So I have Terran Interviews and Protoss interviews.
I finally found the Zerg Interview I've been waiting for!
Recently I had the chance to catch up with Justin aka HGHx for an email interview about how Zerg players should deal with Terran Turtlers.
Here's the interview.
Hi, HGHx how are you today?
HGHx: Hey man, i'm doing fine. Haven't been laddering alot, settling some of my personal life issues. But i do spend 1-2 hours clocking up 9-10 ladder games per day still.
Many lower tier Zerg players have been having trouble with 1 Base Turtling Terran players. What's your view on this?
HGHx: Basically if a terran turtles up in his base to just build up an army for the push onto your base, its very important to get scouting information on what is his exact unit composition (number of units + type of units). In fact in all games, its important to know what your opponent is going for. Because Zerg is so much of a reactionary race in Starcraft II, it is crucial to understand your opponent's units before making decisions on making your own army. The ability to sacrifice overlords into your opponent's base at the right time probably is the difference between having a sweet victory or a crushing defeat. If he continues to turtle up, just macro up and expand. You don't really want to macro too hard, so at least you're still prepared for a timing push from the Terran. Of course, macro is the hardest part of the game, lower tier players will need to practise alot in order to master this. As of now, I feel Muta+baneling and speedlings are key to winning in a Z V T matchup.
So what do you do when you face a Turtling Terran with all the might of his Bio-Ball and tanks?
HGHx: Burrowed and upgraded roaches does farely well against tanks, but I would still prefer to stick with Muta+banelings with speedlings tanking for your banelings. The timing of the engage must be perfect, otherwise your ground army will be toasted by the tanks. Catch your terran opponent off guard when he unsieges his tanks so you can ram your banelings and speedlings into the bio ball, with the marines dead, your Mutalisks can fly over and destroy the tanks. All these need practice, it might sound easy on paper, but when you play its a different story altogether.
And if they decide to use fast reapers despite Turtling?
HGHx: Even better. If they turtle up and just make reapers, you have the clear advantage. Make sure to spread your creep well and get roaches out fast while making sure that your speedlings still maintain defensive control over your base. Remember, you cannot win a 5 rax reaper build only with 1 base, so i cannot emphasize enough how important it is for Zerg players to expand and get their 2nd hatchery at their natural for the income and larva. Only with this economic advantage, you'll be able to pump out roaches at a much faster rate to counter the reapers. If they still stick with reapers despite seeing your roaches, just gather 20 roaches and push into his base for the win. Most of the time, they will transit into a bio ball comprising of more marauders than marines to counter your roaches, so just get enough mutalisks to snipe off the marines, and the marauders are all yours to eat :)
Ah Alright, So do you have any words of advice and encouragement for the lower tier players?
HGHx: Hard work pays off in Starcraft II . You cannot learn good macro in a single day. Continue to learn and focus on defending against timing attacks. A fast reaction really helps in being a Zerg player. And remember, no one is stopping you from going a 7 pool if you think its the right decision. At the end of the day, there is only 1 winner, not whether you CHEESE or MACRO. :)
Thank you HGHx for your time :)
HGHx is one of the best players on my friends list and he ranks 2nd in his ladder as a Diamond Zerg Player. You can hear him cast next to HDPhoenix at Phoenix's channel which can be viewed here.
I definitely learned quite a bit from HGHx and it has helped improve my game a bit.
As a Zerg Player I think this interview will do more for you than reading tutorials and guides.
SO FELLOW ZERGLINGS GO OUT AND TRAIN!
This is Fireport here with another interview for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com signing off!
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Protoss: Interview with TheGreenMachine
Hey guys, I recently did an email interview with TheGreenMachine after my friends asked me a few questions about how to deal with Terran Mech.
Here's the interview.
Hey TheGreenMachine, How are you Doing today?
doin great
So many players have been complaining that Terran are OP after they go mech, whats your view on this?
I think mech vs zerg is very strong, in my games I have experimented with zerg you are forced to go hive in order to do some damage to a mech ball. Everything below hive feels ineffective vs tanks and thors even catching tanks unsieged.
And so, how do you deal with the mech ball?(feel free to post a wall of text)
'As a protoss player I don't feel mech is very strong at all, I've fought lots of meching terrans and I just out-expand them. I keep 1 base ahead of them at all times and mass tier 1 zealots and stalkers off gateways. Its known as the "macro style protoss". Later on when terran feels content with his pure anti-ground army I can just cut all ground army production and hit him with 6 stargates making 100% voidrays and he often dies instantly. A big strength protoss don't often use is chronoboost, it allows you to tech-switch extremely efficiently.
