army and he was also certainly helped by the Terran allowing him breathing room thanks to bleeding supply with drops instead of massing up to end him. Even so, INnoVation conducted himself pretty comfortably throughout this game, securing his own expansions at an extremely conservative pace and in the long run he kept taking efficient fights and shutting down enemy bases virtually at will. The final real fight came around the time Dark had decided to incorporate a few Brood Lords into his already slower and weaker composition, resulting in the engagement which would seal the deal at 16:45 when the Terran demonstrated he was so far ahead he could even afford to lose fights all over the map and still have more than enough to run his opponent over virtually off the back of his macro prowess alone.
I need to stop jinxing these Groups by getting excited for them, apologies to anyone else that got up early in Europe for this. - Match of the Night - The only good matches were M2 and M3 lets be real and for the first map alone I have to go with INnoVation vs PartinG, that game was something special, I genuinely recommend it to anyone who couldn't catch it live & I'll also be rewatching it as soon as I'm done with this.
Finally, here are some of my closing thoughts on each player: - PartinG kind of blew my mind tonight, I expected him to do well in this Group, I definitely didn't think he would be capable of playing with fire without getting burnt, though. The level of control, his planning, the decision-making and especially the use & positioning of Templar... PartinG is just passing the Eye Test with flying colors right now, feels like he's better every time we see him. Now, as his reward for winning what was absolutely a Group of Death on paper, he'll have to face the defending Code S Champion in the opening Round - which although is absolutely bullshit on every level, you can't honestly say you don't want to see a rematch with TY happen anyway after that slow start by PartinG to the Ro4 last Season, so it's going to be a must-watch series, where I hope both players perform to the peak of their abilities this time.
- INnoVation likely doesn't even understand what happened to him in that TvP, needless to say it's probably pretty hard for him to stay upset about that regardless considering he not only slapped Dark around for fun - twice - but now gets to continue playing TvZ against the on paper easier opponent in the Playoffs. Although we did see some incredibly solid play in the matchup from him here, I'm actually a little worried for everyone's favorite macro machine because DRG is looking like nobody's fool - also legitimately ignore anything cheeky people have to say about his ZvT, that's the matchup he's historically known for. All in all, I expect a much more competitive and intriguing series coming up in the Playoffs, don't let present name value trick you in that regard.
- Dark had one of the worst days I think I've ever seen him have and that includes the bop he suffered against TY last season. To be clear, feel free to completely ignore that series vs Bunny where the mental edge was so intense Roaches didn't even look worthless. What we saw from Dark against INnoVation was flawed play with atrocious control a lot of the time, questionable decision-making and overall a very disappointing performance even after getting that much needed mental reset. I hope this had nothing to do with his injury or other related health issues, since it would be much better if he's just having some bad games or a poor run of form as opposed to losing him from the Elite Zerg Pool that's already pretty shallow in Korea to begin with.
- Bunny basically had to beat PartinG as soon as we saw his nemesis waiting in M4, otherwise it was all over for him - and that's basically what happened after he lost the initial match. I really wanted to see what he could do against INnoVation here, I think people would have been surprised by how much closer that series could have gone compared to the shitshow against Dark, alas this is how the cookie crumbles sometimes & there's a reason I put him as the only real underdog in this Group. I still think Bunny's an interesting and good player, so I look forward to seeing his progress continue in the upcoming Seasons.
As always, if you think differently or have something interesting to add, feel free to do so in the comments below. Catch you on Wednesday for Group C, where Maru will have to deal with his teammate Trap in a historically coin-flip clash thanks to ignoring Solar's threats during the Group Nomination - the Zerg definitely made it clear he wasn't interested in playing the role of victim - and finally Dream has quietly joined this mess of a gathering and will be looking to silently carve out a piece of the pie for himself if the opportunity presents itself. Thanks as always for reading & see you when I see you! (: -M submitted by /u/d1MnZz [link] [comments] |
Monte-Carlo Simulation of the StarCraft 2 Ladder Posted: 18 Jul 2020 05:42 AM PDT Hi everyone, in my free time over the last few years I have gradually worked on writing a Monte-Carlo engine to simulate StarCraft 2 Ladder dynamics. The Covid-19 shutdown finally provided me the time I needed to finish. I have also written a document detailing the engine structure and capabilities which I welcome everyone to read. This post is primarily to provide the community with access to this document. The abstract is as follows: The probability distributions governing player statistics on the StarCraft II ladder have been determined by data mining a mixture of Blizzard API and community collected data. A Monte-Carlo engine was subsequently written that encapsulates these distributions such that a real time simulation of the ladder can be produced. Initial ladder conditions were set to mirror the true ladder state and the resulting Monte-Carlo output was carefully validated against aggregated player data for a full ladder season. By modifying initial conditions and/or averaging over multiple runs, it is possible to resolve a host of ladder dynamics. Examples include determining the distribution of queue times and MMR spread of opponents on a dwindling (or increasing) ladder population, redistribution of MMR by race upon introduction of an imbalanced match-up, relaxation rate of a players MMR when set above/below their true ability, and a real time redistribution of players MMR across the full ladder if an MMR reset were done. The full paper includes several plots and discussions that I think many StarCraft fans will find interesting. The maths are fairly straight forward, however I tried to write the paper such that those without the proper background or interest could gloss over them and still understand how the engine works. There is still a lot of work that can be done on this. However, there are other side projects I would like to spend time on and immense amount of effort has already been spent to get this project to its current state. Thus, my future focus on the engine will depend quite a bit on how interested the StarCraft community is in seeing it move forward. Thus, I would appreciate any feedback, additional data sources and recommendations for simulations to perform. Also, feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer them. Thanks, mc_sc2 submitted by /u/mc_sc2 [link] [comments] |
My responses to the LOL survey. Posted: 18 Jul 2020 06:50 PM PDT |
No comments:
Post a Comment