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I am a StarCraft fan and I have no idea what a courtyard or a frontyard is supposed to be! However I do know that the names of buildings, units, technologies, a

I am a StarCraft fan and I have no idea what a courtyard or a frontyard is supposed to be! However I do know that the names of buildings, units, technologies, and strategies are usually heavily abbreviated in English. Perhaps the same is true in Korean? A 12 barracks build would usually just be called "12 rax", a two hatchery mutalisk build would be called "2 hatch muta", and a three hatchery hydralisk timing attack / all-in would be called "3 hatch hydra bust".

rcthompson 2y ago
I believe the equivalent term used in English (exhibited in the new translation) is "natural", short for "natural expansion", which refers to the obvious location where the player should build their first expansion. It sounds like the term used in Korean for this concept literally means "front yard" rather than matching the English term.
- Reason077 2y ago
  Makes sense. And presumably the 12 means that you expand to your natural ("courtyard") with your 12th worker unit (probe, in the case of protoss).
  - sushid 2y ago
    Not the parent commenter but not always. 9 pool just means you build a spawning pool at your main, for instance. This worker-prefix building build-order naming system also breaks down once people start referencing builds like 2 rax academy, 3 hatch muta, etc.
    - Reason077 2y ago
      Right, "9 pool" means build a spawning pool when you have 9 workers. So "12 courtyard" means build an expansion when you have 12 workers.
      - thaumasiotes 2y ago
        I think strictly "9 pool" means you build the pool when you have 9 supply. However, before you build a spawning pool, the only thing you can build that consumes supply is workers.
starcraftgamer 2y ago
A lot of Korean slang is a little different. Source: not Korean but have been in the English community a long time and picked some stuff up. "1rax double" is equivalent to "1rax expand" or "1rax CC". They use multi or double to mean expand in the early game. Instead of "cheese" or "all-in" they use "pil-sal-gi" which means ace/joker card or "han-bang" which means an army or attack on few resources. I am not sure what short-hand they use for barracks, gateway, etc.
- chongli 2y ago
  Instead of "cheese" or "all-in" they use "pil-sal-gi" which means ace/joker card That’s a really interesting one to me! One thing I’ve noticed is that Koreans do not seem to have the same hangups / negative attitude towards cheese strategies as westerners do!
  - eru 2y ago
    As far as I can tell, there's no hang up about 'cheese' at the higher levels of competition even among westerners. But that might just be from the extreme Korean influence at that level? The attitude seems to be that throwing in the occasional cheese is not so much meant to win the game, as it is meant to make sure your opponent wastes resources on defending against a potential cheese at all the other times. This is very similar to the function of a bluff in a theoretical analysis of poker. Very simplified, the optimal frequency of bluffing is when bluffing just about breaks even against optimal play from your opponents. But throwing the bluffing in masks when you actually have good cards.
    - otherme123 2y ago
      A failed cheese usually leaves the attacker so weak that the game is already lost. Cheeses are intended to win the game. But if you are known to never cheese, your opponent might bet on greedy strategies, sometimes known as "economic cheese": you don't prepare any defense, and skip scouting, to build an overwhelming army all of a sudden at some given time like just after an important couple of upgrades that boost the army (a timing attack). The "normal" play (economic growth plus scouting) is usually the superior strat, but if your scouting fails to detect a cheese attempt that must be countered with a very specific defense, the game is lost. The occasional cheese keep the players honest so they spend resources in scouting, instead of going greedy. StarCraft has its own bluffing scheme, that is faking a build so the opponent goes for a specific counter, but actually going for something else.

rcthompson 2y ago

I believe the equivalent term used in English (exhibited in the new translation) is "natural", short for "natural expansion", which refers to the obvious location where the player should build their first expansion. It sounds like the term used in Korean for this concept literally means "front yard" rather than matching the English term.

Reason077 2y ago
Makes sense. And presumably the 12 means that you expand to your natural ("courtyard") with your 12th worker unit (probe, in the case of protoss).
- sushid 2y ago
  Not the parent commenter but not always. 9 pool just means you build a spawning pool at your main, for instance. This worker-prefix building build-order naming system also breaks down once people start referencing builds like 2 rax academy, 3 hatch muta, etc.
  - Reason077 2y ago
    Right, "9 pool" means build a spawning pool when you have 9 workers. So "12 courtyard" means build an expansion when you have 12 workers.
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      I think strictly "9 pool" means you build the pool when you have 9 supply. However, before you build a spawning pool, the only thing you can build that consumes supply is workers.

starcraftgamer 2y ago

A lot of Korean slang is a little different. Source: not Korean but have been in the English community a long time and picked some stuff up. "1rax double" is equivalent to "1rax expand" or "1rax CC". They use multi or double to mean expand in the early game. Instead of "cheese" or "all-in" they use "pil-sal-gi" which means ace/joker card or "han-bang" which means an army or attack on few resources. I am not sure what short-hand they use for barracks, gateway, etc.

chongli 2y ago
Instead of "cheese" or "all-in" they use "pil-sal-gi" which means ace/joker card That’s a really interesting one to me! One thing I’ve noticed is that Koreans do not seem to have the same hangups / negative attitude towards cheese strategies as westerners do!
- eru 2y ago
  As far as I can tell, there's no hang up about 'cheese' at the higher levels of competition even among westerners. But that might just be from the extreme Korean influence at that level? The attitude seems to be that throwing in the occasional cheese is not so much meant to win the game, as it is meant to make sure your opponent wastes resources on defending against a potential cheese at all the other times. This is very similar to the function of a bluff in a theoretical analysis of poker. Very simplified, the optimal frequency of bluffing is when bluffing just about breaks even against optimal play from your opponents. But throwing the bluffing in masks when you actually have good cards.
  - otherme123 2y ago
    A failed cheese usually leaves the attacker so weak that the game is already lost. Cheeses are intended to win the game. But if you are known to never cheese, your opponent might bet on greedy strategies, sometimes known as "economic cheese": you don't prepare any defense, and skip scouting, to build an overwhelming army all of a sudden at some given time like just after an important couple of upgrades that boost the army (a timing attack). The "normal" play (economic growth plus scouting) is usually the superior strat, but if your scouting fails to detect a cheese attempt that must be countered with a very specific defense, the game is lost. The occasional cheese keep the players honest so they spend resources in scouting, instead of going greedy. StarCraft has its own bluffing scheme, that is faking a build so the opponent goes for a specific counter, but actually going for something else.