A problem some protoss have is they feel like they should make a little bit of everything to fight off terran's little bit of everything 'marine, tank, hellion, thor, medivac, viking' army. Best way to fight it is to counter whatever he is defending strongest with. If hes going heavy marine you could go collosus or templar, if its low anti air mass voidrays, if its lots of ghosts go fewer stalkers/sentry, if its mass viking just go immortal instead of collosus. As soon as terran has a super mech+ghost ball he thinks is invincible just go for a wild 180 degree tech switch and chronoboost it off your multiple bases, he will usually die instantly.
Also, never let the terran army siege up outside your front door. If he gets to a point where he can siege your mineral line or keep you from expanding, you have already lost. Instead, do things like warp prism harass, voidray harass, sending in a few units after his army leaves, or intercepting his army en route. All these things will keep the terran from getting in a static position in a place that will hurt you. Maps like steppes of war are very strong for a marine+tank player because they can leap frog to your base fairly easily so be prepared to fight off tanks head-on with a map like that.'
Ah that's interesting, so do you have any words of encouragement for lower league players?
'Just start out with a simple BO every protoss should use up until 20 supply, then slowly add on any structure you need while constantly making probes. Expand when your opponent expands (or before them), scout often, micro your units. Remember that seconds matter in PvT: 1 missed forcefield, 1 late immortal, 1 missing observer, or 1 good EMP could lose you the game immediately, so keep your build order and unit control tight. Don't forget that every lower league game loss is because of 1) letting your macro slip or 2) not scouting. Don't let either of those happen and you'll get into diamond in no time.
Thanks The Green Machine.
TheGreenMachine is a diamond ranked protoss player in the NA Server. He helps out a lot of new players at SC2Armory.com.
Wow that was rather insightful. I mean like I have never thought of dealing with the Terrans by forcing them to move around like that.
Well anyways I hope that was useful for all the Protoss players out there who read this blog and I hope that you guys get up to Diamond soon!
This was another interview done by Fireport for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com.
Fireport Signing Off!
Here's the interview.
Hey TheGreenMachine, How are you Doing today?
doin great
So many players have been complaining that Terran are OP after they go mech, whats your view on this?
I think mech vs zerg is very strong, in my games I have experimented with zerg you are forced to go hive in order to do some damage to a mech ball. Everything below hive feels ineffective vs tanks and thors even catching tanks unsieged.
And so, how do you deal with the mech ball?(feel free to post a wall of text)
'As a protoss player I don't feel mech is very strong at all, I've fought lots of meching terrans and I just out-expand them. I keep 1 base ahead of them at all times and mass tier 1 zealots and stalkers off gateways. Its known as the "macro style protoss". Later on when terran feels content with his pure anti-ground army I can just cut all ground army production and hit him with 6 stargates making 100% voidrays and he often dies instantly. A big strength protoss don't often use is chronoboost, it allows you to tech-switch extremely efficiently.
A problem some protoss have is they feel like they should make a little bit of everything to fight off terran's little bit of everything 'marine, tank, hellion, thor, medivac, viking' army. Best way to fight it is to counter whatever he is defending strongest with. If hes going heavy marine you could go collosus or templar, if its low anti air mass voidrays, if its lots of ghosts go fewer stalkers/sentry, if its mass viking just go immortal instead of collosus. As soon as terran has a super mech+ghost ball he thinks is invincible just go for a wild 180 degree tech switch and chronoboost it off your multiple bases, he will usually die instantly.
Also, never let the terran army siege up outside your front door. If he gets to a point where he can siege your mineral line or keep you from expanding, you have already lost. Instead, do things like warp prism harass, voidray harass, sending in a few units after his army leaves, or intercepting his army en route. All these things will keep the terran from getting in a static position in a place that will hurt you. Maps like steppes of war are very strong for a marine+tank player because they can leap frog to your base fairly easily so be prepared to fight off tanks head-on with a map like that.'
Ah that's interesting, so do you have any words of encouragement for lower league players?
