4 ms·

Yeah. The live element brings something else to the table. It's not only knowing what to do, but being able to execute. I've played Starcraft off and on, mostl

by bena 4y ago

Yeah. The live element brings something else to the table. It's not only knowing what to do, but being able to execute. I've played Starcraft off and on, mostly through the Brood War days, and never super competitively. My friends and I had a standing Friday night game we'd play. We were ok. My brother-in-law came to stay with us for a while and he had never played Starcraft before but wanted to try it out. So I said, sure, we can 2v2 the computer so you can get a handle on things. We'll play Terran since it's the most like Warcraft. He told me he's played Age of Empires, he knows what RTSs are like. He'll be fine, he wanted to 1v1. I asked him if he was sure because Starcraft was a much faster game than AoE. He said he was sure, it would be fine. So we played. I played a pretty standard build order, sent out my 10th/11th worker as a scout, found his base, saw he was still on his initial set of workers and building a barracks with one of them. So I built my second base on his expansion spot, got it up to speed, built a couple of barracks, and a couple of machine shops, cranked out some marines, medics, and siege tanks, and to top it off, I build a starport and some drop ships. Loaded up the squad and dropped them behind his mineral line, obliterated his economy, then rolled through his base.

rollcat 4y ago
That's also why in a tournament (or a showmatch) you'd play the same opponent in a series (like best of 3, best of 5...). I once had a couple friendly games with a dude in masters 3 (that's maybe 1K MMR above me) and... actually won one map. My mechanics are pretty bad, but I have a very decent understanding of the game. He tried something funny - I scouted, responded, and killed him. If it were a best of 1, that was our first map - I would have won the series. This would not happen with Serral. He does lose against other pros, but not against joes. When you face an opponent 1.5K MMR below you, you're putting something like -200MMR on the table if you lose. You can't stay 200-300 MMR above the #2 spot if you ever drop a game like that.
- bena 4y ago
  Oh yeah. We played with someone who played competitively one time and it was no joke. We couldn't get anything off the ground. It was literally our rec league flag football team going against <INSERT YOUR FAVORITE NFL TEAM HERE>. There's a guy, Stanislav Cifka, who plays (or maybe played at this point, I haven't kept up) competitive Magic: the Gathering who was ranked fairly high in chess at some point (or maybe still is). He wasn't ever the best chess player or best Magic player, but he was pretty good in both. So Magnus could probably eventually do well, but there's a learning curve.

by bena 4y ago

rollcat 4y ago

That's also why in a tournament (or a showmatch) you'd play the same opponent in a series (like best of 3, best of 5...). I once had a couple friendly games with a dude in masters 3 (that's maybe 1K MMR above me) and... actually won one map. My mechanics are pretty bad, but I have a very decent understanding of the game. He tried something funny - I scouted, responded, and killed him. If it were a best of 1, that was our first map - I would have won the series. This would not happen with Serral. He does lose against other pros, but not against joes. When you face an opponent 1.5K MMR below you, you're putting something like -200MMR on the table if you lose. You can't stay 200-300 MMR above the #2 spot if you ever drop a game like that.

bena 4y ago
Oh yeah. We played with someone who played competitively one time and it was no joke. We couldn't get anything off the ground. It was literally our rec league flag football team going against <INSERT YOUR FAVORITE NFL TEAM HERE>. There's a guy, Stanislav Cifka, who plays (or maybe played at this point, I haven't kept up) competitive Magic: the Gathering who was ranked fairly high in chess at some point (or maybe still is). He wasn't ever the best chess player or best Magic player, but he was pretty good in both. So Magnus could probably eventually do well, but there's a learning curve.