'Just start out with a simple BO every protoss should use up until 20 supply, then slowly add on any structure you need while constantly making probes. Expand when your opponent expands (or before them), scout often, micro your units. Remember that seconds matter in PvT: 1 missed forcefield, 1 late immortal, 1 missing observer, or 1 good EMP could lose you the game immediately, so keep your build order and unit control tight. Don't forget that every lower league game loss is because of 1) letting your macro slip or 2) not scouting. Don't let either of those happen and you'll get into diamond in no time.
Thanks The Green Machine.
TheGreenMachine is a diamond ranked protoss player in the NA Server. He helps out a lot of new players at SC2Armory.com.
Wow that was rather insightful. I mean like I have never thought of dealing with the Terrans by forcing them to move around like that.
Well anyways I hope that was useful for all the Protoss players out there who read this blog and I hope that you guys get up to Diamond soon!
This was another interview done by Fireport for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com.
Fireport Signing Off!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Terran: Interview with ALEEEEEEEESA on TvT against Reapers
I've noticed by going around the net that TvT does have some reaper play so I asked ALEEEEEEEESA from SC2Armory.com what he thought about it.
So there are quite a few players who after watching MorroW at the Intel Extreme Masters have started to train up their reaper rushes and basically end up rising up the Ladder with this opener. What are your thoughts on the reaper rush?
Reaper rush is very race specific, morrow's reaper opening isn't really considered a rush rather than a transitory opener for a fast expansion specifically against zerg. Against protoss however, the speed of the stalkers greatly deters reapers. This is why morrow never does it against huk in the GosuCoaching ShowMatch series on husky's channel.
In addition patch 1.1 is going to affect 5RR greatly as well and it only works on specific maps (IE not SoW) and doesn't work too well against 1 base muta if unscouted.
So what do you do to counter it when you face a reaper rush?
I play T and reaper rush isn't very common because of marauders and marines which are both fairly good against reapers in reasonable number. Reapers are generally only good against melee units who cannot attack back.
So do you have any words for the lower ranking players who face problems against early game rushes?
Scout with your 9/10th worker. If T, build a marauder, or else a bunker and a marine. If P, get a zealot, when that zealot dies pull off 5 probes and stall till stalkers. If, Z get 2 queens asap and get roaches if more reapers are coming while transitioning into mutas. Infestor ling, I've heard, works alright as well.
Thanks for your words ALEEEEEEEESA.
ALEEEEEEEESA is a diamond level player from the NA Server in SC2 who specializes in Terran play. He also has a youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/AleesaSC which shows many different 1v1 and 2v2 techniques.
Well it seems that in top level play there is little reaper play since basic barracks units are good enough to deal with reapers.
I hope this was good for all of you who play Terran and face Terran players who use reapers in the early game for rushes.
This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off.
So there are quite a few players who after watching MorroW at the Intel Extreme Masters have started to train up their reaper rushes and basically end up rising up the Ladder with this opener. What are your thoughts on the reaper rush?
Reaper rush is very race specific, morrow's reaper opening isn't really considered a rush rather than a transitory opener for a fast expansion specifically against zerg. Against protoss however, the speed of the stalkers greatly deters reapers. This is why morrow never does it against huk in the GosuCoaching ShowMatch series on husky's channel.
In addition patch 1.1 is going to affect 5RR greatly as well and it only works on specific maps (IE not SoW) and doesn't work too well against 1 base muta if unscouted.
So what do you do to counter it when you face a reaper rush?
I play T and reaper rush isn't very common because of marauders and marines which are both fairly good against reapers in reasonable number. Reapers are generally only good against melee units who cannot attack back.
So do you have any words for the lower ranking players who face problems against early game rushes?
Scout with your 9/10th worker. If T, build a marauder, or else a bunker and a marine. If P, get a zealot, when that zealot dies pull off 5 probes and stall till stalkers. If, Z get 2 queens asap and get roaches if more reapers are coming while transitioning into mutas. Infestor ling, I've heard, works alright as well.
Thanks for your words ALEEEEEEEESA.
ALEEEEEEEESA is a diamond level player from the NA Server in SC2 who specializes in Terran play. He also has a youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/AleesaSC which shows many different 1v1 and 2v2 techniques.
Well it seems that in top level play there is little reaper play since basic barracks units are good enough to deal with reapers.
I hope this was good for all of you who play Terran and face Terran players who use reapers in the early game for rushes.
This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Protoss: Interview with Gemini on PvT Against Early MMM Balls
Many of my Protoss friends have been finding trouble with dealing with Early MMM (Marine,Marauder,Medivac) balls within the first 15 minutes of the game and have voiced out to me and asked me what to do.
Well the problem now is that I'm a Zerg player and I hardly ever touch Protoss. So I did the next best thing.
I called in a friend of mine, Gemini, and asked him on help on how to deal with the Early MMM ball.
Here's our interview.
----------------------------------
Hi Gemini, how are you today?
Oh I'm just peachy.
So, many players in the lower tiers nowadays are having problems dealing with early MMM balls and have no idea how to deal with the large balls of bio and healing. Whats your advice on it?
So basically what the deal is with this, is that since Marauders are so damn good against all the gateway units, you're basically forced to get some of the more fancy units such as Colossus, High Templar, and Archons.
If you're having trouble dealing with say, a 3rax MM pressure in the first 10 minutes of the game, all you can hope to do is have a few sentries, and Force Field the ramp like no other. Then, as you're doing that you should be teching to Colossus as soon as you possibly can. Then once the first colossus gets out you should be able to hold off the initial push. Push him back a little bit, and look to expand.
After you expand you're gonna want to also go for HT's. Storm is the most critical thing against MMM. Feeback as well so the Medivacs can't heal. Then once your HT's are out of energy morph them into Archons.
Dealing with this kind of composition is very micro intensive, so that's why I'm thinking lower league players are having troubles dealing with it. They need to have precise hotkeys and very good unit control to quickly be able to storm and 1a or pull back if needed. If you're too slow, the very easy to maneuver MMM ball will just dodge all your storm and completely decimate you.
Charge is also extremely helpful and should be gotten shortly after storm or around the same time if you can afford it. Try to expand as much as possible, don't wait for one expansion to run dry before expanding again. You also want to try and keep the Terran from expanding as much as possible. A good way to do this is probably after your 2nd expansion, put pylons around the map for easy warp in harassment locations. You can easily have a few HT's and chargelots ready at any expansion any time to deny and kill of some SCV's.
You also want to try and push as hard as you can. If you see you're pushing him back, try and push even further. The thing I've realized with PvT is that you can't really let up. You have to continue to try and push him back as far as you can while constantly bringing more and more reinforcements in. Another reason why I think lower leagues are having difficulties dealing with this.
It basically comes down to the right unit choices (Colossus, HT's, Archons, Chargelots, anything) and good micro. And good focus.
Is there a build order?
I wouldn't necessarily say there's a "build order", because I don't want it to sound that specific. Because what a lot of lower league players will do is see a build order, and think they need to follow exactly what it says, and if it doesn't work instead of trying to change it around and fix it up, they just abandon it and say it doesn't work. Which is why I don't necessarily like giving out exact build orders. Except for the 9 pylon, 12 gateway, 14-15 gas, 16 pylon, 17 core, 19-21 gas which should be followed as the opener for basically every game. If I would have to do a quick overview of the strategy then this is how it would go.
Hold off any initial pushes with Force Fields and quickly tech to colossus. After you push him back, expand and go for templar tech. Keep expanding and adding on more gateways and upgrading and always making more units. That's really the basics of what you should do. It's up to the player to adjust this into his own liking, which is what a lot of lower league players don't necessarily do, and I want to encourage this.
Do you have a cast on your Youtube Channel that deals with this problem?
I have one I believe, but it's a bit old however I'll link it anyway.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92OSdIZY9j4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_20638&v=6X3ypDFn18s&feature=iv
I also have a replay that greatly shows this in action, so If you're willing to watch a 52 minute replay then here it is: http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/74969-1v1-terran-protoss-metalopolis
Any last words of advice to Protoss players who are still in bronze and are aiming for diamond?
Just learn to macro first. Get a good set of hotkeys that are comfortable, and just learn to keep your money low before anything else. Also, Day9 is a very good SC legend that you should watch to learn lot's of new stuff. You can search him on youtube or tune in to his Dailies on http://Ustream.com/Day9tv every Sunday - Thursday at 7:05 PST(-7 GMT). Shameless plugging
Thanks Gemini for your words of advice and encouragement.
No problem, always glad to help out.
Gemini is a Diamond League Protoss player from the NA server who does shoutcast on his channel which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/GeminiStarCraft. Besides doing casting Gemini also contributes and helps lower league players on the SC2Armory forum.
----------------
I found that rather interesting and quite enlightening. It definitely would help my Protoss play when ever I decide to use them Gold Armored Aliens xD.
For all you Protoss players out there I hope you've liked this interview and that its helpful to all of you.
This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off.
Well the problem now is that I'm a Zerg player and I hardly ever touch Protoss. So I did the next best thing.
I called in a friend of mine, Gemini, and asked him on help on how to deal with the Early MMM ball.
Here's our interview.
----------------------------------
Hi Gemini, how are you today?
Oh I'm just peachy.
So, many players in the lower tiers nowadays are having problems dealing with early MMM balls and have no idea how to deal with the large balls of bio and healing. Whats your advice on it?
So basically what the deal is with this, is that since Marauders are so damn good against all the gateway units, you're basically forced to get some of the more fancy units such as Colossus, High Templar, and Archons.
If you're having trouble dealing with say, a 3rax MM pressure in the first 10 minutes of the game, all you can hope to do is have a few sentries, and Force Field the ramp like no other. Then, as you're doing that you should be teching to Colossus as soon as you possibly can. Then once the first colossus gets out you should be able to hold off the initial push. Push him back a little bit, and look to expand.
After you expand you're gonna want to also go for HT's. Storm is the most critical thing against MMM. Feeback as well so the Medivacs can't heal. Then once your HT's are out of energy morph them into Archons.
Dealing with this kind of composition is very micro intensive, so that's why I'm thinking lower league players are having troubles dealing with it. They need to have precise hotkeys and very good unit control to quickly be able to storm and 1a or pull back if needed. If you're too slow, the very easy to maneuver MMM ball will just dodge all your storm and completely decimate you.
Charge is also extremely helpful and should be gotten shortly after storm or around the same time if you can afford it. Try to expand as much as possible, don't wait for one expansion to run dry before expanding again. You also want to try and keep the Terran from expanding as much as possible. A good way to do this is probably after your 2nd expansion, put pylons around the map for easy warp in harassment locations. You can easily have a few HT's and chargelots ready at any expansion any time to deny and kill of some SCV's.
You also want to try and push as hard as you can. If you see you're pushing him back, try and push even further. The thing I've realized with PvT is that you can't really let up. You have to continue to try and push him back as far as you can while constantly bringing more and more reinforcements in. Another reason why I think lower leagues are having difficulties dealing with this.
It basically comes down to the right unit choices (Colossus, HT's, Archons, Chargelots, anything) and good micro. And good focus.
Is there a build order?
I wouldn't necessarily say there's a "build order", because I don't want it to sound that specific. Because what a lot of lower league players will do is see a build order, and think they need to follow exactly what it says, and if it doesn't work instead of trying to change it around and fix it up, they just abandon it and say it doesn't work. Which is why I don't necessarily like giving out exact build orders. Except for the 9 pylon, 12 gateway, 14-15 gas, 16 pylon, 17 core, 19-21 gas which should be followed as the opener for basically every game. If I would have to do a quick overview of the strategy then this is how it would go.
Hold off any initial pushes with Force Fields and quickly tech to colossus. After you push him back, expand and go for templar tech. Keep expanding and adding on more gateways and upgrading and always making more units. That's really the basics of what you should do. It's up to the player to adjust this into his own liking, which is what a lot of lower league players don't necessarily do, and I want to encourage this.
Do you have a cast on your Youtube Channel that deals with this problem?
I have one I believe, but it's a bit old however I'll link it anyway.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92OSdIZY9j4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_20638&v=6X3ypDFn18s&feature=iv
I also have a replay that greatly shows this in action, so If you're willing to watch a 52 minute replay then here it is: http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/74969-1v1-terran-protoss-metalopolis
Any last words of advice to Protoss players who are still in bronze and are aiming for diamond?
Just learn to macro first. Get a good set of hotkeys that are comfortable, and just learn to keep your money low before anything else. Also, Day9 is a very good SC legend that you should watch to learn lot's of new stuff. You can search him on youtube or tune in to his Dailies on http://Ustream.com/Day9tv every Sunday - Thursday at 7:05 PST(-7 GMT). Shameless plugging
Thanks Gemini for your words of advice and encouragement.
No problem, always glad to help out.
Gemini is a Diamond League Protoss player from the NA server who does shoutcast on his channel which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/GeminiStarCraft. Besides doing casting Gemini also contributes and helps lower league players on the SC2Armory forum.
----------------
I found that rather interesting and quite enlightening. It definitely would help my Protoss play when ever I decide to use them Gold Armored Aliens xD.
For all you Protoss players out there I hope you've liked this interview and that its helpful to all of you.
This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off.
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